The Wednesday events...

First thing back to covent garden, and we have to thank rory from the talent buisness for inviting us to their office, those 15 minute outside on a fire drill were riveting... Only joking it was actually quite funny! Rorys great, he has lots of good advice about different agencies and what we should be thinking about, showed us a few things to think about and grilled us on where we liked and where we wanted to be. Rory liked what he saw and hopefully we should be getting some stuff lined up for the future...

Off to Noho and to MCBD to Gavin and Danny, the place is a little cramped for our liking but gavin and danny seem like really cool guys. Different from everyone else basically they hated our book. It wasnt anywhere what they thought it should be, just proves how differing opinions can be. They said:

1. Nandos isnt clear, the line is wrong should be more about why wecould kill chicken and the hotness maybe degrees of chicken?
2. Toyota IQ is all wrong (but we knew this by this point anyway...)
3. Breville is way too gimicky its all too obvious.
4. Salt and shake seemed a bit studenty (thank god were still students or else we'd be in trouble!)

They did give us some good advice to where we can rent studio space for when we get down here to work on our book if we need it. they also advised us to find the right agencys and really focus on where we want to be. That way we'll get the briefs right.

Well after that one we decided a little break was in order so we went and looked at butterflies, the natural history museum has a special tent with them flying about all over the place so that was a nice change.

After that i got a bit Itchy... I needed to pester someone (lol) so we thought sod it and off to soho we went, Golden Square we've seen many a time and we tried our luck at WCRS, last time in london we took a chance with TBWA and it paid off, so why not try again?

But we failed, WCRS were too busy but we did get a contact out of it so that was good. Then I realised that M&C Saatchi were extremely close by 100m actually but they have nothing telling you that it is there! ( the transport department ad characters gave it away) anyway we tried again and...

SUCCESS! Luke agreed to see us, ah we love the creatives that take a chance on the Ad babies.
He liked what we were thinking and doing but the ideas primarily need to be bigger, MUCH bigger and we can pretty much see it now. Its so strange that without opinions outside of our bubble how things can go soooo wrong OPINIONS ARE FANTASTIC SHARE EVERYTHING!
He liked Lineker. We need more digital. and we mentioned our nandos bird flu D&AD entry. He liked that too.

We've also noticed that the more crits we have the less they actually talk about the work in the book, it turns into pure advice which is good because most of the opinions we've heard before.

After that it was time to go back to the Charlotte street area to visit TBWA again.
We got to meet martin aswell as theo this time which was nice, however we were a little rushed as they had a meeting to go to.

They said:

• Nandos, the line needs more clarity and it feels too familar but working on the videos is great.
• Breville works but not without a guide to what the product is.... they suggested a change of product but the only one that came to mind was Smirnoff.
• Salt and Shake is ok but it needs to be brilliant....
• We need more campaigns

4 too little 9 too many sooo 6 or 7 seems a safe bet for next time me thinks... if theyre good enough that is.

The Tuesday events...

Well back to Saatchi & Saatchi, we love this place. Rach and Izy came down to talk to us in the coffee bar and we had a really good chat, nandos the website is stronger than the print ads and the print take too long to 'get' we should think more about quick visuals. we should stay away from medical visuals but the line is really nice.

Toyota IQ the logo could be changed into a moph of IQ somehow? but there are alot of car ads that 'play games'

Breville the product isnt out that might cause a problem, a bit too gimicky but they think that breville ould like the idea (good for breville but not for us...)

Salt and Shake they told us that AMV have the account for walkers so that should be fun when we get there later on in the week... the gary lineker stuff is good along with the tv and radio but the rest of the stuff is questionable.

Well after a good chat with the girls we mentioned that we didn't manage to get hold of Brian from last time, one phone call later and Brian was on his way down to the coffee bar to have a look again...

Brian is a great person for crits, hes so to the point and we honestly believe him. To him Breville doesnt make sense and it has to be relevent to the product it has to have water and toast in there somewhere. He did like the adshels tho.
He says our book has definately improved. thinking is good but the executions need to get better...

He wasnt sure about nandos its interesting and he likes the kill it idea but it still needs work them worth dying for nandos makes more sense.

IQ didnt make him want the car, we need to make it more attractive than smart and the yaris and he didnt like the line.

Salt and shake, also intersting but again not sure and doesnt understand the print ads likes it as a concept but not sure about the executions, tvs not good but the linekers good.
See how opinions change even within an agency!?!
Its all good though!

Off to Covent Garden next, its such a nice place to be. DKLW was next on the list and Keith was ready although very busy! Its strange he seemed to like everything and it was rather a short crit, but all he suggested was a couple more campaigns in there and we should come back after graduation and maybe talk about placements if the works still good enough...
He also mentioned a serious subject should be in there somewhere. hmmm thats one to think about.

Kevin At AMV BBDO next, this was a bit of an RKCR Y&R moment the building was not hard to miss... Kevin explained his role in AMV how he is a bit of a go-between with the teams and CD and filters out some of work, he had piles of portfolios and showreels on his desk so we were rather thankful that we had his undivided attention, he didnt say much about the book its self but he asked that we leave our CD for feedback later on as he was going to show some other people (sounds promising but we wont get oour hopes too high!) we may have to send him some other stuff tho cos its changing but more about that later...

Well that was the last crit session of the day officially but later on we went off to the pub with Jai and Wal the lads from Creative in london. It was a really good laugh, we talked about crits placements, ikea trips and dinosaurs (do you remember that childrens programme how cool was that?)

The Monday events...

Okay then, here goes, well after an uneventful virgin train ride (very thankful for that) Debs and I ran off to visit the farm which is literally five mins away from euston and very well placed in our opinion! We were booked into see Owen Lee (CD) however he was off ill, but he didnt cancel no.. (lol the trucks ad has just come on telly its actually growing on me...) he asked two creatives Andy and Jim to see us instead. We really appreciated that so thanks Owen.

Andy and Jim are great guys very to the point but very helpful and gave us some good ideas
They said: Nandos: lines dont have to have word play, we should keep away from expressions and cliches. the ideas should have more to do with that its worth killing chickens for nandos and we should try looking at our ideas and explaining them as if we were in the pub to get the message right. Very good advice we think.

They liked the IQ endline but it needs to be pushed much further, base is good but it needs to get madder! needs more attitude how would you really have fun in a car? Prohibited fun? Changed personality? Extenuate the fun aspect it should be bigger than big.
Breville is too USP. picking products with a USP is too easy and also too restrictive.
Walkers is also a bit too USP we got told to ditch the radio (poor radio it easily gets forgotten but for our book i can see where theyre coming from) They didnt like our lineker scandal and thought there was too many ideas all over the place...

We liked The farm but i think we'd need to see a bit more. Andy and Jim know Danny and Gavin from MCBD they txt ahead of our appointment on wednesday...were officially being talked about!

The Portfolio (update)...

Ok well before I get yabbering on about the book crits I guess you better see what they were on about. I can put these up here now because basically, theyre all going in the bin again. lol yeah we like some of them but as the world of advertising goes they need to be a bit more edgier (does the word edgier exist? well it does now.) Nandos and salt and shake survive with new campaigns and concepts for round three (its starting to sound like a reality show.) but breville and IQ are going into what scamp likes to call the bottom drawer, just in case they are reqiured for something else. like emergency loo roll.

So head on over to the portfolio page for Book number 2.

COMING SOON: new Salt & Shake, new Nandos, Grand national, Slim fast, RSPCA, Alcholism help and something for the energy ombudsman....

P.S we have karmarama crit on thursday talk about being pressured!

UPDATE: IQ may not be dead...we might be able to save it from the loo for a little longer.

The big gap..

Hi everyone out there, sorry for the huge gap but avid readers (lol) will know we were in london this week for crit week 2. I shall write it up this weekend so keep your eyes peeled and all will be revealed,

thanks to those who have been commenting on here and on the portfolio, all comments are greatly appreciated and taken on board for the future.

Ta.

The most demeening....

Well its friday, which means ive (Rachel) had to work for my small living... my boss thinks its a great idea to buy in novelty belly bars that have rude sayings on them, of course somebody asks me to tell me what they say on them.

1. thank god she was under the age of 25
2. thank god she was serious and actually bought two.

this is what those bars said,

• cock sucka (yes spelt like that)
• lets fuck
• insert dick here (god knows where that bar was intended for)

Oh the things I do to afford printing in uni (dont even go there... cos we spent £40 on it the other day)

btw I dont work in Ann Summers or anything like that, its a simple make-up/hair accessory/cheap perfume shop with the odd bit of body jewellery thrown in.

Debs works on a Sunday. she gets wet for a living....as a lifeguard.

The nerves...

I wasnt nervous for crit week 1. I was looking forward to it, finally outside opinions on work that hadn't really been seen outside of a university studio. But now we have something to prove. Its not begginners work anymore, we've meant to have moved on, learnt something and produced better work because of it.

I dont know whether its because im tired (btw this is Rachel talking) but Im really worried about this set of work. I think its better, no actually I know its better, Debbie thinks its better, our tutors Eric and Liz say its better. And it has moved on BUT is it good enough for out there?, is it good enough for us to get a placement and really get going in this industry?

Im probably worried about nothing, and everything will be fine next week, in fact everything will probably be fantastic next week but in some way I think I know how Juan felt before trucks was aired.

The portfolio...

COMING SOON...

Im starting to upload our portfolio onto a seperate blog page, but we need something to show off on our crits so for now theres one campaign on there. More will follow in the next couple of weeks.....

constructive comments welcome.

http://allaboutthecritportfolio.blogspot.com

The work (part 2)

Heres something from our Breville 'Clearly better' Campaign. We know that see through adshels have been done before but we like them. The toast will get darker and lighter over time (not greener as thankfully it wont be real toast.) and the water one will have bubbles getting faster and faster and will light up at night. These are to advertise the transparent kettle that they already sell and the transparent toaster that we found on a concept site.

The excitement is building...

Well portfolio night is getting more and more exciting by the minute, ok i exaggerate a bit but its sounding really good! 11 agencies have signed up and all the tickets are sold. Debbie and I are seeing three each, as many as is allowed. I just hope that we get different people!

CREATIVE DIRECTORS LONDON
Craig Davis / Chief Creative Officer / JWT
Russell Ramsey / Executive Creative Director / JWT
Mike McKenna / Creative Director / JWT
Ben Clapp / Creative Director / Tribal DDB
Stephen Reed / Assoc. Creative Director / Tribal DDB
Graham Fink / Creative Director / M&C Saatchi
Mark Goodwin / Deputy Creative Director / M&C Saatchi
Seb Royce / Creative Director / Glue
Andy Sandoz / Executive Creative Director / Work Club
Ben Mooge / Partner, Creative Director / Work Club
Sam Ball / Creative Partner / Lean Mean Fighting Machine
Dave Bedwood / Creative Partner / Lean Mean Fighting Machine
Gavin Gordon-Rogers / Creative Director / Agency Republic
Will Awdry / Creative Partner / Ogilvy
Alasdair Graham / Creative Partner / Ogilvy
Sue Higgs / Senior Writer / Ogilvy
Chris Clarke / Executive Creative Director / Digitas
Paul Silburn / Creative Partner / Saatchi & Saatchi
Dave Dye / Creative Director / Dye Holloway Murray

we've got lots of crits next week and one on the 24th so that should be good preperation for the 8th....