This one from Shelly Lazarus, CEO of ad powerhouse Ogilvy & Mather, in the most recent Fortune Magazine, about how the ad and media business will survive the chaos it's facing:
"One thing that hasn't changed and never will...the importance of a big idea.
"You can put in on the Internet or (on a billboard) in Times Square, but you have to have an idea to begin with."
One of the credos that cascades throughout this here blog (like here, here and here), is that in creating Surprise, little things can have a wildly disproportionate, gigantic effect.
But don't be fooled by size, or lack thereof. Even the most minute of "little things" you put into play needs to be backed up by a big idea. (How many times have we been sadly saddled with the inverse, like a multi-million-dollar Super Bowl TV ad with vapidly little thought put behind it.)
Your tactics you choose may be small, but the larger your idea, the more powerful your impact. Before you make your next marketing move, ask yourself that old line that cops say to kids in those 1940s black-and-white films:
"Hey...what's the big idea?"
Think or sink.