Well It Appears We're Fully Fledged Adults Now!

We have finished university. That's it. It's over. What the fuck are we supposed to do now?

If you were one of the lucky few to receive an invite to our degree show on June 19th, then you may have ended up here. Hello! Welcome! We're Say Wat?! Creatives. Tom Waters, and myself Ciaran Watkins.

Over the next week or two we'll be scanning in copies of our recent campaigns, but more likely than not, taking low quality pictures of them. If anyone ever reads this, feel free to drop us a comment, or an email to; saywatcreatives@gmail.com

We like talking, and we'll always send jokes in return if needs be. I think it's time to try and get a job now. Awesome.

Ciaran x

Excuses! Excuses!

Sorry for the lack of communication on the blog lately.

Excuse number one - We have been working our beards off trying to finish work for our deadlines aswell as update our portfolio and prepare for our degree show

Excuse number two - we have been given some briefs by some very generous agencies but due to confidentiality/competitive market/angry clients etc etc we are not allowed to show or talk about any work online. Which is understandable but slightly annoying because I can count the followers of this blog on one hand.

Excuses over, Ciaran and I will try harder

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2 Ads, Same Product, Laughs had by all!

This is one of my favourite ads right because it makes me laugh my arse off. I'm trying to be as mature as possible though because genuinely I think it's a great ad. I've always been immature and squeamish about "feminine hygiene" ads but I have no doubt that as a creative they are ridiculously hard to make. You have to remain subtle, you have deliver a strong message despite that subtlety and finally you still have to sell the damn product.

This ad does it fantastically well, the message is pretty obvious and all subleties and dignity is maintained.

Plus it still makes me giggle because I am immature, I need to find which agency made this. Oddly enough there is another ad for this exact product which I'm going to assume is American but it could be Australian or something of that nature. I'm basing it on the actors.



I have no idea if this will/can run in the UK, it has all the subtlety of a sledgehammer! It is the exact same product and they've taken the same approach, and probably the same brief but damn! What a difference. 50% giggles because I'm still an idiot but the other 50% cringes for obvious reasons.

Scary scary websites

Two scary websites, but in a cool way, not in the 2 girls 1 cup way!



Firstly, http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com

This is so accurate it's scary! Sometimes I'll read a post and laugh, then I'll laugh a little nervously, then I'll wonder if somebody has been following me. The Mad Men article was pretty creepy and I was definitely thinking about getting a moleskine. All my white friends already have them!

The second website is only slightly more educational



www.ted.com

and more specifically for myself

http://www.ted.com/index.php/themes/design_like_you_give_a_damn.html

Just like it says on the tin, some of the greatest talks from some of the worlds smartest and most interesting people and its FREE! Totally free! Not even little adverts before hand! And you can download them FOR FREE! And you can download them as Podcasts FOR FREE!

I'm too excited to do any real research into the company just yet but all I know is that I can get the bus to Uni and by the time I've arrived I could have watched a whole talk from Phillipe Starke, and even started a second video from Stefan Sagmeister! It's a helluva resource and seemingly the content is massive so you can be entertained and educated for days on end! You get the kind of information addiction you got when you first discovered Wikipedia

In conclusion, Bloody Brilliant

Peace out

Tom

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Gone Are The Days When The WWF Meant Fat Man In Spandex!

Just a quick update from myself, on the verge of a huge Pravda write up when I have a spare 10 minutes or so. I saw this ad on a print blog that I read occasionally.

The imagery is incredibly powerful, yet subtle at the same time. One could think it's an anti-smoking ad, but it's obviously not upon further reading. The tagline, 'Before it's too late' does give a nod to anti smoking camoaigns, as if someone were to quit then their lungs would slowly recover.

I'm assuming that because trees create oxygen they are the worlds 'lungs'. A nice little thought, and hasn't really been touched on before. It's hard to write exactly why I like the ad so much, but it's definately one of my favourite of the past few years or so.


Ciaran x

The first rule of Pravda is.....You do not talk about Pravda.

A massive thank you to everyone at Pravda advertising for our placement. We managed a 2 week placement, 4 briefs, 0 casualties and 2 nights at the pub. It was a helluva eye opener. Long hours, very little praise, lots of scamps, lots of self doubt, lots of tea drinking and some good table football matches.

It's been a great insight into the industry and I'm hopefully a lot wiser for the experience. I'm also hoping that we are invited back for another stint as soon as is humanly possible.

We worked on a radio script, a print ad, a health information campaign and a pitch for a new company in need of branding. I can name none of their products because we signed confidentiality agreements for the whole bloody lot. All we can say is that we worked our little beards of and sadly none of our work got picked up or put into production.

We're definitely going to be a lot wiser for the experience even if it was short and sweet, although I must say I learned more from people in the pub than I did in the office but I guess that goes with the terrority.

We will probably post again in more detail about it but for now I just want to say a massive thank you to Simon and Tim for giving us the opportunity and thanks to all the guys and girls in creative and accounts who made our stay thoroughly enjoyable. We will definitely be in contact begging for another chance. As our journey continues we have finally started our "networking" part of the journey.

Peace out

Tom

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Sorry, usually I'm seriously easy going.

Apologies for the negativity of the previous post. I thought I'd lighten the mood with one of the funniest ads made in my opinion. Ciaran and I started laughing about this series of ads while on placement, and I think we're still giggling. Amazing ads, suited the brand perfectly and haven't aged one iota.

Sit back and enjoy!



Peace out

Tom

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Renault - Is that your crap?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gy2gcxf-Cps

This was the original ad that introduced the world to Va Va Voom. Its a ridiculous concept but like all good ads, its a phrase that forced its way into the language and people still use it today even though Renault have a dropped the concept altogether. I did find it funny however when I spoke to French colleague of mine who said that they'd never seen the ad in France and had never heard of Va Va Voom. Its a great ad for that reason, it also manages to be funny and even features Thierry Henry (who is very difficult to hate).



Renault left Titi and moved onto the Ben vs Sophie/Britain vs France/Twice the Va Va Voom ads. They are slightly cheesey but I think they're funny, the keep in the spirit of the Clio and I think we can all agree that the French representative played by the gorgeous Annelise Hesme is a babe. It embodies everything that the car and the brand has come to represent in this country and it remains to this day and funny and memorable ad.


(excuse the endline, it is the only copy of the video I could find)

So why, Oh dear God why?! have Publicis ditched these funny and memorable ads for a product that I wouldn't be wrong in saying that the public quite like? Not only have they ditched these ads and the Va Va Voom campaign, they have replaced them with utter crap. They are so poor that people who have no real interest in advertising have brought it up in conversation!
The 2 campaigns "Is that your car?" and "Remember when you said you wouldn't buy a Renault?" are pretty awful offerings, especially with how competitive the small hatchback market is already. VW Golf, VW Polo, Vauxhall Corsa, Mini and even the Smart Car are all enjoying far more success with their advertising which is exactly what it should be - fun and memorable!

Rant over!

Tom

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PS. I do actually drive a Renault Clio - from the era when they advertised VA VA VOOM, I hope mine is intact!

First day of school!

Firstly, a massive thank you to Pravda, and particularly Simon Sinclair for giving us the opportunity of this placement. It might be for a week, it might be more, all I know is, that Ciaran and I have to work our little beards off!
For years they've given us advice in lectures along the lines of "work your arse off, make yourself indespensible and when you're gone, make sure they miss you!
Tomorrow we get to put all that advice into practice. In all honesty I'm expecting some bottom of the barrel briefs, lots of tea making and lots of nervous introductions but lets have some fun eh?!
First day of school all over again.

Peace out

Tom

Well Hot Damn

Well what do you know, we have a week long placement with Pravda! Apparently we have "A Lot Of Work To Do"tm but Simon told Liz who told me that he would like to have us in for a week or two to really 'push us'.

It could be as soon as Monday, so I'm cacking myself a bit. Woop!

Ciaran x

Pravda - Our First Book Crit

So we have literally just stepped out of our first book critique, with the 'Head of Chaos' from Pravda. I'm jotting this down now in the fear I may forget how it all went. We presented seven briefs, with a total of nine campaigns throughout. I'm not going to lie, but I was nervous as hell.

We sat in silent for a good ten minutes or so while Simon Sinclair had a look through our book, stopping about half way through to talk about some of the stuff he had seen. My Intercontinental Title pages seemed to do the trick, but we'll pretend the spelling mistakes and running around didn't happen in the morning.

He seemed to laugh at the right places, and smile at the correct imagery so in my brain it went well. Not brilliantly, because he didn't high five us and immediately give us a job, but I don't think it went that badly, because he literally told us that one campaign was "really good", and liked strategy behind some of the other campaigns but told us the imagery needed a little push.

I'm feeling quite indifferent at the moment, probably because the book critique wasn't on their turf, but I imagine I'll find out later in the day if we were popular or not. I'll just end on a bit of advice he gave to us, but it may have to be paraphrased; "I'm not going to say 'it's how many cocks you suck' but... you know".

Ciaran x

TBWA - We Still Love You

So today, as promised by the lovely Paul Burns and Adam Richardson from TBWA Manchester, we had the chance to talk through the work that Say Wat?! pitched on Wednesday for the D&AD workshop. We were also set a couple of briefs, including one that's very VERY hush hush, and only we from MMU have access to it! I'd tell you what it is, but I rather like TBWA and don't really want to antagonise them.

As already stated, the best work on Wednesday would have gained a placement at TBDubz over the summer break, and Tom and me were raring to go. Unfortunately the brief wasn't exactly awe inspiring, what with it being about Carex hand wash, and including some strict industry style guidelines.

We presented two campaigns, and a host of online and ambient work and today we found out that our work was literally pipped at one of the last hurdles to the placement. The online media was favoured; (Our squirt characters became little lemmings, similar to the mega drive game, trying to find their way to a pair of wet hands), and the ambient squishy squirts seen all over the land were held in high regards from one of the original art directors on the brief, but it was our TV work that let us down. I sort of feel a little responsible because the things Paul mentioned in our critique, were the areas I was working on. However, we got some fantastic advice, of which I'm hoping Tom will add to;

• Keep it short
• Keep it concise
• Present the strategy - present the idea - close with the repeated strategy
• PRACTISE PRESENTING - Come prepared with notes, and don't do a Paul Daniels, Debbie Mcghee double act.

We'll be contacting TBDubz for a book crit over the Easter break, and hopefully we'll gain that elusive placement we're searching for, but until then it's back to the grind. Afterall;



Ciaran x

A Belated Welcome

Why hello there! I don't think we've had the pleasure. My name is Ciaran Watkins, and I'm the second, and much beardier half of the Say Wat?! Creatives team. To keep introductions short; I'm lazy. I should have been contributing to this blog from the start, but I left it to my much better looking and dare I say, talented team mate.

Now that's me off the hook, I shall end this introductory post for fear of confusion. I look forward to your comments, if anyone actually reads the thing. I think it may be time to purchase the elusive .co.uk domain name. I also need to work out a blog sign off as all the cool kids are doing it and I'm obviously very impressionable. TTYN, or XoXo; the choices are endless.

Ciaran x

TBWA we love you!

Sorry for posting one after the other, its the only chance i get!

TBWA was a massive success! Well, not a massive success because the best team on the night were told they would be offered a placement and we didnt win, so not totally successful! (Well done Parisa and Dan btw).

We felt it was a really tough brief, mainly because of the large number of restrictions the client had placed on it, but Ciaran and I were happy with what we presented. Our 2 campaigns were funny and got across what we wanted to say and I think we really impressed them with our online and ambient stuff. I think we impressed ourselves with some of our problem solving skills.

It was also great to get inside the offices because not only was everyone massively helpful and friendly, but it looks incredible in there.

On a slight tangent, it's frustrating that the D&AD workshops have been so stop/start because it's a really good group of guys and girls and there's some really good work being produced. For the record, we love the Birmingham kids from the workshop, a) because they're all really nice guys and produce some fantastic work, and b) because they're the only guys who ever want to drink with us after the visits.

Also a big thanks to TBWA Manchester for providing us with beers which made my post-St. Pat's hangover feel amazing!





Peace out

Tom

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D&AD back on track!

Finally after a 2 week lay off, D&AD returns and we're off to TBWA Manchester in Didsbury!
Finally we get to check out the inside of that amazing looking church and finally meet the first real ad agency of the workshop. Absolutely no disrespect to Dinosaur or Love, I just think they would consider themselves Mixed Media Agencies rather than pure advertising!

So lets have a butchers at the brief...... Sell Carex handwash!
The brief in a nutshell sounds pretty interesting: Make people remember to wash their hands, highlight those with bad habits, promote the entire range of Carex products. Have fun with it, poke fun at the human condition! Great lets get cracking........

Lets first look at the mandatories......Thou Shalt use to the squirt characters, Thou shalt sign off mentioning the Carexperts!

Shit! This suddenly makes it a totally different project. At least, as our tutor picked up on immediately, this is the most true to industry brief we have recieved.

Peace out

Tom

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VISA! You've done it again! ....... or have you?

The new ad from Visa is fantastic, the music is upbeat and uplifting, the dancing keeps you hooked for the whole ad and the sell isn't too over the top or cheesey (except one cheeky flash of the visa card).
It's a great addition to their 'running man' campaign, 2 very memorable ads that make a great addition to Visa's portfolio and is a great dent on Mastercard's stronghold of campaigns.
I do, however, have one small grievance with the ad. It's already a music video for R2DJ, featuring a different soundtrack but features the same bloke on crutches dancing about! So what have they done, taken a great concept and slapped the Visa logo on at the end! Great idea to apply such a concept to the brand but is that easy!
I'm left wondering! Still love the ad though!



Thanks to YouTube for the link and credit to Saatchi and Saatchi for the ad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2G_uc8mcDDA is the link for those that need it!

Peace out

Tom

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I like Lurpak............I think?

I've not really posted any opinions of other agencies work so here goes.
I love this Lurpak TV spot by W+K, but for the life of me I don't know why. I've always really enjoyed their press ads, they make some pretty funny insights about enjoying Lurpak with all sorts of food but this is their first attempt at TV as far as i know. It reminds me of some of the Tropicana ads from a while ago but I really enjoy this, I think it's the narrators raspy accent though! He's like Morgan Freeman or Donald Sutherland, you could listen to him talk for days.



Thanks to W+K and YouTube for the link I nicked, I haven't figured out how to credit websites yet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbCxzuDQikQ

Peace Out

Tom

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2 WEEK POSTPONEMENT!

D & AD POSTPONED!

We've been given a 2 week 'break' from our D&AD workshop, which means we have 2 weeks to set ourselves our own briefs and try and work our arses off without a deadline! I fear this is one discipline we do not have, but lets give it a try anyways shall we!

In the meanwhile I've posted some of our work from our night with Love Creative. We produced some pretty polarised work, I think they liked the fact that we consciously tried to make 2 very different campaigns.

Thank You Carling!

A big shout to Carling for their great presence at the Carling Cup Final yesterday!

They managed to combine their sponsorship of the League Cup with some fantastic campaigns that got fans involved and even got some money for Charity.

Firstly they gave 100 (50 from Spurs and 50 from Utd) fans a chance to put their own messages on the adboards surrounding the pitch, which provided some funny moments in what was a very boring game.

Secondly they provided updates to the stadium announcing which team had the loudest fans. This was a novel idea, even though perhaps slightly pantomine, that would encourage both sets of fans to cheer louder for a bit of pride. What I didn't realise until afterwards though was that this was actually done in aid of a charity.

"In a world first, Carling has teamed up with Sky Sports to track sound levels from both ends of Wembley. Digital advertising boards and a giant screen in front of the Royal Box will be updated four times during each half to show which set of fans is making the most noise. Meanwhile, Sky Sports viewers will be able to see “Fan-o-Meter” readings during their live TV coverage.

The noise generated will raise valuable funds for the Bobby Moore Fund for Cancer Research UK with the donation rising in line with the volume level. Carling has pledged a sum of £10,000 but the figure will increase to £15,000 if the decibel level hits 100 dB and £20,000 if it tops 110 dB."

2 fantastic ways to use their ad boards and more great examples of Carling alligning themselves with the fans. It also provided more entertainment than the match which was shamelessly boring.

So thank you Carling! Great advertising, terrible lager!


Tom

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WEEK 2 - LOVE creative

Week 2 was at LOVE Creative. A big thank you to Simon and Harry for the night, for the workshop, for the advice and for the free beers.
It was a far more interesting brief selling the new menu at Little Chef, and there was some more great work on display (we'll be posting our efforts online ASAP!)
We produced 2 solid campaigns that split Ciaran and I, and Harry and Simon! One was described as "the campaign that best answers the brief" and the other was said to be "too much like a HP sauce campaign."

Due to a 2 week postponement we are now getting on with competition brief so we'll keep posting away!

Peace out

Tom
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Dinosaur - Cannibal Work

Here are our campaigns for the Cannibal "Charity" we made for Dinosaur. Some funny stuff here and hopefully we can have maccing these up but can't really see them fitting into our book. Shame coz we worked hard but oh well!
Some more criticism would have been appreciated but we move on!

WEEK 1 - DINOSAUR

First week of D&AD Ad workshop over!
A cheeky little visit to Dinosaur in the Northern Quarter. It was way shorter and informal than we thought, which is probably a good thing considering how nervous we both were.
Seemed really nice though and we were pretty happy with the work we showed, luckily no-one had the same ideas as us *massive sigh of relief* more criticism would have been appreciated though.

expensive beers in Walrus afterwards was nice, everyone in the group seems really cool and it's definitely going to be less intimidating showing our work to these people now. Although they all seem to be from BCU in Birmingham, feel like we've gatecrashed their little party. Ciaran and I are going to have to fly the Man Met flag on our own.

I'll post the pics of our work later, any comments from our massive following of avid online fans would be appreciated! ....anyone? ....no?

Peace out

Tom

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D&AD begins!

We've got onto the D&AD advertising workshop for the north of england! Whoop Whoop!
Our first session is this wednesday with Dinosaur, we've been given an arsehole of a brief so we've been to trying our hardest to sell a charity for cannibals. Looking forward to meeting the guys at dinosaur though, we've been told they're quite funky and some of their work is nice.
Terrified about the other kids being smarter, quicker and funnier than us though, i imagine the first crit will be 10 times scarier. I've posted some of Dinosaurs funnier work although i'm slowly learning that i've got the sense of humour of a 7yr old. Wish us luck

Peace out

Tom

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SAY WAT?!

My name is Tom Waters and my beardier associate is Ciaran Watkins, we are collectively known as Say Wat?! Creatives. We are the archetypal advertising students in search of our first crit, our first placement and maybe even a cheeky first job. We have dreams of fast cars, expensive japansese denim and big shiny offices, but there is a credit crunch and the 80's was nearly 20 years ago so we'll resort to working our arses off and taking what we can get.

We figured the best way to record our views, our inspirations and hopefully our shenanigans and adventures would be to blog. If some people want to read this then sweet, if nobody does then oh well?! but at least they can mark it at uni.

Hopefully this blog will take us through our final term and into the big bad world where we will encounter all sorts of adventures.

Peace out

Tom

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