Showing posts with label Creature. Show all posts
Another successful London Week
Just before Easter the third year students had their 'London Week'. The year group was split in two and each group visited one agency a day. In total the cohort visited 10 agencies in 10 days.
Some of the agencies set briefs the week before and ran a crit when the students arrived. Some agencies were even more demanding and set a brief in the morning and then critiqued the work in the afternoon. A couple of the agencies gave presentations on how to get a job in advertising, showed some of their recent work & gave advice on portfolio content, industry expectations & how to successfully make the transition from University to career.
Monday saw visits to Leo Burnett & DLKW:–
Some of the agencies set briefs the week before and ran a crit when the students arrived. Some agencies were even more demanding and set a brief in the morning and then critiqued the work in the afternoon. A couple of the agencies gave presentations on how to get a job in advertising, showed some of their recent work & gave advice on portfolio content, industry expectations & how to successfully make the transition from University to career.
Monday saw visits to Leo Burnett & DLKW:–
Fresh faced and raring to go at Leo Burnett
Kieran pretending to work hard at Leo Burnett
Quick! Write lots at DLKW and look busy!
Agency: DLKW
Taking the escalator up to DLKW
Tuesday and the students visited Grey and creative recruitment agency The Talent Business:–
Lots of sugary drinks at Grey
Agency: Grey
Creative recruitment agency, The Talent Business
The Talent Business
Wednesday and it's agencies Creature and JWT:–
Agency: Creature
Cool things at Creature
In the reception at Creature
Need a break? Don't go to JWT - it's hard work.
Woah! JWT's impressive reception.
Agency: JWT!
Agency: JWT
Thursday and it's off to Inferno and Mother:–
Kieran presenting at Inferno
Sarah & Natalie presenting at Inferno
Agency: Mother
Waiting in reception at Mother
Agency: Mother
And finally, on Friday the students visited agencies Ogilvy and VCCP:–
All aboard The Mayflower meeting room at Ogilvy!
Stan and Beth arriving at VCCP
As you can see it really was quite a week!
Thank you SO much to all everyone at the agencies who helped organise the week. We simply couldn't have done it without you. The vast majority of these were past University of Lincoln Creative Advertising graduates so you see how it goes: come to Lincoln > graduate from Lincoln > get a placement (or two or three) > get a job at a top agency > keep in touch with the staff team in Lincoln > help the next generation of creative talent. You get the idea.
Next up for the third years, pull everything together that they've learned in Lincoln and London and prepare for their portfolios for final assessment. And then it's the degree show (and Private View party).
Nice.
London week - Creature
Following on from the last post, here's a student review of the third year's recent visit to Creature.
Creature - Lucy Eldridge & Liam Nicholson
The second agency our group visited during London week was Creature - the spawn of three ex-Mother creatives: Ben Middleton, Ed Warren, and Stuart Outhwaite.
Before the visit we were set a brief to list insights on a product that we buy and love. We then were asked to choose one of the insights - one that hadn't been used to advertise that brand before.
After a good chin wag with Lincoln Creative Advertising graduates Ruud and Brooke about their journey into Adland and how they finally secured a job at Creature, @CreatureStu (we tend to refer to people by their twitter handles...) graced us with his presence and immediately inspired us, talking about what he loves/hates to see in portfolios and how insight is key to reach out to people.
After a good chin wag with Lincoln Creative Advertising graduates Ruud and Brooke about their journey into Adland and how they finally secured a job at Creature, @CreatureStu (we tend to refer to people by their twitter handles...) graced us with his presence and immediately inspired us, talking about what he loves/hates to see in portfolios and how insight is key to reach out to people.
Stu told us how the best adverts tend to find a refreshing way to say something obvious. We looked at the insights everyone came up with and were advised of certain brands to stay away from as they have such an obvious benefit/adjective that the ads write themselves... e.g Buy a Porsche because they are fast-er.
Stu proceeded with a truly inspirational rant about finding the enemy of a product and using them to show why your product is so bloody good. This was expanded on with examples, i.e Lucozade's enemy is Red Bull. With the use of strange but well practiced character voices Stu clarified his point well.
Overall, his energy and enthusiasm was great to see in someone that has been in the business for years. We guarantee that everyone walked out of Creature that day thinking, "Ah yeah, that Stu! What a lad. Definitely someone I would love to answer to as my creative director".
Stu proceeded with a truly inspirational rant about finding the enemy of a product and using them to show why your product is so bloody good. This was expanded on with examples, i.e Lucozade's enemy is Red Bull. With the use of strange but well practiced character voices Stu clarified his point well.
Overall, his energy and enthusiasm was great to see in someone that has been in the business for years. We guarantee that everyone walked out of Creature that day thinking, "Ah yeah, that Stu! What a lad. Definitely someone I would love to answer to as my creative director".
His love for insights and looking at things in a new exciting way sold Creature as an exciting place to work, full of helpful, friendly and approachable people; an all round relaxed environment where creativity f**king thrives like bacteria. Sorry. We're getting all excited and fidgety just thinking about it.
Graduate TV campaign goes live.
University of Lincoln Creative Advertising graduates Brooke Cutmore and Ruud Kool have been very busy over the last few months creating a TV campaign for Moo.com. The pair, who work at Creature London have collaborated with animators to create a visually arresting campaign which is currently on air across the UK, we'll let Ruud explain more in his own words.
"So far, we've made four ads for Moo.com, as you might have seen two of them are already on air in the UK. The other two are soon to air in the United States.
The idea for the ads was to let influential entrepreneurs tell their story, and encourage others to start something remarkable themselves. All people featured in the ads did actually start their business through Moo.com, as they had their first business cards printed by the company. So the truth is that Moo.com was there in the beginning.
In the process of making the ads, we spent hours and hours in the studio, interviewing a number of interesting entrepreneurs both here in the UK and in the States. We asked them about how they started out, how they came up with their big idea, what the ups and downs where in the process, and most importantly, what advice they'd give other budding entrepreneurs. We ended up with hours of talking, that we reduced to 25 second sound bites. Which we then animated.
We worked with a French director/animator called Steven Briand. He originally created the video below which was a key inspiration for the art direction of the ads.
Keep an eye on moo.com/remarkable to catch the two American ads when they go live!"
"So far, we've made four ads for Moo.com, as you might have seen two of them are already on air in the UK. The other two are soon to air in the United States.
The idea for the ads was to let influential entrepreneurs tell their story, and encourage others to start something remarkable themselves. All people featured in the ads did actually start their business through Moo.com, as they had their first business cards printed by the company. So the truth is that Moo.com was there in the beginning.
Part of Brooke and Ruud's campaign for Moo.com
We worked with a French director/animator called Steven Briand. He originally created the video below which was a key inspiration for the art direction of the ads.
Keep an eye on moo.com/remarkable to catch the two American ads when they go live!"
Ad agency London week for level 3 - part 4
Continuing the reports from level three Creative Advertising students after they spent a week engaging with some of the best advertising agencies in London...
... Inferno by Mel Webb:-
'Having talked the entire group of third years into wanting to work for him, Stu went on to talk about his experience of getting a job in advertising, spilling out information faster than any normal person could possibly write it down. Then Brooke and Ruud were given the opportunity to talk about their recent experience of breaking into the industry.
'A week prior to the visit the group had been set the task of gaining 500 followers on a fictional Twitter account. Few were successful, but the task had been set to make a point: it is important to do something different to impress a potential employer as well as what they are expecting to see.
'Finally, Stu’s 3 keys to success: Initiative Tenacity Personality'
... Inferno by Mel Webb:-
'On Thursday we visited Inferno. Many of us had visited them previously but this time it was in their new location close to Covent Garden. We were greeted by Tim Palmer, Inferno's Digital Creative Director. Tim went to University with our tutor Mike Belton, so a glorious photograph of a rather younger looking Belton welcomed us on the boardroom screen!
'At 9am we were briefed by Tim and Bambos Neophytou, Head of Strategy. When Nando's was announced as our client a few whoops and cheers were heard! With the main thought of the brief being 'Acts of Mischief', this brief allowed us to have some fun, make people laugh and be entertaining with our work.
In some ways this brief provided a different sort of challenge to us. We often work on products or brands which need to be sold, companies which have lost their appeal or need a boost. With Nando's being in a prime position, this meant we just needed to think about the personality not the products.
The day's work is reviewed at Inferno
'At the end of the day the teams presented their work to several people from Inferno followed by individual critiques from them all. Once again we were so grateful for the time they gave to us and the excellent feedback we received.
'To celebrate a successful day we were invited for drinks in their roof bar where we were able to chat to creatives, filling our minds with more advice on how to get those much sought after placements.'
... Creature by Mike Mackenzie:-
'We were greeted on arrival at the agency by the first creative employees of the one year old company, familiar faces Brooke and Ruud who graduated Lincoln 2 years ago, along with one of the three founding partners Stuart Outhwaite.
'Stu opened with a light introduction to Creature, a small ambitious creative agency who seemingly does everything they have ever wanted to do and make ads on the side! Brooke and Ruud for example were mid-way through the process of launching a restaurant and half way through writing their own opera, as well as pitching for clients such as Adidas. The company also has a play and a musical out this summer.
Drinks at the end of the day at Inferno
'We were greeted on arrival at the agency by the first creative employees of the one year old company, familiar faces Brooke and Ruud who graduated Lincoln 2 years ago, along with one of the three founding partners Stuart Outhwaite.
'Stu opened with a light introduction to Creature, a small ambitious creative agency who seemingly does everything they have ever wanted to do and make ads on the side! Brooke and Ruud for example were mid-way through the process of launching a restaurant and half way through writing their own opera, as well as pitching for clients such as Adidas. The company also has a play and a musical out this summer.
Creature's Brooke, Ruud and Stu talk to the Lincoln students
'Having talked the entire group of third years into wanting to work for him, Stu went on to talk about his experience of getting a job in advertising, spilling out information faster than any normal person could possibly write it down. Then Brooke and Ruud were given the opportunity to talk about their recent experience of breaking into the industry.
'A week prior to the visit the group had been set the task of gaining 500 followers on a fictional Twitter account. Few were successful, but the task had been set to make a point: it is important to do something different to impress a potential employer as well as what they are expecting to see.
'Finally, Stu’s 3 keys to success: Initiative Tenacity Personality'
Where are they now? Brooke & Ruud in Seattle
Brooke Cutmore & Ruud Kool graduated from the Creative Advertising programme in 2010 and now work at Creature, London. They've just returned from working at Creature's offices in Seattle. Here's Brooke to tell us more...
'We've been working at Creature, London for nine months now – working like crazy on pitch after pitch. As the agency is relatively new, it has meant a lot of long days and working weekends pitching for new business. The biggest and most exciting project that we're working on is for Adidas. After winning the account in December, it is now in production and you'll get to see the whole agency's handywork in April when the TV spots air.
'Just before Christmas Ruud and I – with another creative called Tom – were given the opportunity to go work at Creature's American office in Seattle for 6 weeks. With only a week's notice we packed our bags and flew out on the 2nd January.
'It was an amazing experience – seeing not only how the Seattle version on Creature worked, but living and working in the USA was great. Plus they loved our British accents! Going there has definitely change my opinion of the West Coast and America. The best part was the people. There was a group of guys from the office that took care of us and took the time to show us around their city, taking us to the best little bars, cafés and restaurants.
'We created a blog for the time we were out there, so go and check it out in more detail (if you want).
'We're now back in London and have just completed another pitch, so fingers crossed we get this one too!"
A great example of where the Lincoln's Creative Advertising programme can take you.
London ad agency visits
We recently took the Level 2 students to visit four high profile and very contrasting advertising agencies in London. We always try to make the level 2 agency trip encompass as wide a range of agencies as possible and we certainly managed to live up to that aim this year.
First up in the morning for group A was a trip to the biggest agency of them all: AMV BBDO. Level two strudent Liam Nicholson explains how the visit went:
'We were greeted in the boardroom by two very polite creatives Milo Campbell and Sonny Adorjan. They spoke to us about their intriguing journey into advertising and inspired us with a screening of an AMV BBDO show-reel and 'The Process' (aka designing the stop sign) which gives a humorous insight into the client/creative relationship. As well as showing us some of their work, Sonny and Milo also spoke about the type of integrated campaigns and digital work, which creative directors like to see in a student portfolio. The highlight of the visit however, was when Paul Brazier, the executive creative director at AMV BBDO and former president of D&AD, enlightened us on the creative process and gave us advice on how to make it in Adland, all in his brilliant Brummie accent.'
Getting the chance to meet someone as high profile as Paul doesn't come around too often and the advice that he gave to the students was all the more well received because of it. AMV is a large and impressive place to visit and was a great motivation for everyone.
Whilst Group A were visiting AMV, Group B were being hosted by creative giants, Mother. Level 2 student Sophie Macdonald explains how the visit went:
'We had the amazing opportunity to visit Mother London and considering the reputation that Mother London has, it was no surprise to walk into what looked like an art gallery.'
'After seeing Mother's unconventional and fantastic ground floor we were then shown upstairs where we were introduced to the famous 250ft concrete desk. We sat down with Dan, Craig and Ben who gave us lots of advice concerning portfolio's and the hard work that needs to be put in, they also showed us some great work and ran a very insightful Q and A session to round off our visit.'
So that was the morning taken care of and it was now time for Group A to visit one of the newer agencies in London - Creature.
Level 2 student Lily Peters explains more:
'On our agency visit trip to London, we were fortunate enough to meet with Stu Outhwaite, previously C.D at Mother and now a partner of fledging agency Creature. Creature is a vibrant, creatively focused agency and Stu shared key information on how to enter the Ad world, driving home the fact that networking and contacts are essential in order to get your foot in the door. Creature had an incredibly friendly vibe and Ruud Kool - a Lincoln graduate - was able to join us and shed a more recent light on life as a post-grad Creative.'
'Having the opportunity to be within an agency environment and meeting Stu was highly motivational for us all. Creature has a very exciting feel to it and it was wonderful to visit such a new agency and meet with a successful creative who had once been in our shoes.'
The group that had previously visited Mother also visited industry heavyweight JWT in the afternoon.
Sophie Macdonald tells us more:
'As we entered the reception at JWT the walls were covered with bicycles which made the agency feel like a very cool place to work.'
'We were greeted by Senior Creative Miles Bingham who provided us with huge amounts of advice and information about the industry and went on to show us some of the adverts that he had worked on. He also gave us advice on what would happen during a work placement at an agency and what to do when dealing with big clients.'
'Miles gave us an idea of how an ad comes to life with the 'hard slog' that goes into it. He was very passionate about the work that he had produced and about working in advertising. He gave us an honest and uplifting talk about the ups and downs in the industry and at the end of his presentation he gave us his email in case we needed future help and advice.'
Phew. Quite an exhausting but very rewarding trip.
A very big THANK YOU to all of the agencies and individuals who took time out of their busy schedules to see us. Visiting an ad agency is always inspirational as well as educational and this trip proved to be no different. Here's to the next one.
First up in the morning for group A was a trip to the biggest agency of them all: AMV BBDO. Level two strudent Liam Nicholson explains how the visit went:
'We were greeted in the boardroom by two very polite creatives Milo Campbell and Sonny Adorjan. They spoke to us about their intriguing journey into advertising and inspired us with a screening of an AMV BBDO show-reel and 'The Process' (aka designing the stop sign) which gives a humorous insight into the client/creative relationship. As well as showing us some of their work, Sonny and Milo also spoke about the type of integrated campaigns and digital work, which creative directors like to see in a student portfolio. The highlight of the visit however, was when Paul Brazier, the executive creative director at AMV BBDO and former president of D&AD, enlightened us on the creative process and gave us advice on how to make it in Adland, all in his brilliant Brummie accent.'
Stood outside AMV BBDO, having just met ad legend Paul Brazier
Getting the chance to meet someone as high profile as Paul doesn't come around too often and the advice that he gave to the students was all the more well received because of it. AMV is a large and impressive place to visit and was a great motivation for everyone.
Whilst Group A were visiting AMV, Group B were being hosted by creative giants, Mother. Level 2 student Sophie Macdonald explains how the visit went:
'We had the amazing opportunity to visit Mother London and considering the reputation that Mother London has, it was no surprise to walk into what looked like an art gallery.'
Inside the offices of Mother.
'After seeing Mother's unconventional and fantastic ground floor we were then shown upstairs where we were introduced to the famous 250ft concrete desk. We sat down with Dan, Craig and Ben who gave us lots of advice concerning portfolio's and the hard work that needs to be put in, they also showed us some great work and ran a very insightful Q and A session to round off our visit.'
Get me the number of Mother's interior decorator.
So that was the morning taken care of and it was now time for Group A to visit one of the newer agencies in London - Creature.
Level 2 student Lily Peters explains more:
'On our agency visit trip to London, we were fortunate enough to meet with Stu Outhwaite, previously C.D at Mother and now a partner of fledging agency Creature. Creature is a vibrant, creatively focused agency and Stu shared key information on how to enter the Ad world, driving home the fact that networking and contacts are essential in order to get your foot in the door. Creature had an incredibly friendly vibe and Ruud Kool - a Lincoln graduate - was able to join us and shed a more recent light on life as a post-grad Creative.'
'Having the opportunity to be within an agency environment and meeting Stu was highly motivational for us all. Creature has a very exciting feel to it and it was wonderful to visit such a new agency and meet with a successful creative who had once been in our shoes.'
The group that had previously visited Mother also visited industry heavyweight JWT in the afternoon.
Sophie Macdonald tells us more:
'As we entered the reception at JWT the walls were covered with bicycles which made the agency feel like a very cool place to work.'
'We were greeted by Senior Creative Miles Bingham who provided us with huge amounts of advice and information about the industry and went on to show us some of the adverts that he had worked on. He also gave us advice on what would happen during a work placement at an agency and what to do when dealing with big clients.'
'Miles gave us an idea of how an ad comes to life with the 'hard slog' that goes into it. He was very passionate about the work that he had produced and about working in advertising. He gave us an honest and uplifting talk about the ups and downs in the industry and at the end of his presentation he gave us his email in case we needed future help and advice.'
Phew. Quite an exhausting but very rewarding trip.
A very big THANK YOU to all of the agencies and individuals who took time out of their busy schedules to see us. Visiting an ad agency is always inspirational as well as educational and this trip proved to be no different. Here's to the next one.
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