What big brand campaigns can teach you about creative direction, and why copying what you see online will never make your brand more memorable. THE OPENING MOMENT I want to talk about something I see happening constantly online, and honestly, I completely understand why it happens. You see a big brand launch a really clever campaign, you love the visual, you save it, and you immediately start thinking about how you could do something similar for your own business. But somewhere between being inspired by the idea and recreating what you saw, we often lose the most important part: the thinking behind it. And that is exactly what I want to unpack in this episode. WHAT THIS EPISODE REALLY UNLOCKS This isn't about telling you to stop looking at what other brands are doing. I actually think studying great creative work is one of the best things you can do as a business owner. The difference is learning how to look at it like a creative director. Instead of asking, “How can I recreate this?”, I want you to start asking, “Why did this work in the first place, and what could I do with that idea in a way that actually makes sense for my brand?” In this episode, I explore: What we can learn from some of the most interesting brand campaigns happening right now Why unexpected collaborations, like Cadbury and MCoBeauty, create so much attention The difference between being inspired by an idea and simply copying its execution Why personality is becoming one of the most important parts of a memorable brand How brands like Pizza Hut and Honda use creativity and storytelling to create campaigns people actually remember Why documenting your business and conceptualising content are two completely different things How to find the unique edge within your own business and turn it into creative ideas Why you don't need a huge budget to create something genuinely interesting Because I don't want you to become better at copying. I want you to become better at thinking creatively for yourself. THE CONVERSATION In this episode, I'm taking you inside the way I look at big brand campaigns and the things I think female entrepreneurs can actually learn from them. And I want to make something really clear: I love seeing what other brands are doing. I save campaigns, I study visuals, I look at launches and I constantly pull inspiration from outside of my own industry. I think that's part of being a creative person. The problem starts when inspiration becomes replication. You see a campaign that worked for someone else and suddenly you're shooting in the same location, wearing the same type of outfit, recreating the same shot or using the same concept without ever stopping to ask whether it actually belongs in your brand. I've seen this happen so many times, and it's one of the reasons I feel so strongly about creative direction. There is a huge difference between knowing what looks good and knowing why something works. So we look at campaigns from brands like Cadbury, MCoBeauty, Pizza Hut and Honda and break down the creative thinking underneath them. What was unexpected? Where was the personality? What made people stop and pay attention? What was the connection that made the campaign feel different from everything else in the feed? Because once you understand those things, you can take the principle and turn it into something completely different. We also talk about the difference between documenting your business and actually conceptualising content, because I think a lot of entrepreneurs have been told that if they simply film enough of their everyday life, they'll eventually have a strong content strategy. But filming yourself working at your laptop isn't automatically storytelling. Sometimes the strongest piece of content comes from an idea that has nothing to do with what everyone else in your industry is filming. It might be a visual metaphor, an unexpected collaboration, a cultural reference, a ridiculous idea that somehow makes perfect sense for your brand, or simply a perspective that only you could bring to the table. That's the part I want you to start paying attention to. Your next great piece of content might not be something you find on Instagram and recreate. It might come from something you've experienced, something you're obsessed with, something that makes you laugh, something you've noticed in your industry or a completely random connection your brain has made. That is creativity. And that is where your competitive advantage lives. KEY MOMENTS YOU'LL WANT TO REVISIT 06:04 — What the Cadbury and MCoBeauty collaboration can teach us about creating attention 07:00 — Why unexpected brand collaborations work so well 07:28 — Why having clarity around your brand doesn't mean everything has to look safe or predictable 08:23 — How to find the thing that makes your brand different and actually bring it to life 09:19 — What Pizza Hut's playful approach to marketing can teach us about personality 10:13 — Why personality can make people remember your brand long after they've forgotten your content 11:39 — Looking at Honda's campaign and the power of unexpected storytelling 14:06 — The difference between documenting your business and conceptualising content 16:00 — Why copying someone's content without understanding the original idea will always leave you one step behind 17:28 — How to build campaigns around what makes your own business interesting 20:27 — Using visual metaphors to tell a bigger story about your brand 22:56 — Why generic B-roll isn't a substitute for having an actual creative idea 24:04 — Why you don't need a huge budget to make people pay attention 25:24 — How to take inspiration from other brands without becoming a copy of them 27:04 — Creating unexpected connections and collaborations 27:28 — What happens when you let more of your personality into your content 27:50 — Why the idea needs to come before the camera 28:42 — Why being recognisable is more valuable than simply creating more content A NOTE FROM KAMRI I actually think being inspired by other people is a really beautiful part of being creative. I have absolutely had people inspire things I've created, and I've also seen people take inspiration from my work, which I genuinely love. But there is a question I want you to start asking yourself before you recreate something you saw online: Does this actually make sense for my business, or am I just doing it because it looks cool? Because those are two very different things. You don't need to be the first person to ever think of an idea. You don't need to reinvent the wheel every time you create something. But you do need to bring your own perspective into the room. Your business has a story, a personality, a history, a sense of humour, a way of seeing the world and a collection of experiences that nobody else has. That is where your best ideas are going to come from. So take inspiration from the big brands. Study the campaigns. Pull apart the strategy. Ask yourself why something made you stop scrolling. But then close Instagram and go create something that could only have come from you. EXPLORE YOUR NEXT STEP If you're ready to stop copying what's already working and create a visual direction that actually feels like your brand, you can explore my Creative Direction services here → Kamri Hill Services If you're planning your next campaign, launch or photoshoot and know there's a bigger idea in your head but you aren't sure how to bring it to life, this is exactly the kind of work I love helping with. STAY CONNECTED Instagram: @kamrihill Website: www.kamrihill.com Explore my Services: kamrihill.com/services SHARE THE EPISODE If you've ever found yourself recreating something you saw online simply because it looked cool, send this episode to another female entrepreneur who needs the reminder that inspiration is the beginning of the creative process, not the end of it. Take the idea, understand why it worked, and then make it yours.
