If you’ve been on our homepage this week, you may have noticed our new banner, which illustrates our competitive advantage message. If you’re interested in how the image of Frank and his giant prize winning marrow was created, here’s the photographer Stephen Shepherd’s account:

“I had to source a giant marrow, so instead of getting a model maker to mock something up, I went to the Royal Bath and West show. They have a giant vegetable competition, where I managed to talk to the winner of the Giant Marrow category. He’d grown it purely for the show and was more than happy to sell it.

At this size they are not good for eating and this way he didn’t have to worry about transportation and disposal.

Because the marrow has very heavy, we had to lighten it up a bit by cutting a large section from the back and hollow it out, so what you see in the picture is a prize winning, giant marrow shell.

My feeling is that although hollow, it still looks heavy. A light polystyrene model (and I have seen them) just doesn’t look right because the human model finds it hard to make us believe the object is heavy and real.”

I especially like the glint in Frank’s eye! He certainly knows something we don’t, and that’s his competitive advantage.

To find out more about Stephen’s work, please visit his photographer’s website.

In this challenging economic climate, we all want to cut costs. So when companies find the cost of author’s amendments on marketing projects mounting up, they often think that bringing elements of design and artwork ‘in-house’ is the answer. Marketing executives and IT workers are expected to pick up the work in the absence of a proper creative studio. Companies may see this as a logical way to cut costs, but they don’t understand the potential risks. Nor does this approach address the real issues at hand such as time wasting work practices.

Poor work can damage your reputation
It’s true that given enough time and effort, an able person can learn how to use design software. However, creativity, design know-how and the technicalities of producing artwork are very specialist areas. Handing these responsibilities to an unqualified marketing executive or IT worker invariably leads to poorly designed and badly executed work, which can seriously damage a company’s brand and reputation.

The wrong template
Even artwork that has been ‘templated’ by a professional designer doesn’t guarantee a high quality end product. Designers and artworkers do a lot of work behind the scenes making sure final artwork is good enough to print correctly. Their experience of print and working with printers ensures that the finished item is of the highest quality. Having to reprint work because of artworking mistakes can have huge cost and business repercussions. Also, when the content doesn’t fit the template, non-designers struggle to find the best layout solutions, resulting in naive errors.

Don’t distract your marketing department
Designers have the enviable ability to make the difficult look easy. They’ll come up with brilliant ideas on the spot and implement them at breathtaking speed – valuable skills that are the result of talent and many years of experience. They do this day-in, day-out because it’s their job, and they take great pride in it. Marketing executives and IT workers also have important roles, which require their full attention and commitment. Expecting them to become professional designers and artworkers only serves to distract them from their priorities.

Address the real issue – amendment management
The decision to bring author’s amendments in-house without qualified creative resources doesn’t address the real reasons for amendment costs racking up. We all expect some degree of changes on a job, but many author’s amendments can be avoided if the client’s internal processes are well planned and managed. Timescales should be agreed and adhered to. Ground rules and working methods need to be established before any work commences. All contributors, be they content creators or proof readers, need to be well managed. The project manager must employ the same single-minded approach to both the tiny details and the big picture. Marketing agencies have had to become very good at managing these sort of processes internally in order to maximise their profit. We can share these methods with our clients to help them reduce costs and secure relationships.

Play to people’s strengths
By ensuring that all the elements are as close to being right before the designer starts the job, amendments can be reduced. Author’s amends that are straightforward and easy to understand (marked-up PDFs or clearly typed instructions, not unreadable hand-written scribbles please!) can be made quickly and cost-effectively. Plus, they can be carried out by the professionals, which means they are done right, allowing everyone to get on with what they do best.

One of the writers that we work with has some great regular tips at The Oxford Word Barber. His observations are sublime, his content is funny as well as educational and he makes complete sense… sometimes!

On this day that has been gripped by the passing of two stars, namely Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett, we are surrounded by a media explosion, mass public reaction – not to mention of course the loss that two families have to cope with.

But what we have to do is put all of this in perspective. Get a grip and learn from this – as so eloquently put in an e-newsletter today from the leading catering and hospitality publication, and I quote:-

“I’m starting with the man in the mirror; I’m asking him to change his ways; And no message could have been any clearer; If you wanna make the world a better place; Take a look at yourself and then make a change. As the world digests the passing of Michael Jackson, the restaurant industry is also being asked to look inwardly and make a change on the controversial issue of service charge…….” News Editor, 26 June 2009.

Phew..er, a joke, surely? Afraid not.

So, after the devastating Italian earthquake, did they make comparisons to the downfall in popularity of Italian restaurants and the need to up their game?

What utter guff.

We’re really pleased to announce that we’ve been nominated for the Best Direct & Promotional Strategy at this years’ Drum Marketing Awards. A great achievement considering the tough competition, not to mention a highly esteemed panel of judges.

Our entry, the Paddy Power Cheque Book, a strategy to steal OTC market share from competitors and confirm Paddy Power’s price advantage, delivered demonstrable success. The campaign that included a cheque book mechanic, staff interaction, SMS strategy and vast data capture is now firmly engrained in Paddy Power’s ongoing retail strategy. Contact us for the full story.

Today I received a designer’s CV in the post. They wished to be considered for any relevant full-time creative posts in the future. I gladly receive many such CVs, which understandably vary in quality. This one, however, really annoyed me for the following reasons:

1. Because they’d miscalculated the postage by 6p, I had to pay this PLUS a £1 handling charge. In all my time as a Creative Director, I’ve never had to pay to see a designers work!
2. In the letter, they claimed admiration for a piece of work on our website, but attributed it to the wrong client
3. Instead of including examples of work in the envelope (which would have been nice considering the hassle I had receiving it) the CV featured clip art of flowers – not very inspiring.
4. The CV was littered with typos and over the top rhetoric.

The CV did include a URL to an online portfolio (a long and complex URL which could have been shortened at tinyurl.com). Why the designer didn’t just email it too me I don’t know. The thing is, the work (although nice enough) wasn’t relevant to our business. It’s a shame because the CV did allude to experience in some of our core areas, but failed to include any examples.

Then, to add further insult, another web-link was supplied to the designer’s Flickr account. ‘Perhaps this person has some skill with a camera that I should know about’, I thought. No, just a bunch of holiday photos – very nice, but not really relevant.

This designer obviously has some talent, but their lack of attention to detail, ambition and common sense has, on this occasion, really let them down. As a Creative Director, I always take time to look carefully at a designer’s CV. I’m using it to build up a picture of the person’s skills, personality and attitude. It forms my first impression, so it must impress me. Here are my list of dos and don’ts to consider:

PLEASE DO:

• Plenty of research and preparation
• Present yourself professionally, sensibly and with style
• Make sure you’ve paid the correct postage
• Mention agency work you admire (but please get the details right!)
• Big yourself up, but with some humility
• If the role involves print, include examples of relevant work (even if you have an online portfolio)
• Don’t forget the wow factor.

PLEASE DON’T

• Tart up your CV with clip art
• Leave lazy typos and spelling mistakes
• Put in irrelevant work unless you feel it enriches your CV
• Tell me about the cleaning job you had as a student (only relevant education please)
• Include sob stories
• Include overlong URLs on printed CVs (use tinyurl.com)

With shrinking budgets, increased competition and an abundance of high quality freelancers, things are going to get much tougher for designers searching for full-time positions. It’s vitally important they plan and execute every CV submission with love, care and originality. There’s a place Creative Directors file shoddy CVs…

This is a special appeal for victims of creative department scalpel injuries.

Peter is 33 years old, Creative Director at Marketing Team Direct and a victim of this debilitating injury. Whilst innocently cutting out some paper visuals with a metal ruler and scalpel, the blade slipped and cut away a section of finger. This has resulted in blood loss, pain and unwellness (due to the injury and the Tetanus, Diphtheria and Polo booster injection), not to mention a rather embarrassing finger dressing (which bares a remarkable resemblance to Fingermouse).

You can help Peter and the many other designers worldwide who’ve suffered this way by leaving a message of support to help raise awareness of this under appreciated injury.

Also, if you know of a UK stockist of long metal safety rulers (we can only find 30cm ones), please let me know!

Thank you and don’t have nightmares.