Last week, I had a client producer (Major Market) complain to me that, “There just aren’t any new promotion ideas anymore.” He went on to complain that every promotion his station had done in the previous 2 years was one they had done before. I asked if they had been successful before and when he replied in the affirmative, I asked, “What do you expect from management? They want a promotion that works to get numbers and revenue up.” 

I do it regularly without thinking it’s an actual principle for writing effective commercials. But it is. Simple. My writing process varies, but it’s often a variation of the following steps: