“An idea that hasn’t been done before might, on the surface, look really risky,” argues Bob Isherwood, worldwide creative director of Saatchi & Saatchi. “It’s an area where no one has been before. There is no precedent. But usually the biggest risk lies in ideas that are predictable, because ideas that are predictable donβt get noticed. You canβt sell anything to anyone unless they notice you. To get a boring ad noticed, youβve got to run it lots and lots of times. If youβve got a really original message, you only need to run it a few times. People retain the message longer and it costs the client less.β
βPeople think the low risk thing is not to run the high risk idea, observes Stow. βThe biggest risk is to be safe, because if youβre safe youβre invisible and you waste your money.β
Excerpt from: Cutting Edge Advertising: How to Create the World’s Best Print for Brands in the 21st Century by Jim Aitchison