Process 16th - 20th June

Process is going well. With national media exposure and postive audience responses.

The atmosphere and audience responses at the VIP night was superberb, with the (process one)  chalkboard installation being successful as the audience (of all ages) were interacting and co-creating  it with the coloured chalks. It was also great to see and hear both rooms being well-received by college governors, industry professionals and friends and family alike.

Well done to Grace King for having a mention in the Guardian and Anna & Sophie (AScreative) being spotted by Creative Review.


We are now looking forward to exhibiting at New Blood 2014.

A new Erasmus opportunity

Ravensburg, what a charming little place. A very well preserved historic town centre welcomes you to explore its fascinating buildings and medieval fortifications. The old town has three main gates and over 10 towers to visit and discover. This once very important trading centre hosted the "Great Ravensburg Trading Society" which owned many shops and trading companies across Europe.

It is a pleasure listening to the locals telling you all about it, whilst absorbing their sense of pride for the area and the famous people that once inhabited.

In Revensburg I've met  Professor Dr. Markus Rathgeb, which runs the Media Design programme at DHBW.  Among other things we discussed details to set up a new Erasmus partnership and exchange programme.

You must know by now that I'm very committed to get the Creative Advertising course to develop links and collaborations with foreign Institutions, as in my view opportunities like these will enrich your experience as students.








The Media design programme offers a range of modules to choose from which span from typography to illustration, from video editing and film to marketing and screen design.

 Hopefully we will be able to offer Ravensburg as an additional destination from September 2014. So keep your eye open and apply as soon as the opportunity becomes available. 

 Next stop? Croatia...

 

Achievement in Europe; Danielle receives academic diploma from edcom

Danielle Jackson has scooped another diploma for BA Creative Advertising at LCA, this time from Edcom (European Institute for Commercial Communications in Education), achieving third in the thesis competition.

 If you recall Danielle was a YCN winner in 2013 with her partner Kaitlin for the UGG for men campaign, but just prior to entering that competition she'd completed her dissertation Identity for Sale (follow link to see an online research poster of her study).

Danielle became a finalist having got through the national competition stage and ended with third place in the European final. This is an outstanding academic achievement, of which we are very proud. Danielle is a great all-rounder, her creativity is a product of an informed, analytical and inquisitive mind and her performance reflects the aspirations and philosophy of our course and college; success through creativity.

Edcom is an organisation that promotes excellence in the communications sector by encouraging exchanges (competitions, conferences, summer schools etc.) between academia and industry.  BA Creative Advertising became an Edcom member in 2013 through our new course leader Fabio Fragiacomo. These achievements of Danielle indicate the quality of our student’s work, and why not share this beyond UK boundries?

WELL DONE DANIELLE!! (I did warn her I'd shout about it).

Art inquiry in Liverpool

On March 11th level 4 took a day tripper to see some art in Liverpool; first stop, Albert Dock where we viewed Keywords at the Tate, then on to Lady Lever to the original 'soap paintings'.

It was a beautiful sunny day and the turquoise Mersey looked quite picturesque against the red brick mass of the dock buildings ( by Leeds architect Jesse Hartley). Keywords took its starting point from RaymondWilliams book (ref 306 WIL in college library) showing works from 1976-1996, leaving the audience to build connections from the following words; structural, private, folk, violence, criticism, liberation, formalist, myth, anthropology, nature, materialism, unconscious & theory.

A topical piece that caught the eye was Visceral Canker1990; by Ronald Rodney, with proximity to 12 yrs a Slave, the Slavery Museum (that a few students wandered to) and the word 'violence' pointing to the start of slavery in the UK colonies. It was interesting that the tube systems weren't connected (between John Hawkins & Queen Elizabeth I). This piece was adjacent to 'folk' with Peter Kennard’s Haywain with Cruise Missiles 1980.

At the Lady Lever, after a warm introduction by Carol (education officer) we stood around Millet's Bubbles (depicting the artists grandson), listening to how Lever was a social reformer bringing art to the people via advertising. At a time when art was for the elite (through the new printing technologies) Lever provided access to art, as the masses saved their vouchers from Sunlight soap to get their copy of a contemporary art piece. Lever’s self-enlightened approach has some similarities to  the 'new' principles underpinning advertising by Nike, using new media to enhance people’s lives. 

Despite delays on the M62, a successful day had by all. Students are now invited to reply to this post with their responses to art objects they encounter that sunny day in March...

Tour de France visit to Kettlewell

Yesterday was a good day, a very good day - Monday 24th Feb 2014
As part of a collaboration project with L'Aquilla students in Italy, the LCA students had a blast in the wild, windswept but gorgeous countryside of Yorkshire.
We are working collaboratively on a brief to advertise Yorkshire's Le Grand Depart to Italian tourists and Italian cycle enthusiasts... So, what more could we do as a course than to physically take ourselves out and experience the wonders on offer, the wonders of Yorkshire - we followed the Tour de France route from Leeds to Kettlewell - by bus, not cycle I hasten to add!
We stopped in Kettlewell, where we worked in the Bluebell Inn, lunch, more work, a bit of a wonder around the scenic village made famous by being the heart of the film Calendar Girls, and soon to be the heart of the Tour de France as the pelletron speeds through at an average speed of 40km/h.
We then walked - well, I say walked, it was more slid, slipped, rolled, tumbled, fell and ran through the countryside along the valley from Kettlewell to Starbottom on a round circuit that should have take about a third as long as it actually did. It was an experience for all. It was fun. Educational. It brought the positives to light and it was a great experience for all - an experience that our students can now share with their fellow team-mates in Italy!

There is no finer way of researching and driving enthusiasm for a creative brief than to experience it for yourself, and when that brief is such a delight it is even better.

Can't wait for the next one... shall we advertise the World Cup in Brazil next, that would be another quite nice trip.

All in a golden afternoon with Futurerising...

 

 On Friday 5th February, creative advertising at LCA were given a treat; an event designed by Futurerising - where lots of authentic, no nonsense advice was given by Jeremy Garner (CD Weapon7, Michaela Nicchiotti (Creative, Cheil Worldwide) and Eddie Fisher (Creative, W+K) , along with an hour 'hit'.  Read on to reflect on this truly golden afternoon...

 

After a warm-up outlining the structures of the creative advertising industry by Donald (futurerising), Jeremy offered five words 'to keep things easy'; Risk, Trust, Oppose, Story and Absorb. He illustrated each point with reference to a campaign; with Risk he gave us the catch - Trust - smart skate for two , Oppose - a bit of 180 degree thinking for UNICEF , Story - Dynamo vs Coulthard adding  "always storyboard stuff", asserting storytelling as especially important today where media is so fragmented . For Absorb he urges us to break outside the industry in order to keep our creativity interesing, giving examples of his other creative projects paintings (Jelly Buckingham) and writing thrillers (alias, Seth Garner).

 

The break out session gave an exciting buzz to the afternoon, where LCA creatives worked in teams on either 'UP' by Jawbone, the Nike Fuelband or Fitbit. After which teams had a mere 90 seconds to pitch their idea infront of their peers and the three professionals. The winners; Cicely, Bill, George & Harvey (featured) came up with an interesting idea for UP where mums are made redundant with a social media element involving P45s being sent via Mumsnet. Congrats again and we trust you enjoyed the wine!

 

Michela offered us some insightful creative  solutions with new media, from not getting your hands dirty while baking cakes (with motion sensors on the ipad to turn pages on recipes) to setting challengs with  bake brave . There was also a romantic idea with the message involving geo taging notes a place to the one you love and sending the location via google maps for (only) them to find. Michela advises lots of book crits, which gives exposure and like Jeremy, to work on a personal (creative) project.  

 

 Finally, Eddie gave a sizzling presentation on approaching agencies and turning  placements into jobs. Eddie and his creative partner had about 10 placements in 18mths and then were offered a job by VCCP creating things like the galloping Cow; from there they moved to W+K. He then offered six principles which conflate into; getting a job as a creative needs hard graft, get as many placements as possible, keep developing your book, get the timing right, don't get complacent (kills creativity) and keep your creative curiosity going by being a sponge (echoing Fink, Hegarty and Garner) - generally do the opposite of what is 'usual', reading genres you wouldn’t usually choose* etc. - with an aim to become a well-rounded creative.  Other advice which we've heard before was 'be nice' -become a crucial member of a team (this takes time and lots of placement experience), manage time and he ended by reminding students, level 6 (3rd years) they have 17 weeks left and the level 5, 54 weeks to 'smash it'.

 

 Subsequently (6^th Feb) Fisher sent an email (forwarded to you by Fabio titled useful links from Eddie Fisher) – read it and check out these photos of our afternoon. We know each of you took something from this event (for some, red wine) which is perfect timing for the Personal and Professional Practice modules (that is the advice, not the wine).

  

*Following Fisher's advice, why not join our course bookclub to read stuff you may not usually choose? We’re currently reading 'The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult our next meeting is 24th April in the green studio (with windows). Emily Hall (Level 4) had a great idea to launch the club with wet sponges detailing the next book, which lends itself to a bit of user generated content -  we look forward to the videos...

Sir John Hegarty's Keynote are key themes of Behind the glass Mosaic 1913 2013

Sir John Hegarty gave an interesting and inspirational speech yesterday at Leeds Town Hall, for the 2013 graduation ceremony of Leeds College of Art. 


Hegarty eloquently touched on a key theme of the forthcoming exhibition Behind the glass Mosaic 1913  2013; the nature of creativity.

The starting point of the exhibition are the words of artist and art educator Gordon Forsyth (1879-1952), who in 1913 said something similar about the nature of creativity -also to a group of art students in a town hall (in Stoke). Forsyth said 'art was [...] the embodiment of the spiritual aspirations of life' and is cultivated from the inner self.

Both Forsyth and Hegarty have objected to those who try and subjugate art to science; art is immeasurable. A theme of the exhibition is the challenge of making visible the essence of art education that exists in dialogue, actions and happenings that set the stage for creativity to occur. 

Hegarty like Jagodzinski (2013) and Dafiotis (2013) assert that by it's very nature creativity cannot be defined.

Tutors presently working at Leeds College of Art were asked to respond to the question; does your creative practice inform your learning design? The exhibition evidences the responses of nine tutors, which is contextualised in debates surrounding art education in 1913 and 2013.


 You are invited to enjoy a glass of fizz at the preview of Behind the glass Mosaic 1913  2013, at Blenheim Walk - Friday 13th Dec 4pm - 5pm. The exhibition runs till 14th January.

YCN success; work hard and be nice

Kaitlin Piltcher and Danielle Jackson received a well-deserved commendation from YCN at the awards night on tues 2nd Sept. They were among 9 from LCA.

The Awards were presented by various YCN members including Lord Whitney (based in Leeds) who also styled the event - inspired by King Midas  turning everything gold (including  random objects found in  table displays).

The lovely Anna and Felicity from UGG, who were sat at our table were full of compliments for their work, they also kindly gave the course a new UGG brief -  just one of the smashing treats we have up our sleeves for 13/14!

We all enjoyed a lovely posh meal laid on by the Marriot Hotel, in Grovesnor square. After the main course Danielle and Kaitlin were presented with their golden medals and certificates (see quality photo above). Then we had our pud.

 Their outstanding UGG campaign will be published in the forthcoming YCN annual, so look out for that. In the meantime check out Liv and Steph's work in last years annual. 

Danielle and Kaitlin are currently plotting to target agencies in Manchester, we reckon they're in for a golden future - as long as they take heed of the advice given by many of the presenters that evening; work hard and be nice to people.

Summer Exhibitions; 19 Degrees, New Blood, YBN and more

Is it really a month since the 19 Degrees Exhibition; and 20 days since our début at New Blood with Débutantes?

Blimey.

In the end 19 Degrees,went swimmingly with work catching the eye of many, including Epiphany and Ponderosa.

Likewise, thanks to James Rafter and his co-débutantes we were successfully introduced to New Blood society. Our stand got plenty of interest from industry including; Langlands,Ogilvy, JWT, Publicis and Mother.  Listen below to 4 of our débutantes who were interviewed at New Blood and offer advice to those of you exhibiting next year:

James (project manager) & Alex Legret, Jen Crothers & Zoe Harrison

Summer exhibitions are a great way to refresh the mind. Personally I'm going to check out the Young British Naturists at the White Cloth Gallery - displaying photographs by  Laura Pannack, whose work has featured in campaigns for Dove and Oxfam.

Please leave comments and share your experiences about the exhibitions you visit this summer - hope you have a good one.

Our Beautiful Beattie Boost

Trevor Beattie announced Anna Whyte as the winner during a crit he (kindly) headed in our studios yesterday. Congratulations Anna! You’ve bagged yourself a BMB placement - whoop! 

Jenny Crothers and Gina Martin came second, with Cow Factory getting them a (well-deserved) Sabotage Times -placement through their "gravity of thinking, art direction and adaptation of an idea” whoop!

Copywriter Charlie Frank's Secrets Worth Spreading "lovely work" shared third with an idea that caused  a "visceral reaction" - Kids Can't Keep Their Hands Off -by Lachlan Gilchrist and Chris Russell - whoop!

Beattie's visit not only provided everyone with a boost (as students commented on the confidence it has given their creative practice) we all came away wiser. For instance, Trevor made a few comments regarding the size of creative teams', as Cicely, Damien and Bill presented their Perfect Fit, he complimented their 3-person team, stating "We've got a few at BMB". He later said that over the next three years the industry standard will be for creative individuals to work in different-sized teams.

After a public vote on 'creativity' and 'presentation' skills- where everyone was a bit too modest, Trevor gave his critical evaluation (showing critical awareness of the highest order in motion). Firstly, he pointed to a number of underdeveloped ideas; Grace's Pet Cow was "undersold and undercooked" and he could "see the film and that's when you know it's a great idea". Sam's Callier's three; Explore beyond, She has her mother's eyes and Picnicking Clone Troopers - were all potential greats and Alex and Zoe's Most Generous Kid in the World was "a mature piece of thinking".

The images that will stay with him forever include, Geoffrey sucking the cows teat and what the real arms (within Lachlan and Chris's work) were doing - as opposed to the papier-mâché ones - adding "truly disturbing".

Anna's ideas won simply due to their volume and greatness including; When I grow up I want to be Dairylea, The Cracker in Love With Mary Lea, Dairy Lea T Party and Mum Sneaking Dairylea.

Beattie's generosity spilled out from the studio into the pub - treating everyone to drinks. Where, for a brief moment I personally was transported from the Library Pub in Leeds to a bar in Covent Garden, discussing BMB current pitches, with one of the best creative minds in the world. Thanks for the Boost Trevor and see you next year – or maybe at New Blood? X

Janine Sykes

Year Tutor

'Creative Tools' when freelancing.

For some students the 'Creative Tools' might not at first seem relevant or important to the process of 'Creative Thinking'.

I've been using them throughout my career, but not with the names that we've given them or withiut actually realising they exist outside of my mind. Sometimes what may seem like intuition to me, can be ascribed to a 'Creative Tool. So they are useful and are great aids to call upon, particularly when freelancing.

Of all the creative tools we ask our students to explore, There's one I use quite a lot when freelancing - 100mph Thinking. The reason for this is it's the best way to get down as many ideas as possible. This can be quite useful when I only have one day to produce initial ideas for a client presentation. If I'm lucky I might get 2 days to generate ideas, so again it proves very useful.

Research is also very important and I've used this to great effect, again when there's little time to explore many routes. Primary research has led me to many ideas, which I wouldn't have arrived at without first reading about the problem/product etc etc...

So use them, get to know them, and you'll find it becomes second nature when looking for creative solutions.

Advertising Week - a time to be social

Trevor Beattie opened the Advertising Week conference yesterday with an announcement that the 30-second-ad is dead.

You can get involved in the event by joining the advertising week social club; through the blog (check out the student area) and/or facebook and linkedIn.

The blog gives you access to many of the sessions and the AWSC  linkedIn enables you to join in discussions.

Go on, be social and maybe even leave a comment about something interesting you come across...

Where does 'creativity' come from

I don't know if you watched this Horizon programme, but you should.

A fascinating insight into how the brain works and how and where 'creativity' happens.

A few great examples of how we can harness the power of creativity and make it work for us.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mgxf

Advertising is not an Art form

Superstitions are habits rather than beliefs - Marlene Dietrich

Tiffiny Jenkins, asserted last night that advertising is not an art form. Jenkins was part of the panel which eloquently presented the What is good Art? debate at Leeds City Art Gallery.

A truth

Jenkins began the debate outlining that contemporary art critics and commentators are resistant to exclaim their judgements on what is good. Progressing to outline three aspects that judgements entail; a contextual understanding of art, contemporary experience and knowledge  and an understanding that good art speaks a truth. Immediately, I recalled Hegarty during a talk at LCA (2010) stating that creative advertising tells a truth in an interesting way - which is the first point I want to make in support of creative advertising being an art form.

Creative circle

Nigel Walsh unpacked the importance of context to aesthetic judgements, through reflecting back to postwar NY (Tom Wolf, Barnett Newman) and the role of the creative circle. He then pointed at an interesting paradox; our contemporary obsession with celebrity culture (artists) that's resulted in the democratisation of art (diminishing the creative circle) -qualified with the success of Tate Modern, -incidentally a brand judged as 'cool', [good ] by a panel of '39' creative professionals Campaign (2012).  The criteria they used was 'innovation, originality, style, authenticity, desirability and uniqueness' - themes discussed in the debate. 

 Negative Knowledge

Ken Hay, unpicked more complexities regarding criteria and summarised that the interaction between creatives and audiences give meaning to art and that it is this that decides what is good. A view in harmony with this IPA publication. Hay ended with an interesting assertion 'art is the negative knowledge of the world'.  Which again - made me recall Hegarty, who states that Advertising is an Art not a Science -around the time he picked up the Lion of St Mark at the international festival of creativity at Cannes.

Transcending qualities

Antonia Stowe an artist involved in the Trinity Leeds development - (congratulations again Jacob as event manager) asserted the qualities of good art, in transforming Leeds. The transcending qualities of great work such as think small by DDB - springs to mind. Our (Chris, Jane & I) contributions to the debate included are can advertising be good art? and does the creation of good art depend on a particular 'process'? You already know Jenkins' response, adding that advertising cannot transcend time - old adverts are just something to laugh at and are some low form of art -a rather habbitual view I feel. Therefore as a remedy, I recommend a read of Art and Advertising by J. Gibbons who points to creatives such as Tony Kaye who employs methods and themes often associated with high art. I also recommend that we put the panel members on the invitation list to our forthcoming exhibition; 19 degrees from 17th June.

Creative Advertising is an art form

Project manager Alex and partner Zoe (placement RAPP UK) will be pleasantly surprised with the renewed buzz surrounding the final year exhibition, which is to have a presence at New Blood. The proposition for the exhibition 19 degrees; Creative Advertising is an art form is a result of a meeting yesterday. 

Coincidently, on Tuesday, 12th March, 2013 there is a talk at Leeds City Art Gallery which revisits questions that surround aesthetic judgement. Critical awareness is one of those lovely learning objectives on all our briefs and is a skill required of Creative Directors, panels of judges, art educationalists and students - in critical evaluations.

Therefore, the Creative Advertising team intends to attend the talk - run by Leeds Salon and recommends the event to the CA community (alumni and partners). So, time to skim read a bit of Kant and purchase a ticket! That's if your not on the train to the Creative Circle event, which seems to be where most of Level 6 are heading - make sure you don't end up like the Bellarmine (image above).

The talk is connected to the Dawn Chorus exhibition at Leeds City Art Gallery and speakers include cultural commentator Tiffany Jenkins; Curator Nigel Walsh, Deputy Head of the School of Design, Univeristy of Leeds Kenneth Hay and Artist Antonia Stowe.


Image above: Renee So, Drunken Bellarmine, 2012. Wool, acrylic, oak tray frame.
Courtesy Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre London © the artist

Hospitality

Creative Advertising is host to many visitors recently, starting off with Neil Wallace (Art Director, Brass) who kindly came to our studios to give a final crit to Level 5 - Thanks Neil. Then there was Paul from Face, whose talk included some advice about working in creative (online collectives). Then Joel from Link Communications, gave us some interesting insights to experiential marketing. We are also looking forward to a visit from Trevor Beattie, in April who is setting a 24 hr brief to our L5 & L6 creatives.
Hospitality was the theme of Liverpool Biennial 2012 exploring tourism, immigration and being a host. these topics continue through recent visits to York, Liverpool, New York and L'Aquila (well virtually anyway).

Our tourist behaviour includes visiting the NRM to see 'Whatever the weather, selling train travel in winter and  the York Chocolate Story.  More recently during an annual visit (18th Feb), to Liverpool Tate / Albert Dock and  Port Sunlight we came across Thresholds an exhibition that continued the hospitality theme '...throughout all the works ...runs a question of place and identity, name and belonging.

A piece that caused some interest was Royal Ascot (1994) by Mark Wallinger - The video depicted the royal carriage at different years of the races, where the Queen replicated her movements where the BBC seemed to use the same editing formula year-on-year. The repetition explored British identity, class, rituals and history. Interesting stuff for those that need to target audiences with creative ideas...

Christmas Special Something For Everybody

Here are some little stocking fillers for everyone; The Power of Yellow & Lurpack (which is also a bit yellow) for art directors, 26 Fruits blog for story tellers & copywriters (ok I'm cheating with shared presents) and finally da da daaaaah! work by an amazing creative strategist; Richard Buchanan who is interestingly critical of social media.

Happy Christmasmicroandrealdissertationwriting, have a great hollyday
and best wishes, for the brand new year,
Janine

Permission-based mobile advertising, up close and personal

David Jones' views on social and collaborative advertising was the subject of the last post: Advertising Games where Olympic sponsors that used a traditional enforce and command approach were criticised.  Similarly Truong et al (2010) in exploring strategies for digital media find that a 'need to engage in permission-based advertising' is more acceptable as 'people don't use their mobile phone the same way they use the internet or watch TV' (Truong et al, 2010, p714).

This topic rings a bell with me (pardon the pun) as over the summer I have received a bunch of of permission-based mobile ads.  Have you experienced this phenomena too? If so, how does such personalised advertising make you feel? And in terms of creative advertising practice, should/do you use the same strategies to create them?

Here is a sample of the mobile ads I received, each of which have an 'opt-out' option:

Get a free eye test with Optical Express. Click here to book your appointment 13-Jul-12 13:19

Get flexible learning and drive your career forward with a Master's degree from the Open University. Click here for your free guide  Received 14-Jul-12 10:54

 Sort your summer reading list with 10% off when you spend £20 at Waterstones.

Reminder: to stop Bright Stuff messaging, text STOP to 200000 (free to opt out). Received 09-Aug-12 09:58.

  The topic of these ads are as Truong et al (2010) suggest,

 more personalised and contextualised. Advanced adserving technologies ...allow advertisers to target consumers with more relevant and localised messages. (Truong et al, 2010, p715).

Apparently this technology for geolocalisation of individuals has 'set off alarm bells for legislators seeking to prevent the abuse of consumer data and constrain the future of personalisation' (p716). It is unnerving to receive ads that are so relevant and I am not sure I like that sensation. Needless to say I have TxT STOP and opted out of all the ads received. I am however planning on booking an eye test soon!  This is because I was thinking of doing so anyway - but therein lies the beauty of mobile ads, what Fogg (2003) defines of the Kairos factor - presenting the message at the opportune moment.

 According to Jones and Truong et al three screen (TV, internet and mobile) advertising campaigns should not communicate the same advertising message, instead only complimentary content should be created instead. This view resonates with Andy Fowler (Executive Creative Director Brothers and Sisters) who explains that each medium has a different function. Have these views got any implications for your creative practices? For example, how will creating copy for a permission-based mobile advert differ from the method used for a traditional TV or print campaign?
 

Advertising games, David Jones gives social ads gold

David Jones cites the medal winners and losers in the advertising industry today as agencies who've grasped social advertising and those who haven't. Havas recently bought Victors & Spoils the worlds first and largest crowd sourcing agency, who don't have a traditional creative department - instead they use the power of the crowd to get their ideas - check out the V&S Community.

In a recent interview with the BBC Jones CEO of Havas, one of the biggest global advertising agencies gave gold to BBH's don't fly campaign for British Airways as it understood the audience. The commonality that the advertising medal winners have is an awareness to be open, to share and be collaborative.

Losers are brands and agencies that use an enforce and command model, like Visa, whose sponsors rights and privileges have gone too far in only allowing visa payments to be made in the Olympic stadium. The line 'We're proud to only accept Visa' is out-of-touch as it serves to annoy people.

The sponsor MacDonald’s had the privilege of being the only Olympic retailer (out of 800) to sell chips. Jones asserts that in the world of new media, you can still censor venues however it is very hard to 'lock down' social media, which he describes as 'much more powerful than the Olympic movement'.

The exclusivity rights the games give to sponsors have created a problem for the movement, as brands could be damaged by such sponsorship deals.  Social responsibility is important to the world and business today, people want brands to stand for more than just profit - they want to know the purpose behind the profit.

'Is the whole relevance of global advertising dead? Are you a burning platform?' Jones replied that the advertising industry is more relevant than ever as the industry has shifted from a TV advertising industry to a digital and social media industry.

'When you can kill a brand in an afternoon by leaving a comment on a blog how do you have a cat in hells chance of keeping up with that?'   Jones explained that as long as advertisers evolve we can. If we don't we will go the way of the dinosaurs. Clients know the rules of the TV advertising world; they don't know the rules of the game for the social media world. How you operate in that space and how brands can be socially responsible is what matters. New media is intrinsically linked to social responsibility and being able to deliver in this space is to be successful [achieve gold].

Can you bill a million pounds for running a twitter account or running a very well done blog? It's different to TV advertising isn't it? Yes it's a completely different model and every six months something new appears. Jones then describes the recent purchase of Victor and Spoils and contends that although this new approach to creativity could damage our legacy business - this is much smaller than our competitors. 

For Jones only socially aware agencies with entrepreneurial agility will be Olympian medallists.

  

Two month placement at Brass

The day begins at 9am, for me this usually involves grabbing a strong coffee from the filter machines and checking my emails; in a bid to jump start my brain into action (I am not a morning person, and often annoyingly come up with ideas in bed). The turn over of briefs is fast here, but it means you automatically work faster and don't stew on something for too long (loosing sight of what you're doing in the process). The briefs have included food brands, a recruitment ad (to help me work on my art direction), a fruit (!), health stuff and a keep Britain tidy campaign to encourage people to pick up their dog's crap...glamorous eh. The creative department are very keen to share the words of wisdom, which is nice - perhaps they remember the graduate wilderness too? A recurring theme is, everyone has their own opinion on what is right and what is wrong; about my book (digital or hard copy, case study or no case study), about the work I'm doing there for them...everything really. I know this happens at uni in terms of the creative work - it seems it doesn't go away in industry. So for me, this means having the balls to decide for myself what I think is right or wrong after asking other's opinions. As well as working in the creative department, I've also been gaining (valuable) experience in the digital department. They've taken me to meetings about social media strategy and online communication strategy (which did involve quite a bit of me not knowing a lot of the jargon words - but it was learning). There was opportunity for me to have my voice listened too (which if you know me, you know I quite like talking - so this was good). Having said that, I only spoke when I was absolutely sure I should. But people liked what i had to say. It gave me a bit of confidence - maybe I can actually do this in the real world. The days are long, but the weeks go fast. The office is relaxed, which means I can get into my own creative flow, and don't notice 5.30 come around. Alas, the road to creative employment is long it seems, and the creative world is bigger and expecting more of me than I realised sat in the studio at LCA; but the nice people at Brass are encouraging me to better my book...this is what I am concentrating on in the 2 months I'm placed here. Lauren. I'll upload a picture soon. Janine, i don't like how all of the text is bunched up together - makes it very hard to read stuff on here :/