This is why you want to work in advertising.

1 Week ago today, I was finishing up my work for the day.

It had been a pretty good day. I spent most of it huddled with my art director going over background plates to generate some composite photos for a shoot on a upcoming campaign we're both excited about.

At the end of the day I poked my head into an office we use for brainstorming meetings.

A Sr. AD who sits next to me was in there looking frustrated.

"What's up?" I said.

"Nada just working on this [DELETED] pitch."

"Cool, mind if I look?"

"Nope."

For the next 15 minutes, I read the notes posted on the wall.

"Do you think if we do this..."

3 Hours later I was on the pitch team and my wife was calling me wanting to know why I was so late.

"I'm sorry sweetie. I'm makin' ads."

These are the moments you bust your butt in portfolio school for. That you sit in your cubicle and write catalogs copy for. This is what is so great about being in Advertising. The ability to get lost in your work and love every second of it.

The Most Exhausting Thing So Far...

I have now officially worked on a pitch team. I have worked on an exiting client. I have worked on a loyal client. And I have worked on a client that cancels every job.

But the most exhausting thing about advertising so far has been...

worrying about job security.  

I know people say work hard, do great work, and your job is secure. But it's still not easy, when things loom overhead. 

My agency has ben great about doing its best to retain people. And they have been great in how they treat the people they're forced to let go. Still, this economy sucks. It's not a downturn, its slow-down, its just a sucky-economy. And in a sucky economy, Advertising creatives have little faith in the security of their jobs.

And that lurking thought in the back of your head. The one that seems to pop up every time I get a project down and there isn't something immediately waiting on me the second I'm done, is the most exhausting aspect of working in advertising. 

Doing Partner Work for Clients

I got to work on an amazing brand last week, sorry can't say who. They do a lot of cool work, they have their own identity and ideology. 

They are not a client of my agency. They are a partner of one of our clients. They are good partners, but their styles are mutually exclusive, so I had to write a print ad, a banner ad, and a poster in their voice, our art director had to lay it out in their style, and then our client got to slap their logo in the bottom LEFT hand corner lol.

If it runs, it will be a piece I put in my book because it shows a different voice than the work I do for Disney and Aircell, plus they lines kind of kick ass (not to brag or anything).

So why am I telling you this, oh future Ad Stars.

Because you spend your entire time in portfolio school making ads for a specific client, with a specific voice, a specific style, and a specific problem you're solving.

In the real world you'll make ads for a client that must include their partners, merge their voices, merge their style, and merge their problems into one cohesive message.

So think about that next time you see an ad in a magazine or a banner ad that is done with partner clients. Think how you would have done it so that both partners feel satisfied with the work, and you'd feel proud of the work. Because when you got to work, that's the type of things a junior works on lol. (lets see if I can say work anymore times. work, work, work,)

That's it for now.

PJL

Aftermath

Yesterday was the first day back after layoffs. 

If you've ever wondered what it would be like if they showed the day after a zombie outbreak movie ends, walk into an ad agency the day after layoffs.

Life has to go on. It's a cliche, I know, but it's the truth. 

Awesome work still needs to get done for the clients, but you can't help but cringe every time you walk by a desk that used to be filled with a friend or a colleague.

However, the best remedy for the post-layoff blahs, is to do great work for a client that is excited about it. My partner and I have a campaign for our client and the client is even increasing the budget to do more tactics based on the concept.

Things will get better and we'll rebound, until then I'll be on the lookout for zombies.

PJL

Officially Initiated Into the Business

I went through my first round of layoffs this morning.

More than 20 people of varying skill and talent were let go.

I was not among them.

But a good friend whom I owe a lot of the start of my career too was.

You know who you are, if there is anything I can do you know my #.

This is one of those times Advertising reminds you that its still a job.

Regardless of how fun it is.

A twitter experiment

Most tweets I have seen thus far are stupid.

That's not entirely true.

Their vain, irrelevant and stupid. 

There are some exceptions (wife included) but for the most part they are Facebook updates on crack written by someone smoking meth.

But I am intrigued, because clients are demanding social media and I want to be able to use if if it comes to it.

So I'm experimenting. My goal is to provide you with 3 insightful Tweets a day. Maybe more, but certainly no less. 

Who knows, maybe you'll enjoy reading observations about the world, other than the fact that someone haz cheezborger.

account: @engagebrain1st

PJL

Here I sit at 3pm on a Sunday

I've never worked on a Sunday at a Full-time job before. 

Sunday has always been a day of rest for me. Wife, daughter and I go to church, eat fried chicken and relax in each others company.

Today, my work Mac's keeping me company.

But this isn't something that bothers me too much and here's why: 

1: I still got to spend the morning with my family at church (no fried chicken though)

2: I'm getting ahead of my work load, meaning I can focus on things more thoroughly during the week, without needing to stay here until 10 pm

3: My bosses have trusted me enough to give me more responsibility with each day I'm here.

The 3rd one is the most important for anyone who's coming out of portfolio school looking for a job(though to me the first one is the most important).

The economy is bad. Which is a tremendous understatement. Our agency is in a rough spot with the loss of a major client a few weeks back, yet I'm still getting more work to do. And because I do a good job and get it off my plate on time and even earlier in some cases, they trust me with even bigger projects.

It's hard to fire a cheap, young creative who gets his work done on time and does a good job.

I don't know if they're be layoffs here, but I do know that if they come, I'm going to work so hard at being the best Jr. writer at the shop that they'll have to take a real long look before they drop the axe on me and if they do lay me off, that they'll have nothing but good things to say about me when I go to another shop to find a job.

PJL