When I was little I played tennis, always watching the best players, trying to copy their styles.
When I was starting out as a planner, I had slightly less of a clue what I was doing than I do now.
So I was grateful for bloggers who would share how they worked and I'd copy their approach.
(word of warning, in today's world of LinkedIn and Twitter, quality isn't quantity)
You know what? In both cases it kind of worked.
My serve was better when I tried to do it like Boris Becker.
My fledgling strategy was better when I tried to copy some APG paper or example brief someone shared.
My first stumbling presentations were less catastrophic when I copied the structure of a TED talk, or the style of the speaker.
In other words, if you have no experience or craft skills, copy those who have, while you develop some.
I always liked the story of an actor who played Roger Bannister, the first person to break the 4 minute mile barrier (running obviously). He was a below average runner, yet when he adopted Bannister's style, he actually ran faster. Not because the technique was any smoother, it's just his brain thought it was faster, so the body followed.
The placebo effect is everywhere, way beyond medicine, and copying those you want to emulate, tricks your mind into going beyond what it thinks it can do.
So if you're starting out, or even if you've been doing the job a while and can't crack a problem, or don't know where to start, it doesn't hurt to read a case study you admire and copy what they did, or adopt some approaches someone has shared on a APG talk. Get some examples of briefs or plans and steal.
I like Mark Pollard's framework for example.
He's very generous sharing all sorts of hooks to hang your thinking on, with lots of examples. There are others, it doesn't matter which one, just try and do it like someone you think is good, until you find your own voice.
Obviously, these approaches will help you START. Once you're away, make the work your own, but it's a great short-cut to actually beginning and that's usually the hardest part.
Just don't forget the framework or style isn't the point, it's just a hack to get somewhere good.
Controversially, I think therefore, it's OK to fetishise creative brief templates. They don't make thinking better, apart from forcing compression, but if the author believes they do, who cares?
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