Creative Secrets: Concepting a 360° Campaign

by Dave Dumanis

The problem when most people start concepting a new creative campaign is, they start from the wrong end. Art directors, particularly if they come from a design background, tend to noodle around in Photoshop, or by looking through stock photos. Writers tend to start by writing headlines, usually funny ones, or ones they think are funny anyway. Or they leaf through last year’s award winners in the same category.

But none of this is going to get you any closer to an actual idea.

Ideas are the core of a great campaign. In this ebook we’ll explore what an idea is and why it matters, the difference between an idea and a style, how to get ideas even when you’re not feeling inspired, how to tell good ones from bad ones, and the basics of building out a winning idea into a campaign.

For more, buy your copy of this tiny but mighty ebook now. It's part of the Creative Secrets series, written with a lifetime of ad world experience—and zero AI.

12 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 17, 2025

About the author

Dave Dumanis is the author of 51, AMERICAN BEEHIVE, ALPHABETICAL DISORDER, SHAGGY DOG STORIES AND NURSERY RHYMES, A PLAGUE OF BOILS, CREAM, THE SOFT PINK AND WHITE BUNNYRABBIT STORY, MONA LIEBOWITZ, and NINE LIVES BY PAUL VARJAK. He lives in San Francisco with his wife and daughter.