Words of a Hack

Words of a Hack

Google's over...
Posted on 2008-Aug-27 at 12:22
...unless they buy this site:

searchme.com

It's a visual search engine that allows you to see the front page of each webpage before you click on it. Check out the image and video searches too.

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Is this real?
Posted on 2008-Jun-17 at 05:26
I'm not sure if I'm dreaming.

We had a sit down on Monday to discuss all the projects that we are going to be working on in the next few months. Not a single one is a stinker. Plus one of the projects is TV with a modest budget, my first ever. (Well there was one other one... It was actually eight 15 second spots that had to be shot in 4 hours by the local TV station. It hardly counts that as TV experience)

So anyways, never before in my career has this happened. Were crazy busy, all with projects that are interesting and have some chance in hell to be pieces we would want to enter into award shows.

In fact one of our clients has given us so much free reign I'm getting very suspicious. Are they spies from some sort of client watch dog just waiting to see if we take advantage of them and actually do something interesting that gets them noticed?

If it is all real all I can say is we had better not f*@& it up.

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The end of a modeling career
Posted on 2008-Jun-10 at 07:22
By request, after about 10 minutes of wondering should I or shouldn't I, here is the shot of horror I talked about in my last blog entry... in all it's glory.

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Branding done right
Posted on 2008-Jun-10 at 02:32
Check out this first-aid company called 'help'. (http://www.helpineedhelp.com/)

This is what happens when creativity is brought in at the inception of a company. It's simple, beautiful, touches every aspect of what they do and just makes a lot of sense.

It's unfortunate that most companies do bits and pieces of branding with no long term plan. It's only after years in operation they decide to fully jump on the brand wagon because they feel they can now afford it. Ironically, by that time, it's usually too expensive and difficult to do something even remotely remarkable because of the space debris brand they already unintentionally have.

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The downside to being twenty feet tall
Posted on 2008-Jun-10 at 11:37
Here is a tip for all you young advertising folk. Never ever model for campaigns at your agency. Especially if it's a particular campaign you don't want to be reminded of. Don't do it out of the goodness of your heart if the client has no money. Just don't. You'll probably regret it for years to come. I sure do.

A couple of years ago, at the first agency I ever worked at, we did a campaign for the local downtown business association. The concept was nothing spectacular, just people enjoying themselves downtown. Being naive and probably a little flattered I agreed to pose for the China town shot.

The shot was of me and another co-worker posing as a young lovers, enjoying the outdoor market in China town. I was gleefully teasing my so called girlfriend by holding a star fruit just out of her reach. It was probably one of the cheesiest, most awkwardly posed shots I have ever seen. Thinking about it now almost makes me vomit.

If that wasn't enough the campaign was primarily a transit campaign and I, at the time, was a transit user. I was horrified to discover that the bus stop I waited at everyday was part of the media buy. Consequently I had to wait beside a transit shelter with a life size image of myself in this horrific pose. I wore a hoody almost everyday.

Eventually the campaign finished and I found a job in the city I'm in now. Leaving behind the shame of an unintentionally bad modeling career I embraced the fresh start. I had almost forgotten about the whole fiasco when I started getting emails. Emails from friends, acquaintances and people I barely knew in the town I had recently left. The titles of these emails were always in the vein of: I saw you and you were 20 feet tall!

Horrified I found out that the campaign had been revived for a second year but this time they went for gold putting some of the campaign on the back of double decker buses. Hazard a guess at which glory shot they chose. That's right.

I have been unwillingly immortalized as the 20' China town lover and star fruit holder of pure cheesy awesomeness.

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And now for something a little more serious.
Posted on 2008-Jun-6 at 08:38
In a candid discussion with a couple agency folk, the idea that clients no longer trusted ad agencies came up. It was not a shocking discussion. For most of my short career I have noticed a general distrust, in some form or another, from the client side.

I'm sure there are many reasons but looking deeper I have thought maybe it's because we don't practice what we preach.

Here are a few examples:

We are constantly counseling clients to have an intimate relationship and understanding of their consumers. None of the agencies I have worked have taken the time to study and keep abreast of our consumer - the 'client'. We tell clients they must find a differentiator for their brand. How often do you find an agency claim 'we are really good at x'... and something other than account service, creative and media buying because that's the price of entry. And if we are so creative and like to shift paradigms why do we cling so tightly to an agency structure that was perfect for the 1950's. I'm sure the list goes on.

Every once in awhile I find an article on how the agency model is broken. I have never found an article on how to fix it. It's true there are a few agencies taking steps to try and correct weaknesses. But is it working? And I wonder if there will ever be a universal agency model again. The world might be changing to rapidly for that.

I'm going to start a thread in the forum. I'm interested to hear what you think.

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Move over German trade magazine.
Posted on 2008-Jun-4 at 11:24
I won an advertising award. My first ever.

I can only trumpet this in the humblest way possible though. I didn't win at Cannes, or the One Show. Nope. I won for work I did about 2 years ago, at the first agency that I ever worked for, at an award show that you probably have never heard of. And it was for a project I forgot I even did.

I can proudly add this win to my proverbial trophy shelf with the German trade magazine that wrote an article on one of the campaigns I was involved in creating.

I have no idea what it says.

High fives anyone?

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Who's the creepy guy with the family video cam?
Posted on 2008-Jun-4 at 08:34
Here is what I learned from doing streeter interviews yesterday:

1. Always tell the interviewee your filming. Especially if you're in rural Alberta. We live in a very paranoid society.

2. Never chase after people screaming Sir! or Ma'am! They tend to walk faster. Or run.

3. Don't even bother trying to talk to guys in Armani suits with the bluetooth head pieces.

4. Make sure your questions don't require people to think too much. This makes them frantic and their answers make even less sense.

5. Make sure you don't forget to turn off the camera. This is how to run down the battery without getting enough interviews... extending the painful process another day.

That's about it. Most people were fairly civil and no violence occurred. Too bad. I was hoping for some YouTube gold.

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Excuse me sir... Do you have five minutes?
Posted on 2008-Jun-3 at 11:04
I whined. I complained. But I could not get out of it. Today I will be traveling around the city and surrounding areas doing 'streeter' interviews for a client meeting that's coming up.

Don't get me wrong I'm all for consumer research. I'm just not all for doing it myself. When I decided to become a creative I didn't picture myself talking to strangers taking 5 minutes of their lives they'll never get back.

Maybe it's Karma. Lately I've been getting research companies over the phone trying to get me to answer questions. I've been promptly hanging up on them after telling them sharply never to call again.

I managed to get out of asking the questions which is the only good part. I will be holding the video camera. But it does, however, remind me of the time in college when I had a photography assignment where I had to take pictures in an urban area. I accidentally got a old man in frame and he proceeded to throw rocks at me. But at least I won't be the one within arm swinging range. I hope the interviewer has quick reflexes.

I'll give a full report on how it went in my next entry.

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Creative Directors don't know everything.
Posted on 2008-Jun-2 at 11:03
At this point in my career I'm straddling the junior / intermediate line and, until recently, I took my CD's advice as gospel. It wasn't until I decided to change jobs that I realized that maybe CDs don't know everything.

I took a week off from my previous job and set up portfolio reviews with as many CDs in the city as I could. On top of just testing the waters I wanted to get feedback. Every meeting went very well and over all the feedback on my book was very positive.

However, when it came to what the CDs liked or disliked the comments were never the same. At first I was wondering what to do. If I had taken every comment, however minor, I would have had to change my entire book which would have taken another few months. Then I took a step back a realized that maybe may book was pretty Ok. No one had focussed on one piece and universally hated it.

I came to the conclusion that maybe, just maybe, after three years I was gaining the sense of what was good and what was bad and maybe, just maybe, it was time for me to decide.

Creative Directors certainly have more experience and possibly more creative prowess than most. But as Creative Directors their priorities change. They are not necessarily in the fray generating ideas. It's likely they are occupied by meetings and dealing with client meltdowns. Their opinion matters as they are primarily responsible for the work that comes out of the shop but it's just that, an opinion. This job is filled with subjectivity. Things are not as black and white as we would like them to be.

Most CDs that I have come across are open to debate and are ok with being challenged. Be prepared to defend your stance with sane reasoning to back it up but realize that usually they are right (experience goes a long way).

However, I've had a couple ideas that were frowned on which I realized later were the perfect solution. I hadn't given them the argument they deserved. Often, when you have a great idea you have this gut feeling about. When you have that feeling reverse engineer it and try to understand why it's right. That'll help you defend it. Also trust your gut, not your ego. Learn to know the difference. It'll take you places.

Creative Directors have hired YOU to be creative geniuses. You are primarily responsible for the ideas, how they work and how they are executed. Don't let something die you know is right without a (civil) fight. It's the honorable thing to do.

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Assignment 2: Listen to the Annoying Advertising Prophet
Posted on 2008-May-30 at 10:50
Too often we dismiss the Advertising Prophet telling us about the end of advertising as we know it. 'We need to change this!....Traditional advertising's dead that!'. They tell us in long winded 10000 word blog entries or in the middle of a brainstorming session when they can't understand why we are doing another billboard. They keeping talking and talking and talking.

Listen to them (as much as you can possibly handle). They might have a point or two. But while they are going on and on about things that need to change they'll have no time to change anything. They're busy writing blog entries or long copy self-promotional ads about it.

It's up to the rest of us to actually do it.

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Assignment 1: Hug a Hack.
Posted on 2008-May-29 at 11:38
I would encourage everyone to Hug a Hack today.

Find someone who you think sucks large lemons when it comes to advertising and hug the hack right out of them.

My guess is everyone will get a hug except maybe Zak. But I think even Zak would have deserved a hug at some point in his career. We all create work that licks nads. Actually the majority of our work probably licks nads. There are many different reasons for that clients, time, budget... whatever.

I say enjoy the work that rocks. Constructively criticize the stuff that doesn't. Let's all be ego-less idealists together.

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