Words matter in this business. But some words matter more than others.

Some of the great writers of all time, such as Caples and Ogilvy, focused on the power of words in advertising. Sometimes the words were to be actually used in copy – The infamous “Buy now” and its modernized companion, “Click here,” come to mind.

Sometimes, like Bernbach, they focused on the traits of the advertising. Terms like “differentiate,” “pre-empt,” and juxtaposition” led to some of the most famous advertising in history, sometimes immortally etched into the scripts of shows such as “Mad Men.”

I’m no John Caples or Bill Bernbach (though I try every day to become closer to their ideals), but I’ve got a different word in mind. One that speaks to the process of creating strategies and messages that will gain the trust, the energy, the momentum of agency folks and clients alike.

That word, my friends, is ownership. And I think it’s the real, true king of the hill: The most powerful word in advertising.

Why “Ownership?”

Because I’ve seen the power of the word first-hand. When a person at an agency, or a client, or in a marketing department, feels they have contributed to the idea, they support it. They push for it. They defend it and evolve it. In a word, they own it. The ego demands it.

The ownership grows as the idea evolves and gains momentum. Then, like a snowball racing down a ski slope, it picks up more ownership along the way. The idea gets better.

But even great ideas who don’t have the ownership of the right people often lack support. No valiant defense. A babe in the woods with the wolves circling. And the idea, as powerful as it might be, as perfectly crafted as the creatives may have delivered it, has a fatal flaw. It lacks ownership. The wolves, with names like “jealousy,” “indecision,” and “fear,” the killers of ideas, move in.

The creatives may still be attending to their fledgling idea and try to defend it, but as the pack moves in, they are quickly outnumbered, outflanked, and out-doubted.

This is why great creatives, marketers and leaders insist on bringing the sources of the jealousy, the cynicism, the doubt and fear into the room when the idea is being created. The wolves see the brilliance. They believe in the potential. They advocate for it and help craft it for the world. They now guard and protect the same idea they would have happily ripped to shreds under different circumstances.

The idea lives, because it has ownership.