Everyone likes to think that advertising doesn’t make you buy something and that we all have a free mind. I certainly thought I did.

I’d like to think of myself as an intelligent 19 year old girl and one who turns her nose up at ridiculous over-the-top American reality shows.

Instead however, I crave my weekly dose of MTV’s The City a show about the everyday events of up and coming designer ‘Whitney Port’ and her constant battle to win the approval of ELLE magazine and the rest of the fashion world.

Shortly after watching this week’s episode, I had my daily fix of ELLE.com. ELLE more than any other magazine has delved into television as a way of enhancing its brand name positively – not through the conventional ‘above the line marketing’ I’m studying at University, but through media cross-pollination.

They reel you in through their prime time television slot, dot-com phenomenon (which incidentally is mentioned in the show as many times as the word ‘fabulous’) and the real life walking (in their Christian Louboutin shoes) brand ambassadors.

This week, I fell deep into the trap, and I bought a pair of new boots, not because I need them in the hot weather we are currently experiencing, but because ELLE.com told me summer boots are fast becoming this season’s fashion favorite and you, Kirsten Collis, need to buy this £80 pair from La Redoute that ‘ticks all the boxes’.

What did I do that for?

I am currently studying this stuff at university, and learning about it on a daily basis – I should be able to resist! But nope, I still happily fall at the feet of brands that are able to connect with me in a clever, personal and memorable way.

What ELLE has done is to create a desire for a lifestyle I didn’t even know I wanted. Good advertising can create desire, even if it is totally irrational.

As a savvy marketing student, I thought I was immune to such tactics. But they still got me – I’ve got the till receipt to prove it.

Kirsten Collis (on work experience) – Manchester University Business School.

Despite looking really pro in their shiny new orange kits, the Baber Smith lads rocked up to Wembley Goals on Sunday 6th June with fairly low expectations, but with plenty of enthusiasm and exuberance. With more players in the team used to egg-shaped balls rather than round balls, we had a few issues to overcome. Not to mention the general fitness of our ‘smoking group’, who accounted for half the team!

After a few matches the boys were feeling the strain. There were some great individual performances however, with Tim “Aussie” McGrath proving that becoming accustomed to a totally new ball shape cannot hinder talent and Olly “SAFA” Sherwell putting in a Duracell battery effort. Mark “El Capitano” Fisher was consistently strong and even slotted home a penalty for us. Man of the match however was Charles “Big Mouth” Lees who turned out to be a great goalkeeper (shame we didn’t realise until the last match!)

Baber ‘Oranges’ were probably the only team with a mascot…Eliza Jordan, (daughter of our MD Sam Jordan) a mere ten weeks old, who donned an orange playsuit and looked super cute!

We may not have won any trophies but we were first in line for a beer and a burger in the sun! With some more training and a Baber Smith ‘stop smoking campaign’ we will be in much better shape next year!

Emma “Fabio” Blanchard (Team Manager)

We all know the job market’s tough out there. We all know that creativity is a massively over-supplied resource. Yet, as someone who’s interviewed his fair share of creatives, it amazes me how many teams seem to stumble and flail through interviews with all the finesse of a drunk at a posh wedding.

It seems to me there are some elementary do’s and don’ts that could help creative teams give a better account of themselves in these situations. So here are my top ten tips for doing interviews based on my own experience (from both sides of the fence).

1. Avoid floating writer syndrome. If a team says: “we actually both write a bit” that translates to me as “neither of them can write and if I ever get a brief in for 10 letter variants, it’s going to be a pain the arse to get one of them to take it on.”

2. Don’t point out minor flaws in your own work. Once a creative came in to see me whose work I’d already seen and liked. He proceeded to point out things about each piece that could have been better. I ended up viewing a folio I’d initially warmed to as a series of failed creative experiments. By the time he’d finished speaking, the book didn’t look half as good to me. Dumb, dumb, dumb!

3. Don’t slag off your existing agency. It makes you look like a loser because, at the end of the day, you chose to go there. It also makes prospective employers think that if they took you on, you’d go round slagging off their agency too.

4. Don’t blame it all on the suits. Selling ads is a two-way street. Creatives should look on suits as bullets and themselves as guns, they need to load them up (with the right creative sell), point them in the right direction and let them go.

5. Have a game plan. When someone says “why do you want to leave the place you’re at now?” don’t just say “to get more money”. Think about it! Have a structured piece of reasoning that makes people see you as someone who thinks about their career in the long term and is in charge of their own destiny. Say “I want to leave to broaden my knowledge of digital”, “I want to be in smaller, more entrepreneurial agency” anything that sounds like you’ve got a plan basically.

6. Say why you want to work at their agency. Be blatant – do your internet research before you go and have a cogent reason for being in there talking to them. After all, you’ve given up an hour of your time and paid for the train fare, you may as well make it look as though you haven’t got there purely by chance.

7. Don’t whinge. Let’s be honest, most Creatives can whinge for Britain, if you put yourself in the 1% who don’t fall into this trap – you’re automatically ahead of the pack.

8. Watch Russell Brand. If you‘re not the most exuberant person in the world, get yourself vibed-up before you go along to the interview so that you’ll make more of an impression. Listen to your favourite music or watch someone like Russell Brand and see how his natural enthusiasm and energy draws people to him.

9. Have a proposition for yourself. You’re a brand – you need one. It could be something about your working methods or something you think you can achieve for agencies. Mine, for example, is this: “I make a difference and improve agencies creatively and financially.” You’re welcome to nick that one if you want. But whatever it is, if you have a proposition you can stand behind, you’re more than just “that team with the tall girl and the fat bloke”

10. Ask the agency what they want their next hiring to bring to their company, what they’re trying to achieve and what the opportunity is for you. If their answer is well-reasoned, it means that they’re serious about the hiring process and are more likely to help you develop from a personal and career perspective. It also helps you take control of the interview.

It’s all simple stuff but, like a lot of simple stuff, it can make a big difference. The key things are: don’t be afraid to sell yourself, sell your work and be positive.

Hope this helps!

Luxury skincare brand Mama Mio tasked Baber Smith with creating an integrated, through- the- line campaign to promote the launch of their product ‘Get Waisted’ in Debenhams.

We all knew that this was no ordinary client. Mama Mio was originally started up by 3 women; all with a passion for tackling women’s body problem areas with powerful, butt-kicking ingredients and a really fun brand strategy. The founders are passionate about the brand and their products and within 5 minutes of meeting them you really ‘get’ what Mama Mio is all about.

When I was invited onto the account team, I was really thrilled to be working with a brand that I could relate to and thoroughly enjoyed the experience and responsibility of helping to organise the shoot. One of my tasks was to hunt down a very specific costume for the shoot (a cropped top, midriff-revealing High Court judge’s costume is not a standard request)! Obviously my high street shopping experience was of no use in this instance and I resorted to phoning various costume hire stores and seamstresses to find what I needed. A number of calls later, following a trail of seamstresses via recommendations, I found someone willing to create this unusual garment within a 24 hour time frame. Visits to Potters Bar and late night material shopping ensued and the result was, well, fantastic! As it turned out the seamstress made costumes for the Harry Potter films so this must have been a walk in the park for her- or maybe it was just magic.

One of the key factors to consider with this shoot was that the model had to be a real woman, reflecting the brand’s belief that ordinary women need extra-ordinary solutions. Simone, a 40 something ‘Mama’ of 2 fit the bill perfectly. And as Hannah Marshall (LPA) our lovely make up artist transformed Simone into a beautiful high court judge we could immediately see the results were going to be great. One perfect location and an award winning photographer (Laura Pannack LPA) later and the shoot was underway.

Back at the agency and the shots were looking great, Laura had captured the natural look we were going for and Simone looked effortlessly confident.

What really enthused me about this particular shoot was how the passion of the founders motivated everyone to do the best possible job and got everyone really excited about the product they wanted to promote. The results were great, Simone looked fantastic and both Baber Smith and Mama Mio were really chuffed.

Emma Blanchard,  Junior Account Executive

Marmite: love the product or hate it (I hate it), you can’t help but be taken in by a brand that’ not only to acknowledges that it can’t please everyone, but turns that fact into a marketing coup. Now, as they unleash their latest gastronomic monstrosity in the form of a cereal bar with a yeasty shock in the middle, Marmite are asking us, the public, if we feel that they have gone “too far”.

I bring up the dreaded but fascinating spread, not to answer their question (the answer is “yes”), nor to analyse the efficacy of suggesting to potential customers that your product may, in fact, be disgusting. I am using Marmite as a rare exemplar of a campaign that actually lends itself to everyone’s favourite bandwagon, social media.

Marmite is the second UK brand to use Facebook’s new sampling ad format. The ads, which pop-up from users’ news-feeds, do not drive potential customers to a website or profile but instead prompt them to accept a free sample, become a fan and declare their undying love or hate. Thus, Marmite informs the potential customer of its new product, acquires their mailing address and the right to use their news-feed as an interactive billboard to advertise to all their friends. All in the guise of a one-question survey with a free cereal bar at the end.

This three-birds-with-one-stone quality is essential to Facebook’s utility. Rather than creating and maintaining a purpose-built website, and worrying about search optimisation and the arduous task of actually updating the site; make a cookie-cutter profile for your product, use one of the many pre-existing applications designed to filter your pen-portrait customer from the 25 million Brits who have volunteered every conceivable detail of themselves, and all you have to do is remember to feed it with fresh content now-and-then.

Now that product fan pages support status updates, videos, a “wall”, games and all the dynamic, interactive features that are de rigueur on people’s personal profiles, keeping the things alive is easier than ever. What’s more, every new development is broadcast via members’ news-feeds, an invaluable viral opportunity if seized upon. “John Hates Marmite: tell him why he’s wrong and while you’re at it give us your mailing address”.

The trouble with attempts by large corporations to get with the cool kids and seek out their custom is that most cool kids don’t want to be sought. They resent patronising advertisers ‘tricking’ them into participating in their campaigns, and everyone hates spam. The trick, as I see it, is making your move so quick and unobtrusive and so natural in the context of Facebook, that it seems more like an off-hand remark than an all-day seminar.

The idea is to move on-line marketing away from driving customers to a static website, which is really just an electronic brochure, towards a one-on-one, back-and-forth “conversation” between a brand and its customers. Ideally, all we’ll have to do is log into Facebook and every brand that thinks it stands a chance will come looking for us to ask a question, offer advice or draw our attention to something cool.

That’s the strength of Marmite’s campaign; it has a pre-established “in”, a controversy. Its incursion doesn’t feel forced. Browsing the news you notice a friend has said the wrong thing about what to have on your toast, you correct him and sign-up for a free cereal bar, and the good news spreads to all you other friends. No nonsense, no fuss. So while other brands are regarded as nuisances, we will all be friends (or enemies) of Marmite.

John McIntosh

As the Kraft takeover of Cadbury loomed larger, a significant portion of the British nation became outraged. Initially I was a bit surprised that ordinary people should care so much. Particularly at a time when mergers and acquisitions are commonplace.

It made me ask myself what it is that makes some home grown brands so incredibly powerful. So powerful that people can’t imagine them changing in any fundamental way, and certainly not disappearing forever. It occurred to me that everyone has a brand or even several brands that have been part of their lives since childhood. Brands that give them comfort, warmth and a sense of security; brands they don’t want to give up -even if they move halfway round the world. When I moved from Germany to Canada, I really missed my favourite German confectionery brands. I couldn’t anticipate surviving the freezing cold of the Rocky Mountains without my Haribo Gold Bears.  So, in the end, I must admit that whenever I flew back to Germany for Christmas I bought enough to last me for several months.

Even to this day, every time I see a bag of Haribo Gold Bears I am reminded of home, of my wonderful childhood memories that are intrinsically linked to the brand. It’s a brand from my home country with a long tradition. In fact, I consider it a little piece of home.

Thinking about my much-loved Gold Bears, I came to understand why so many British people reacted so negatively to the news of the acquisition. Cadbury is truly British and people in this country grew up with Cadbury Dairy Milk, a part of their lives that gives them comfort wherever they are. Some brands are so irreplaceable in people’s hearts and minds and they wouldn’t be what they are if they lost touch with the original founders’ beliefs and vision. Tradition is what makes these brands so powerful- any company contemplating buying them ignores that heritage at their cost.

Truly compelling presenters are indeed a rare breed. People who have the ability to empathise with an audience, command their full attention and communicate a message clearly are few and far between.

An ideal candidate would combine the charisma of Meryl Streep and the sales flair of Steve Jobs.

A big ask, but one person who may well fit the bill precisely is the Reverend Teresa Munro. Teresa’s uniquely well-honed presentation skills have also not gone unnoticed by those of us who have a rather more commercial agenda. We recently brought in the Reverend Munro to run intensive presentation workshop sessions for us, or as she describes the sessions herself: “I’ve used Drama skills and games throughout. We’ve looked at relaxation and confidence, audience awareness, active listening and body language.”

Many ad agencies invite actors in to teach presentation skills, we wanted to choose someone who really believed in what they were communicating either in work or in life. Someone who we felt could teach not just presentation technique but also empathy, respect for and understanding of the people around us.

Of course, the world of advertising has seen more than its fair share of motivational speakers, but the Reverend Munro brings a uniquely empathetic perspective to her sessions: “some people will need more space and it’s about giving everyone the opportunity to speak and being aware of that within the team. I think that’s a skill much more to do with being a minister than being a Drama teacher.”

What’s more, although the Gospel according to Matthew and an advertising sales pitch may seem spiritually worlds apart, the Reverend feels as though her approach to communication can provide invaluable tools for today’s ‘Mad Men’: “I think they can learn a lot about interpersonal relationships and that a pitch is not just about content, it’s about relating to the people you’re trying to sell to. They can learn an awful lot about watching for an audience reaction, for instance.”

As Sam our MD says “Yes, the content is quite different but the parallel is that fundamentally we’re both trying to communicate ideas that we believe in to other people – there’s an art in making them engaging, relevant and interesting.”

Asked to sum up her unique approach, Teresa comes up with an answer that’s direct and well-honed enough to be the envy of many a marketing strategist: “I talk about it as ‘walking alongside people’, being there to journey with people, that’s what I do as a teacher and it’s probably what I do as facilitator in the workshop. I say to the guys today, it’s not about me having the right answers, but giving them the facilities to get where they want to go.”

Teresa was a big success and already we are seeing our people putting into practise the skills they have acquired from these sessions.

Jo Smith

Sales and Marketing Director Baber Smith

You may have noticed recently a rather strange sight on the street, people being walked by their mobile phone. Don’t worry these people have not misplaced their sanity, they are using a new format of technology to find their way home. This new technology is slowly making its way into our lives by using its versatile nature to mix video and interactive media into the static pages at your daily newsstand. This understated and until now under-utilised technology, is simply known as ‘AR’ Augmented Reality. AR may seem the new kid on the blog, but it has actually been around for the last 10 years just sitting quietly in the corner waiting for technology to catch up.

Currently the most popular form of AR uses a fiduciary marker, which when viewed with the help of your trusty mobile phone or webcam, can transform a black and white barcode or even the product itself into an interactive canvas capable of portraying floating 3d models. At the moment this little industry trick has been simple eye candy, but as open source technology makes its way into the commercial arena, flash developers are finding ways of taking this once only know too few, and bringing it to the masses in the form of a highly interactive tool.

So where has AR been hiding and where can we expect to see it? For the moment our little friend AR can be found in abundance between the black and white pages of your local paper. Print media of all forms are all currently exploiting our old friend the barcode, bringing to life sensations not previously know to the otherwise numb (don’t get me wrong I love my newspaper) page. Could this finally bring back the incentive advertisers need to put money back into print?

AR not only provides the means to give people a taste for something different, but could help make your life simpler. So what do we have? We have a technology that is not new to the industry, but new to way we interact with media. It’s versatile and available to developers at a minimal cost, so the potential for further growth is positive to say the least, did someone say disruptive technology?

Below are some examples of ways that the AR is working its way into the commercial arena.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGu0N3eL2D0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_7NW_u3VFo&feature=related

Even in these very early days the Friday Breakfast Club has brought to light plenty of great ideas – either to improve the agency for ourselves, or to spark some creative ideas for our clients. In week 1, some clever kid mentioned that we carry a small notebook around with us – that got my creative juices flowing (OK, it was me) and I though I would test out Baber Smith’s promise to support the entrepreneur in all of us…

After ‘my Agent Jo’ got wind of this idea, I was commissioned to produce a little book for each and every employee to capture all the wonderful ideas that pop in on out of our heads. I cant wait to see them in action on Friday…

Check out some more of my work on allisonball.co.uk

Allison

PS. It was very difficulty to resist the urge to add a bird… Even a very little one… Sniff.

http://wave.google.com/help/wave/about.html

If there is one thing I learnt having watched the ‘About Google Wave’ video it was that developers are not cool. They don’t look cool, they don’t sound cool and they are not the most exciting communicators despite whoops and hollers from an apparently enthusiastic and over excited audience. I can only assume they spend too much time communicating over digital channels and developing the likes of Google Wave to the point that when they actually open their mouths to talk they sound like a nasal, Americanised Stephen Hawking who’s only bedroom window is one with ‘X’ in the top right hand corner.

So call me cynical but 24 minutes and 31 seconds into a 1 hour and 20 minute presentation about the wonder of Google Wave, my one and only question had failed to be answered. What’s in it for me? Maybe I wasn’t the target audience given that the video is taken from the May 2009, Google IO Technology Conference but these Google developers weren’t exactly being succinct.

They had shown me a few cool tricks and gimmicks that would make my life a little bit more convenient. But as yet nothing struck me as revolutionary. Granted I was only 24 minutes in. From a commercial point of view I had also begun to query where the money was going to made? Blah, blah, blah is where my mind goes from here and less than coincidently, that was also exactly what I was beginning to hear from the onscreen guys at Google. Just as had happened when Facebook launched and then Twitter after that.  Nothing struck me and while monetising them has remained a burning question, as the consumer has found their uses (rather than the developers presupposing their uses) the commercial viability and opportunity, and more general value, has become apparent. This isn’t to say Google Wave will necessarily be the next BIG thing and I hate to back a favourite (because who doesn’t love an underdog) but there are immediate benefits for various consumer groups and industries – serial bloggers and journalism to name just two. As well as these obvious benefits for various markets, once Google Wave has been released upon the general and global public, undoubtedly the consumer will find its own use for Google Wave just as the consumer defined the purpose and value of the aforementioned social media channels. What’s more, it does seem to have a nice ring to it – ‘wave’. Friendlier than email for sure.  But as the ever so clever Rasmussen brothers (the developers of Google Wave) unfortunately demonstrate there is no substitute for good ole fashioned oral communication skills. So while I look forward to waving hello, this is me saying goodbye.

Chris Mitchell