An introduction to insight for emerging creatives

Every year our New Blood Awards Judges call on would-be winners to create insightful work, and recognise the entries rooted in powerful insight. So what is an insight, and how do you find one? Read on for a refresher course, plus winning examples to inspire you.

An insight is a truth, and it should be the fire in your belly. It could be about anything, from a product to an audience or their behaviour. You find your insight by trying to understand the problem you’re working on in depth, by looking for clues.

Now, of course you could say ‘Dairy Milk’s made of chocolate’ is an insight, which it is, but a really powerful insight is a bit more hard won. It will be the key to solving your creative problem and give your work purpose. Whether you find your insight in consumer research, in the brief itself or in personal experience – find one. If an execution is the ‘how’, an idea is the ‘what’, then your insight is the ‘why’.

The clue's in the title with this one. It’s a simple, painfully recognisable truth. We all get hangry, and we’re all divas when it happens. It’s not a truth uniquely tied to Snickers, but cue the Joan Collins cameo and you have yourself an ad that is uniquely Snickers.

Nationwide’s 2015 New Blood brief asked how the building society could step in and solve a social problem. These winners went bigger than banking problems, and instead honed in on the pay gap issue still facing working women. Their insight fuelled an unforgettable creative idea.

If you’re lucky enough to have big data on your audience, chances are you’re going to stumble on an insight or two. But there’s a huge difference between stats, and meaningful information. You’re not just looking for cold hard facts, you’re looking for the kind of facts that’ll give you something remarkable to say. Like Spotify did.

This John Lewis Christmas ad is probably one of people’s favourite Christmas ads from the brand. Finding an insight can be tricky when you’re working on a brand, and in this case, season, that’s been advertised a million times, to death (Coca-Cola gave up on new adverts, they just roll out the same truck each year). But the truth behind ‘The Long Wait’ is so on the money, it cut through all the sparkle and glitter other brands were throwing at Christmas ad breaks.

Insight isn’t just for traditional advertising. This New Blood Awards winner is a beautiful example of how insight can fuel any idea.

Pantone’s 2015 New Blood Awards brief was to transform a city through colour. First thoughts might be signage, or perhaps transport, but the team behind ‘Project Monsoon’ delved a little deeper. Their Black-Pencil-winning creation was born from the reality that Seoul life in the monsoon season is a dreary affair. Their insight was, in fact, their problem, and so Pantone became the solution.

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