Andy Ray Wong, Publicis & Hal Riney San Francisco

New York resident Andy Ray Wong moved all the way to California to do his internship for the Miami Ad School. He used to work as a designer for Mongoose Media, Carl Fisher Music and even american football-club The New York Jets. His internship at Publicis is his first experience with working in an advertising agency.

I have finally been invited by my former housemate Robin to write on his blog. It is an honor sir. I am currently interning at Publicis & Hal Riney as an Interactive Designer in San Francisco and so far its been a rewarding experience. I've previously worked in design studios and as a designer in a marketing department but, this is my first Ad Agency experience. It has given a better idea of a designers role in advertising and its been pretty awesome. I think the environment fits me and the work is just right.

I've been working on a few clients in telecommunications, a fitness chain and an alcoholic beverage (I don't think I can name names for now). The alcohol brief was done last week and was definitely the most fun because I was able to drink and work at the same time. Although I feel the work in my agency is relatively safe, they are slowly re-establishing themselves with clever work. With the guidance of Creative Director Roger Camp and some young talent I think the agency is poised to go back to its golden era when Hal Riney was still alive. My experience here has turned me on to more interactive work as I come from a print background. The biggest challenge that I like about interactive work is to take something electronic and make it tangible. Not physically but emotionally (sorry for sounding cheesy).

This past week has relatively been a bit slow considering that it's a small agency but from the start of my internship until last week it's been pretty busy. The agency has allowed me to be more than just a "comp bitch" and I am proud of the work I have done here. The highlight of my internship came this week as we were shooting a short film for G4 TV. How often does a person get to smash a beer bottle on somebody's head while on the job?

It seems on every Quarter Away at Miami Ad School I always find the most interesting places to live. Being that I am a minimalist by circumstance (because I'm broke), I found prime real estate in the Haight-Ashbury area of San Francisco. I share a basement apartment with a hippie and 2 acrobats that train at the Clown Conservatory a few blocks away. I agreed to live there under the condition that the landlord doesn't know of my residence because the apartment is illegal. Since my schedule works out I have never crossed paths with him. The space use to be a sex bed factory for making custom bondage beds and is considered industrial space therefore making it illegal. That means I am illegally living in an illegal place.

Gertjan Kuijvenhoven, Keesie Rotterdam

This extraordinary picture features one of the most promising young talents in Holland: Gertjan Kuijvenhoven. He works at agency Keesie in Rotterdam and before that he worked at XXS, for which he won a total of two silver EFFIE's (effectivity award in Holland). So Gertjan knows what effective work is about and this week he's telling us all about it.

We’re in a pitch for a really nice account and tomorrow, Thursday, we have to present our ideas. During this project I surprised myself that I could be really enthusiastic about a simple sales-promotion. No expensive photoshoot or film production, just ordinary selling. And the funny thing is: I really think this the best.

It gives you a strange feeling when strategy wins from creativity. I’ve always been a loyal supporter of creativity and argued a lot with the strategic department. They always come up with boring details and ask you to turn that pile of shit into a delicious apple-pie... But this time the creatives came up with a sales-promotion. They shouldn’t even think about these things, should they?

I think they should (did I say that?). The best creatives I worked with are very strategic. They don’t do an ad or commercial, they do a brand. They know how to strip down a brand, find the DNA and build it up with identical elements.

So this week underlined that sometimes it’s good to keep your creative mouth shut. Even if you already got the most brilliant commercial in your head that can deliver you Lions, Epica’s, One Shows and Pencils. If a sales-promotion is what will work… a sales-promotion it is.

This is not a sermon against creativity. It’s actually pro-creativity. I love creativity (watch my site www.ideaism.nl and you know that's for sure) and therefore I think that creativity should be used more efficiently. There shouldn’t be any loss. That’s why I ask all creatives to be a strategic as well and visa versa.

Daniel Serrano, Kolle Rebbe Hamburg

Half Equadorian, half Swiss, but living his whole life in Germany; his diverse nationalities are not the only thing that's making Daniel Serrano stand out from all other creatives. He's the type of art-director who could wake you up in the middle of the night because he wants to tell a concept and the only Miami Ad School student I know who managed to maintain a permanent relationship. 'Mister Ham' -as he was called by his fellow students- won various awards during his student time and he's still hungry for more.

Today it's wednesday, day number three of my week, and three more days until there they are: my first holidays since I'm working at Kolle-Rebbe in Hamburg. But already those three days showed pretty much what my "creative week" and even the first six months looked like.

Monday: Changing a photo briefing
Tuesday: Spending the whole day on the shoot.
Today: Meetings with an other photographer, drawingsome corrections into proofs, choosing locations for the next shooting, writing briefings for the after next shooting, and… taking a look on the material from Tuesday.

Being an art director at Kolle-Rebbe means producing a lot. Day by day. Always in a hurry, but – fair enough– no work on weekends and I most often leave the office when there is still daylight left.

Sorry… I've been a bit lazy. Two days have passed since I wrote the last lines. Too much work and the rest of the day I've spent with my girlfriend and her two kids. We live together as a family and I am happy that I have time to spend with them. Not every agency in Hamburg gives you the possibility to have a family life when you're not a creative director of CEO. Which
doesn't mean that it's not an uncreative agency. Three weeks ago I've won my first official nail at the german ADC for a viral that I did for YouTube Germany (one of our clients). It won in the category virals and got honored in the category cinema. That's a great start! But it's not Horst Schlämmer :(

This all makes me think of my think of my ex team partner Andy Tran who works as an AD for JvM in Hamburg. We've had a great time together at school and made some good stuff, but we've always been totally different personalities and now it's even the same with the job. He might spend about 90% of his time (that's just guessing) working on SOE-ideas (search of excellence) and maybe 10% daily business. I'm spending 95% of my time with daily business, but I am still so hungry for some award winning shit :)

But for now it's enough. It's the first day of my holidays now and I am looking forward to see great ads in Miami where you might find me at the beach tanning my brown belly.

Aarthi Gunnupuri, a TV Network* Mumbai

What happens if your dream job doesn't turn out to be your best job? Indian copywriter Aarthi Gunnupuri used to work for Leo Burnett and recently changed to work for a smaller agency owned by a big TV network. The agency is less known than Leo Burnett, but 90% of the time she spends on writing TV-commercials. Between all her strict deadlines she still managed to write an entertaining article of more than 1000 words.

I had landed a job I thought I would love. The big agency, big accounts, big job. But all I did at my dream job was sit in a corner, surf the net all day and get paid for it (I had three CD’s quit on me, one after the other for better career prospects). “Perfect arrangement,” I thought most of the times, but a tiny bit of me actually liked working. And it’s amazing how an atom-sized, motivated self that exists within me can defeat the 5 feet and 8 inches slacker that I am.

So I’ve moved from my dream job to a job that pays very well. A creative agency-cum- production house owned by a largish TV network, where I am just another cog in the wheel. But a very, very busy cog. Juggling 5-8 briefs a day. That’s a super-sized dollop of unpleasant reality for someone who spent all her time on tabloidwhore and pagesix.com for one whole year (I followed all the Acts of “The Disintegration of Britney Spears” up until last month, when I started this damn job).

And this is my week:

Monday Morning. I am the archetypical Monday-Morning-Blues sufferer and “Manic Monday” by Bangles is my anthem! Making matters worse was my aching back. I had spent all of Sunday in front of the computer, putting together some research for my NCD. Okay, I know what you’re thinking, I am not sucking up. I just happen to like research work ;)

Monday turns out to be the longest day of my week. A slim ray of happiness lights up my day when my CD appreciates a film that I have written (early Monday morning). But I am happier because after a long time I like what I’ve done too!!! Nobody’s opinion matters more than my own. I am like that only (A common Indian English phrase which roughly translates to “That’s the way I am”, but it loses its essence when put like that).

On Monday I also have a fight with my best friend (best friend???? Yes, I am 6 years old), that too on chat. There are only two places I hang out with my friends now-a-days, online or on the phone. And I feel drained out at the end of the day.

Tuesday Morning….errr…Noon. I wake up at 12:45 p.m. to a text from my best friend. She says she’s okay with the way I am and that she will stand by me…I should be super happy and reply instantly. Instead I go into a bizarre, manic mode. I am connecting my phone to my laptop, I had a deadline for 1 p.m. I overslept, it’s too late to get to work, so may be I can work on the brief and mail it from home in the next, uhhh, 15 minutes!!!

An hour later I am heading to work. So, did I manage to finish it? Well, let’s just say
from now on, I am not cocky enough to think that I can actually crack a TV Commercial in 15 minutes, script it out and send it across… while brushing my teeth, making coffee and battling a dismal internet connection!

After “facing the music” for my missed deadline, I am punished further with a long list of briefs. I panic, I wonder where I am headed in life, what I am doing with it. I can’t see clearly through this fog of briefs, deadlines, bosses and colleagues…. I want to write about love and friendships and cities and people and LIFE…not a promo for a Life Insurance. My intercom’s buzzing, it’s my boss…. “Aarthi, where’s the Life Insurance script…” And that’s the only bit of introspection I end up doing all week.

Wednesday, however, ends on a grand note. It’s my friend’s Birthday, we have to meet for dinner at 9:30 and at 8 p.m. I am still stuck with an idea I’ve been trying to crack for two days. I have a real crap idea…. but I don’t care, I just want to meet my friend. So I cross my fingers and I tell my CD the crap idea. She rejects it, as expected. “Okay,” I think, frustrated, “I am not going to be able to do this. Either I slink out of here and make it to dinner or cancel.” Just then something happens….an idea! I bounce it off my CD who says “yeah” excitedly….and I am smiling again.

I have 20 minutes to make it to dinner and am not stuck with a brief anymore. Yaaay! However, 20 minutes later, I find myself stuck in the infamous Bombay traffic.

Finally I meet my friend and we talk about advertising and life and how post-25 is not a good age to be a single woman in India. She’s an Art Director at ONM, Mumbai – a big, bitchy agency that’s NOT for the faint hearted. You are expected to produce brilliant work, spend about 22 hours a day in the agency while get paid about ¼ of what you would get anywhere else. But that way, they weed out anybody who’s not there for the love of advertising….I guess. There has to be a reason why they win more awards locally and internationally than all the other big agencies put together.

The whole of Thursday I slack off at work, I have 4 briefs, which I have the luxury to procrastinate on. So I do just that, surfing the net, pfaffing, drinking coffee in the canteen…ah bliss!

Friday is a little busy, with the pending briefs from the previous day. In the evening, I talk to my friends in Melbourne who’ve moved to agencies there, from Bombay. We talk about our jobs how it’s the same anywhere in the world… briefs, deadlines, ideas, rejections … and in some twisted sort of way…happiness!

* Name of the agency has been removed on request of the author.

Klaas Weima, Energize Utrecht

Building an online marketing agency succesfully is a creative profession as well. That's why this week Klaas Weima, managing director and founder of online marketing agency Energize, is in the picture. Klaas leads a team of 18 creative professionals in his office at the canals of Utrecht. The online campaigns made by Energize have lead to great results for top clients in Holland. Read about his week and you get a pretty good idea why he missed this week's deadline.

Yes. I failed. I know. I’ve let Robin down. Normally, I always make my deadlines. Impossible. How could this happen? Well, it has been a very short week. Short, but party-heavy, not much sleep and very intense. From celebrating Queens Day in Amsterdam to running 10 k’s straight near the canals in Utrecht (which as a result caused me to have a very sore back). Let’s give an overview.

Monday morning, 04:30 am. My girlfriend Esther got up in our hotel room in Zwolle and took a shower. Auch, that’s nasty early. She went to the distribution center of BroodjesExpress.com for our latest cross media campaign for investment banker BlackRock (see the site here). Over night, 1,600 sandwiches (in Dutch: “broodjes”) needed to be made and delivered to 1,600 stock advisors all over Holland. The sandwiches were ordered in a virtual boulangerie which we developed. The shop was online for only three days and resulted in over 80,000 pageviews by 2,200 targeted advisors (who received a sandwich bag on their desk with a unique code to order). 05.30 am. I turned on my MacBook and finished my article about my China Innovation Trip for The Dutch Journal of Marketing. Showed up in the office around 10.30 and worked until 23.00 (what a great night to plan our monthly management meeting!).

Tuesday, MarketingTribune (marketing periodical) called if I was interested in an interview about the BlackRock campaign. Sure. First, called the client to verify if they wanted to cooperate and, even better, have the interview planned the same day. Second, confirmed the interview to the reporter. Third, received a call from BlackRock explaining they could not cooperate, due to international PR policies. Fourth, called the reporter and explained. Fifth, called the PR agency and shared my frustration. Sixth, received an explanation and got a go-ahead for the interview. Seventh, called the reporter again and went to see her that afternoon. Nice.

That evening it was VrijMarkt (official kick-start of Queens Day) in Utrecht, means people dive in their cellars and lofts to check if they can find any old stuff to sell on the market. So did we. It was raining, but the beer and tunes from my SoundDock were prevailing. Within five hours we sold much of everything and went in to a pub for a beer. The next day, we took a train to Amsterdam to celebrate in the Jordaan. What a mad-house must Amsterdam look like if you never heard of Queens Day and arrive as a tourist. Open Bars, the canals full of beat boats and a lot of orange. That night we decided to live life and stayed at the Five Star Barbizon Palace Hotel. Frankly, quite handy that Esther used to work here.

On Ascension day, I visited the sky box of FC Utrecht for the soccer play-offs. I was invited by the Rabobank and had a great time in the stadium. I was surprised to see that all the billboards were still old-fashioned, using a roll-over technique for the different ads. Where are all the interactive and digital screens I’ve seen in Madison Square Garden and in Shanghai?

Friday, the agency was closed again but I decided to do some work. And received Robin’s mail reminding me on my obligation to write a post. Which I did.