my own ad school

As an animal lover myself, I enjoyed the fun and upbeat campaign for the Toronto Humane Society, done by the people at Leo Burnett Toronto, showing the positive benefits of adopting a pet. The art direction in these pieces are great and I absolutely love the copywriting. Visit their blog to see the rest of the campaign.

Sorry everyone for my lack of posts. The courses I’m taking this summer seemed to have taken over my life! Yes, I’m still alive and yes, I am still invested in this blog. I was hoping that I would have posted my first spec ads by now, but unfortunately, I’ll have to post-pone that a bit longer. But I will be making more of an effort to blog a bit more (now that I have an idea of the course load I’ll be having for the next few months), so stay tuned!

This pretty much cracked me up.

(via: junior planner i am)

I found this interesting post at Interactive Marketing Trends. This is a pretty clever idea to put the word out about an internship.

(for the complete campaigns: Heinz Ketchup, Slim Fast, Wheaties)

Take a look at these ads. What do you notice? They all have something in common. Each ad is using a strong visual to sell the product instead of using words. There’s barely any copy on them, and if there was, it would either be the brand/product name and/or a simple sentence or phrase.

As I was brainstorming for ideas on my first spec ad, some of the ideas followed the same approach as the above ads while some had an emphasis on the copy with a simple image. From what I’ve gathered, if one element is the main emphasis of the ad, the other element should be as simple as it can be so that it won’t take anything away from the other. Otherwise, it would all just be too much for a consumer to take in. So, if the ad is relying on the captivating copy, the image should be plain and simple (if there was one). And if the ad had a strong visual which tells the story, then the copy should be simple and short (or none at all).

Here are some ads where the copy is the storyteller:

 

(for the complete campaigns: Adidas, Dove Pro Age, Pause & Play Festival)

Ernest Hemingway was write when he called the empty page the “white bull” - it is intimidating.

Good thing Luke Sullivan’s “Hey Whipple” wrote this to make me feel more at ease:

… being stuck is a really good sign. Really.

Being stuck means you have moved through the easy stuff. You’ve waded through all the crappy ideas, through the okay ideas … entering the outlying area of big new thoughts. Being stuck is not only unusual, it’s what you want … You can spend whole days, even weeks, trying very hard and coming up with diddly. But I’ve found it’s only after you’ve suffered these excruciating days of meat loaf brain that the shiny and beautiful finally represents itself to you. The trick is to stay with it. Suffer through it. Remember, the only way out is through.

I did manage to come up with ideas and I wrote them all down, but after sleeping on it, I didn’t find too many that were close to great. But I knew this was going to happen - I mean, it should. Everyone needs to get their crappy ideas out of the way, right?

What I really need to do is to get into the habit of letting myself go just a bit more during this creative process because sometimes, I feel like I’m holding back (as if I’m trying not to come up with anymore crappy ideas). And this is a problem I need to fix because holding myself back will do more harm than good and it’s better for me to fix this now rather than have this habit grow stronger. I just really need to get used to writing whatever comes to mind on paper without pausing to think about how great or bad of an idea it is.

But despite having some trouble coming up with ideas, I’m still enjoying this. It can get frustrating and annoying, but it’s the challenge that’s still keeping me in. Besides, I don’t think it would be as much fun if the whole process was that easy.

So now that I have a product (or two) to create an ad for, I can now start brainstorming! I’m nervous and excited at the same time - after all, I have no idea if what I’ll be doing is right or if it’s “how everyone does it” (is there a certain way creatives brainstorm?). But I think I should be fine… I do have my ad books nearby in case I get stuck.

The first two products I’ve decided to work on are: Bliss Fabulous Foaming Face Wash and Ensure Shakes. I got the idea of starting with two products instead of one from Hey Whipple, Squeeze This. Luke Sullivan suggested that if you move between projects, you may come up with ideas faster. So I guess I’ll have to see how that goes …

I’ve already started to write down the product information of the face wash as well as product reviews, so I guess I could start coming up with some ideas now. (To all the creatives out there: am I forgetting to do anything else? Suggestions? Reminders?)

Ogilvy On Advertising was written about twenty years ago so the material may seem outdated. But nonetheless, the information in this book is priceless. It has plenty of examples of great classical ads from back in the day and it also talks about the business side of advertising (how to get clients, how an ad agency is run, etc.). It also writes about what the ingredients are in a great ad and which layout works over others. It’s important to note the effectiveness of these ads and learn from them because most of these ads have been persuading consumers to buy their products for at least 10 years! I would suggest reading this book first, then following it up with Hey Whipple, Squeeze This and Cutting Edge Advertising II.

I’ve been reading these three books for a while now, trying to soak up as much as I can before I try my first attempt at creating my first spec ad. All three have been extremely helpful! I’ve learned that advertising is a craft - so it will definitely take a lot of time to develop a great book. I knew this process would be hard, but after reading these, I realized that it is really going to be a challenge.

One last thing: if any of you would like to suggest products or services that you’d like to see me create an ad for, let me know.

This video (thanks adhunt) shows an interesting take on how creatives come up with their ideas. It starts to make you think about how powerful subliminal persuasion can be. Since I’m not really in the industry, I have no idea if other creatives have experienced something like this. Does this usually happen? Or is this video just making me believe that?

After catching the advertising bug, it’s given me this mad obsession about learning anything and everything I can about advertising. And one of the things I was dying to know: how can I make a living working in advertising? (aka what are some of the job titles one can have working in the advertising industry?)

mybigfuture lists 6 different positions where you can read each one and see if any fits your skills and personality. The information here is great because it tells you what you would be doing in that position and which characteristics would be ideal for the job. The only thing is that the six they’ve listed there aren’t as specific. For example, under “Creative”, it won’t describe what it’s like being an Art Director or a Copywriter.

For a better description on specific disciplines such as Account Planning, Art Direction and Copywriting, websites of portfolio schools can help you out with that. Here’s summary of what I gathered from a few of the p-schools I checked out:

Art Direction

• For those who are “intrigued by colors , typography and technology” and who work with a visual mind. (VCU Adcenter)
• You’ll come up with a visual image for various types of media (posters, billboards, commercials, etc.) to persuade consumers to buy a product or service. (Miami Ad School)
• You’ll “oversee every detail that timpacts the visual presentation of your work - from photography and illustration to typograph, production, and talent.” (Portfolio Center)

Copywriting

• You’re a “wizard of wit” and a “book-reading, story-making, note-passing, joke-telling, encyclopedia of useless trivia and crazy ideas” (Miami Ad School)
• Copywriters are great writers that can “communicate marketing ideas effectively” (Portfolio Center)
• “You use words like artists use pictures … You think big and have the ability to take that big thought and make it simple” (VCU Adcenter)

Account Planning

• You’re the type that relies on your intuition and you’re a great people person. Gut feelings are important with this job and you have to “instinctively ‘know things’”. You also help the creative team in coming up with that big idea of persuading the customers to buy that one brand over the rest of them. (Miami Ad School)

For a brief moment, I was on the fence between art direction and copywriting. Writing has always been a passion of mine, but I’m also intrigued with colours and typography. But after giving it some thought, I asked myself which I’d enjoy doing more of, and my answer was writing. Writing has both been my escape and my solution to almost everything in my life and I can’t picture myself pursuing a career without it. (Hmmm, that kinda sounded a little cheesy…)

Ok, here’s my final answer on why I’d choose copywriting over art direction: the writing is what I almost-always pay more attention to when I see an ad, watch a tv commercial, or listen to the radio. If it had great writing, I’d always go “Man, I wish I thought of that!” or “Whoever came up with that is a genius!” and so on, and so on. Yea, the art direction grabs my attention too, but I’ve always had this habit of paying more attention to the words of an ad.

Now that I’ve found which shoe fits, I hope that this entry can somewhat help you find/choose a shoe. And for those of you who are already in the industry, feel free to let me know how you made the decision of which career in advertising you chose to get into.