"Wouldn't it Be Cool...?"

I remember being in an agency brainstorm for one of the world's largest sports footwear and apparel companies about 8-9 years ago. We needed to come up with an idea to launch a new brand and products, and win the business. Of course, everyone in the room had their PR hat on, thinking of ideas that we had done before for other clients and how they could translate to this opportunity.

Let me add that my (then) 9-year-old son was in the room. I took him to work that day and told him we were having pizza and talking about sports and one of his favorite stars. I expected him to stuff his face and daydream.

But as we were piling up the ideas, we heard "wouldn't it be cool to invite the best 3-player teams to have a tournament and the winners play in New York City and coached by (the famous athlete)? The winners could win all the new stuff."

The room went silent. Here we were racking our brains to see what PR ideas would work for the client, and a 9-year-old kid cut through the clutter by just asking "wouldn't it be cool...?"

Whether we used the actual idea or not, the lesson was learned. Needless to say, we went on to create the killer idea. And win the biz.

Lesson -- stop thinking about fitting your thinking into the traditional PR (or advertising or promotional) boxes, and challenge everyone to finish the question "wouldn't it be cool if ...?"

9-year-old boys haven't learned to filter or limit their thinking. Why should we?