Ben and Sophie’s top 11 book tips.
We decided to write a list of things we’ve learned along the way. This is just what we think, somebody else’s tips might be completely different.
1. Keep it quick. Creatives looking at your book have limited time so make the most of the opportunity. Keep storyboards and radio short and sweet.
2. A balanced book tends to have between 7-9 ad campaigns and a few other creative ideas.
3. Get to the bottom of a brand. Try to find out what makes them different to everyone else and what’s at the heart of their product and their company.
4. Demonstrate different tones of voice. How does this brand talk to people? What’s their personality?
5. Find different ways of talking to people. You don’t always need to conform to the conventional. Logos don’t have to sit in corners. Photos don’t have to be funny. And long copy is not scary.
6. Do more than just press ads. There are many other interesting ways of exploring an idea. What are the appropriate media for your idea? What medium is right for your audience? What will draw people in and surprise them? (TV, press, radio, online, viral, ambient, talking dogs…)
8. Expand at least one of your ideas into a big campaign and prove it’s not just a one off poster or TV ad.
9. We like to find out about you as well as seeing your book. Show us your matchbox collection, the short film that you’re making on the side or your greatest baking success. We see tons of ads, but sometimes it’s these little funny things that sums up who you are.
7. Listen and take notes too. You’d be surprised how many people don’t! Which is annoying to creatives who’ve given up their time to see you.
10. The advertising world is small so don’t piss people off or others might get to hear about it.
11. If you like a particular team, try to go back to them again with more work. Try to build a relationship. This will help you make more contacts, they may recommend you to their advertising friends and colleagues.
And here's link to the whole post.
14 comments:
Question to everyone who reads this ...
How many book crits did it take you to get a job?
Me it was 3.
Why is number 7 between 9 and 10. A subtle test? The cunning devils.
To the person above...
You gave up after 3 crits? ah well advertisings loss is McDonalds gain...
0 - Interviewed straight from D&AD New Blood.
You don't get book crits for a job. Placements maybe. My guess it's somewhere shit at a radio place so need to punch him as he's already got the face for it.
About 20 i reckon.
5 placements. 3 really long ones.
Kept slugging. and got lucky on the 3rd.
Hello 9.16 here...
I was only asking a simple question to see how long it took some people to get a job. There was no hidden agenda.
Cheers for the cyber insults though.
S'later.
There appeared to be an ounce of; anyone do any better than me, I only had x amount book crits and have a fab job. Rubbing salt in the wounds of some perhaps? Namely Jai & Wal?
Well done to you though! You did something right to get yourself a job so quickly, I'm sure it's down to talent and hard work.
Any insightful tips for Jai and Wal, and others who read to help them with their ambitions of an advertising full time job?
Hard work is more important than talent, but it is useless without it.
To Quote David Droga
"you can't guarantee that you're the most talented, but you can guarantee that you are going to work harder than anyone else."
I worked my balls of at uni, then got a lucky break.
@ 11.15,I don't think anon 9.16 was trying to rub salt into Jai & Wal's supposed wounds.
If they wanted a job they would have got one by now. They've had enough placements.
I think they're in a Catch-22. The ongoing drama of them chasing a job is what keeps this blog going. It's what keeps the interest level high, particularly among juniors also looking for their first job.
However, if they actually land a full time job at an agency this blog may well cease to exist...or at least the interest in it would.
They would have -sorry to sound cheesy- come to the end of their journey.
The interest in Jai & Wal themselves, as a brand, would most likely dry up too as they would be tied to one specific agency.
It's a tough one. I reckon this blog will start to fizzle out as and when J & W decide they want a job more than fame.
Best advice i had was to show my portfolio as much as possible in my final year of studying.
I spent the whole of my last year at uni traveling to london for one week in a month, so as not to waste my time doing it when i eventually finished. By the time i had actually finished studying i had 5 placements lined up and got a job offer after the second one. And my book was in such a better condition for my final degree mark... not that, that counts for anything.
So plan ahead, otherwise you end up spending your first two years out of uni trying to get a job, finding it hard to be motivated to change your work, writing blogs that tell the tales of your failures. and ultimately being one of the many teams who just weren't good enough.
Be confident when you are on a placement. Not confident 'socially'; don't try and be everyones best friend. No-one really gives a crap about pub chat.
Just be friendly at work and keep your head down. Always give 110%
The more weeks you spend working in an industry, the more you understand it.
Wal, this advice from Ben and Soph is wicked!
Now you just have to get a time machine, go back in time to 2008 and use it when you had your chance at W+K!
Priceless!
@ 01:01:00 PM
I would have thought that if they had the chance to get a job at one of their favorite agencies at the expense of this blog they'd drop it like a hot rock. Let's be honest it's hardly earned them a lot of friends over the years; readers yes, but not friends. They have Facebook for that like everyone else I guess. Their first post (admittedly it was a different team back then) states that the blog was to chart their journey, which has to have an end at some point. From then on the interest should come from the work they produce, not their ability to write blog entries, otherwise they may as well go work for Campaign.
For what it's worth, we got a job from our first placement after uni, although we had targeted them as the place we wanted to work and had been pestering them, visiting them and showing them work throughout our 3rd year of uni, so by the time we left we knew 10 - 15 people on a first-name basis as was able to put some live briefs into our degree show and blagged a 3 month placement come graduation.
As a slight digression, but linking back to some comments that were on a previous post, we've also had some soon-to-be-graduated teams come and see us with their semi-completed graduation books and some of them are very good. New campaign after new campaign every few weeks. It's going to be an interesting fight for the jobs that don't exist over the next few months.
Post a Comment