Let’s forget BBH. Let’s forget Mother. There is a new contender for the most creative agency in London right now.

With an unstoppable portfolio Wieden and Kennedy look to be the new creative gurus of TV right now.

Honda have had a great run recently from ‘Grrrrrr’ to ‘Dream’ to ‘Choir’ which has propelled the brand to the top of Awareness Index scores whenever the campaigns are live.

Honda now look to be the most awarded brand for creative.

Nike have used their Latino street dancer to address the female consumer in dramatic street dance executions.

Although I’m not too sure about their other spot with the larger dancing addition, but then I’m not the target so this may very well have been a clever piece of communication.

W&K have also managed to pioneer the computer games creative corner of advertising with their most recent EA Games execution for the game Black where a room is shot to bits to classical music.

Again, a very dramatic piece that has transformed traditional game advertising which previously acted as mere trailers.

It would therefore seem that W&K look to challenge the larger, more established of agencies and at last de-throne BBH and rightfully so with such an impressive roll they are on right now.

W&K, adlands new Mecca.

Investors may shun marketing services
LONDON - Share prices of publicly listed marketing services firms are performing so poorly that investors may begin to shun the market, according to the latest research from Marketing Services Financial Intelligence.

According to the research, in the 14 months since January 2005 the average share price of marketing services firms rose by only 2.7%, compared with a FTSE All-Share index rise of over 25% cent during the same period. Among those to see a decline in share price were many of the smaller groups, including NWD Group, M&C Saatchi, Huntsworth, Media Square, Cello Group and EQ Group. Bob Willott, Marketing Services Financial Intelligence newsletter editor, said many of those who saw a decline are “either relatively new to the stock market or are revitalised shell companies”. He singles out M&C Saatchi as one of the worst performers in terms of share price. By Joe Lepper Brand Republic 7 Apr 2006

Well, well, well. It would appear that the agency that claims to be the quickest growing network, that is 100% Saatchi and never fails has just had another kick in the head.

Since floating themselves on the stock market in 2004/05 I’ve seen little or no improvement in the M&C network other than a few offices opening in Europe and I suspect these simply support the London hub office.

With the BA loss to BBH this really isn’t look good for those at Golders Square. Especially as Maurice and Charles (who is never there) are very nervous about share holders anyway. This is due to the events of 1993 where the shareholders of Saatchi & Saatchi were so fed up of the brothers taking advantage of their money they organised their ousting.

Maurice and Charles kept M&C a private limited company since its birth until recently but were forced to float themselves due to requiring cash to expand their network. This was predictable as they did seem to have a safe client base. Since the BA loss they don’t seem to have recovered.

It would therefore seem the future is somewhat uncertain for the network. They need a big high profile win, some ground breaking ads, to lose the arrogance and Wall Street persona and rethink their recruitment culture. Until then it looks like M&C will continue to wake up in a cold sweat from nasty nightmares of Mr Bartle, Mr Bogle and Mr Hegarty.

So, if you didn’t get a job with M&C and found them a little arrogant and aggressive in their approach you may take comfort in knowing that their style and culture is directly represented in the figures - a poor result.

I’ve fought a long and hard battle to stand up against digital advertising in a vain effort to protect my love of traditional advertising, however, the end is nigh.

Well, it’s not nigh, just that in order to take on a career in advertising these days you cannot neglect that digital will be a major part of your working life. In interviews today, if you have little or no knowledge of the importance in digital advertising then you may as well not bother.

The figures speak for themselves really, TV and outdoor are shrinking and digital is going through the roof. Now, that’s not to say I’m going to be open arms to working in any kind of communication. I mean Direct Mail for me is still the stain on a agency’s services portfolio but to understand it will increase you value ten fold compared to the dozy intakes who harp on about TV and this is all they can use as a mark of reference when discussing campaigns.

That’s a good point, if someone was to ask you about a great online campaign what would you say? Not much actually springs to mind like TV. This is probably because the internet is a pro active medium where you are using it with where you want to go already in mind, for example you want to check your Gmail you don’t want to wade through a lots of banner ads, clicking on those crosses so you can just see that you have a load of junk mail. TV acts as a passive medium where you are led by the medium, other than network selection, you have little control (right now) so the audience tend to absorb in a vegetable state.

Anyway, I digress, thinking of a digital campaign, I noticed one worked on me recently. I went in to

www.brandrepublic.co.uk

and out of the corner of my eye I noticed a flickering, as much as I tried to ignore it I couldn’t and I ended up looking at it. It was for the new i mac, the new one with an intel processor, the images on the banner were changing at an extreme rate creating this flickering effect which attracted my attention. I therefore thought that was a good example of something very visual and active that broke through my usual web browsing and I guess herein lies starting to understand how digital banner advertising can work.

But now we can start to think about digital advertising through TV. I was speaking with some friends who work at the digital pioneer agency Glue London and even by using a High Definition TV we are talking about digital advertising.

www.gluelondon.co.uk

The Labour Govt has enforced a digital switch over for all our TV viewing anyway so it would appear we will be forced into digital advertising.

Now this is where it gets exciting. Tivo are developing a service whereby you can nominate which brands you would like to receive TV advertising from. With this will be data that can be tracked, i.e. Nike will be able to tell when their ads were viewed, by who and how many times. This is the pretty much the saving grace of TV advertising as measurable data will be able to be presented to clients, providing the argument that branding is just as important in the sales pushing services of the usual BTL shop.

So what’s my point? Well I guess it’s to start educating yourself on how digital works, right now in terms of the internet. For starters it’ll mean you’ll be more employable and it also means that you’ll be a cut above the rest if you are looking to work in a large ATL shop. I recently bought this book which is an amazing resource to learn from:

Online Marketing: Online Media Planning, Pay Per Click Search Marketing, Organic Search Engine Optimization, Email Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Rich Media and Banner Advertising, Viral Marketing, Social Networks and Analytics by Ravi Damani, Chetan Damani, Dana Farbo, Jane Linton

Alternatively you could work for a pure digital agency and specialise in the digital arena, it all depends on what you are looking to do. The problem with big ad agencies is that they are somewhat slow on picking up trends. As a result, you may find yourself hanging around for ages bleating about the need for a real digital push on your sole TV based account and then one day have you Account Director turn around and say “You know what, we should really be thinking of digital here”, sigh.

Whatever the older generation think, as they start to be phased out, we can rest assured that our careers will be turning quite tech frenzied within advertising so best to be aware of it.

So last night’s epsiode of The Apprentice featured the two teams competing to produce a campaign for Alan Sugar’s private airline membership card.

As always, Saatchi & Saatchi got in front of the camera, shame they can’t do it with some good ads but nevermind, they were out with PR profile guns blazing.

Then we had one of Publicis’ Creative Directors, Keith Courtney, give his views alongside Vanessa Feltz who seems to be showing her journalistic potential by coming across quite intelligent.

I hate that Manni(sp?) guy though, what a fckn snake that punk is.

All in all I was a bit disapointed but then it does put me at ease. You take a bunch of people who are meant to be the top business minds of Britain and they are so terrible in creativity. It means our jobs are safe, it means that not just anyone can do advertising and that the slimey ones will be found and executed.

Anyone have a different take on it?

Leo Burnett and Fiat part ways after Europe…
by Jennifer Whitehead Brand Republic 20 Mar 2006 14:20

LONDON - Leo Burnett London has parted ways with Fiat following the car maker’s decision last year to reorganise the way it runs pitches for pan-European campaigns. The decision does not affect Leo Burnett’s sister agency Arc, which will continue to work on Fiat’s UK direct marketing account. The direct marketing work is now a major area of activity for Fiat UK, which has cut its total UK media spend from £25.5m in 2004 to £7.4m in 2005. Of that figure, around £3.5m is believed to be billings handled by Leo Burnett in London. Following the appointment of Gregory Pingree as international advertising coordinator last year, Fiat now runs pitches from its head office in Italy for major campaigns, with roster agencies competing against each other for the work. Leo Burnett lost out in a pitch to handle the launch of the new Fiat Punto last year….

So what does this mean?

Well Leo Burnett have been working on the Fiat account for over 5 years now and often in close partnership with Arc. They created the Spirito Di Punto camapaign aswell as launch the Fiat Idea MPV whilst Arc always followed up with DM and digital.
There are two arguments to this. The first being that this is a very stupid move by Fiat. By pulling out your portfolio of brands from one network and then having it carved up amongst a number of other agencies when it’s campaign time is a bit dangerous. There is unlikely to be the close synergy between whichever agency gets the new gig (one off campaign) and Arc (Leo Burnett were in the same building as Arc, shared many of the same clients and Arc acted as their marketing services dept). Arc are going to have to be flexible enough to work with a number of new advertising agencies and to be honest, Arc isn’t really known for being able to do much let alone enforce a process of working alongside new agencies and have great reaction times. So therein lies the dilema. A shaky and unstable future for the Fiat brand.
On the flip side however this can be argued as a sign of the times. The budgets do tend to shrink these days for traditional advertising (TV, press, print and radio). This could very well be quite an intelligent move by Fiat who see the potential in DM, digital etc and as a result wish to focus there. Branding in its traditional sense (TV etc) can now been done on an ad hoc basis with no (fee) commitment to a large ATL agency network. After all, the DM results must be producing some return in order to make this move.
What’s surprising is that this move is made by a car manufacturer which you would think needs the branding and image that only TV, press, print etc can bring. I very much doubt that a huge lift in sales can be achieved by allowing Arc to take the helm and lead campaigns based on junk mail and some new POS in dealerships. But hey, that’s just my take, we’ll see how Fiat does and if they decide to pick up an ATL agency later on when the brand maybe a bit lost.

Production houses threaten to boycott BBH
Kate Nicholson Campaign 3 Mar 2006 00:00

Bartle Bogle Hegarty is facing a crisis with news that up to 40 production companies are threatening to boycott the agency’s TV briefs.
The dispute centres on BBH’s contracts with production companies. The main bone of contention is BBH’s decision to pay editors directly, rather than via the production company. Production houses including RSA Films, Blink, Academy, Stink, Gorgeous, Partizan and MJZ gathered at the Advertising Producers Association on Tuesday to discuss a ban on working with BBH. Production companies have previously had the right to negotiate contracts and fees on behalf of the editor, on a job-by-job basis. Steve Davies, the chief executive of the APA, said: “Cost is an issue, but this is more about the production company’s creative role. It may not be BBH’s intention to erode this, but there is the fear that is what will happen. Production companies are in business and seeking to make a profit. There is no reason why they should…

So what does this mean?

This follows on nicely from Leo Burnett’s dilema with Fiat. What better way to show your client that you are serious about their account and their advertising by wishing to save them as much money as possible.
The traditional production system is currently:
1. Agency recieves client brief
2. Agency creates concepts which are then approved or amended
3. TV production sources film crew, director(s), actors
4. Ad is then shot
5. TV production then hire production house to edit the footage alongside the creative team and the director to create a TV ad

Seems straight forward enough. But in the 5th stage BBH have tried to cut some corners by suggesting they approach the guy who edits the footage directly and brings him in to do it in house as opposed to his place of a work – a production house. This means saving money (as production houses have started a blanket rise in their rates) and having a much greater creative ownership as they will be able to control the editing much more. It seems fair but production houses have hit back saying they will put an all out boycott on any BBH brief (not likely, production houses make 80% more making TV ads than say a music video and movies are quite laborious and time consuming when compared to the fees made by TV ads). Production houses have also said that the potential saving by doing this can only be in region of £2k. However, considering the harsh auditing that agencies undergo even £2k is a big deal.

So are BBH right to change the goal posts and try and cut out one of the middle men in order to save a quick buck? If it doesn’t compromise creativity and the client is happy, sure.

So you’ve figured out now, maybe after a year of uni, or maybe after having finished your degree that your pre-university idea of dream job is just that, a dream. Or maybe you’ve realised that being part of the pinstriped brigade shuttling back and forth from Canary Wharf talking of mergers, acquisitions and dividends just isn’t your kind of hype.

On top of that, a cocky mate of yours has been talking about the advertising industry for a while now, and their constant referring to it as ‘the industry’ is a) pissing you off and b) sounding like they’re talking about California’s ‘adult entertainment’ industry.

Now what? What is the ad industry and how oh how do you get in? It’s too late now to get in for the grad schemes (and if you haven’t graduated yet they’re no use anyway) and the summer school applications seem so weird (where do they think up these questions is what you’re thinking) so where do you go? It’s those words you thought you’d heard the last of the summer after your GCSEs: work experience.

Work experience is one of the best ways to decide whether the ad industry is for you, and it’s a great way to put your name out there so people in adland take notice. So where to start? First stop is the library/bookshop and have a read of the books in Anton’s thorough recommended reading list. Read every word of the books you get your hands on, devour them. Seriously. It’ll help you loads later on. Step numero 2 is to go the crappy IPA website (www.ipa.co.uk) and register there. Once you’re registered then download the graduate factfile. This is your holy grail, as it has recruitment contacts for all the agencies that are hiring grads this year.

Because they’re hiring grads there’s a good chance they’ll need any help they can get. That’s where you conveniently step in. You’re an eager pair of hands, someone who wants to do anything to find out more about adland. Bingo.

But obviously it’s not that easy. You take an agency, have a good read of their website and ring up the recruitment contact, before you do that, check the time. Make sure you call them early in the morning, or late in the evening, they’ll be busy in between and often they’ll be busy anytime you call them. Be confident on the phone, don’t umm and ah, say who you are and what you want. Then shut up and let them answer, don’t jump in going “If you don’t need anyone that’s ok” No it’s not ok!! They might say yes, they might say no, they might say they’ll get back to you. Rule number 1 of adland is that HR people rarely get back to you, not out of malice, they just don’t. So you have to keep trying. At every agency. In a way you have to be shameless and confident in equal measures.

Now some agencies have structured work experience schemes (BBH, Saatchi&Saachi, M&C Saatchi, Leith London etc). They’ll be easier to approach but again perseverance is the key. And so is originality. Send the HR girl (they usually are) flowers/chocolate, it’s cheesy but it works, and worst-case scenario is they laugh about it and remember your name. In this industry that’s never a bad thing. And keep trying, ring up every agency and remember it only takes one person to say yes and you’re in. And once you’re in it’s a hell of a lot easier to get to other places.

Oh and remember, you will get in, it’s just a matter of time.

A big thank you to Sam for his contribution and wise words

At last we are seeing a collective of comical advertising as opposed to dreary domestic hell hole situations (BT) and grannies in skips (Tiscali).

My first bit of fun goes to 118 118 by WCRS. Not only have they championed the most memorable direct enquires number but they make me laugh whilst doing so. The reason being is that they just make their executions very stupid and very simple.

The new TV spot being a rip off the A Team. I just find it very amusing watching those two guys burst through a barn on a dodgy motorbike with side carriage. I can’t explain it, it’s just very very very funny. Without wishing to (but I obviously do) sound like a total ad chump it’s the simplicity that is striking. No real message, no real story, no real consumer journey just ridiculous visuals and a number attached throughout. This is then constantly reinforced by sponsorship buffers which seem to be everywhere. Then there is the radio spot, you have to hear it to really appreciate it, but again, very funny.

Have you also seen the new Airwaves TV ad. It’s where an alien comes to earth and is welcomed by a bunch of dubious humans.

“Make yourself at home” the humans offer to the alien at which point we see a number of cuts of the alien living on earth – playing bingo, being a fast food slob and my favourite – squashed against the window of a tube with a look of total disdain. The alien then snatches the airwaves and does one in his space ship – marvellous. It’s quick, it’s sharp and it’s very funny to watch.

Two ads that made me laugh last night while wishing that Gordon Ramsey was his old evil self instead of this mentor toss pot he’s now become in his new series, sigh.

xx

When you start in Account Management you may feel that to begin with all you do is glorified admin. This is natural and just the way a career in advertising starts when in Account Services. The general running of accounts is based around process, organisation and co ordination. As a result it’s not often that a young Account Handler has much to say regarding the economic science of branding. That’s the first reason why I recommend this book - as a way of arming yourself with a deeper grasp of brands and the science of branding.

The second reason is that traditional advertising (known by all those who are honest as ATL) is under pressure to perform against its measurable marketing services (BTL) counterparts.

This book teaches the value of branding and creating a brand image. Furthermore, it explains the importance of the intagible assets such as brand equity (logo, brand characteristics etc). Without these there would be no brand as no brand is built on Direct Mail, POS and to an extent Digital (other than the dominators such as ebay, Amazon etc).

A tough but important read to help you get your head around making those intagible assets actually have an economic value, which is music to a client’s ears. It’s the start of saving the art of branding in my humble opinion.

Ha ha, this is quite a sick and shameless.

I was sat watching that very poor film ‘Sphere’ with Dustin Hoffman et al. The ad break started and I thought thank fck for that, time for the good bit only to have my girlfriend burst out laughing as an ad that I was in for McDonalds sponsorship of Euro 2004 appeared on the TV for the World Cup 2006 (I’m the guy in the black jacket recycling).

I can’t decide if I was cringing at being chuffed or just plain cringing…..I think it was the former.

Sooo, the moral being if you can get on a shoot GO! Especially if you can get into the ad as you’ll be owed for usage.

It’s always important to stand out from the others in your interviews. One easy way to do this is just simple preparation and gauging how the interview will unfold.

Standard advertising interview questions are:

What do you consider creative advertising?

Take an ad you like, think why you like it and there is the answer, you’re a consumer like everyone else.

What do you consider a successful intergrated/360/holistic campaign?

Where have you noticed a campaign that appeals to you through TV, press, poster, DM, web etc? If you can’t think of one, go seek one.

What do you know about the XXXX sector in terms of big players and advertising?

This really is if you are being interviewed for a specific account so for example this could be the automotive industry if being interviewed to work on the Fiat account - remember that sectors are then sub split, Fiat is in a different competitive zone to say BMW but is in the same competitive zone as Nissan/Ford etc

Have a look at this ad. What do you think was the creative brief?

This is 10/10 times one of the agency’s ads. A way of preparing for this is going through the agency’s client list found on their website, checking out what they’ve done and having a think about how they came up with their creative executions. Think about the target and how the creative look and feel will appeal to them. Remember that advertising is born from planning which is born from research so there will be valid reasons linked to the target for why ads look the way they do.

What do you do outside of work?

Just try and say a bit more than ‘I like spending time with my friends’, they’ll think you don’t have any with a pathetic answer like that. Stuff such as you like to write (for advertising blogs), you enjoy following XXX (music, film noire, wank like that really). Just try and show that you are someone who can be left with a client and be relied on to entertain them as well as to sell to them.

Sell this ad to me

This is where they will present you with a press ad or show you a TV ad and sit back to hear your pitch.

Simple structure to selling creative artwork is:

1. Describing Idea vs Execution: An advertising idea is a creative concept which propels a campaign. The advertising idea acts as the controlling idea for all advertising executions. An execution is the way in which the creative concept is executed, it is the rendering in words, sounds, pictures, symbols, colours, and of course mediums.

e.g. Dr Pepper: No one tried Dr Pepper as it was a new kind of cola and Coca Cola was the hero of carbonated drinks portfolio. So the advertising idea was “Nothing bad will happen if you try it”. The Execution: “Dr Pepper, What’s The Worst That Can Happen?”

2.Develop The Creative Rationale: The work is the starting point of a sell. Think of everything that is good and charismatic about the work i.e. funny, mordern, product name is part of the strapline. What do you know about the target which makes your findings fit?

(In a real sell it’s after you’ve built an argument for your work before presenting it)

3. Develop The Buying Rationale: Never finish a sell with a ‘So you like?’ It’s now time to summarise in about 30 seconds everything you’ve been through and then straight through to “Any questions”

There you go, that’s how to sell creative work.

So, moving on you’ve dealt with the grilling of questions from the interviewer and now it’s time to hit back and make this interview yours. So it’s your turn to take control.

Whenever you have any experience in an ad agency whether it’s a 1 week placement or a 6 month internship ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS get a paper reference from your manager. Along with this, print off the campaigns you’ve worked on in colour and as big as you can (even if you’ve had just a vague association use it as a reference as to what you’ve worked on before).

Now you can build your own portfolio/book. I was always jealous that creatives had portfolios and I didn’t so I made my own, this has stills from my website stunt (see About), references from my previous Account Directors and press executions with a short description of my role during the campaign.

Have this in a large artbag that holds plastic sleeves. Mount everything you’re inserting on black paper and then slide those bad boys into your sleeves. Viola, you’re looking like a smart account man as no other kid there will have one.

There you go, you should storm it…but it’s all about being prepared….without wishing to sound too anal. I have messed up before and learnt from it…such as turning up somewhat hung over with 3 hours sleep and then being confronted with the most aggressive interview ever. I sweated, I stumbled and I fell and once you fall you’ll make sure you don’t do it again.

Good luck

xxxx