New Skoda Ad - The Baking Of

Really nice ad, this, which shows a team of bakers whipping up a Skoda Fabia from dough, berries, golden syrup and the like. Lovely tone to it.

My favourite shot is of the chap struggling to fit the rear stop-light... which is made out of jelly (see above).

Enjoy.

What Does Everyone Do?

Well, I'm back.

A seven-day shoot.

Completely knackered. Watching a film crew lift heavy pieces of equipment can really tire a man out.

As I haven't really written that much on my blog about the actual shooting of adverts, maybe now is an appropriate time to start.

And where better to begin than with the Director?


Creatives obsess about directors. I think that's because we know it's the director who has the biggest influence on the final ad. And whereas we can't choose our account team, client, or creative director... we do get to choose our director.

It's partly fear too. A script - like architects' plans and mathematical formulae - is perfect, in the way that no finished artefact can be. When you hand your script to a director, you are handing it to the man who turns your perfect Euclidean construct into rough-and-tumble reality. Of course, sometimes they'll make it better than the blueprint. But the fear that they'll cock it up is always there.

Over the years I've noticed that it doesn't really matter if you and the director have wildly divergent personalities. As long as you have the same vision for the ad, you'll probably get on well.

If you do fight a lot then A) you probably picked the wrong director and B) you probably won't end up with a good ad.

It's a strange relationship though. The director has ultimate power on the set. 50 or so people jump to their commands. And yet if the creative says "can we try it this other way...?" then they kind of have to listen. But you feel guilty. It's like giving orders to an emperor.

There's a lot of mystique around directors. Who's on the way up, who's on the way down. Who flies a runner from Iceland down to Soho to bring back a certain coffee bean for him. Who's shagging who, who's earning how much, who's moving production companies, who can't get work any more, who's getting 50 scripts a week.

Most of it's hearsay. I once thought of setting up a website - Ratemydirector.com - where creatives could log in to give anonymous feedback on the man behind the camera.

Until then, I'm happy to give this feedback in public:

Simon Ratigan of HLA has done a great job for us so far.

You'll Never Guess What...

That's Right, Still On Shoot

Oh Lordy This Is One Long, Long Shoot

Still Shooting And I'm Not Going To Say What It Is

Still Shooting

My Partner's Birthday Dinner Last Night

Happy XXth, Nick!

On a shoot

The New Honda Ad

Only one possible blog topic - the new Honda ad, which broke yesterday.

And only one question to ask - is it as good as Cog, Grrr, and Impossible Dream?

In short - no, it isn't.

Having said that, it is a very, very good ad.

It's brilliantly directed (by promo king Mark Romanek), with a really unique look, great atmosphere, and a couple of awesome shots - I absolutely love the scientist vaulting the barrel, which I take to be a sly reference to Donkey Kong.

However, when all is said and done, we've seen engineers in ads before. And the notion that "having ideas is hard" is not a new one (especially to us creatives, right guys 'n gals?); it's certainly not as original as "hate something, change something".

I hope I'm not being too critical here, but you know what? It's Wieden & Kennedy's own fault, for setting the bar so high with their previous ads...

Friday Dilemma

Your creative director asks you to recommend him a team. Do you suggest someone really good... who'll be a competitive threat when they come? Or do you suggest someone not so good - it will call your judgement into question when they don't do very well. Or do you just ring your mates?

Inside Her Pretty Little Head

I've been reading an interesting new book about marketing to women.

I used to work with the authors, who as well as being super-smart, are super-hot chicks.

Oh dear, I probably shouldn't have said that last bit...

Anyway, despite the complete lack of pictures (come on, girls, let's sex it up a bit for the second edition!) there's some great stuff in here.

Their answer to why creative departments are full of men? Because creatives have to fight uncompromisingly for their work, and "Boys always think what they have done is brilliant".

They also have a great bit on women putting down men in advertising:

There are a number of commercials in which some hapless bloke... is the butt of the joke for his partner and her bitchy mate. We think this is an attempt to make the women in the audience feel that the brand is on-side with them... the truth is that... observing a woman humiliating a man in front of other people in an aggressive way does not feel good to the female audience.

It's embarrassing, seems cruel and is not empathetic. We're not saying that women don't sometimes complain about men or their partners, but they usually feel guilty afterwards, and they certainly don't want it played out to the rest of the population in the middle of a prime-time TV show.

And a final point to ponder:

A masculine bias is evidenced not just in the worst work that the industry produces but in the best work too. When you look at awards lists, it is inevitably male brands that are picking up the accolates for the best work.

In fact, analysing the Cannes Gold Lion winners for the last seven years, they find it splits out like this: Male Categories: 82 Lions, Neutral: 43, Female: a paltry 9.

Time to steal that shampoo brief?

isobel Needs A Team

London-based ad agency isobel, creators of the print ad you see above, need a new creative team, and have asked me to put the word out, which I am very happy to do.

In their words, they are looking for "a quality middleweight team. Not the kind of middleweight team who’s always been a middleweight team, but the kind that go from junior to senior and barely even set foot in middleweight."

You can email dave@isobel.com or rob@isobel.com with CV’s, or drop your book into isobel, 4th Floor, 91 New Cavendish Street, London W1.

Dave and Rob are stand-up guys.

If you fit the bill, give it a go.

Awards Shows And Silos - A Comparison

The One Show finalists are out.

Not too much UK stuff is in. The Harvey Nichols and Marmite campaigns are. Plus the brilliant Billions from my own agency. (Bias? Hmm, probably. But it was done before I arrived, honest).

However, my point today is this.

Why oh why, in these days of 360 degree media, is there no award for best idea? Everything is siloed into press, poster, TV etc.

I guess Campaign organise their awards by medium so they can get the Poster awards (for example) sponsored by the poster contractors etc, but what excuse do D&AD and The One Show have?

Cannes used to award their Titanium Lion to the best integrated campaign, but last year they changed the rules and gave it to what they considered 'the best idea in any medium', which turned out to be designs for customised barcodes.

So therefore every awards show in the world is now rewarding 'best idea in this medium' and 'best idea in that medium' and no one is awarding 'best idea across multiple media'.

Can that be right?

David Mamet To Direct Ford Ads

Fascinating story a few days ago about the genius behind Glengary Glen Ross, House Of Games, and The Spanish Prisoner directing ads for Ford.

Can't wait to see how they turn out.

One other feature of the story I found interesting was just how much more intelligently they seem to write about advertising in North America.

Within a few short lines, there's a lucid description of the merits and demerits of comparative advertising, and an explanation of the exact division of responsibilities between Mamet and the agency copywriters.

I don't want to turn this into a let's-slag-off-Campaign post, but... would you get that in Campaign?

UPDATE

I found one of the ads on YouTube.



It's not that great.

Funny, that. Most ads by great directors aren't.

Don't Run. Drive.

This Suzuki ad from today's Independent is unbelievably behind the times.

In case you can't quite read the type, they are saying you are 'bonkers' to go running, when you could be driving their brilliant 4x4!

Don't these people read the newspapers?

Your Visual DNA

This website comes across at first like one of those yawny test-your- personality type things. But as it's purely visual (until the results) it did hold my attention for, ooh, two or three minutes.

There's No Such Thing As A Press Ad

I've let a week go by before writing about the Campaign Press Awards... long enough for my anger to dissipate.

That's right, nothing of mine won.

But there were definitely some worthy winners. Here are three of my favourites, which all have something very important in common: they're not press ads.





They're posters, that happened to appear in print.

And this is great.

It's a complete myth that people "have more time" or "are more relaxed" when they're reading newspapers or magazines.

Just because they're sitting in an armchair doesn't mean they're any more interested in commercial messages than when they're driving a car.

You still need to stop people, grab their attention, and reward it.

These ads do that.

Tuesday Tip No.20 - How To Discuss Ideas

This next tip for young creatives is an expansion of a point in Tip No.9 - Working Well With Your Partner, that seemed to strike a chord.

Never say 'no' to one of his ideas. People hate being told no. Instead just say 'yes' in an unconvinced sort of tone. This one really works! Avoid hours and hours worth of arguments!

You see, in discussing ideas (or brainstorming, if you must, although the word sounds like David Brent will be there) they always tell you 'be positive - you should never say no to anything.' But they don't tell you what you should say.

Here's my guide.

What You Want To Say	How To Say It
Brilliant! You've cracked it!	I like it. I like it a lot.
Good, but I think we can do better.	Good.
Strategically sound, but not very interesting.	(neutral tone) Yes, that works.
Interesting, but strategically unsound.	(neutral tone) Interesting.
There may be something good in there, but right now it doesn't work at all.	Interesting, worth developing.
Off-brief, and pretty dull.	(neutral tone) Uh-huh.
Wildly off-brief.	Say that one again?
Still wildly off-brief.	Okay, I get it now.
Incredibly boring.	OK.
Rambling, dull, and uninspiring.	Shall we break for lunch?

Tip No.19 - Read Hugh's Tips
Tip No.18 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part IV - How To Turn A Placement Into A Job
Tip No.17 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part III - How To Approach Agencies (re-print of Tip No. 7)
Tip No.16 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part II - How To Put A Book Together
Tip No. 15 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part I - FAQ
Tip No. 14 - Make Friends With Traffic
Tip No. 13 - Get Reference
Tip No. 12 - Don't Stop Too Soon
Tip No.11 - Be Very
Tip No.10 - Breaking Up
Tip No.9 - Working Well With Your Partner
Tip No.8 - Finding The Right Partner
Tip No.7 - How To Approach Agencies
Tip No.6 - Never-Seen-Before Footage
Tip No.5 - Dicketts' Finger
Tip No.4 - Two Blokes In The Pub
Tip No.3 - Play Family Fortunes
Tip No.2 - Should You Take A Bad Job?
Tip No.1 - Don't Overpolish

The Engagement Model

Traditional advertising is dead. The way forward, rather than interrupting consumers, is to create compelling content that they will want to engage with.

Or is it?

Let's look at two examples.

First of all, Qashqai Car Games, created by TBWA.

This is an absolutely brilliant site. They've created an entire fictional sport, a kind of urban Scalextric but with real cars, and created genuinely funny short films profiling some of the events, drivers and teams involved in it. There's so much detail there, and the standard of design, writing and direction are all first-class.

But the site is only the 387, 125th most popular on the internet. In fact there are 17 ad blogs that have more traffic than Qashqai! Its daily reach is just 0.004% of the internet audience. Any media company achieving that kind of reach for its clients in traditional media would surely be fired on the spot.

Secondly, Bud TV. The content on Bud TV is a bit shit. I quite like girls in swimsuits, but even I was struggling to stay awake halfway through the 'exclusive' footage from the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition Launch Party (Including interviews with the models!) sample model opinion: "I looked up to Christie Brinkley, so to be in this issue is just crazy for me."

Surprise surprise, Bud TV is tanking. The complicated sign-up process is held partly to blame.

But I've got another explanation.

You see, I just don't believe that people who are looking for entertainment want to go to a beer website or a car website to get it. They want to go to an entertainment website, e.g. FHM.com.

Maybe I'm a lone voice in the wilderness here, but just maybe the interruption model is not dead.

I'm sorry that TV airtime has become more expensive, and that mass audiences are harder to reach, I really am.

But the solution is not to create a website that nobody goes to.

The Ad Blog Charts for April 2007

Last month I experimented with basing the charts on links, as measured by Technorati. But I've now decided to go back to my previous method - traffic rankings from Alexa. Why? Well, it's quicker to do, basically. So here we go.

Top 25 Ad Blogs		(world
		ranking)
1     (1)	AdRants	15,547
2     (2)	Advertising/Design Goodness	39,910	↓
3     (3)	AdFreak	40,105
4     (4)	Adverblog	58,427	↓
5     (5)	Adverbox	66,788	↓
6     (9)	Logic + Emotion	86,514	↑
7     (6)	Adland	89,156	↓
8     (7)	Coloribus	125,948
9     (10)	Jaffe Juice	149,095
10   (11)	AdPulp	177,166
11   (8)	Twenty Four	198,861	↓
12   (14)	Experience Curve	208,822
13   (16)	Copyranter	214,430
14   (15)	Beyond Madison Avenue	240,175
15   (13)	How Advertising Spoiled Me	240,363	↓
16   (new)	Hee-Haw Marketing	289,516
17   (18)	Advertising For Peanuts	373,899	↓
18   (19)	AdScam	405,803
19   (25)	Welcome To Optimism	470,913
20   (new)	Hidden Persuader	491,690
21   (new)	Make The Logo Bigger	508,695
22   (17)	American Copywriter	508,726	↓
23   (24)	Ernie Schenck	550,625
24   (23)	Scamp	555,761
25   (21)	BrandFlakes for Breakfast	632,290	↓

The biggest riser, going up 6 places from 25th to 19th, was Wieden & Kennedy's Welcome To Optimism, a fascinating and candid blog, which this month included their controversial report on the Nokia pitch briefing.

In an exciting new feature on the chart, I've added an ↑ if a blog's traffic has gone up by 20% or more in the past month, and a ↓ if it's gone down by 20%.

Lots of ↓'s, you'll notice.

In fact only one blog bucked the trend and increased its traffic by more than 20% over the month - David Armano's ever-interesting Logic + Emotion.

Is the adblogging boom coming to an end?

Top 10 UK Ad Blogs		(world
		ranking)
1   (2)	AdScam	405,803
2   (5)	Welcome To Optimism	470,913
3   (4)	Scamp	555,761
4   (3)	FishNChimps	650,371	↓
5   (6)	Adliterate	800,561	↑
6   (new)	Living Brands	1.01m
7   (9)	Beeker	1.30m	↑
8   (7)	What If...	1.57m
9   (10)	Faris	1.84m	↑
10   (new)	Northern Planner	3.46m

UK means UK-based. Ad blog means ad blogs not marketing blogs, so that excludes Gapingvoid. Paul Colman doesn't class Life In The Middle as an ad blog and - in the move that shook the blogosphere - Russell Davies has announced he will no longer blog about advertising, so sadly he's not in either. Also, I'm only counting English language blogs.

If I've missed anyone out, please tell me and I'll put them in next month.

Mother Placement Competition - The Final Three

I've written before about the competition for Bucks students to win a placement at Mother.

The challenge was to produce a YouTube film, with the original idea being that whoever got the most views would win the placement.

Here are the final three.

The Meat-Off - 7,443 views


Belly Dancers - 1,928 views


Cheap Thrills - 1,151 views


I hear that Mother may now be making the final decision based on 'creative quality' and not number of views. Shame. I rather liked the purity of 'most virally viral wins'.

Scamp On Scamp

My partner's parents have acquired a delightful new dog.

His name? Scamp.

Tuesday Tip No.19 - Read Hugh's Tips

Today's tip for young creatives is very simple.

If you haven't read Hugh's tips on How To Be Creative, do so.


Tip No.18 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part IV - How To Turn A Placement Into A Job
Tip No.17 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part III - How To Approach Agencies (re-print of Tip No. 7)
Tip No.16 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part II - How To Put A Book Together
Tip No. 15 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part I - FAQ
Tip No. 14 - Make Friends With Traffic
Tip No. 13 - Get Reference
Tip No. 12 - Don't Stop Too Soon
Tip No.11 - Be Very
Tip No.10 - Breaking Up
Tip No.9 - Working Well With Your Partner
Tip No.8 - Finding The Right Partner
Tip No.7 - How To Approach Agencies
Tip No.6 - Never-Seen-Before Footage
Tip No.5 - Dicketts' Finger
Tip No.4 - Two Blokes In The Pub
Tip No.3 - Play Family Fortunes
Tip No.2 - Should You Take A Bad Job?
Tip No.1 - Don't Overpolish

E-Mail Your Future Self

Have you heard about Futureme.org?

It's a rather nifty website that allows you to send an e-mail to your future self. So far, over 391,000 people have done so.

And of course, the best of them have been collected up into a book.

Myspace Now 11th Largest Country In The World...

...and other interesting facts, in this 'shift happens' web video, found via my friend Damiano's interesting new blog.


P.S. the results of the most recent Friday Poll show that Lord Lever was right.


According to readers of this blog, half of the money spent on advertising is wasted.

Sometimes more! Oh well. It keeps us busy, I suppose.


Previous poll results:

Friday Poll No.14 - What Do YOU Do In The Ad-Breaks?
Friday Poll No.13 - Which Department Is The Most Insane?
Friday Poll No.12 - What Music Do You Listen To While Working?
Friday Poll No.11 - What Time Do You Get In?
Friday Poll No.10 - Who Drinks The Most?
Friday Poll No.9 - Press v Online
Friday Poll No.8 - Success Or Glory?
Friday Poll No.7 - Is Reading Blogs A Waste Of Time?
Friday Poll No.6 - Job Satisfaction
Friday Poll No.5 - Festive Greetings
Friday Poll No.4 - Ad Of The Year 2006
Friday Poll No.3 - What's Your Favourite Medium To Work In?
Friday Poll No.2 - Agency Of The Year
Friday Poll No.1 - Which Department Is The Most Overpaid?

Mentos plus... Bitter?

Nice take on the Mentos genre.

Found at Tuff Sheet, a site made by one of London's leading production companies Blink to house their favourite spoofs and virals.

Gwen Gets Job

Great news for Gwen - she has been hired, and by a top agency too, W&K Amsterdam.

Of course, she's documented the interview process in her own unique and wonderful style.

Here she is meeting co-ECD Al Moseley, who she finds very noble.


Meanwhile Al's partner, John Norman, seems to have been pre-warned of her modus operandi.



Congratulations, Gwen! And very best of luck in Amsterdam.

Fetishisation of Doing

I'm belatedly a bit miffed by what Russell wrote in Campaign last week.

Ideas are the easiest, fastest and cheapest things to have in the world. It's getting them made that's hard, and for that you need traffic and production. Ladies and Gentleman, we salute you.

Let me start by joining Russell in saluting traffic and production. You couldn't wish to meet a nicer or more dedicated bunch of people.

But I got to stand up for my peeps. Having ideas is not easier than getting them made. Quite the contrary.

Come on, we're not going to place doing above thinking are we? Like, salute the guy who got Moby Dick to the printer on time, rather than Herman Melville?

Getting things made may look harder because you can actually see a person doing that job, whereas you can't see a creative's or a planner's brain working.

But thinking is still work. Very hard work, in fact. Thinking is not a crime!

I guess Russell knows that really, he's just trying to provoke a response. And he's succeeded, darn it...

Second Life Flooded

Really neat idea this, from Ogilvy.

To highlight the dangers of climate change, they arranged to flood parts of Second Life yesterday.

It's the best use of Second Life so far, I reckon, and a pretty original way to get the message across.

More details here

Tuesday Tip No.18 - How To Get A Job In Advertising, Part IV

Time for the final installment in this dubiously useful series, which will comprise ten suggestions on How To Turn A Placement Into A Job.

(Of course, placement is not the only way to get a job - you should also be looking for opportunities via friends, headhunters, Cream etc. But it's probably the most common way.)

1. Don't worry if you have been on a placement for a while, and haven't been hired yet. Some people get hired after being on placement at the same agency for up to a year. The rule is 'if you like it, stay'.

2. Unless they explicitly tell you there is no job for you at this agency. In which case make plans to leave straight away.

3. Some people get hired on their first placement. Some people do five, ten or more. Don't worry too much about this. A lot of it is down to luck - you have to do well, which is partly luck, and the agency you are at has to be hiring, which is completely luck.

4. Don't waste your time trying to crack the agency's big showpiece TV brief. These projects take months. Even if an idea of yours does get bought, you will be long gone by then so won't reap the benefits.

5. Be useful. Crack the small, dirty, smelly briefs - the ones that no one else in the department wants to touch.

6. But you've got to do good work too. Useful on its own isn't enough. Useful and good is what's wanted.

7. You should from time to time be doing ads that are good enough for your book. It's very disappointing to see a young team who, after a year of placements, haven't got any 'laminates' - real ads they did in an agency that ran. In fact to be honest it probably indicates some kind of problem.

8. Do the things the existing creatives probably don't do much of: digital, ambient, stunts, that kind of thing. Make the creative director think you offer something new to his department. That's better than just being a cheaper and more inexperienced version of what he already has!

9. Fit in. Go to the agency's bar if they have one, make friends with the other young people about the place. If you fit in well, you're more likely to get hired. That's just human nature. If you don't fit in well, you're probably in the wrong place anyway. E.g. if you wear cavalry twill trousers, Mother isn't for you.

10. In every moment of spare time, you should be working on your book. Why? Because if your current placement doesn't lead to a job, you'll need that book to get another one. And the better your book, the better the agency you can get into. Hey, what are you doing reading this? Go work on your book for Christ's sake!


Tip No.17 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part III - How To Approach Agencies (re-print of Tip No. 7)
Tip No.16 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part II - How To Put A Book Together
Tip No. 15 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part I - FAQ
Tip No. 14 - Make Friends With Traffic
Tip No. 13 - Get Reference
Tip No. 12 - Don't Stop Too Soon
Tip No.11 - Be Very
Tip No.10 - Breaking Up
Tip No.9 - Working Well With Your Partner
Tip No.8 - Finding The Right Partner
Tip No.7 - How To Approach Agencies
Tip No.6 - Never-Seen-Before Footage
Tip No.5 - Dicketts' Finger
Tip No.4 - Two Blokes In The Pub
Tip No.3 - Play Family Fortunes
Tip No.2 - Should You Take A Bad Job?
Tip No.1 - Don't Overpolish

Tuesday Tip No. 17 - How To Get a Job In Advertising, Part III

So, we've covered the FAQ, and How To Put A Book Together.

The logical next topic is How To Approach Agencies, which I realise I've already covered here.

So without further ado, I'll move straight on to the fourth and last download of whatever paltry knowledge I have about how to get a job in advertising - How To Turn A Placement Into A Job.

Tip No.16 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part II - How To Put A Book Together
Tip No. 15 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part I - FAQ
Tip No. 14 - Make Friends With Traffic
Tip No. 13 - Get Reference
Tip No. 12 - Don't Stop Too Soon
Tip No.11 - Be Very
Tip No.10 - Breaking Up
Tip No.9 - Working Well With Your Partner
Tip No.8 - Finding The Right Partner
Tip No.7 - How To Approach Agencies
Tip No.6 - Never-Seen-Before Footage
Tip No.5 - Dicketts' Finger
Tip No.4 - Two Blokes In The Pub
Tip No.3 - Play Family Fortunes
Tip No.2 - Should You Take A Bad Job?
Tip No.1 - Don't Overpolish

Nice Wonderbra Ad

Gwen At D&AD Congress

The irrepressible Gwen has been hired by D&AD to report from their Congress.

She spots W&K creative director Tony Davidson giving blogosphere genius Russell the old 'hamster-cheeks' treatment.



And Piyush Pandy of Ogilvy India reminds her of Mr Pringle.



God, but Gwen's drawings crack me up. It's the fact that they're in-jokes, I suppose. In-jokes are always funny.

See it all at the D&AD blog.

How To Get A Placement At Mother

Everything Mother do is pretty good.

But I particularly like their latest idea.

They are offering a placement to a 3rd year team at Bucks College. Each team has to make a YouTube video. And the placement will go to whichever film gets the most views.

Now who says creatives don't care about results?

Here are the films.

• Living with Pro Evolution 6
• Party Popper Russian Roulette
• Kissing a gran
• Up her Nose and Out again...
• The Magic Number 10
• Chew it
• Belly Dancers
• Fit Granny's
• My gran complaining about pigs and ham
• Panto montage
• Lift giving birth
• The meat off
• Cardboard box game
• How to look hot on the dancefloor

via CreativeinLondon

Proof

I thought Nike taking business out of W&K was inexplicable.

But maybe this article explains it (apparently Nike feel Wieden's lacks digital expertise).

I suppose this confirms my advice of yesterday to young creatives (in fact it probably means the advice applies to ALL creatives) -

You've got to be able to do digital.

I mean, who would hire a team that couldn't do, say, print?

Tuesday Tip No. 16 - How To Get A Job In Advertising, Part II

What to put in your portfolio?

Well, the answer to that used to be easy: 8 advertising campaigns, each consisting of 3 print ads, plus maybe an ambient execution or a TV storyboard (so long as it had no dialogue, of course.)

And such was the way it was for, ooh, years.

But it's all changed now. If your book still looks like that, you're doing it wrong.

Why? Because creative directors have gone digital crazy, that's why.

Most creative directors are surprisingly clued-up about digital. Remember, they're closer to the 'business' side of the business than rank-and-file creatives are - they know full well that clients are now demanding their agency start delivering great work in non-traditional media.

And as well as re-training their existing creatives, they're looking to the new generation to give it to them.

You must be that new generation. Your book must show compelling examples of how brands can exploit the digital space.

Heck, maybe your book shouldn't even be a book, but a website or a CD.

(Having said all this, you've got to show you can do all the traditional media as well. So yes, your 'book' still needs to have lots of great print work, and the odd TV ad, if you want a job in a so-called above-the-line agency).

But more and more you need to demonstrate how to reach consumers in new ways. That means new media, events, ideas for mobile games, TV shows, crazy shit... maybe even new products.

And above all, digital.

ADDENDUM. In case it's useful information for any young teams out there, the most recent student book that my partner and I have recommended to the creative director here looked like this: 9 campaigns, with a total of 21 print ads, 2 TV ads, 6 digital executions, and 31 (!) executions that are ambient/ new products/ crazy shit. Maybe there were a few too many of those. But you get the idea.

Tip No. 15 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part I - FAQ
Tip No. 14 - Make Friends With Traffic
Tip No. 13 - Get Reference
Tip No. 12 - Don't Stop Too Soon
Tip No.11 - Be Very
Tip No.10 - Breaking Up
Tip No.9 - Working Well With Your Partner
Tip No.8 - Finding The Right Partner
Tip No.7 - How To Approach Agencies
Tip No.6 - Never-Seen-Before Footage
Tip No.5 - Dicketts' Finger
Tip No.4 - Two Blokes In The Pub
Tip No.3 - Play Family Fortunes
Tip No.2 - Should You Take A Bad Job?
Tip No.1 - Don't Overpolish

Mr. Deity

Many of us, as part of our jobs, are being tasked with creating fun & interesting digital content.

Content like this.

Now, if only there was a way to twist this round for some brand...

Thanks to Dr. Rogers for the tip

Friday Poll

Lord Lever famously said half his advertising didn't work.

A few years later, a more recent Unilever boss (Niall Fitzgerald) upped the figure to 90% (quoted in a nice paper of Jon Howard's.)

So what about your record?

Has everything you've touched turned to gold?

Or have you clawed your way up the greasy pole by doing brilliantly creative campaigns for products that bombed in the shops?

Of course, there are many many ways to measure effectiveness. What we're interested in here is something (necessarily) quite loose - your own personal view of how many of the campaigns you've been involved with have actually worked.

Vote now, in the top right hand corner of your screen.

The result of last week's poll was very reassuring for the future of advertising.

During the ad-breaks, the most common activity undertaken by readers of this blog is... watching the ads.

Unless you're just watching them out of professional interest?

Previous poll results:

Friday Poll No.13 - Which Department Is The Most Insane?
Friday Poll No.12 - What Music Do You Listen To While Working?
Friday Poll No.11 - What Time Do You Get In?
Friday Poll No.10 - Who Drinks The Most?
Friday Poll No.9 - Press v Online
Friday Poll No.8 - Success Or Glory?
Friday Poll No.7 - Is Reading Blogs A Waste Of Time?
Friday Poll No.6 - Job Satisfaction
Friday Poll No.5 - Festive Greetings
Friday Poll No.4 - Ad Of The Year 2006
Friday Poll No.3 - What's Your Favourite Medium To Work In?
Friday Poll No.2 - Agency Of The Year
Friday Poll No.1 - Which Department Is The Most Overpaid?

The Ad Blog Charts

Here's the Ad Blog Charts for March.

This time I've used Technorati rather than Alexa rankings, in other words it's based on number of links rather than traffic (incidentally Technorati also only ranks blogs, not websites in general).

A better method, do you think, or not?

The results are not amazingly dissimilar to last time, though some of the planners blogs have gone a bit higher - which sees Faris and Adliterate enter the chart. Congrats to them.


Top 25 Ad Blogs

		(world
		ranking)
1	AdRants	627
2	Advertising/Design Goodness	1,117
3	AdFreak	1,761
4	Adverblog	2,368
5	Jaffe Juice	3,040
6	Logic + Emotion	3,199
7	Russell Davies	3,564
8	Adverbox	3,615
9	Hee-Hawmarketing	4,640
10	Adland	5,679
11	Twenty Four	6,695
12	How Advertising Spoiled Me	8,096
13	AdPulp	10,244
14	Advertising For Peanuts	12,209
15	Hidden Persuader	12,443
16	Experience Curve	14,192
17	Copyranter	14,442
18	Adliterate	15,698
19	Beyond Madison Avenue	15,826
20	Coloribus	16,999
21	American Copywriter	17,483
22	Faris	20,003
23	Welcome To Optimism	23,037
24	Ad Hunt	25,029
25	Make The Logo Bigger	27,360

Top 10 UK Ad Blogs

		(world
		ranking)
1	Russell Davies	3,564
2	Adliterate	15,698
3	Faris	20,003
4	Welcome To Optimism	23,037
5	Beeker	39,283
6	Scamp	44,415
7	FishNChimps	50,863
8	AdScam	51,657
9	What If...	65,053
10	Gwen Yip	90,536

UK means UK-based. Ad blog means ad blogs not marketing blogs, hence no Gapingvoid. Paul Colman requested Life In The Middle not be classed as an ad blog, so Paul is not there. Also, I'm only counting English language blogs.

No doubt I've missed one out. Do let me know and I'll put it in next month.

Unintentionally The Funniest Book Ever

I've recently finished "Open Minds. 21st Century Business Lessons and Innovations from St. Luke's" by Andy Law.

It is quite possibly the funniest book ever written.

Life at St Luke's was clearly bonkers.

And yet they took it all completely seriously.

At their awayday, every member of staff had to give a speech.

To make himself uncomfortable, as he was used to speaking publicly, David Abraham stripped off. Almost naked, literally, he exposed to us all the deep feelings he had about the company.

Meanwhile, someone asks Head of Planning John Grant if he is happy.

Happiness is a static point along the path of fulfillment. At any one point I can declare myself happy, but still feel there is more to fulfil... for example, I am happy now, because I am eating my breakfast, but my day is as yet unfulfilled.

Surely there's enough material for a comic novel in all this...

The King

No Friday poll yesterday, I'm on a short break in Morocco, so I'll keep it running for another week.

This is an interesting and beautiful place.

On the roads out of the airport, there are many large posters of the King, in a sort of 'welcome to my country' pose.

Wonderful.

Made me think... shouldn't there be huge posters of the Queen as you come out of Heathrow? Or perhaps Tony Blair?

I Just Love To Rent Guns

Disturbing.

Who Can Speak On Shoots

Minor bust-up over at the always-interesting Northern Planner.

He remembers:

as a young account exec (with hair!) I was told that my job was to keep the client away from the director at all costs. Any queries absolutely had to go through the producer. It said a fair bit about highly strung directors as far as I was concerned

My reply:

Here are some of the people you will typically find on a shoot:

production company producer, agency producer, copywriter, art director, client, account handler, sound man, lighting cameraman, actors, hair person, make-up person, wardrobe person, 1st AD, 2nd AD, 3rd AD, runner, another runner, gaffer, assistant gaffer, camera assistant, production designer, production designer's assistant, spark, assistant spark, carpenter, assistant carpenter, catering chief, catering assistant... there's more but you get the idea.

This is why not everyone can talk to the director.

It slightly annoys me that account handlers think it's laughable that they have to 'go through the producer'.

A lot of people on a shoot have to go through someone else to get to the director.

It's a numbers thing, that's all.

Who is right?

Well, obviously I am. But what do you think?

Tuesday Tip No.15 - How To Get A Job In Advertising, Part I

Okay, I've decided to tackle the big one.

And it is a big one, so I'm going to break it down into several parts.

First of all, I might as well answer the most commonly asked questions, because the answer is really very easy.

I've only just left college, is it worth me contacting the headhunters?

Yes

What about schemes like Cream, The Book Club, and the Diageo Scheme, are they worth applying to?

Yes

Is it better to work on my book, or try to get placements?

Do both

Okay I've got a placement. Is it better to work hard in the agency I'm at and try to get a job here, or keep working on my book and go for jobs wherever they come up?

Do both

Is it better to see small agencies or big agencies? Multinationals or hotshops? Lots of different agencies or repeated visits to the ones we like best?

All of the above.

In short, why would you not do something that could help you? Do it all.

Tip No. 14 - Make Friends With Traffic
Tip No. 13 - Get Reference
Tip No. 12 - Don't Stop Too Soon
Tip No.11 - Be Very
Tip No.10 - Breaking Up
Tip No.9 - Working Well With Your Partner
Tip No.8 - Finding The Right Partner
Tip No.7 - How To Approach Agencies
Tip No.6 - Never-Seen-Before Footage
Tip No.5 - Dicketts' Finger
Tip No.4 - Two Blokes In The Pub
Tip No.3 - Play Family Fortunes
Tip No.2 - Should You Take A Bad Job?
Tip No.1 - Don't Overpolish

Off Topic But Hilarious

Adam Buxton's interpretation of a sign language interpreter.

Friday Poll - What Do You Do When The Adverts Come On?

When a chicken plucker comes home at night, the last thing he wants to have for dinner is chicken.

Do you avoid adverts in the same way?

Or are you so addicted to brand communications that you talk doing the programmes, and shut up during the breaks?

Vote now, in the top right hand corner of your screen.

The result of last week's poll reveals that readers of this blog believe Account Handlers to be the least sane people in our industry. Poor Suits. Were they sane when they went in, I wonder, and only gradually got driven mad by a ceaseless stream of Client 'requests', and the stress of 'dealing with' Creatives? Or were they bonkers to begin with?

Who knows.


Previous poll results:

Friday Poll No.12 - What Music Do You Listen To While Working?
Friday Poll No.11 - What Time Do You Get In?
Friday Poll No.10 - Who Drinks The Most?
Friday Poll No.9 - Press v Online
Friday Poll No.8 - Success Or Glory?
Friday Poll No.7 - Is Reading Blogs A Waste Of Time?
Friday Poll No.6 - Job Satisfaction
Friday Poll No.5 - Festive Greetings
Friday Poll No.4 - Ad Of The Year 2006
Friday Poll No.3 - What's Your Favourite Medium To Work In?
Friday Poll No.2 - Agency Of The Year
Friday Poll No.1 - Which Department Is The Most Overpaid?

The 10 Biggest Cocks In Advertising

Oh my days this is funny.

Swearing is funny. Fact.

David Beckham - Emotion In Advertising

The new adidas David Beckham ad broke last night. I think it's great.

Why? Because he's not afraid to show his emotions.

Nothing's more powerful than genuine emotion (or harder to elicit from sports stars - hats off to 180 Amsterdam for getting it).

Makes me wonder why we don't use emotion more. After all, most purchasing decisions are emotionally not rationally driven. David Bonney is building up a collection of sad/ emotional ads. Maybe that will help.

P.S. the last time I got a bit emotional myself was... earlier this morning, when I watched an entire ad break from 1982 over at FishNChimps. Oh, the nostalgia. Worth visiting. Chimpy writes a nice commentary on it too.

Tuesday Tip No.14 - Make Friends With Traffic

When I was first starting out, I asked a senior creative - "Who's it better to be really in with - the Account Handlers or the Planners?"

His reply - "Traffic."

Of course you should make friends with everybody. But especially make friends with Traffic (or Progress, Workflow, Project Management, they go by different names in different agencies).

Here's 5 reasons why.

1. They know when the good briefs are coming up. If they like you, they might even give you one of them.

2. If you like gossip (and let's face it, you do) they can tell you who is about to be fired, who is bunking up with who, etc.

3. They know which juicy brief a senior team is struggling on. Prepare to jump in.

4. It will do you good to talk to someone who isn't called Tarquin or Julian for a change.

5. They can, if asked nicely, give you more of the most precious commodity of all. Time.

So make friends with Traffic. It's really worth it.

Tip No. 13 - Get Reference
Tip No. 12 - Don't Stop Too Soon
Tip No.11 - Be Very
Tip No.10 - Breaking Up
Tip No.9 - Working Well With Your Partner
Tip No.8 - Finding The Right Partner
Tip No.7 - How To Approach Agencies
Tip No.6 - Never-Seen-Before Footage
Tip No.5 - Dicketts' Finger
Tip No.4 - Two Blokes In The Pub
Tip No.3 - Play Family Fortunes
Tip No.2 - Should You Take A Bad Job?
Tip No.1 - Don't Overpolish

World's Wittiest Copywriter?

Saw an old movie over the weekend - Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House - in which advertising copywriter Cary Grant experiences mildly amusing difficulties with builders.

But there's a rather more amusing (for us) subplot, in which Grant is required to come up with a slogan for a ham product called 'Wham'.

The deadline? Well, he's given six months to come up with the idea. That's right, folks, six months.

Second, it seems that no campaign idea or even a visual is needed. Nope, just a slogan. No 360 degree thinking in 1948, no Sir, no way.

And the winning tagline? It springs fully-formed from the mouth of the family's black maid (!)

"If you ain't eatin' Wham, you ain't eatin' ham."

Friday Poll - March Madness

Techno! Techno! Techno! Techno!

The result of last week's poll shows that Dance music is the most popular kind for readers of this blog to listen to at work.

I don't know if this means you're all very young, or very trendy. No doubt both.

In second place, was No Music. Perhaps these people work (or are trying to) just down the hall from the aforementioned?


This week's poll, as we enter the month of March, is about madness.

Which department is the most cracked?

Is it those crazy Creatives - or are they merely faking madness in a bid to appear creative?

Or is it the Planners who are insane, as all clever people in Hollywood movies have to be?

Or are Account Handlers the crazy ones, for taking a job where they get treated like s*** the whole time?

Vote now, in the top right hand corner of your screen.

Previous poll results:

Friday Poll No.11 - What Time Do You Get In?
Friday Poll No.10 - Who Drinks The Most?
Friday Poll No.9 - Press v Online
Friday Poll No.8 - Success Or Glory?
Friday Poll No.7 - Is Reading Blogs A Waste Of Time?
Friday Poll No.6 - Job Satisfaction
Friday Poll No.5 - Festive Greetings
Friday Poll No.4 - Ad Of The Year 2006
Friday Poll No.3 - What's Your Favourite Medium To Work In?
Friday Poll No.2 - Agency Of The Year
Friday Poll No.1 - Which Department Is The Most Overpaid?

Communications Past Their Use-By Date

Going through the 2005 D&AD Annual the other day, I found this Tesco ad.


Remarkable to think that, only a couple of years ago, Tesco were boasting their peas are flown in from Guatemala.

Going back further, check out these hilarious Weight Watchers recipe cards from 1974 (via Rachel L).

This one depicts that delicious snack, frozen coffee.


There's no doubting it.

95% of what we do is going to end up looking very funny, or very weird.

Angryman

Discovered a great new blog via Life In The Middle called YOU PISSED ME OFF, YOU BASTARD in which the writer, who styles himself 'Angryman', has a good old pop at bus drivers, junk mail, dentists... basically anyone who pisses him off.

He also quotes this wonderfully funny urban myth of rage.

When you occasionally have a really bad day, and you just need to take it out on someone, don't take it out on someone you know -- take it out on someone you don't know.
I was sitting at my desk when I remembered a phone call I had forgotten to make. I found the number and dialed it.
A man answered, saying, "Hello."
I politely said, "Could I please speak with Robin Carter?"
Suddenly, the phone was slammed down on me.
I couldn't believe that anyone could be so rude. I realized I had called the wrong number. I tracked down Robin's correct number and called her. I had accidentally transposed the last two digits of her phone number. After hanging up with her, I decided to call the 'wrong' number again. When the same guy answered the phone, I yelled, "You're an asshole!" and hung up.
I wrote his number down with the word 'asshole' next to it, and put it in my desk drawer.
Every couple of weeks, when I was paying bills or had a really bad day, I'd call him up and yell, "You're an asshole!" It always cheered me up.
When Caller ID came to our area, I thought my therapeutic 'asshole'calling would have to stop. So, I called his number and said, "Hi, this is John Smith from the Telephone Company. I'm just calling to see if you're familiar with the Caller ID program?"
He yelled, "NO!" and slammed the phone down.
I quickly called him back and said, "That's because you're an asshole!"
One day I was at the store, getting ready to pull into a parking spot. Some guy in a black BMW cut me off and pulled into the spot I had patiently waited for.. I hit the horn and yelled that I had been waiting for that spot. The idiot ignored me. I noticed a "For Sale" sign in his car window. .. so, I wrote down his number.
A couple of days later, right after calling the first asshole (I had his number on speed dial), I thought I had better call the BMW asshole, too. I said, "Is this the man with the black BMW for sale?"
"Yes, it is."
Can you tell me where I can see it?"
"Yes, I live at 1802 West 34th Street. It's a yellow house, and the car's parked right out in front."
"What's your name?" I asked.
"My name is Don Hansen," he said.
"When's a good time to catch you, Don?"
"I'm home every evening after five."
"Listen, Don, can I tell you something?"
"Yes?"
"Don, you're an asshole."
Then I hung up, and added his number to my speed dial, too. Now, when I had a problem, I had two assholes to call. But after several months of calling them, it wasn't as enjoyable as it used to be.
So, I came up with an idea. I called Asshole #1.
"Hello."
"You're an asshole!" (But I didn't hang up.)
"Are you still there?" he asked.
"Stop calling me," he screamed.
"Make me," I said.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"Don Hansen.."
"Yeah? Where do you live?"
"Asshole, I live at 1802 West 34th Street, a yellow house, with a black Beamer parked in front."
He said, "I'm coming over right now, Don. And you had better start saying your prayers."
I said, "Yeah, like I'm really scared, asshole."
Then I called Asshole #2.
"Hello?" he said.
"Hello, asshole," I said.
He yelled, "If I ever find out who you are...!"
"You'll what?" I said.
"I'll kick your ass," he exclaimed.
I answered, "Well, asshole, here's your chance. I'm coming over right now."
Then I hung up and immediately called the police, saying that I lived at
1802 West 34th Street, and that I was on my way over there to kill my gay lover.

Tuesday Tip No.13 - Get Reference

You had the idea, so you know what the ad will look like. But no one else does. That means everyone will start visualising it in their own individual way, and might start arguing for it to be executed in their own individual way. You don't want that. You want it your way.

So get reference.

If people don't know what your ad is going to look like, they might not understand it quite as well as they should, so they might not like it as much as they should, so they might fail to sell it / buy it.

Get reference.

Some of the people you present your ideas to are perfectly capable of visualising from a script or scamp. But some aren't. There are lots of people in this business who are great at marketing or strategy or account handling but who couldn't visualise a red arse unless you show them a picture of somebody being spanked. (This doesn't make them bad people, incidentally. They just need your help.)

Get reference.

All right, Scamp, you've convinced me. I'll get hold of a piece of film or something. But not just yet. I'll get it when the idea is about to go to client, okay?

No. Get it now. John Webster never showed any idea to anybody without reference. From the very beginning of the process, he made people 'see it' - and he made them see it his way.

Tip No. 12 - Don't Stop Too Soon
Tip No.11 - Be Very
Tip No.10 - Breaking Up
Tip No.9 - Working Well With Your Partner
Tip No.8 - Finding The Right Partner
Tip No.7 - How To Approach Agencies
Tip No.6 - Never-Seen-Before Footage
Tip No.5 - Dicketts' Finger
Tip No.4 - Two Blokes In The Pub
Tip No.3 - Play Family Fortunes
Tip No.2 - Should You Take A Bad Job?
Tip No.1 - Don't Overpolish

An Ad Director Writes

It was the Oscars last night. A place where many ad directors hope to end up walking on stage. Sadly, none did this time.

But despite the cliche definition of a commercials director - person who can snort a line of coke thicker than their ponytail - most of them do actually care very deeply about film.

A director called Wayne writes an interesting blog.

My favourite post is his most recent one, a very astute critique of the film Babel.

Wayne totally nails the film's lack of emotional truth.

Sorry, Brad.