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...

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

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...

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

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?
 

Creating ads from conversation

A really good creative exercise: listen to conversations and spot a headline.
I overheard a group of kids chatting, and one said "Everybody likes me when I've got money. When I've got none, no-one talks to me."

Put it into a context (a brand!), and it becomes an ad.

A Little History of The Word - One for the Copywriters.

 I am currently reading A Little History of The World by E. H. Gombrich. You may recognise this author if you've studied a history of art, as he wrote the classic text book The Story of Art. Anyway, like the title suggests, Gombrich's earlier text History of The World, which he wrote in six weeks! Anyway, within this is a small chapter called I C-A-N R-E-A-D, which explains the connection between the construction of contemporary and ancient words. The origins of the English alphabet stem from the Phoenicians a wealthy and creative civilization based in modern day Lebanon. They were maritime merchants who took their culture across the Mediterranean. 'For Phoenician craftsmanship was known throughout the world...most popular of all their goods was their dyed cloth, especially the purple' (Gombrich, 1985, p30). Gombrich suggests that through inventing a series of signs where each represented a sound 'and that just twenty-six of those signs were all you needed to write every conceivable word' (Gombrich, 1985, p29 the Phoenicians invented 3000 years ago the most convenient way to communicate. A tool that you copywriters still use today. Did you know that our alphabet originated from Lebanon before you read this post? If not where did you think it originated?