Ad Concepts

Ad Concepts — Campaign Ideation

Generate campaign routes for a product, service, or offer. A route is a creative direction, not finished copy: it must be concrete enough that a copywriter, designer, or image/video model can execute it without further strategy work.

© GEKKOS Tech. Licensed under MIT.

Process

Follow these four steps in order. Do not skip Step 1 — routes built without an insight are generic.

Step 1: Audience insight (before any ideation)

Establish four things about the target audience. If the user's brief does not contain them, infer plausibly from the product and market and state your assumptions in one short block; ask only if the brief is too thin to infer anything.

• Pain — what concrete problem or frustration does the audience live with? Name it in their words, not marketing language ("I redo this spreadsheet every Monday", not "inefficient workflows").
• Desire — what outcome or identity do they actually want? Distinguish the functional want (save time) from the emotional want (look competent, feel in control).
• Objection — the number-one reason they would NOT buy: price, skepticism ("another tool"), switching cost, social risk, past disappointment.
• Trigger moment — the specific situation in which the need becomes acute (end of quarter, kid starts school, competitor launches, tax deadline). Ads that reference the trigger moment feel timed, not targeted.

Write these as a compact 4-line block at the top of your output. Every route must trace back to at least one of these four.

Step 2: Pick frameworks

Choose one persuasion framework and one hook formula per route from the toolbox below. Use different frameworks across the three routes whenever the brief allows. Full definitions, when-to-use guidance, and the complete hook formula bank are in [references/frameworks.md](references/frameworks.md) — read it before ideating if you are not certain which framework fits.

Quick selector:

| Situation | Framework | |---|---| | Low-awareness audience, needs education | AIDA | | Audience feels the pain but tolerates it | PAS | | Crowded category, product is "hired" for a situation | JTBD angle | | Headline-driven channel (search, display, print) | 4U | | Short-form video / feed scroll environments | Hook formula first, framework second |

Step 3: Generate exactly 3 routes

Route diversity rule (mandatory): the three routes must differ in emotional register — they must feel like they came from three different agencies, not three variants of one idea. Use three distinct registers, for example:

1. Rational proof — numbers, demonstration, comparison, expert authority.
2. Identity / aspiration — who the buyer becomes, status, belonging, self-image.
3. Humor / pattern-break — absurdity, contrarian claim, category satire, unexpected format.

Other valid registers: fear-of-loss/urgency, warmth/care, nostalgia, rebellion. Pick any three that fit the brand, but never deliver three flavors of the same register. Before finalizing, self-check: if you swapped the visuals between two routes and they still worked, they are too similar — replace one.

Step 4: Output in the mandatory format

Mandatory output format

Deliver exactly 3 routes. Each route uses exactly this structure:

## Route [N]: [Working Title]
**Core claim:** [One sentence. The single thing this route argues. No slogans-by-committee — one sharp claim.]
**Hook (first 2 seconds / first line):** [The literal opening — the first spoken line, on-screen text, or headline. Written out verbatim, not described.]
**Visual idea:** [One paragraph. Shootable or generatable: describe the scene, subject, setting, camera/composition, and the one visual moment that carries the idea. A director or an image model must be able to execute from this paragraph alone.]
**Primary channel:** [Channel + one sentence why THIS route fits THIS channel — audience mindset, format strengths, targeting logic.]
**Framework:** [Framework + hook formula used, e.g. "PAS + open loop".]

Formatting rules:

• The hook is verbatim creative, in the language of the target market. Never write "a surprising question about X" — write the question.
• The visual idea is one paragraph, concrete nouns, no mood-board vagueness ("dynamic, vibrant imagery" is banned). Name what is in frame.
• Channel choice must differ across routes where plausible, or justify why the same channel wins twice.
• After the three routes, add a short "Which to test first" line: recommend one route and name the riskiest assumption it makes.

Quality bar

• Every core claim must be falsifiable or demonstrable — "great quality" is not a claim; "loads in under one second" is.
• Hooks must survive the 2-second test: would a scrolling user stop? If the hook could open an ad for any product in the category, sharpen it.
• If the user provides brand voice constraints, respect them in all routes, but keep register diversity through structure and visuals rather than tone alone.
• Stay in ideation. Do not write full scripts, body copy, or CTA sets — that is the ad-copy skill's job. Do not specify aspect ratios, durations, or safe zones — that is the social-formats skill's job.

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: Gekkos-tech
• Source: Gekkos-tech/agency-os
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.