I have an excellent advertising idea that I’m positive will be a huge hit, but don’t know who to talk to or where to begin. It involves all kinds of sports in all major cities from NFL to Soccer. I’m afraid to go into any detail, fearing my advertising idea will be stolen.

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Jay’s Answer: Let’s say you’ve figured out the next-best idea for sports advertising. What’s it worth? Unless you’ve also written/tested the copy/images, researched best media to advertise in, have done lots of focus testing with groups (or even better yet, tried it with local sports teams in your area), you idea isn’t worth much. Because what you have is an idea, that teams of people need to act on. The acting on part costs money, and that’s where risk/reward comes in and has a value.

If your goal is to get noticed (by sports teams or advertising companies), produce the message/idea yourself. Create a website, write your own copy, even film your own videos and put them online. Make them public, and make them obviously connected to you. Make this whole idea one piece of your advertising portfolio. Enjoy the creative process (as a minimum) and hopefully get seen as an up-and-coming idea person.

Also, most agencies don’t want to talk with outsiders that have an idea. They don’t want to sign NDA (non disclosure agreements) for the simple reason that they may be working on something similar to your idea already. If you approach them and tell them your idea under NDA and they produce something similar, then they may have a lawsuit on their hands. Do talk to a lawyer, but realize that if someone takes your idea from you, it’ll cost serious $ to defend it.