A Little Shuffling

Here' s my latest article, although it may seem a bit familiar.

Give Us Your Issues, Plights and Causes


This is a nice spot:

Stunts

After two weeks of scheming initiatives every night, we’ve got 50 more ideas.

But work is piling in. And some astounding new briefs. So now all our energy is going towards that.

There’s a chance here to make some astonishing stunts for the New Year, the kind of stuff that makes the papers.

Here’s what I mean by ‘stunt’:




At the time, this was the world’s largest announcement. It was for the launching of the Financial Times in Asia. This building is the IFC, the tallest building in HK. They made it into the Guinness Book of World Records for this one.

English Copywriter Pick of the Week

Okay, the first time I saw this I thought it was outrageous. Great art direction, but compeletely outrageous.

Now, after watching it a few times, I think it's great.

If an ad grows on you, that's a good sign.

Linkin Park

So I went to see these guys last night. Now, I’m not a big fan. But the show was alright.

There was none of this sitting on your hands until politely clapping business like at the other show I saw there.

At least when there’s a rock show in Hong Kong they treat it like a rock show. My back row seat was easily upgraded to a front section spot after joining the hordes of sprite-ish and black-clad locals as they slipped past security, and, like lemmings, scrambled over the seats and piled into the front.

There were mobs of pumping fists and rehashed lyrics and screaming faces. According to the singer, we were the best city of the tour, so we were probably the first.

He put on a pretty good show. Nothing but the front pockets of his shirt retained their original color.

50? Aieya! So Many La!

Why come up with so many ideas?

I see it like this. Once you’ve gone through your own initial screening you end up with four types of ideas:

Sparks – these can set off another idea, which can help it grow into a big big idea. You can’t predict how your partner’s mind will work, so if it has potential to be good, it could be a spark.

Dead ends – Here’s an ad that is hopeless, you just haven’t seen the hopelessness yet. Compared to other ads in the same category, it doesn’t match up in terms of unexpectedness.

Dones – If it has been done. It has been done. No point. With enough eyes that have read enough ads, it doesn’t take long to find what has been done already.

Gems – There’s a solid idea there. It’s a good ad. You just need someone else to say so too.

We’re on our way to another 50 by Friday. I’ll let you now how Round 2 goes.

English Copywriter Pick of the Week

Pine Sol - Shame

Churn, Churn, Churn

It’s been a crazy week for Howard.

He has hardly slept. Yesterday he was up for 40 hours straight.

We still managed to show our CD 50 ideas. Of those he liked 8. Of those the ECD liked 2.

Now, we just need to mock them up. Then get the clients onboard.

And we’re rolling.

Things are going well. I'm shooting for another 50 by next Friday.

This means a lot of running.

Tapped In

Howard and I have a plan.

We are going to crank out 10 initiative ideas every night.

When we have 50 each (ideally, every Friday) we’ll show our CDs. They’ll help us whittle those 100 down to about 5 to show the ECD.

If we can get one idea through a week, we’re laughing.

This is our ticket to success, and ultimately, to reaching our goal.

I’ve been on a roll. I’ve been tapped in. I’ve got a lot of nuggets. I just need Howard to see if they’re fool’s gold or not.

Earshot

Ah chaos.

At this very moment there are six songs going on (from itunes, ads, and whatnot).

I like it. It's good for the ol' synapses.

1. “Feel it in the Air” – Phil Collins
2. “Park Life” – Blur
3. “15 Step” – Radiohead
4. Is that the Cult?
5. Random cantopop numbers from random corners
6. “Hey Little World” - The Hives

Idea Factory

The best part about being in a creative industry is having the resources to bring ideas to life.

It’s always been a popular pastime for my friends and I, to dream up random inventions and schemes.

Working for an idea factory, these inventions and schemes can actually be…actualized.

It’s a pretty sweet situation to be in. No worries about patents, or lawyers, or prototypes, or bank drafts, or any of the fuss of going out on your own. You just need to pitch it to a company that wants to run with it, and you are on your way.

English Copywriter Pick of the Week

I love the twist in this ad.

It’s for a site to rent better apartments? No.

It’s for a flat screen TV? Noooo.

What the heck is it an ad for anyway?

Big on the Medium

For me, a great way to get inspiration is by reading magazines.

You can look at any given ad and ask yourself two things:

1. Does it cut through the clutter of everything else in the magazine?

2. Does it have enough branding to differentiate itself from its competition in the same product category?

Then I set to work on making those two things happen.

Looking at the medium, in this case magazines, is also a good way to remind yourself how a finished ad will look, or what a client will be happy with at the end of the day (or month-long process).

It’s usually not that extreme.

This is where the second part comes in. Coming up with an award-winning idea to fit the brief.

However, award-winning caliber communication is never the safe road (entirely because it hasn’t been done before). So to have it run, you need a client with faith in the very professionals they have hired. And advertising as a whole.

To me, that’s the ultimate goal. To produce an award-winning ad that is put in heavy circulation.

But at this stage in my career, I'd be happy with anything.

Another Gem From Scandinavia

Black Dogs

English Copywriter Pick of the Week

No Sleep ‘til Kowloon

One of the problems with Hong Kong is that you are putting in 12-16 hour days, every day.

You never get a chance to breathe, let alone think about anything except what’s immediately on your plate (which is a lot).

When you are not working on the weekends, you have to spend that time coming up with initiative stuff for awards.

Last weekend wasn’t so fruitful so now I’m panicking. The clock is ticking. I need to eliminate the noise that is sleeplessness and exhaustion and overload. I am seeking that Zen state. Clearing my mind of all but ideas. Mmmm. Okay, quit reading, you are distracting me.

Quelle Coincidence!

I just noticed that the columnist for The Peak, Hong Kong's magazine for the super-rich, is Rick Hetamalle.

I know that guy.

The Return of The Hives

On a note completely unrelated to advertising - the new Hives album has arrived.

Excellent stuff.

Crafting vs Concepting

I spend half of my time crafting copy. Basically just writing and writing and re-writing.

Sometimes this is my work that I am smoothing out to be perfect. Sometimes, being an English copywriter and all, it’s editing other people’s stuff.

I spend the other half of my time coming up with ideas.

Advertising is a crazy business, because you come up with ideas all day (or half a day) every day, and all you have to show for it later is a handful of ads at the end of the year.

That’s the nature of concepts. It takes time for them to be realized.

When a copywriter shows their portfolio to a creative director there should be a balance of crafted writing and conceptual thinking in their book.

After a year and a bit in Hong Kong, I have heaps of crafted writing, but not so much concept stuff.

So it’s going to be an initiative weekend for me.