Free range talent

The Free Range graduate art & design is running over the next few months. The show is a platform for graduate art and design students to showcase their work to both public and industry. Featuring more than 100 university courses from across the UK it's a brilliant way to see up and coming talent. Shows rotate weekly over the 8 week season by discipline including design, graphics, photography, art and interiors.

Walking through the 10th annual Free Range Art & Design Show, held in the Old Truman Brewery over the weekend gave me a chance to reflect on the better part of a decade that lies between where I sit today and my own days as a student of design.

Some of the work by the students displayed at the show quite impressed me. Skill and creativity – although not always mutually exclusive – are impressive to see in such a fresh crop.

It also highlighted some of the differences there are between studying in the creative industries and actually working in them. The biggest of these being time. Namely, deadlines. I remember university assignments being somewhat more relaxed as far as the time constraints of submitting creative. Real world client demands tend to mean that a university deadline of weeks or even months gets reduced to the more realistic, days... and sometimes hours!

This pressure is part and parcel of the industry and in-fact sometimes precisely what we as designers and copywriters need to spur us on to deliver the best we possibly can. I find there, truth in the somewhat corny saying, “...oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds form under great pressure”

I find it exciting that the same journey I traveled and grew along is now facing these newcomers. There is much to learn and the road is not always as well paved as we hope, but the rewards for finally arriving... make it all worthwhile.

SalB

Email is yesterday's news!

Whilst trying to round up a cricket team on the weekend I was reliably informed that "email is dead" and if I want to get hold of any of the guys under the age of 19 then I'd better start team selections on Facebook!

This got me thinking so I asked the under 15's, under 18's and Seniors how they'd like to be called up to play? The result - text and Facebook were the outright winners, email was nowhere!

Looking around the teams, most have blackberrys or iphones (especially the under 15's) and for the younger teams, they have no email at all. When asked why, they tell me that it's too slow, only does one thing and doesn't go everywhere with them.

With the development of cloud computing networks and the move away from locally stored information, it seems a group of lads at a cricket club are positioning themselves nicely to be early adopters, leaving us email junkies way behind. Is this the definition of getting old?

NickB

iPad mania

Sitting in a starbucks in Basel I still can't quite believe the reaction this piece of technology has on people of all ages all around the world. I haven't managed to get through a security gate at an airport with it yet without a guard pulling me up on a spurious reason having just seen it in the scanner. I've given up trying to avoid the gaze of kids and business types in airport lounges and just give them a go; feels like I should be on commission!

Launches in London tomorrow so my short time as a technology-early adopter is about to come crashing down, so here's some early things to consider if you're buying one.

1. no matter where you buy it it's 500 whatever's, so if you're going abroad anytime soon or know someone else who is, get them to buy you one, it's going to save you some cash.

2. definitely buy a case, its size doesn't sit well in normal briefcases,bags etc so the potential for scratching is huge.

3. expect to spend a lot more money with iTunes and in general online. The ease of use and access to the web means that content and shops are a lot closer then they have been before and my bank account has taken a hit!

4. don't give it to your family members and especially small kids, you'll never see it again - they love it.

5. don't worry about the wi-fi issues, I've only had good experiences, it's of no real practical use for business yet and when the next models roll out they'll have the issues sorted.

6. take it for what is, a new "thing" that hasn't found its place in the digital world yet - we're developing some great ideas and we're enjoying mucking about with it.

enjoy!

Posted by NickB

The Brand Gap

Check out this SlideShare Presentation: thanks to Nutron
Some interesting strategy models.

The Brand Gap

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A big hand for the little guy

The other day I was with my good friends at minnow who make documentaries. Minnow's reputation is of integrity, honesty, truth, championing causes, supporting the little guy who can be amazing if seen in the right light (hence minnow). Telling their story well... finding the story that makes everyone that sees it come away and tell their friends that they must see this film.

It got me to thinking that our brands can only dream of such a reputation. This is what advertisers only dream of in their sleep. So why not take some of that magic dust. How do we get some of that.. The problem is the integrity. They are perceived as having integrity.. advertising does not.. as soon as we overtly control or if there is a perception that we have influenced the truth of the film the integrity goes away.

All we can do is stand by them and champion them.. support them.... find a film or story that is within your brands area or is about someone who might use your brand.. if it touches your heart, support it, sponsor it, get it made... Imagine a conference, with the usual stands and your film in an auditorium next door... 30 mins of passion and emotion and great story telling, that highlights a cause worth talking about, something they truly care about.. imagine people watching it on your website, on you tube, imagine the public talking about it on the tube.. imagine it winning a Bafta.. and all it says at the end is.. "Thanks to your xxxxx for supporting us"..

So how do you find such a film?.. that's the trick!! But as people are increasingly having more choices and less time.. we are going to have to become more remarkable in every thing we do... a small specialised documentary that talks to the few, taps in to everything we as advertisers are trying to do.. that is to talk to the early adopters, the innovators the people who care.. they will champion your cause if it's worth fighting for... it gives them something to get behind.. we create a movement.. a cause behind the film... a website that give people a forum to discuss and take action to make decisions.. to make collective decisions to become part of the solution... ..celebrate the customer..lead.. and tell it through a good story... tell their story.. not the brands.. a story that can passed on..

suddenly you've changed peoples lives, you've changed the world.. made it a better place, inspired people.. suddenly you are loved..suddenly in a crowded market they have a reason to choose one very similar product over another.. they believe in what it supports.. wouldn't that be great...

http://www.minnowfilms.co.uk/

http://www.sheffdocfest.com/

The new 70's

The ethos of the seventies as I experienced the hippy culture in the seventies, growing up on a commune, the people around me, organic food, natural ingredients, concern for the environment, collectivism, the radical leaders outside of the mainstream, the sense of hope that it could all be different, all the fundamental values I experienced in this minority in the seventies, albeit a vocal and public minority, There was a lot of hope, but eventually this hope got swallowed up with the eighties and was never adopted my the majority, the success and dominance of capitalism drowned them out. It seems now that this has all come around again, these values are around me and seem to find there way into the mainstream much more readily than when I was a child.

We’ve moved on so much; collaboration, mass change, positivity, action, galvanising people for change, it can sound a bit utopian, it sounds a bit seventies and a bit hippy – when I hear people voice this concern I want to tell them that it’s different now, the people on the fringes, the people that were young then, who thought it were possible to have the utopia, some of these people are in a position of power now and now the capabilities of social media, the internet, we have a chance of making some serious change. Change in the environment, change in how our healthcare system is run, how we care for the elderly.

The baby boomers are reaching retirement, and I don’t think they will accept growing old as their parents did, they will want change. The internet and collectivism I believe will allow them to come together and solve the problems they are faced with. Ideas can spread without getting tied up in systems and apathy.

The internet also allows busy people do good things. Now activism and collective good can be inserted into the daily lives of people. The new platforms for engagement make it so much easier to participate. Obama’s bottom up approach to galvanising a nation is a perfect example of how people can engage and make change. Pfizer’s Baby boomer cause supporting CVD.

So if we can find a cause that aligns with our brand, be aware that apathy can be overcome these days.

Making Peoples Lives Better

This is a great presentation that I found on Slideshare from Paul Isakson's blog "Everything can always be made better" and it sums up the new marketing dogma of making people's lives better which is the new way to make your brand stand out from the crowd. To give your customer's a reason to choose you over the competition. It highlights the need for us as advertisers to offer solutions to our brands that improve it as a product, that improves the experience of the product, not just communicate its benefits, whether emotional or functional.
We have to start thinking. Will the consumers/customers care. will it improve thier lives. If it does they will remark on it and word of mouth will spread it.

Making Peoples Lives Better

View more presentations from Matthew_Broughton.