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Features

Over promise, under deliver. How lazy clients kill campaigns.

by Magnus Shaw. A couple of years ago an ailing roadside restaurant chain called in a radical TV chef to boost their menu and therefore their revenues. They refurbished some tired looking outlets, hired new people and ran a fairly hefty marketing...

Features

Off and On; The twisting tale of the ITV logo.

by Magnus Shaw. Perhaps surprisingly, there's only been an official ITV logo since 1989. Until then, the network was divided into autonomous regions, each with their own brand. If you're in your thirties or forties you'll remember your own - Thames...

Features

The good book. The problem with a copywriter's portfolio.

by Magnus Shaw. Here's a problem which only came to my attention this week. Actually I think it has been lingering in the back of my mind for a couple of decades, but it only came into focus a couple of days ago. Because I write columns here and...

Features

5 Minutes with... Sarah McCartney - Copywriter and Perfumer

by John Fountain. Head writer at Lush from 1996 to 2010, Sarah is now Head of Ideas at the writing agency Afia. As an author she has penned 'The Fake Factor', 'Online Marketing in 7 Days (for people who can't avoid it any longer)', and '100 Great...

Features

Automatic. Can a robot do a creative job?

by Magnus Shaw. The last time I worked on a major print campaign, we employed a piece of software to automate the production process. It was a clever bit of kit. Once the parameters had been set by a designer (ad sizes, logo clearance, calls to...

Features

5 Minutes with... Marc Bessant, Real World Records

by John Fountain. Marc is the in-house designer and creative director at Real World Records, the label founded by WOMAD and Peter Gabriel. Over the past 12 years he has been responsible for over a hundred CDs, vinyl sleeves, T-shirts, flyers,...

Inspiration

#Trends. When technology gets creepy.

by Magnus Shaw. I'm going to write about a new piece of technology, but it will involve some intimate body stuff. I'm pre-supposing you guys are broad-minded enough to handle references to sexy-time, but I'm a card-carrying, awkward, repressed...

Features

How to... Work from home effectively

by Ashley Morrison. One of the perks of being a freelancer is the ability to work from home. I love it. No arduous daily commute (and related expenses, obviously), no noisy work colleagues, and seriously good coffee on tap when I want it. But in...

Leaders

Williams F1 picks Rufus Leonard for digital brief

Legendary British Formula One team Williams F1 has appointed digital agency, Rufus Leonard, to lead its online transformation, creating an entirely new user experience across multiple digital channels. The project covers strategy, UX, design and...

Features

Why creative jobs aren't always a bowl of cherries.

by Magnus Shaw. I work as a copywriter and blogger. I also do something I call consultancy - advising people on their writing, marketing or branding, really. Sometimes, I produce or present radio programmes too. These are all very enjoyable and...

Features

Erase and rewind - Is TV advertising a broken model?

Watching the ridiculously good 'Homeland' last week, I was struck by how absorbed and tense I was - transfixed as Carrie ducked and hid to avoid her pursuers in the alleyways of Beirut. The aroma of exotic spices, heat and sandy dust almost filled my...

Features

The best a man can get: Ten milestone moments in advertising history.

1. 79 A.D. Billboards in Pompeii Ah! The glory of the ancient Roman empire. Olive skinned, muscular men striding the avenues, clad in togas, debating the great issues of the day. Beautiful, raven-haired maidens bearing baskets laden with the...

Features

How to... Write a great radio ad

by John Fountain. Tony Hertz is an award winning radio producer. Over the past 40 years there have only been two D&AD Black Pencils for radio and Tony has won both of them. Today he runs Hertz Radio, but many years ago he ran a company called The...

Inspiration

CP Loves... What we saw at the London Design Festival (2012)

by Jessica Hazel Last Thursday we wandered around the Brompton district of London Design Festival 2012, sampling beers, cheese and pretzels and an array of up and coming and established designers newest ideas. Here are a few of our...

Workshop

Opinions - Must haves? Ten products they told us we needed (but we didn't).

by Magnus Shaw Advertising is accused of many sins, but the greatest - or at least the most frequently mentioned - is the industry's habit of selling a supine populace an endless stream of products it neither wants or needs. Now, "endless stream" is...

Workshop

Opinions - Help yourself. Is it ever okay to nick an idea?

by Magnus Shaw An enormous advertising company (Leo Burnett) and a small creative film company (Asylum) have had a difficult couple of weeks. It's a tangled tale but essentially Asylum produced a film for the McDonald's charitable foundation for Leo...

Inspiration

CP Loves...Toilet humour

by Ashley Morrison When I went to Sketch in London's Conduit Street recently for a rather posh birthday tea, the last thing I expected to be talking about over my cup of Darjeeling and my strawberry tart were the toilets. Usually, the only time I...

Workshop

Opinions - Brand GB. As seen from USA

by John Fountain I was in the US during the entirety of the Olympic Games. As I wasn't able to secure any tickets to any of the events I couldn't see any particular reason for sticking around. So me and my mob headed in the opposite direction to...

Inspiration

Opinions - The sensory overload inside American ad agencies

by John Fountain During my career I've had to come up with ideas in all sorts of shabby environments. For a year I worked out of a garage in Paddington. While in Singapore my office was on the second floor of a very dodgy shopping precinct. And...

Workshop

Opinions- Your move. Losing your job before it has even begun.

Writing in The Drum this week, Phil Haselhurst describes how his determination to climb the career ladder brought him to grief. He had a decent job with an agency he liked - good team, lots of experience, satisfying work. But, not unreasonably, he...

Workshop

Opinions - Work's A Beach

by Ashley Morrison When I was on holiday in France recently, I couldn't help but envy the people who worked on the vineyards we visited. What a great life that must be. Well, for the owners if not the labourers, anyway. They get to live in some of...

Workshop

Opinions - "Could you just ...?" What does a copywriter actually do these days?

by Mgnus Shaw My first gig as an advertising copywriter was in 1994, at an agency on Fleet Street. I was writing the radio scripts and the run-of-the-mill press ads nobody else really fancied.The range of clients was impressively wide - from Virgin...

Workshop

Opinions - What if a creative doesn't feel creative?

by Ashley Morrison I've been working very hard every single day for the past couple of weeks. Till silly o'clock. Being freelance, when the work comes along, I don't really feel able to say no. After all, in the current economic climate, to trot out...

Inspiration

CP Loves... Jeremy Deller's 'Sacrilege'

by Ashley Morrison. Tempting as it was today to blog about the Olympic Opening ceremony (you've gotta love that James Bond bit with Her Maj, haven't you?) I've decided to talk about another round-the-country event which is taking place at the moment...

Workshop

Opinions - Fun and games. The Korean flags and other Olympic PR disasters.

by Magnus Shaw Yesterday, all the blood, sweat and tears came to a shuddering climax. The London Olympic Games 2012 kicked off with a women's football match and a resounding blunder. Confusing one flag for another must be very easy to do. So many...

Workshop

Opinions - Fancy a fight? Join LinkedIn

by Ashley Morrison But not just any sort of fight. LinkedIn doesn't provide a sort of Brad Pitt / Edward Norton-inspired forum or portal where the first rule about Online Fight Club is that you don't talk about Online Fight Club. (Sorry if you...

Workshop

Opinions - Sharpe practice. Can we be creatives without sounding like idiots?

by Magnus Shaw If you've been following the BBC's peerless Olympic comedy "2012" you'll be more than familiar with Siobhan Sharpe and her empty-headed, rapid-fire marketing eyewash, delivered to perfection by the superb Jessica Hynes. Anyone who...

Workshop

Opinions - Talk yourself up, if you dare

by Ashley Morrison I'm very happy to take advice from people. The main caveat is that it has to be from someone who knows what they're talking about. The second caveat is that they have to practise what they preach. Below is a genuine profile from...

Inspiration

Trailblazers: Steve Martin - The comic who went somewhere new.

by John Fountain I've just been reading Steve Martin's autobiography - Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life. Although I knew that he was a funny guy, I wasn't aware how alternative his act was back in the 70's, or how creative his writing. When he began...

Inspiration

How Creativepool helped me achieve a dream - Jo Clarke

By Jo Clarke. ABOUT JO CLARKE Jo is a candidate on Creativepool. With the help she found on the site, and one of our bloggers Magnus Shaw, she has achieved her dream of becoming a copywriter. Here she recounts her journey... "I am a...

Workshop

Opinions - A quick guide to being made redundant.

by Magnus Shaw Throughout this increasingly insane financial crisis I have worked as a freelance. Disadvantage: I have to find my own work and therefore income. Advantage: I can't be made redundant. However, I have faced the redundancy...

Workshop

Opinions - Getting a mouthful. The ten most complained-about ads of all time.

by Magnus Shaw Kentucky Fried Chicken may well be an assault on the digestion and troubling to the waistband, but it seems its advertising is also offensive to a cross section of the viewing public. The Advertising Standards Authority has announced...

Workshop

Opinions - Online Logo Contests, the pros and cons.

by Jessica Hazel Online Logo Contests have been popping up all over the internet for quite some time now. They allow businesses and individuals to offer a set fee, or prize, for what they consider to be the best logo design. Hundreds of amazing...