Tidbits and Future Uncertainties

I know it's been longer than normal since my last post, apologies.  I've been working on my normal receptionist duties (mailing things, answering phones, filing) which I don't think you would find thrilling to read about.  And I've gone through another revision of my ads, however, I'll wait to tell you how they are going until after I get some feedback from the art director.  I think they're coming along really nicely, but getting an objective opinion is the real test.

I do have a funny story about trying to FedEx something.  You would think it would not be that hard for a college grad with more than a modicum of intelligence, but since everyone who usually ships things or at the very least knows how to was gone or on vacation or generally MIA on Friday, FedExing became a challenge.

Our head of new business come up to me and says, Can you ship these two packages?  Sure, I say, not realizing this will take three times longer than it should.  I fill out a form online to pay for the shipping.  A label is emailed to me.  Following a few printing-size issues, I get the labels and affix them to some generic packaging we have.  I call FedEx to schedule a pick-up.

The friendly production director swings by my desk and says, Oh, that looks wrong.  Great.  The FedEx guy comes to pick up, but since now I'm sure they won't ship as is, I let him leave sans packages.  After calling another employee who was on vacation and checking with a lady that works in the office down the hall, I repackage, relabel and print more shipping info from online.  I ask the production guy if it look right now.  I guess, he says.  I run downstairs to the FedEx dropoff area hoping they get where they need to go.

I haven't heard otherwise, so I'm assuming they did.  And if they didn't, I can better streamline my FedEx packaging skills the second time around.

Another reason I've been away from the blog is another project that I have: finding long-term employment.  This internship is nice and I'm learning and have already learned a lot.  But it will be over at the end of August.  Which means I'm nearly halfway through my internship.

Which means my dad says I should have been looking for a job.  Yesterday.

I would like this internship to turn into full-time employment, but that still remains to be seen.  As my dad says, until you sign that contract, keep looking.  Anything can fall through at any point.  Which is of course terrifying, but true.

So I'm looking for some sort of writing job.  One thing that I've learned through this internship is that advertising is not as important to me as writing.  I would be happy writing about almost anything.  Advertising is really interesting and uses my marketing capabilities and I still want to know more about it, but writing is what I want to do most.  It's a slightly unexpected revelation, but definitely something I needed to figure out.

Revising the Revision

I've been working on a few sets of ad campaigns for my portfolio for a few weeks now.  And they have gone through a number of incarnations.  

What I've had to work on the most is the big idea.  That is coming up with and expressing in an interesting or clever way this idea.  

When I first sat down and made a series of ads for, let's say, my jewelry business, they were not really related and skirted around a central idea instead of presenting it head on with fireworks, a jazz band and a ring-leading comedian.  

Here's what it looked like:

Not necessarily terrible, but without a central idea or driving emotional reason.  And it could use better art direction.

Here's the revision of that:

I started using the personal approach here.  The idea is this jewelry will match you, your personality.  This jewelry is a personal statement of who you are and it can say anything you want it to.  Pick something that matches you or have that special piece made according to your design suggestions.   

The revision needed a snappier title and maybe a little better art direction:

And when I take it to the creative director or art director, they will probably have another suggestion.  But that's how you make better and better ads, revise the idea, the copy, the art.  Let it sit, take it to someone with fresh eyes and revise again.  

Having been an English major and continuing to do work as a creative writer, this process is pretty familiar to me.  And despite it being a tough process that often takes time, it makes the writing and the ads better. 

This is How You Make an Ad

First, a disclaimer:  I am not expert on this, I am still learning.  That's why I am called intern and not actual worker.  But I have accumulated quite a bit if information, and not just from watching Mad Men.

After reading How to put our Book together and get a Job in Advertising by Maxine Paetro (as recommended by two ad guys I've talked to) and working with the creative team here, I've figured out where you start.  And it's pretty simple: an idea.  A good, interesting, engaging, emotional idea.

That's the hard part too.  Coming up with a good enough idea to carry a campaign, be clever or witty or emotional, and stick with the consumer is difficult.  Of course this is the main challenge in advertising, so if it sounds uninteresting or too hard, don't look here for your career.  Developing great and successful ideas is what makes a great advertiser, most importantly (for me right now) an employed advertiser.

So this is what I've been working for the past few weeks,  creating ads for my book that have a nice, big idea.

This skill is something that I've seen requested in many job listings and talked about in a number of articles and books.  They call it the ability to be conceptual.  And if you can demonstrate it in your portfolio, you're as good as hired. (So they say.)

Going along with this ability is being able to adapt this idea into any medium. Paetro says that if it really is an idea, and a good one, this should be fairly easy.  This also makes it a little easier to test the strength of your idea.  If it can adapt well to a number of platforms usually means it's a winner, so slap that baby into your book!

Another surefire way to make an ad meaningful and therefore effective is to make it emotional, as a woman in advertising I met with recently said.  When looking for this ad idea, delve into why people would by this product.  What do they want to feel as a result of its purchase?  Then morph it into, how can you say this interestingly?  And boom - you've written an ad.

Or at least my limited understanding of how you make an ad.

The most succinct version:
    come up with a good idea
    make sure it's adaptable to any media
    make it emotionally engaging (memorable)

I'm hoping these make the cut.