Exposing new talent

Nov 1st, 2010  |  by Mark Blanchard

Morrissey once wrote a song called “We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful”. Well, unlike that old Mancunian curmudgeon, at Baber Smith Towers we love it when super-talented people that we’ve worked with start to gain greater glory and recognition in the big, bad world.

Laura Pannack was a young, promising photographer with the extremely forward-thinking agents, Lisa Pritchard Agency, when we first worked with her on our Mama Mio “Judge” press shoot last year.

Though we worry whether we didn’t start a trend that Laura’s subsequently taken to much greater extremes.

Last year, we had Laura shooting a 42-year old model with an exposed midriff, now Laura’s gone the whole hog and filmed a whole set of portraits of naturists – a body of work (sorry!) that has been showcased in a sumptuous 6-page spread in the Guardian Weekend magazine.

In an admirable demonstration of dedication to her art, Laura even went to the trouble of going naked herself in order to be allowed permission to do the shoot.

We’re sure Laura will be going on to shoot bigger and better things in the future (OK OK, I’ll quit now!)

But seriously, we’re really proud of you Laura and wish you every success for the future.

Mark Blanchard, Creative Group Head

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Superfly!

Oct 27th, 2010  |  by Interns@BaberSmith

‘Chance to be creative’ is pretty much number one in my jobseeking criteria; I tend to bin any vacancies that don’t have CREATIVE written in bright-coloured letters across their forehead. Coming in to Baber Smith last Friday to chat about a possible internship, I was struck by just that. (Garden in the middle of the office? Yes please!) Within minutes, I was whisked off to write up the notes of a market research presentation, given by Greg Ward from FlyResearch. Hearing the words ‘market research’ burst my creativity bubble on the spot, and filled my head with Excel, numbers trailing off into infinity, and painstaking analysis of equally tedious and infuriating surveys (No thank you!). In fact, I actively untick the box for ‘market research’ when looking up marketing jobs.

But Greg aimed to get across just how quick, clever and helpful their work can be. (Funnily enough, my exact motives for coming in that day). Within a matter of slides, my perceptions were changing. And fast. Theirs aren’t your bog-standard, how-the-hell-do-I-exit-this-survey surveys. They’re nice and colourful, for a start. But colour could be just a creative veneer, a decoy. I had to see something to back it up; the garden beyond the orange walls.

We were shown a survey where you had to pick presenters you felt were overpaid and who they should be replaced with. I think this was the point were I actually started smiling. Yes, smiling at market research. With video recognition questions and drag-and-drop boxes, it was more like a game, involved some thinking and interaction, rather than your average questionnaire grid. Their PR surveys, such as one for esure on “The Cost of Bad Driving in the UK”, generate a lot of press coverage. This got me thinking about the different ways you can be creative. Moulding something seemingly dull and one-dimensional into an attention-grabbing tool, getting insights that aren’t just interesting to number-crunchers but to the general newspaper-reading public, was a less obvious, but no less real creativity.

And so aside from what I learnt about market research, I was taught a very important lesson: you can find creativity in the strangest places, you just have to look a bit closer. Oh, and I’ve stopped unticking the market research box, by the way.

Sam Tappenden, Creative Intern

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Is greed dead?

Oct 18th, 2010  |  by Mark Blanchard

This is going to make me sound like a massively naïve cup half-full type person but…

I think the recent massive meltdown of the global economic iceberg may just have had the most positive effect yet on the spiritual, emotional and psychological state of businesspeople and entrepreneurs in the western world.

The signs are everywhere – businesses sprouting up with an eye firmly on their legacy as global citizens rather than the bottom line or the short-term buck.

And when a dyed-in-the-wool, hoary old school capitalist like Warren Buffett has dedicated billions to making the world a better place, you know that something is in the air.

I know we’ve had global meltdowns before and to a great extent the whole thing is cyclical, but this time feels different for two reasons

a)     because it happened on such a massive scale – a sort of simultaneous worldwide wake-up call

b)     because this time it really feels like the end of something -  a certain model of doing business seems to have been found to be no longer practical or viable.

So where does that leave us in advertising and marketingland? Well firstly, as a primarily reactive business, we need to hitch ourselves to the future, and if that means following the new vanguard and creating communications that are as much motivated by a social agenda as grabbing the next pound in the customer’s pocket, that can only mean a fresh challenge for our creativity.

But maybe we can go even further. Maybe we can be actively finding ways to help clients create new, more socially-minded initiatives.

Whichever way the wind’s blowing, one thing’s for sure – in historical terms, it isn’t exactly the greatest time to release Wall Street 2.

Mark Blanchard
Creative Group Head, Baber Smith

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NABS 5k Run 2010

Sep 14th, 2010  |  by Emma Blanchard

It’s always a good laugh when anyone in the office gets out their sporting gear and makes an effort to appear fit and healthy! So when we got the invitation to run again for NABS this year, 10 of us enthusiastically volunteered.

The competition looked fierce and the warm-up soon sorted the men from the boys (women from the girls to be totally PC!) Personally I had the awful realisation that this was going to be really hard work and that my younger, fitter days were long gone! (At 24! Shurely shome mishtake!-Ed).

We luckily had a few good runners in our team – Simon Smith proved himself as much of a leader on as off the field coming 48th overall with a fantastic time of 20:13.8 and Adam Ewels and Richie Florey came through the finishing line shortly after.

Our Swedish superstar Christina Brattwall lead the girls with a time of 30:09.3 (must be something to do with being a pro at keeping warm!) and Sheffield’s finest Tanya Gabbitas came a mere 30 seconds behind her. 
 
NABS is a great cause and we will continue to do our bit. Enjoy the pics!

Emma Blanchard
NABS rep

NABS 5K Run

Before, during and after!

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Big issues don't have to be a big deal

Sep 1st, 2010  |  by Sarah Jean Duggan

Poor sex education in our school system, some would say a ripple effect from the laid back sexual attitude of yesteryear, has lead to generations of problems. Anyone out there remember ‘the Summer of free love’? Well, now someone’s having to pay.

Even at the age of 11 at school, as I sat in a draughty room full of my peers, watching our middle aged, red-faced (half sweat/half embarrassment) male form tutor desperately trying to secure a condom onto an un-ripened banana, I was thinking how pathetic the lack of decent sex education in our country is, and how it could be so much better, so much less clinical. I even asked (once he’d given up and told us they have directions on the packet if you want to know how to do it) why we weren’t being taught about relationships and the emotional side of sex, and how to protect ourselves, not just how to have safe sex?

His answer? You can’t teach that.

Brook, the sexual health charity, thankfully has a different approach to such things. Whilst the NHS make ads and run services that treat the symptoms of a lack of sex education, Brook is focusing on fixing the root of the problem. So not only do they treat, counsel and provide free contraception to under 25’s, they also offer advice. Advice that’s confidential, accessible, that helps young people know their rights and understand their bodies. Advice that helps young people to deal with the issues they face positively, rather than feeling like they’re alone. Advice that ultimately puts young people in control of their sex lives.

So in March, when Baber Smith was given the opportunity to pitch for business from Brook, we jumped at the chance. And when we found out we’d won, and that pitch-winning siren wailed, we were over the moon.

Some of the conversations we’ve had and sentences that have been floating around BS Towers since then are things I never thought I’d hear on any job. Having to ask our designers questions such as “can you make that banana look a little bit more like a penis?” and sitting straight-faced in boardrooms opposite our bosses discussing the usage of ‘boobs’ versus ‘breasts’ is enough to make anyone blush.

But where others may have blushed, our “a spade’s a spade” matter-of-fact stance on the subject matter put us in good stead to get the job done.

The new campaign is about the attitude you take towards sex and relationships. Too long has our country dismissed the subject of sex as a dirty secret that we all share but nobody talks about, too many a parent has cringed and said “I’ll tell you when you’re older”. The taboo stops here.

Yeah, there are lots of big issues for young people to face, and they might feel embarrassing, scary, confusing or otherwise – but they don’t have to be a big deal. Simply communicating openly and getting the facts (not the myths) is enough to boost sexual confidence, and set our younger generation on the path to happy, healthy sex lives.

Check out the campaign content at www.brook.org.uk to see what it’s all about!

Sarah_Jean Duggan, Copywriter on a mission

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Belle and The Buttons celebrate 40,000 hits!

Aug 28th, 2010  |  by Sarah Jean Duggan

Belle and The Buttons, official band of our wonderful client Mama Mio, are celebrating stardom as their debut single “Check me out” reaches over 40,000 hits on youtube.

“We’re just so excited to have so much love and support from our fans, and to help raise money for a good cause too. None of us ever dreamed it’d snowball like this, someone even recognised my tummy on the beach last week, and made me sign theirs!”

You can join Belle and The Buttons on facebook to keep up to date with their rise to fame, and be the first to hear about their future plans!

"40,000 hits and rising - we feel fabulous!"

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Return Of the Greys

Aug 17th, 2010  |  by Jo 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

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Barcode to the future

Aug 15th, 2010  |  by Oliver Sherwell

lego0You 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

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19 years old, and way too smart.

Jul 2nd, 2010  |  by Interns@BaberSmith

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.

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Half time ‘Oranges’….

Jun 17th, 2010  |  by blogeditor

The Oranges (pre-matches)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)

The Oranges (post-matches!)

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