Beauty In Everyday Things..

The finest ale in the land.

Or, 'It's the little differences that matter'.

So...you've read some books on advertising, checked out what the billings and comings and goings are at in the agency world. You read Campaign, and know about the creative process (that is to say, how good and bad ads come about).

Yet, you are still missing a valuable weapon. Particularly if you have designs on becoming more than someone who does admin and nothing else.

That weapon is an appreciation (cue the American Beauty soundtrack) of how little things make experiences more worthwhile. The picture above is a little ticket which was apologising for the lack of the distinctive bottles that the ale usually comes in (another reason to love it).

Now, knowing about the little differences may not get you a job (you still have to do the leg work). But imagine, if after discussing your favourite ad and whatever, you drop in that your favourite brand has done something to make you happy - whether it's a clever piece of ambient or an inspired bit of DM. It's something which means you are thinking (much as I hate the term) holistically - about how experiences, not 30 second TV spots, necessarily, help build brands.

Be careful not to overstate though. The clever tag above was charming, but only because I have drunk the beer before - how would my reaction have changed if I'd never tried the stuff before? (Probably not a lot in this case, as I loved the ale). And it's a tiny tiny thing in the world of the brand - but these real life, experential devices are growing in popularity, and you should be aware of them.

What brands have affected you in this way? If not, what could your favourite brands do?

For those who are interested - that pint was from the St Peters Brewery, served at a pub called Jerusalem; surely one of London's finest.

Application Form Cool

A really good question from Gemma on the AdGrads Facebook group about application form questions got me thinking. So I wrote this over at AdLads but thought it may be pertinent to put it here as well.

How To Be Cool

A bit of an ambitious title huh? Yeah I think so too. But see, I’ve been thinking a lot about cool; not the word, maybe not even the concept, but the connotation. What is cool? It’s all so subjective right? But I think cool is pretty closely related to confidence. They even go together well in a sentence; cool and confident..see? I may be onto something. And you can make an argument about creativity being very closely related to cool and confident, maybe like first cousin-close. And then it’s pretty clear that cool, is well for want of a better expression, pretty damn cool.

What has really got me thinking about all this is the mad season that is graduate recruitment. I’m trawling through applications that ask me questions like ‘How do you sell coal to an eskimo?’ or ‘Which superhero would you be?’ and thinking ‘What the hell do I write here?’. That combined with something my main main Richy B said a while back, something along the lines of ‘We get along because we know cool when we see it’ got me thinking about what cool is and how you can be cool.It’s simple really, cool is inside every single one of us. Really. It’s about being self-aware, and being self-aware is something I go on about a lot to Anton, Will, Alex, all y’all who read the blog and pretty much everyone I know. But I’ll say it again, being self-aware, and really knowing what you’re good at and what you’re not is one of the most powerful tools you can have in your life, forget about career type things. So you’re self-aware and you know what you’re good at. Be confident in it, like really really confident. Ooze that stuff.

Confidence is one of those things that is really easy to see through if it’s false bravado, and confidence masked with arrogance is like me on a Sunday night in front of the TV watching the NFL: right in your face. So real confidence is easily spotted and comes naturally, because that’s what it’s the product of, being naturally at ease with something you know you’re good at. And that’s where creativity comes in. Think of everything you’ve seen that you consider to be creative. Was it forced? Awkwardly out of place? Not at all. It was really at ease with itself, natural even.

At this point I’m sitting here smiling because I think this post is coming together now, it’s a load of psycho-babble maybe, probably even. But I think it makes sense. And it’s right at this point where I can get to the crux of the matter, when y’all are sitting there trying to figure out a way to be creative and cool and original when answering a question on an application form / coming up with an idea for something at work / for anything at all, remember

• The things that come easiest to you are the things that are natural. No matter how people will try and put you into boxes ‘numerate’ ‘orator’ etc, everyone is creative, every single one of us. So be natural and take yourself out of the boxes that you’ve been put into, sit outside, sit on your bed, sit on a couch, sit in the bath with a notebook - wherever you feel at ease is where you’ll be in the most natural frame of mind. Go to that place (be it mental, physical or both) and just zone. And you’ll find (and trust me, every single one of us will) that you’ll be more creative than you thought you could be.
• Natural is confident, confidence is natural and both of them are pretty damn sexy.
• Natural, creative and confidence are so intertwined it’s not a coincidence, they all stem from the same thing; being at ease with yourself.
• Find out what it is about yourself that makes you without question you, like patent-pending you, what about your life has made you who you are? That’s your gold-mine and that is where you need to be knee deep in sifting for the nuggest of the good stuff, because that’s where you’ll be most confident, most unique, most effortless, most cool and most you.
• Take this feeling of confidence outside the box of ‘work’ and things will seem almost effortless compared to what they were before.

So take it from someone who used to be so uptight about things I used to work myself into a frenzy about how to be original. All you have to do is be the thing that comes most naturally to you. I’m no good at being anything but me. To everyone that matters and in everything that matters, that’s always more than enough. And that is pretty damn cool.

Brand Republic Ahoy

This picture may have nothing to do with the post. But I took it and think it's damn cool.

After much procrastination on my part, the first post for the Brand Republic edition of AdGrads is up. I'll put the first post up here but for future posts we'll whack the links here for you guys to go check it out over there. That made sense when I wrote it, I swear.

W1, We Have a Problem..

When thinking about what to write about as a first blog post on Brand Republic, I toyed with a few ideas. Maybe a bit about each of us and why we started the AdGrads blog in the first place? Or perhaps we should let one our stars tell their stories about how they got into the industry?

But what swayed me was something that happened today. I walked back into university for the second day of my final year, and was guided to the careers service, where I was informed that this week was finalist career week - and over 100 companies would be giving sessions about their companies to students from Warwick, Aston and Birmingham universities.

After a quick question to one of the staff members, I was told that the number of final year students in these three universities was in excess of 10,000, all who had been emailed details of the week and (hopefully) a good chunk of them interested in what life after university entails.

And guess what? Not one piece of literature, not one prospective employer, not one reference to advertising. 10,000 finalists, more than a hundred companies, and nothing from the advertising industry.

In a nutshell, that is why Will, Anton and Alex and myself set up AdGrads, because as hard as it is for anyone to hear the brutal truth about themselves, the industry is not doing nearly enough to help themselves find the best graduates. Not nearly enough, and today was another example of that. There is a gap in the market for educating students about how amazing the advertising industry is as a career choice and why the often obtuse application forms are worthy of their time and effort. If there wasn't a gap, then to be honest, this blog probably wouldn't exist. We are here because there is a problem.

The reality of the situation now is that the advertising industry is not on a level playing field. Banking, consultancy, accountancy et al are a good way ahead in communicating, educating and ultimately recruiting the cream of the graduate crop. Advertising as an industry now has to try and kick start their drive to get the best talent, and that means doing the things they can do the best: getting creative.

Both individual agencies and the industry as a whole have to ask themselves one question: Do we really want to attract the best? If the answer is yes, then go in wholeheartedly and do it. Utilise all the tools at your disposal and get the word out there.

Brand Republic's online careers fair is a great example of how to get things started, as it acknowledges that the internet and all things digital are media that we have grown up with. As we live and we breathe it everyday, adopting these channels to get to us is a wise move. Agencies; use your talent in creating innovative solutions to your clients' problems to help create a solution to your biggest problem, because the gap will only get bigger if things keep going as they are. That may be a bitter pill to swallow for the industry.

But the truth sometimes is.

"Early to bed, early to rise.....

c’mon kids, let’s advertise” or so the cheddar saying goes, thing is I can remember the early rise bit just not the early to bed bit. Having said that the myths of the chronic hours or the sweat shop mentality which are whispered in university corridors or in the reception of agencies between rival applicants are somewhat blown out of proportion. It is most certainly true that some agencies in particular are worse than others and will work you hard as they can but the majority fall within the humanitarian side of 2007.

However, it mustn’t be sugar coated. There is certainly sometimes the need when you start to be prepared to stay that bit later than most, to stick with the guys in studio who are doing the run outs over night which are to be presented tomorrow, to work on sourcing images for research projects, so that in the morning you can hand them to your planner instead of struggle through the day. What this really boils down to is distraction and not necessarily the extent of work that you are loaded up with. For example I have quite a large project going on which involves the whole account team and senior clients, if I were spared a clear day I could storm it, but other requests keep coming in – a European office needing UK market analysis, the research side of my client requiring competitive positioning analysis, the other account I work on needing me in a brain storm (not being able to make it so having to write up some thoughts). The point being that the only time I can get some space to sit down and focus on one task is when the clock strikes a time that everyone is out of the office and it’s just me and a non ringing phone.

So, whilst time management is essential sometimes you won’t be able to escape the inevitable which is to put in some dark hours to get through your work load. It’s not that bad, there is a sense of achievement leaving late knowing you got everything done lined up for the next day rather than leave feeling that little bit shit about your day and lack of completion. Some say that it’s bad to be seen working late….I’m sure none of you would be there if you didn’t have to be so those wise words can fck right off, do what you have to and don’t be too alarmed that some say advertising is a slave trade. It’s just a hard working trade for hard working people, the upside is that the people in advertising generally like to let their hair down more than most... and I’d rather work late and enjoy their company than say work late and hang out with those in the finance world…..urgh.

Anton xx

The IPA's Essential Graduate Reading

Statcounter's trusty referrals feature has informed me that the IPA have released a newsletter that has all sorts of advertising related reading for y'all to catch up on.

It should be here.

And yeah, we're on there as well. That is damn cool.

My First Year in Media (MKII)

So after our entertaining, fast speaking Wii fest round Anton's on Saturday it became apparent that I had started this but not finished just about sums up how busy things can get when you 'inside'. Nah just kidding, media agencies aren't really like prisons. Plus I have no internet at home and suddenly everyone has realised how to activate the wireless WPA security setting. rubbish.

It's been nearly 13 months since I set foot in Adland and I reckon its been very 50:50. 28 weeks of feeling on top of the world, learning about New Media opportunities, opening numerous gifts from media owners in the post, gobbling the odd doughnut and of course - L U N C H.
But rolling back to back with 28 weeks of standard, business as usual, media-schedule-tennis and autopilot mode, but hey, that's work and the odds are you will get that in most jobs.

So I thought I could shed some light on what being a Media Planner is all about and offer an honest view of the discipline. Let's not hide around any towels here people - In an ideal world I would have jumped straight into creative. What induced my consideration of media planning was actually my fascination of guerrilla/ambient/experiential campaigns. You've probably seen the emails with various global stunts or flicked through Guerilla Advertising in Magma stores, - yep, im a big fan. The low cost, the outdoorness (get used to new words just being pulled out of the air), the standout, the viral/chat factor, the piggy-back PR when Metro pick up on it. It ticks most boxes in my opinion. Anyway I was informed that it is media agencies that plan and think about these and was also advised that with today's fragmented media landscape and growing relevance of ROI, (pffft sorry!) Media will be a more interesting and exciting place to work than it ever has been.

Which to a certain extent is true. I have been lucky with the nature of the clients that I am working on and we have dabbled in some exciting outdoor projection formats and there have been talks of bringing FunHouse back. Shhh don't get too excited.
We do also need to develop and study consumer insights (big shout to Anton for the definition), perhaps not as in-depth as creative agencies but just as important. These are then considered for the overall media strategy and aimed to be supported with research - media agencies love research tools, they may invest millions in developing their own or buying existing systems but they all require patience, analytical skills and close attention to detail.

Working closely with various media departments allows you to really grasp how each channel works and in what context, I guess when factoring in the target audience, becomes very useful to determining what client you want to be on the creative team for. All very well having the big name Agency on your CV but how interested will you be with a client that spends 80% of their budget on doordrops and inserts??

Another positive of media planning is the level of creative input you get. When you meet the A(dgrad) Team you will realise that we are all bursting with ideas - and hopefully you guys are too. To be honest, I've no idea of the level of creative input in the different roles at creative agencies. Most Grad roles are in account handling or planning - planning is the most obvious, but at such a junior level are you really going to have a significant input? Perhaps Anton could enlighten us on the first year of planning??
Media is different. The output of channel planning may seem like common sense to a lot of you and essentially it is. New Hybrid Lawnmower? (fck what a good idea!)... obviously want a full colour page in BBC Gardener's World Magazine. Both agency and client may already have in mind some particular programming that needs to be cherry picked.
The excitement begins with the brainstorms about the extra/unallocated/experiemntal (?) budget and how it should be spent. Here I've been to several create sessions where ideas are thrown left right and centre, role play, touch and taste sensations, mind mapping. And sometimes your idea will actually get to a proposed schedule... quite a good tingly gooey feeling.

So it can be interesting, trust me. Just keep in mind that (and this may seem condescending but HR did tell us of grads that aren't aware of it) WE DON'T MAKE THE ADS!!
As a cheddar G.I Joe analogy - creatives make the missiles, we aim and fire them. Yes sometimes perfectly good missiles are fired into the sea but more often than not the missile will hit but not be damaging enough. Capishe?

I think I'm going to stop here. Instead of a cons of media planning as promised I'd rather do a 'what to watch out for' type post for all of you. Feel free to ignore, pass around or comment on.

Tonight? Salmon and Arsenal.

Something From The Weekend

Here we are.

We spent the day of rest at Anton's love shack in the East End, where he served up some rockin' salmon and played the part of the host like a pro.

In betwix the conversation and videogame themed shenanigans, we managed to record a podcast, with some (very basic) pointers on all things application forms. That podcast will be edited and whacked up here very soon. We hope.

Also we're planning an AdGrads shindig on Saturday, November 3 - it will be half work and all play, so book that day off. We're hoping to make it really useful for all of you guys. 

And finally, we've set up a Facebook group for you guys to give us some feedback on the podcast, the forthcoming (we haven't forgotten it) wiki and all things AdGrads related. 

It's a closed group and we're going to keep it totally on topic, so no spamming action will be had. 

Join it here and tell all your application-type friends.