![[work in progress]](http://mcopenmediacoventry.org/sabina/files/2009/10/cropped-prada-bloom11.jpg)
It’s funny because it’s true.
More than a Cov Conversation – Trevor Beattie
It’s not everyday that Trevor Beattie comes to speak to Cov Uni students – in fact, it was only on May 14 that he did so and it was a good day.
No introduction was needed for a man some might call an advertising guru. However, the points he made in his speech were very down-to-earth rather than big and pretentious ideas. In fact, he proved that big ideas rarely exist and hie it is much more beneficial for the individual to concentrate on the small ideas with big outcomes.
The wheel – one of the biggest ideas mankind has had is now part of daily life and is attached to everything from means of transportation to suitcases. This was definitely very influential to our civilization and can be argued that we would be nowhere near here without it. Another example of such an idea is the internet (which is in fact a number of small ideas put together to work towards a certain purpose). Nobody knows if it has any chance of being attached to suitcases in the future (although we do tend to attach it to pretty much everything these days) but it definitely influences our culture, changing it and making things much more easy and reachable. This was very encouraging, especially for a bunch of university students, perhaps unsure of their prospects and opportunities. And it is true: internet can get you anywhere and is a very powerful tool when it comes to getting your ideas across.
Another subject touched was that of ‘going through the motions’. Being conventional might be safe, but it can only take you so far. That’s why we were advised to be ourselves, original, rebellious even. Creating trouble and fuss is surely fun and does pay off as Trevor Beattie illustrated with a true story of an ad that shook media moguls such as Rupert Murdoch.
Speaking of ads for The Independent, we were fortunate enough to see one of them before it was even released, along with other that were running or had run during the election campaign, which brings us to political advertising . It is a known fact that Beattie has been supporting Labour for all of his life and the discussion was centered around – how political parties advertised, what the dynamic was between them, how they responded to circumstances and how they should have in order to have been successful.
Last but not least, we talked about advertising being a means of getting places rather than a goal in itself. It looks as if Trevor Beattie sees the industry as a sort of X-Factor where the big prize is getting to your dream. His was travelling to space and he is one year away from fulfilling this fantasy. Another example of this is Duncan Jones, David Bowie’s son, who started off not knowing what to do with his life, passed through a phase of computer games design, a phase of advertising and ended up making award-winning films.
The Coventry Conversation ended, as a proper conversation should, with drinks, in a pub, round a table. Cheers for that, Trevor!
Year 1 – Modules
100MC – Key Concepts in Media Communications
I perceive this module as a sort of introduction into the vast subject of media on an academic level. It was quite generic but very useful for international students such as me, that have had no media training in school.
Expectations and achievements: I had expected this module to be very much theory-based, which it was. However, I thought it would go into a little bit more detail, with more key thinkers and theories. The truth is that for the amount of time it ran, I believe the level of detail was just about right and it would have been difficult for some of us to process more information than we were given. Basically, the work on this module has taught me how to research and read on a certain subject – and then synthesize the information to form my own point of view.
My greatest gain from this module was definitely my group – we worked very well together and remained very good friends even after the module ended. A good uni start both personally and academically.
141MC – Researching for advertising
I think this module was useful both from the strictly technical point of view but also brought a creative edge to what could have been a very dry to subject.
Expectations and achievements: I have to be frank and admit I had expected this module to be extremely boring given the subject. I perceive myself to be a creative person and find the research a bit of a menial job. Even though i found out the hard way research takes a lot of effort, I enjoyed this module, with its boring as well as entertaining bits. It wasn’t my favourite activity to search for statistics online but I discovered that a lot of creative ideas can originate from surveys and questionnaires. My greatest achievement was making an advertisement based on actual research I carried out.
140MC – Understanding Advertising Practice
This module was a general view over what happens during the process of designing and advertising campaign.
Expectations and achievements: Again, I had expected this module to be a little more detailed. What we did was basically design a whole advertising campaign for a real product of a real company (which I thought was a brilliant thing). However, I am not particularly happy with the outcome, as the group chemistry was not brilliant and I believe I would have done a much better job by myself. We did put a lot of work into it, but I believe it was poorly managed so the effort didn’t bring such a good result. The way I see things, this module did not have enough strength to capture our attention/commitment although I believe we could have put much more time and energy into it. What I liked about it was that there was a seminar in which we could discuss things in more detail. My greatest gain from this was, surprisingly, Adobe Photoshop experience with product design from scratch, although I feel I also had a sensible input into the creative side too.
163MKT – Introduction to Advertising
This module provided an overview into advertising, taken to its component aspects.
Expectations and achievements: I didn’t exactly know what to expect from this module, as the title is a little bit vague. However, in spite of my initial skepticism, I found it very useful as it explains the way advertising functions as an industry. What I particularly liked about it despite its business and marketing background (which I admit is not my strongest point) is that it went into detail explaining different sides of advertising and how they work together to make a whole. What I liked about it the most is that it managed to incorporate creativity in the business and marketing theory base, in order to make it more appealing and engaging and also to illustrate points that were being made. My biggest achievement was working with a group to create an advertising campaign from scratch, on a fictitious business scenario – process that I really actually enjoyed.
122MC – Media and Cultural Fields
Feels like 100MC has been an introduction to this module. Very intensive and engaging, I enjoyed it very much.
Expectations and achievements: I had expected this module to be somewhat like 100MC which it was – focused more on production and practice than theory though. I enjoyed it a lot and feel it was useful towards our experience in media. However, I would have appreciated if there had been more technical training available to all of us as our courses do not offer much opportunity of getting such experience and I believe it is very useful to a certain extent in all the courses that we’re doing. My biggest gain from this module was being able to participate in the filming and editing of our work, seeing how equipment works and so on.
101MC – Personal Professional Development
This module was useful to a certain extent, however I believe not everyone was particularly happy with it.
Expectations and achievements: I had expected to love this module as I have had a personal blog for over five years now and I managed to get a relative amount of respect and notoriety in the Romanian blog environment. A blog is a very powerful tool, especially in the media but I feel we didn’t take the time to use it accordingly. What is more, I believe this kind of instrument only works when done out of one’s own initiative and passion. However it is useful to a certain degree as it allows us to keep a track of our evolution, build a portfolio and make our opinion known publicly.
A102SLL – Introduction to adobe Photoshop
This module was very static but useful from the technical point of view, I feel I have learned quite a few things from it.
Expectations and achievements: I didn’t know what exactly to expect from this module as I had a basic knowledge of Photoshop. I did know most of the things that we were taught, but there were tips and tricks from an insider that I wasn’t aware of. It was pretty much a very static module and could be made much more interactive, but I gained valuable knowledge from it and all in all I am happy with it.
Categorized in 101MC, Critical Reflection
Above and Beyond Productions (and on the chemistry of group 7)
The Mighty Group 7’s productions are as follows:
The advert follows a simple idea – due to its nature – that of a deodorant which increases sex-appeal. Its target audience is a predominantly young, male, urban one. The USP of Rebound (advertised product) is its content of sextract that makes men more attractive for women. The ad itself contains a narrative micro-structure, even Propp’s characters and Todorov’s narrative stages (everything on a very basic level, of course).
Film Trailer – Redemption
I believe this is our best piece out of the 4 – the one we liked shooting/editing most and the one we worked the hardest for. It is actually our second concept, as we were told the first one was more of an advert than a trailer. We decided then to exaggerate the trailer generic conventions as much as possible, incorporating a few Hollywood elements that we would treat ironically. This is how our parody was born. However, it is not strictly a parody as we have learned that there is no such thing as a pure genre anymore: it is a crossover between trailer, parody and action movie. It gathers elements of all three and makes up a Hollywood pastiche. However, the theme is not separate from the cause of the charity: it incorporates images of their activity and also conveys the idea of helping/saving children in need.
It is a playful trailer, that juggles with symbolic meaning and creates meaning in a post-modern way.
Artistic Video – to the words of Burnt Norton by T. S. Eliot
The point of this video was to keep everything very simple while addressing a very deep subject – that of time. What is more, we wanted to explore the idea of prosumption – of media consumers becoming the producers and having total freedom concerning media content and meaning. That is exactly why the excerpt of the poem was read backwards: to demonstrate that the overall meaning, feeling and atmosphere of the poem remain the same even if the words are turned around. I believe it was a successful experiment as it also reflects the concept of the poem (relativity and pointlessness of time when viewed from a broader perspective).
The visual material did nothing but support our idea – it is a picture of a man holding of another picture of his young self next to his wife. This photo contains in itself a reflection on time – future, past, present – and on our perishable nature.
Silent Movie
As the silent movie was our last task and we were close to running out of time, we decided to base everything around simplicity. The storyline is simple and so are the film language and editing – nothing pretentious, nothing complicated. It has a strong narrative line, with events and characters based around a binary opposition between the good and the bad, the killer and the victim. It can be classed generically as a political thriller – the soundtrack offering good indications of both the political aspects and the tension. The symbols contained in music correlate with the visual ones to create meaning and make sense in the audience’s mind.
A little bit about groupwork
I believe I was very lucky to be part of group 7 as I feel we’ve worked very good together. This might be due to the history we have with 100MC, where Nic, Jason and I were also groupmates. However, the others fitted well in our group and we all had a role to fulfill inside it. In my opinion we were very efficient and well-organized (mostly thanks to Jason who took the position of a group leader) and we managed to stick to the deadline as well as come up with good ideas and solutions to put them into practice. The group chemistry was also very good and beneficial for our work – even though sometimes there were misunderstandings, I believe they were all due to stress rather than personal reasons.
What we could have done better, from my point of view, was stick to our roles. Then again, in such a small group and a limited time amount of time, it is only normal that changes happen and flexibility is a good lesson to learn.
I think our fortes were creativity and hard work as well as time management – we were always on time to shoot and edit and as a result we finished our videos pretty much before everyone else did – without any damage to the quality. What is more, I see it as a personal victory – or collective for that matter – that our film trailer was the only one to provoke loud laughter and clapping without our own group starting it. It shows that our jokes have been understood and our work appreciated. We were also the only group to use blue screen and I think that says something about our dedication to work and willingness to try new things. Even though it is more difficult to use than plain cutting, we have tried it and I have Nic and Chris to thank for their time and effort in the Avid department.
Something Sweet with Dave Pegg
March 18th was a good day for advertising with a hint of chocolate. Dave Pegg, the Artwork Team Manager for Cadbury’s Birmingham in-house agency, paid a visit to Coventry University to talk to us about himself and his work. He also brought chocolate.
I choose not to summarize everything he talked about, as much of it is on the history of Cadbury and their advertising – information that can be easily found with a Google search – but rather to draw on some of the points that I personally found most interesting.
First of all, the size of the agency and its operations is at least impressive. Although it is an in-house ad agency and anyone would be tempted to think that this naturally eliminates any competition, we found out from Mr Pegg how it actually rivals with the London in-house and all the other outside agencies on the market. I believe that this kind of fierce competition offers an impulse for them to be as effective and professional as possible. Nevertheless, their expertise and experience with Cadbury is an invaluable asset for the kind of work they do.
Another relevant point to their size and importance is the fact that they do commissioned work for other brands too. 4500 design pieces a year see the light in this agency, and their value is of about 9 million pounds. If it were an outside agency, these figures would account for the top fourth agency in the UK.
In spite of the fact that information on size is nothing but impressive, what I found to be the most interesting part of David’s speech was on the dynamics that exist between advertising and production. As advertising students, we learn about this as a process, but rarely do we have the occasion to learn how the two processes are interlinked and function together. Because of the fact that David Pegg works for an in-house agency, I believe he can explain how this works better than any course book.
We have learned that, although packaging is produced on more or less fixed designs, it is prone to change with every production cycle because of ingredient alterations and so on.
Another aspect that I thought was fascinating to find out about is timing. Apparently, synchronizing production and promotion is crucial as everything has to be ready on time. This is impossible to accomplish without strategic planning. The example we’ve been given is that Roses start to be manufactured on January 2nd of the year they’re being produced for, in order for everything to be ready by the winter holidays. The same applies to Creme Eggs, whose life cycle starts in the spring and ends somewhere after Easter. That is why everything from packaging to videos, billboards or promotion material must be ready in time for distribution.
It is common sense that this process is a difficult one, but taking the size of Cadbury’s operations into account, it becomes clear that only strict management and planning can see this through successfully.
The very interesting lecture finished with a challenge that was as nice a surprise as the free chocolates: we would be given the opportunity to design an advertising campaign for a new variant of Bar of Plenty during the next term. It is not going to be marked and the brief is liberal enough, so we have the freedom to experiment. In my opinion this is a great chance for us to gain experience, especially as Dave generously offered their studio, equipment and expertise to help!
Critical Reflection on the Way I Work
Although this isn’t part of the requirements in the module booklet, I have analysed myself throughout the first two terms and observed myself working – and since I had the conclusions in my head, I believe it’s useful for me to put them down for future reference – this way I will be able to observe my evolution.
First of all, I have to state that, coming from Romania, I wasn’t used to working this way, as we have different educational systems. The new things I’ve encountered are more individual work and research, more practical work than theoretical and a system much more liberal than the one I have been used to.
Now thinking about the way I work, there are two major instances: individual (that applies mostly to essay writing) and group work (that applies mostly to projects).
I believe I function much better working individually than in group. Doing and re-doing things on my terms and according to my own standards is the way I prefer to deal with university assignments, although the volume of work is considerably bigger.
The good things about my way of working are, in my opinion, the fact that I’m dedicated and I have quite a high level of perfectionism, which means I never hesitate to re-do things until I think they are good enough.
On the other hand, there are also some flaws. The biggest of them is, I think, the lack of organization which makes me work more on the same thing and sometimes makes damages the quality of my coursework. I am built in such a way that, before working on something, I like to mull ideas over in my head for a long time before separating the good and the bad and getting to work. Also, sometimes I cannot seem to be able to focus, so things like research, reading, planning, etc. take me much longer than they should.
My conclusion on individual work is that I have to train myself to become a little more organized and plan ahead, to avoid leaving things to the last minute and overcrowding my schedule. However, I am proud to say that I got into the habit of planning my essays and reports, which I never used to do before – and found out how effective this is.
Working in a group is much less comfortable for me than working on my own and I believe the reasons why are quite obvious. I have leader tendencies and am hard to please. This is why I have strong impulses of taking over everyone’s work, re-doing it my own way or imposing my own ideas on the other group members.
However, on the good side of things, I am again dedicated to my work, always willing to help or do extra and, as stated before, a little bit of a perfectionist.
What I need to do in order to improve my group working abilities is to try and listen more, try stepping down and be conscious about the way I behave inside the group. Also, giving the others credit for their ideas and acknowledging their work more would help too. I have done this while working on a group project in term two and, while it was quite difficult for me not take over, I admit it was also useful to let someone else lead and do my own job as well as I could, because the other members did quality work and it wasn’t by any means inferior to my own.
Categorized in 101MC, Critical Reflection
Can you pronounce extracurricularisms?
This, as demanded, is a reflection of the value and relevance to my discipline of any other extra-curricular activities I am or was involved in during this academic year. My option was to focus on the three main things I find most important outside of my advertising and media curriculum.
To start with, I have taken up Portuguese classes beginning from term 2 as part of the Linguae Mundi programme, financed by the EU. in spite of the fact that this activity has got a general level of relevance to any area of study, I believe it is valuable for advertising and media in the sense that any language is learnt as part of a complex cultural system.
Media in general and advertising particularly operate with these cultural systems, juggle with them in more or less post-modern ways and make use of their elements and values. That is why, in my opinion, learning a new language is useful practice that broadens one’s horizon. This is a process that enables us to think in different terms and to escape our predefined spheres of knowledge.
So, my view is that taking up Portuguese (although it is only just the start and I couldn’t say I’ve learned the language yet) is a chance for me to become even more flexible when it comes to switching to other points of view, which I believe to be a useful asset in what I am set out to do.
What I found a little surprising about learning Portuguese is that it was somewhat difficult for me, this whole process of starting to learn another language. I can already speak 5 languages and this is why I thought I would feel very much at ease with it. Nevertheless, I believe it was somehow useful for me, learning not to take things for granted and discover (yet again) how learning a new language has to be a continuous and sustained process.
The second activity I would like to talk about is being a member of Coventry University South-East Asian Film Society. Probably one of the most useful and interesting things I’ve been involved in all academic year, CUEAFS has had lots of different screenings and activities that all contributed to the whole experience of a totally new culture.
Again, the value and relevance of being involved here was mostly cultural, although the technical aspects regarding Asian film-making are not to underestimate. South-East Asian culture is something totally new to me as a European, so stereotypes and prejudices (not always the bad ones) were my only ways to comprehend this culture. Media does nothing to help this and actually that is why the society was born: to kill the judo-karate stereotypes and show us some authentic Asian slices of life. I am not stating I can see through their eyes now, but at least I know I’ve gained some distance from the American or European way to look at Asian culture. This is further helping my ability to see from other points of view and enlarge my perspectives. Writing for the newsletter has also helped me sharpen my writing skills and I am intending to further do that.
Now for a piece of self-criticism, I admit that during the last part of the term, I’ve neglected the society because of some personal ‘dragons’ I had to tackle. I know it wasn’t the right thing to do and I intend to set the record straight during the last term, as I know how useful and enjoyable my activity in this society is. I know that in order to be able to do this, I need to work on better organizing my studies, my time and my life.
Last but not least, I will talk about my experience as a Student Caller as part of the Phoenix Fund Raising Campaign. Although it is more a job than an extra-curricular activity (as it was paid), I believe I’ve had to learn enormously from what I had to do. The job involved calling CU alumni, getting updates on their personal and working life and trying to get them to donate to the Phoenix Fund. Obviously, getting strangers to talk to you on the phone about their lives and even donate money is no easy job. Doing this for a month, I’ve developed my people skills and telephone manners. But, what I believe to be the most important assets I’ve acquired are my speed of reaction, inventiveness and adaptability. These are, in my opinion, crucial for being able to promote anything from ideas to products. And this is how my work here relates to advertising, as I see my job there as advertising the university and the idea of donating in less than 10 minutes, on the phone, to complete strangers. The donations I got, as well as the good conversations have given me the confidence that I can actually do such a job on many other levels.
All in all, I believe all three experiences contributed to a certain growth of mine, related to the field of studies but not only – which I think is a great thing.
The Campaign – Absolut Bottle
Whoever knows me, can pretty much guess my brand choice of vodka. It’s Absolut.
Why? Because it’s premium pure vodka that tastes good and they have damn good advertising. So the element of my inspirational trilogy, with a bullet, the Absolut ‘Bottle’ Campaign.
I am so passionate about this campaign that I probably won’t be able to list all the reasons I love it and I find it so inspiring. But I will try my best to synthesize everything I’ve gathered until now. For a little bit of background history, the Bottle Campaign has run successfully for over 25 years before the shift to ‘In an Absolut World’ took place. Remarkably, it was ran exclusively in print with over 15 000 different executions that are now collectors’ items. Created by TBWA, it was based on the distinctive bottle shape that suffered numerous metamorphoses, explained in each ad by the tagline ( Absolut [insert word here]). South African director Geoff Hayes came up with this concept for the first ad, Absolut Perfection and claims the idea came to him while in the bathtub. Other names of famous copywriters and art directors who worked on this campaign include Graham Turner, Denise Dell Harbin, Dave Warren, Toni McManus, Everett Cilliars, Steve Feldman, Harry Woods, Arnie Arlow and Peter Lubalin.
One of the reasons I find this campaign inspiring is for its special relationship with its target public. The fact that these ads are still being collected around the world is very relevant. I believe that TBWA has managed to get a very clear picture of who the public was and this helped crystallize a close friendship or, if I might call it so, a romance with the target audience. The fact that they have identified the young urban professionals, with disposable income and inclinations to play and learn gave them a window into their minds. This is how art, social causes, travel, food, culture were camouflaged behind clever puns. Apparently this combination has worked very well for a long time.
Another thing it does to maintain the relationship with the public is flatter, wink and flirt with them. To solve a cultural riddle that involves images and words is surely flattering for the readers that are made to feel smart, cultured and up to date with what is important. Bottle campaign says lots of things, but doesn’t shout, it whispers, which makes it infinitely more appealing.
What I also think is brilliant about it is how it manages to make the reader identify with the bottle. By making it anthropomorphic, the drink becomes the drinker. In this way, a drink which is fun, witty, playful (self) ironic, sexy, stylish transfers all these qualities onto the public.This also helps flattery, but makes the consumer-brand identification in the same time. It makes drinking Absolut a personal thing.
Another thing I find remarkable about this is how it managed to survive (for so long!) and become so iconic only in print. From my point of view, this is another example of identifying the right audience which helps point to the right channel. Obviously, this kind of ads wouldn’t have worked in media like TV or radio. But they worked brilliantly in glossies, which is exactly what the target audience reads. Moreover, the content was synchronized with the magazines carrying the message: art, fashion, culture or social issues fit very well where there were placed.
Last but not least, I absolutely love the simplicity of the adverts in terms of structure and composition, and the depth achieved by this means. I admire the fact that the advertising follows the vodka in purity, having distilled away unnecessary artifices, twists and special effects. The simplest of ideas is also infinitely multipliable as all the the ads are self-referencing.
To conclude, I believe this is not only an inspiring campaign but also a very influential one in my case. I have nothing but to learn from the simplicity, from the post-modern character perfectly applied and synchronized with the global circumstances, the relationship it has developed with its target public and the fact that it just knows how to play.
The Man – Bill Bernbach
Advertising is big. No, really, it is. BIG.
Perhaps this is why numerous approaches have been taken to it and nobody has been able to come up with the perfect recipe for successful advertising. However, I believe that Bill Bernbach was one of those people who had a very innovative and courageous view on advertising. The kind that survives time and creates a legacy – something that would be called a movement in art.
He is my inspirational ‘advertising man’ as I love his viewpoint on advertising, but most of all, I love his work. For a little bit of background history, William Bernbach is one of the founders of DDB (Doyle Dane Bernbach) and he directed campaigns such as Volkswagen’s ‘Think Small’ (which happens to be the 1st in the top 1oo best campaigns on AdAge). Other campaigns of his include Avis’ ‘We Try Harder’, Life Cereal’s Mikey, Polaroid’s ‘It’s so simple’ or ‘You don’t have to be Jewish to enjoy Levi’s Rye bread, obviously, for Levi’s Rye bread. He is also one of the main forces behind the creative revolution of the 60’s and 70’s.
There are a few reasons for which I find him a very inspirational person and one of them is his courage. He was the first one to put copywriters and art directors together in teams of two, model which has been respected ever since. I believe this was a risky innovation given the fact that the teams had been usually separated. However, the results show it paid off. Another act of courage whose author is Bill Bernbach is the refusal to use scientific methods and testing in an era where advertising was based on those methods. The thing Bernbach understood was that nobody sells to statistics, so he treated human beings as human beings, always making use of his instinct (that has produced outstanding results both in sales and quality of advertising).
Another reason for choosing him as my person of inspiration is his excellent discernment ability. I believe he had a sixth sense for spotting the brilliant from the mediocre and while there may have been many creative geniuses, people like Bernbach have been rare in history.
The influence he has on me is a beneficial one, as I’ve learned from his campaigns that telling the truth in the right way can turn drawbacks into advantages. I have also learned the importance of taking risks and keeping in touch with my human side – because it is human beings I am trying to talk to.
