Poke are hiring. We’re looking for a new creative director.
It’s a nice place to work, or at least I think so.
We’re looking for someone quite particular. If you’re interested, or think you know someone who might be, please take a look at the job description here.
I had a great response to the last plea for help and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the web and the lovely people who sometimes read this blog might be able to help.
If you’re responsible for a successful lead, or are a successful applicant through my blog I’m sure I can furnish you with some kind of decent reward. I’m not sure what yet but we’ll work something out…
I like the new advert for 3. The one for free Email and IM on your phone. If you’ve not seen it, here it is:
I was really really disappointed when I opened up my weekly Zoo magazine (it’s a work thing, honest) to see this press version of the ad. Actually I wasn’t disappointed by the advert itself, the press ad is fine. See below:
What made me almost spew was the thing they’d stuck over the top. A postcard. A postcard with stickers on it where you can ‘create your own message’. A bit of a horrible thing in it’s own right. Pointless and fiddly. And just another thing to drop on the newsagent’s floor.
I’m guessing that the Zoo audience is at the younger end of 3’s target. So of course the natural content for this postcard is skateboarding!?! I mean what else could it be? (Apart from breakin’ of course).
Here’s the front:
Here’s the back (the stickers are the words on the left):
Completely at odds with the rest of the creative. And ‘Grind to Email’, what on earth is that about? Next they’ll be asking us to “Ollie down to your local 3 store now”, or “Nosebone over to three.co.uk”.
The above image is blatantly stolen from the excellent DigitalAgency blog. But short of retyping the whole thing I couldn’t think of any other way of doing it.
It’s from the D&AD Student Annual, written by Tony Davidson (Creative Director at Wieden + Kennedy London) and it starts off well. It’s positive and upbeat, and the sentiments behind it are all bang on. But I read it a second time, and a third time (by the fourth read I started to feel like an oddball so I stopped).
The first 1/2 of it I couldn’t agree with more. It’s all pretty much fact. Fact that the most recent Ofcom report backs up almost to the letter. And it’s not just ‘our industry’ that’s running scared. The telecoms industries, broadcast media, publishing (books, films , music, videogames), and many others besides are trying to decide whether this is the most exciting thing that ever happened, or the thing that’s going to kill them.
However, halfway through it starts to make me a bit angry. Maybe I’m just touchy and I’m not reading it right.
But to suggest that it’s only now that ‘ideas’ people are getting involved with digital sounds really arrogant and is blatantly incorrect. If there was nothing good online why are there so many people there now. They’ve not been holding off for a bunch of ideas people to come and create good content.
The underlying (and slightly sinister) message is that because we all use computers now, we should all be able to create effective and interesting digital things. Which doesn’t work for me at all. It’s like saying that an agency like Poke should be able to come up with great TV ideas because we sometimes watch television. (We can’t and don’t by the way).
And yes, we are looking at a similar set of creative qualities. But there are more of these qualities than there were before. And I do sincerely believe that there are ‘digital people’, not people who speak in zeros and ones. But people who get it. People who live, play and create in this new world.
I guess the big question for all of us is where ‘digital creativity’ comes from. And how the organisations who deliver this creativity should be structured (or not). Is it the role of traditional agencies as we know them? Where ‘creatives’ generate ideas that are fed to craftspeople who produce stuff to fill media spaces (whatever shape or size they might be)? I think there’s a bit of that going on right now. But it’s the part of the industry that spends its days talking about advertising formats and the latest cyber-lions.
Personally that’s not what excites me. I’m excited by the notion of broad integrated teams working together to explore creativity across the board. Creativity in ideas, technology, craft, copy, interaction and experience (as well as stuff that we don’t even know about yet). If you look at where the real pockets of digital innovation are happening, they’re in the companies and organisations that are employing rapid development methodologies, with tight teams of extreme talent working towards common goals that they all passionately believe in.
These people aren’t just developing bits of communication, they’re developing new products, new businesses, new companies and new industries. They’re creating new ways for people to communicate and consume. They’re building software that can fundamentally change peoples’ lives.
That’s the kind of creativity that makes me want to go to work in the morning.
Who cares about Apple, Creative Labs, Sony and all those guys. Surely the best MP3 players simply have to be made by Pez. It’s got a tiny memory, looks really flmsy, the battery life is bound to be shocking. But there’s something strangely desirable about this PEZ MP3 Player.
The site I found it on CoolestShop.com has some other really nice stuff in stock too: nice teeshirts, rude trainers, and more.
Diablogue (a new find on the blog trail; thanks Russell) pointed me in the direction of a new online Visa campaign produced by AKQA. Life Takes Visa
As the Diablogue guys say there’s some sweet moments in there. But I can’t help but feel that this is just a load of nice little ads glued together into a website.
For the money that was spent on this piece of interactive advertising, I’d have thought they might have taken the opportunity to do something, well… ‘interactive’? Instead it’s just a load of nicely produced FakeReal scenarios, which support the offline advertising brilliantly. It’s a really nice piece of ‘online advertising’ in that sense. But it left me wanting more.
The thing that really puzzled me though was the copyright notice at the bottom of the page:
How come an advertising website is copyright Microsoft?
I did a bit of digging around and found that there’s a version of the site that you can get to via http://lifetakesvisa.msn.com/visa.asp which has an MSN frame at the top. Not sure how ‘exclusive’ the deal is, and how it came about.
From where I’m sitting I see a lot of the big online media owners trying to get closer to ‘creative agencies’ so that they can deliver richer, more extensive, online advertising that’s exclusive to their network. It’s almost like good online advertising could be considered content. Imagine that ;-)
OK, OK, it shouldn’t be a surprise that I managed to read a book. I can read, and I like reading. But so often I start with great intentions; I order a book from Amazon (or heaven forbid pick one up in a real bookshop). I tuck into it with great enthusiasm. But then about 1/2 or 2/3 into it I suddenly come to a halt. Not because I’m not interested, but because I run out of momentum. The stuff of everyday life gets in my way. Or perhaps more commonly my magpie vision spots something newer, something more interesting.
But not this time! For the first time in a while I actually finished reading a ‘business book’. Why Business People Speak Like Idiots captivated me from the back cover to the end, and I suppose that it’s a good job that it was readable, otherwise their whole premise would be shot to bits.
It wasn’t stacked with ideas that revolutionised my life. But it was really nicely written. Charming, and it somehow helped to reaffirm some of my views on the business world. The single thing that made me love this book was one simple concept. The fact that our weekend-selves (friendly, interesting, passionate, smutty, fun and REAL) get ditched on Monday morning and replaced by a greyer, less interesting, less real version; the one that we think our clients and colleagues want to do business with. We’re wrong.
Nothing new for people who work in creative jobs surrounded by creative people. But I realised that I’m very lucky. I don’t have to pretend to be a different person very much. I’m allowed to be me (most of the time). However, this book shows how even in very ‘straight’ environments there’s a lot to be said for staying true to yourself.
I think I might have rambled a bit, sorry, I think I’m coming down with a cold, which for some strange reason has made me more verbose than normal.
“…a living, growing snapshot of what people are thinking and doing across Europe.”
Now, as the guys at SMLXL so rightly point out, this is theoretically a great idea. A campaign that supports creativity, gets people involved and says all the right stuff about Levi’s. BUT, to my mind it gets lots of things wrong… Continue reading Levi’s Antidote
Diablogue
OK, OK, it shouldn’t be a surprise that I managed to read a book. I can read, and I like reading. But so often I start with great intentions; I order a book from Amazon (or heaven forbid pick one up in a real bookshop). I tuck into it with great enthusiasm. But then about 1/2 or 2/3 into it I suddenly come to a halt. Not because I’m not interested, but because I run out of momentum. The stuff of everyday life gets in my way. Or perhaps more commonly my magpie vision spots something newer, something more interesting.
Levi’s Antidote