During which phase of the creative process are ideas typically refined and developed?

The process of refining and developing ideas primarily takes place during the evaluation phase. In this stage, the concepts generated in earlier phases undergo scrutiny to assess their feasibility, effectiveness, and alignment with the intended goals of the project. This involves critical thinking and analysis, where ideas are assessed against criteria such as creativity, audience appeal, and overall impact.

During this evaluation process, various approaches might be considered, and necessary adjustments are made to enhance the ideas. This is where collaboration and feedback from team members can play a significant role in shaping the final concepts, leading to more polished and effective advertising strategies. It's a crucial time for filtering out less viable ideas and honing the stronger ones into a solid or actionable plan.

The other phases, such as immersion, where initial insights and theories are gathered, and execution, which focuses on putting the refined concepts into practice, do not revolve around the refinement process itself. Incubation is a period of subconscious processing of ideas but does not directly involve active refinement.