What an inspiring day talking to the 2nd year students on the Creative Advertising and Media Comms courses at the University of Greenwich.

It’s always a pleasure chatting to students who are genuinely engaged and interested in what you have to say. Not because it makes you feel good about yourself (although who doesn’t like to be the centre of attention?) but because you know they will really benefit from your advice.

I have been working in the creative and advertising industries for over 25 years but I still remember advice I was given when I was a student. 

Mind you, Mim (my first creative partner who now runs the course at the University of Greenwich) and I pretty much taught ourselves how to create ads. We had both done arts degrees and never even considered working in advertising until we designed and built a set for a TV commercial.

We decided concepting ads was probably more fun and a lot less messy than designing the sets for them. So, for the next year, we sat in each other’s living rooms, eating biscuits and coming up with ideas to sell products. Eventually, someone told us about D&AD postgraduate courses and we applied, not realising they were nigh on impossible to get on. By some miracle, we were accepted.

Going round the agencies with graduates who had actually studied advertising, it was clear we hadn’t a clue what we were doing. We did get some great advice though and met some lovely creatives who encouraged us and helped steer our work. They told us that understanding the audience and finding a truth about a product was key.

From insight to incredible

So now it’s my turn to try and help aspiring creatives.

After apologising to the Greenwich students for all the daft GIFs I’d included in my presentation I told them a bit about my background. Then I talked about finding inspiration, how to bring ideas to life and what a difference the right media placement can make. To make this point I showed the brilliant ad made for ‘The Way Back’ and screened on the new London Underground escalator panels. https://oohtoday.com/the-wayback-initiative-award-winning-ooh-campaign/

I gave them advice on what to do when faced with a blank sheet of paper. How just changing your view, going for a walk or picking up a photography book, can stimulate the synapses Google just can’t reach. 

Or, if they had too many ideas, how to pick the ones that would fly. Whittling them down to the top three by choosing the concepts that are easy to sum up in a single sentence, or scamp on a scrap of paper.

I said the best way to improve an idea is to look at it from every angle, think with your ears, find rare references and collaborate. One of the things I love most about this industry is all the collaborating we do. From chatting with your creative partner to working with some of the best directors and designers on the planet to getting your favourite celeb to do a voice-over.

Of course, finding a unique insight or even coming up with a great idea, won’t make a great ad. The best ads, the ones that stand out and get people talking, have been crafted, researched, refined and rewritten again and again.

On my last few slides, I shared some examples of script writing and character development, using a couple of really fun projects we’ve done at Cravens recently and some other examples of brilliant content films.

Life to purpose

After my talk, Mim asked me to chat with each student and help them with their insights and ideas. Last term the students had designed a variety of great brand extensions products: Dolcezze – a Nespresso chocolate collab, Uber Mum – delivering home-cooked food, Odeon Socials and some innovative energy boost gummies. These exciting product ideas were already based on interesting insights, so their next task was to pick a target audience and find the brand purpose.

At Cravens, we are all about bringing life to purpose, so I really enjoyed helping the students dig into what they thought differentiated their products and discussing how that could be brought to life. I tried to make sure each student went in a different direction, which was quite a challenge with so many of them.

I loved spending time with such a talented and diverse group of students. 

And, as Mim pointed out, it was also good for them to work with a female Creative Director. When I was getting into advertising there were so few women in senior creative roles I didn’t really have any female role models. Unfortunately, we are still very much in the minority. So I hope my presence as well as my advice was inspiring for all of them.