We are seeing a lot of closeness in ideas in the comms world. From campaigns that resemble other campaigns, to brands waiting on content creators to hit us with the new trend for them to hop on it.

A recent example lies in one of the very few “Viral” campaigns of late, this ad for mental health awareness, and then this one, which are very close in concept.

Though both are beautiful and impactful in their own right, one cannot help but see similarities in concepts.

But where does this stem from?

In many stages throughout my career, I have encountered ideas that either resembled ones that I had, or that the creative teams had. It always was a “Hey, we thought of that first!” moment, however a lot of times, the idea would have been conceptualized by others a while before.

So how can that be? Are we all inter-connected in some way where a thought travels silently across continents?

Reality is that, most of the time, it is from the same bank of information that we all have access to: The internet.

With the speed at which we scroll, there are many things that pass us every day with us catching a glimpse of it, without actively registering it as a memory, but our brain probably does.

And that equates in inspiration being drawn from an element that already exists somewhere out there.

So what’s the solution to this?

Perhaps it is time to face the elephant in the room, and give creative thinkers and content creators room to get inspired, outside of confined walls.

How can we expect creativity if we push for faster outputs, and force creatives to think inside a box, looking at inspiration online, not having enough time to go out and seek it in the open?

Perhaps it is time to re-assess the creative process and have limitless flexibility to go out and explore.

With proper planning, we should ideally be able to accord time for creatives to go out and explore, relax, ponder, read, watch, feel and experience, rather than push them for work on demand at a fast pace.

When creatives had time, they created masterpieces, one need only seek the greatest monuments around the world to notice the beauty in a craft that required time to build, versus fast consumed “snackable” content that was made in a hurry, to be assimilated in a hurry, often the result of a trend or inspiration found online.

From outings, to events, to concerts, to just wandering around town observing people, behaviours, products, playing games, going to the arcades… inspiration, truly, lies outside of the agency walls, and definitely not only on social.

In the fast moving world of today, and in the age of the “Always-on”, let us give the creatives some “off” so that they can switch back “on”.