my own ad school

photo credit: ryan loucks photography

Earlier this month, Seth Godin announced that he was looking for a few interns this summer and I definitely sent an application in. Over the course of the month, I stumbled on some websites, blogs and YouTube videos created by some of the applicants, which showed just how creative and talented the competition will be.

I wasn’t chosen as an intern, but congratulations to the few who were!

But not getting this internship isn’t as bad as it seemed. I am, however, extremely glad I decided to apply! The process of creating my application (a pdf file, 4-pages max.) was also a process of self-introspection. I delved in and asked myself questions about where I stand with advertising and marketing. The answer: marketing excites me and it will continue to do so, and I want to continue to pursue a career in this field.

When I started this blog, I originally intended to become a copywriter. But after being further exposed to other aspects of marketing, business, innovation, and culture in general, I found myself moving towards other things as well. After getting to know myself a bit more and paying attention to how I work and what makes me move, I discovered that I would also love to get involved in online marketing, branding, and design. Lately I found that I was often immersing myself with topics like social media, conversation marketing, customer experience and anything else that involves the creation and sharing of ideas, creativity and innovation.

I’ve also started to read The Ten Faces of Innovation, which gives me further inspiration, as well as a starting point, to which direction I want to continue in. (Reading the descriptions of each persona that matched some of my attributes also helped.)

If I hadn’t taken the time in applying for Seth Godin’s summer camp, who knows when I would have discovered this about myself, or when else would I have taken the time to to really sit and think about this.

Over at Fallon Planning, a few videos were posted from The SEO Rapper (aka Chuck from Pop Labs) on social media and online marketing, which is reminiscent of Common Craft’s Twitter in Plain English - but in rhymes! Word up.

Social Media Addiction Rap:

Paid Search 101 Rap:
Link Building 101 Rap:

I absolutely enjoyed this video from Common Craft. I checked out what this compnay was all about and after going through their website, I was taken in. I don’t think I’ve heard of a company like this before - what an amazing idea! The concept is just great: “Our product is explanation”. Common Craft is a consulting company that creates short, entertaining and informative videos for clients, explaining in the simplest forms the services and/or products of that client. Their videos are made using a method they created called Paperworks, which simply involves a whiteboard and paper cut-outs. Does anyone else know of any other companies like Common Craft?(Thanks Armando for that post!)

From One Degree:
Advertising isn’t dead. Or If it is, it’s our fault. We killed it.

From David Armano over at Logic+Emotion:
The Application Economy

I’m all settled for the winter semester with all of my classes finalized. Since the university I’m enrolled in doesn’t have an advertising program, I’m extremely excited to have gotten in the History of Advertising course (it also counts towards my History major, so there’s a plus).

This class is definitely not a marketing course, as emphasized by my history professor, but so far I’ve enjoyed watching and analyzing vintage ads from Apple and Canadian Tire, and print ads from the 19th century!

Ok, so this course won’t be teaching me anything practical about art direction, copywriting, nor account planing. But by being exposed to ads in the past and being able to critically think about their effectiveness, I’d at least gain a bit of insight that I can use later on when I create my own spec ads, right?

So if you’re not in ad school, what can you do to instead to get that top-notch portfolio?

• If you’re still in school, check your course calendar for anything advertising/marketing related courses in other departments.
• Check out the application requiremens for various ad schools (VCU, Miami Ad School, etc.): they usually have assignments to complete as part of your application. Try them out as - you can use them as creative exercises to get your creative flow going
• Visit IHAI’s Academia section to see what other student’s have done. Think you can do better? Take one of the products a student has done and see what you can make out of it.
• Always be on the lookout for crappy ads (I see a lot when I ride subway) and use that as your next product to work on.
• Start a blog! It can keep track of your progress and it can act as your portfolio/resume. And since we live in such a connected society, you can start conversations with others in the industry.
• Visit Open Culture: there’s hundreds of links to free, online courses. Try and search for marketing and psychology courses - maybe they can help you create ads that can persuade, influence, and move people.
• Take classes: visit your local art centre and learn how to sketch and paint, take a graphic design course, or take a screenwriting course. Take a class that interest you and that you think you would enjoy doing, and try and incorporate what you learned when creating your spec ads.

That’s just a short list I can think of from the top of my head. Just be open minded, get creative, and be resourceful - you’ll find your own way of making it work!

I recently stumbled on these ads for the Volkswagen Fox while browsing the DDB website. I found them pretty entertaining:

If you’d like to see the rest, I found a few more: Alien, Rocky, Pulp Fiction, The Exorcist, The Shining, and Star Wars. Enjoy!

Find more videos like this on AdGabber
(via adgoodness)

It’s great to see green marketing efforts such as this ad from Honda (as well as these).

Carbonmade is an online portfolio site where designers, writers and artists can upload their work for free (or sign up for the pro plan, which lets you upload a whole lot more).

I’m really glad I discovered this site because:

a) it’s a great source of inspiration: it’s not to copy or imitate others, but if you browse through a few projects, it can definitely get your creative flow moving.

b) it can give you sense of direction: you’ll find a variety of creatives in different phases of their professional careers - some have just started out, while others have already produced work for well-known companies. By looking at their work, it can give you the drive to step up and find what was missing in your portfolio, or it can help you set goals for yourself (for example, learning another program or skill).

c) it gives you a sense of who you’ll be competing with out there. By looking at what others have done, it can help you figure out what you need to do and what you need to show to make yourself stand out to clients.

and finally,

d) it can further fuel your drive to succeed as a creative. Even though there’s a large pool of talented creatives out there, it doesn’t mean finding work to add to your portfolio is rare. Ok, it is competetive, but there’s always going to be projects up for grabs, especially with the rise of entrepreneurs creating new businesses every day. So if it’s a bit of hope that you’re looking, you can find some here.

So I’m finally back! I’d like to thank everyone for still writing comments despite my lack of posts. Final exams for summer school, Don Training (to be a Residential Advisor this year), Frosh Week, and the first month of the academic year has definitely made me run out of breath!

But now that some things have begun to settle down, I can’t wait to start posting again! Even though I haven’t posted in a while, I’ve still written down a few things I wanted to write about, so stay tuned for that.

Also, being back on campus has completely raised my awareness on certain issues (I’m finding myself getting into social activism!), so I’m also thinking of tying those things in with advertising in future posts.

Once again, thanks for all the comments! New posts are on the way!

So in the meantime, here’s a new video from Dove. It’s not quite like the Evolution campaign, but it’s still worth checking out:

I am absolutely amazed with this ad! (Thanks to American Copywriter) Every second of it has been a pleasure to watch and it’s truly one of those things that keep me inspired to get into advertising. NORDPOL+ HAMBURG rightly deserved a Gold Lion for this.