Geek chic.

Its not like we are geeks, but we love drive-by's on the elderly, hence we are clammy with anticipation for GTA 4.

Make them want in.

We have been bothering you with our goings on for a while now and have just realized that we have yet to upload a video.
Having thought about it for a while we decided not to upload the video we made of our break-dancing monkey (named MJ) but to show something relevant.


This is a great viral that has been around on the blog circuit for a while now, its a viral from 'Ray-Ban'. We love viral marketing as you can let your imagination run wild, there are less rules and Idea is king. The interesting aspect about this viral is it leaves you asking the question 'is it real?'- we one day wish that a brief like this lands on our table so we can go proper mental! The thought of making thousands of people smile rubs us the right way.



(Oh, and here's MJ pulling some serious shapes)

Idea Déjà vu

After thinking about something, for weeks even, its a great feeling to finally have a eureka moment. You have an idea that you believe in and you think everyone else will too. If you then find out it has been done, its extremely demoralizing. 

Here is Tom and Joe's 3 step plan for getting back on the horse:

1: When you get that heart-drop-feeling, try and exit the building without a meltdown. 

2: Lie down in a darkened room and repeat, "its only advertising" whilst enjoying your favorite sandwich. 

3: Do something else, waste an hour, on something like this ...and come back to it.

Plug: Johnson Banks

We read Mr. Banks' blog every week, although its not strictly about advertising its a useful and interesting insight into the industry weather you're in it or not.

Check this entry about recent trends in advertising. 

Keep calm and carry on.

A common mistake we both make when trying to answer a difficult brief is to panic.
It’s natural starting out that you will feel the pressure, trying to impress your boss with big and wonderful ideas, and when they don’t come the panic button is automatically pushed. We have been through this process a number of times in our short time in the industry, and have found that it’s totally the wrong way to go about the creative process.
A great book that explains this process is ‘A Technique for Producing Ideas’ by James Young, it’s a short book written in essay form that remains a bible for lots of young creative teams (its only £3).
Or if your really struggling to come up with ideas we find that a quick game of ‘Pro Evolution Soccer’ works a treat. This can be found in most retail outlets, Ronaldo is well good on it!

"Hey guys, what does treatment mean?"

We ask what something means when we don't know. We are often met with 'how did these guys get in here' faces when we do, but we figure its worth the embarrassment not too look like an ass later on.
We didn't know what the flip the following words were.

'Treatment'- On receiving the idea for a e.g. advert, a director will explain how he will shoot the film, you might send the your idea to multiple directors too see witch ones vision is closest to what you want.

'Lorem ipsum'- When you lay out an ad you might use Loreum Ipsum instead of your real copy (its basically gibberish in latin) too judge what it will look like purely artistically. Check out this Loreum Ipsum generator. 

A 'vignette'- Is basically one shot in a film, when the scene changes quickly to a totally different one. For an example of an advert with multiple vignettes see here: Advert.

Above the line/Below the line- This is the difference between mass media ads (TV Radio etc) aimed at everyone (above the line), viruses the more focused means like direct mail and events etc (below the line). Wanna read more?

Eyeballs: Amount of people looking at your ad.

Scamp: Very quick drawing of an ad.

I dunno why some people have to complicate things.

up on the roof

A view from our roof in Delhi.
Click to enlarge and scroll.

Hey Whipple/Read this!

In the short time we have been cruising around the
adverting industry we have been recommended to read
many books, one that comes up more often than others
is ‘Hey Whipple Squeeze This’ by Luke Sullivan.
We have both read it and have nothing but rave reviews
for it. Weather you’re starting out or experienced in
advertising (or creative thinking in general) its well
worth a read.
It touches on all aspects of advertising, from writing
great copy, directing your own advert to dealing with
annoying clients.
Put it this way Joe (one part of joetom.com) cant even
read, and he enjoyed it.
Buy it now………

Where we live.

View Larger Map

This is where we sleep, eat and watch more English football than we can shake a toblerone at.
Not a bad view either.

Risky Indian street food - A case study.

This delicious snack was perhaps the riskiest food ever to pass my western lips, considering i was visited my The Ambassador of Delhi-belly in the middle of last night. I have to write this without the help of Joe, he is in hospital seeing a Doc about his 'situation'...i consider it a right of passage, we have to break in our pathetic english stomach linings so we can enjoy the staggeringly tasty food here properly.
I hope this isn't my last post for a while.

Title: No title.

WK have confirmed our suspicions that the old: "So witch one you is the copywriter?" question...is indeed, outdated.
At this company no one has titles, people have roles but having this grey area people aren’t RESTRICTED by there job titles.
The metaphor used by a certain senior member here is: "Its like playing football, and you pass it around until someone picks up the ball and does something amazing with it."
This way of organizing themselves translates to us as a creative team also, they would never expect us to pigeon hole ourselves, witch works for us.
Love from,
Ronaldo and Rooney.

Getting creative in India with Michael Jackson.

Second day in India, we met this lovely fellow named Michael Jackson, he had some serious moves and was obviously no amateur when it comes to cutting shapes on the dance floor.
We purchased Michael Jackson for a small fee of 50 Rupees, he now lives with us in our apartment. Michael's dancing days are long since behind him as we have groomed him into a sort of copy-writing guru, he helps us out from time to time.

If you feel bad for smiling, donate: http://www.worldwildlife.org/

Delhi belly.

First day here, having no experience of the culture/city/transport/laws we decided the thing to do was try and see as much as we could in a day. We went to many places of worship and even Ghandi's grave! But the only spiritual experience we had was on the toilet...

More soon.

Goodbye to/from Underground.

Dearest underground, it really has been amazing.
Thanks for everything.

And to non-undergrounders, if you are every lucky enough to work in a company like this, you will get up in the morning looking forward to the commute.

Valentines sucks.

What’s love got to do with it?
Valentine’s Sucks explores a few heart-felt truths about the self-proclaimed day of love.
This started for an idea for a mailer and turned into an entire campaign.
So like check it out or something.

valentinessucks.com

Boardroom Breakthrough.

Our creative director was impressed with our vast knowledge of strategy in the business place.
Franco Farrell: "These boy's have come here to bring new ideas to the table, and i have to be honest...im impressed."

Were off to India.

On February 29th we are shipping out to sell our brain juice to WK in New Delhi for 8 weeks. Cash back.

'check it don't wreck it'

Where we be --->http://www.wk.com

Placement 2: Underground BLC

Underground BLC. We are spending two months here, surrounded by the friendliest set of people in London.
Really laid back atmosphere mixed with a heads down creative attitude!
Table football, darts and drinking competitions are rife in the underground office - creating a compelling atmosphere, ideal for two young interns to express there creative ambitions, or whatever mate.

dixonbaxi @ BD4D

Felt like a right pair of groupies watching dixonbaxi at this gig.
Would highly recommend BD4D, a wide selection of speakers ranging from commercial graphic design to a improvised piano/synth set. Cracking stuff.

James Hill <---for the fantastic photo.
Check out BD4D: http://www.bd4d.com/

dixonbaxi

Starting our year at dixonbaxi was a massive eye opener; spending just two weeks with this pair of hugely inspirational people focused the pair of us. Although it wasn’t strictly advertising it was amazing to see the two of them at work, we learned a lot in our short time there.
A perfect starting point for the year.


The guys do amazing work, check it out: dixonbaxi.com