A student's guide

to Advertising
How will you unleash
your creativity?
www.ad-venture.co.uk
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IDEA!
Then fold
the top two
corners in,
to form a
triangle (see
next image.)
We had a dream.
As we sat down around the table graphic design students, interns, English undergrads we were struck by a thought. All of us had been through the process of
applying and interning at advertising and marketing agencies.
But to a (wo)man, we all had the same complaint.
For a communications industry, advertising is really bad at telling people how they can get into it.
The advertising-based magazines we read all seemed to be targeted at people who had already started a career in it, rather than those who were just starting
out. There were advertising courses but thats generally only useful for the people who are actually on them, and thats only possible if high school students are
told about them during sixth form. Agencies were stocked full of very helpful people who would love offer work experience but thats no good when students
dont even know where to fnd them. And it didnt help that many careers advisors themselves had little experience with the advertising beyond Mad Men, or that
conventional CV and interview advice all too often went out the window in the more creative side of the industry,
Apart from the IPAs excellent AdMission blog, wed had to fnd it out for ourselves stumbling our way towards advertisement-enlightenment by means of
chance encounters, intensive Google-searching and unsolicited phone calls.
So we sat down, and came up with an idea.
A careers magazine. For those in the same position as we once were. A careers magazine by students, for students, and for all those who thought they might be
interested in founding a career in adland. To share our pains and our accumulated wisdom, in the hopes that future students will have to suffer through slightly
less confusion than we went through. To swear a permanent no-bullshit approach, listing only examples and advice that at least one of us would actually fnd
useful. Which bore some actual relation to the real world, and what students really wanted to fnd out. Wherein for a magazine about an industry based in
graphic design the design and layout actually werent actively terrible. And of course, above all, one that was actually interesting to read.
We looked at some other boring, black-and-white photocopied careers guidance pamphlets, and we winced. We knew, for all students sake, we could do better.
There was, however, a slight problem.
But whats its name going to be? we wailed, in adamantine fury. (Our frst, quickly-rejected title.)
We needed something that would sum up our purpose. AdSchool seemed too obviously pandering to a student demographic, adequate too uninspiring,
ademption too obscure. AdMag sounded too few letters off Nuts and Zoo. AdVice seemed striking but to us, adverts are more of a virtue. And dont even get
us started on HashMag. (Shoehorning in the latest new-media buzzword in a desperate attempt not to appear pass? So not 2014.)
And so we came to our fnal name AdVenture. An appropriate name, considering the aims of this magazine: one, to give new students the tools and know-how
to venture into the exciting world of AdLand; and two, to encourage students to go forth and think outside the box of school and work, to take our challenges to
new and exciting places; in its purest sense, to let their creativity fow.
For whatever reason youre perusing this magazine, we hope you will fnd out something interesting and new. We believe that even the smallest of prompts can
become big ideas with a little creativity. (You wouldnt be sitting here, reading this magazine, if they couldnt.) And that young people, in particular, have a huge
amount to offer this fast-changing world industry. From little acorn seeds do big trees grow.
Whatever you decide to do, we hope it will be adventurous, advantageous - and inspiring.
Lucy Morris
Editor in Chief
Make a fold, about a
third of the way to the
centre crease.
Fold up the two bottom
corners of the strip,
to form triangles (see
below)
Fold the paper in half
lengthways, then unfold it
again to form a crease.
Whats your big idea? Turn to the back cover to see this months Creative Challenges, and use the front cover to send us your pitches!
Fold up the
two bottom
corners again
Do the same in the other
direction.
Fold both the left
and right sides in,
towards the middle.
Fold both
sides in
(again),
IDEA!
Place whatever
you want to send
into the pouch at
the centre of the
envelope.
Tuck the top
triangular
point into the
bottom flap.
Done!
Marketing
Advertising
PR
What do people do in an
advertising agency?
- What's the difference?
vs. vs.
Marketing is an umbrella term for
many activities. In its broadest sense,
everything a company does to promote
or sell its products or services, including
market research, PR, and advertising, is
technically called marketing.
Many companies have marketing
departments and these are the people
who give the advertising agency the
brief when they want an advertising
campaign. A companys marketing
department will work out who their
product or service most appeals to, and
try to sell it to them.
Marketers carefully monitor consumer
behavior and market trends, so that they
can adjust their marketing strategy to
effectively appeal to consumers and stay
ahead of the competition. They adapt to
changes in the market by adjusting their
marketing to constantly present their
brand as the relevant, desirable choice. In
order to do this, they often commission
research from market researchers.
People who work in marketing may
comission advertising campaigns, develop
marketing materials (emails, flyers),
and institute sponsorship deals with
celebrities or other companies, in order to
persuade customers to buy their product.
Advertising is a component of the marketing
process. In its simplest terms, advertising
is the activity or profession of producing
advertisements for commercial products or
services.
Many companies clients hire an
advertising department or agency to produce
adverts for them, in order to support some
element of their marketing strategy. They
might want to tell people about a new product;
persuade more people to buy from or support
them; or simply let more people know about
their product and brand.
The agency then produces adverts promoting
this aspect of their clients product or service,
to persuade people to meet their clients
business objective. (For example: if theyre
trying to sell more Persil-brand washing
powder, they might make an advert saying
Persil Automatic is the best, which then
persuades consumers to go out and buy this
product over any other kind of washing
powder.)
Unlike most in-house marketing departments,
advertisers take care of all the mechanics
behind the advert itself - planning each
campaign out in detail, presenting a media-
buying strategy, and coming up with an
entertaining or creative idea that will make
customers actually want to watch their ads.
Public Relations or PR is also a type of
marketing. Public Relations is, the discipline
which looks after reputation, with the aim
of earning understanding and support and
influencing opinion and behaviour.

PR departments try to establish and maintain
goodwill and understanding between their
organisation and its public. The idea of PR is
to maintain a companys reputation through
managing human relationships. Theyre not
just trying to get you to buy them theyre
trying to get you to like them.
Where an advertiser would try to get you
to buy their products and love their brand
through clever advertising, on billboards,
online videos and experiences, PR agencies
wouldnt spend so much time planning out
an airtime-buying strategy, or trying to think
up a brilliant new storyboard for a television
ad theyd be more likely to send out a
story to the local papers about a business
milestone, or act as a spokesperson to the
media.
There are two main kinds of PR activity
reactive (when the companys screwed up,
and its down to the PR to share their side of
the story and persuade the public that its not
so bad) and proactive, which is what PRs do
to regularly maintain brand reputation.
Sometimes referred to as suits, Account Managers
represent the voice of the client within the agency. They
liaise with client companies to discuss and identify their
advertising requirements, and with agency colleagues to
ensure that campaigns are delivered on-time, on budget
and on-brief. They may also present campaigns to clients
for approval, and pitch other companies to try and win
more business to the agency. Account managers need to be
organised, and very good with people!
One of the creative' roles within an agency. Copywriters
generate creative concepts and campaigns with an art
director in response to a creative brief. They must be able
to write clear, accurate, and engaging copy, and love
to write. They often work in partnership with an art
director as a creative team. Nowadays, the delineation
between the traditional art director and copywriter roles
is becoming less clear, so modern copywriters often have
some graphic design skills as well.
Another creative role, Art Directors come up
with creative ideas for advertising campaigns
in partnership with copywriters. Art-directors
focus mainly on the visual aspects of a
campaign, so theyll need good graphic design
skills. They often have a working knowledge
of Adobe Creative Cloud, and can draw.
Account Planners represent the voice of the consumer
within the agency. Planners analyse data, trends and
reports relevant to the client (or commission their own
research), in order to come up with a creative brief
that will both engage the target audience and address
the clients business problem. Good planners require a
combination of analytical skills, applied research skills,
curiosity and a strong interest in people.
Media Planners decide which media channels
(television, radio, online) to use to best appeal to
the target audience in an advertising campaign.
Meanwhile, Media Buyers implement the
actual buying side of things negotiating with
newspaper owners, printers and distributors
to purchase media space and airtime on behalf
of clients. Both must be good at dealing with
complex data, research and statistics, and have the
the experience to back it up.
PPC and SEO Executives deal with search-engine
marketing an increasingly important part
of modern advertising. Pay-Per-Click execs
make their clients webpages more visible
in paid-for search engine rankings. Search
Engine Optimisation execs make their clients
webpages more visible by massaging their
position in the natural search engine rankings.
Some parts of these roles can be quite technical
prior experience with digital marketing or coding
is a plus.
2
Whats your favourite ad?
Tell us something we dont know.
How would you advertise yourself
to us?
How
To
Answer
AdLands
Favourite
Questions
3
1.) It may sound obvious, but every
time you see an ad you really love,
write it down! Keep a note on a
word document, diary or blog of
its title, agency, creative director,
and whatever else you can fnd out
about it. That way, youll have a
ready-made list of adverts you love
and can remember when youre
asked to talk about them.
2.) Dont talk exclusively about the
brilliant ads that everyone knows (like
Apples 1984 or Budweisers latest
Superbowl puppy spot) or ones that are
all over the news (like the no make-up
selfe campaign), unless you can show
a deeper level of analysis than simply I
like it. Instead, analyze how it is these
ads have managed to be so effective,
and talk about why everybody knows
and likes them. Show that you have a
deeper level of insight and interest in
the subject than your average viewer.
3.) Tailor your favourite ads
to different situations. If youre
interviewing for a company that does
ads for a washing machine company
- look up great washing machine
commercials! If youre interviewing
for a particular agency, look up ads
theyve made in the past and try to
talk about one you particularly liked
and so on. (Dont be too much of a
suck-up and only fatter or name ads
that theyve made though agencies
know that their ideas are good already.
They want to see if yours are, too!)
Relate a successful campaign
to a wider industry trend.
Instead of talking about how
great for Cancer Research the
no-makeup selfie campaign
was, compare the fact that it
made so much money to the
cartoon profile picture trend of
a few years ago which didnt
make nearly as much money
for the NSPCC. Could it be that
the difference between the two
social media campaigns lay in
2014s use of text-donations
a new method of donation
that is almost as no-effort and
slactivist as the act of posting
pictures on facebook itself?
Look at the bigger picture.
If you want to say that the Guardi-
an pigs ad was brilliant, talk about
how its slogan was the same one
that they used in a previous famous
1970s ad campaign and how that
helped reinforce a cohesive brand
identity between their old media land-
scape and the new, even as it was
talking about new media and adver-
tising the guardians online site. Lots
of ads draw on inspiration from other
ads, or adopt certain strategic styles.
(The attack ad, the charity ad which
appeals to our sense of empathy by
showing us suffering children - or
ones that deliberately go against that
archetype.) Talk up the history behind
it, and where the ad team got their
got their creative inspiration from.
Or examine which other companies
have tried but failed to use a similar
technique and why.
Were you inspired to switch brands after another
product claimed to be more natural? Why?
Theres no point in wanting to work in Advertising unless you actually love ads and for most aspiring
ad-people, thats easy. The trickier part comes when they ask you to explain exactly which ones you
like, and why you like them. Here are 5 top tips to untwist your tongue.
For example...
The Questions The Industry Loves To Ask
Whats your favourite advertisement?
... And how to answer them. Lucy Morris
A r t - D i r e c t o r s :
Consider great
visual work. In this
one, a man's mouth
appears as a volcano
to advertise a hot
tabasco sauce. How
could you creatively
convey the sense
of something being
hot?
Copywriters: check out ads
which involve a lot of text.
This advert from DB Export
Dry cleverly mirrors a persons
internal narrative while reading
a fancy wine list, drawing them
into the ad. (See also: the print adverts for the
Ban the Box campaign, which are presented in the
voice of someone reading a CV). How could you
get people to read and remember your writing?
5.) Tell them about the ads that
inspired you. Maybe youve made
your own advert, after noting a
particular creative infuence or
similar strategy. Maybe you have
an example of how brands had an
effect on you as a consumer. Or
maybe you once saw something
that wasnt an ad per se, but which
struck a chord with you and has
remained in your head ever after.
Perhaps you could even use your
insights to suggest improvements
that other companies might make
to their ads! Make it clear to them
that they could use your ideas!
4.) Talk about several ads. Pick out one
example of a poster or billboard ad, one
thats a digital media or online campaign,
one thats a TV ad; and so on, to prove that
you have a good understanding of what
works in different channels. Or, adapt your
answers to your role. If youre interested
account planning, try to think of an ad which
shows a focus on strategy, or a brilliant new
way of looking at a product or idea. If youre
going for a role as an art director, think of
some ads that showed killer graphic design,
or had a great visual pun. Copywriters
should try and come up with a campaign
that had some awesome, persuasive text.
1.)The Creative
Aspiring intern Leah Brown
impressed recruiters in
her bid to become an
account manager, by
presenting her CV in
the form of a Lego set.
Whimsically presenting
hirers with a set of build-
an-intern Lego bricks,
Leahs attached cover
letter promised an eye
for design and a can-
do attitude. She certainly
showed it here!
2.) The Confrontational
In 2012, Australian creative duo
Andrew Grinter and Lee Spencer
pulled a scene-stealing stunt. They
bought up the .com domain names
of Melbournes ten top creative
directors, and held them to ransom
promising to destroy the directors
online reputations if they were not
invited for an interview. Faintly
incredibly, they got an invite to meet
7 of them and turned up wearing
black balaclavas. They redirected
the remaining directors sites, linking
them to Justin Biebers Australian
homepage.
3.) Beyond the brief
Continuing the black-masks
theme, 25-year-old advertising
student Olly caught one ad
schools attention by adopting
a secret identity as the
Tunbridge Wells ninja. Making
it into national and even
international press by way of
social media, the Sun newspaper
and Russell Howards Good
News, the ninja won an entire
town over to his noble cause
and an internship, for his
successful viral efforts. Above
and beyond indeed!
Take that theme of something we dont know and run with it! It can be an unusual fact, a new
product, or even just something youve noticed that your friends or family are always talking about.
If youre doing a video, it could be a sleight-of-hand magic trick - literally showing people something
they dont know is there. (Even groan-worthy gimmicks have their place in an industry thats looking,
above all, to capture peoples attention.)
But remember that you should always try to link it back to the subject in hand advertising. If you
dont do this, youre not fulflling the brief.
If people dont know, for example, that snowboarding is the UKs fastest-growing sport, tell them
this! But you must also talk about what this fact means for advertisers. Should Red Bull redirect
their sponsorship money, from racing to snowboarding championships? Should easyJet adverts use
images of snowboarders rather than ski-ers, when advertising their winter trips to France? Maybe
instead of beer mats, Heineken should hand out stickers for snowboards! Always try and relate it back
to the subject the interviewer is interested in.
1.) Guinness: Good Things
Come to Those Who Wait
Guinness had a problem. Their beer
had to be poured slower than any
other brand, in the impatient market
of a crowded, sweaty bar. But with/
thanks to this campaign, that flaw
was no longer a bad thing. Instead,
it was actually a mark of quality and
dedication a feature, which marked
Guinness out as having a stylish
advantage over its competitors.
2.)Avis: We Try Harder
Number two in the market? No problem!
At least, not for Avis in the 1960s.
Since its inception, the car rental
company had trailed behind the
market leader, Hertz. So the ad
agency DDB decided to embrace
Avis second-place status as a sneaky
way to tout the brands customer
service. When youre only No. 2, you
try harder, ran the new tagline. It was
a successful campaign, too within a
year, Avis went from losing $3.2 million
to earning $1.2 million, the first time
it had been profitable in more than a
decade.
3.) Puma: After-Hours Athlete
Puma was seen as the smaller, weaker
brother of Nike and Adidas . They had no
big-name athletes or major sponsors, and no
cool celebrity endorsements. But with this spot, they
didnt need to./no longer needed to. Instead of hyp-
ing their products as pro-sports shoes for pro ath-
letes, they offered up their product as being a cool,
everyday shoe for normal people who liked to go
out and play darts or go bowling the after-hours
athlete.)
4.) Persil: Dirt is Good.
Persil had been promising to keep your
whites whiter than white for decades the
only problem was, so had every other brand.
Persils changed the game when they realized
that people really didnt care so much about the science of
having their clothes washed. Instead, they cared about how
it made them feel. Instead of being clinical and robotic, their
new approach gave Persil a homier, more human feel that
won them fans by making them feel accepted. Dirt was no
longer a deficit on their part. Now, it was simply a part of
life - and Persil was there to help wash it out again.
5.)Crisis Relief: "Liking Isn't Helping"
Crisis Relief had plenty of facebook
likes. But they had trouble translating
them into charity donations. This
campaign turned this act of well-
meaning public slactivism on its
head, confronting facebook users
with the stark reality of how much
theyre really helping when they press
like not at all. Instead of soliciting more
social-media activism or endeavoring to make
donors feel better about themselves, like other
charity campaigns, this campaign instead
directly confronted donors with their well-
meaning inaction, accusingly asking them to
step up and actually donate something to the
cause they professed to like.
Dont just say that youre a creative thinker - show it! Here are three groups who made sure
they stood out from the crowd.
(Check out some other unique ways that
people have advertised themselves,
by visiting www.creative-resume.net,
or searching creative advertising CVs
online!)
5
How would you advertise yourself to us?
... Show us something we dont know.
Day 1: The day began with myself
and all the other interns bunched up
in the foyer, forming a homogenous
blob of raw talent. Before we got
too comfortable we were led into a
boardroom and asked to introduce
ourselves, as well as adding why
we wanted to get into advertising. I
mentioned something about ideas
(buzzword - check) while another
intern actually mentioned starting
salaries - how uncouth! Im far
more driven by unquenchable
thirst for power.
After the introductions, I was
offered my frst ever corporate
croissant, which divided the interns
in two. Some snatched eagerly
at the croissants, presumably
starving as a result of our non-
existent wages. Others stayed
clear of them, far more concerned
about getting some pastry stuck
in their teeth, which wouldnt have
been a good look considering
how much smiling and nodding
we were doing. I was sat far too
close to a real account exec. to
risk eating my croissant, as I might
have sprayed him with crumbs.

Then it was time for the
presentations. We got a full blast
of VCCP, covering their ethos,
their clients and some key bits of
work. We were also taught the
fundamentals of planning by a
formidable woman who it seems
dines on data and not much else.
She explained with zero bullshit
what planning was and I decided
it all sounded very useful but not a
job Id want to do.
We received our brief for the week.
I had to sign a non-disclosure
agreement, which I think means
Ive now given VCCP a small piece
of my soul - I didnt read the whole
thing contract. Ill leak little bits of
the brief over the course of the
week but at the moment theres
not much to tell.
All the other interns skulked away
at 5pm but I decided to pull out all
the stops and keep going until 8.
This was a pro-tip. I got to chat to
the mentors 1on1 after everyone
has left, and avoided looking like
a massive arse-licker by saying I
just couldnt be bothered dealing
with rush hour and was going to
work a bit longer in the offce (
true). I even got to eat my rightful
croissant that had been sitting
dejected in the middle of the table
for the whole day. Yummy.
Day 2: Today I was initiated into
the secret sect of VCCP Strategy.
See that? Thats the Triangle of
Truth. I like to think of it as a
sort of advertising ouija board.
Put simply, you turn piles of data
into insights about the brand,
the market, or human beings,
before synthesising all that into
a proposition that you can put to
your audience in the form of a
creative idea. Ta Da!
I have a limited experience of
joining cults, but I think most of
them require some kind of human
sacrifce. Offering up one of your
toes or your frst born child - either
way, its not going to be painless.
And this sure as hell wasnt
painless.
The other members of my group
were quickly hypnotised by the
power of the triangle and spent
most of the day trying to create
a mega-triangle which contained
every truth ever, connected with
tenuous dotted lines. At this point
I knew they were lost to its three-
sided powers, and so I just came
up with our proposition instead.
The other groups arrived back
to the boardroom at the end of
the day with their eyes glazed
over, mumbling about triangles,
so it sounded as though they
too were fully paid-up members
of this strategic sect. Its not a
bad approach, though; just dont
forget who you are and remember
that life holds meaning beyond
the triangle.
In other news, we got a talk from a
media buyer who made us realise
the senseless amount of money
spent on flling our lives up with
ads. He also got us clued us on
Google Adwords and told us that
if you search online roulette and
click any sponsored link on the
frst page, it costs the company
75. Give it a go!
Day 3: At the start of the day we
broke out into a breakout space,
illustrated in the above image as
the black void surrounding my
My Work
Experience at...
VCCP has produced some famous ads.
6
team. As it turns out, this was an apt
metaphor for the day.
There was more Cult of Triangle as we
searched for facts to back up each one
of our truths, so that it didnt look like
we were making wild assertions about
our brand and their customers (which I
defnitely was).
If the triangle is our cult, then this is our
cult leader, Billy.
I stole this pic of him in a rather dashing
fur coat from his twitter but in any case,
hes our planner who helps all our
strategy make sense and presumably
compelling enough to command a
Jonestown-style mass suicide.
The rest of the day was spent here in
the offce (pic was taken when I arrived
in the morning, they do actually employ
people) getting started on the creative
for our campaign. I could complain how
agonising of a process trying to come up
with a creative idea between 5 people
but it suffce to say, democracy is weak.
Its much better to rule with an iron fst.
In the end we did the old, lets go away
and think about it until tomorrow, which
translates as, Im sick of the sight of your
face and dont want to
spend another minute with you. I went
home, listened to depressing Radiohead
songs, and then got down to work. On
the plus side I think Ive got a good idea.
Agency talks on the day included a chat
from VCCPs social division, VCCP
Kin. They showed us a laundry list of
campaigns theyd worked on, including
one where they turned the London Eye
into a giant game of spin-the-bottle.
Madness.
Day 4: After a long time wrangling
with triangles, we fnally arrived at our
Concentrated Brand Idea*, which meant
that today could be spent doing creative.
Even though I want to be one, I hate it
when creative is used as a noun. Doing
creative or being a Creative, it burdens
you with a lot of expectation: especially
in a process thats supposed to have no
rules, man!.
Out of our creative process emerged
this mood board pictured below. I dont
think Ill ever know exactly what mood it
was attempting to create. A handwritten,
cardboard sign that looks like it was
snatched from a homeless person,
next to a computer-generated bunch of
balloons - talk about mixed messages.
Im also pretty sure it was made in
Microsoft Word - standard.
By the end of the day I had reached
DEFCON 1. Alarm bells started ringing
when I asked a team member to go away
and fnd some appropriate images to use
on a poster, and an hour later they came
back with 3 images that were about
300pxls square. A creative pair, Pete and
Bish came over to try and help us, but
members of the group just kept saying
Im not a very creative person to them,
until they both went away again.
I hung on in there, abused the VCCP
biscuit cupboard and ground my teeth
into nubs until the clock hit 5 and
everybody scarpered.
(*I wish I could create a symbol, like the
symbol, that indicates agency jargon.)
Day 5: This is it. Pitch day. I arrived at
the agency and thought that if there was
ever a time to fnd out what happens if
you press the espresso button on their
coffee machine four times in a row, this
was that time.
I was too nervous to look at the master
Powerpoint that was being formed from
four individual Powerpoints. I just stared
at my screen and kept tweaking posters.
Wed been told all week how important
it is to have a Big Idea, and I wasnt
about to let my idea drown in between the
market research slide and the budgeting
slide.
30 minutes to go. I had fnished the
mockups and fed them into the master
Powerpoint, time to work out what the
hell I was going to say about them. I
was already a jittering wreck from the
coffee and had to write my notes with
an oversized pen on an oversized pad
to keep it legible. The rest of the group
had also cottoned on to the fact that in
30 minutes we would be pitching to the
Creative Director, a Senior Planner,
two Senior Account Execs and a
representative from the client. You could
tell the fear had set in for some. Others
continued to murmur, its not a big deal,
itll be fne, through a look of growing
panic.
10 minutes to go. We decided it would be
best to have at least one run-through of
the presentation. One person started by
introducing the group, which started an
argument about how we should introduce
oursevles. I thought that so long as it
wasnt, were the group thats going to
make you wonder what the hell we did all
week, I didnt really care.
0 minutes to go. It was pitch time. Wed
only managed to rehearse about a third of
our presentation but it was go-time. The
group and the strategy were introduced
without too many issues, and then it
was me. I stuttered my frst line, before
taking a deep breath and delivering the
rest of the idea calmly, with appropriate
and enthusiastic hand gestures. I smiled,
they smiled back, I nodded, they nodded,
it was great.
At the end of the pitch they went away
and deliberated which group won, while
we got the pizza they ordered all over the
boardroom table.
They came back and delivered the news.
Wed won! I actually thought theyd called
out another group and so I was confused
why they were all clapping themselves
while I was clapping for them. We didnt
win anything, just the honour, but Ill take
it.
Before I left Id arranged to chat to a
creative pair, Steven and Josh, which
was probably my highlight of the week.
Hearing two people talk so passionately
about their jobs and telling me how
excited they were to come to work each
day, solidifed for me that this is what I
want to do.
All in all Id say VCCP was a pretty
great agency, the people were nice, the
environment was nice and the work was
pretty class. So until my next adventure
in Adland, goodbye for now.
- Tom Manning
Tom Manning is a graphic design student
at the Central Saint Martins College of
Arts and Design. This post originally
appeared on his blog, whatidoinadland.
tumblr.com
More VCCP wall-art
7
There are a variety of ways to get into
advertising. Depending on the kind of thing
youre good at and the kind of advertising
career youre most interested in, however, some
can be more useful than others.
If you specifically want to become a planner or
account manager, it might be worth skipping the
advertising degree. These roles dont require a
book of creative work or sophisticated graphic
design skills, and therefore accept students
from a broader range of backgrounds. In fact,
most students get jobs in these positions by
doing a traditional degree (psychology, business
studies, economics) and then applying via the
myriad of grad schemes for account managers
or planners. For these roles, specialist
advertising courses are generally not needed.
If you want to become an advertising creative,
however, graphic design or portfolio school
courses are a very good idea.
So what is portfolio school?
If you want to work as an art director or a
copywriter, agencies will often ask to see a
book of work a portfolio containing samples
of work and spec (short for speculative,
i.e., made-up) ads that youve made. Portfolio
schools are creative advertising courses, which
focus specifically on producing work for these
books.
BA and MA Creative Advertising courses, like
the ones at Falmouth University, Southampton
Solent, or the University of Lincoln, or MA
Copywriting and Art Direction at West Herts,
are probably the closest thing that Britain
has to a true portfolio school. Students on
these courses may create posters, app ideas
and websites; work on live briefs from real
companies; or even complete work experience
at real ad agencies as a means of building up
their portfolio. The fees are also often much
lower than those on other university degrees,
and are eligible for student finance.
Many students find these courses very useful
in launching a creative career. Studying for a
qualification based specifically around creating
and analysing ads can make it a lot easier to
create the good, focused work that agencies
want to see in your book. Youll also get much
more experience with InDesign/Photoshop and
the Adobe Creative Cloud toolbox than students
on traditional degrees.
Established and prestigious advertising courses
will also (ideally) have experienced and
knowledgeable teachers, and lots of contacts
inside the industry in short, a lot of people
and experience that can help you get a leg up.
Alumni networks, industry contacts and award
entries accessible through such schools can
also be a big plus. Most agencies hire creatives
based on speculative applications and not
through official graduate schemes, so having
someone at an agency who already knows you
and your work can be an advantage.
There can, however, be downsides. Entrance to
such courses is tricky. The course will generally
require students to create work or answer
set,creative questions as part of an entrance
exam on application and only the students
who come up with the best answers will be
invited to interview for the course.
Finding the best advertising courses, can also
be confusing in itself. Even the Good University
Guide doesnt have a separate league table for
marketing and advertising subjects so finding
out which courses are actually worth doing in
itself entails a lot of individual research. At the
moment, probably the best way to go about
finding a good course is by ringing up the head
of recruitment or human resources at several
advertising agencies, and asking them which
courses theyd recommend. You should also
contact the IPA (you can find them at ipa.co.uk,
as well as on twitter at @theadmission and @
IPA_Updates) and ask them for a list of their
recommended courses. (The D&AD University
network is also a good place to start.)
Not all BA Marketing or BA Advertising courses
are created equal. Instead, many Marketing
courses are closer to a business degree, in
that they focus more broadly on the theory
and practice of advertising and the details of
marketing strategy. (Some reflect this in their
title, like the BA Marketing with Advertising
Management degree at Southampton Solent.)
The creative, portfolio-based courses listed
above tend to differ from traditional three-year
advertising degrees, in that there is an intensive
focus on the practical side of creating adverts,
instead of learning about theory or studying
marketing strategy and statistics in-depth. Be
sure of what kind of course it is creative
(graphic design, original art work) or planning
(business, strategy, statistics) based and if its
the kind you actually want to do, before you
sign up to it!
There are also some other ways to get into
working as a creative. The annual Creative
Pioneers Challenge and The Ideas Foundation
(see below!) takes on those whove never even
been to university. If creative work is what you
truly want to do and work hard at, however,
theres nothing to beat the contacts and
experience of a reputable ad school.
In the words of of one advertising student -
Industry connections matter. You dont go to
ad school for the piss or a bit of paper: you
go to get a job. And in that respect, it beats
any Film or Media Studies course hands down.
Portfolio School - Is It For You?
What + where to study if you want to get into advertising
Apprenticeships (straight out of high school): The annual Creative Pioneers Challenge, run in collaboration
with the IPA and the Metro newspaper, takes on young school-leavers with qualifcations, no higher than
A-Level, as apprentices at a variety of advertising and digital media organisations. Participating companies
include BBH, JWT and Grayling. www.creativepioneers.co.uk
The Ideas Foundation (For 13-19 year olds still in high school, or just leaving): this organisation offers a point of
contact for young students looking to break in to advertising careers. It also offers an interactive site, iamcreative.
org.uk, where students can upload their ideas in response to real creative briefs from big companies, like BT or
Nokia. Winning campaign ideas are awarded 200 shopping vouchers, and taken into consideration by in-house
marketing departments, and the students who thought of them successful students are accepted onto The Ladder,
a specialist careers-enhancement team. www.ideasfoundation.org.uk
Internships (University): The IPA runs a yearly AdSchool for students in their penultimate year of university,
and a yearly AdAcademy for fnalists. Students spend 6 weeks in the summer at various ad agencies, gaining
experience, 600 prize money at the end, and in the case of fnal-year students a potential job. Check out
www.ipa.co.uk/adschool for information on the next scheme.
Alternately, fnd an invaluable list of agencies and companies which offer work experience and internships at
www.theadmission.co.uk/industry-guide/work-experience
Grad Schemes: A number of advertising and media agencies run famous annual grad schemes, including the Chime Group
(which owns VCCP), Group M (which owns a multitude of PR and marketing agencies as the worlds largest media company), and
agency schemes at Saatchi&Saatchi, Ogilvy and Karmarama. Graduates must typically complete a series of challenges which
demonstrate their knowledge of the agency, their social-media prowess and creative talents.
Founded way back in 1977, the granddaddy of all student advertising awards is still going strong.
Recognising the best in student, graduate and young creative design and advertising for 2014, the
D&AD New Blood awards showcase the best in student ad work right alongside the proper, grown-up
professional stuff. Briefs range from radio ads and copy-based work for copywriters, to graphic and
packaging-design work for art-designers and with briefs this year from such companies as the BBC,
npower, the Body Shop and Sky, theres something for almost every skillset.
Open to? Entry to the awards is open to anyone in full or part-time education; recent graduates who
have fnished their course within the past two years; and anyone under the age of 24.
Closing date? 10am on March 19th 2014.
Yes, that Pornhub. Having previously failed to get their (surprisingly tame) ad spot aired during last
years Superbowl, the worlds No.1 adult website is now trying a different tack. The porn peddlers
are running a contest looking for innovative ways to advertise Pornhub with a G-rated safe for
work campaign and the winner will become the Creative Director in charge of their next national
advertising campaign. Creative minds ready to take on the challenge can view previous entries online,
at pornhubcampaign.tumblr.com Video, poster and multimedia work all accepted.
Open to? Anyone over the age of 18.
Closing date? March 31st, 2014
The Cannes Lions festivals annual hunt for talent even more youthful than their Young Lions (their
other annual contest, open to people actually working in the industry and under the age of 28) opens
in late February this year. The brief is simple: Connect an audience of your choosing to a product or
service from a global brand in a way that wasnt possible fve years ago. Submissions must be in digital
format, which can be anything from a .pdf to original websites to videos. Winners are announced in
May each year, and get to go to the Cannes Lions Festival in June. www.futurelions.com
Open to? Students, studying any subject, who will be over the age of 18 on or before June 15th 2014.
Students can work in teams.
Closing date? April 25th 2014
Dating back to 1986, the One Show Young Ones Competition offers students across the globe the
opportunity to compete for cash prizes, and a coveted One Show Pencil. This year, there are two briefs
for student competitors to choose from: one is a traditional structured brief for the fashion label
Organic by John Patrick, the second a create-your-own-client brief sponsored by Save the Arts. This
competition is the only one where you must pay for entries $30 per submission.
Open to? Students from universities, graduate schools or portfolio schools in any country are all
eligible.
Closing date? March 14th 2014
DDB Oslo is looking for a new intern via snapchat. The premise of their recruitment challenge is that
great ideas can be explained in a sentence. If youre a student and would like a shot at working for
them, simply connect with DDB_Oslo on Snapchat and pitch your great advertising-related idea to
them in 10 seconds or less. If the creative team like you enough, theyll pay to fy you out to Oslo for
an interview and a three-night stay. Get snapping!.
Open to? Creative student teams, who must enter the competition as a pair. There are no age
restrictions. Entrants must have the ability to travel to, and work with, DDB in Norway.
Closing Date? April 2nd, 2014.
1.)
D&AD
New
Blood
Awards
2.)
Pornhub
Ad
Campaign
3.)
Cannes
Future
Lions
4.)
5.)
The
Snapchat
Pitch
One
Show
Young
Ones
Always skip the ads? Why not make your own? These monthly and annual competitions challenge young
people to create their own advertisements, and are a great way to exercise your creativity and experience
exactly what it takes to create an advert from planning to execution. AdVenture brings you the best of this
months:
9
Go Compete!
In 140
characters or
less, craft a
tweet that
people will
actually want
to retweet.
Send us your ideas!
Post your ideas using the envelope instructions on Page 1, to:
34 Sunnydene Avenue
Highams Park
London
E4 9RE
Write, tweet or email us your responses to these mini-briefs at
@theadvantage, or theadvantage@xargle.com
What new product should
you introduce next
month -
Youre a product manager
at Coca Cola UK.
and why?
In 25 words
or less,
sell us a
half-eaten
cheese
sandwich.
Under-18 year olds, as a
group, are some of the
biggest perpetrators of
online video and music piracy.
How would you go about
persuading under-18s to pay
for the music and films that
they consume, instead of
pirating them for free?
Tip:
Think
about
who
actually
pays,
and how.
C
r
e
a
t
i
v
e
Cha
l
l
e
n
g
e
s
!
Write a

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e
w

s
t
r
a
p
l
in
e

f
o
r Lance
A
r
m
s
t
r
o
n
g
.