The last successful campaign has taken the new brief hostage

The new brief asks for a surprise. The reference deck contains the last campaign, enlarged.

Repeating a good decision can be sensible. Repeating it without checking the new circumstances is how a useful method becomes office furniture: always there, occasionally in the way, too familiar to question.

Identify what actually carried the previous work. Was it the contrast, the timing, a particularly clear promise? Separate those mechanisms from its visible costume. The audience may need the same clarity with a completely different image.

Ask what has changed since that project. A new channel or product can alter the job even if the presentation template survives untouched. Write the difference into the brief before collecting references.

Show a proposal that keeps the useful principle and changes the expression. Explain the connection so the conversation does not collapse into “but the old one worked.”

Past success deserves a chair at the meeting. It does not need the only chair, the projector remote and permanent custody of the future.