Marcus' Blog

Have A Pen & Notebook/Pad At All Times.

Post author By marcus
Post date May 16, 2009
No Comments on Have A Pen & Notebook/Pad At All Times.

This is essential.

As many of you may know, whether taking a bath, about to doze off to sleep or walking down the street ideas can manifest themselves in the blink of an eye, and when it happens, no matter how small/big/quirky/whatever, jot it down straight away, draw a picture maybe.

At any given moment, I’ve usually got my pen and moleskine in my back pocket just in case, yet I noticed on the train the other day why it’s so important to write down even those half finished thoughts, even if they don’t make sense at that time.

Why? Well if you didn’t clock it yet, here’s the beauty of it all.

You can go back to it, finish it off, just like a crossword puzzle. That one line, that one angle that you never thought of before but has suddenly taken an average idea and has potentially made it a great one.

That’s my 2 cents for the day as I’ve had some free time.

I can’t stress enough how important it is to do this though. Think of the notepad as a back up hard drive for your thoughts, just like the one for your computer.

Invaluable.

Tags Mind Storage, Moleskine, Notebook, Pad, Pen, Vault

Inspiration

Slim Fast – Wedding Campaign.

Post author By marcus
Post date May 6, 2009
No Comments on Slim Fast – Wedding Campaign.

I came across a Slim Fast campaign which targets the more festively plump brides-to-be.

This works because of the distortion of the iconic image of the couple on the cake, scaring, almost forcing the audience to buy this product purely to lose weight for their wedding. Very clever.

Tags Campaign, Fast, Slim, Wedding

Inspiration

I’ve Grown To Accept This Fact.

Post author By marcus
Post date May 6, 2009
No Comments on I’ve Grown To Accept This Fact.

This man has given it a shot though. Good attempt.

Tags Awesome, Guitars, Ninjas

Inspiration

Google Business Card.

Thought this was quite a clever idea using the Google search page as a business card.

Tags Business, Card, Google

Journal

Leave It To Their Imagination.

Post author By marcus
Post date May 5, 2009
1 Comment on Leave It To Their Imagination.

The imagination is an incredible thing, and being in Advertising it’s an incredible thing to play on with your audience.

From childhood we’ve been using our imagination to produce some amazing things, for example, imaginary friends which later in life can possibly be used in the development of a cartoon series, another example, the Eiffel tower. It’s a bottomless pit of anything you want.

A good medium for it as Davit Trott mentioned is radio. When it comes to your imagination it works so much more effectively if you use your imagination to see what’s happening rather than it being put on a metaphorical plate for you to absorb.

This is why, it’s a good idea to make people imagine. Bear with me with this one, lets take a car, a Reliant Robin. Not very sexy or fast at all.

One angle for selling this auto mobile would be a standard car poster or a television advert that you see everyday, however, one problem.

It’s no where near as sexy as other cars, some may even say ugly.

So wouldn’t it be so much more effective if you managed to engage the audiences mind around the car, in the car, forcing them to imagine driving it?

Speak about the car, describe it’s curves, how econominal it is, the storage capacity it holds, it’s uniqueness, it’s quirkiness.

Put them in the car and make them feel it’s the right car for them. They want it.

Yet depending who you’re targeting at changes a lot of factors you could play on, one example is to be different, or vintage which a lot of the younger generation are into (for now).

The point is, if you’re able to tap into their mind, into their imagination, they will be putty in your hands.

Tags Imagination, Imagine

Inspiration

Beta: Adopt A Dog Campaign

Post author By marcus
Post date May 5, 2009
No Comments on Beta: Adopt A Dog Campaign

I came across this campaign and thought it was quite a clever yet funny series of adverts.

It definitely plays on the stereotype of teenagers which may be a bit cliché, but it works, it’s a breath of fresh air from the withered dogs with pleading eyes we’re used to seeing in the subway and on television.

Tags Adopt, Beta, Dog

Makings

Logo Competitions etc.

I’ve stumbled across a great website, it’s called Worth1000.

It’s a neat little website for photoshop/illustrator lovers. It has quite a community behind it offering tutorials for beginners, photoshop contests, and the best bit, advanced contests in which clients can open a competition with a cash reward for the best logo that they can use for their company.

I looked at a few of the finished contests to see what level of skill was put into the outcome and thought I would give it a go. So I tried out for a logo contest offering $1000 for the chosen logo.

The company was called GridIron Systems Inc. A company all about accelerated data transfer speeds and external storage. They’ve specified certain mandatories such as number of colours, what words much be included etc.

Voting starts in 7 days. Here’s my entry with variants. A bold, yet simplistic logo combining the strength and speed of the cheetah into the professionalism of a trust worthy business.

Also works well with a black background.

Tags competition, contest, LOGO, worth1000

Inspiration

Trafalgar Square Karaoke: T-Mobile

Post author By marcus
Post date April 30, 2009
No Comments on Trafalgar Square Karaoke: T-Mobile

I turned up at the event to find lines of people queuing up for a microphone (which I found out later that they were in fact just props), nevertheless they added a social element to the event when perfect strangers started singing into them together. It added to the already ecstatic atmosphere.

Anyway, after arriving I shortly received my mobile broadband (on which I’m currently using) then had a look around.

It was incredible, the sheer scale of it all, the masses of people fitting into any nook they could the camera crews propped on top of the buildings, the crane cameras scouring the crowds. It was definitely an experience.

Things started to get under-way, starting with a brief prep talk from the presenter of the event, Mr Vernon Kay, then the songs started. Hey Jude, Hit Me Baby One More Time, Summer Nights, Build Me Up Buttercup, Turn Around… then all of a sudden, superstar Pink unhooded herself from within the crowd and started singing along, and then onto one of her songs. Needless to say the crowd went absolutely crazy, and we all sung Hey Jude again, in which the ending (na na na na, heeeyy Juuudee) got repeated several times lasting around 6 minutes, which got quite tedious to be honest, but the relief of that song finishing and everyone cheering was spectacular. I’ve never experienced so many different types of people in such mass all excitedly happy it’s what I’d imagine world peace to be like.

I filmed the main parts of the event and have chopped it up into a 6 minute video and hopefully you’ll get some idea of what it was like.

Overall, the event was a massive success so kudos to the guys at Saatchi & Saatchi and everyone who helped in the organisation and execution of this event. The official advert airs Saturday during the ad breaks of ‘Britain’s Got Talent’.

Here’s my footage of the event.

*UPDATE – 1st MAY*

Here is some ‘early’ footage from T-Mobile.

*UPDATE 2nd MAY*

I’m very happy to say, that I am in the television advert, and also in the video posted below at around 3:27.