Structure your thinking (and win awards)
The path to an award-winning idea is exhausting, challenging and demanding. For many, if not most creatives, the real test begins at the very start of the journey. At that magical moment when a special idea pops into your head and a sudden kick of adrenalin sends a wave of excitement through your body.
Many of these ideas will never see the light of day. But a few will earn recognition and awards, and prove worth all the exhausting, challenging and demanding work that follows.
It is commonly agreed that these original award-winning ideas are those that break rules and reflect unconventional ways of thinking. This is true. However, the same ideas can also be viewed from a different perspective. Beneath the obvious surface, they often share recurring patterns of thinking. Patterns which, when decoded, help us understand how to operate the mind more effectively and how to structure thinking around new, original award-winning ideas.
Award-winning creative ideas share recurring patterns of thinking. Several of these patterns stood out at Cresta 2025.
Looking into 2026, let’s see what we can learn from the thinking patterns that shined at Cresta Awards 2025. What can be decoded from the awarded? What forms of thinking helped produce more winners? What valuable takeaways can be used in the quest for that next exciting adrenaline pumping moment of conceiving a new award worthy idea?
As expected, the most potent thinking pattern at Cresta Awards 2025 is one of the most popular thinking patterns in general: Assigning a new unexpected task to an existing known resource which is associated with another task. Commonly referred to as Repurposing. At Mindscapes we call it “New Tasking”.
It looks something like this:
Dirt Is Good by Edelman for Omo.
New Tasking OOH ads to perform as outdoor play spaces for children. Thereby communicating the iconic brand narrative “Dirt is Good” and enabling children to play outdoors in a saturated urban environment like Istanbul.
Or this:
855-HOW-TO-QUIT-(OPIOIDS) By Serviceplan Germany for Anzen Health.
New tasking existing imprint codes on opioid pills to perform as phone digits in a hotline number. Making sure people understand what hotline is most relevant for their condition.
Disrupting intuitive associations which fuel cognitive biases is a great way to get people’s attention. For example, assigning an unexpected task to an existing resource which is associated with another task. A popular mechanism embedded in Cresta 2025 winners.
How can you stimulate New Tasking ideas more efficiently?
Start by deciding upfront to think within a restricted universe, using resources that already exist within it. Make a list of as many existing resources as possible. Use your creativity to make the list as long and comprehensive as you can. Every item added represents a potential new idea.
The list will help override Functional Fixedness, a cognitive bias that limits our ability to see objects beyond their traditional use. Next, envision the specific actions required to address your challenge. Consider unexpected resources that do not perform these actions today, but could be hijacked to do so.
In a nutshell, operate your mind in a technical way to liberate your imagination and creativity. Yes… technical! Because technical helps beat the biases in your brain.
This thinking pattern was identified in 14 awarded Cresta winners from 2025.
Another recurring thinking pattern which shined in 2025 is reflected in the following ideas. See if you can identify it yourself…
Returning Creativity by Dentsu NY for Crayola
At Mindscapes, we call this thinking pattern “Fight for a Cause”. The mechanism suggests creating and launching a NEW creative cause, which currently does not exist or is not in the public spotlight, which reflects a brand idea or value, while allowing people to fight for it and make it their own, through a variety of platforms and channels.
Relevance starts with drama. It grows stronger when that drama is unexplored or overlooked. And it becomes powerful when you turn it into a NEW cause — one people don’t just rally behind, but actively take part in. 11 Cresta winners in 2025 did just that.
The key to applying this thinking path is identifying a relevant drama that is largely unspoken, even if some people are already aware of it. It must be rooted first and foremost in a brand idea or value. This is not a corporate social responsibility initiative, even if it feels like it. It’s a brand communications campaign.
The drama itself can be serious, with significant implications, or more casual, built around an overlooked but compelling story. It might address an irritating fact people take for granted, a personal or group tension, or a wider cultural issue. Most importantly, it should focus on a drama that has yet to be openly acknowledged.
One of my favorite Fight for a Cause campaigns is this beauty, ‘Bucharest, not Budapest’, from 2014 by McCann Bucharest.
This thinking pattern was identified in 11 awarded Cresta winners from 2025.
One more thinking pattern worth noticing from Cresta 2025 is called “Replication”. Its mechanism involves applying an existing, common practice designed for one environment to an unexpected new environment facing a similar situation, while carrying across its original meaning and impact. This shift disrupts intuitive associations, as we see a practice we know well operating in circumstances we would never normally associate it with.
For example.
Mayo Exchange by Edelman UK for Hellmann’s.
Presenting a new yummy exchange practice and exchange rate.
or:
Mattress Deposit by Marketsquare Denmark for Ikea.
We are all familiar with the deposit practice. We never saw it applied on mattresses. Until now.
This thinking pattern was identified in 8 awarded Cresta winners from 2025.
There are many actions and practices we take for granted, assuming we understand exactly why and where they exist. But that’s simply the mind operating on autopilot. Revealing how a familiar practice behaves in unexpected circumstances can create meaningful impact — for people and for brands.
The key for applying this thinking mechanism is identifying the perfect associative link between practices, situations and environments. What replication can technically work, make sense, be unexpected, be relevant, make an impact, stimulate an interesting story? For an effective replication, you can consider importing a practice commonly performed in another environment onto your brand’s environment. Or exporting a practice commonly performed by your brand onto a new unexpected environment, where people will see it in action in a completely new light.
What about AI you ask? You can spot AI- based ideas in some of the thinking patterns used at Cresta Awards 2025. But they are not the majority reflected in these patterns. Not yet anyway…
One common and exciting terrain where AI shines is its ability to recreate or even rewrite history. Using data and its massive prognosis and craft capacities, AI can bring back to life people and events in the most realistic fashion. The key is to do so in a way which not only makes people appreciate the remarkable outcome, but also appreciate the brand message.
The latest winner of the Alan Page Prize for writing at Cresta is an example:
Re-righting History by Leo Burnett Hong Kong for a Cathay airlines sponsorship campaign.
AI is making history. Literally! Its abilities can recreate or rewrite history in the most realistic palpable way we can imagine. A great opportunity for creative thinking and for engaging storytelling.
So, sitting at your desk waiting for a special idea to pop up in your head? Managing a team of thinkers who need inspiration and guidance? Working for a brand that wants to facilitate amazing creative work? Want to be a Cresta Winner?
Remember that structuring creative thinking might be the most valuable thing you can do! Forcing the mind to think inside a box, in a specific way, from a specific starting point, doesn’t suggest you are limiting the creative thinking. It can actually help liberate it. Yes, there are rare occasions when a perfect creative idea shows itself on the first attempt through intuitive thinking. But what about all the other occasions? The frustrating hours spent staring at the ceiling, waiting for a glimpse of a concept. The endless talks with clients, colleagues or anyone you can find, including the person you meet at the vending machine at 10pm, searching for direction and inspiration.
Our minds are an infinite dark rooms filled with amazing ideas, lying unseen waiting to be discovered through a subconscious accident or pure talent. But why move around in darkness when you can support your talent by structuring your creative thinking? Use a technical action to spark a creative reaction that may be hiding right under your nose. There are many thinking mechanisms and patterns out there. They are everywhere! At Mindscapes, we’ve identified 22 of them. Maybe start with the ones mentioned above, which have proved themselves just last year.
When you encounter creative work you admire and wish was yours, look beyond the polished execution or the innovative technology used. Explore what happened in the thinking trenches. You may uncover a thinking pattern that helps you develp your next Cresta-winning idea — one others will wish was theirs.
About the Author
Ravid Kuperberg is a partner and structured creative thinking trainer at Mindscapes, a training agency which consults numerous ad agencies and brands around the world.
He is a prominent speaker at marketing conferences and advertising festivals, including recurring appearances at the Cannes Lions festival.
51 Cannes Lions, including three Grand Prix Lions, have been awarded to work created using structured creative thinking tools from Mindscapes.
To learn more about Mindscapes: https://themindscapes.com
