#4: Show All The Ideas (Even The Weird Ones)

What happens when you stop gatekeeping creativity and start building it together?

By Day 3 of a Beer Run, we’ve shaken things up. We’ve explored the smart, the silly, the safe, the subversive. Now it’s time to Crack It Open. Sort through the madness and land on the idea that’s going to carry the campaign forward.

In a traditional agency model, this is where the team filters. You get the usual three concepts: the safe one, the one the team wants to win awards for, and the one the strategist likes because it’s basically the brief. Creatives shield the mess. Strategy guards the thinking. The client gets a polished presentation and a soft sell on the agency’s favorite.

Not here.

At Beers With Friends, we don’t pre-decide. We bring the whole wall of ideas—dozens of Post-its scribbled with every cracked-out, half-baked, or oddly brilliant concept we came up with. Because we believe the best ideas are found in the friction together. And when clients see the raw thinking, they don’t feel like they’re being sold—they feel like they’re building.

In fact, we’ve heard time and again that this is the real value of the Beer Run: total transparency. No black box. No agenda. Just a shared mission to find the boldest, smartest, most resonant idea.

One client even said the format gave them permission to stop overthinking. When ideas are written on Post-its, they feel less precious—but somehow more potent. Clients aren’t swayed by decks or polish. They gravitate to the ideas with energy. The ones they actually want to live with for the next year.

And that’s the point.

This idea isn’t ours to make awards bait out of. It’s theirs to bring to life. We’re not here to fall in love with our own thinking. We’re here to help them choose the idea they can believe in, rally behind, and carry forward.

Because in a sprint, there’s no time to posture. And in a partnership, there’s no place for hiding the good stuff.