Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Leo Lab Landing

Monday morning Jai and Wal floated into Leo Burnett to find a buzzy place full of super friendly people. The office is crazy spacious, great for throwing our beloved hacky sack around. One of the other teams arrived with us yesterday, the third team of the Leo lab join us today. We spent our first day introducing ourselves, admiring serious finger boarding skills and acquainting ourselves with the two floored cafeteria.

52 comments:

Anonymous said...

You like doing your bits of arts and crafts don't you!

Mugs, storyboards, filming fruit as a short film, and now cardboard cut-outs of yourselves :)

Hopefully your arty skills will be of some use to Leo's or another agency. It could be your quirky difference that gets you a job - you never know.

As long as you're having fun, and peopl liked seeing you guys float around the office it's all good.

Anonymous said...

Getting noticed at least!

Anonymous said...

i smell some seriously stinky cheese!

Anonymous said...

It's fine to use things like balloons as stunts to get noticed, but it all comes down to being able to do your job extemely well.

You won't be hired for cutting up cardboard and paiting it - you need to constantly come up with bloody great ideas.

Anonymous said...

Why not spend your time doing something productive.

You could have done some spec work for any of Leo's clients and present that on day one. That might impress and actually be of use to the agency.

There's plenty you could do in lines with advertising that would go down much better than floating Jai & Val.

Anonymous said...

Cheesy yellow balloons!

proxikid said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

stealing Proxi's ideas lads? poor form

Anonymous said...

A good likeness

Anonymous said...

How many did you make?

Patience of saints!

Anonymous said...

lads, 'floating by' is a massive pun, unless you want to work for the Sun writing their headlines I'd suggest you stick to coming up with ideas for agencies clients, not trying to be wacky.

I feel harsh as it seems you have good intentions but trust me, unless you have great ideas and are showing up the rest of the employed teams with your talent you will come across as a pair of wallys.

Anonymous said...

seriously, do you really want a job in advertising?

its all about your book and ideas, thats all a creative director is looking for.

focus all your energy into that.

not quirky little PR stunts.

Anonymous said...

Good intentions I agree - but it's all about the ads!

Spend your time wisely, and think about the message you guys are sending out.

Anonymous said...

Anyone who focuses 100% on ads is a boring fucker.

I know a team who got hired at Leo's, they made videos with puppets and stuff for the CD's kids.

If you like making stuff them make stuff, it might be a some cardboard floaty men that sells an idea to a client one day.

Anonymous said...

Did you steal the templates from the Cbbc or the nickelodeon website? Poor show.

I remember when you guys were all about the ads. Now it's dim witted stunts and wacky 'look at me' acts of shame. Seriously guys...sort it out.

On the plus side, your blog used to be pretty boring but the injection of offensive comments is giving me a whole new reason to check up on you both.

Keep up the bad work ;-)

Anonymous said...

What you mean these?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/grab/#autograph=foldeeed

http://www.4kids.tv/papercraft/

Anonymous said...

re 1.46

are you taking the piss or just a total twat.

there are hundreds of teams trying to get a job in advertising so to get in you either have to be shit-hot, or shit-hot and 'crazy guys'

not just 'crazy guys'

Anonymous said...

It's not even crazy, just gimmicky I'm afraid

Anonymous said...

cool idea for a kids birthday party.

Anonymous said...

Balloons at a kids birthday party - original!

Anonymous said...

re 3.10 x 2

have you heard of irony you fool.

Anonymous said...

great! like this industry isn't already fuckin hard enough to get into.

new teams have to go through lots of shit, but these guys now have their blog readers on top turning against them for trying to make a monday a bit more fun. i imagine you all prefer placement teams who just sit quiet in the corner and let you get on producing your adwank.

adland, i salute you, you are full of pricks and i'm surprising that you attract any talent at all.

Anonymous said...

Round of applause guys (and gals).

Virtual bullying - that's pretty low.

Maybe Jai and Val's next stunt should be to make Creative In london anti-bulling wristbands and give them out to all you overpaid c*nts.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, I disagree. If you/they can't take advice from people in the industry the f**k off... some people are just trying to help the progress rather than treating the whole getting into advertising as one big jolly. Yes have fun, but its all about the work. Spend time crafting that book, bit cutting our cardboard men.

You get a job by doing great work, not stunts, simple as that.

Anonymous said...

yes anon@5:53, on this one we all agree. a mug wont give you a placement at leos, lowe or wk, only a good book will. and paper dolls wont give you a job, only great work will.

it's all about work, but we like some fun on the side.

Anonymous said...

Ok so we all established that it was a bit 'look at me, look at me' stunt which may or may not have gone down well at the agency.

It's 6pm so maybe the guys can shed a little light on how well recieved it was and if it made meeting the other placement teams awkward etc. Though if Wal and Jai are a good team they'll probably be down the pub with the rest of the team right now having a few getting to know you bevs.

However what 5:35 is probably getting at is that there's a line between constructive criticism and just saying something to get a reaction.

Keep doing what you think is right boys. It's clear that you're not getting any great advice here

Anonymous said...

not at the pub (yet), work still has to be done. the minatures were received really well, quite some people came up to us and told us that they liked them, it made the process of 'hello we re the new team' a bit more fun, and that was the point of it. the other leo lab team reacted quite well and quick and wrote a little newspaper page about random facts and themselves which they've placed on each desk the next morning.

Anonymous said...

I think the point a few people are trying to make here is that the Lowes 'cheese' sign and the balloons thing seems a bit uncool.

If you had done this in my agency I'd think it was a bit lame to be honest.

I think you have a great blog and the journey of trying to get your first job in advertising is a really interesting one, but…

My advice would be to write more about your work, the whole placement experience… briefs you are working on… people who you meet etc. I'd really like to read that.

But it all about you too and how crazy you are, it seems to rub people up the wrong way.

Anyhow, that just me.

Good luck.

Anonymous said...

I would say there are just as many aspiring creatives commenting on this blog as those in the industry already. So, in saying that I'd take what people say with a pinch of salt.

Much of it may be valid, but some may be tainted with a little envy - envy that they're not on placement at Leo's also.

I say well done on being brave enough in going through with your balloon people idea. I'm not sure I'd have gone through with it even if I'd wanted to.

All ideas are hit and miss, you never please all the people all the time. As long as it had the desired effect, which it sounds like it did - it was a means to meet people and get noticed then that's all you need.

Who cares if anyone else approves!

Now just go and prove what great creatives you are, prove your undoubted talents and you'll be well on your way to a much deserved job.

Anonymous said...

Wasn't Graham Fink hired when he went back to an agency dressed as an old man when they told him they didn't hire youngsters?

Another team got hired after sending a tape of Micheal Owen's goal against Argentina the next day after the match with a note saying "See what happens when you put faith in youth"

Love stories like that.

Anonymous said...

thanks guys!

@anonymous 8:29pm - actually, thats the kind of stuff we would like to write about, the people, the briefs, the experience, but lately we decided to de-advertise our blog a bit, cause whenever we write about work people just go hardcore on it, this blog's been running for 1,5 years now and it was never like that. it does influence you, when you are about to post something, but first you have to think how people are gonna react to it, this blog should be fun.

especially when we write about other people. for example when we posted the lowe law, we were really sad people insulting our creative director, its one thing if people dont like us, but something else if they slag off someone we write about.
but hey, i guess that's the internet. we'll have a think.

Anonymous said...

personally i think this is the worst blog i have ever read in my whole life. but its for that very reason i visit it so often. i loved the post in the comments section on scamp... will wal ever get a job? and salute wal for coming back with a response with good humour!

Anonymous said...

You can't be too sensitive in this job. As creatives your work will often come back with negative feedback, someone along the line won't liek the work for God-knows what reason, and it won't make sense to you.

The day you become too worried about presenting work, be it on the net or in person is a really bad sign. You've got to be prepared to show all your ideas, often a great idea will be hidden with them.

Anonymous said...

Hmmm...lots of angry people out there! I'm a creative at Leo's and thought the chap's balloon thing was just the right tone of voice, not annoying just quite minimalist and sweet.

Let me just tell you this boys: I know that the person you really wanted to like the idea, did really like the idea. Now all you have to do is get on and do some great work.

Good luck...so far, so good.

Anonymous said...

That's all the news you wanted to hear right Jai/'Wal?

Who cares if others thought it was lame, sucking up - it sounds like it had completely the effect you wanted so well done.

How is this Leo thing working?

Are you competing against 2 other teams for a perm job? Good luck to you if you are.

How longs the placement planned for?

Anonymous said...

Have yuo kept your balloons? Then, if it turns out you need another placement, you can use them again :)

They could become your trademark! Put the same illustrations on your site/blog and use them as branding maybe.

Jai said...

Anon 2:28

We're sitting next to one team at the moment, and another is joining us next week.

2 months for now. Not a job trial but anything can happen right. Just got to make sure we work, work, work. And have some fun.

Anonymous said...

Certainly plenty of time for you to make your mark at Leo's.

I wondered how it worked with there being 3 teams in at the same time, almost seemed like you were competing against each other.

All you can do is your best. Be yurselves, there's no point trying anything else and enjoy it. Advertising is a fun place to be working so have fun, get to know people and learn at the same time.

Keep us updated on the work/briefs you've got, and how things are going. And don't be put off to put your work on-line by bitchy comments!

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I'd suggest you stick some ideas on the site.. even if they are just random ones not really advertising ones.

Rachel said...

Rather harsh things being said on here, but i think that people have to remember ITS THE FIRST DAY! plus hows it going to look if jai and wal start posting up everything their working on and other agencies start seeing it? Its fair enough posting our own work that we've made up from nowhere but work that (with alot of luck) could end up out there with leo burnetts name slapped on it cant be posted on a blog thats liked to BBH and Lunar BBDO and god knows who else is roaming around here. It was a quirky introduction technique and it might not be for everyone but i doubt they'll be doing things like that everyday. But if they do, well theyre there and your not!

Anonymous said...

Obviously for confidentiality reasons they can't post agency work, but they can do their own work and should do!

They can still outline what they're doing without giving details or specifics.

Good luck you guys and look forward to hearing how things are progressing.

In a weird way I might take all these harsh comments as a complement - souds odd I know. But if people didn't see you as a threat or think you're any good, they wouldn't even waste their time telling you they thing something is crap.

Anonymous said...

Don't let all that comments bring you down. It's envy and not fucking "teaching you to live with critics". Because critics are mostly impartial. Most of these comments are not.

I think the idea with the balloons is really nice. In our first week at WK we used balloons as well. We sticked them up a wall shaping "Shh!". Every balloon hat a secret about us inside so people had to pop them. It's good to do some fun stuff to introduce you to the agency. People like being entertained. And in the end that's our job. Entertaining people and make them buy things.

But always keep in mind: the work is most important. But I know you know that.

Good luck at Leo's.

Anonymous said...

P.S.: For you anonymous lot. I know it's "stuck" and not "sticked". Bloody mistake. Sorry. People make mistakes...only you probably don't, right?

Anonymous said...

Seb... It's definitely not envy!

By the way do you have a job?

Anonymous said...

Wal, was reading Scamps Campaign blog and noticed his question... When will Wal get a job?

Sure you saw it as a laugh, just wondering how long you have been on the placement scene?

I know it take years for some...

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 3:39.
I know not everybody here is envy and without a job. But especially those just shouldn't care and spend their time making ideas and not bashing comments.
And yes, I have a job. Nice try.

Anonymous said...

anonymous 8:21
I had job offers with my former partner kristin, i had job offers on my own in between. i am happy that i didnt take it as i am pretty confident that we'll do great together with jai. for me its a new count, we started in january, and for that we're doing alright.

Anonymous said...

It's nice you can afford not to take jobs and be choosey about where you work.

I would be waary of becoming stuck in a rutt of placements. It's great you've had job offers but it might be worth taking a full time job, that way more doors open for you. You're likcly to get better work too!

Anonymous said...

How's your fist week been at Leo's - sum it up for us!!!

Anonymous said...

I love the balloon idea. How did you guys come up with it?

I think you should carry on with stuff like this. Sure people can be jealous that they can't think so laterally and just come up with ads all the time.

Keep standing out with such Zany ideas and you'll go far.

Anonymous said...

I think guys like you are what the industry needs. Everyone just sits in their offices being moody but your two are a breath of fresh air into the creative industry.

Stick with your quirky ideas and maybe, you never know, a job offer might come floating by on a balloon.

Anonymous said...

Wal, how are you surviving on placement money and being in a position to turn down jobs, doesn't look like you live on the breadline?