Using AI to Add Clarity and Make Your Ideas Famous

Prompts help determine whether your concept can stand alone as a headline—and why that matters

You know you’ve got a great idea when it could double as an unforgettable headline. My team has long applied this “headline test” to make sure concepts stand strong on their own.

The question is simple: Can you distill your creative notions into a compelling five-to-seven-word headline? If yes, you’ve got something that not only resonates but sticks.

Traditionally, this was an internal exercise. Before any pitch, we’d ask: Is this a famous idea? Could the press write about it tomorrow?

Copywriters and creative directors drafted headlines that stripped the idea down to its purest form. Those weren’t throwaways; they were the litmus test. If we couldn’t capture the core in seven words or less, the idea wasn’t ready.

Now, with AI, we’ve scaled this into a tool anyone can use. We built our Famous Idea Test, a custom GPT that pressure-tests whether your concept can land as a headline—not just in one style, but across multiple editorial voices.

You’re in a position to pressure test your ideas the same way. Start by finding your motivation.

Why Headlines Matter

In advertising, the line between art and artistic expression is effectiveness. Headlines are where clarity meets creativity. They force you to answer the toughest question: What’s at the heart of this idea? If you can’t crystallize it in one line, your audience won’t either.

Headlines also preview how the world might perceive your work. They bridge concept and coverage, internal brainstorming and external buzz. In many ways, they’re the ultimate compression test. You squeeze the idea down and see if it holds its shape.

How to Build Your Own Famous Idea Test

Here’s how we turned the headline exercise into a repeatable AI tool:

• Set it up in ChatGPT. Go to Explore GPTs → Create a GPT. Give it a clear name and description so your team knows what it’s for.
• Tell it what to do. Our instructions are straightforward, but you can customize them as needed. Hint: the more specific to your needs, the better. Take the user’s campaign concept. Extract the core idea (brand benefit, campaign hook, emotional trigger). Write a half-dozen headlines, a few words each. Adapt the tone to publications you care about.
• Add conversation starters. Seed it with prompts like: “Turn this write-up into six headlines” or “Give me outlet-style headlines for this concept.”
• Pressure-test your sample. Are the headlines clear? Do they match the distinct voices of each outlet? If not, refine the instructions.
• Compare across formats. Use it diagnostically. Do the headlines consistently communicate the same essence across publications? Does your idea flex across mainstream and niche outlets while holding its shape?

How to Use the Headline

Once generated, the tool becomes more than a headline machine. It’s a mirror:

• Stress-test your messaging. If the concept feels thin, you’ll see it immediately.
• Sharpen your story. Different styles highlight different angles, sparking new directions.
• Anticipate reception. Preview how your idea could be covered in mainstream media vs. industry trades.

For creatives, strategists, and brand teams, this condenses hours of debate into minutes of clarity.

The Creative Payoff

Every run through the Famous Idea Test makes ideas sharper, stronger and more resilient. And you’ll note, AI doesn’t replace creativity, it adds refinement and efficiency. What once took hours of debate across a roomful of creatives now takes minutes, letting teams focus their energy on building, not just parsing. AI also adds objectivity. It reflects your idea back in multiple voices without ego or bias, making weaknesses easier to spot.

In the end, the headline test is less about copywriting and more about impact. AI simply makes that clarity faster to surface, repeatable at scale and harder to ignore.

And in today’s world of fleeting attention, that clarity is what makes an idea famous.