sometimes more is more
NOTE TO CREATIVE SELF: Stay young at heart and make prototypes. Lots of them.
NOTE TO CREATIVE SELF: Stay young at heart and make prototypes. Lots of them.
We're doing another epic round of presentation classes. In doing these classes, we hope to accomplish 3 things:
1) Find out who's ready to work on new business pitches.
2) Demonstrate that selling horrible work is horrible.
3) Learn to be more confident and authentic in presentations, giving us a better chance to sell great ideas (far away from #2).
Speaking of #2, that's where we begin with our first assignment. Shitty advertising. With only 5 minutes to prepare, Travis, Matt, Marilyn and Michael had to pitch this turd of an idea to our fake client - Eagle Insurance.
Below are videos from their first quickfire pitch. We used these vids to work on our team's body language and pacing. Preso-wise, the only info we gave them on Eagle Insurance was the youtube video. That means they're pulling most of this shit out of their arses. Enjoy...
TRAVIS (aka "CREEPY EYES") - ART DIRECTOR
MATT (aka "599" or "FOLDED VULCAN ARMS") - TECHNOLOGY DIRECTOR
MARK? WHAT MARK? I'll STAND WHERE I WANT MARILYN - BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER
MICHAEL (aka "I WALK SIDEWAYS BITCHES") - DIGITAL PRODUCER
The verdict? Pretty clever and funny pitches, actually, for such a horrible idea. Sure, there's room to grow preso-wise, but the important thing is Travis, Matt, Marilyn and Michael all come off as likable. That's because they are. (One comes off as slightly creepy, but Travis can work on that.)
Stay tuned for Round 2:
ASSIGNMENT: Sell an ad you love.
THE ONLY RULE: The presentation must last at least 5 minutes.
Congrats and thanks to everyone on the Lund Team. Well done.
After looking through a variety of portfolios, resumes, and interviews - we've arrived on our new Talent Farm. Drumroll please...
The interns' first day will include a viewing of our company video. Their first assignment will also be handed out. Thanks to everyone who showed interest in Talent Farm. Hope to hear from you again in 4 months.
On Wednesday, we'll meet with each intern individually and talk about our time together and we'll let them know what their future is with our people company. I look forward to our conversations. I've watched each one of them climb and fall and climb again. What they tell us will help us shape the future of this program. I'm not sure they realize how special they were when all 9 of them came together. The following is my favorite memory of each of the 9*:
Baii: When she was photographing our company picture, she literally did some break dancing moves to get the shot. Talk about dedication. On another occasion, I threw a sharpie at her eyeball by accident. Luckily, she had her glasses on. Eva: When I didn't include Eva in a new business website assignment, she did it anyway. The design was good enough to present and good enough to be the winning design. So pretty good. That's how I remember Eva. Glenn: So talented on so many levels. My favorite memory of Glenn was the night Zara and I drove him home from work. We talked about life more than work and I got to know the Glenn he should always be. Oh yeah, I also fell into and broke our company ping pong table in a heated game against him.
Matthew: My favorite memory of Matthew was how well his character held up when we broke everything around it down to test the talent underneath. I'll always remember a shitberg-free email I got from him after a grueling pitch. He is wise beyond his years (which is pretty old to begin with). Travis: Travis loves people and it shows. You see, Travis flashes people a lot. In my entire advertising career, I've never seen an intern's nipples more than I've seen his. Stop it, Travis. Stop it. Will: When I met Will in an informational interview at another agency, I instantly saw how much potential he has, despite his horribly art directed book. Luckily, he's a writer.
*Hydra9 will release a results video at the end of their internship.
One question we get a lot about our talent farm is, "What the hell are you doing with them?" We think the better question is, "What are we NOT doing with them?"
I believe that a brand's future doesn't belong to marketers, it belongs to the people. Sure, this belief smells of bullshit because we've seen it a million times in a million blended mission statements. How Pixel Farm is different is we're practicing what we preach.
We are a people company.
Hydra 9 is our creative approach to staying true to this promise. With it, we empower a new generation of thinking people (9) from outside of advertising with the same opportunities that seasoned ad guys have to drive brands. We do this without all of the "rational" ad rules (heck, we hardly have any rules, except one, connect creativity to real people).
In this TED talk, child prodigy Adora Svitak says the world needs "childish" thinking: bold ideas, wild creativity and especially optimism. Kids' big dreams deserve high expectations, she says, starting with adults' willingness to learn from children as much as to teach. As you watch, just remove "adults" and insert "advertising shitbergs" and you'll start to see why Hydra 9 is important to us.
Halfway through their internship, Hydra9 has been full of surprises. They are a funny, talented, driven, flawed, beautiful and compassionate bunch. I definitely have the flawed part in common with them, but some of them have qualities I can only dream about. Wish we had more time to help develop their aim. Part of being new at something is you're new at it. So it's not always fair to judge their first attempts. Measuring their true talent is dependent on a bunch of variables. How many shots did they get to show their quality? Were they given enough time (never)? Did they have the right tools (cameras, programs, tutorials, etc)? Did they play from their fucking heart?
We've been having presentation classes at PFI, recording and reviewing our speaking skills. We're doing this for 3 reasons:
1) If we're going to burn the midnight oil toiling over work, then we better put an equal amount of energy into telling the work's story. 2) If you're closest to the work, then you should be in the room presenting it and hearing feedback first hand. 3) Confidence.
We're practicing with a handful of people at a time. Some are surprise naturals, others are works in progress. The first group of Sam, James, Eva, Adam, and Laura had two classes together already. In a week, they'll present in front of our whole shop. I'm eager to see how they'll do. Just for fun, here's the bar we've set:
The one thing we can't teach an intern is talent. But what we can do is create near ideal conditions for talent to rise.
No time. High standards. Big opportunity.
I recently got a new job as Chief Creative Officer of Pixel Farm Digital. This is my journal on our people and our shop's evolution.
