CSI: London

Whooooo Are You? ... Who ... Who



... Who ... Who?!

CSI: London is on the case for my missing Xbox!

-- Post From My iPhone

It’s A Funny Biz

The phrase “no two days are the same” is often said when advertising, advertising. This is no truer in this industry than it is in life. Adventure is around every corner. Sometimes adventure can be traumatising and other times, insightful. Life is about living in the unexpected, not just being aware of it.

Last Friday ended my stint with Saatchi London with a BBQ, paddling pool, yummy coronas and a very large super soaker! Monday I started back at Fallon during Fallon Festival!! Throughout the week, speakers such as Thomas Gensemer, Matthew Freud, Ken Livingstone, Mark Earls, Robert Senior and Laurence Green are all in the flesh, in very intimate and open Q&A sessions about their industries, cultural views, and lives in general.

Over the past two years, I have been aware of the unexpected, from an internship amidst big wigs in the Gherkin, working for top creative power houses, travelling to random towns in England, VIP treatment at the O2, battling the bureaucracy any international student faces with the Home Office, living on a budget of £90 pw, and more recently being burgled.

While I am excited about the people I’ve met and worked with, my life is not a resume. I have only been shaken to my core quite a few times by the outcomes of personal choices and achievements, but more so by distress. On Sunday afternoon, I came home to find my flat had been burgled. Yes, even ADventure Lad can't be ahead of all the wrong doers. Luckily, only my Xbox was taken…::PHEW::…but I was left with a feeling of vulnerability and violation.

This experience and my adventures to-date, have further helped to shape my outlook on tomorrow and my efforts live more within the unexpected than before.

When listening to my friends comforting words and hearing the early stories of some of today’s leaders, reminded me that no two days are ever supposed to be the same. To think “It could never happen to me” is to open yourself up to a world of naivety, sometimes for the best, though more often not. It is impossible to be prepared for everything, but certainty the excitement comes from living in the unexpected by jumping at every opportunity, being vigilantly persistent and effusively positive in the face of every dissimilar day.

Things I Will Miss #3

-- Post From My iPhone

Things I Will Miss #2

MMMMMM YUMMMMY STICKYYYY GOODNESSSS

My Top 3 From Saatchi's Showcase

Her Morning Elegance / Oren Lavie



Sonny J : Handsfree (If You Hold My Hand)



Keith Loutit

A Sip of Kir Royal at Cannes

The International Advertising Film Festival is now well underway in Cannes France, its official home after its inception in 1954. Until 1984 the festival was held in Venice and Monte Carlo, before arriving at its now permanent home in Cannes and highlighted the works of TV and film. In 1992 print media was recognized followed by digital in 1998, radio in 2005, design in 2008, and 2009 welcomes PR to the stage.

On a day like today, sitting in sunny London with an hour for lunch seemed like a waste, when I could easily soar through the clouds faster than a speeding bullet to take in the sights of a Lunch hour at Cannes. So I ran from the office and took to the clouds and after a minute I had cleared a path for my super secret landing behind the Debussy Theatre, where Sir Martin Sorrell (the big wig of WPP, the holding company of agencies like JWT and Ogilvy among others) will be gathering tomorrow with other heavyweights to debate the impact of the recession on Adland.

Suddenly, a helicopter cut me off as it made its own approach, bringing in more directors and creatives from all over the globe. In Cannes, there is nothing like making your very own entrance. After my frazzled landing, I found a luxurious cafe and took in the sights. Lucky no one had noticed ADventure Lad's near collision with air traffic control. ::Phew::

A waiter came to my table and simply offered me a Kir Royal. From what I have heard, there is nothing like enjoying the combination of Champagne and creme de cassis as you look out over the busy centre. Within seconds, there was no avoiding the buzz of who had a Lion and who didn't.

Now I bet you're thinking, It is easy to want to rub shoulders with an Oscar, an Emmy and even a Tony, but with a Lion?! The Lion is the iconic symbol of the festival and they were inspired by the Lions in Piazza San Marco in Venice, where the first festival took place. Here are some of this year's highlights...

AKQA is the success story of this year's festival so far, winning a Grand Prix for Fiat 'eco:Drive' in the Cyber category (See the screen grab, but check out the actual site and have a poke around)



After picking up the Grand Prix in the PR Lions, 'the best job in the world' campaign for Tourism Queensland also scooped the honour in the Direct Marketing category. (Can you believe as a campaign they actually created a job to be the care taker of the Great Barrier Reef Islands! as a way of raising awareness of the reef and Australia! Now that's Seriously Smart Advertising ;-P)

Saatchi & Saatchi snapped up the UK’s only Gold Award in the Direct Lions category for T-Mobile ‘Dance,' no other UK agency won Gold in Direct. The Award is for Commercial Public Services.
'Dance' also won 3 Media Lions (2 silver and 1 bronze for Commercial Public Services, Best Use of Special Event and Best Use of Mixed Media, respectively) and 1 Cyber Lion.


Saatchis' has cast its net even further this year in its search for fresh directing talent. The New Directors' Showcase, sponsored by Saatchis for 19 years, premiered at 1.30 in the Grand Auditorium at Cannes. This is one of the hottest tickets at Cannes giving Adland and namely Saatchis, a first bite at the best new talent - the performer Bill Shannon and director Joey Garfield who shot the new Visa ad was found here. Jonathan Glazer, Tarsem, Michel Gondry and Danny Kleinman have all appeared on the New Directors Showcase in the past.

I won't give away the names of the directors but, I will give my top picks for Music Videos and Ads they presented. All in all, every selection was oozing creativity!

Music Videos:
Hands Free by Sonny J
Her Morning Elegance by Oren Lavie
Live Good by Naive New Beaters
Warrior's Dance by The Prodigy

Adverts:
Alto Palermo
Scrabble
Pain Without Borders
Adidas
Nike

**Once these films are made public I will do my best to post them!**

WHOA, look at the time. I best take to the sky and race back to 80 Charlotte Street! I will try and keep you all updated but just incase you fancy finding out more about Cannes, go to www.canneslions.com, and/or check out the winners here!

Up Up and AWAY!

The Recession Lesson

Walking through TOPMAN a while back, I saw this printed on a t-shirt and I first thought of what Lady and I would do and say in the face of impending doom.


However, after thinking a moment about the whole economic crisis ripping through our streets I looked at this design more as a reality affecting everyone.

People are bored of the recession and what were thought to be minor value shifts among a more sensitive consumer, are now becoming the new way of thinking for the long-term.

This morning I set my alarm for an hour earlier than normal and sat up in bed looking out my window and enjoying this view...


Now this may not seem like the best view to you, but that's my point. For me, it is helping to shape a positive outlook on my day. People who are making it through tough times like these, or even fighting more personal and emotional battles, are the ones who are taking a 'time-out' for themselves.

Go on and try it if you think I'm waked, see what happens. :)

-- Post From My iPhone

Evening Commute

Living in London makes it easy to become overly reliant upon the tube. Sometimes when it's delayed or shut down nothing beats a walk through the city's streets and parks to get to where you need to be.




After sitting indoors staring at Power Point for hours, the sweaty tube was the last thing I wanted to suffer on one of London's nicest evenings.






I did this once before on a morning commute to Fallon when it was raining and being an hour late became my new reality whether by bus or foot. It was just as inspiring then as it was today as I spoke with Lady on the phone and took in the settings. There is a certain calm that brushes over you as you stroll through London's streets. In advertising you don't always get better at your job by examination after examination and when choosing to work in communications there is no better way to improve your creative side than to take time to notice people and your own surroundings. Sometimes you may even stumble upon hidden treasures.





This post is for my Lady


-- Post From My iPhone

A View From Above

Over the past month I have been working at one of London's top creative agencies working on a project for a brand within a highly saturated market. This is one of the more challenging accounts within a global agency for the reason that if you try to colour too far outside of the lines, it could spell trouble and look like a mess, but if you hold back even slightly, there is a chance the brand will suffer.

Before I dive in, let me share with you my bird’s eye view over Adland I got while soaring through the sky, as super heroes do from time to time.

The Account Man: From a junior executive to a regional director, you are the middle man between the agency and the client. Your job is to ensure the brief is met, in terms if cost efficiency, timeliness, and to be sure the ideas you're presenting are not only inline with the agencies mantra but also to the grounds by which you won the pitch.

Creatives: It might seem easy to paint creatives with the same dark brush. While their job is to generate disruptive ideas that engage the consumer on a profound level, they are far from the stereotype. Creatives can come from a range of non-traditional backgrounds as long as they deliver those magical ideas which resonate within our subconscious.

Planners: A planner's objective it to speak on behalf of the consumer. Strategies come from the insight which great creative follows. A planner’s duties are to look at a brief’s objective and then take the pulse of the people. A great planner will be able to recognize the problem within the market and develop a stratagem for the campaign. As a planner, if you can’t simply describe something, it means you don’t understand it well enough.

All three of the above must act as one team if the idea is to create a long lasting relationship. This cohesion is absolutely vital when working within a saturated market. Take for example refrigerators, diapers and detergent. All three are diverse products and they are equally vital towards every household. So how is it possible to create that meaningful relationship?

That is the million dollar question. The key is to build the connection from a foundation of emotions. What will stop me from buying the product which is on promotion is how relevant each of the different brands is to my life. If a brand can communicate relevancy outside of its function, while staying true to the segment in which it performs, then you and your team might find yourself to be a million dollars richer!

Super Simple Smile

Everyone is looking for the next big trend amidst the biggest recession in living memory. Plans, budgets and people have greatly transformed. My life certainly has taken a new shape over the past year. Messages between friends, family, colleagues and businesses have become diluted with so much extra information. Often when I communicate an idea or course of action to people, I tend to spend more time giving supporting evidence than necessary. I often forget that, while having reasoning for an idea or action is crucial, its only relevant to the thinker himself. It might seem as though it's a polite gesture in a conversation, but more often than not, a smile is the only reaction you need.
Smiling is the most simplest expression indicating pleasure, favour or amusement. Of course there are variations of the emotions behind a smile, but in most cases it is the response everyone wants, but often overlooks. Take for example the Law of Diminishing Returns. In both business and in life, although achievements happen time and time again, the rate at which they are given praise decreases over time. When I first made the Honor Role in High School, my parents were effusively proud. I got taken to dinner and I was able to pick out not one, but two video games. I was the talk of the town it seemed at family bbqs and in phone conversations. It was a fantastic feeling. I have always kept my eyes on the horizon to constantly achieve Honor Role-like status in everything I do. I will no longer experience the level of praise as I once did back in High School, however there is little difference in the smiles I received then, as I do today.

I tread carefully with the next statement. We as individuals need to step back to an earlier mindset, not for nostalgic purposes, but to when things were simpler and messages were far less complex. In fact messages used to take the form of a simple shape which would cause the simple reaction known as smiling. While I was pursuing work experience within advertising agencies and networking like it was my job, I took up a part time teaching role at a primary school in Primrose Hill. I was an aid for a particular child in the reception class. However, my role soon became the 2nd teacher's aid for a classroom of 30 four year olds. They would recieve stickers, for not only doing great work such as learning the letters of the alphabet, but also for being great listeners and helpers. Like anyone, they were disinterested in doing anything that wasn't fun if there were no stickers at the end of it and once they were lucky enough to get one, they wore it all day on their sleeves, hands or book bags. More often than not, would come in the following day with the same sticker decorating their uniforms.

There is a child in all of us and I for one have not lost the appreciation for a gold star. If account teams, peer groups and people in general began handing out gold star stickers, then smiles would quickly follow! There is an experiment I would love to test out and I would encourage anyone to try this. Next time you find yourself about to go out on a date, out with friends or meet for a business lunch, suggest a restaurant which has paper on the table and a cup of crayons. Be the first to begin drawing and encourage your party to do the same. Aside from it being a great catalyst for creative conversations and ideas, take a moment before the check comes and award your table with gold stars for their drawings. Messages can be as simple as the Super Simple Power of the Smile. :)

Images are from Getty Images (www.gettyimages.com)

Things I Will MIss

The view from my front 'patio' in South Hampstead

What's in My Bag

Its a Sunday Afternoon and after a BBQ and before Waitrose closes early, I had some fun with my iPhone and contents of my Man Bag :)

This pen writes like a BMW drives!

"e" was spectalar! Brilliant and hillarious! I hated finishing it so quick.


I got a chance to meet Bob at HQ. He even signed my copy of his book!

It’s ADventure Lad!

Far from being mild mannered and wearing skin tight spandex, I too encounter everyday mircales and a few of life's villians. Personally the last two years of my life, I truly believe, have set a foundation for the person I am growing into. Life in general seems to be a mixture of tiny personal victories and disruptive failures. It is in that disruption however, that I have found some clarity and only through embracing those failures have I been able to really live.

Laurence Green, a partner at Fallon London, spoke about how communications and great strategies are built around the mantra of creating a 'bigger here and a longer now.' 6 months ago, I would not have had the same appreciation for that statement as I do now. Currently I am on a metaphorical roller coaster, much like everyone else, gripping the handle bars and praying not to get thrown from the carriage. I have recently come to decision to make a move back to New York City. This move and the work I have done researching about consumer trends shifting to realign themselves with the economy, have further defined my perception of Value. Of the many things I hold to be of value, these are at the top of my list:

1. My ability to seek out the small of things in daily life; such as a free coffee or finding a £5er under a bench
2. My family of friends and relatives I have never been more proud of my younger sister and her triumphs through extremely tough times, she is now interning at JWT New York and my very best friend who has managed to put up with me and helped re-align me when I sometimes loose sight of what matters. She is a true Lady.
   
3. My faith in people to see beyond their respective “To Do” lists and routines, to allow for complete strangers to enjoy an iconic moment in their lives, hence the following you tube video

What is your take on Value?

Let's See If I Stick To This ...

iPhone Apps vs. Grad Apps...

As I sit on my couch anxiously awaiting my iPhone 3.0 update to install, it got me thinking of what I was up to, this time last year. I used to live in Notting Hill working as a live-in resident advisor for about 30 American students getting a taste of London life. I had taken time off from my internship turned random sketchy job to devote my summer to studying for my final examinations. Not only was I trying to re-learn what I was taught back in the fall, but I was giving up my first London summer to drown myself in case studies and scholarly journals. YUKO

In September I came to the late conclusion that what I should have been doing was seeking out agency 'open days' and prepping for the 3-day mental drain of turning your life into a creative story no longer than 50 words! Talk about a creative hip check...

My first graduate application was JWT London's. It seems intimidating but in all honesty it really is insightful to wake up your creative side. At first you might get consumed, as I did, to try and outwit the many people who will be submitting a similar application.

ADventure Lad's ADvice: Put down your pen, go make a spot of tea, watch an episode of friends or go to the gym. Then think about a place you loved visiting over the course of your life... Once your in a better state, take a deep breath and pick up your pen or brush the keys of your Mactop or PC and ..... just be yourself. Don't force it.

The blog called AdGrads is VERY helpful for those of you about to dive into the new Grad season. I think Lowe London's might still be open, if the deadline hasn't closed yet...if not, then Hurry! I remember glancing at it, and it looked quite fun!

For JWT London's 2009 applications, about 2000 people applied, 125 were selected for interviews, 25 of us made it to the two day assessment and a final 6 were chosen. It was great fun and I met some great people whom I suspect I will cross paths with again and I have the pleasure of knowing two of the new trainees. The ONLY way to make it through, is to LIVE & BREATH the ad and most importantly Be Yourself, in the application and the assessment, if you're not as you would be in front of the mirror at home when no one is looking...you can easily get overshadowed.

If you apply and make it through, you will definitely have a great two days!

Time to check my iPhone update. Yippee

We Open on Wednesday evening in Hampstead

Welcome to the AD STORM!


This blog will be a collection of 'Things You Don't Learn In School' for all those interested in stepping into Adland. I too am weathering the storm that strikes at random, devastates many, and alters courses. However, in every storm there is that moment when you realize, 'I can either sit and wait for it to pass or I can make the most out of this!'

Growing up I had no idea of what I wanted to do. On some level I felt too much like a child to fit into a professional suit. Before my jump over the puddle, becoming exposed to the world of communications began in 2006. Along the way, my creative side began to take form turning my inner child (thinking he was going to be an X-man when he grew up) into someone who felt confident turning his ideas into actual stories which people could interact with.

I'm 24, I moved to London in the summer of 2007 to complete my Masters in Business. After working a few jobs here and there, on November 4th 2008 I fell in love.

A planner was speaking about his agency's approach to advertising, as a land of ideas and the people he saw everyday were called storytellers. Hearing that, I couldn't think of wanting to pursue any other career.

My goal is to hopefully help those like me, who right now, are waiting for those like Robert Senior to knock on my door and ask for help on that 'typical troublesome account,' in return for an agency job. I don't have any trade secrets or a definitive 'in' to the industry, but I have become what my best friend calls a 'Professional Intern.'

For a taste of what is to come, I have some stories to share about graduate applications, assessment days, work experience, networking and a few odds and ends.

I sincerely hope you enjoy reading this blog, as it could end up to be a time line depicting the next mover and shaker of Adland!