Show a little love.

Have you missed me? Nope? Didn’t think so… glad we came to that conclusion.

Yesterday I arrived back to work after two weeks of scampering around Europe hand in hand with my bestie. How I miss her precious face!

On my last day at work, though ridiculously excited about my upcoming adventures I was extremely exhausted and somewhat jaded by the world and industry. I felt like the gods had given me a damn shoddy hand in the poker game of life. Fairly confident this was a bit dramatic; I have clothes on my back, money in my bank and love all around, what more could one ask for? I could probably think of a few! But we’ll stick with the basics.

To my point – running around Europe taught me a mountain about life, and coming back to work taught me something more. Show appreciation for the people around you, it’s rare in business but dear god it makes a difference. I was DREADING work, to the point of tears welling whilst I drove through a usual early morning god forsaken Sydney traffic jam. But as I walked into the office I was greeted with a giant smile, a huge hug and told that it felt far longer than 2 weeks. I was missed.

My day continued with many unexpected faces acknowledging my absence – my tears dried and I remembered why I love the company I work for, why I do what I do and that I work with some of the loveliest people.

So in a nut shell be kind to the people you work with you never know what is going on with them. Show a little appreciation. Maybe think before shooting your mouth off about that damn producer who fucked shit up. Show a little love, trust me it can make the world of difference.

Opinions for the opinionated.

My dear darling Daddy once told me, “Jacqui, there is nothing worse than someone with an opinion when it’s either stupid or unwanted”. Actually it wasn’t once, it was many many many times. God bless him, it’s a great gift he has given me. Not that it is something I particularly put into practise 24/7.  I work in advertising. Give me break. We can all be loud mouthed idiots.

In fact I am certain that we are up there with the worst of the professional world. We are passionate people. Often far too quick-witted for our own good. And we always want to be the centre of attention. But generally we do learn. Some of us a touch more quickly.  But I’m sure we do eventually make it… right?

Alas, note to self and others.

Don’t flippantly blow off a campaign because it’s the competition. Don’t jump in agreement because everyone else is. And certainly don’t piss of your manager with attitude. I could go on and on…

But we are always told that having an opinion is important. And yes I whole-heartedly agree. However having an opinion that isn’t thoroughly thought through will just make you look stupid. Take 5 minutes to think before that next email, stall for a minute in that next meeting, be creative in how you make time to think, we are creative people after all.

As for those big mouths we have, maybe next time don’t imply that your manager did a shit job. I’m fairly certain that if you are of that opinion – I’m even more certain that we’ve all been there – it’s a bloody terrible idea to express it. Particularly in front of others.  If it is truly that important to open your trap, pull them aside ALONE. Explain how their actions have affected you professionally (don’t get too personal), and provide a solution for what you feel would be a better solution the next time this situation occurs.  Use your brain and learn that sometimes knowing when to shut up can get you further.

In summary. Think before you bombard people with your opinion. And sometimes, when it comes to opinions, less is more.

The gestation period.

So it’s official, I could have had a child since I last posted on my little world in cyber space.

The last nine months has been life changing. Literally. I got dumped and I was shocked at the relief I felt. Then 3 months later my heart broke. Go figure. It has taken me almost exactly 9 months to realise that I can rock up to the office between 8 and 8:30 and the world won’t fall apart. And yes I was rocking up everyday between 7 and 7:30. We won’t mention the time I was leaving. Who would have thought just 1 hour extra away from your desk made the world of difference.

I booked a trip to Europe. I leave in 5 weeks. I lost a friend. It was my fault. I met a boy, a beautiful boy. But I’m uncertain about him.  I dispatched my first advertising campaign. I loved it. But I’m over it now.

I realised my old relationship suppressed my love of music. My new relationship bought it back.

Essentially, shit got real and I miss my blog. I miss my passion for advertising and people. I miss writing.

Stay tuned ya’ll.

War Zones and the Holy Grail

It appears I have lost momentum but all you readers out there, the handful that you are, I’m back… and have a plan to stay… somehow!

Onward…

Something I am quickly learning is the throng of BS that comes with some agencies trying to work together on a single campaign. The PR man says the ad man is just a money hungry bastard he’s on the “dark side” and the ad man, well, my feeling is… he doesn’t even register the PR man.

We’re so caught up in our own practice and our own BS that we forget the significance of integrated working practice. The PR man and the Ad man can actually procreate successfully! Or so I am lead to believe.  

A successful communications campaign that is integrated across all communication platforms is the Holy Grail. However getting to that shining light of ROI in angelic fashion is far less likely. Our natural human reactions often get the better of us when working with other teams and agencies its pack mentality. In some weird way we naturally want to protect our own, be on top and know that we’re winning. It’s like a pack of hyena meeting the wild dog at a rotting caucus; it’s unlikely these two can be friends when food is on the table.

The question is can we over come human nature so we can actually work effectively as one team when we are from different places? Prob’s not especially without a good shrink around, but at least if we’re aware of it we can try consciously not play like animals and hate on each other, getting the job done effectively.

There aren’t a huge amount of campaigns, that I am aware of anyway, that actually have successfully created a highly integrated campaign that covers PR, advertising and experiential. However I have no doubt you probably already know what campaign I am about to spit out at you that reached Holy Grail status, yes yes yes I AM throwing you the NAB campaign. And though it has been spoken about to death it’s a BRILLIANT campaign that has seen HUGE success with its pristine integration across all their communication channels.

The experiential stunts generated a huge amount of talk in the media and online. The best bit is that this chitter chatter ensured advertising cut through. I can just see it, old mate lying on the couch flipping through channels to avoid the ad’s suddenly stops, it’s an NAB ad “oh that’s that thing that bird at work was yapping on about, wonder what it’s all about” he stops, he watches and BOOM we have cut through.   

I have no idea how the teams worked together on the NAB campaign, there could have been cat fights, dog wars and god knows what else. But hey they managed to get past all the BS and get on with the job and they certainly reaped the rewards, and that’s the aim of the game!

 Thoughts for the week OVER!

Google failed me :(

So it seems I am a master of prediction and I have failed to meet my one blog a week promise. But alas such is life and we suck it up and get on with things. I do know I mentioned (a while back) that I would reveal to the world the splendour that was my Masters project! Well guess what I couldn’t be bothered tonight so the suspense will just have to keep on killing you.

Well I came on here to write and the advert I planned to share with you was grand – a full page print ad for bathroom fittings that wasn’t miserably boring and actually caught my eye if not my heart strings. But alas Google has failed me and I can’t find it.  Again I reiterate life gets in the goddamn way of everything… rant over back to business.

The point I was going to make with this brilliant piece of advertising, was that when I see a piece like this I get ridiculously excited and my heart goes BOOM. Not because it’s over the top creative and quirky but because it instantly clicks in your mind and you know the research they used was absolutely 100% spot fucking on. There is no arguing and no man nor their dog can argue it. Another example that made me feel exactly the same way was the recent Kotex daggy undies TVCs. I just thought holy macaroon that ad man or mad man (take your pick) was right inside my head wasn’t he. And now despite having been a dedicated Libra user my whole “adult” life, the last time I went to the shops to purchase my womanly goodies my hand wavered over to the Kotex shelf.

I won’t dismiss the creative execution of these brilliant pieces of art (well my recent understanding of art – mostly don’t have head space for main stream art) because the creative execution is what communicated the genius message that stemmed from that brilliant research. In fact the tag line in the print ad that I so desperately want to share with you – I will find it and scan it and post it up – went something like this “only 8.5 months to go” and then it had something else which makes it all make sense. Some more suspense just for you!

IMC where the hell are you?

I Googled IMC and this is what came up...

So last time I spilled my advertising babble to the world I mentioned the Progressive Direct ads. Well I drove to work today, and what do you know Progressive Direct have hit the radio scene! By hit I mean tip toed, did I mentioned I LOVED their TVCs well I LOVED their TVCs but their radio ad had zip zero zilch linking the two ads in execution other than the brand name!

What the hell has happened to IMC (integrated marketing communication for those out there unfamiliar) these wonderful people called lecturers spent 3 to 4 years drumming the damn thing into us and now we get to the real world and know one seems to use it! – I don’t get it theoretically and logically IMC is a key variable in the success of an advertising campaign. I will admit over the few months that I have been working, I have realised that often what we learn at university is not viable in the real world due to $$, time and resourcing. However I REALLY don’t think IMC would chew into these much, if anything the value in the outcome you get from creating an integrated campaign far outweighs the resources used to create and execute such a campaign.

So could someone out in the big bad world with far more experience than myself explain why advertisers and marketers alike do not insist on IMC when creating a campaign!

Having said all this the radio ad I heard could be part of a completely different campaign full of IMC and Progressive Direct could be shitting on my head right now – in response to that I shall say well you’re stupid to drop comedian lady she is HILARIOUS and the dog… well enough said!

Death by sleep depravation – and why creative is not god!

I swore on my life that I would not neglect this heaven called my virtual babble of words – lets hope some intelligence shines through! So despite my exhaustion I will plough on for myself and with great hope, the rest of the www.

I have, over the last 18 months, had the same ridiculous sentence pumping through my brain, one a lecturer of mine planted. She said to us one day, “kids no matter what you think or what we all know in advertising creative is god”.  I’m unsure to this day of her tone, was she sneakily insulting us creative peeps pottering around? My guess is yes, I often got the feeling there was that old school suit verse creative thing stirring in her bones. Despite that I fully and whole heartedly DISAGREE with her comment, and not because for the 4 years I was at university I was dead set on taking over the creative world, but because I honestly believe that creative is NOT god.

My reasoning you ask? Please by all means shut me down like a toadstool if you disagree – I will not apologise for my down right stupidity, I am tired! So sure for advertising to work you need a creative concept, and you need a good one. However, you can’t come up with a brilliant creative concept without understanding the consumer. And, no matter how creative, brilliant and even on brief your creative concept is, if it is not published or aired in exactly the right place at exactly the right time it’s never going to work. A very funny creative TVC campaign which I LOVE, are the Progressive Direct ads. They are funny, witty and downright entertaining, but they are not effective in getting the brand across. I new the ads for a long time but had no idea what product or brand the ads were promoting until I had to do research on the insurance industry for work. It was a brilliant creative concept, but it had very little online support and I was not aware of any outdoor advertising, in fact I did not register any other advertising for the brand what so ever.  Obviously I could be wrong as I may not be the target and I do often live on cloud 9, but generally if a TVC is reaching you at the rate that the Progressive Direct ads were reaching me, any other advertising for the brand should as well.

So with this in mind I firmly believe without each entity, be it big or small, the advertising process is ineffective. No one department should be put on a godly pedestal because without the other pieces of the puzzle that department is nothing but a builder of brilliant ideas that get poofed into space with no reason or voomf behind them! The same goes for strategy, production and design.  Advertising is an all encompasing industry – team work is essential!

Hopefully this blog does not see my death by crayon, but for what its worth I would like to state if anyone is god in the marketing mix, it is the consumer as there would be no product and no advertising no nothing really if there was not someone out there willing to purchase!

 

Adios!