First Meetings

Ah, Edinburgh, I love you even in the pissing rain.
You bring me blisters and backache,
But also interesting people... and handbags!
How can you tease me so?

So I was up yonder northern way - that's real North, none of this 'anywhere outside the M25' bollocks - and I went to see some folks.

First of all, Leith Agency. They have a snazzy building on The Shore, and I sat in a cool red box/sofa arrangement and had a good old chat with the boss man - Gerry Farrell, CD. It was scary! But he was really very nice, gave me a list of books and websites and encouraged me to take a look at my book and see if I can't make it a bit more positive. He noticed that a lot of my work focusses on bad things the product might fix, rather than good things about the product. Definitely something to go back over and re-evaluate. It's interesting how a new perspective can pick up on things no-one else has, and the last thing you want is a negative-feeling book. He also stressed the importance of having something a bit different in your book - like a short film or examples of your other creative outlets. Also, it's important to mention - he made a damn good cuppa.

Then I took a wander through a rather soggy Leith to Ocean Drive (I want to work in a Lighthouse Family song!) and met with Zoe Martin, Senior Copywriter at the Gate. A totally different kind of agency with a lot less people and completely opposite chairs. Theirs are round and blue and squishy. As it turned out Leith is not that big a place, and I was miles too early for my meeting. Zoe very kindly met with me early and we had a good chat through some of my ideas, how I could simplify and clarify the strategies and what the Gate is all about. She pointed out how important it was to be able to write lots, fast, and make boring things seem interesting - when you make more than just ads you have to write more than just headlines. With a lot of Financial and Service clients under her wing, turning jargon into copy is pretty important.

The big, big difference between the two was their opinion on partners - at Leith, very important. Twice the brainpower, twice the skill and ability I guess. At the Gate, not so at all - Zoe said hardly anyone has been hired there as part of a team, but people pair up within the agency. Gerry said he knows of no forum in Scotland for meeting creative partners, worse luck, so I am going to have to get 4x as awesome.

Oh and I got 2 handbags for £10!!!! One of them, I saw the spitting image of in RubyRed and it was £35! I got it for £3! Woooha! Have been dying on a new handbag for MONTHS!

Well I promised myself I would post all this before I went to bed, but it's now 23.14 and I got up at 5am. Yeah. That's dedication, but now it's sleepy-bye time!

Rubes x