At the time of writing this, I’m in the middle of designing a website for a pitch for a very cool, but very secret client, so forgive me if this post is a little rushed. After seeing an ad this morning though, thought I’d share it with my ‘many’ readers.
Companies spend millions of pounds on ads for World cup time, and rightly so. Get it right and you can make millions back. There’s a couple that have struck a cord with me over the last couple of weeks. If you’ve seen others, post them up.
First up is this great british ad for Carlsberg. You can help but be inspired. Pity it’s for a Danish beer.
Second, and the reason for this post, is this sublime advert for Nike. They have a history of producing really great adverts, so it come’s as no surprise that they’ve thrown this belter into the mix. Those of you who’ve been around as long as I may remember the Reebok press campaign from back in the late 90s (I think) which had a similar theme. In the ads (sorry, couldn’t find any) you had famous footballers working in roadside burger vans, or as bin men. Next to the image was a hand written story about how they had chosen a toy gun or something similar over a pair of footie boots back in the past, hence they hadn’t become a world class player. This Nike advert does the same. It’s a visual feast. Roll on the world cup. Come on England!!!
I’ll be the first to admit, I’m not the best blogger. I should be posting stuff every few days to keep people interested in the very least, but like a lot of people I have a job and I have a life, so the blog has to just sit and wait. That though, is not my problem with a blog.
When I began this blog I wanted it to be a really good source of information for young creatives as well as a place to chat about great, or terrible, work. Like all bloggers I hoped it would do well, and for a short time there did seem to be a healthy flow of comments and visits. Now it’s just a few visits a day.
I’m a big boy, so I won’t be found crying into my cornflakes every morning, but sometimes I wonder if people don’t just like reading crap more than real, intelligent, knowledge-growing stuff.
Why do I feel like this? Well, a few weeks ago we created an internal campaign for a publishing client of ours. The campaign was to launch this revolutionary new learning and development website – so good it was as if it had come from outer space. Before the real adverts appeared, we ran a teaser campaign of posters. Each poster had a different photo in it (taken from in or around there offices) of the nearby skyline. And on each skyline was a UFO like blur.
The posters drove people to a fake blog, all about ufo sightings across the USA. It had fake videos and news articles, photo’s and abduction stories. It was a complete sham, and yet over 12,000 people have read it!? What a great success. Brilliant. Client is over the moon. So are we…. But what does this mean for bloggers like me? Should I be talking about Alien abductions?
It’s been a long time since I traipsed around the streets on London, going from one agency to the next, hoping to get my first big break – Hell, I’d have settled for a small break. Even a fun-sized Kitkat would have done. A few agencies, and their creative teams that I knew well, had begun to give only good reviews of my book. ‘Great campaign’, ‘Brilliant, though the client would kill us!’ etc etc. And yet, no one seemed to be offering me a job. Now this could have been due to economic circumstances (let’s pretend it was ), but having been a CD for over 4 years now I have another theory.
If I had a penny for every book I saw which was ‘Good, but no cigar’ I’d have at least £10.26. There’s nothing worse than being able to leaf through a portfolio, see good work and yet feel there is something missing with the portfolio, or the creatives, or both. You want to give people a chance, you really do, but only an idiot would hire someone they’re not 100% sure of. So how do you stand out from all the other great creative teams out there?
Do something different.
What does that mean though? Well, quite frankly anything, but to give you a steer here are some examples:
1) I once knew a team who wanted to work for just one agency (think it may have been JWT). They knew a few teams there, but had never got in to see the CD. They spent a month doing one off adverts for JWT clients, based on current news. Every day they’d read the newspapers and create a great advert off the back of the big story. Here’s a nice example of that for Veet (not one they did).
2) I used to visit a particular agency down in south London (can’t remember it’s name now). After every book review, we’d send them something creative in the post based on conversations we’d had during the crit. For example, on one occasion we were discussing hayfever as we were all sufferers. The following day we posted the team a box of hayfever pills, but we altered the leaflet inside and the silver foil covering the pills. The foil read Noel&Gav all over it, rather than the name of the drug producer, and the leaflet had been rewritten to suit our purposes ‘Formulated to reduce workloads, stress and tired eyes… side effects may include D&AD awards, happy clients… etc etc.
3) I once heard of a team taking a goat into Saachi and Saachi with them. It got them a job. They lost it two weeks later, as they were shit, but it was certainly different.
4) I was once offered a job by a competitor. The CD’s there were good friends, but at the time I chose not to take the job. Rather than simply say no though, I bought a dart board and had my face printed onto it. Throwing darts at my head for the rest of the week made sure there were no hard feelings (and made them want to hire me more – which is good, as you never know what will happen in the future).
5) The other week my joint CD Dan was sent a shoe in the post. Just one shoe. A letter arrived a day later ‘Now we’ve got a foot in the door’… Such a terrible pun, it made us laugh our heads off, and get the team in to see us.
That’s all I can think of off the top of my head, but hopefully you can see from these few examples that great ideas don’t have to be purely for your portfolio. You are selling yourself just as much, and the more you stand out, the more likely you are to be remembered when the CD pokes his head around the corner and asks ‘Know any good junior teams?’.
Has been a while since I last posted, but after seeing this advert for Old Spice I felt compelled to write something and get it up there.
I don’t know if any of you have been around the block as long as I have, but the old Old Spice adverts used to be something of an institution. Even though it was something your gran used to buy you at Christmas, the adverts were all about being a man. No, not a man, a MAN.
The most memorable of these (for me anyway) was the classic MAN on surfboard from the 80s, with the O Fortuna music. I couldn’t find that one on Youtube, but here’s one involving a MAN on a windsurfer.
Since then, there’s been a number of spoofs, and a load of new adverts, some funny, some involving more surfboards, all involving MEN in some shape or form. It’s music was just as iconic and has been used all over the place too (like in this beer ad done a few years back). But today this new advert for the Spice popped into my inbox, and 30 minutes later, it’s on my blog.
It’s still about being a MAN, but it’s hugely removed from old one above. The script is fantastic, the casting great and the advert, perfect. Enjoy.
So you’ve got a portfolio of ideas, but you still work in WHSmiths and live in a cockroach infested flat in Leyton (we’ve all got to start somewhere after all). How do you get yourself a job?
Well, as I said in one of my first post you need to have a fantastic book of ideas. You’ll also need a great knowledge of the industry – awareness of what the good agencies are producing, and what that good work looks like. Watch adverts. Read magazines. Visit the Ads of the World website. There’s a weekly magazine called Campaign (available from WHSmiths, and other good newsagents), that is a good one to read. As is Creative Review. If you can get hold of it, Luerzers Archive is also worth a butchers.
Use these resources to your advantage. Take note of the agencies who are producing work you like, and if possible, the names of the creative team involved. Then get on the phone and call them. At this point you are not asking for a job though – you are asking them to have a look at your book/portfolio.
A book crit is your chance to visit a real agency, meet a real creative team, and get advice on your ideas from them. It’s a brilliant way to hone your portfolio into a lean, mean, job-winning machine, and it allows you to start making contacts within the advertising industry. It also allows you to get to know an advertising agency in person, rather than just what you read in the press. Finally, if they have any need of a junior creative/creative team you can hear it from the horses mouth – as these kind of jobs are rarely advertised.
Don’t call the Creative Director though. It’s not that they don’t care, they’re just too busy. If you know the names of a creative team (that you may have gleaned from Campaign mag or somewhere else), ask for them, but don’t lie to the receptionist. This is how your conversation should go:
“Hi there, I’m a junior creative/We’re a junior creative team and we were hoping to speak to Bob and Sarah about showing them our book.” Simple.
Most receptionists will have had this kind of call before. They’ll give Bob and Sarah a call, and if they’re in and not too busy, more often than not, they’ll chat to you. Be honest with them about who you are, and your work experience and see if they’ll see you and your book. Most people will. Remember everyone’s time is finite though, so you will have to work around them – not the other way. If they’re umming and arring, offer to buy them a pint in their local pub and get the book crit there. Might work, you never know.
If you don’t know a creative team at the agency, again simply be honest with the receptionist. Tell them you are a junior creative/creative team and you were hoping to get a book crit with one of their creative teams. They’ll normally give one a ring, and you’ll hopefully get to talk to them that way.
Don’t give up if you get the cold shoulder, but don’t harass people who have turned you down. You don’t want to piss them off.
When you go to meet the creative team, make sure you know some of the great work they have done, or at the very least what great work the agency has done. You want to make sure you come across as passionate about advertising, so what better way to have a conversation about the work they do.
When I used to go see a team at BBH, I knew they had Lynx as a client. When we got to their office there was a photo on their wall – two guys surrounded by over 100 girls. I instantly knew which advert it was from, and we had a 20 minute conversation on it. It broke the ice and showed that I wasn’t a complete retard. It was this advert by the way.
Listen to everything they say about your book. Make notes if you want. If they aren’t run off their feet, they should give you constructive feedback. Even if they don’t like all of your ideas (which is more than likely) they should give you advice on how to improve you portfolio. Don’t argue with them or get upset though if they don’t like anything – they are not being mean, they are being honest.
One thing you have to be able to do as a creative is take it on the chin. You may love you ideas, but if the people critting your book tell you it doesn’t work, and why it doesn’t work, it’s worth taking note. After your meeting, go away with that advice and use it to make your portfolio better.
Pick a few agencies and repeat the process, constantly improving your book with the advice of the creative teams you meet. Some is bound to be contradictory, but use your own discretion about which you think is the right advice, not which is easiest for you.
Don’t forget to go back to the people you saw first and begin to develop that relationship. By now you should have improved a couple of campaigns and probably come up with a few more they’ve not seen yet. Let them see how you are developing as a creative, and perhaps ask for a couple of other team names in the agency, so you can meet them, and in turn they can help you grow and develop as a creative too.
When you start to get rave reviews of your book, it’s time to ask for a placement – but that’s another post.
So, here we are. New year. New decade. I was going to write a post about idea generation and the different techniques you can use – and I will – but as I’ve been feeling a little lazy since the NY, I’ve simply decided to pick my favorite viral adverts from the last decade. There’s probably thousands I’ve forgotten, so feel free to add your own little gems, but here are the best five I can remember.
Viral adverts are incredibly difficult to get right. They rely on the consumer forwarding them on to friends and family, so they have to be pretty bloody special to achieve that. If you do get it right though, you get a shed load of free advertising which is every clients dream.
Ford Ka.
First up is this viral movie for the Ford SportKa. If you’ve read my other posts you’ll know I have a bit of a dark sense of humour and this advert plays to that nicely. There’s some discussion as to whether this ad was ever meant to go live, but as a similar advert had graced our inbox’s the year previously, I reckon Ford were simply trying to reduce any backlash.
VW Polo
From dark to pitch black. This viral advert was never meant to be seen. It plays off the current Polo strapline ‘Small, but tough’ and almost got the creative team who created it for their portfolio (Lee&Dan) sued by VW. They now film commercials for Adidas though, so can’t be all that bad. Apologies if this advert is a bit close the bone for people.
John West Salmon
Right, time for something a little more light-hearted. This ad for John West went round the world faster than the Norovirus. Unexpected and funny, If you’ve not seen it, you’re in for a treat. There was also a follow-up which was pretty good.
Honda Cog
While this advert didn’t start life as a viral ad, but I couldn’t do this list without including it as it was emailed to everyone. It picked up a black D&AD pencil and was even spoofed by the 118 men – what higher praise do you need? A truely brilliant advert from start to finish.
Budweiser Wass up?
Ok, ok. So this advert may actually have appeared in the back end of 1999, but as viral ads go it was probably the first, and is still definitely the best (that I can remember). There were loads of ads in the campaign (girlfriend, pizza, restaurant), but it was the spoofs that turned it into a global viral phenomenon. I actually signed up to Hotmail in order to see them all. (I can remember the Nintendo, Jewish, Star Wars and South Park one’s, but there were plenty more). Years later, it was spoofed in Scary Movie too. A global craze that everyone remembers, its actors were all reunited in 2008 for a follow-up. Brilliant.
Thought I’d write one more post before I bugger off home for crimbo, and as I couldn’t find any suitably cool xmas adverts, I thought I’d write about the world of recruitment advertising.
For most people, this conjures up images of a tiny advert in the back of a paper, but there’s often a lot more to it than that – certainly if I’m involved. Getting people to change job is probably one of the most difficult areas of advertising. You’re not asking someone to simply try a new chocolate bar or change their brand of shampoo, you’re asking them to fundamentally change their lives. This means the message you convey has to be all the more powerful, and the advertising as creative as possible.
An example of this is some work we’ve done recently for Norwich Union (prior to them becoming Aviva). We were trying to convince graduates to join them after university and build a successful career with the insurance giant. The USP we were given was: Aviva is so large that where ever you work, your career will be able to grow, develop and progress in any direction you wish. We were also told that graduates tend to think the insurance industry is boring – we couldn’t have that now, could we.
Our solution was to show what could happen if you didn’t chose Aviva, and found yourself stuck in a company that couldn’t give you the opportunities you wanted. We took inspiration from 50s B-movie horror films and then had as much fun as we could. The results are below. You can also visit the website by clicking here.
Another amazing example, which I unfortunately can’t put my name to, is this website for the Swiss Armed Forces. Not only is it hugely creative, it almost makes me want to join them – mission accomplished.
Well here we are again. This post is going to be a bit shorter than the last essay, but hopefully just as useful. In my last post I discussed the basics of creating an ad campaign. I also mentioned that your portfolio should contain around six or seven campaigns, plus a few one off ideas here and there. But how do you choose what ideas to put in? Hopefully this post will help.
Your portfolio is your ticket to a job. The most important single object any creative can produce. Therefore you should spend ages crafting it and filling it with work that shows just how good you are. So, what to include.
1. Great ideas. Great ideas don’t just come in the form of press adverts though. Nowadays an advert is only the tip of the iceberg. The very best campaigns contains ideas that work in the press, on TV, in public, online, and anywhere else you can think of. If you’re doing an idea for fridges, why not set an advert into a xmas ice-skating rink. If you’re advertising Scalextric why not rig a couple of real cars up so they can be controlled by Scalextric controllers and allow the public to race them around Leicester Square. Think out of the box. Think about conveying your sell in a way that will surprise people.
This press advert for Sooruz Skatewear is really nice, but it’s just an advert – could they have done it for real in, near and around, skate parks? Everyone would have noticed it and wanted to find out what it was about. All they needed to do was add a tag to the wrapped object and people would know that it was an advertisement for the clothing company.
2. Your portfolio should be a journey for the person leafing through it. If the first campaign in your book makes them laugh, the next one should make them cry. The one after that could educate them, the next make them angry. Your choice of product can help this. A campaign for bubblegum first, then one for Oxfam second. What this does is show your ability to communicate messages in different ways. It also demonstrates that you can produce great ideas for a multitude of different products – this is key from an employers point of view as they won’t employ you if your book is just full of one kind of ad.
3. Condom adverts. No. Makes you look like a student. Baby Bio. No. We’ve seen it before, trust me. Similarly, any product that is too easy to come up with ideas for won’t show you in a good light – for instance a product like fly spray. Pick products or companies that are harder to sell. That way, anyone looking through your book will be far more impressed.
4. ‘It’s good, but it’s not as good as the one I saw in the paper last week’. As a creative you need live and breathe the industry. That includes being aware of great adverts that are already out there. If you aren’t, your fab advert for the VW polo, will come a very plain second. Not only that, but the people looking at your book will start talking about someone else’s great work instead of yours. Unless yours is better, don’t put it in your book, without changing the product. A good place to keep track of stuff for free is here: http://adsoftheworld.com/
(Below: The VW polo ad that was better than yours
5. Put your best two campaigns at the start and end of your book. If I see some nice work to begin with, I’m more likely to give you book the time and attention it deserves. If I close your book, and the last thing I saw was great, I’m more likely to give you the attention you deserve. Of course, if your whole book is full of great work, I’m more likely to give you a job.
6. This is a portfolio not real life. You’ve got as large a budget as you want. Don’t be afraid to show ideas that are dangerous. Just because the client may not run it, doesn’t mean it’s not a great idea – and that’s all we want to see, great ideas.
There’s probably a lot more to add, but think that’ll do for now. Any questions give me a shout.
Right. Where to start. Probably at I the beginning I suppose. Apologies to people reading this who already know the basics.
A portfolio is a collection of great ideas that show off how creative you are. These don’t necessarily have to be press or TV adverts ideas, but it’s a good place to start. These ideas can be one-offs (just one advert) or part of a campaign (a set of three or more adverts which follow a similar theme). Your portfolio should be made up of six or seven campaigns, plus a few great one-offs.
Creating an advert.
In most advertising agencies, two creatives normally work together – an art director and a copywriter. Larger advertising agencies will hire (and fire) you as a team. Smaller one’s may hire you individually. Historically, the copywriter is the person that writes the copy, the art director does the pictures. This is not the case anymore though as far as I’m concerned. I’m an art director by trade, but am responsible for more than my fair share of headlines. Both are responsible for the idea, and it’s the idea that really matters.
Whether you are working in a team, or on your own, the principles of producing a portfolio are the same. This post will cover the basics. Future posts will go into more detail on certain aspects of idea generation. Anyway, lets begin.
1. First choose a product. This may seem like an easy thing to do at first, but trust me, it isn’t. Some products will be easier to think of ideas for than others. For the purposes of this post, I’m going to choose Pedigree Chum.
2. Work out what you want to say. This should be the one message you want to communicate. This is often referred to as the USP (unique selling point). Not all products have a unique selling point, but you should still decide what you want to say. What message, in your opinion, would convince a consumer to buy the product? I’m going to say that Pedigree Chum has 10% more meat than other varieties of dog food. (I’m not sure if this is true, but it’s going to be true for this post.)
3. So you have your product, and you know what you want to say. All you have to do now is think of an advert. A creative way of conveying this message to the consumer. There are lots of different ways to come up with ideas, but I’ll cover them off another time. Right now, take your product and your message and think of some ideas. What you are looking for is an idea that conveys your main message in an interesting and impactful way. It can be funny or sad. A simple image, or a long copy headline – whatever seems to work. It must convince people to buy the product though.
Below are my scribbles on Pedigree Chum. (Apologies to any animal lover who’s reading this.)
First thing I did, was tweak the message to something more advertising-like. It now reads ’10% more meat than any other dog food.’ This is quicker to read, and more impactful, than the previous line. Then my ideas have just revolved around it being really, really meaty.
My first thought was ‘if it’s so meaty, would humans eat it?’. That led to the idea of someone slicing up a can into burger shapes and then putting one into a bread bun to eat. This makes me laugh, even though it’s gross, and as a one off I think it’s a winner. The bigger the ‘urggh’ the better a far as I’m concerned.
My next thought was ‘If it’s so meaty, what other animals might want it?’ This led to the leopards paw idea – so meaty wild animals are after it.
My final idea, a distorted can with a comedy ham inside it, made me smile too. It demonstrated that Pedigree Chum was full of meat and it also spawned other ideas – the beginning a campaign. I have quite a dark mind when brainstorming, so the other ideas in the campaign may not be to every ones liking, but they all suggest that the dog food is full of meat. Each advert is for a different can of Pedigree Chum – Pork, Chicken, Beef or Rabbit. I’ve scamped them up below. Thought the rabbit one could make a fun TV advert.
Nb. Your ideas don’t need to be drawn up much better than you see below. It’s all about the idea at this stage – not how good you are at drawing/on a computer/with a camera.
4. So there’s one campaign – but is it any good? There’s only one way to find out, and that’s to test it on someone who’s not worked on it with you. This works best if they’re not parents, or partners – or anyone else who will tell you it’s great just to make you smile.
The best people to judge your work, and hopefully give constructive criticism, are creatives already doing the job. To meet them though, you’ll need a portfolio, so why not pick another product and produce a second campaign for you book.
We were discussing great xmas adverts. Coke ‘Holidays are coming’ is a must in December, as is a great advert from M&S, John Lewis and Waitrose. But, when I think of all time great festive-time adverts there’s one that always springs to mind and it’s for a product you only seem to buy in December. It’s almost as important as a satsuma in the bottom of you stocking, and no matter how hard you tap it, it won’t open up like it does on tv. I am of course talking about a Terry’s Chocolate Orange. You can forget the rubbish Dawn French adverts though. I’m going way back to the 80s on this one. Brilliantly shot, great casting and a fabulous story make this one of my favorite ads of all time. Let me know what you think (and post you own xmas favorites).
A portal for open discussion of good & bad creative work (some of which may well be my own) and a place for me to offer some advice to young creatives trying to break into an industry that is notoriously difficult to crack.
I’m not saying I have all the answers, far from it, but I do have some. Whether anyone wants to listen to them is a different matter. I guess time will tell.
), but having been a CD for over 4 years now I have another theory.
