moving between account management and creative......

 

You're at a BBQ, when asked, you say "I work" it's better than saying "I don't work".

When asked, you clarify and say "In Direct Mail" : about the same amount of charm as a smallpox virus.

If to that question you replied "I work on an ad account on beer, a car, an airline..." which do you think will impress?

Nevertheless, a job is a job, and there are many I'm sure who churn out the leaflets that Turks deliver on the weekends through your letter box, work as these drudges. Still to have a job these days as a drudge is still a noble aspiration. The T Mobile rate cards, the pizza listings, the double glazing leaflets, Cotton Traders, even Penhaligon's- bought once before you were born and still getting brochures and mailers- and all the things that all go DIRECT-LY into the bin.

There on a beach lie two people side by side staying at the same hotel. Both can afford a nice holiday, you can't tell which is which, but one of them will love geting back to the office, and one of them will look upon it as just a job.

Come on, tell me which child is saying to its parents "One day, I'm going to do nice leaflets!". But enough of spite about the Direct Mail business.

Get in as anything- then sneak something better under the nose of a CD, if it really better than what he gets, I'm sure you could switch- what's the worse that could happen? That he'll say no. In the meantime of waiting for a CD to answer you, let alone invite you for an interview, hell could freeze over (remember this is Britain). Things are slow, substandard, and expensive. Learn all you can from every single department, take it all in, it all goes into building up the whole picture.

To hear that an agency is still having a graduate scheme in the current climate is a miracle. Take it. Take it and say thank you.

 I'm not sure the lines haven't already been blurred so much that it really doesnt matter whether it's advertising pure or direct marketing these days though. Would you not take a job on those grounds? I don't think you'd ever meet any problems trying to cross over from direct marketing into advertising later on either, for the same reason. Good luck with the application, and be pleased you even got the offer!

No I don't think so.

Once you're in one stream it is difficult to move into another one. Fish can't fly.

To move from a provincial agency to one in the big city is very, very difficult. And showing nice ads that are for companies and products no one in the big city has ever heard of, just doesn't work. And having suitcases full of promos, leaflets and mailers or even digital will not impress anyone in a real ad agency.

Blurred lines? There's now never been more fragmentation and specialization of all the different sectors. No wonder no one knows what's going on. In days of old, there was one hand firmly on the control stick, now there are little specialists and consultants all over the place, some doing btl, some doing digital, some doing roi, some promos,some events, whatever.

If you don't believe me, and have some time and sweat to kill, go with an events portfolio and sit in the reception of say- Saatchis (any one of them) or Ogilvys, or JWT and see how far it'll get you. Or take your provincial bag and try and get an interview at one of the big shops.

Take it as one who knows, because I've been there brother.

I had a Civ. Eng. Degree and a spec. porty. So I became a an account exec. at BNNR Needham and added 2 years experience to my ad CV whilst haunting the creative dept. in the evenings. Also attending creative seminars run by young creatives like Steve Henry (it was a while ago). Then I took a risk and quit to make it in creative. Dorland needed a copywriter on the Caterpillar account. I knew big toys, how accounts worked and had the porty to prove it. Got hired and a year later fired (happened a lot subsequently) when a new CD arrived and 'I didn't fit with the culture'. 15 years later I was co-owner and CD of one of Asia's most respected indies, with Christian Dior, Microsoft, SAAB, Porsche & NWA as clients. Get in any way you can. Then you can figure your next move. Trust no one and always be ready to leap. There is no loyalty:) 'Course, the 'system' may be a lot different to then. But at least you're young, which has to be one point in favour. Whilst proving what you can do is not as important as who you might have been in the room doing it for, who you know still seems the best way forward.

Take the account management job. A copywriter would never use a lower case i when he meant I nor would he start a sentence without a capital letter.  

'Take the account management job. A copywriter would never use a lower case 'i' when he meant 'I'. Nor would he start a sentence without a capital letter.' Actually... that first job I had at Dorland included writing the body copy for a senior creative who ''only crafted headlines". I'd cut him some slack 'chatting' on a blog (it's very easy to let a typo - and most writers surely do not always see those they pen - slip by on-screen, but agreed in the application or porty it would crank an eyebrow. Mind you, with all the sign-off systems that should be in place to oversee work, if the concept and line is sheer genius I might still be tempted. Always worth getting a mate to have a gander first, for sure. Not a luxury most have here.

Hey, Peter, I was only pulling his leg. A kind of fatherly joke with a jag that may just help him sharpen his pencil a bit before going off to pursue his dream job in advertising. If you want to be a writer, you have to be careful what you write.

As for headline writers who are too lazy to write body copy, surely they're a thing of the distant past?

All true, to be sure. Even now, for really important posts (especially those I initiate) I try and run by Word/spellcheck first before cut and pasting in... if I have the time. 'As for headline writers who are too lazy to write body copy, surely they're a thing of the distant past?' I'd imagine. I came in at the end of a different era. Account execs were no longer going out of windows but inanimate objects were still flying about. I'm sure it's all much more professional now.

Alan: "As for headline writers who are too lazy to write body copy, surely they're a thing of the distant past? " You'd think so, but I had one as recently as 4 years ago. Really lovely book, beautifully crafted words. But he really couldn't (or wouldn't) get past the (exquisite) headline. At one point I was writing his body copy – I wouldn't mind but I was his CD (and from an art direction background, too)! Anyhoo, had to fire him. It always feels bad having to do that, but he was going through a hard time following a divorce. Anyway, he was a man about it and is no a Psychologist.