Big Ideas That Work is a database of advertising tactics — real creative strategies, named and organised, with verified campaign examples showing how each one works in practice. The site runs on four levels: free guides anyone can read, free editorial access for registered members, a full library subscription, and a pro tier with AI prompt packs built for strategists who want their tools to think less generically. Pick the option that works best for you.
Free Advertising Tactic Guides · No account needed
These are the pillar pages — long-form, question-led guides that map a full tactic family from every angle. Each one covers the strategic logic, the diagnostic questions that identify when to use it, and the campaigns that prove it works.
- Dumb Thinking Advertising Tactics — The strategic questions behind campaigns that win by doing the dumbest thing imaginable.
- Pick An Enemy Advertising Tactics — Ten tactics for identifying the right antagonist — competitor, system, culture, or the audience's own self-sabotage.
- Parody Advertising Tactics — Seven tactics for strategic mockery — from spoofing formats to deflating trends to roasting the fame game.
- Reframing Advertising Tactics — Nine tactics that change what something means without changing the product, the price, or the message.
Free membership · No credit card required
Create a free account and two full series unlock immediately: the complete Dumb Thinking series — nine sub-tactics covering every way a brand can win by doing the dumbest thing imaginable — and the Brand editorial series, which covers the thinking behind building something distinctive and memorable.
Mischief Maker Membership · £60 per year
Enjoy full access to every article on the site. The complete library spans Dumb Thinking, Pick An Enemy, Reframing, Parody, Behaviour Change, Familiar Rituals, Storytelling, Commerce, and more — hundreds of sub-tactics, each one a self-contained guide to a single creative move, with verified campaign examples and the strategic logic behind why it works. This is the database. Built for people working on briefs, not browsing for inspiration.
Mischief Maker Pro · £95 per year
Everything in Mischief Maker, plus twelve prompt packs — structured thinking systems that give your AI a specific creative move to make rather than a general direction to drift toward.
Drop the PDF into Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini. Add your brief. Each pack moves your AI through a proper strategic rhythm: better questions first, creative territories next, pressure-tested against proven campaign patterns before anything gets presented.
Prompt packs included: Creative Omission · Creative Excuses · Distinctiveness · Discounts · Dumb Thinking · Familiar Rituals · Metaphors · Pick An Enemy · Parody · Salient Anchoring · Shift Category · Social Commerce