The first visit we had on Monday 28th March was to Mother London. A.k.a. my dream agency. We had been asked prior to this visit to produce a campaign for MoneySuperMarket.com, to creative team, Tim McNaughton and Freddy Mandy.
Tim McNaughton
Freddy Mandy
On arrival I was very nervous but as the creative entered the room, I relaxed immediately, they were not fire breathing, life threatening scary creatives, they were just normal guys who happened to have a creative mind. We all separately presented our work, and fortunately with my own and Amy's I did feel it went rather well. They gave back constructive criticism so we were able to come away and work on it again with a better sense of direction. They felt the core idea was 'really nice' and very campaignable, but that the use of Shrek was not advisable as the brand would want their own characters. This is something myself and Amy had feared, so Tim and Freddy's points confirmed this fear was a truth. So what we can now do with the idea is to go back to the core idea we had, and just make the characters ourselves. As neither of us are illustrators, nor would we illustrate ourselves if creating an actual campaign, so using a student from one of the Illustrating courses may be a tool we could use. As they would get the credit for the illustration but our idea would be demonstrated well for others to understand. Hopefully the team at Mother will appreciate these changes, as we hope to follow up our visit with an email, which will allow us contact with them, for how to improve our book, and their thoughts on it. If we can get to the top level which they look for in a creative, then hopefully a placement could come out of this, impossible, maybe, am I going to try, definitely! I will just make sure myself and Amy stand by the tips they gave us on how to create a good portfolio, be original, have a wide range of brands, put in ideas that aren't even related to a campaign if it shows you think creatively, and stick at it.
Below is the initial work myself and Amy came up with,which we will now apply the changes to and produce professionally. Along with one of the TV ads Tim and Freddy worked on:
Print Adverts
TV
One of TIm Mcnaughton & Freddy Mandys TV adverts.
The next agency we visited was RKCR/ Y&R on Tuesday 29th March. This was quite a different atmosphere, not in a bad way at all, but just a different atmosphere, here we sat down for lunch first to chat before presenting, which I must add was a very nice lunch! Almost comical, with us all being so tight with money as students, we were scoffing down any food we could get our hands on for free! We then began with the criticism on our work for an Interflora brief, which creative team Andy Forrest and Nicola Hawes set us. They were a really nice team, you could instantly see the understanding they have of each other, which is really nice to see, as I feel it is what me and Amy have got the benefit of, through knowing one another for several years. It was funny to see our personalities almost mirrored, Andy being the more thoughtful, not quiet, but yet considered speaker (me), whereas Nicola had the more open personality who was more outspoken (Amy). Neither with bad qualities, but those personalities matched well. They then went onto give a little advice on our work. While they didn't think our campaign was bad, they thought we could do much better. They felt the use of info graphics could look pretty, but it was non-emotional, and as the product was flowers, that it should have an emotional answer. One suggestion I made was if we should go back to a previous idea which we had disregarded. After an explanation they said yes. So we will work on that to go into our our portfolios.
One comment that stuck in my mind from Y&R is that the creative team said that in my portfolio I should never have just one strategy for an advertising campaign, even if the other ideas are just scribbled down, if the person I am getting a crit from does not like it, I can quickly explain other thoughts incase they really like those and those one off ideas are the ones which get me in the agency. I shall never disregard an idea again! They also gave a great example for how to put creative thoughts into a portfolio even if they are non-advertising related. They had someone come in with an idea to prevent drink spiking through having a round bottomed bottle so you were not able to put your drink down on a night out. Now I am not quite sure what creation myself and Amy can come up with, but theres our competition, lets hope we beat it. The last point from RKCR/ Y&R that I will remember is when Nicola Hawes stated 'You have to learn to kill your babies'. This is a very valuable quote which is in reference to those creatives who get too precious with their own creations, sometimes if enough people tell you your idea doesn't work, it doesn't and you must learn to let it go.
On the same day we went to visit Amy Ward at Ogilvy. Unfortunately she was off due to illness but we had two lovely guys who gave us a tour of the agency. I was shocked to find how large the agency was. But also I was shocked to find how call-centre like the place was. Although I do not mean this in a mean way, I do mean that the main offices that were for creatives, did not seem creative at all. It seemed like the sort of place where a creative is just a small cog in the big machine, which does not appeal to me at all. One part I did find very interesting though was the Ogilvy Digital Lab, this had innovative technologies which can and will be used in advertising or marketing in the future. It had 3d tv, interactive gaming, 360 degree advertising so you can see the advert from any view, and LED advertising so in the future advertising can even be illuminous within magazines. They also had a newly invented 'Sticky Bits' app which I shall definitely be looking at when considering medias for a campaign. It allows a barcode to be scanned and then photos or videos to be uploaded or 'stuck to that barcode' so other users who scan the same barcode can view that content.
Then on Wednesday 30th March we visited Debra Quantrill at ASA, Advertising Standards Authority. Now I did judge before going there, and assume as it would be based around rules, that it would maybe drag. But I was very wrong. I truly enjoyed it! They showed some great examples to when adverts are at risk of being banned, should be, or should not be due to a complaint. I have two examples below.
Burger King. I Am Man.
Now if you look at this advert, there were several points which people complained about. Women felt it derogatory due to the reference to 'chick food' and the general public complained about the false size of the burger. It was these comments that entailed an investigation and resulted in the ad being banned. As it would have cost Burger King more money than it would have been worth to re-shoot the entire TV commercial to make these changes. All in all, I will be a careful creative when it comes to checking what is or isn't allowed.
Next is a positive example of an alcohol advert which does work. Due to the strict regulations on alcohol, now you must not insinuate that alcohol is needed to have a good time. This advert ticks all the boxes and although old, makes me laugh!
Lastly on Wednesday 30th March was our visit to Saatchi and Saatchi to visit Suzanne Hails, an independent creative. Although it was a very quick visit as she had a lot of work on, she did put as much constructive information into the visit as possible. Being from Newcastle also it was nice to see a regional girl had made the leap of faith, and that this had worked. The brief we worked on for Suzanne was for San Miguel. I was very pleased with the outcome, she felt it was a nice idea but just the the purely copy based ads we had done should focus on the surroundings rather than the drink which would give it more range and longevity. I completely agreed with this as soon as she brought the point to life. So to work upon this myself and Amy shall build upon it to ammend it for our portfolio.
All in all, I loved London. I have returned with a clear idea of what I want, where I want to go, what I want to see and how to do it.
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