One Minute Briefs

One Minute Briefs is a concept borne out of the minds of Nick Entwistle and James Clancy who run The Bank Of Creativity.

It's designed to change the way people think about advertising, change the way in which creatives work and also provoke a lot of LOLs through it's interaction over Twitter. The rules are simple - a brief is released and anyone can repond to it in the form of an advert but they can only spend one minute doing so. The results are always interesting, at times ingenious and at other times downright ridiculous but always refreshing and highly amusing. 

We grabbed co-founder Nick Entwistle for a Q&A on his concept which is growing ever more popular by the day...

What is/are One Minute Briefs?
A collaborative platform for quick ideas generation and fun. One Rule. One Minute. Create an ad.

How was the concept born?
The original idea started a few years ago when we were at University. To give ourselves a break from week long briefs we decided to give ourselves mini one minute challanges to do some ads for brands and products. Some of the ads were great. Some were terrible! The main thing is that it was fun and it began to get the attention of other people on the course. We kept it as a creative exercise before deciding to push the concept on Twitter in 2012 after gaining more interest.

Can anyone get involved?
We encourage everyone to get involved as a great idea can come from anywhere and if an idea isn't great it can be made great via collaboration with our fantastic followers who help each other each day to make ideas better. The concept allows the work produced to be good or bad due to it's one minute nature so people don't have to be too precious with their ideas which means that anyone can have the confidence to give it a go.

Why do you think it has become so popular?
When we first started it on Twitter we weren't sure how it would go as effort has to be made to create an ad, save it, then tweet it. However, as work started to come in people began to realise that it was a lot of fun. Our followers began to interact with each other and now there is a very strong online community who speak to each other on a daily basis including people from Australia, Gibraltar and the USA. This sociability is important alongside the potentially award winning work that is produced. This simple creative thinking is also helping to teach students etc how to think quickly and is fast becoming an educational tool in itself.

Have any of the responses to OMB's gone on to become real adverts?
Some of the adverts people have produced have gone on to help charities, been nominated for awards and also been used by brands. This shows that it is far from a gimmick and is a viable alternative to traditional advertising in some cases such as response advertising.

Can you tell us about 3 of your favourite briefs and the responses to them

Brief: Advertise Bee Remover Concept: ASTARDS: One of the first ever One Minute Briefs that we produced.

Brief: Advertise Yourself Concept (@owenjevans) Copywriter. Was very interesting to see the ways everyone took this brief.

Brief: Advertise Test-Tube Burgers Concept: (@stephenhunter21) PHD. This was a great brief to be part of as we collaborated with The Drum on a very topical brief that no-one had ever advertised before. We like to link our briefs to current trends.

Do you think the creative industry is at times lacking in this kind of fun spontaneity?
Sometimes things can be over-thought which results in a diluted idea that lacks cut-through. This can delay content being produced for instant response advertising via social media during current events. This spontaneity should be pushed as social plays an increasing part in advertising.

Why do you think creatives find it hard to find inspiration at times?
Because they over-think things and rule ideas out before they have even put them down on paper. Restrictions on what you can and can't do stop you thinking properly. This is why with One Minute Briefs there is only one rule so you can put down an idea whether it is good, bad or ugly.

What does the future hold for OMB?
We have just been nominated for the MPA Awards and Fresh Awards finals and we will be hosting workshops at both events. As well as this, we have a stand and will be talking at an event with the BBC in November.

Of course, all of this wouldn't be possible without our wonderful followers so we are arranging a One Minute Briefs event where there will be entertainment, workshops, awards and beer! An OMB book and new website are also in the pipeline. It's all very exciting stuff.

Creativepool took the lead on a recent One Minute Brief. It was a lot of fun and we saw some great entries. See the entries.

Join OMB by following @OneMinuteBriefs on Twitter

oneminutebriefs.blogspot.co.uk

Words by Jessica Hazel