What makes an idea great? In this article, I’ll share some of the tactics that I have used to develop pitches for ideation projects on Tongal.
To set the stage, here’s what you can expect in this article. To get us started, I will explain how to read a project brief to extract the most important information and gain insight into the objectives of the Sponsor. I’ll talk about the significance of customizing my pitch to include brand images, and finally, I will reveal why I use punchy language and humor. Using my recently greenlit submission to "The Legend of Korra Tenth Anniversary Social Concepts Project," I will demonstrate how easy it is to implement these tips.
How to Read a Project Brief
When a project launches on Tongal, it will be accompanied by a project brief which outlines the submission deadline, the intended audience, the tone, and the deliverable assets. I find these instructions often reveal more than meets the eye, so I feel it is important to read between the lines to understand what the Sponsor wants. A brief will lay out the expectations of the Sponsor as well as the visual design that the Sponsor is looking for in submissions. I always aim to adopt a critical approach when reviewing these instructions and attempt to understand the subtext of the language.
Here's an example. The brief for "The Legend of Korra Tenth Anniversary Social Concepts Project" continually mentioned Earth Week and a social engagement element as key features that Nickelodeon wanted to see in submissions. After reading the project brief, I developed an idea for an interactive social media campaign that would allow users to freely express their creativity using material related to nature in honor of Earth Week.
Capture the Brand Image
While the brief will usually reveal a lot about the Sponsor's taste, I look into the Sponsor’s previous marketing portfolio to get a sense of their brand image. For me, the key is to pay attention to the tone and pacing as well as visual elements like the color palette used in these advertisements. Even if the Sponsor is reinventing their public image, I familiarize myself with its previous online material so that I understand its objectives and do not repeat any ideas that the Sponsor has already used in marketing their brand.
While examining past social media content produced by Nickelodeon to promote The Legend of Korra television show, I noticed that this material often involved a high degree of interactivity and a bright and stimulating color palette, so I concluded that Nickelodeon wanted campaign that would be fun, creative and, nature-focused.
Write and Conceive for the Intended Audience
When I submit pitches for an ideation project on Tongal, I make sure that the writing or the concept speaks to the target audience (Hint: Demographic information can find in the project brief). I consider the aspirations and hobbies of the target audience and then tailor the material to the group’s interests.
I source honest and constructive feedback from people whom I trust before I submit any material to Tongal. These individuals are either members of a key demographic indicated in the project brief or someone who has a keen understanding of that key demographic's tastes. My criteria for determining the validity of an idea is based on the law of averages – if 3 out of 4 people believe my idea is good, I likely have a strong contender. While organizing my proposal for The Legend of Korra ideation project, I consulted my family members and refined my idea based on their comments before hitting the submit button.
Use Punchy Language and Humor
Media theorist Marshall McLuhan once stated “the medium is the message,” and this notion is especially true when it comes to strong copywriting. The way that an idea is presented can often impact how it is perceived. The exciting and dynamic language that I have used to express my ideas makes my submissions highly distinguishable and has increased my chances of being greenlit.
I've leaned into the practice of building sentences with active verbs (sentences in which the subject is the agent of the action) so as to stimulate the imagination of the reader. Because using present verb tenses creates a greater sense of urgency, using these grammatical tenses allows my ideas to resonate strongly with the reader. Always remember, if you ever get frustrated when composing your pitch, punch up your verbs… and not the wall.
Finally, humor can be a powerful tool to communicate concepts in a fun and playful manner. I find that the use of puns, jokes, and wit can help to disarm an audience immediately and focus their attention on my idea.
After implementing all of these tactics in the creation of my final submission, I concluded with the following idea that went on to be greenlit: “A social media campaign that asks users to submit fan art of the characters from The Legend of Korra produced using only natural material (such as leaves, earth, water, etc.) to symbolize the role of the elements in the show.”
Ultimately, it is essential to tap into my creative capabilities and understand the Sponsor and the target audience in order to generate concepts that will interest the Sponsor. Over the years, I have found these personal tips enormously productive when preparing pitches for projects hosted on Tongal, and they have helped me to develop ideas and communicate them in a manner that is engaging and palatable.
Want to check out how Legend of Korra fans meet Kevin's challenge? Head to Instagram by clicking the link below!
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Note From Tongal: This blog is part of a series of Tongal Community-written blog posts that were originally sourced in the Tongal Blog Open Call Project. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Tongal. Read more Tongal Community-written posts here!
