What is outcome to a copywriter?

On the surface, this would be a pretty loaded yet vague question for a copywriter, or for that matter most creative professionals. Does identifying as the outcome people mean that we will now take TATs, revenue targets, and metrics behind the barn and give them lead lobotomies?

Not at all.

Much like the delicious cake that we enjoyed to commemorate the next evolution of IdeateLab, outcome has many layers. Dealing in outcome does not mean that we do away with output. If output is the base layer of the cake, outcome is the cream cheese frosting, the sprinkles, those sugar and lime cured pieces of strawberry, the splashes of the rhubarb compote, and of course the cherry on top. Please believe me when I say that the cake was to die for. Anyway, where was I? Right, outcome.

Outcome is what you get when you consider output to be only a step towards the end goal. The work doesn’t stop at output, because output is where your outcome story begins.

Outcome is what we strive for when we push craft. It’s what we work towards when we say, “Tighten”, “Scale”, “Push”, “Keeda daal”, or “Hatke bana”, or pardon me, “award winning”. It’s when you scale your ideas such that they mutate from being just deliverables. They turn into real, tangible change for not just your clients’ business, but your agency, your manager, the load-bearing toe kicks of your metals cabinet, your team, the quality of cake you get to have when your organization evolves, and of course you.

“But how can I as a creative professional gauge outcome?”

You probably can’t, but you sure as hell can see it, hear, it, taste it, and most importantly, FEEL IT.

Spied a speck of a crooked smile on the CMO’s face right just as you dove head-first into the ‘penny-drop’ moment in your film script. You’re on your way to creating outcome.

Overheard fellow industry nerds discussing your latest campaign? You’re on the crux of outcome.

Had a client leave their current brand and call your team on behalf of their new brand to drop in for a chat? You’re about to be incumbent outcome.

Your mother just shared your work with her Whatsapp groups and was told by her friends that they already love it? This outcome hits different.

To put it plainly, for a creative professional, creating outcomes means making a difference. Even if it is just for a moment. And repeatedly doing it till you get that big one. Unfortunately, our TG is overexposed and novocaine-numbed. The only way to make a difference is to cut through to evoke an emotion. Anger, nostalgia, laughter, befuddlement, shock; each of them laddered over your output to get you and your brand to where you want to go —to the cherry on top of the cake.