Step 1: Invite a bunch of students to come and have a crit at your swanky London offices. Get them all excited with a really interesting brief, stories from past students about how awesome their trip was last year, etc.
Step 2: Cancel the meeting at 2 days notice, offering an off-the-cuff "Come next week instead if you like".
No, not really, I wouldn't like. You see I'm afraid that's not in the budget. Nor was the first trip as it happens, but I was so excited to go that I made a proper effort to raise train/hotel money. If we had had a bit more notice of cancellation perhaps I might have been able to negotiate a refund of that hard-found spare change and therefore pay for a second one.
But then why would I run the risk of being cancelled on twice? If I had asked for a book crit and then not turned up, what would be my chances of getting another one? Nil, I assume, unless I could prove I had had to get a leg amputated or my house had caught fire! And even if I did get another one, you'd have prejudices installed that I was unreliable and poor at keeping time, or promises, or both.
(I can appreciate the reasons for the cancellation, and that student crits (being non-profit) aren't really top of an agencies priorities. I would never expect to be thought important enough to overstep a client! But if I had visitors planned for 6 weeks; and then someone else phoned 2 days before it and said 'can we meet in 2 days?' I'd say 'Sorry, I have visitors coming, that's kind of short notice!' In short... We were there first! Doesn't that count for anything?)
Step 3: Inform the students - weeks after sending them the brief - that it was supposed to be a secret. Request that they remove any mention of it from their blogs. Nothing that gets handed out to 60 people is a secret. But yeah, I have -censored- my blog for you.
Not something I am happy, at all, about doing. The internet is supposed to be a platform for free speech, and if the brief was such a big secret, why did you give it to us? I just wanted to shout from the rooftops about how cool it was and how lucky we were to go to such a good agency. Denied! I think; in my (as Dean's comment says) pre-job naivety; that I should be able to say what the hell I like on my own personal blog. And perhaps, if it were a secret, prior notice would be nice?
Not something I am happy, at all, about doing. The internet is supposed to be a platform for free speech, and if the brief was such a big secret, why did you give it to us? I just wanted to shout from the rooftops about how cool it was and how lucky we were to go to such a good agency. Denied! I think; in my (as Dean's comment says) pre-job naivety; that I should be able to say what the hell I like on my own personal blog. And perhaps, if it were a secret, prior notice would be nice?
Still, why give a shit what I think? I'm just some student... Never going to make you any money, never going to work for you or indeed any of your competitors. As much as I doubt you care, you can consider yourself to have lost a loyal fan.
Rubes.
This post is a big mistake. Your shooting your self in the foot. It's unlikely that anyone from said agency will read this, but the last thing you want is to make enemies of influential people. After all there's hundreds if not thousands of teams/young creatives who would drop everything in an instant no matter what the expense or what time it takes out of their day to visit senior creatives at good agencies. And quite oftern just to meet them so they remember them in the future in a positive light. One of the most important things you'll do as a young creative after collage is network, contacts are everything. You've just had a small taste of what it's like, and it's real tough at the moment. If you can't handle traveling all over the country at the drop of a hat for a sniff of a lead and you aren't willing to take the risk of being canceled on the day before or even hours before your crit. Then my advice is not to harbor ambitions of being an employed creative anytime soon. Sorry to sound so negative because I don't like to be negative. But this is the truth. There's not a lot of jobs in the industry and every one knows everyone. So the last thing you want to do is bugger yourself like this. I'd recommend you remove this post for damage limitation purposes.
ReplyDeleteAs a little example a friend of ours shortly after she left Uni posted something very similar on her blog. A few days latter she was surprised to discover an email from the company she'd bad-mouthed telling her she would never be considered for work there.
Blimey that's a long rant.
But what of it makes sense, is good advice. After all this blog should be a promotional tool for you, not a distributor of bad publicity.
Cheers, time for bed.
Oh sorry, I'm tired so I missed my point.
ReplyDeleteBasically this looks juvenile and naive and doesn't reflect you in a positive light.
I'm not trying to make any enemies or put anyone off hiring me. But the fact is I'm never going to even attempt to get a job here - it's not even in the same country as where I will be after I graduate!
ReplyDeleteI really, really, really was looking forward to going down and had made a huge effort to be able to afford it, they were my top choice, one of my favourite agencies, and I'm just really disappointed that I won't be able to go!
I totally get your point that it doesn't reflect that well on me, I am being petty about it. It doesn't even really get to me as much as this blog post makes out, but why do things by halves? I'm also trying to make a point...
And tbh, they haven't exactly shown themselves in a good light to me either. I'm sure they weren't jumping to get rid of us, but I don't know, it just seems like they could have been more intuitive to how students live and how hard it is for us to find the cash to do this sort of thing.
I already deleted one post because they wanted me to, I won't be doing it again!
Wow, controversial debate going on here. I'm staying out of it.
ReplyDeleteSorry to continue this, but basically all I was trying to say is that's life. That's what it's like, It happens all the time. Whether you want to work in Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh. It shouldn't matter. You have to remember if your serious about the industry you may have to consider moving at the moment to secure a job. Because there's only a couple of good agencies in Leeds, about 5-6 in Manchester and about the same in Edinburgh. In comparison to the hundreds in London. You might get lucky and secure your dream job in the exact city in the exact agency you want to work for. But what If they've just hired a junior or a young team? What do you do then? I'm just trying to say you should never limit your options because the person you piss off today might be the one interviewing you tomorrow. The industry is very incestuous like that and quite often London creatives move to the regions. To name a few: Billy Mawhinney, Mick Foden, and Mark Robinson. They all worked in London, then moved to the regions as CD's/ECD's at BJL, TBWA Manchester, and Uber. (They're all very helpful blokes by the way).
ReplyDeleteIt's just a little bit of advice, and by all means my opinion is not the be all and end all there's much better people to take advice off than me. After all I'm little more experienced than you.
But trust me don't piss people off. Because they might have helped you if you hadn't, and you'll want all the help you can get when you finish your course.
Advice noted Dean. I do appreciate it honestly, I don't want you to think I'm being bull-headed and ignoring you after you've spent so much time on commenting! All advice is considered.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't be ashamed to say this to their faces as well though. The conviction behind it is pretty strong. I am not the kind of person to lick arseholes, and am pretty good at negotiation and getting my point across. Mostly without insulting people and making enemies. But I can't be everyones friend either.
Maybe I should learn to be more submissive if I plan on having a job in advertising, but somehow I doubt it's going to happen. I'd rather hold out my opinions and limit my options than the other way around, and hopefully some of the agencies out there can appreciate that and see it as a good thing, not bad!
Basically my point was and still is:
ReplyDeleteOpinion = good.
Slagging in a public forum = Bad
(But only if it could come back and bite you in the arse).
Otherwise slag away.