advertising: it’s the journey, not the destination
Ok, so that’s not completely true. HOWEVER…
The destination of course is important, but in my opinion, the process and strategy is what constitutes a quality campaign.
With this said, I have to say I am quite happy with team Kiwi’s process & brand strategy for our Sameunderneath campaign:
1st brainstorm Sameunderneath team Kiwi
1st week Sameunderneath brainstorm – target audience
Sameunderneath product benefit and target audience
So much more – week 1
Sameunderneath positioning statement – week 1
Sameunderneath brand values week 2
brand values Sameunderneath – week 2
Sameunderneath idea mind vomit – week 2
connecting ideas – week 3
Sameunderneath final pitch layout – week 6
Sameunderneath speech layout – week 6
(just a tasting, there is a whole heck of alot more concepting and brainstorming photos to come…)
final COLAB eval.
I still can’t believe COLAB is over!!
Overall, great first year! As this was the first year, I am extremely impressed with the program as a whole – congrats to the CoLab board for bringing such a great idea to life!
With that said, and with a few days to let it all sink in, here’s my evaluation:
COLAB Program-excellent!!!! – the best way to meet a ridiculous amount of industry professionals, fellow students, network like crazy, see the inside of multiple agencies and create a campaign with fellow interns – in six weeks.
Length-it’s got to be longer. I know scheduling was an issue; however, 9 weeks would be ideal – it was challenging to take on projects at the agencies with only 8 days. Aside from that, with all the networking events, get togethers, parties, etc. – there’s not enough time to take it all in in six weeks…
Time Commitment- interns need to know the commitment they will be making with this program – between work, interviews, networking events, intern project, etc. – there literally was no time for anything else. People need to know this and I don’t think future participants should not have outside work or school – it can be done, but A. the student won’t have the full COLAB experience, and B. that means the work usually piles up on those only doing COLAB – all or nothing, baby!
Team- I spent a ridiculous amount of time with Kiwi, but did not have much opportunity to interact with Lattice – next year it would be nice to have more organized events to bring both teams together.
Work- Aside from the help we all get from our agencies, to honestly represent the talents of the COLAB interns and to establish a level playing field, all work should be produced the COLAB interns!
Background: Interns need to have some background with advertising/branding/marketing. Without this, it makes it difficult to incorporate strategy and all the psychology, sociology, anthropology, philosophy that is so incredibly vital to developing a campaign not only in the business and marketing plan, but in the art direction, copywriting, graphic designing, media buying, etc.
Intern Roles: an idea for next year’s positions:
Account Manager
Brand Strategist
Media Buyer (if there is a budget)
Art Director
Copywriter
In terms of the intern project…
First and foremost, I couldn’t have asked for a better company to create a campaign for! Good job! (=
I would suggest that next year’s COLAB have clear objectives. Because this year there were not clear objectives and no budget whatsoever, both teams really built different campaigns. I can’t speak on behalf of Lattice, but Kiwi established the campaign objectives and strategy based on primary and secondary research. It seems that Kiwi built more of an awareness campaign while Lattice built more of an advertising campaign.
Budget: In terms of budget, we didn’t get one. After speaking with the Sameunderneath marketing coordinator, Kiwi determined that a budget of $150,000 – $300,000 would be realistic. Lattice created a campaign of $1.5 million. This doesn’t mean that one team is right and one team is wrong because we were told to not worry about the budget; however, in order to provide a level playing field, the teams need to be working with the same budget.
Distribute the marketing plan a week beforehand, and have the marketing coordinator be involved. As Chris from Fish explained, it’s the job of the owner aka Ryan to have the big ideas and it’s the job of the marketing coordinator to shape the ideas into a plan that is realistic and affordable – if in future years the business actually wants to use 100% of one of the campaigns, it would be beneficial to involved the marketing coordinator.
Winner-This is a great element of the program as competition naturally encourages higher quality work. HOWEVER, to fine tune for next year, it needs to be established exactly what the team is winning (I’m couldn’t tell you that for this year!) Is the team winning for the best overall idea? Most realistic plan? Best ability to show the spirit of COLABoration? Best presentation? Best research? Best strategy? Best art direction? Best original work? Best use of resources?
With these suggestions, I’d like to reemphasize how ridiculously proud I am of both Kiwi and Lattice – everyone worked extremely hard and produced exceptional work. Beyond that, it is not only our work, our time and our effort, but that of everyone who took time to help us at all of the agencies. Without them, their ideas, their workspace, and their dedication to making this internship a success, we wouldn’t have been able to create such impressive campagins.
On a personal level, I have to say I am so impressed with everyone on Team Kiwi. Everyone pulled their weight. We were all dedicated and worked together [even though that frequently took longer than necessary due to our tangents and inability to focus for more than five minutes (= ] We made sacrifices and helped each other out so that we could create the best campaign possible. We all have extremely different ideas and backgrounds which at first I have to say I felt might be a problem; however, on the contrary, we were able to take our strengths and put them together in order to get the best out of everyone’s specialties. Communication, dedication, and commitment, respect and most importantly the spirit of COLABoration was there with everyone on team Kiwi which made all the difference in the world. Whether or not we knew how to do something or find some sort of information, from the initial brainstorming, to the research and strategy, to the artwork and photography, and recap final video – everything was done by the five of us and I’m really impressed with all the skills that were brought to the team by each team member.
Again, great job to both Kiwi and Lattice, to PAF and all the wonderful agencies who participated!! eROI, Anvil, Fish Marketing, Asterix Group, Livengood I Nowack, Grady Britton, HMH, CMD, The New Group, Ascentium, Henry V, Pop Art, NORTH, ID Branding, Coates Kokes – thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!
Also, a giant thank you to: Jamie Sexton, Tom Bennett, Leticia Kleinberg, Becky Mairs, Jenn Mele, Lindsay Magnusen, Mason West, Ilona Berry, Hallie Janssen, Heather Dougherty, Maureen Pimley, and Chris Stewart for making this program happen! Also a special thank you to Bram Pitoyo and Amber Case for keeping track us of during these crazy six weeks!
Last but not least, the wonderful COLAB-ers: Christine Vo, Mary McPherson, Bryan Davidson, Luke Rolka, Megan Nuttall, Heather Schwartz, Melissa Casillas, Allison McKeever, Whitney Bard – congrats you guys!!! Way to make COLAB year one one to remember!!!!
words of widsom from James Rice
This past Friday was the interns last official Friday work session – this week we used the space of Coates Kokes! Coates Kokes was wonderful – accommodating, friendly, hospitable, etc. From the time I was there, I got a good feeling about the company, culture, values, culture, collaboration, ambiance, etc. Of course I’d have to spend more time there to know for sure, but overall – good experience!
James Rice and Mason West from Ascentium as well as Amber Case and Bram Pitoyo spent some time with each team in the afternoon – specifically, James spoke to us regarding presentation as our final pitch is this Friday.
Some advice James had regarding pitching to clients:
- Remember to not talk over the client’s head – you know this stuff inside and out, but do they?
- Be organized!
- Own the room – you’ve done the research and put the time in – now own it!
- Be passionate – live it! love it!
- Find a way to people to think uniquely
- Scared/nervous? Get over it! be proud of you strategy / work
- Don’t increase # of slides to decrease bullets per page…
- Make it as real and engaging for the client as possible