The Great Debate
 |
| Two years enter...there can be only one!!!...winner. |
In order to be good at Creative Advertising you need to be able to construct a good argument. Constructing good arguments requires looking at things from all sides and only when you fully understand your subject can you create innovative and persuasive advertising strategies.
That's why the Creative Advertising course holds an annual Great Debate competition between the Level 1 and 2 students. The students have to know the subjects they will be debating inside out and be able to present an equally good case for and against their subject matter. The students don't know which side of the argument they will be promoting until they enter the 'debating arena' and only have a couple of minutes to compose themselves before the battle of minds begins. Preparation is key and the students that have done the most extensive research will inevitably progress the furthest in the competition.
 |
| Which name suits him best? Colin or Martin |
The competition runs at a hectic pace with second years and first years squaring off against each other whilst the third years sit in judgement and decide which teams proceed into the next round. The questions range from the esoteric to the plain bizarre and a successful debater doesn't allow their personal feelings to enter into the discussion – it's all about creating the strongest argument.
 |
| Excellent support from the seconds years. |
After much heated debate thirty two teams were whittled down to just two, Kathryn Jackson & Rory Sheppard Vs Louella Minter & Josh Clarke making up an all first year final. After a titanic struggle Rory and Kathryn emerged as this years Great Debate champions and will get the chance to defend their crown in next years competition.
 |
| The Final question - No more page 3 - A victory for feminism |
All this debating is great practice for developing a sound advertising brain and keeps everybody sharp. Now, which is best, poster advertising or social media?
Claire & Maria & Weetabuddies
Claire and Maria's Weetabuddies campaign. FYI, Claire is the one on the left.
Lincoln Creative Advertising graduates Claire Stokes & Maria Stochado have been very busy at BBH, they recently had some high profile work on television for KFC during Christmas and have just launched their latest creation Weetabuddies
There's 11 films for Weetabix - all aimed at 4-7 year olds (but we're hoping you like them too!) And they've also made a website for kids to create their own and enter a competition.
It's the biggest, and most all round campaign they've worked on to date and they've had great fun making it along the way. Yay.
Gabi & Matt
Matt & Gabi phoning piggy bank helpline.
Gabrielle Choo and Matt Paxton graduated last year from the Lincoln Creative Advertising course and have gone on to land themselves a full time job at DigitasLBi, hooray. This didn't happen by accident of course Gabi and Matt put in a great deal of hard work into their work placement and all of the effort paid off when they were finally offered a contract just before Christmas. I'll let the guys tell you the story in their own words. 'After our end of year show in June we sadly waved goodbye to a wonderful three years in Lincoln, however we were ready for our next adventure. Raring to take our first steps in to London Adland. After a busy few weeks going on book crits and further developing our portfolio we landed out first placement at the wonderful Hometown. On our first day we were thrown in the deep end, working on the same briefs as the senior creatives at the agency. Though slightly daunting I believe that giving us so much responsibility so early on was invaluable. After three months, two monumental briefs and one pitch winning idea our summer was over.
Next we were to become winterns at the magnificent DigitasLBi on Brick Lane. We immediately loved the agency, everyone was so friendly and there was always something exciting going on. Though in such a huge place we had to work hard to prove ourselves. We scrambled for any brief we could get and tried to get to know as many people as possible. In the next few weeks we worked on a real range of stuff. We realised the scope of the work that DigitasLBi did, and it was brilliant. After a few successful briefs we took part in an ideas workshop for a new account with some of the other creatives, some of the creative directors and the chief creative director. After coming back with just a days worth of ideas we presented them to the daunting panel. Unbelievably they liked them.
A Unicorn
Over the next few days we were asked to develop these ideas, we heard hints and rumors over drinks that the creative directors didn’t want us to go quite yet. We geared ourselves up to ask for our placement to be extended. Before we got a chance to we were stopped at our desks and each handed a red box with a unicorn embossed on the front, the unicorn being the symbol of Digitas LBi. A round of applause across the huge studio. Matt hyperventilating. Me clutching my red box like a trophy. After a month on placement we were asked to be a permanent part of the team. Just in time for Christmas, we became fully fledged unicorns.'
Level 2 Visit to London Advertising Agencies
Last week saw the Level 2 students visit some of the highest profile advertising agencies in London; BBH, Wieden & Kennedy, DLKW Lowe and VCCP. A course that delivers ‘real world experiences’ is vitally important for the of Lincoln Creative Advertising students.
This first hand experience is mutually beneficial for both the students and the agencies. It allows the students to see the inner workings of an agency and likewise the agencies get to meet the next generation of advertisers. Like the Egyptian Plover to the Nile Crocodile…it’s a win-win situation.
This first hand experience is mutually beneficial for both the students and the agencies. It allows the students to see the inner workings of an agency and likewise the agencies get to meet the next generation of advertisers. Like the Egyptian Plover to the Nile Crocodile…it’s a win-win situation.
I'll let the students explain in their own words how the visits went, first up Ellen who visited BBH.
“Walking through the middle of Soho, and you see that little black sheep on the door. It can only be BBH.
Glass bottles of water, wall art and plastic sheep completely immerse you in the ethos of the company; when the world zigs, zag.
Walking through the floors and sections you could just feel how much everyone wanted to be there.
Walking through the floors and sections you could just feel how much everyone wanted to be there.
They have an unlimited free coffee bar, complete with pastries and foam hearts in the froth of your latte (which we took full advantage of). Oh and brownies, they had the best brownies!
Whilst there, we were shown around by Claire andMaria, part of the ‘Lincoln Mafia’.They showed us BBH’s most recent show reel, and explained the process the agency goes through when they take on a brief.
They were really great at giving us advice for when it’s our turn to try and make it in the big, scary advertising world.
They were really great at giving us advice for when it’s our turn to try and make it in the big, scary advertising world.
We also met BBH’s newest creative team, Marc andCallum. They showed us their website, and talked about their ‘Mega bus book’ which they’d put together in a 7 hour bus journey on the way to London using only stories in that days Metro.
Pretty impressive.
Pretty impressive.
The whole visit gave us an exciting glimpse into what we hope our creative futures have in store.
Another interesting aspect of bbh was “Zag”
In a world full of zigs, do you zag?
zag is a dedicated area for starting new and upcoming companies and ideas, finding their target market, to producing the best work available to go from strength to strength – a wise investment for any new company."
zag is a dedicated area for starting new and upcoming companies and ideas, finding their target market, to producing the best work available to go from strength to strength – a wise investment for any new company."
Whilst one group of students was visiting BBH another group went to DLKW Lowe. To find out more about the agency, Abigail and Ola gives us there impressions of the visit.
“DLKW Lowe was everything I imagined an advertising agency would look like. The building was huge and had really high ceilings, there were adverts that they had created all over the walls (the Morrison’s ads mainly) and a massive lightbulb hung from the ceiling as the main centre piece of the agency; showing that this is the place were great ideas happen and evolve! The atmosphere was buzzing therefore I instantly got a positive vibe! We met with an inspirational previous Lincoln Creative Advertising student called Adam who is now in a creative team at DLKW Lowe and has been there for 3 years. He told us about how he got to where he is now, what briefs he’s previously done and what briefs he’s currently doing, what the procedures are once you get a brief, what it’s like living in the busy and expensive city of London and lots more vital and helpful info! He gave a great impression of DLKW Lowe and it is definitely an agency that I aspire to work for!”
“We ventured into the heart of London to find DLKW Lowe, an advertising agency that has produced many successful campaigns. The visit was quite short but in the time that we had, we managed to prize a
lot of important information about ad land from our Tour guide/Former CA pupil, Adam Smith. He was without his partner (also a graduate from the course) But he managed to give a very informative session on his own. He spoke about the scale of their work, from from filming in different countries to late nights in the office. He also talked us through his ideas process and reinforced how hard we need to work to become the creatives we want to be. It was a very enlightening experience and a true reality check, especially since it came from the mouth of someone who had previously been in my shoes. All in all, it was a great experience.”
The second agency for the BBH group was VCCP, here are Jo and Hannah’s accounts of their visit.
“Half of the second year students were lucky enough to visit top London agency VCCP. It all started with a quick workout (a hefty five flights of stairs) to reach the top floor to have a swift but exciting tour of the agency. Our hosts for the day were ex-Lincoln Creative Advertising students, Jade Sturman and Sophie Townsend, who have been working for VCCP for over a year and are living proof that it’s all possible if you stick at it. Not only did we hear about Sophie and Jade’s experience of the advertising industry but were also joined by two of the female Creative Directors of VCCP who gave invaluable advice and told inspiring stories. It’s safe to say our very first visits to London agencies have given us a tiny glimpse of the industry and how thrilling the world of advertising is. We can’t wait to become part of it.”
And finally Charlotte, Tom and Cullen tell us how their group’s visit to Wieden & Kenedy went.
“On Friday afternoon a group of enthusiastic Creative Advertising students from The University of Lincoln found themselves in the wonderland that is Wieden+Kennedy.
We entered with an acute sense of excitement that boiled over, for most of us, at the mere sight of the reception area. The white walls were adorned with weird and wonderful items; a Honda helmet sat amongst painted wellies, multiple clocks, and mannequin heads.
We met the brilliant creative team, Philippa and Artur, who studied Creative Advertising at Lincoln too, and were led into a conference room that had a partially glass ceiling, through which you could see people walking above you. In the week leading up to our visit we had been set a fantastic Nike brief by Wieden+Kennedy’s creative teams, and were to present our solutions to them and Nike’s Creative Directors that afternoon. Presenting our work was possibly the most nerve-racking thing we’ve ever done, but it was fantastic to get feedback from people within the industry right now, and was certainly an eye opening experience.
The quality of Wieden+Kennedy’s work that we were shown was phenomenal. We were privileged enough to hear from a variety of people within the Agency, including an wonderfully eccentric and highly engaging talk from Luke Tipping (Senior Interactive Creative), and even had a talk from ECDs Iain Tate and Tony Davidson, covering how they made it to where they are today, what they look for in creative recruits, and a whole range of other fascinating insights.
Days like this make a huge difference to us young creatives. We know how competitive this industry is so the thought of discovering where we fit in it can be daunting. Emersion will always be so much more inspiring than just talking, so to visit an agency gives us a real feel for the place, for the people who work there, their work, and what they stand for. It’s incredibly motivating to go somewhere you could potentially work at one day, and we learnt as much about ourselves that Friday as we did about Wieden+Kennedy, and that’s invaluable.
So, we entered excited, and left buzzing, ready to discover and create new things (we even got free t-shirts). Bring it on Wieden+Kennedy. Bring it on.”
“The opportunity to work on a brief for Nike was one of the most exciting experiences of our creative careers. We threw everything we had into the project, and having our idea awarded winner has set us on a creative high! Having the industries’ best critique our work at W&K gave us added confidence that what we do is on the right lines and appeals to industry. A fantastic small snippet (hopefully) into our future career paths.”
This year's agency visits were all organised by former students of this course, which made it even more special. It's very rewarding to see CA graduates who are now staff at the highest profile agencies and it's a great vindication of all that we teach on the programme. A big thank you again to all our alumni who went out of their way to make this year's trip so rewarding.
Sophie & Jade Asda Christmas ad.
Jade & Sophie's Asda commercial.
Tis the season of Christmas adverts and the latest big supermarket to release a yuletide message is Asda. The new ads feature the story of Asda Christmas smiles and were created by ex-Lincoln Creative Advertising students Jade Sturman and Sophie Townsend. The girls made the commercial at the advertising agency VCCP who hold the Asda account. Here's what the girls say about the making of the ad.
'We’ve been working on and developing this campaign since the start of June, living and breathing Christmas during the entire summer, which was a little surreal to say the least. We have a great team of people at VCCP who worked hard to ensure the idea stayed as true to the original concept as possible, although inevitably changes were made along the way, we feel that everyone’s hard work has paid off and as a result have managed to come out with a campaign that everyone is proud of.
This ad sits as part of a set of ads that will play out over the Christmas period, all based on the idea of smiling. The idea, though simple, is something everyone can relate to, it light-heartedly reveals the true meanings of the different smiles seen at Christmas time and helps tie the ads together as a fully formed campaign. As Asda is a brand that doesn’t takes itself too seriously, and is considered a down to earth retailer, tonally the concept of ‘celebrating smiles with Asda’ worked really well for the brand.
We’re really happy with the work so far and are still developing and producing everyday. We just hope it gives everyone that warm, fuzzy, Christmas time feeling and of course, raises a few smiles.'
Well done girls and happy Christmas to one and all.
'We’ve been working on and developing this campaign since the start of June, living and breathing Christmas during the entire summer, which was a little surreal to say the least. We have a great team of people at VCCP who worked hard to ensure the idea stayed as true to the original concept as possible, although inevitably changes were made along the way, we feel that everyone’s hard work has paid off and as a result have managed to come out with a campaign that everyone is proud of.
This ad sits as part of a set of ads that will play out over the Christmas period, all based on the idea of smiling. The idea, though simple, is something everyone can relate to, it light-heartedly reveals the true meanings of the different smiles seen at Christmas time and helps tie the ads together as a fully formed campaign. As Asda is a brand that doesn’t takes itself too seriously, and is considered a down to earth retailer, tonally the concept of ‘celebrating smiles with Asda’ worked really well for the brand.
We’re really happy with the work so far and are still developing and producing everyday. We just hope it gives everyone that warm, fuzzy, Christmas time feeling and of course, raises a few smiles.'
Well done girls and happy Christmas to one and all.
YCN
A star students, Joe, Lucy, Gaz, Linda and Elly.
The Young Creative Network have now made the new briefs available for their latest competition and they look as interesting and challenging as ever. The YCN student awards are a great test of a students abilities and really set a benchmark of excellence for advertising and design students.
The Creative Advertising course at the University of Lincoln has been fortunate enough to do very well in this competition and last year was no exception with no fewer than eight students picking up a highly coveted YCN award. Joe Lovett, Jonathan Salm, Ellie Hogarth, Lucy Cowlin, Gaz Hunt-Sutherland, Linda Klassens, Jenni Trotter and Gabi Kirwin were all winners.
Here's what Lucy thought of the evening. 'Situated in the impressive surrounds of the Marriott Hotel in Grosvenor Square, the YCN Student Awards ceremony held on September 10th was a great occasion. Given there were eight students from level 2 and level 3 of Creative Advertising commended, it was a fantastic night for showcasing the work of Lincoln's aspiring advertisers!
With exquisite food, (far superior to the student standard) engrossing entertainment, good company and copious glasses of Prosecco, it was a brilliant way to celebrate. It soon became apparent just how highly acclaimed YCN is within our industry so it felt like a real achievement to be collecting our awards in the presence of such talented individuals!'
So whilst the current students get down to working on the new briefs we thought that it would be a good time to show some pictures of Septembers awards ceremony and remember that all of the hard work is worth it.
Human Pattern
The thing with being so focussed on Advertising is, you're so focussed on Advertising. But to be really good at it, you need to keep at least one eye on the world outside of it.
Our students come from many backgrounds, design, art, media etc. Every now and again they want to do something to keep their hand in with their craft.
That's why Carys Thomas and Olamide Soyemi wanted to take a a little of their precious spare time and, you know... put on an exhibition.
'Human pattern' had it's private view on Tuesday October 7th at the Gallery at St. Martins in Lincoln. The whole place was packed and there is no doubt that it was an enormous success, not just because of the quality of the work, but the quality of the intention - to not just paint but to exhibit.
Of course the thing with putting yourself out there is that you never know who is going to see your work and as if Carys was not busy enough she had a visitor to the exhibition who has asked for her input on a very special project. Here's Carys to tell us more:
"I've recently been given a really exciting opportunity to work with a local craftsman to design a range of stencils for the annual Christmas market in Lincoln. It'll be a really interesting chance to see how my designs translate onto different mediums but also to get a chance to design for commercial purposes and see where it goes from there!"
How cool is that?
Well done Carys and Ola, you thought big, took action and alongside everything else you have to do, you put on your first art exhibition.
Check out the work below.
Harriet has success at Aerial Awards
Steve, Harriet and Paul who created the award winning radio ad.
Ex-Lincoln Creative Advertising student Harriet Russell-Vick recently picked up an Aerial Award for a very effective piece of radio advertising for the Imperial War Museum.
The Aerial Awards showcase the best in Advertising and it is to Harriet and her partners credit that they have been recognised in this way. Harriet worked with Steve Smith and Creative director Paul Domenet at the agency Johnny Fearless to create the ad which is a poignant reminder of war and it's effect on people of all ages.
Well done Harriet and 'tune in' soon for more CA news.
A new era.
Say hello to David (he's the one in the middle).
Alongside his teaching, David has worked on a broad range of projects for a range of advertising agencies and an international client base that includes the New York Times Magazine, DKNY, Daihatsu, IKEA, The Economist, The Royal Shakespeare Company and The Huffington Post.
Some of David's work for DKNY
“I am very excited to be working alongside Mike & Justin and the talented students at Lincoln University. As a lecturer, my personal philosophy focuses on the values of play and curiosity as foundations for learning. The core of my design practice and teaching ethos is the axiom “the person who doesn’t make mistakes is unlikely to make anything". Awooga!
David's range of skills will be a great compliment to the existing Creative Advertising team and all of us are all really looking forward to working with him.
Err, awooga.
A Call to a Creative Adventure
So what's this creativity thing all about? Is it about coming up with ideas?
Well, yes.
Is it about experimenting and trying new things. Yes, that too.
But something that is rarely discussed that is more powerful than any of this is TAKING ACTION. Without action ideas are not realised, without action mistakes are not made and without action those mistakes are not turned on their heads and crafted into opportunity.
We do take time here to help our students to be the kind of people who feel they can get off the sofa, with an idea in one hand and a suitcase in the other and just DO.
That's why we're incredibly proud of three Second year students, Tom Watkins, Matt Holmes and Carys Thomas who did just that; Took action to get a wild idea off the ground and in the process entered into a fabulous adventure.
Here's Tom Watkins to tell us more:
"We decided we wanted to go on an adventure and so we started to work out how we could explore Iceland on a student budget.
We didn't have any more money, definitely not enough to go on the adventure we wanted.
Together, we contacted travel agencies pitching them with an idea for a 'user video', a travelogue to capture the imagination of potential visitors and a couple of Skype chats and phone calls later we actually had a few offers, but one from NordicVisitor.com was the most comprehensive, they managed to sponsor us for every activity we did in Iceland. All in return for the video, and photographs of our journey.
Even with the chaos of a volcanic eruptions and storms while we were there, they re-arranged excursions and got us a quite literally last minute notice ride on a helicopter tour. "
So, obviously, they're awesome. When they hit a problem they just found a solution, a way they could get the holiday of their dreams on their budget by figuring out what else they had to offer. True creative entrepreneurs.
Here's the video and below are some stunning pictures taken as part of the trip.
Together, we contacted travel agencies pitching them with an idea for a 'user video', a travelogue to capture the imagination of potential visitors and a couple of Skype chats and phone calls later we actually had a few offers, but one from NordicVisitor.com was the most comprehensive, they managed to sponsor us for every activity we did in Iceland. All in return for the video, and photographs of our journey.
Even with the chaos of a volcanic eruptions and storms while we were there, they re-arranged excursions and got us a quite literally last minute notice ride on a helicopter tour. "
So, obviously, they're awesome. When they hit a problem they just found a solution, a way they could get the holiday of their dreams on their budget by figuring out what else they had to offer. True creative entrepreneurs.
Here's the video and below are some stunning pictures taken as part of the trip.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
