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.

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

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.

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

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

I recently overheard my housemate and her friend engaged in light hearted debate on how certain celebrities managed to maintain their fantastically blemish free skin. They discussed the vast avalanche of skin care products that are constantly targeting young and old during our favourite evening viewing. Yes, these products do help, as do diets and living a healthy lifestyle but what surprised me most was not once was the key word used… “Re-touching”.

I found myself asking the question “Has advertising made people feel uglier?” I notice on an increasing basis the amount of adverts that glorify perfection and marginalise those with less than perfect skin. Heaven forbid you have bad skin! Advertising works on a subliminal level and as simple creatures we accept the inspirational messages it portrays. This is not a recent development, I’m fairly confident that most of the rather sculpted Greek statues posing in museums around the world could possibly have had a slight beer belly. Retouching may not have moved on too dramatically, but the tools we now use have.

Simple programs now allow us to create flawless people with little hassle, which can also be extended through to products as well. As an individual of the advertising realm I do understand that its not all doom and gloom and that certain levels of “sharpening” are required in order to take a shot and bring it to life, but what worries me is how good we are becoming. Is it possible to do your job too well?

With advances in technology, we are slowly becoming unable to tell when an image has been manipulated and with this I feel a false sense of normality is developing. I think people should take a step back from media’s finite depiction of beauty and realise there is no such thing as perfect.

Oliver Sherwell

Forget social networking, the next big thing could be social sending.

Entrepreneur Ben Way offers tweeters the opportunity to receive free shares in exchange for promoting his new service, Send Social (https://sendsocial.com/). This service works on the premise that you can send anyone packages by simply having their twitter handle or email address (while never having to reveal the person’s address).

A revolutionary way of allowing people to exchange goods while maintaining their privacy?

Or one of those unnecessary “big ideas” destined for the trashcan of history?

You decide:

http://www.brandrepublic.com/DigitalAM/News/968786/Twitterers-given-shares-promoting-address-less-delivery-concept/?DCMP=EMC-Digital-AM-Bulletin

Lindsey Ostrow

On October 19, 2009 I was fortunate enough to attend the Powerful Persuasion Workshop that was organized by WACL. For those of you who don’t know WACL, it’s a group of the most senior women in the Communications Industry; powerful and influential women who lend their experience, talent and knowledge to other women in the business.
If I wrote about everything interesting and inspiring that I heard during the workshop, my blog would go on forever. But there was one thing that surprised me in particular and made me re-evaluate some of my own beliefs. We’ve all heard about the ‘glass ceiling’ – an invisible, but powerful, force field that stops women attaining the same salary levels and positions as men with the same qualifications. Having attended this Workshop, I started doubting whether this invisible force field actually exists.
Listening to these women, I decided that the glass ceiling was a monster that we women have created ourselves. And that, if we start behaving a little less like the polite and humble princesses we were raised to be and start acting a bit more like competitive business people, nothing will stop us from being equally as successful as men (not even 4 children, as some of these powerful women proved).
It seems we women fail to do some simple things, and if we want to enter the highest ranks of large advertising businesses (and other businesses) we need to get them right.
We need to stop being afraid of talking up our achievements and actually start telling others how good we are. We also need to start asking for what we are worth in salary negotiations and not for what we think is fair. Another vital thing we need to change is our reluctance to stand in the limelight, there is nothing wrong with allowing others to see us to our best advantage. Finally, we need to start getting better at networking upwards, one area in which men currently excel naturally.
In fact, if we get these things right and use our natural strengths we might even have a competitive advantage over men. As women, we have natural powers of persuasion that give us far more sway in any boardroom. We’re blessed with an emotional intelligence that usually surpasses that of men by miles. Which, in turn, gives us greater powers of persuasion. We need to start using these innate skills to further our careers.

It seems to me that we women are like those superheroes that finally need to discover the strength of our own superpowers. So, at the risk of being controversial, maybe it’s time we got some essentials right and faced up to the fact that the biggest barrier to being as successful as men might actually be in our own minds.
Diana Hopfner
Account Executive
Baber Smith

I recall being at one those advertising agency tree-hugging/team-building weekends a while back where I was forced to reveal my answer to the question – “what do you think is the best thing you can give your children?” My answer at the time was “a sense of self-esteem” – words which came back to haunt me recently when I read “Generation Me” by Jean M. Twenge.

This well-researched, keenly-observed book is an analysis of the thoughts, dreams and aspirations of the post-Baby Boom generation. The thrust of Twenge’s argument is that Baby Boomer parents have s

pent far too much time boosting the self-esteem of their children, to the point where they now have an unrealistically inflated sense of entitlement.

It also points out that any potential employers of today’s graduates and interns have a responsibility to act as a kind of  “reality decompression chamber”, helping this generation come to terms with the cold, harsh environment of the job-free marketplace and frozen economy. We have to politely but humanely point out that the six-figure salary won’t be there on demand like a Starbucks cappuccino, and that it might be slightly harder to become a CEO than it would be to pass an X-Factor audition. And, that successfully ascending the career ladder might be down to such unsexy characterisics as persistence, patience and hard graft rather than easy charm and natural intelligence.

It’s no simple task – giving out a cold, hard dose of reality without dampening the ambition and enthusiasm of our graduate intake.

But for the sake of our industry’s future and for the future success of our new blood, maybe those of us in positions of seniority have to take a deep breath, gird our loins and access our inner Simon Cowells.

Mark Blanchard
Creative Group Head, Baber Smith

I was recently at Sunday lunch with a load of advertising types – the table was a real mixture of ages; ranging from friends in their late 50’s (and in one case early 60’s) to their early 20’s kids, just starting out in the business. What I found particularly odd was that everyone at the table actually had a job.
I also attended a few conferences in New York a year or so ago and was struck by the high number of ‘more mature’ people there. I found myself entering into lots of interesting debates with all sorts of fellow attendees. It seemed that, even in the youth-obsessed U.S., my point of view had real value.
In a business so affected by economic downturn and often accused of ageism, I’ve been driven to ask myself how this could be.
It seems to me, the one thing that has become an ever-more precious commodity in our industry is Time. The luxurious timescales of the mid-80s have shrunk to the point where everything is now demanded yesterday, if not sooner. Just the kind of environment where having the experience to see to the root of a problem quickly becomes invaluable.
Also, the whole concept of age is changing. People aren’t set in their ways from their mid-40s onwards and remain able to add new skills and re-invent themselves in all manner of interesting fashions. Despite a career spanning 35 years, in the past four years I’ve found myself hailed as a visionary, an internet Queen of sorts and here I am today working in an agency that not only talks about integration but uses all the skills of its eclectic mix of people. And I’m not alone. Witness the rise of the born-again blogger – the inimitable Dave Trott is now out there sharing his wit and wisdom with the new generation on a regular basis. Then there’s the freelance market for older planners – the sort of sharp insight born out of experience is in greater demand in our increasingly fragmented communication age.

Yes, there’s definitely a feeling that the time is ripe for the return of the Grey Hairs and who knows, I might still be working when Sarah Jessica Parker and the girls are filming Sex and the City 4. Just please let me be one of those old people who has the good grace to recognise young talent when it emerges as well.

Jo Smith
Sales and Marketing Director Baber Smith