Thursday 4 March 2010

The last thing you want to do is write 'ads'.

Tony gave me some great advice on Tuesday. And it hit me like some sort of revelation.

First of all, he gave me some simple tips which I took on board.
My book was too robotic; Brand - Proposition - Executions.
I was simply writing the strategy as a visual ad.
There was no 'vehicle' - no intermediary idea to carry the message.
It needed to be Brand - Proposition - Idea - Executions.

Then, crucially, he said that with it was clear that I was sitting down and trying to write 'ads'.
He said "The last thing you want to do is write ads"
And it hit me... I've been trying to imitate that which I admire, rather than originate.
I've been mimicking the kind of ads that find their way into Luerzer's Archive, the kind of ads you see on I Believe in Adv.

I've been doing things how I think they're done.
Big visual - logo - tag. Or some combination of the three. Product demos. Too formulaic.
At first I thought to myself: didn't VW get the strategy It's small, but it's also tough - and just write visual ads which dramatized it?
Adding the tag 'Small but tough'.
Wasn't the copy simply restating the strategy?
But then I realised: that kind of ad is not what Tony is looking for.
He wants to see something more.

Something that can take on a life of it's own.
Something that looks no ad he's seen before.
Something that looks like nothing he's seen before.

Take pretty much every idea that Droga5 have come up with. Each one looks like no idea they, or anyone else, has ever come up with before.
That's exactly why they picked up 2 black pencils last year.
That's what I need to be aiming for.
Like Vik Kayno, a current student at Watford, told me - I need to push my thinking, get it to the next level. I need to stop writing ads, and start having ideas.
What a revelation to have!

Anyway, I've got more work to do than ever.
Tony said there was such a thing as a third shot (even a fourth and fifth), but he'd let us know how we did next week.

In other news, Uber Agency got back to me. They said I could come in for a crit session with the CD and/or go on a one week placement sometime in April. So that's nice news. Also, the Saatchi & Saatchi facebook recruitment scheme is well under way and after two rounds I'm in the last 250 or so. Excited for the next brief.

There's light at the end of the tunnel.

Wednesday 3 March 2010

Chat, Fcuk, Poke


Here's a fresh little digital sizzler. Adverblog (source) puts it better than I can:

"As always happens when a new "platform" is being so frequently used, somebody gives it a twist and bring the dynamic into ad world, as the smart guys from
Poke London did for French Connection (a so-called high street fashion brand) and its blog called Manifesto. Seduce a woman at Chatroulette! and send the proof of that to win a 250 pounds voucher."

Good idea.
That said, it's near impossible to find to stumble across a female on chat roulette.
And meeting Aston Kutcher on there is the holy grail!