As every creative will agree, most of our best ideas remain as just that – ideas.

Cracking work, bang on brand, exciting, pushing boundaries, disruptive, intelligent, fascinating, thought-provoking, action-inducing but never get anywhere past the ‘no’ brigade. It never ceases to amaze me how many hurdles you have to jump through to produce work, let alone good work.

And how the hell does anything truly great get through? I believe it really only comes out of agencies who aren’t afraid to push back. And how many of those are there in this current climate?

See what you think to this. I’d be really interested in your thoughts. Submitted to both Shelter then St Mungo’s, I’ve had rejections from both even though it’s the offer of free work that’s cheap as chips to produce.

Strategy
Winter is coming. Life on the streets gets tougher and more dangerous. Whether it’s the elements that get you or the unsavoury characters who come out after dark, it becomes ever more difficult to survive out there. The trouble is few everyday people see where some have to spend the night because they’re generally gone by the morning. So, unless people are made aware of the hardship that some have to deal with night after night, they pass by oblivious.

Creative
A simple printed A3 or A2 sheet designed to look like a Police sign dramatically demonstrates that someone could have died there the previous night. The call to action is to donate to Shelter and help give a home to those who really need it. These can be stuck up wherever homeless people sleep rough. Very cheap to produce (perhaps just the price of a colour photocopy), they would be a very cost effective way to cover any city by the charity’s volunteers.

I’m going to go through my portfolio of gems that never were and post a few more here. Am I mad? Am I frustrated? Not any more. I’m really genuinely happy these days. I just fancy airing good thinking that passed by unnoticed, for whatever reason. Then again, perhaps it is all crap after all!

This article was written by Chris Catchpole. Go check out his impressive direct marketing portfolio