The power of Relevant Ingenuity
A little about me ...
A little bit about me …

Who is Jack Swearengin?

After more than 20 years in marketing & advertising, I have gained extensive strategic experience in both Business to Consumer and Business to Business integrated marketing communications. I not only have a designer’s eye, but also a strategic mind, and this dynamic combination has helped me to create a strong, vibrant partnership with my clients that continues to produce first-class, award-winning creative work.

But brilliant creative work doesn’t come easy.

I get asked all of the time, where does your best creativity come from? I believe the best ideas are merely a solution to a problem. But, before you can solve the problem, you have to really understand what’s causing it.

That means doing your homework, and getting to the root of the problem.

I have a Brand Promise – Relevant Ingenuity, and it’s built on this very premise. Before you can be ingenious, you have to make sure the solution is relevant.

The three R’s

Every idea should be judged on what I call the three R’s. First, is it relevant? Second, will it resonate with the audience and third, does it have a reward? A great idea will answer yes to all three.

If it doesn’t, then it’s not considered a great idea.

The big idea

Great ideas are what agencies sell, its what we do. So, it’s always been hard for me to understand why creative leaders insistent on defending “One Big Idea.” So much so, they are willing and ready to damage the client-agency relationship.

Is “The One Big Idea” the only idea they can think of? If so, then they’re in the wrong business.

The “One Thing”

I believe in treating ideas as just that, an idea.  I enjoy presenting ideas that are outrageous, expected and heroic. But, every idea I present is always developed around one thing. I consider the “One thing” to be the most important, relevant piece of information that the audience needs to make an intelligent purchasing decision.

If a client doesn’t like one idea, we have several more, all different in execution, but the same in strategic direction.


The creative brief

When the client doesn’t like any of the ideas, 99% of the time, it’s due to the fact that the information in the creative brief was incorrect or changed somewhere along the way. If the information is incorrect, then the strategic direction is incorrect, the one thing will be off target and the big idea will be wrong.

But, if the research is correct, the strategy is on target and the client agrees with the one thing, the idea will always sell itself. It’s that easy.

Always, the same

I have often been asked, “ Doesn’t the agency process of relevant information gathering create a giant roadblock to being truly creative?”

My answer is always the same – I can’t imagine being creative without it. Its where the big ideas come from.