words of advice for young people

Sophie, Ben and Lucy have compiled a list of 11 tips that they think could be useful for student or junior creatives who are compiling portfolios and looking for placements/jobs.

We get inundated with requests to see junior books and unfortunately there aren’t enough spare hours in the day to see all these folks.

But this way we can direct them easily to a bit of help.

The tips are below.

Creative placements

We do hire junior creative teams on a short term placement basis; usually a four week stint. We usually do about ten placements a year so there’s often a bit of a waiting list. We like to see teams and their books at least a couple of times before we invite them to stay.

We do these so that teams get to experience life in an ad agency.

If you’re interested in a creative work placement then please contact Ben Everitt or Sophie Bodoh via e-mail on ben.everitt@wk.com or sophie.bodoh@wk.com.

Ben and Sophie’s top 11 book tips.

We decided to write a list of things we’ve learned along the way. This is just what we think, somebody else’s tips might be completely different.

1. Keep it quick. Creatives looking at your book have limited time so make the most of the opportunity. Keep storyboards and radio short and sweet.

2. A balanced book tends to have between 7-9 ad campaigns and a few other creative ideas.

3. Get to the bottom of a brand. Try to find out what makes them different to everyone else and what’s at the heart of their product and their company.

4. Demonstrate different tones of voice. How does this brand talk to people? What’s their personality?

5. Find different ways of talking to people. You don’t always need to conform to the conventional. Logos don’t have to sit in corners. Photos don’t have to be funny. And long copy is not scary.

6. Do more than just press ads. There are many other interesting ways of exploring an idea. What are the appropriate media for your idea? What medium is right for your audience? What will draw people in and surprise them? (TV, press, radio, online, viral, ambient, talking dogs…)

8. Expand at least one of your ideas into a big campaign and prove it’s not just a one off poster or TV ad.

9. We like to find out about you as well as seeing your book. Show us your matchbox collection, the short film that you’re making on the side or your greatest baking success. We see tons of ads, but sometimes it’s these little funny things that sums up who you are.

7. Listen and take notes too. You’d be surprised how many people don’t! Which is annoying to creatives who’ve given up their time to see you.

10. The advertising world is small so don’t piss people off or others might get to hear about it.

11. If you like a particular team, try to go back to them again with more work. Try to build a relationship. This will help you make more contacts, they may recommend you to their advertising friends and colleagues.

There you go.