Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Horseman

Here's a short film we made for W+K, the brief was to include a horse head into whatever we do. We're happy how it turned out, it's our first one. It made us hungry for more.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

After W+K

Five weeks go by fast. Too fast. Wieden+Kennedy was a fantastic place to be. We’ve got some good work produced and met some really friendly people on the way. Before we started we had heard how committed and positive WKers were supposed to be towards their work, it was true. In fact most the rumors we had heard were true – Amazing amazing amazing office. Friendly people. All about the work. Long hours. More Nike than at Nike Town. Pushing for work simply for the sake that it hasn’t been done before. No glass walls or closed doors.

One we’d like to add is the enormous amount of all staffers that are sent, approximately one every 10mins we’d say. ‘can I borrow a Nokia charger pretty please?’, ‘come get, brownies at reception’, ‘anyone remember the name of that guy on bbc1 last night, you know, white hair, big ears, kinda funny, probably cute when he was younger?’. We even got one from Dan Wieden (Jai is gonna nail this one on his wall).

A place we’d love to be but it’s not our time yet, however it’s not a dream we’ll be giving up anytime soon. All we can do is say a big thanks to W+K. What's next? We'll see. For now you can find us on the streets in various cafés around town, working on our book and other stuff.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

The young lions might be the true ones

Young Lions, that's the Cannes part for the juniors. All advertising professionals up to 28 years old in teams of two compete against each other in various categories, print, media, cyber and the most prestigious film. The film category works as follows, the teams have two days and two Nokia phones (great sponsoring really) to create 30-60 second ads. This years brief was MTV Switch, show that saving energy/being green can be fun and doesn't have to include consuming – that's me paraphrasing it, don't hang on to it too much. So the team from Argentina won gold, the US guys silver and the Italian team bronze. The Argentinean idea was the best hands down, so simple, it's funny if you see all the other teams staging big shoots with props and they just get a couple of people in the shower. Have a look.



Check out the Young Lions youtube stuff, there's lots of it.
It's also fun to have a look through the videos to see how the different creative teams are getting on, how they worked on the briefs and how they filmed their spots. The serious Austrians working only drinking water, the Brazilians having an actual event idea rather than an ad, the danish guys changing their idea at the last minute, the Japanese going hardcore on their storyboards while the UK girls sip cocktails while looking for inspiration and hating on technology.

Speaking of whom – the British didn't do well in any of the categories. In fact in the whole young lions history they never won. Why? They seem to do well in europe, but not on a international stage? In the UK (well, London) young creatives seem to be forced to focus on strategies, big ideas, that's what you have to put in your portfolio to get you a job, right? What about crafting stuff? Actually making and doing stuff, films, products, whatever. Art directing print ads for example – UK creatives don't learn design/executional skills, it's all about ideas & scamps. In all other countries every art director has to be sharp on the mac if they want to get hired. Here advertising students talk of mac monkeys who do their stuff up, relying on designers and art workers who can be afforded with the big budgets. One of the points Tony Davidson cared about during our chat was the lack of creatives actually bringing their ideas to life. 'Everyone can have ideas', he says, 'but actually making them is where they stop at and rely on others, so lots of good stuff never gets made.' (I'm paraphrising again, it just looks more credible as a quote I reckon). This explains why they hired a great team a while ago, product designers Tom & David. Of course they have ideas, but they actually realise them. I'd call them Creative Artisans, a term coined by Julien, my former flatmate. Is that the way forward?

This Young Lions outcome predicts yes, creatives need to know more than pencil and paper. And this contest is a great one. It's something we could be judging countries creatively on. Unlike the 'real' Cannes Lions all teams have equal resources, no glamorous directors, no designers nor typographers, no scam ads just for the sake of awards, no clients, only the creative outcome counts on this one. Idea is still everything, but without execution it's nothing.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

.

Can. Not. Blog. Must. Work. On. Nike.
Unexpected. Brief.
Go. Check. Liz. Wolfe. Instead.
Sweet. Stuff. Indeed.

Friday, July 18, 2008

Creative Direction

Today we had an hour and half sit down with Tony Davidson, we talked about work, W+K and random things that popped into our heads. Boy does that guy knows his stuff, we walked away from it with our heads spinning.

Full of insight, he talked about where things are going, how he thinks brands should be engaging with people, stuff he likes to do, where he goes looking for ideas and how he wants his agency to evolve. The guy is a motivated genius and wanted to genuinely give us his time and help us. If we’re honest, we probably learnt more over that short casual chat than we have done over our entire month here.

It wasn’t like most reviews where we talked about the ads and strategies. Today we sat there and talked about issues, people, problems, emotions and solutions; very few of them being ads. It was eye opening and inspiring. Cheers Tony.

Some good news, we’ve been extended a week to finish up some work we’re having produced.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

WKStatus

Woo, Wednesday, middle of the week. The last couple of weeks have gone by way too quick. It's our fourth week here at Wieden+Kennedy. In our time here we've worked on Nike & Lurpak. The latter bought our idea for a digital campaign which is going into production soon if all goes smoothly.

This week's been pretty quiet for us, although we constantly keep bugging traffic and everyone else there are no briefs on our table. So we're spending our time making a short movie, an assignment every placement team gets here. It has to include a horses head.

Come Friday we'll have a review with Tony D, so all is good and exciting.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Fifty Funny Faces From Cannes

A guy called Emil went to Cannes, and wanted to take 50 pictures of funny faces of famous advertising people, have a look what he came back with.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Rock'n'Roll


Tick Tock

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Campaign, Adventure Edition

Is that possible? Let's see. This afternoon, between meeting and conference call I got myself a caffeine drink and sat down for five minutes in the agency reception. A copy of the new campaign on the table lay in front of me and as I stitched the words together I realized that I haven't been reading one for ages. Just a quick look.

Steve Henry leaves TBWA. Ouch, he was a great guy, even if we've met him only once, the article didn't do him justice. Yes, he was very digitally minded yet always looking for the big idea. Next up, Private View with Ed Morris. He says BMB is the best agency in town!? Big claim! But both thumbs up for Ed leaving a comment on Scamps blog, not anonymously, and backing it up in campaign. Funny enough (but understandable) Scamp deleted it – who would have thought that it was really him? Diary, full of more fun. Fallon's Orange spot is Turkey of the week. It's not great but I don't know it deserves that much blame? Oh, and Graham Fink, well peng. You know how we young creatives are all participating in this arms race, called 'stunt', right? – We're guilty by the way – He turns it around and pulls a stunt off himself! Arranging a meeting with an innocent graduate creative at 10pm, leaving him to wait in the empty reception for an hour before he is collected by a car that takes him to the Millennium Bridge. There he/she is asked to cross the bridge to see Graham. Awaiting him on the other side is Mr. Fink, of course in a black dress with a black mask, handing him over a living boa-snake and running off. Hell yeah. This graduate deserves a job, just for playing along. Kudos to Graham Fink, it never seems to get boring with him. Thanks Campaign, you did brighten up my coffee brake.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Brief 2008

At the last AHA! we've met Ash, and together with our friend Ant they are starting something rather interesting: Brief 2008. Have a look at the specs.

What is it?

An informal industry showdown where teams from different sectors of the industry (that's you guys) go head-to-head to see who can best answer a digital brief, probably under the influence of alcohol. You'll be judged by top industry people not just on caliber of creative ideas but also their feasibility and potential longevity.

How does it work?
The basic format of the night will be an evening where planners, creatives, thinkers, designers PR people, and anyone else from any of agency will come together in teams and tackle a brief that will be given to you on the night. You'll spend 2 hours putting presentations together with advice from our after which the work will be presented and a decision will be made.

Who's judging?
So far we have confirmed the following judges:

Amelia Torode - Managing Partner of VCCP and head of Digital Strategy
Ben Milligan - Head of Planning at Holler
Iain Tait - Founder of Poke

Who should take part?
You! Creativity doesn't just lie with the creatives, especially when digital briefs are being discussed. We're looking for anybody within the industry with enthusiasm for generating good ideas. We're looking for six or more teams consisting of 3-6 people.

What's in it for me?
As well as free booze on the night you have the chance to show yourself off in front of senior people from some of the best agencies in town, and big bragging rights.

Where and when?
The Design Council, 34 Bow Street, WC2E 7DL.
Thursday 17th July - 6.30 pm prompt start - 10:30pm approx home time.

How do I register?
email themonkeypuzzler@gmail.com with Team Name (and motto), members, where you're coming from. In order to avoid flakiness (as we know everyone is very busy) there will be a £10 per head charge which will be given entirely to charity. Once we have confirmed your attendance we will send over the 'just giving' account details.

UPDATE: The event is free now, no 10£ charge.

Looking for a team? Want to know more?
Start the discussion on the Brief 2008 Blog or the Facebook group.

Ad created by Ike

Sunday, July 6, 2008

AHA! June 2008

AHA! It took us some time but finally we found a quiet rainy Sunday to sort out the photos of the creative gathering we organized (big thanks to Ray) back in June. Thanks everyone for joining it, we had a great time and were really happy to meet so many new creative people. Hope to see you and others next time (probably beginning of August). All the photos can be found on our flickr.

Friday, July 4, 2008

Music Almighty

Just a quick one, Nokia's new Music Almighty ads broke a couple of days ago. They were done by Fabian and Ida, really nice work, must have been great fun to make.

It's 4th of July nutty at W+K at the moment, old Americana tunes being pumped through the agency tannoy. Yeehaa.



Thursday, July 3, 2008

Favourite Comments

Everyone likes responses on their blog. So thanks to all who ever commented, no matter good or bad; to the brave ones who logged in, and the provoking ones not revealing their identity. Some comments make us laugh, some encourage us, while others we remain silent about. Being a part of the blog they deserve a little more exposure.

That's why, we'd like to share our favourite ones. On the right hand side you may have noticed a favourite comments section. Might be good. Might not be, but then we can, always get rid of it.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

How to confuse an idiot…

Found on uarrr

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Food for thought

It's our second week at Wieden+Kennedy London and things are going good, optimism on every corner. After the first five days were all about Nike the next few we'll be working on two Lurpak briefs. A great occasion to continue work after work at home in the kitchen, messing about with potatoes and other simple ingredients that go smoothly with slightly salty butter.

There's another brief on our desk, one that finds its way to every placement team here – to make a short movie. So time in between butter and sneakers is spent on a film with no restrictions. Quite a healthy creative diet we think.