We Are Not Advertisers, We Are Responsible Influencers

So this is a presentation I made during my Postgrad in Advertising & Digital Comms in DIT. I thought it was worth slapping up here on the interland.

Ad-Peeps tend to get boxed off into the 'your just selling shit and you don't give a fuck as long as you make cash' category. However, there has been a changing mould in advertising over the past few years. I would argue that Ad-Peeps should no longer consider themselves Advertisers but 'Responsible Influencers'. Some (certainly not all) agencies are balancing their car and sports accounts with clients who are solely working to better the world, whether it be environmental, social, local or global, and the agencies genuinely seem to care about these causes (they are people after all).

For the presentation I used BBH New York as a case study. BBHNY worked with the New York City Rescue Mission to formulate 'Underheard in NY', a worthwhile cause to make a difference and create awareness of the issue of homelessness in NY and dispel some of the preconceptions that go along with it. Here's an overview of what the project was about:

Underheard in New York is an initiative to help homeless residents in New York City speak for themselves. We’ve provided Danny, Derrick, Albert and Carlos each with their own mobile phone, a month of unlimited text messaging and a Twitter account. They’ve found their voices by texting their thoughts, feelings and actions to Twitter. Our mission is to use their social media presence to create real interaction and make them a part of our global community.

You can view the full 'Underheard in NY' project here & here.

BBHNY realised their position as influencers and created awareness and worked to improve these men's lives. Another agency leading the way is Droga5 who created the Tap Project with UNICEF, which was wildly successful.

I might be looking at this through rose-tinted glasses but some Ad-Landers do realise they are in a position of influence and are taking responsibility for that. I think agencies realise they have access to the media which allows their work and ideas to be seen by the masses. They are becoming more conscious of their position as influencers and, as often as possible, the messages sent through these channels are for a greater good, not just to sell soap.

So yes there will still be the back-patting at Cannes & The Clios and the egos still exist but the real rewards some of these people have and can be truly proud of are the ones that cannot be measured necessarily in dollars & trophies but in the difference they have made for people in harsh situations who needed and benefitted most from 'Ad-Land's' creative talent.

New Work in NYC, www.clairediederichs.com

I've just completed my first job in NYC, a website & identity for the extremely talented fashion designer Claire Diederichs. The job was a dream to work on and a result of a good collaboration and understanding between client & designer. The process also involved a fun photoshoot in Greenpoint of two of Claire's collections Articulate & Faceblind. The identity was born from the focus within Claire's work on human interaction and body language.

Check out the final product here: www.clairediederichs.com

These are going to be addictive. 'The New Yorker' weekly captions competition, just for fun...

(1) "Fido's water & food bowls have been full for the past three days."


(2) "It just gets lonely out there sometimes, y'know."

Bridging Understanding and Embracing Engagement.

Two recent pieces of creative advertising I admire for seeking to challenge common ground and engage audiences in a way that is actually, well, engaging, are Ogilvy NY's work for IBM "A Boy & His Atom – The World's Smallest Movie" and BBDO NY's online mini-drama series "Daybreak2012" combined with a multi-platform experience for AT&T.

For me, the reason Ogilvy's IBM spot works is because it asks me to be interested, learn something and appreciate the research and work behind the product. It showcases the capability of the scientists who work for IBM and their innate skill to produce something new and push their own boundaries. I see people who genuinely love what they are doing and really want to share this fascinating work as well as challenge themselves. This in turn gives me a unique insight into the commitment and desire IBM have towards innovation and development. Breaking weird and wonderful world records along the way is also a nice bonus. Most importantly; its interesting, educational beyond the product, engaging and I feel like I've benefitted from watching (a rare bonus from an advert).

BBDO's work 'Daybreak2012' for AT&T is a different animal. There's always the argument that agencies and clients are so keen to engage audiences on a multitude of digital levels for the sake of it that the idea (if any) becomes the secondary vehicle to getting a brand 'talking' in whatever online space is available even with no story to tell or relevance to the platform (ugh).

BBDO though have made sure the online platforms are utilised correctly and in an engaging and involving way (say I anyway). It doesn't feel like the product is being shoved into the spaces but it sits quite comfortably into them, admittedly here and there the occasional shoe-horn is used but not to the point were you're thinking 'For f**k sake! That was completely irrelevant and unnecessary.' I'm actually curious about the technology AT&T are flogging me. But again, more importantly, I was interested in the story being told around the product. BBDO have tapped into the available on demand TV series zeitgeist that people are gorging on (people talk about Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, House of Cards, Dexter etc. like they matter more than real life sometimes but they are genuinely good shows, a purple patch for TV series'). The use of discovery and investigation within Daybreak2012 is a nice device that involves me, if I choose to, but it doesn't need me which might be the only flaw. If I made more of a difference to the story it could make the campaign more robust. But overall I was excited and engaged in being a Jack Boxer & following the Daybreak story. Good work BBDO, Tom Kring and AT&T.

IAPI One To Watch Award 2013 nomination

I am absolutely delighted to be nominated for the IAPI One to Watch Award 2013. The award recognises the achievement of excellent professional standards, creativity and innovation in marketing communications by a graduate student of the IAPI/DIT Advertising and Digital Communication Postgraduate programme. The nominees are voted by their peers and then the winner will be decided by lecturers from the postgrad. What a great finale to a brilliant year. The Winner will be announced on Tuesday March 12th in Smock Alley, Dublin.

School's Out for Summer!

There's been a substantial gap in the frequency of posts here but for good reason; in January I was accepted onto IAPI & DIT's Advertising & Digital Communications Postgrad. I applied for the course with a view to furthering my education and keeping pace with the rapidly changing face of advertising and the role of digital technology within the field. Semester one has ended for the summer and the course is living up to the lofty reviews from graduates, as well as my own expectations. Roll on Semester two!

Ads of Super Bowl 2012

Thanks Mashable for collating all of these. Some good, more bad unfortunately, babies and dogs can't hide a poor ad. VW, very disappointing to see them attempt to shoehorn in the Star Wars theme. Some of the better ones are the Chevrolet Mayan Apocalypse, History Channel's Swamp People, Audi's Vampires and for purely nostalgic reasons Honda's Broderick's Day-Off. None will live very long in the memory or have broken any new ground in what is the biggest commercial window in the world. Opportunities missed all round.

ICAD Creative Shorts

ICAD presents ICAD Meitheal. A series of events designed to celebrate the creativity of ICAD folk.

First event is an evening of eleven short films all shown together on this one epic night, taking place in The Sugar Club on the 26th of this month.

Featured on the night will be Brian O’Malley & Gary Moore’s Crossing Salween | Conor Ferguson’s Atlantic | Dylan Cotter’s Washed Up Love | Eoghan Nolan’s John Duffy’s Brother | Gavin Kelly’s Avatar Days | Johnny Kelly’s Shelly | Ken Wardrop’s The Herd | Mark Tuthill’s Venom | Michael Creagh’s The Crush | Nick Kelly’s Shoe and Last But Not Least | Steph Green’s New Boy

My work featured in LeCool Xmas exhibition

LeCool Dublin are teaming up with the Bernard Shaw for their second annual Xmas show.

Launching on December 8th with works from:

Ivor Noyek / Alan Clarke / nerosunero / Shane O Driscoll / Maser / JOR / Rich Gilligan / Des Moriarty / Isabel Reyes Feeney / ADW / Fink / seanandyvette / Solus / James Earley / Killian Dunne / Paddy Lynch / Thirty Three Trees / John Rooney / Phil Dunne / ...and MORE!

50% of all sales will go towards the Simon Community.

Honing my skills as an Art Director

I just completed the ICAD Upstarts programme in advertising. I have work and my portfolio on exhibition in South Studios as part of design week. The annual Upstarts programme consists of two sets of workshops, one in advertising and one in design. The 24 successful applicants (12 per workshop) are selected from a national submission and awarded the opportunity to work with 6 of the top advertising agencies / design studios over a period of 6 weeks.

"For The Love Of Progress"

Calling all creatives! New "For The Love Of" brief, "For The Love Of Progress", on our website here.

FTLO is a platform for Irish creativity. We showcase Irish creatives' work in one space. We believe collaboration is essential and that the creative community should be working as one to make great work in every discipline.

Innovation, accessibility and public involvement are necessary for great work.

FTLO has featured at Offset, Electric Picnic, PhotoIreland Festival, Castlepalooza and spoken at Pecha Kucha and Candy's SweetTalk.

Black Church screenprinting course (July-August 2011)

For the past 6 weeks I have been taking screenprinting classes in the Black Church Studio,Temple Bar. I decided to do a project on New York and used imagery I had taken from the city during my visit in 2009. When we were walking down Broadway one morning a poet/musician, Joey Chang, was sitting on the street with a typewriter on his lap. He asked us if we would like him to write a poem for us, we just needed to give him a start-point. We told him this was our first time in NYC, so he wrote us a poem based on Irish folks first coming to NYC and how we have become part of the city's culture. This is what the first set of prints I did in Black Church are based on. The second set of prints are from images I took in the Village Vanguard jazz venue in West Village and the Guggenheim.

A Perfect Circle with Daniel Eatock

During Offset 2010 I had the curious privilege of participating in Daniel Eatock's "One Minute Circles" project which he was working on when I met him. Here's my circle...she's a beauty! You can view Daniel's complete project here.

Great series of lectures from SVA, New York

"Designer as Author: Paul Rand Lecture Series", some insightful thoughts on design. Steven Heller's 'Iron Fists' lecture on branding the Totalitarian State is particularly worth a watch.

Irish Duo 3rd at European BestYET creative advertising competition.

Congratulations to David Bowan and Ross Hardiman from McCann Erickson who came 3rd when representing Ireland at the BestYet creative advertising competition in Croatia. Twenty two teams from eleven European countries took part in the competition which is aimed at encouraging young creative advertising professionals starting out in their careers. Great achievement from the two lads.

"For The Love Of" in group discussion at eDIT Festival 2011

FTLO (myself and Shane O'Driscoll) were delighted to be asked by eDIT Festival to be part of a group discussion on starting up your own business during a recession. The discussion took a Q&A format and was arranged by Dublin Institute of Technology tutors and students. Other people involved included Block T (Smithfield, Dublin), Designist (George St, Dublin) and The Lifeline project (Dublin).

Key items discussed over the course of two hours were business sense and where that fits in creative courses in college, new ventures being part of and benefiting the local community, the importance of collaboration between college courses with one another and the community, the ability to follow through on goals with realistic planning and other topics. The discussion was opened to the floor, which consisted of approximately 50 students from DIT, NCAD and other colleges, for Q&A.

The festival itself was a great success and testament to the hard work of its organisers Ned Kaar and Ruth Hynes who showed great initiative in creating this worthwhile and important event.

Best Yet advertising competition 2011

I competed in the inaugural Best Yet advertising competition at the end of March in the Irish Times building on Tara Street, Dublin.

I teamed up with TBWA Art Director Keith Lawler for the day.

The client was Miller Genuine Draft (MGD). The brief was to create awareness of MGD on tap and put the product in the minds of 18-35 year old males for consideration when in the pub. "It's Miller Time" also returned as the campaign line. Here are the two concepts that got us a top 5 finish:

The key aspects Keith and I picked up on where that the target audience "don't want to feel as though they are missing out on anything, that they are getting the most out of life", MGD should be synonymous with these great times. Our first solution is an image of a man's hand holding a pint of MGD with wrist bands from gigs/events up to his elbow, stamps from nightclubs and events covering his hand along with some lucky ladies' phone numbers.

The other aspect we concentrated on was "the potential of a big night out" and again making MGD a part of these nights. For this we pictured the lads in the pub swapping stories about their fantastic 'Miller night' experiences. "Make It Happen" was the campaign line focusing on the sense of adventure, excitement and positive outgoing attitude of Miller and the target audience.

Overall it was a fantastic day, a great competition showing the strength and healthy future of advertising in Ireland.

Funtimes!

Some brilliant ideas here and a great initiative from Volkswagen.

Dublin bids to be "World Design Capital" but have we done enough?

Dublin is making a bid to be the "World Design Capital" 2014. This award is in recognition of cities that have 'most effectively and creatively used design as a tool for social, cultural and economic progress.'

This will be a tough competition for Dublin to win, particularly with the 2012 capital (Helsinki) being a European city.

Does Dublin merit the title? There is some excellent design in the capital at the moment, Grand Canal and the Docklands featuring much of the best new architecture. In terms of graphic design, there is some decent work but I don't feel there is enough unique and inspiring work seeing the light of day and being used progressively at the moment. This is due to a lack of bravery and calculated risk taking on both client and agency's part. There is quite a lot of playing safe going on and this bid may be the wake up call to get people thinking differently and pushing boundaries for something better. I would argue that it would be better if we don't get the title "World Design Capital" this time round and this campaign can then give us the thirst to want more in the future and highlight where we are falling down in comparison to the best in the world. The ability is unquestionably here to be the "WDC" but we need to create better opportunities for ourselves to capitalise on our talent.

Check out the Pivot Dublin website for more info and see what you can do to help the bid, "Ask not...

D.A.D.D.Y. Cool

Incredible video which Dublin based D.A.D.D.Y. created with Ray Harryhausen for Bloc Party back in 2008. Always worth stopping by and checking in on Team D.A.D.D.Y. for some inspiration...