The Creative Advertising Industry
with Wieden + Kennedy
Monday the 30th last week marked the start of my one week placement at the global advertising agency Wieden + Kennedy. After being treated to breakfast around the corner of the office, the morning started by sitting in on an editing suite where I met some of the members of the team. They were reviewing highlights sent to them by Formula 1, one of if not THE biggest client they have at them moment. I sat in and watched them go over the footage and decide on the most important events of the most recent race to be used in the promo vid for the up coming race in Spain. Within the first our of my time there, I was blown away by what they produce for their clients as well as the sheer scale of what they do on a day to day basis.
Wieden + Kennedy promo video to launch their campaign:
I was lucky enough to be shadowing the Creative Director who worked very hard to allow me to gain insight into as many aspects of the company as possible. My first day also included sitting on on their review of progression for the new Money Supermarket ad campaign. From this, I learned how they presented their ideas and process; using something called 'the wall'. It was very interesting to see how they operated as well as how they gave and received feedback.
Every meeting or review I sat in on over the course of the week involved an eclectic team of employees ranging from designers to account managers to creative directors. I was able to see how each job role, of which there were A LOT, worked together in making an otherwise daunting challenge much more manageable through team work and communication.
Throughout the week, I was also given the opportunity to begin research for a new project that the Creative Director I was shadowing wanted to explore. The brief included research into the amazing work of the White Helmets over in Syria. The idea in a nutshell was to champion their work whilst at the same time get people who may have lost interest or turned a blind eye to the conflict in the middle east to start talking about it more. I don't think explaining the brief in anymore detail would be a good idea for confidentiality reasons.
Documentary following the work and lives of The White Helmets that I referred to for research, available on Netflix:
Wednesday, I was taken offsite to an external editing suit with a free-lance motion graphic designer. In the afternoon, I met with a designer and had a chat with her about what she does. I am unsure whether I want to carry on being a designer and so this insight was very valuable in knowing more about what they are responsible for in the process. In the same afternoon, I met with Matt who is an Account Manager. Before this week, I had never heard of such a job role and this meeting ended up being one of the most valuable aspects of the experience. He explained to me what his job involved as well as what attributed you ned in order to do his job successfully. When he explained it all to me, it made me realise that I would be very well suited to a job that nature.
What I have realised this week is that I am not interested in the production side of design and have now learned that there is such a huge variety of job roles within the creative industry, and ones that are much more strongly suited to my interests, ambitions and skills. The meeting has given me something more specific to aim for as well as reconsider my MA option. This has confirmed that I will be looking for MAs that are more business focused. Every meeting I had, I made sure to ask their opinion on if an MA is necessary or beneficial.
Each person gave a slightly different opinion, however a majority said that it would be more beneficial to get stuck into the industry. The decision I made from these meetings and insights was that I am going to continue to research and eventually apply for an MA, however I am going keep all options open.
I aim to gather as much work experience this Summer as I can and get a wider scope of the creative industry as this week as extremely beneficial for me and so gaining more will only add to this. The rest of the week I carried on with my own brief, sat in on more reviews and met mine of the team.
I tried my best to get noticed, however this was a hard ask considering there are nearly 200 people working their. I managed to gather a few contacts which I will be emailing as well as some studios to get in touch with. I will be emailing each person I met at the office to say thank you and hopefully start up conversations with. I will try my hardest to get invited back to W+K through persistent emailing. They also offer an internship through a programme over Summer which I will try to get involved in.
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