The Reason why you should avoid Glue ads in your book.

Possibly the longest title in the world, but I thought i'd share a piece of advice we were given amongst our first ever industry visit. 'Avoid glue ads in your book'.

We all know it's not easy coming up with great ads, in fact choosing a product that already has fantastic advertising is usually a bad idea. Even if your ad is brilliant it's somewhat overshadowed by that ad that has already run. 

My point for posting this is that way back when, when we first came down to London with our first examples of work we had some work for Loctite Superglue. Although the work itself was well received, always causing a chuckle and cutting away at some of those nervous silences that often arise in critiques - you can never get away from that amazing ad that already exists - that becomes the topic of conversation not your shiny new ad.

Here's the reason we were told to avoid having it in our book - and this was done in 1970 imagine what you would have to do now! Apologies for the low quality, screenshots are all I could get - if anyone has a link for the film I'd appreciate it.

...and it's follow up. 'Still going strong'.

I Love my brand.

Well, whilst Phil & I have been enjoying a small break back home before we start at My Agency... something that currently has my mind occupied is to do with Brand Loyalty...

There is one thing I seemed to be fascinated by for the past couple of years and that is Nixon (The Surf Brand) I am currently on my third watch (this is where the addiction / attraction / whatever started) ...and if you don't know their watches, you need to take the time to check them out here, 

I'm on my second large buckle enamel belt. I have 2 hats - millions of stickers and the odd t-shirt or two. I think i'd buy the bedspread if I could. 

When I think about it - I have no real reason to choose it over other brands, it's not cheap, I'm sure there are, in fact I know there are other products that are made to be more robust. Am I buying into the image? - I've surfed once - worked in a surf/ clothing shop, was big on Kayaking - my family home is a few minutes drive from the coast? Just what is it? In my opinion, some people just buy something because it's what they know, some for their friends - others for the image... God knows why I buy mine... I have no idea if i'm honest, I certainly haven't seen any advertising for the brand in the traditional sense.

The fact is that big brands - especially clothing brands have the power to adopt an image and change it at will, some - the likes of Adidas & Nike may have more than one, appealing to a vast range of audiences... That's the power of advertising.

I'd be interested to know what is your brand? Why are you loyal to it? 

Friday Fun...

...And now for Friday. The busiest day of them all.

It was quite intense, firstly the morning was quiet, just working away on our book before breaking into the afternoon where we headed off to Meet Sam Kientsch at LIZ H for a quick chat - which turned into quite an insightful conversation. He gave us a review on our work, before discussing what he could do for us, where we had been and what we were up to - and ultimately what we wanted to achieve both in the long term and short term.

LIZ H isn't at all how we expected, it's so comforting - no corporate feel, no big offices, it's practically an apartment - two big comfy sofas, a coffee table, a shelf full of books and even a little desk in the corner. (Apologies for the poor quality photo - London was actually bright that day). There was something quite nice and warming about the visit amongst all of the flash, glamourous buildings we've pop into over the last few weeks. Like nipping to your mums for a cup of tea! 

We were a tad early for Leo's so we stopped off at Coffee Republic - who says you can't be a kid at 21/22? Some of the most fun things happened then! Ever realised how bubbly the coffee are at CR? Exhibit A...

Once we'd finished our coffees we nipped over to Leo's to see Trevor Webb this time, and what a nice bloke. Instead of heading up to the creative floor this time we sat in the canteen/bar, some music playing definitely felt comfy there. Again, feedback was mixed, some keepers, some top quality bin material, although the ones he was most interested in were the ones that almost worked but weren't crystal clear... It was these ones that he offered insight as to what was right about them - what was wrong and what we could do about it. Definitely interested in heading back there for round 2. 

Some of our eagle-eyed readers will have noticed we had a crit with Ed Morris (The other one) the week before, and the opinion were quite varied, both had different methods of critiquing the work, and thoughts on where to go next - but they were both equally as positive about our work. 

A suspicious Mike - admiring the free granny smiths on offer

This post is getting quite long - so i'll attempt to keep it brief, after Leo's it was straight on the train right across town to Play, the digital wing of M&C Saatchi to meet Jesper & John who turned up with a couple of free beers - always a nice way to start a crit! 

To our surprise, the whole crit wasn't about digital this that and the other, it was all about ideas, they were looking to the barest sense of the idea itself, it that didn't make sense then nor did the ads. Pretty obvious when you think about it. Again, the back of the book section went down a storm, with a good couple of ideas that were definite keepers, others needed expanding - and some just weren't communicating what wanted to say. It was good to know that even in the ideas that weren't 'quite there yet' - our initial thoughts were still well received even if the execution wasn't quite right. 

Well I'm all blogged out for a couple of days - so until then... 

Blogging the Job Hunt

Ok, so a teeny weeny white lie, the next post will be Funny Friday... which will come later this afternoon.

I'd just thought i'd highlight this... shameless plug really if I'm honest. 

It's a blog for Creative Choices - a government sponsored site that is about entering the creative industries, written by Rachel Clarke.

A few of the well known blogger world creatives are on it too, take a look.

There's even a mention of the infamous scamp - so if you're currently having withdrawl symptoms about no longer being able to read his blog, perhaps you can soothe the eager mind there.

:/

Thrilling Thursday...

Well thursday was equally as interesting, having not long finished such a big agency, we were on a mission to discover as much as possible, we wanted to seek out digital agencies, BTL & TTL agencies as well as the Above the Line agencies; to get some insight as to how they work differently to what we had experienced - Even if it was just to make our book more diverse and broaden our own ability, after all your advertising isn't down to the nature of the place you work but the people in it. 

First we were off to 42 Hoxton Square to check out the Kessels Kramer Outlet store to see its Creative Director Richard Walker, of W+K Amsterdam fame.  It was a strange place really, ultimately cool in its design - a multifunctional design/creative space that doubles up as a Gallery and Shop. It was literally the size of shop, where plywood met with cutting edge design and bright patterned wallpapers. 

Doors on wheels...

The whole place oozed - (what a horrible word) creativity, Richard had some very interesting things to say, our perception of our portfolio was quite traditional in the sense that it was the nature of our degree course and how we were directed in university, traditional medias at the helm with a dabble in the extended medias. He shared his opinions and advice which we will be taking to great consideration, but fundamentally, the biggest point that sticks in my mind was with regards to our traditional perception.

'Your ideas are quite the opposite in fact, but it is the executions that are traditional'

Much like Jo & Steve at Y&R, Richard Shared with us another secret that there are approximately 12 ways (not 5) of saying something and it's how you say it that makes your idea unique. This is something that will definitely influence our future contributions towards the book. What's more we were invited back in a month which will give us a chance to incorporate what we have learnt. 

The Afternoon was back off to JWT to see Simon & Hannah a Creative Team who we had worked with at the beginning of our placement. Nice to see familiar faces, as Phil mentioned there's a certain comfort about heading back to JWT, yet there is a certain strange feeling as well, although I couldn't explain it. 

Simon & Hannah were extremely busy as they had just had some work bought through by the client consisting of numerous TV ads, Online & Press executions to be done ASAP so we were grateful for the time they put aside for us. 

After a general chit chat, we had a chat about the book, the offered us some insight into the things they expect to see in the book and I always find it intriguing to hear the mixed feedback across the department even within the same agency. Fascinating. On the whole it was positive, the thing that really surprised me was that JWT is known firstly, for its TV & Press, and the both Hannah & Simon were striving for us to go beyond that. Any campaign that was not integrated was encouraged to do so, those that were solely digital based were encouraged to go into traditional.

It's a pretty exciting time for us, having fun, shaping our book - without any restraints - other than that of directing our book towards the agencies we one day aspire to work at.

Next up Funny Friday...

Wonderful Wednesday...

Well it's been a extremely busy week for Phil and I. Now we're both back home respectively for a 2 week refresher we have time to recollect and line up our next adventure for what will be happening for the coming weeks, I figured the easiest way is to break it down by day. First up is Wednesday...

So the morning was filled with a trip over to the Barbican for a visit to 'My Agency' - an integrated agency, not quite the size of JWT but for what they lack in size, they make up for in personality and determination.

We met with Luke White, the Founder and Senior Creative Partner of the Agency - You may remember him from McCann's in London where he spent his last 10 years - 5 of which as the ECD there. What a interesting critique, he quickly flicked through our book before calling over Dave Newbold one of the Senior Creatives there to share in our ideas. As always some of our concepts took precedence over others, some a little confused whilst others sailed through with only minor constructive criticisms. The new 'back of the book' section went down a storm and gave them some insights as to what we were working on. However, the meeting wasn't all about our book but a good chat on what we had been up to, where we planned to go, and Luke shared some experiences he had been through along with some useful advice for along the way. 

To our surprise, Luke has asked us to come in as of the 25th, the day we get back down to London - well that's a Bank Holiday - so the 26th! to begin a placement. It's great knowing that once our short trip back home is over we'll have something to come back to. So we're looking forward to jumping straight in at the deep-end in a very different environment and once again seeing what we can come up with.

The afternoon was full of surprises... namely one i'd rather forget...

Bird Poo. Some say it's good lucky - but how can this be when you are sitting outside Y&R a mere 5 minutes before you're due to check in... A rustle of leaves followed by a light patter around me. Brilliant. All I can say is thank god for the new Dyson hand dryers!

Well once we'd made our way from the park and I had made some minor cleaning adjustments, we headed in to see Steve Moss & Jo Finch at Y&R. This crit turned out to be possibly one of the most informative meetings we have ever had. Having worked at AMV for several years and now at Y&R the guys certainly knew what they were talking about - when it came to defining strategies in your book. For every product there are possibly 5 different ways of selling an idea, but it is the strategy that defines it and makes it unique from those before. 

Pearl of Wisdom - Get those strategies absolutely watertight. They have leveled the playing field for us, telling exactly what we wanted to know, no sugar coating, brutal honest feedback - what works and what doesn't, what we should keep and what needs to go! It's so nice to have a crit where you actually want to go back and make a huge statement the second time around. We now have something big to aim for, counting down as of Wednesday night....

Brainfood, for the time being...

Okay - So I've been a little bit sluggish in getting off the mark with the next post, truthfully, the internet access I was 'borrowing' was a little unstable and therefore every attempt to make a post was shot down when I came round to clicking publish - only to be shown 'Your are not connected to the internet'. Imagine my Frustration...

Anyhow... Until I post everything that you've missed over the last week, in a series of exciting posts tomorrow, here's some brainfood from a friend James aka Ronnie Blogsville. He's set up a little mini blog forum for the Junior Ad wannabes. 

Old Ronnie Blogsville is new to the blog scene, you may have seen his alias floating around Brand Republic, however, even in his first few posts has managed to make a few good points - "If only I had listened" - Or rather I did - but it was too late to do anything about it. 

The HitList

Well, as we're on the hunt for our next placement the biggest question that we keep asking ourselves is where would we like to work? Now, I know many people would tell you that you take what you're given, but to be honest, we have a Hitlist.

This Hitlist consists of our Top Ten agencies that we'd like to work for. We may not know what's it's like there per ce, but these are the ones that in our opinion are producing interesting work or have people that we admire on the roster. Yes, as you can imagine, most of them are big global above the line agencies - but not all them I might add. We will work at these places one day.

Late last week Scamp had a poll up asking whether people would prefer to work in Small, Medium or Big agencies, now from our point of view, we were lucky enough to experience a rather large agency, we'd love to test the water with the other two categories, but the question is do you take a placement at a small agency, whether they are a start-up, recruitment or specialist ad agency, or do you hold out and go for gold? Scamp's blog says Medium, Small, No difference, Large - in that order... 

I know it's clear that for the big agencies you've got to do something really right to get in the door, and then something especially impressive to stay there, getting ads made just doesn't cut it, you've got to knock them for six. 

Everyone i've spoken to recently in the placement scene would drop everything at a hat to take up a spot at a Top agency, I'm sure there are others that would disagree equally but is it better to take up a job in advertising so that you are working in an advertising environment? or avoid the job in a smaller place and work 24/7 on your book? I think between Phil and I, we've decided that we are open to all considerations and it's a case of taking it as it comes, if you're lucky enough to land a placement - so long as it's not detrimental to your 'creative flow' then it's a good thing right? You can always leave if it's not working out I suppose.

For all of the three readers we get, I would be interested in your opinions - let us know what you think...

Red Bull Air Race - London 2008

Between writing strategies and coming up with ideas we thought we needed to refresh our brains and seek inspiration elsewhere, what better way than the Red Bull Air race!? Well it's all over and what an event!

It always amazes me how Red Bull are gradually taking over the sponsorship of most extreme sporting events, from Skating and Snow sports to motor sports and even cliff diving. For weeks we've been touring around London with the Air Race ads popping up all over the place, well after seeing the Abu Dhabi race a few weeks back I was hooked. A sucker for advertising eh?

Smile - Your on Live TV

We managed to wangle some tickets and were stood in the perfect position with a view of the whole course. While the weather wasn't at its best, and couldn't decide whether it wanted to be bright sunshine or tipping down with rain it wasn't going to put any dampeners on this event.

Apologies for the lack quality - I knocked it down a notch so I didn't have to wait all year for it to upload & for the unsteadiness (hand held camera) - you never realise just how fast the race actually is whilst watching it on TV! This might give you an idea! and no it wasn't in fast forward.