Comments on: WHO DO YOU WORK FOR?

By: Kevin

Kevin — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 17:38:20 +0000

Would anyone be willing to answer a few questions about the advertising industry? I have a class project in which I have to gather some data from people who have worked in the field. I’m from a small town, and we don’t have any agencies near here. If you would be willing, please email me at pape…@yahoo.com. Thanks!

By: robin

robin — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 09:56:06 +0000

Thanks James.
Don’t know what your expectations are.
Of course UK advertising is a lot more developed and matured compared to China,
But I think it would be rather ambitious to expect a proper job with a more than decent salary based on 6 months.
Obviously, if you have an amazing book, things might be different.
Remember that cost of living is a lot lower in China.
So your salary’s going to be a lot lower.
Are you prepared for that, financially and mentally?

This is obviously biased, what I’m going to say:
when I got to London, I had already worked for 3 years at a good agency and won awards.
But still I had to go through the whole placement thing and even then, I couldn’t get a job beause of the UK labour laws.
However, back in Asia, people who used to be truck drivers and butchers have landed senior creative roles.
Even without experience, let along a book, they get hefty salaries.

Depends whether you’re trying to get a job in London or Shanghai, I guess.

Back to Shanghai.
You might get a job.
Guess the question is, how long do you want to saty?
And if you want to go back to London, how hard wold that be?

By: James

James — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 17:22:07 +0000

hey robin,

yes im familiar with the work of gwen yip, im awaiting her reply now…

im working at mccann erickson in birmingham right now, ive been there nearly 6 months on an extended placement.

so how do you see that in relation to finding work in shanghai?

By: Anca

Anca — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 14:19:37 +0000

…and this is where our opinions meet, Riki. And the funny thing is that I got to the same point yesterday, but following a totally different logic:
I started with the basic graph of what “audience = everybody” means. And it is just as simple as this: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_T7OgzrFlAOg/SY2VCjn7zgI/AAAAAAAABXQ/e6fhK32kyAQ/s1600-h/graph+1.png

And this is what we usually call divergence. So basically it means that I should present this product in a way that includes everything that different groups might want to hear.
But then I thought… why do I read this graph as divergence? Just because we are used to read from left to right it doesn’t mean that reading from right to left doesn’t make sense. So what do we have if we flip the perspective? Obviously, convergence. Which is exactly what you say: induce the same positive attitude regardless of what causes it.

By: Riki

Riki — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 13:14:29 +0000

or even better example: Barrack Obama.

target: everybody
lifestyle: all kinds.
mindstyle: ‘we have enough of this’ (whatever it means personally)
idea: ‘change’

By: Riki

Riki — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 12:56:23 +0000

Anca.
of course reinventing doesn’t fit: you’ve got product advantages. I was referring to my example.

if I may just give you one more suggestion. whenever I see “target = everybody”, I think it’s the problem with demographics (ie. our target is from 20-65). so don’t think lifestyle - think mindstyle. which means: different demographic groups have the same attitude towards product, no matter how they live, what they do or their income. find that common attitude.
example: VW Beetle. youth love it cause of its design and some features, eldery (ex-hippies) cause of its heritage. but both demographic groups make the same statement with owning it: that they are cool. so here’s your idea.

of course this is huge simplification but maybe it helps.

By: Anca

Anca — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 15:17:01 +0000

Yes, this Binary Brief is the new toy — I love the way it obliges us to stay coherent and do the research correctly. I think everybody takes a little bit of whatever the others offer and as Vinny keeps saying, when different cultures intersect, amazing ideas are born. And it’s great that we don’t always agree on one solution – what I hate about misunderstood team building transformed into fake brotherly love is that everybody accepts the louder solution and when a critical situation knocks on the door, suddenly everybody’s a cynic; it sounds like… “United we fall, divided we… fall.” – many options round the bend.

By: dave

dave — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 14:53:01 +0000

I do like the way everyone’s discussing the problem in binary language,
We don’t have to agree with each other’s solutions, but it certainly gives us a fast, focussed way to debate the strategy.
Something creatives normally wouldn’t have access to.

By: Anca

Anca — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 14:43:38 +0000

Reinventing the category doesn’t fit my current brief because there are no categories and when your target audience is EVERYBODY, inventing a category can only limit the possible number of users. Though, again, great suggestion for other situations, you really do know how to make the best of Dave’s posts.

(Dave, since this blog is certainly the best ad school ever invented, I’m sure you could also set up the first virtual ad agency; you’ve already established the worldwide “offices” and their number is constantly increasing — not to mention that they are working not as a network, but as a team. Who could beat that?)

By: Riki

Riki — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 13:15:49 +0000

Anca.
some posts ago there was an idea of changing category or reinventing it. that’s exactly the situation when you should do it.
example: there was a sidekick in this Nike vs. Adidas battle: Puma (well, one of sidekicks). they positioned their sneakers as urban fashion, not sports.
OK, the rest soon followed and Puma didn’t get the most of it but still - in the beginning they made the right decision.