Your team needs to think creatively while staying true to the brand. How can you strike the perfect balance?

One of the most important things to do is to break down the brand as a person. I am sure most brands would have a brand key/manual - and there’d be cues guidelines and guardrails. Now if you and your team have access to that, use that info to describe the physical, mental, cultural, aspects of this person. Write and flesh out the brand into a human being/character. Give him/her a face too. Once you know the who, what, where etc. you will get to know what this person will say, do, create, react, respond under different circumstances. Or how you can easily and effectively control your brand to stay authentic regardless of the platform/activity/campaign/ask etc. For as long as you like. Despite churn and changes in the team that handles it.

Encourage your team to brainstorm ideas that push boundaries while continually referencing the brand’s core values and guidelines. This way, creativity is channeled within the framework of what the brand represents, ensuring innovative yet cohesive outcomes.

How to strike the balance? First off, ditch all the corporate speak and keep it simple. It's also not just about what makes the brand unique, it's also what matters to the audience. Creative ideas connect with the audience on a different level, and they should strive to be original and involve emotion.

Boundaries for me usually is both good and bad, but setting good boundaries can really help with staying on brand but still get really creative results. For me it is always really important to take a look at the parts that are non negotiable whether that is tone of voice, certain guidelines, colors etc and then once those are set in place you can play around with everything else to really get some creative concepts out there. Then for me it is important to create multiple concepts that can either spark some creative ideas or help lead to more creative ideas.

This delicate balance between structure and freedom fosters an environment where creativity can flourish while maintaining brand coherence. Encourage your team to push the boundaries occasionally, testing the limits of these guidelines to discover new, innovative ways to express the brand. Regular reviews of these boundaries can help ensure they evolve alongside your brand, keeping your creative output fresh and relevant.

Always move in the scope of the brand guidelines, however, try to avoid being in the comfort zone in terms of graphic or communication patterns that already worked in the past, usually executives and leaders that judge your campaigns will look for something that is in the safe, and that's your main challenge, to sell to your client that moving out the safe zone will give a brand refresh and new insights for future campaigns.

Many creatives have come to me, frustrated by the constraints placed on a project. But here’s my response: without constraints, what good is a creative? This isn’t rocket science—we’ve all had those moments when our creativity solves a problem, and everyone says, "Why didn’t I think of that?" This is the essential job of any creative: turning limitations into opportunities through copywriting, ideas, and design. With the right mindset, constraints don’t hold us back—they push us to think differently, innovate, and deliver unexpected solutions to business challenges.

Some of the best to ever do it have remained true to what makes them iconic. Everyone knows Nike for the swoosh, and it has remained a constant, even when colors and copy vary.

To balance creativity with brand identity while encouraging diversity, set boundaries by clearly defining the brand’s core values and guidelines. Embrace a diverse range of perspectives and ideas within these parameters to enrich the creative process. Regularly review and adjust strategies to ensure they remain true to the brand’s essence while reflecting diverse viewpoints.

This approach not only fosters innovation but also creates a more dynamic and adaptable team. By embracing diverse perspectives, your organization becomes better equipped to navigate complex challenges and seize opportunities in an ever-changing market landscape. Moreover, a diverse team often reflects a broader customer base, enabling your brand to resonate with a wider audience and drive meaningful connections.

I think the best way to motivate your team is celebrating their diverse backgrounds, skills, and perspectives as key drivers of creativity. Foster an inclusive culture where all viewpoints are encouraged, ensuring every voice is heard. This approach enriches idea generation and leads to innovative, relevant, and inclusive solutions. Emphasize how their unique contributions directly enhance the brand's impact and success.

Always brainstorm with a core team to ensure the brand identity and continuity. For a different perspective; Invite colleagues from other departments to gain different insights. Invite external creatives to boast creativity and to explore different creative paths. invite your people from your target audience to see if the ideas resonate.

La diversidad es un componente crucial para impulsar la creatividad y la innovación en los equipos de marketing. Podemos realizar diferentes acciones que fomenten la diversidad creativa, como realizar rotaciones de perspectiva, crear paneles de diversidad creativa, desafíos de innovación inclusiva, hasta programas de mentores inversos para explorar diferentes perspectivas, y evaluar el impacto en los resultados de marketing. Al implementar estas estrategias, no solo estarás fomentando un ambiente más diverso e inclusivo, sino que también estarás creando un ecosistema creativo más rico y dinámico. Esto resultará en soluciones de marketing más innovadoras, relevantes y efectivas que resonarán con una audiencia más amplia y diversa.

Beyond the MVP and the A/B testing, define your internal audience and equivalent personas first, you'll always know someone in the organization or your inner circle that will be a good fit for your trials and experiments, always record your findings and motivate others in your time to do the same, that will give a boost about how to sell your concept or campaign.

This iterative process not only refines ideas but also fosters a culture of continuous improvement within your team. By embracing frequent iterations, you create an environment where creativity thrives and brand consistency is maintained. Remember, each iteration is an opportunity to learn, adapt, and strengthen your brand's creative expression.

Iterating often is key to refining creative ideas. In my experience, the first idea is rarely the best one. We would often develop multiple versions of a concept, test them against the brand’s standards, and refine them based on feedback. For example, during a rebranding project, our team created several prototypes for a new logo, iterating on each version until we found one that was both innovative and true to the brand’s legacy. This process of constant iteration ensures that creativity doesn’t stray from the brand’s essence.

I agree; in fact I’ve found multiple different creative ways to convey this message: Let’s not waste our creative time and efforts contributing to surveys like this whose only purpose is to train LinkedIn’s AI.

Creativity isn’t about getting it right the first time; it’s about iterating quickly and learning from each attempt. By adopting a mindset of rapid prototyping, you can test creative ideas in a low-risk environment, gather feedback, and make necessary adjustments before a full-scale launch. Failure is an inevitable part of the creative process. Instead of fearing it, embrace it as a learning opportunity. Analyze what went wrong, gather insights, and use that knowledge to inform your next creative endeavor. The most successful brands aren’t the ones that avoid failure but those that learn and evolve from it.

Encourage your team to take a few lessons at an improv school. By working on the "Yes, and..." technique in those classes, team members will be able to better build upon each other's concepts in brainstorming seshes while keeping the brand identity in focus. Improv is a learnable skill. If you work at it, you'll get better at it, and your team will become lethal in creative marketing.

This collaborative approach also fosters a culture of continuous learning and improvement. By sharing insights and expertise across departments, team members can develop a deeper understanding of brand guidelines and creative best practices. Moreover, this inclusive process often leads to unexpected breakthroughs, as diverse perspectives contribute to more robust and innovative solutions that still align with the brand's core identity.

Creativity doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Some of the best ideas come from collaboration across departments. Marketing, design, product development, and even customer service teams bring unique insights that can lead to more holistic and innovative solutions. Encourage the formation of cross-functional teams for specific projects or campaigns. This not only leads to more well-rounded creative ideas but also fosters a sense of unity and shared purpose within the company. Regular workshops, brainstorming sessions, and collaborative tools can help facilitate this process, ensuring that all team members can contribute to the creative process.

Bringing ideas to life is all about people. When you have different experts working together, the outcome is richer and more comprehensive. Solutions are developed by considering multiple perspectives, with pros and cons weighed across various fields of expertise. This collaborative approach ensures that the final solution not only meets the brand’s needs but also fully addresses the client's objectives. Clients, who often know the product best, should be integrated into the team from the start. Their insights are invaluable and should serve as the foundation. In advertising, it’s not about “me”; it’s about “us.”

For a deeper enriching understanding it's wise to instigate creative collaborations within the team or throughout the agency. The intention to grow from within while encouraging diversity in hopes of educating while promoting the brand essence. It's sort of inviting an outside individual to learn and contribute and then walk away as a confident "believer". Through collaborations, we share and grow from within to develop future facets of innovation to give way unique solutions.

A fun way to test authenticity is through parody. Exaggerating elements of the ideas and seeing how they hold up. If the parody is funny, it is probably because you have unearthed a truth, it might confirm that the core message is weak or even inauthentic, and it might need rethinking. By playfully distorting concepts, creatives can uncover the genuine essence of the brand, ensuring their ideas resonate and stay true to its identity. Parody helps reveal what truly matters to the audience about the brand; and if you don't you can be sure the trolls will after you launch..

Creativity and data might seem like strange bedfellows, but they complement each other perfectly. By analyzing the performance of creative campaigns, you can gain valuable insights into what works and what doesn’t. This data-driven approach allows you to refine your creative strategies over time, ensuring they remain effective and aligned with the brand’s goals. Regularly reflecting on your creative processes and outcomes allows you to identify areas for improvement and adapt to new trends and technologies. A brand’s creativity should also be grounded in a deep understanding of its audience. By staying attuned to your customers’ needs, preferences, and pain points, you can create content and campaigns that resonate on a deeper level.

People evolve, and so do brands. The challenges we face today won't be the same tomorrow. Needs, cultural nuances, languages, and even insights shift over time. Advertisers must stay ahead of trends because it's our job to engage with people effectively. We should be the first to bring clients new ways to stay relatable and close to their audience—whether that means innovating with media, exploring different channels, or showcasing the latest trends. Creating a dialogue between brands and people that evolves alongside them is crucial. Adaptation isn’t just an option; it’s a necessity for progress. Take AI: embracing it positions you for the future, while resisting change means sticking to the same old methods with unchanged results.