Driving Mr Hegarty

So I signed up to drive John Hegarty of BBH fame from the airport to his room at the Jefferson. In case you don't know John Hegarty is the H in BBH. And just in case you don't know. Its Sir John Hegarty. And just in case I worked for BBH this summer.

So this is a pretty big deal. I get 20 minutes with him in the car one on one and I need some suggestions for questions for him. Advertising related, non-advertising, crazy. Bring some questions on. Ill ask him the best.

Want to know how to be a success in advertising?

Read this.

A great post from a succesful man hopping the pond to Europe.

Three levels of advice

Level One: Mark Roddy ECD of BBH NYC.

"I want people with big ideas. BIG ideas. Look at Droga five. Ideas like Tap Project and the phones for public school students in NYC. People at my level want those ideas and at times are a little afraid because they don't know where to get them from."



Level Two: Paul Foulkes CD of BBH NYC.

"I have alot of friends who are creative directors who hire these kids out of Miami or Crispin and their book are filled with cool ambient and OOH, but they can't make a print ad for their lives. I want people who can do cool stuff we all do. You just have to remember 85% of the time I just need a damn print ad, radio ad, coupon. Show me you can do the simple as well."


Level Three: Victoria Weeks AD at BBDO SF.

"You should put in your book what you want to be hired to do."




All good advice. Now go do it.

Note: These are not direct quotes but summations of conversations I had with these people during the summer.

Seuss in the major of NYC

I took my spot at a desk on the 19th floor.
The first couple weeks turned out to be quite a bore.
After 51 one layouts and not one OK.
My Airborne layout was approved, not a single more Nay.
I learned about agencies the way that they work,
I regretfully learned undergrads can be jerks.
Everyone was a creative, a writer, a pro,
Until I asked for help and was met with the familiar no.
But I loved my time living, in the city that never sleeps.
And now I'm moving back to the city that barely peeps.
The best lesson i learned from my 8 weeks as a pro,
Is my skills as an art director have a long way to grow.
But that is the challenge of this industry of ads,
To always get better, build an army of comrades.
I look forward to my time when I'll be back and on top.
Walk back with a book, that will make jaws from ocean to ocean drop.
So goodbye New York, you treated me so well,
But Richmond is calling, so god speed, and farewell.

My first baby.

Signed off my first ad today. A beautiful 10.125 x 8.134 FSI for Airborne. I hope that it lives a good life saving people money on placebo pills.

A good tip on headlines.

This tip comes from one of the fine gentlemen at BBH London. He is a CD writer there and has a fantastic blog at http://scampblog.blogspot.com/. Its full of great tips and stories from advertising. Great for us up and comers.

Here's a good quote I liked regarding how a headline should be used:

"In fact, many of the world’s best headline-writers are quite open about their secret weapon – a great art director.

With a really well art-directed headline, the idea and the execution are seamless. I like ideas where the headline is written in a place where type naturally occurs. Which means that your headline can be a photographed object - a visual element in its own right, which just happens to have type on it - rather than a boring old typeset headline."

Charles hall, a professor at VCU, is adamant about this point and so am I. Headlines by themselves make it an ad instead of an interesting communication. Sometimes plopping down a headline is easy and gets it out the door, but by taking a few hours you can turn it into something people will actually read.

Dorky morky lorky review.

So today was my first real concept review with a CD. We have quite a contingent of swedish CDs here at BBH. You feel right at home. Well you would if youre norwegian like me or from Minnesota. But truth be told I was a little worried.

We were one of two teams. The other being an old Adcenter alum and a Creative Circus alum. our client was for NYC tourism and these guys have worked on the client for the last 6 months. We know how to talk to Don Just without shitting at the same time. So we sat down and listened to our competition lay out their case. Silent we stood listening. The CD gave comments, suggestions, tweaks. And then it was our turn.

We presented. Some clearly, some not so much. Some short some deep with logic. And at the end he looked at us and said in a thick Swedish accent. "I luke yur ideaas vury much." (insert swedish chef accent). I walked out beaming.

I had realized the important thing. We are just as good as the pros. Well not all the way but in this industry a cool idea from a youngin is just as good as anyone else no matter the pay or title. We walked out beaming even though our ideas were well beyond the 275K budget and not usable. Our competition grabbed us and said:

"Good job guys, youre gonna do fine."

Can't go better than that.

Tomorrow. Our GLBT conecpt presentation. (Thats Gay, Lesbian, Bi, Trans for the unknown.)

Update.

I have worked my ass off.
I have gone to a photo shoot.
I have seen professional work.
I have seen a company party.
I have been bored for a week.
I have been swamped for a week.
I have worked with amazing people.
I have seen cool rewards.
I have respect for this industry.
I have learned the subway.
I have seen the world's capital.
I have not learned everything.
I have not learned enough to not go back.
I have not produced anything.
I have not missed Richmond.
I have not paid for more than one 12 dollar martini.
I want to keep going.

Its been a good two weeks. Alot of fun and a great look into the industry. Please send more.

Can't Beat the Real Thing.

So i realized with billions of web pages out there. There are only 25 i visit, and I visited them all today. We waited and shook hands and learned to bill clients and make expense reports, (bill it suckas), and in the end we didn't have a thing to do yet. Where would we land?

So hey do you guys want to work on a tag for us?

YEAH buddy!!

We furiously scribbled and pondered for their 8 am client meeting ready with the possibilities of stardom. I figured it would be a late night working out tags. That was until we were informed that they were due 45 mintues later for the CD to look at and craft.

Lesson learned. This isn't a large cement slab where infinite time exists. This is a world full of deadlines and compromises, rush jobs and stop gaps. Thats where the intens come in. YEAH!!!

View from the office...

T minus:

16 Days until freedom. No more concepting or art directing...

For two weeks until I get to do it in NYC!

Exciting!

Back to work.

Coming next week. Year in review post and work! Yeah!

The east coast adventure continues: Summer

BBH New York has offered me a summer internship. I couldn't be more excited about this choice. I had applied to mostly SF offices because I wanted to go home but really wanted BBH because of the great stories I heard from last years interns. Also because honestly New York scares the shit out of me. It's the center of the world. Hell my dad even got freaked out and left and he grew up in New Jersey.

But I'm really excited about BBH. They do great work there. Including the current NYC tourism campaign, Miller light, British Airways, Levis, Axe, Vaseline, Johnny Walker and Dyson. My favorite client they have is Mentos and in honor of my new home I submit one of my favorite fan created mentos ad starring Jean Claude Van Damne from his movie "Bloodsport."



See you in the Big Apple!