Examples of Outdoor Advertising

The art directors were tasked with creating the most original cracker design whilst the copywriters had to write the best cracker joke. Fun was had by all (partly fuelled by an industrial sized bag of sweets) and the students produced some very creative crackers. As we all know Christmas is all about giving, so Matt Paxton got a giant Toblerone for his Cracker design of Santa delivering D&AD pencils and Alfie Daniell-Waldron also won a Toblerone for a very funny joke which we can't print here.

Ho Ho Ho.

Tis the season of goodwill to all creatives and the nice people at Fallon invited the Lincoln Creative Advertising students along to their Christmas bash in order to spread good cheer to all. The night was a great success and the students really enjoyed the opportunity to meet industry professionals in such an inspirational agency. Creative Advertising student, Johnny Fordham explains how the evening went.

'This year, former Lincoln student Diogo and his partner Alice were tasked with finding a solution to Fallon's 2013 Christmas card brief. Instead of the traditional card or email bulletin, the pair decided that they wanted to invite junior Creatives and students to join Creatives from the agency in celebrating the festivities, with free drinks and a great evening. Third years at Lincoln were asked to join them in their celebrations, with around 20 of us attending the event in London. A fun and festive evening coupled with free drinks led to some truly wonderful memories and plenty of contacts being made. Juniors and creative directors all came together, giving us the opportunity to talk about the industry and other interesting topics, with many people being very impressed with the Lincoln turnout, and the almost 300 mile round trip many of us would complete just to attend. Once the evening finished, the Lincoln Creatives left, many of them returning to the mini bus taking them back to Lincoln that night. Draped in tinsel and with some spinning heads, we boarded the bus, tired from the long day but exhilarated by the great evening.

Thank you Fallon for a great day, we hope to see you again next year.'

Putting the boards up is a team effort.

The Talent Business - Gemma Reeve

To start our week in London we visited The Talent Business. Here we spoke to Martin Murphy, a talent strategist (who has been working for The Talent Business for 3 years now) about The Talent Business's role in helping young creatives build the bridge from University to advertising agencies.

Located in Covent Gardens, the Talent Business links creatives to the industry without being a recruitment agency. They have three teams within the business: Accounts, Media and Marketing. Employees here all have agency-based experience; with Mike working for Nokia whilst he was at University.

The Talent Business holds a global event each year called CREAM. A free opportunity for young creatives to submit their work to be reviewed by at least 25 judges where it will be marked on a scale of 1-10 (10 being you're hired!). Martin helps co-ordinate CREAM and NABS junior book clubs that aim to help graduates find their creative partners.

Martin gave us all really solid advice for those who are serious about a career as a Creative. He spoke about the current market being quite refreshing in comparison to previous years, with smaller agencies hiring young talent and now the bigger agencies are following suit.

He advised us to target 5 to 10 agencies that we respected, to look at their work and really get a feel for what that agency represents, find contacts (something that The Talent Business can help with) and work on a few campaigns that they have done to show your mutual interests.

He advised not to work for free, take placements for less than a month or continue in placements for more than 4 months where there is no likely job. Most placements span from 1-3 months with £250 p/w each being the average pay.

Martin emphasised the importance of not just having an amazing portfolio; you have to be an interesting person too! Build a brand for yourself, get on Linkdin, make business cards, start blogs, and craft your website to reflect not just your work, but your personality and other things you are interested in.

Whether it be photography, drawing or design work; make yourself stand out. It is just as important to know what you want from your career as what the agencies want from you. Show aspirations - if you want to gain experience in digital work, make it clear. Realising your identity will allow agencies to give you these opportunities.

Overall some very friendly, insightful and helpful advice! A very useful and enjoyable visit. Thanks Martin!

DLKW Lowe was an agency that we'd not come across before and knew little about, however we loved their moving Morrison's Christmas insight to mums, so we were quite excited and intrigued to see what the agency was like.

Upon arriving, the agency certainly gained people's attention, with a large escalator inside that welcomed us to a quirky setting that seemed half corporate and half creative. 

We were greeted by past Lincoln graduates, Daz and Tom, who were amongst the first graduates of the Creative Advertising course in Lincoln. After being ushered up into the creative department, the scene was somewhat different - with its smooth finishes and angular features, it looked like a very cool, modern art gallery.