The Last Post

After 3 years and 707 posts, I've decided to discontinue Scamp.

Reasons? Partly a desire to free myself from the daily commitment of having to entertain one of the world's most demanding audiences - time-wasting creatives. And partly a decision to redeploy my spare time into something else. (Yes, I'm writing a novel. NOT set in an advertising agency).

I've learned so much doing this. That there's no such thing as unanimity of opinion in our industry. That creatives are majorly riled by work that takes its inspiration from another source (much more than Shakespeare or Picasso were!) And that HTML is bloody fiddly.

I've also learned new words, such as 'low-involvement processing', 'blogroll', and 'meh'.

There have been many highs. The tons of amazing comments and contributions from my readers. Getting a book commissioned, based on my Tuesday Tips, which comes out next year. And perhaps best of all - getting to meet so many wonderful people in the real world, through the blog.

I won't put up a list of my favourite posts, but the Top 20 that you lot seemed to enjoy the most (or be most vexed by) were:

The Top 3 Advertising Cliches - 105 comments
Mr Strings - 116
Dancing Eyebrows - 135
Grandmaster Flashmob - 108
Virgin 25th Anniversary Ad - 100
A Terrifying Counter-Theory - 103
Advertising For Atheism - 105
A Ballad For David (Ogilvy Athens video) - 138
Tuesday Tip No. 60 - What Would Dave Trott Do? - 118
HSBC Lumberjack - 117
Tuesday Tip No.58 - Beat The Finger - 112
Job Opportunity In Paradise - 122
Fallon's Print Work - 151
Goodbye Lenny - 107
Dave Trott Live - 246
Fallon's Budweiser Campaign - 232
CHI Pay - 103
Cadbury's Trucks - 136
Top Ten Creatives, Directors and Agencies - 103
Dothetestgate - 229

Future internet historians picking their way through this digital ghost-town will find my Tuesday Tips of dubious use to young creatives here and the Polls here.

There are too many people who deserve my thanks for me to be able to name them all. But I will just single out Scowling A.D. Thanks for putting up with it, Nick.

Friends, readers, commenters - I wish you all the very best.

Goodbye.

Tuesday Tip No.70 - How To Do Ambient

Here's my Top Five tips. Feel free to add your own in the comments.

1. Avoid stuff that's been done. True of any medium, of course. But with Ambient - when you have the whole world for your canvas - it would be a shame to do an ad in washrooms, on coins, or on escalators... when these have already been used so many times.

2. Don't expect it to actually happen. You need an anti-rejection suit to survive in this business at the best of times. But with Ambient ideas, the attrition rate is even higher than for other media. TV spots are booked. Press schedules are booked. No one ever 'booked' an Ambient ad, therefore it doesn't need to happen... the Traffic people don't have to push for it to happen, and the Client doesn't have to sign off on anything they don't absolutely love. So manage your expectations accordingly.

3. Make the location fit the idea. An ad is not more exciting just because it's on a crane or a toilet. It's exciting if it's relevant.

4. How to judge them. My criterion is very simple - 'Would It Get In The Metro?' (London's free morning newspaper). Every morning, they run a couple of funny or weird pictures, and quite often these are advertising stunts. This is free PR for the brand, and gets seen by many more people than see the physical Ambient piece itself. If you think your idea is funny or weird enough to get in the Metro, draw it up. Otherwise, don't.

5. Do it yourself. As I already said in Point 2, Ambient ideas almost never happen. So why not do it yourself? You only need one location. You can often use cheap materials, and take the photo yourself. Then if nothing else, you'll have a nice piece for your book.

Previous Tips

Tuesday Tip No.69 - The Truth Is Not Enough

If you're putting a book together to get your first job, you have to write your own strategies for campaigns, and I already wrote a tip about the importance of telling the truth, not for moral or ethical reasons, but because it leads to more powerful advertising.

I was reminded of this when a jobhunting team e-mailed me some strategies yesterday, which included:

Gola - Sporty, but not too sporty

Sky HD - Make the most of your sofa

In a sense, the team have done what I suggested - found an unusual and interesting truth about the product or target market. It is certainly true that Gola is for people who are sporty, but not too sporty. And if you get Sky HD, you will definitely spend more time on your sofa. These are good insights.

And teams gunning for that first job often have entire books of strategies like this. However, to actually get that first job, there's a level beyond this that you need to break through to.

Now, this may seem obvious, and it probably is obvious to even the most junior Planner, but it doesn't seem to be obvious to young Creatives, judging from the number of books I see which haven't yet grasped this principle, but... the truth is not enough.

When you come up with an interesting and unusual truth, you have to test it against whether it is also a good sell for the product. Good sell means makes it seem more interesting, desirable, better value etc.

So, taking the Gola strategy... I'm not sure that 'outing' me as someone who is sporty but not too sporty makes me want to buy these trainers. In fact it might put me off. It's like saying "Porsche - for rich guys who want to ensure everyone knows they're rich". A true statement, but not the way to get people to buy a Porsche. And for Sky HD, pointing out the fact that you'll be spending more time on the sofa may also come into the 'true, but a turn-off' category.

It's when you can find strategies where the insight is equally fresh and surprising, but which also does a job on making the product seem more desirable, that you've hit pay-dirt.

Previous Tips

Tuesday Tip No.68 - What Hours Should You Be Working?

Our survey showed that the most popular time for Scamp readers to leave work is between 6.30pm and 7, having arrived, most commonly, before 9.

That's not a killingly long day, certainly compared to professions like banking or law.

I reckon there’s still a widespread belief that ‘a natural talent for it’ is the essential criterion for success in creative fields - like art, music and even advertising – far more so than in less creative fields like management consultancy, where it's believed that hard work is the key.

But are we Creatives really different?

In Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers he explains something he calls the “10,000 hour rule,” which states that to become expert at anything, one simply needs to put in 10,000 hours practicing it.

The 10,000 figure comes from the research of Anders Ericsson, who in the early 1990’s studied violinists at the Berlin Academy of Music.

“The curious thing about Ericsson’s study is that he and his colleagues couldn’t find any ‘naturals’ - musicians who could float effortlessly to the top while practising a fraction of the time that their peers did,” writes Gladwell. “Nor could they find ‘grinds’, people who worked harder than everyone else and yet just didn’t have what it takes to break into the top ranks. Their research suggested that once you have enough ability to get into a top music school, the thing that distinguishes one performer from another is how hard he or she works. That’s it. What’s more, the people at the very top don’t just work much harder than everyone else. They work much, much harder.”

Some Creatives cling to the belief that success is down to luck – getting the right brief at the right time, from a Client who just happened to be looking for great work. But if that is your view, you’ll be in a minority.

The pop culture quote: “The harder I work, the luckier I get,” attributed variously to movie mogul Sam Goldwyn and golfer Gary Player, is gaining greater and greater acceptance.

So even if you're a Creative who believes in the primacy of natural talent, or luck, you should be aware that attitudes are changing.

Hard workers are believed to be intrinsically more valuable.

Therefore, when you start a new job, it’s vital you establish a reputation as a hard worker - arrive before your boss arrives, and don’t leave until after he leaves. There’s an old saying that goes: “The man who has a reputation as an early riser, can get up at whatever time he chooses.”

However, if you are naturally a hard worker, my advice is don’t work hard gratuitously. Take your full holiday entitlement, and take your weekends – unless there’s a screaming emergency – else you’ll either burn out, fall out of love with the business, or end up depriving yourself of essential external stimulation, and your work will suffer. It’s easy to get into the habit of always leaving the office late as a matter of course. Don’t do that. Keep an extra gear in reserve, so you can kick up your work-rate when there’s a major crisis, or a major opportunity.

But the question of how hard you should work is partly answered by the prevailing culture of the Agency you’re working at.

In some Agencies, everyone works hard. “If you don’t come in on Saturday, then don’t bother coming in on Sunday” – words supposedly said by Tim Delaney. Wieden & Kennedy has such a reputation for long hours that it has acquired the nickname ‘Weekend & Kennedy.’ If you don’t work hard in an Agency like this, you’ll have a double problem – not only will you not produce as much work as everyone else, but also, you won’t fit in.

There are plenty of Agencies where Creatives normally work normal office hours. If that feels like what you want to do – perhaps you have a family, or other interests, you’re just not that into advertising, or you’re mentally exhausted by six o’clock – then you’ll be a lot happier if you work at one of these places.

I personally don't spend long hours in the office. However, I do seem to do a lot of thinking outside office hours. When I’m working on a brief it gives me a kind of psychological eczema, that I find myself scratching in the shower, on the bus, and on the toilet. So maybe that makes up for it.

Previous Tips

Tuesday Tip No.67 - VO or Super?

When it comes to finishing-up a TV advert, there always seems to be a big hoo-ha over whether to deliver the endline as a VO, a Super, or both. And Creatives spend endless hours sweating this.

Don't. It's really very straightforward.

'Super only' is the best thing to have, because it's the purest and the simplest.

The next best thing is VO and Super together.

The 'VO only' option? I can't recall a single ad that uses it. Reason being that the client will always want to see at least their logo on the ad. And why not?

This means there will always be a Super of some kind. Therefore, if you want your ad to be as pure and uncluttered as possible, you should focus your energies on trying to eliminate the VO. You will never eliminate the Super.

I don't think I've ever worked on an advert where we failed to try every possible combination of VO / Super / endline / brand name. So it may also be beneficial to simply stop worrying, and accept that you are going to end up having to try them all.

Most likely you will end up having to have both a Super and a VO. If this is the case, at least make sure they are saying exactly the same thing. There's nothing worse than an ad which is trying to have you read one set of words while they pour another set into your ear. It's like trying to rub your tummy and pat your head at the same time.

Previous Tips

Tuesday Tip No.66 - How To Write Endlines

Civilians think that 'coming up with slogans' is our whole job.

And in a way, they have a point.

The slogan, that much-derided term, is the complete encapsulation of a campaign or brand idea. Ideally it distills everything important that a company stands for, and acts as a springboard for great communications.

So endlines are important. Which makes the ability to write good ones a valuable skill to have.

Lines win pitches. They build brands. And they create fame for the person who wrote them.

I always thought it would be a bold move for a creative team to have a tiny portfolio with just 8-10 pages in it, and on each page nothing but a campaign endline they'd come up with.

The first thing to do is be absolutely clear about what you are trying to say.

"Australians wouldn't give a XXXX for anything else" says 'Australian'
"Finger lickin' good" says 'delicious'
"The appliance of science" says 'advanced'

Don't even start trying to write an endline until you've got what you want to say down to one word.

From there, it's about applying dem old-fashioned copywritin' skills to express that concept in a new and interesting way.

Here's a few devices you can deploy:

1. Insight. The KFC line is a good example of this. What do you actually do when you find something delicious? You lick your fingers. Think about what people actually do when they use the product.

"Let your fingers do the walking" is another example, coincidentally it's also finger-related. The line says 'convenient'. And it works because of the insight that when you use the Yellow Pages, you go through it with your fingers.

2. Zingy language. Rhyme, alliteration and neology (coining new words) all help. "Beanz Meanz Heinz" is just so much more memorable than "Heinz - the definitive baked beans" isn't it?

3. Words with two meanings. Of the 20 endlines that Adslogans nominated for slogan of the year 2007/8, no fewer than 6 of them employed words with double meanings, including the excellent "Be humankind" for Oxfam, and "Get some nuts" for Snickers. So, think about the words related to your product, and whether any of them have additional meanings that you can use to your advantage.

And if you have a method that you use in writing endlines, do share it in the comments.


Previous Tips

Tuesday Tip No.65 - What Would Howell Henry Do?

It's impossible to reduce the output of HHCL - Britain's 'Agency of the 90s' to a single technique.

Certainly some of their work, like Fuji and First Direct, was avant-garde... but they also employed many time-honoured advertising methods such as adapting a pop promo (the commercials for Maxell cassettes using misheard lyrics were based on the video for Subterranean Homesick Blues by Bob Dylan).

And straightforward (but brilliant) metaphor ads like the fat slapping orange Tango man.

But there's one particular technique that they executed with great panache, which I think is an arrow definitely worth having in your quiver.

First example is one of their earliest ads, for Danepak Lean & Low bacon. This 30 second ad features fully 21 seconds of voiceover that is little more than a list of product benefits:

"We love... good food, like this Lean & Low bacon. And what's great about Lean & Low, this new product from Danepak, is that it's lower in fat, and salt. So it's better for our figures. Plus it doesn't spit so much fat everywhere. Danepak Lean & Low - the natural choice."



Of course, the fact that the Andersen family are naturists, their modesty preserved only by conveniently placed tablewear, makes the whole thing very amusing.

Next up, their famous ad for AA insurance. At the time, it was notorious for being the first ad to feature an Asian couple in a role that wasn't predicated on their ethnicity, and possibly the first ad to own up to the fact that couples argue.

The interest generated by these two factors enabled HHCL to smuggle in scads of product points about the AA's car insurance 'internet site.'

Finally, one of my favourite ads - Blackcurrant Tango.



Ray Gardner, with his flabby belly and disdain for French exchange students, must be one of the most memorable brand spokespeople of all time. In fact, he was so entertaining, we didn't mind that he fed us quite a few sales points about Britvic's new carbonate - that it's "a charge for the tastebuds" and even that Tango have been "working on it for three years."

Perhaps unfairly, I summarise this technique as 'wacky person reads brief.' But used well, it's highly effective all-round. Awards juries are happy - it's a clever conceit. The client is happy - they get to hear all the reasons why their product is so great. And the consumer is happy - they get to watch naturists or whatever.

As a further bonus, the heavy product content makes this type of ad more-than-usually easy to sell.

Previous Tips

Tuesday Tip No.64 - Be A Person Of Integrity

Have you heard the rumour that Dave Trott got his first job in advertising with a book of ads he didn't write?

The story was that he used American ads he knew UK creative directors wouldn't be aware of, and re-presented them as if they were his own.

Amazingly, Dave has now confessed on his blog that this story is true.

So the man who wrote the pamphlet on How To Get A Job In Advertising, the pamphlet that was recently re-printed by Campaign, the pamphlet that hundreds of creatives have used as a guide to writing good ads, didn't do it that way. He did it a different way. He stole someone else's ads.

Now, we're Creatives, and we're supposed to be 'creative' and break the rules. But this isn't cool.

I'm not going to write a post that explains why you shouldn't lie and you shouldn't steal. What next? Why you shouldn't rape a receptionist?

All I'll say is that even if you're completely lacking in moral principles - the Patrick Bateman of advertising - it would still make sense to follow common-sense morality.

Why? Because when people find out you've lied or cheated, they get pissed as hell.

I've seen a senior team, hired on approx £75K, get fired for pretending the work in their book was joint work, when it was mostly done with other partners.

I know of Creatives who have been asked to leave agencies because of petty pilfering.

If you're utterly brilliant (e.g. Dave Trott) you can probably get away with this kind of thing. But 99% can't.

So my advice is to be a person of integrity.

And if you're not, act like one.

Previous Tips

Tuesday Tip No.63 - Read Jerome's Tips

Jerome Courtial, who writes the excellent Digicynic, has just left BBH for a fab new job to be a planner on Coke and Nike at W&K Amsterdam.

Sadly it means he won't have time to blog any more, hookers and blow being as time-consuming as they are.

But his parting gesture was an excellent set of tips on How To Have A Successful Career In Advertising, that are relevant to every discipline - planning, creative, account handling. Full of insight, his post reminds me just how much I'm going to miss him.

Read it immediately, if not sooner.

Previous Tips

Tuesday Tip No. 62 - What To Do When No Ideas Are Coming

There are loads of books out there with advice on how to have ideas.

It's normally some old shit like "look out the window and write an ad about the first thing you see." Why there aren't more ads about pigeons, I don't know.

There's also a section on what to do when you're stuck, which will be things like "go for a walk" or "have a bath."

I have no bath in my office. And you can't go for a walk in Soho. It's like Frogger out there.

So I thought it might be interesting to make a list of the Top 10 things I actually do - not things one should do - but what I genuinely do, when I'm stuck.

Here they are.

1. Carry on and hope (N.B. this never works)
2. Coffee
3. Look at brief again
4. Go to toilet
5. Look through bottom drawer
6. YouTube (sorry...)
7. Use different pen
8. Try using different pad (switch from lined to plain or vice versa)
9. Call planner
10. Tell Scowling A.D. I can't think of anything

What do you do?

Previous Tips

Tuesday Tip No.60 - What Would Dave Trott Do?

This is the third in a series of tips that suggest, if you’re stuck on a brief, you try looking at your problem through someone else's eyes.

Today, Dave Trott - one of the greatest Ad-Men the UK has ever produced.

I like the word Ad-Man, for Dave. Writer doesn't feel right. And nor does Creative. Because as you can read on his brilliant blog, Dave is unashamed about working in advertising, unashamed about selling, and unashamed about doing stuff that is popular. And he doesn't much care about what the industry thinks, as I imagine 'Creatives' and 'Writers' do.

Dave has produced a massive body of work, and would hate to be thought of as having a formula. He doesn't. But although I feel awful reducing his entire career to one tip, nevertheless - just as John Webster was the master of character-creation, and David Abbott was the master of headlines - there is one particular skill at which Dave has no equal. And that is branding.

A proper Dave Trott ad can only be for the brand it is advertising. It's almost as if the man has a pathological fear of misattribution.

Let's start with Ariston.



First thing to notice is that the line can only be used by Ariston. 'Hotpoint and on' doesn't wash. But the real key to its success is that the branding is relevant. That 'and on' is no random piece of rhyme - it powerfully communicates the longevity proposition.

I think Ariston was Dave's finest hour.

(Incidentally, the ad still looks great today, even though it's from the 1980's. Quite radical in its construction too. No logo. No endline. No voiceover.)

Next, Toshiba.



This famous ad was imitated on playgrounds across Britain. The branding is amazingly brutal, but the ad delivers such massive entertainment value, it gets away with it. Plus, once again, the choice of a robot as Tosh (okay, he isn't Tosh, he just says Tosh) reinforces the high-tech design sell of the product.

Finally, Access.



This time around, the product name is not quite as seamlessly integrated as in the last two examples ("Does you does or does you don't take Barclaycard" would be possible, though it wouldn't scan). However, I'm sure you will agree that despite this minor oversight, the ad is once again branded up to the wazoo.

So, what can we learn by reminding ourselves of Dave's branding skills?

Mainly that branding, when used relevantly, isn't just about "making sure people remember the ad is for Brand X" - it makes the sell stronger.

Also that branding need not be a handicap to a commercial ("I can't believe the Client is asking us to mention their brand name twice in the first ten seconds!") Instead of complaining about requests to 'up the branding', try embracing it fully. Maybe it can give you the entire character of the commercial.

One final point - Clients love hyper-branded ads, and it's a trick not many people are pulling at the moment. So if you want to sell more of your work, and stand out from the crowd, it's a 'trick' you may want to consider.

Craft: How To Know If You've Had An Idea; How To Use Social Media; What Would John Webster Do?; What Would Paul & Nigel Do?; The Hidden Flaw; How To Write Copy; Be Funny All The Way Through; How To Do Virals; How To Write Headlines; How To Do Direct; How To Do Radio; How To Do Press; How To Do TV; How To Do Digital; How To Do Posters; Read Iain's Tips; Be Very; Never-Seen-Before Footage; Dicketts' Finger; Two Blokes In The Pub; Play Family Fortunes; Don't Overpolish

Guile: How To Freelance; Beat The Finger; How To Get The Best Out Of Directors; Don't Write Ads, Write Strategies; How To Choose Where To Work; Working Outside London; How To Negotiate Your Salary; How To Get A Pay Rise; Be Wary Of Punding; Challenge The Brief; Tell The Truth; Playing To Lose; Look At Weird Shit; Why You Shouldn't Present To The Client; How To Present To Clients If You Have To; Presenting To The Team; Presenting To The Creative Director; How To Deal With Rejection; Look Creative; Don't Be Afraid To Ask; Your Idea Has To Be 120%; Don't Behave; How To Discuss Ideas; Read Hugh's Tips; How To Get A Job In Advertising Part IV - How To Turn A Placement Into A Job; How To Turn A Placement Into A Job (Ed Morris view); How To Get A Job In Advertising Part III - How To Approach Agencies (re-print of Tip No. 7); How To Get A Job In Advertising Part II - How To Put A Book Together; How To Get A Job In Advertising Part I - FAQ; Make Friends With Traffic; Get Reference; Don't Stop Too Soon; Breaking Up; Working Well With Your Partner; Finding The Right Partner; How To Approach Agencies; Should You Take A Bad Job?

Tuesday Tip No.59 - How To Freelance

Someone calling themselves 'Inky Blackstuff' posted this the other day in the comments section. But it's a wonderful piece of writing, that I think deserves a wider audience, and a permanent place in the roll-call of Tips.

How To Freelance, by Inky Blackstuff

Thanks to the wonderful credit crunch, many of you are about to become freelancers (ie fired). I have freelanced before (and am likely to be doing so again) so allow me to enlighten you as to what to expect.

1) When you invoice, don't expect to be paid. Ever. Freelancers are different to normal people and they do not need to eat, pay their mortgages or buy trousers, thus no need to pay them.

2) You are like novice Spitfire pilots ie it is unlikely that you'll last long so no one will bother to get to know you or even acknowledge you in the corridor.

3) Freelancers are unlike normal people and will automatically know where the printer is. Though, of course, your computer won't be networked to it. It will take IT three days to attach you to a printer named after a celebrity. Freelancers are unlike normal people, they don't need to print anything.

5) If you bring your own laptop it will be impossible to get it to attach to the agency's network. Even though three IT bods are at your desk staring at it and saying "server" a lot. They will however admire it because, for tax reasons, you can buy a bloody nice one. IT will explain how to print something in colour but the method will be so fiendishly complicated and the IT bod will explain it so quickly you will give up, download your colour printing onto a USB drive and print the fuckers up at home.

5(b) The briefs you are given are often the most difficult ones in the agency. They will have been attempted, multiple times, over an entire year by every creative/planner/desperate account man in the building and will have remained resolutely uncracked, the creative director will have given up on them and you will be reviewing with the head planner (who, by this stage, has been driven quite, quite mad), you will be informed that the client will leave if you don't crack it in the next three days. Despite these hurdles, you won't be given a computer until the last day and you will be given seat in the coffee bar area. Freelancers are different to normal people. The more obstacles to creativity you can give them on really difficult projects, the easier they find it.

6) Other people think you are paid a fortune. Ostensibly you are paid quite well but of course rule 1) applies. They don't actually give you money until you threaten to firebomb the finance department. And even then they don't pay you, they just don the asbestos suits they keep under their desks. They automatically lose your first invoice. This goes without saying (I always used to send a second invoice two weeks after the first). You send it again, then they ask you what you were working on. Then they'll be on holiday or leave for another job, finally after 6 months you'll get your money but inflation will by now have made it worthless.

7) If you ask a PA for a pad or a pencil they will look at you as if you are mad. Don't know why. The stationary cupboard (in reality a drawer in a knackerd cupboard, covered in little magic marker marks, that refuses to open) will not have any pads (bar thousands of the tracing paper ones that no one ever uses) and you will have to steal a pen from the creative director's PA's desk when she's at lunch.

8) No one will tell you about the security system and you will get trapped in a stairwell. For some reason people assume freelancers are different from normal people and every security number in every agency is etched into their DNA or they have already received their security passes by magic or something.

9) When you get there on your first day, the person who got you in will have carefully omitted to tell anyone about your impending arrival. He will also be out at a meeting all morning so that you will have lost an entire half day of the three you have been allotted to crack this uncrackable brief.

10) You won't crack the brief. Frankly by the time you are involved the client is going to walk whether you give him a solution or not.

11) People will be utterly gobsmacked if you do anything good. Freelancers are not like normal people, they're shit at advertising.

12) There will be glorious weekdays when you are not at work, the sun is out and you have nothing to do and all day to do it in. You will learn what kind of people inhabit the world while normal people are at work. They're freaks and nutters.

13) The biggest cheese in the agency will pay you a visit and be very friendly. He is desperate for you to crack this brief and keep this client's income. His bonus depends on you.

14) All agencies are the same only the clients' creative judgement (or lack of) makes the difference.

15) You will occasionally work at some agencies that treat freelancers like normal people. Some good (though with their own...errrm how can I put it...peculiarities) ones are BBH, DDB, WCRS etc. Politeness, a public school education and sheer naked greed (and perhaps the need of employment in the future) forbids me mentioning other, though wonderful, less enlightened places.


Does this tally with your experience of freelancing? Let us know.

Craft: How To Know If You've Had An Idea; How To Use Social Media; What Would John Webster Do?; What Would Paul & Nigel Do?; The Hidden Flaw; How To Write Copy; Be Funny All The Way Through; How To Do Virals; How To Write Headlines; How To Do Direct; How To Do Radio; How To Do Press; How To Do TV; How To Do Digital; How To Do Posters; Read Iain's Tips; Be Very; Never-Seen-Before Footage; Dicketts' Finger; Two Blokes In The Pub; Play Family Fortunes; Don't Overpolish

Guile: Beat The Finger; How To Get The Best Out Of Directors; Don't Write Ads, Write Strategies; How To Choose Where To Work; Working Outside London; How To Negotiate Your Salary; How To Get A Pay Rise; Be Wary Of Punding; Challenge The Brief; Tell The Truth; Playing To Lose; Look At Weird Shit; Why You Shouldn't Present To The Client; How To Present To Clients If You Have To; Presenting To The Team; Presenting To The Creative Director; How To Deal With Rejection; Look Creative; Don't Be Afraid To Ask; Your Idea Has To Be 120%; Don't Behave; How To Discuss Ideas; Read Hugh's Tips; How To Get A Job In Advertising Part IV - How To Turn A Placement Into A Job; How To Turn A Placement Into A Job (Ed Morris view); How To Get A Job In Advertising Part III - How To Approach Agencies (re-print of Tip No. 7); How To Get A Job In Advertising Part II - How To Put A Book Together; How To Get A Job In Advertising Part I - FAQ; Make Friends With Traffic; Get Reference; Don't Stop Too Soon; Breaking Up; Working Well With Your Partner; Finding The Right Partner; How To Approach Agencies; Should You Take A Bad Job?

Tuesday Tip No.58 - Beat The Finger

If you are a junior team looking for a job, your biggest enemy is the Creative Director's finger.

When he is looking at your book, if his brain doesn't very quickly understand an idea, his finger will flip to the next page. And your creative brilliance will be lost.

The sad fact is that when he's looking at books, a Creative Director's finger works faster than his brain.

He's short of time, and has a lot of other things on his mind. He hasn't got the time or patience to decode ads that are hard to decode. And actually that's not a bad thing. He doesn't want to hire teams who write ads that the public will find hard to decode.

But if you want him to hire you, you need to beat the finger. You need to do everything you can to make sure that your idea has been understood before his finger flips to the next page. (Or in the case of a digital portfolio, clicks).

If his brain hesitates or is confused, his finger will activate.

Here's 10 suggestions to stop that happening:

1) Be arresting. A book isn't real life. In real life it may be worth doing a long copy ad for cross-tracks. In your book it isn't.

2) Leave out all extraneous stuff like what the brief was, what student awards this ad won. They just slow down the communication.

3) Leave space between each campaign. Like a blank page. Don't have him thinking for even 1/10 of a second that the first ad in your campaign for lawnmowers is another ad in your campaign for a chocolate bar. This will only confuse.

4) All drawings must be crystal clear. It doesn't matter if they're hand-drawn or mac'd up, all that matters is they're quick to understand. If a CD pauses, it should be because he's stunned by the brilliance of your strategy. Not because he's trying to work out whether your drawing is a dog, a cat, or a car.

5) Dialogue that accompanies TV scripts. It just looks like it will take a lot of time to read. Maybe you come upon a CD with time on his hands, and he reads it, and loves it. Maybe you don't, and he just flips. Why risk it?

6) Logos. Use the brands' real logos. Why? Because they're marginally quicker to take in than hand-drawn ones.

7) Got ambient work in your book (I hope you do)? If it's not abundantly clear that it's an ambient ad, then don't be afraid to write 'AMBIENT' in big letters at the top. A few fractions of a second in which the CD is trying to work out whether a picture in front of him is for a print ad or an ambient ad are a few fractions of a second too many.

8) That's all I've got. It was shorter than 10. Make your book flow as quickly and smoothly as possible. That finger flips fast. Make sure your ideas are faster.


Previous Tips:

How To Know If You've Had An Idea; How To Use Social Media; How To Get The Best Out Of Directors; Don't Write Ads, Write Strategies; How To Choose Where To Work; Working Outside London; What Would John Webster Do?; What Would Paul & Nigel Do?; The Hidden Flaw; How To Write Copy; Be Funny All The Way Through; How To Do Virals; How To Negotiate Your Salary; How To Get A Pay Rise; Be Wary Of Punding; Challenge The Brief; Tell The Truth; Playing To Lose; How To Write Headlines; How To Do Direct; How To Do Radio; How To Do Press; How To Do TV; How To Do Digital; How To Do Posters; Look At Weird Shit; Why You Shouldn't Present To The Client; How To Present To Clients If You Have To; Presenting To The Team; Presenting To The Creative Director; How To Deal With Rejection; Look Creative; Don't Be Afraid To Ask; Your Idea Has To Be 120%; Read Iain's Tips; Don't Behave; How To Discuss Ideas; Read Hugh's Tips; How To Get A Job In Advertising Part IV - How To Turn A Placement Into A Job; How To Turn A Placement Into A Job (Ed Morris view); How To Get A Job In Advertising Part III - How To Approach Agencies (re-print of Tip No. 7); How To Get A Job In Advertising Part II - How To Put A Book Together; How To Get A Job In Advertising Part I - FAQ; Make Friends With Traffic; Get Reference; Don't Stop Too Soon; Be Very; Breaking Up; Working Well With Your Partner; Finding The Right Partner; How To Approach Agencies; Never-Seen-Before Footage; Dicketts' Finger; Two Blokes In The Pub; Play Family Fortunes; Should You Take A Bad Job?; Don't Overpolish

Tuesday Tip No.57 - How To Present To Clients

I've said before that if you can avoid presenting to Clients, you should do so.

However, if you disagree with that, or if your Agency has a policy that Creatives present the creative work, then how should you go about doing it?

The process of presenting to Clients breaks down into two phases – ‘in the room’, and ‘before you go into the room’.

Before you go into the room, you should be marshalling the best reference you can. But don’t show too much. I have seen Creatives present five separate pieces of reference for a single press ad, saying “this one’s a reference for the colour palette but don’t look at the models, they’re not right, for the models you need to look at this other piece of reference, but don’t look at the lighting on that one, for the lighting we have this other shot…” Very confusing. Keep the reference simple, and try to find one or two pieces that say everything you want to say.

Rehearse with the account team what issues may come up. Rehearse your presentation as many times as you need to.

Make sure you know the names of the Clients before you go in. People like to be called by their names. Make sure you know who does what, so you don’t ask their research manager a question about the production budget, for example. And make sure you know who the key buyer is. Focus your energy on them, while not excluding the other people in the room.

Once in the room, presenting to the Client is very much like presenting to the account team. Plenty of preamble is needed. Much of the set-up may be done by the Planners and Account Handlers, but there may be some for you to do too. For important projects, you may even need to make a mood film.

Don’t treat any of this lightly, thinking that your ‘real job’ is to come up with the ideas. The most successful Creatives aren’t just the ones who are good at coming up with ideas, they’re good at selling them too.

And to sell an idea, nothing convinces more than conviction itself.

Perhaps the most famous poster ever produced in the UK was ‘Labour Isn’t Working’, created by Saatchi & Saatchi for the Conservative Party in 1979. Those three words, above a simple shot of people queuing at an unemployment office, added up to a piece of communication that is generally considered to have been a significant factor in Margaret Thatcher’s first election victory.

However, what is less well-known is that when the concept was first presented to Mrs Thatcher, she didn’t like it. “This poster advertises Labour”, she told Maurice Saatchi. “On the contrary, Margaret,” he replied. “It demolishes them.”

One of the reasons I love that story is that I just love the word “demolishes.” But the real lesson here is Maurice Saatchi’s conviction. When a Client looks at a concept, they first look for what is wrong with it. If they can't find anything wrong with it, they begin to suspect it may be right, but what they don’t know is ‘how right’. And here, the most important factor that can sway them is your conviction. You have to tell them that this ad is going to be great. You have to tell them that it won’t just hurt the competition, it will demolish them.

Creatives are often accused of being arrogant, and of ‘talking-up’ their own work. Well, you have to. Whether your ad gets made or not may depend on how much you seem to believe in it.

Previous Tips:

How To Know If You've Had An Idea; How To Use Social Media; How To Get The Best Out Of Directors; Don't Write Ads, Write Strategies; How To Choose Where To Work; Working Outside London; What Would John Webster Do?; What Would Paul & Nigel Do?; The Hidden Flaw; How To Write Copy; Be Funny All The Way Through; How To Do Virals; How To Negotiate Your Salary; How To Get A Pay Rise; Be Wary Of Punding; Challenge The Brief; Tell The Truth; Playing To Lose; How To Write Headlines; How To Do Direct; How To Do Radio; How To Do Press; How To Do TV; How To Do Digital; How To Do Posters; Look At Weird Shit; Why You Shouldn't Present To The Client; Presenting To The Team; Presenting To The Creative Director; How To Deal With Rejection; Look Creative; Don't Be Afraid To Ask; Your Idea Has To Be 120%; Read Iain's Tips; Don't Behave; How To Discuss Ideas; Read Hugh's Tips; How To Get A Job In Advertising Part IV - How To Turn A Placement Into A Job; How To Turn A Placement Into A Job (Ed Morris view); How To Get A Job In Advertising Part III - How To Approach Agencies (re-print of Tip No. 7); How To Get A Job In Advertising Part II - How To Put A Book Together; How To Get A Job In Advertising Part I - FAQ; Make Friends With Traffic; Get Reference; Don't Stop Too Soon; Be Very; Breaking Up; Working Well With Your Partner; Finding The Right Partner; How To Approach Agencies; Never-Seen-Before Footage; Dicketts' Finger; Two Blokes In The Pub; Play Family Fortunes; Should You Take A Bad Job?; Don't Overpolish

Tuesday Tip No.56 - How To Know If You've 'Really' Got An Idea

What does it feel like to have an idea?

The cliche is it's "like a light bulb going on in your head."

In 'A Smile In The Mind', David Stuart describes feeling an "absence", before the arrival of an idea.

For me, it's like a form of electric shock in my brain and (for some reason) my arms and occasionally chest. That sounds dramatic, but sometimes it's very mild. The severity of the shock seems to correspond to how 'big' the idea is.

Whatever it's like for you, you always know when you've had one.

And in an ideal world, you would never present anything that didn't result from one of these light-bulb or brain-storm moments.

But this isn't an ideal world. Time is a problem - you often have to present something "in two days" rather than when you've had a great idea. It could be a crap brief, or a brief you just don't click with... on some briefs, you may never have an idea.

So you may end up presenting several 'ideas', none of which actually have an idea in them.

Oh well. Needs must. And you've got to have something, so that something can be discussed in the meeting.

That's okay. As long as you're honest with yourself.

If you haven't had that feeling, you haven't had an idea. And in my opinion, it's worth working on until you do, rather than spending time polishing an idea-less idea that if it gets made could very well end up being a... well, a you know what.


P.S. the tendency seems to be for people to have lots and lots of ideas at the beginning of their careers, and fewer and fewer as the years go on; the compensation for this decline is that more of your later-years ideas will be 'right'. Does this chime with your experience?

Previous Tips:

How To Use Social Media; How To Get The Best Out Of Directors; Don't Write Ads, Write Strategies; How To Choose Where To Work; Working Outside London; What Would John Webster Do?; What Would Paul & Nigel Do?; The Hidden Flaw; How To Write Copy; Be Funny All The Way Through; How To Do Virals; How To Negotiate Your Salary; How To Get A Pay Rise; Be Wary Of Punding; Challenge The Brief; Tell The Truth; Playing To Lose; How To Write Headlines; How To Do Direct; How To Do Radio; How To Do Press; How To Do TV; How To Do Digital; How To Do Posters; Look At Weird Shit; Presenting To The Client; Presenting To The Team; Presenting To The Creative Director; How To Deal With Rejection; Look Creative; Don't Be Afraid To Ask; Your Idea Has To Be 120%; Read Iain's Tips; Don't Behave; How To Discuss Ideas; Read Hugh's Tips; How To Get A Job In Advertising Part IV - How To Turn A Placement Into A Job; How To Turn A Placement Into A Job (Ed Morris view); How To Get A Job In Advertising Part III - How To Approach Agencies (re-print of Tip No. 7); How To Get A Job In Advertising Part II - How To Put A Book Together; How To Get A Job In Advertising Part I - FAQ; Make Friends With Traffic; Get Reference; Don't Stop Too Soon; Be Very; Breaking Up; Working Well With Your Partner; Finding The Right Partner; How To Approach Agencies; Never-Seen-Before Footage; Dicketts' Finger; Two Blokes In The Pub; Play Family Fortunes; Should You Take A Bad Job?; Don't Overpolish

Tuesday Tip No.55 - How To Negotiate Your Salary

I've written previously on How To Get A Pay Rise, which was about what you have to do to earn one. Today's advice is about how you actually negotiate it.

Most of this I've culled from the 2008 Global Planning Survey, in which they did a clever thing - they asked bosses for tips on what works.

Here are the best 10:

1. Consider the total package. Think about where the job is going. The holiday allowance. The other benefits.

2. Get everything in writing.

3. Don't come off as entitled and push too hard for big salaries when you are junior.

4. For your first job, take what you can get.

5. Sadly, you have to jump around to make more money.

6. Women need to be stronger and firmer, and ask for what they want even if it feels uncomfortable.

7. Never tell your current salary. You deserve what your skills and talent pull in that market, not what looks better next to your old salary.

8. Negotiate hard. There are big disparities between people at the same level, simply because some played hardball when they got hired and some did not.

9. Don't keep going back and forth. The boss's second offer is his best offer. After that he just gets pissed off.

10. Never put out the first number.

Let me know if this sounds right, from negotiations you've been involved with.


Previous Tips:

How To Use Social Media; How To Get The Best Out Of Directors; Don't Write Ads, Write Strategies; How To Choose Where To Work; Working Outside London; What Would John Webster Do?; What Would Paul & Nigel Do?; The Hidden Flaw; How To Write Copy; Be Funny All The Way Through; How To Do Virals; How To Get A Pay Rise; Be Wary Of Punding; Challenge The Brief; Tell The Truth; Playing To Lose; How To Write Headlines; How To Do Direct; How To Do Radio; How To Do Press; How To Do TV; How To Do Digital; How To Do Posters; Look At Weird Shit; Presenting To The Client; Presenting To The Team; Presenting To The Creative Director; How To Deal With Rejection; Look Creative; Don't Be Afraid To Ask; Your Idea Has To Be 120%; Read Iain's Tips; Don't Behave; How To Discuss Ideas; Read Hugh's Tips; How To Get A Job In Advertising Part IV - How To Turn A Placement Into A Job; How To Turn A Placement Into A Job (Ed Morris view); How To Get A Job In Advertising Part III - How To Approach Agencies (re-print of Tip No. 7); How To Get A Job In Advertising Part II - How To Put A Book Together; How To Get A Job In Advertising Part I - FAQ; Make Friends With Traffic; Get Reference; Don't Stop Too Soon; Be Very; Breaking Up; Working Well With Your Partner; Finding The Right Partner; How To Approach Agencies; Never-Seen-Before Footage; Dicketts' Finger; Two Blokes In The Pub; Play Family Fortunes; Should You Take A Bad Job?; Don't Overpolish

Tuesday Tip No.54 - How To Use Social Media

Today's tip is guest-written by Alan Wolk, a U.S. creative director and social media consultant. Alan also runs an insightful blog called The Toad Stool, where he coined the increasingly well-known mantra Your Brand Is Not My Friend.


How To Use Social Media, by Alan Wolk

Social Media is a broad term, and it’s often thrown at any and all online marketing vehicles that don’t fall into the banner ad category.

So let’s start with a brief definition: social media is anything that lets you share information with other people. That means it is everything from sites like Facebook and MySpace to message boards to blogs to widgets and videos and whatnot that you are able to share with your friends—if you find it worth sharing. You, the consumer, get to decide that. Not me, the advertiser. Big difference.

So now that we’ve got that out of the way, here’s how to make the most of it:

1. LISTEN. Want to know what people really think of your product? Google it. Chances are you’ll find hundreds of posts and links and comments from people who’ve used your product. Both experts and amateurs. Your goal is to parse through these and see if there’s any common theme. So if an overwhelming majority of comments focus on how the handle always seems to break off right away, you know it’s not just a few angry old ladies. Similarly, if you see a majority of raves about how stylish the new red model is, you know you’ve got a winner on your hands. Use your research to find out things that are buzzworthy—things about your product that people are talking about on their own. That’s what you should be advertising.

2. ENGAGE. If there’s a problem, you’ve got to let people know you’re aware of it. Let them know that you hear them, that you’re working on it, and that you want to keep them as customers. Dell has done this quite successfully and has taken the brand from “Dell Hell” to a much better place.

You can engage them on blogs, via Twitter (Tweetscan is a great tool for monitoring Twitter) or via ads (if you’re honest in the ads and admit there was a problem, rather than trying to gloss over it.) This is a tough one for most clients because they’re not set up to deal with negativity nor do they have the proper people in place to respond to negative comments. You’ve got to be like the best stewardess you’ve ever seen: always smiling, always engaging, always trying to make the unhappy customer happy.

3. REMEMBER YOU’RE NOT THEIR FRIEND. As I’ve written ad intinitum (and ad nauseum) unless you are one of the dozen “Prom King” brands, no one is going to want to hang out with you online. They may use and like your product, but if it’s a reasonable bet that no one will (unironically) wear your logo on a t-shirt, then you are not a Prom King brand and you need to engage people as a salesperson, not a friend. In practical terms, that means that you’re not going to do the next Nike Plus site. (Nike and Apple being major Prom King brands.) But it doesn’t rule out something equally as cool or creative. It’s just that whatever you do has to work a little harder to please people.

4. FIND SOMETHING YOUR CONSUMERS MIGHT CONSIDER USEFUL. This is both easier and harder than you think. All you have to do is put yourself in the consumer’s shoes and think about what they’d be likely to think was cool and worth passing along to their friends. It can be anything from a video to a Facebook app to a downloadable PDF called “10 Packing Tips from Expert Travelers.” The main thing is, it has to provide value. Unfortunately, consumers are the ones who determine if it’s providing value. Not you. Not the D&AD judges. You can call a video “viral” all you want, but unless people pass it around, it’s just a video on YouTube.

5. KEEP YOUR COPY POINTS TO YOURSELF. The absolute worst mistake you can make in social media is to try and treat it like an ad. Which is sadly a knee-jerk reaction for a lot of marketers and agency types. The thing about social media is that it’s all about what the consumer wants to hear. Not about what you want to tell them. And what they want to hear is something about your product that will get them buzzed enough to tell somebody else. To wit: one of the most successful Facebook apps (with something like 7 MILLION installs) is TripAdvisor’s “Cities I’ve Visited.” Which, as the name implies, is a world map where you can mark off all the cities you’ve visited and share that information with your friends. There’s a TripAdvisor logo at the bottom, but that’s about it. No “TripAdvisor makes for better travel experiences by letting you review hotels before you go.” (Or worse.) No, all you take away is “Traveling is fun.” Which, if you’re TripAdvisor, the leading travel review website, is really all you need. The key with social media creative is to make your point gracefully and then get out of the way.

6. SOCIAL MEDIA IS FOREVER. In addition to things on the web being up there pretty much forever, social media campaigns don’t have the short shelf life of ad campaigns. You can’t start up a really active message board and then ignore it because the TV spot’s no longer running. People will be furious. Ditto an online video that sends you to a web site. Way too often the agency and client forget about the web site or worse, take it down. And you’ll literally have thousands of people watching it as much as a year later and all they’re seeing is a blank page or an error message, when a simple redirect would have done the trick. (This effect is known as “The Long Tail” and there’s a whole book about it that’s worth knowing about.)

7. YOU CAN’T FAKE IT. This is probably the single most important lesson. Authenticity is king. That means no fake blogs. No fake characters created solely for representing the demographic you’re targeting. No lying.

It also means you’ve got to use the actual social media vehicles. Get your butt onto Facebook and LinkedIn and Twitter. And you’ve got to use them correctly too. Twitter is about conversation. It’s not about setting up an account, adding a few people to your “People I’m Following” list and only tweeting links to articles about your agency while never actually responding to anyone who tries to engage you. The same way Facebook isn’t about setting up an account, accepting friend requests from a handful of people and never exploring what’s going on there.

Look, you may feel like an old fuddy-duddy at first. Or be confused as to why anyone would want to do this (which I think is most everyone’s first reaction to Twitter.) But the more you know, the more you are a part of what’s happening as opposed to merely an observer, the better you’ll be at figuring out ways to use it.

8. SOCIAL MEDIA DOES NOT EXIST IN A VACUUM. I mean it’s not like there’s some parallel universe where people only use Facebook. Those same people are watching your commercials on TV, reading them in their favorite magazines and hearing them on the radio. So there’s got to be some synergy between the various efforts. Some realization that even if clients and agencies silo ads according to media type, people don’t. So suggesting that a print ad actually reference a Facebook app you’ve created makes perfect sense. (To everyone but the people who have to figure out whose budget that cost is coming out of, but that’s not your problem.)

So that’s about it. The good news for agencies is that social media is about what consumers want to hear. And what consumers want to hear is rarely dull, dry, or overburdened with endless arcane copy points.

Previous Tips:

How To Get The Best Out Of Directors; Don't Write Ads, Write Strategies; How To Choose Where To Work; Working Outside London; What Would John Webster Do?; What Would Paul & Nigel Do?; The Hidden Flaw; How To Write Copy; Be Funny All The Way Through; How To Do Virals; How To Get A Pay Rise; Be Wary Of Punding; Challenge The Brief; Tell The Truth; Playing To Lose; How To Write Headlines; How To Do Direct; How To Do Radio; How To Do Press; How To Do TV; How To Do Digital; How To Do Posters; Look At Weird Shit; Presenting To The Client; Presenting To The Team; Presenting To The Creative Director; How To Deal With Rejection; Look Creative; Don't Be Afraid To Ask; Your Idea Has To Be 120%; Read Iain's Tips; Don't Behave; How To Discuss Ideas; Read Hugh's Tips; How To Get A Job In Advertising Part IV - How To Turn A Placement Into A Job; How To Turn A Placement Into A Job (Ed Morris view); How To Get A Job In Advertising Part III - How To Approach Agencies (re-print of Tip No. 7); How To Get A Job In Advertising Part II - How To Put A Book Together; How To Get A Job In Advertising Part I - FAQ; Make Friends With Traffic; Get Reference; Don't Stop Too Soon; Be Very; Breaking Up; Working Well With Your Partner; Finding The Right Partner; How To Approach Agencies; Never-Seen-Before Footage; Dicketts' Finger; Two Blokes In The Pub; Play Family Fortunes; Should You Take A Bad Job?; Don't Overpolish

Tuesday Tip No.53 - How To Turn A Placement Into A Job, by Ed Morris

Ed Morris, ECD at Lowe, has written this excellent guide, which apparently is handed out to all teams starting on placement at his agency, and that I hope he won't mind me re-printing:

“If you are a placement team at Lowe you should do this…

Show me an idea at least every 12 hours (1 working day) without fail.

Make your presence felt. Out of sight out of mind. Out of mind, no job.

Fuck the system. No one in the agency should come between you and your future. Walk straight in. It doesn’t matter how good you are if I don’t get to find out how good you are.

Focus on the work. Don’t try and be my friend.

Work on briefs that you haven’t been given. Run your own show, don’t wait for someone to walk in and “take care of you”. Respect the traffic department, but remember thy work for you, you don’t work for them. Ask them for the briefs you want; tell me if you don’t get them.

Get under the skin of a product and a brief. Don’t show me work that the rest of the department might do. I don’t need people to do what we already can.

Don’t show it to me unless you like it or you think it’s good. That’s how I find out if you’re good.

You’re not here to solve a brief. You’re here to be brilliant.

If you don’t feel you can demonstrate your capabilities with the briefs we have, do it another way. Show me any idea for any brand on any problem.

Don’t join the club, there isn’t one. You’re not here to make a load of friends and get to know the local pubs. You’re unemployed, remember that. And, if you are any good you should be trying to make the rest of us look stupid.

If you put the effort into the work I’ll put the effort into you and helping you.
But it works that way around. It’s got to start with you.

Be confident, have faith in yourselves, work hard. Look after the work and the work will look after you. A placement is a moment in time. Seize it.

…or leave.”

via Dave Trott's Blog and creative in london.


Previous Tips:

How To Get The Best Out Of Directors; Don't Write Ads, Write Strategies; How To Choose Where To Work; Working Outside London; What Would John Webster Do?; What Would Paul & Nigel Do?; The Hidden Flaw; How To Write Copy; Be Funny All The Way Through; How To Do Virals; How To Get A Pay Rise; Be Wary Of Punding; Challenge The Brief; Tell The Truth; Playing To Lose; How To Write Headlines; How To Do Direct; How To Do Radio; How To Do Press; How To Do TV; How To Do Digital; How To Do Posters; Look At Weird Shit; Presenting To The Client; Presenting To The Team; Presenting To The Creative Director; How To Deal With Rejection; Look Creative; Don't Be Afraid To Ask; Your Idea Has To Be 120%; Read Iain's Tips; Don't Behave; How To Discuss Ideas; Read Hugh's Tips; How To Get A Job In Advertising Part IV - How To Turn A Placement Into A Job; How To Get A Job In Advertising Part III - How To Approach Agencies (re-print of Tip No. 7); How To Get A Job In Advertising Part II - How To Put A Book Together; How To Get A Job In Advertising Part I - FAQ; Make Friends With Traffic; Get Reference; Don't Stop Too Soon; Be Very; Breaking Up; Working Well With Your Partner; Finding The Right Partner; How To Approach Agencies; Never-Seen-Before Footage; Dicketts' Finger; Two Blokes In The Pub; Play Family Fortunes; Should You Take A Bad Job?; Don't Overpolish