Create ideas using: Exchange Roles
What does reversing roles reveal that normal perspectives miss?
Everything. When you put people in positions they don't normally occupy, assumptions break. A executive works a service job shift and realizes how exhausting it is. A customer sits in a design meeting and understands why their favorite product works. Role reversal breaks down the walls between groups and builds empathy. People who've switched roles understand each other in ways they never would from observation. That understanding is the campaign. It changes how people see the brand and what it stands for.
How do I make a role exchange campaign that creates real insight instead of feeling like a gimmick?
Make it real. Not a one-hour photo op. A genuine, full experience. A luxury brand executive spending a whole day as a customer in a budget store. A tech company CEO working a full support shift. The exchange has to be long enough and real enough that perspective actually shifts. When people return from the exchange, they're different. That change is what makes the campaign real.
Example: How it could look
A luxury clothing brand could have their CEO work in fast-fashion production for a week. Document the actual work: the speed, the pressure, the human cost. Then have someone from fast fashion work at the luxury brand's atelier. Two perspective shifts. Two people who now understand the other side. The campaign isn't about judging; it's about understanding. Both come away changed.
Or like this:
Why is Exchange Roles a great technique?
Role-exchange campaigns work because they break down walls and build empathy—people who experience different positions understand each other differently.
Breaks assumptions through lived experience
Builds genuine empathy and understanding
Creates authentic perspective shifts
Generates powerful human stories
The strongest role exchanges don't aim to prove a point—they just expose people to reality from a different position. That exposure changes how they see everything.
! When not to use the Exchange Roles Technique
When the exchange is staged or superficial. If it's a two-hour PR stunt, it backfires. Also skip it if the insights you draw contradict reality—if someone spends a week in production and gains new respect, but your brand still operates exploitatively, the campaign becomes evidence of hypocrisy.
Technique first described by www.deckofbrilliance.com