Marketers are always telling agencies to 'think outside the box' but the most resilient brands do the opposite. They build a box worth thinking inside.
Look at Tesco in the mid-90s. Their chief exec, a canny Scot called Ian MacLaurin, made a radical proposal to the family who owned Tesco: “I want to close every Tesco in the UK for a long weekend to refit them.” The family had kittens: “That’s going to completely f**k our cashflow!” “Maybe”, said Maclaurin “But it’s going to make you the number one supermarket chain in the UK.”
How Tesco Created a Box to Think Inside
MacLaurin had been listening to his customers and what they told them was they hated queuing. So over that long weekend, every Tesco got more aisles and more checkouts. “Every time there’s more people in the queue, we’ll open another checkout,” he promised.
The other person MacLaurin had been listening to was his ad agency opposite number Frank Lowe. Lowe had spotted something powerful: shoppers don’t just pick a supermarket for its prices. They care about all the little things that add up to a better shopping experience. Lowe showed him a board with three words on it: ‘Every Little Helps’.
It wasn’t an empty millennial mantra like ‘Power Your Possible’ or ‘Find Your Happy’. It was a promise Tesco could act on. And they did. They even appointed a director to their main board whose only job was to make sure Tesco lived up to ‘Every Little Helps’.
That line wasn’t just a mission statement. It was a box you could think inside. A simple, flexible creative platform that guided and amplified everything Tesco said or did. It was a dream for creatives: every brief came with a readymade rule: dramatize something small and useful Tesco does for shoppers. Then make it human, loveable and relatable.
During the 2008 financial crash, Tesco flexed it to focus on everyday savings. During the pandemic, the same line reassured shoppers about safety measures and supply chains. Whether it was a million-pound TV ad or a poster reminding you to keep two metres apart, there was a ready-made creative sandpit to play in.
How do you keep ideas alive when time and money are tight? The answer isn’t thinking outside the box, it’s building a box worth playing in.
Once you’ve got a well-built brand box, you don’t waste time re-inventing. You don’t panic when budgets vanish or deadlines shrink. You don’t need to beg your agency to 'think outside the box'. Your box is already there. And it’s full of ideas.
Specsavers have one too, marked ‘Should’ve Gone To Specsavers’. Every time a referee misses a clear penalty or a celebrity squints at an awards show, the brand can turn round a social post in hours. No big budget. No tortured briefing. The line does the heavy lifting.
Bitesize content won't build a brand
Many marketers today still haven’t built their brand boxes. Pressured by flat budgets (The Gartner Report says marketing spend in 2025 is stuck at just 7.7% of company revenue) and rising expectations, they default to random acts of content: influencer-packed pop-ups, Instagram shoots, endless event footage.
Bitesize content doesn’t build brands. So how do you keep ideas alive when time and money are tight? The answer isn’t 'thinking outside the box.' It’s building a box worth playing in.
Authored by Gerry Farrell, Creative Fixer at Gerry Farrell Ink, D&AD Creative Coach & Certified Life Coach and Honorary Fellow of The Marketing Society
