Grey London is an advertising agency in Hatton Garden, which partners with global clients. Their team of 500 people includes Sam Daly an Art Director and Rob Greaves a Copywriter, who explained the advertising industry. They described the lengthy process of making adverts for TV, and I was fascinated hearing how the M&S Paddington Christmas advert was made. The process starts with Plan and Strategy designing the client’s brief, which explains the target audience, the tone of voice and plans the process through research.  

 

Sam and Rob perform the role of Creatives. Copy focuses on words and scripts, and Art focuses on visual designs. These dual parts require working in a pair, therefore good teamwork is essential. The process starts with brainstorming ideas, producing various possibilities. Unavoidably this involves 90% rejection, from the Creative Directors or clients. Therefore, it is necessary to accept failure as failure enables improvement. For the M&S advert the Creative Directors reviewed 400 scripts, only 75 scripts were presented to M&S, and finally the 40th idea of a script was chosen. The Accountants manage the process of selling the Creatives’ work to clients, and working out the costs and regulations.

 

I enjoyed hearing about the role of Production as I hope to become a Producer. Producers find directors and locations, manage the shoot, and look after budgets. Being a producer involves having responsibility for making sure that the advert is a success. I had assumed advertising was not one of my career options, however, discovering the important role producers play, I may rethink working in advertising.

 

Advertising companies have a list of Directors that they like to use. The directors then write a treatment, which contains visuals and writings about the advert, such as the set, lens, cast, colour plates, and editing techniques. The director then works with a Storyboard Artist, to plan and create exactly what they want.

 

Other roles that were covered included Pre-Vis, Shooting, Offline Edit, Music and Sound and Sound Editor. Post production for the Paddington advert consisted of 70 animators, post production is an extremely hard and specialist job. I have been working to improve my skills with video editing, specifically trying to learn how to use After Effects, therefore I understand how challenging and rewarding post production is.  

 

Sam and Rob advised how to get into advertising sharing their story of graduating and doing internships, while showing their portfolio to companies. I am inspired to persevere and work hard, so after graduating, I have work to show potential employers. They convinced me not to see rejection as final, and encouraged me to seek opportunities to talk to companies. This good advice is relevant as I search for a year-long placement and deal with rejection. They reminded me to demonstrate my current creativity and my potential. The talk was brilliant and provided in-depth insight into advertising. I discovered I am not restricted to broadcasting to become a producer, as there are options in other industries. I will improve and build up my portfolio, including more personal projects, so I have sufficient work to show future employers.