Bye bye TBWA [from Rosa the intern]

So today is Rosa's last day.  When she first got here I asked her to pen something so that I would be able to compare it to what she had to say at the end.  See below: 

"Although this is only my third week here, I feel like I have learnt quite a lot of things about advertising. I was given a chance to work on a pitch for the Asean Basketball League from scratch which I thought was quite challenging but at the same time very enjoyable. In addition to getting hands-on experience at a multinational advertising agency, I also had the chance to work with people of different positions at TBWA which was very interesting as I got to know and understand of how it feels like to work as a team. 

With the opportunity to go to meetings with clients at Milkita, present the competitors' review and analysis at Standard Chartered bank and to work on many creative briefs have really helped me gain knowledge of what it is like to work as part of the Account team. One of the things that I learnt is that team work is a very important factor - it would be very difficult to work well in an advertising agency if you are not willing to work with other people. 

I am very excited to continue with my internship here at TBWA and to continue learning new things about the advertising industry."

Since she wrote that, she's helped us win 2 pieces of business!  I asked her to follow it up this afternoon before she left.  This is what she sent me: 

"Wow, its been 3 months already?!

Interning at TBWA had been lots of fun. And to be honest - a lot less scary than I thought it would be. I really enjoyed it and I have learned so many new things these past 3 months.

When I first got my offer to become an intern here for the semester, I was pretty nervous as not only is it my first job at an advertising agency, but also at a global advertising agency! However, after getting to know everybody here, I really felt like I was part of the team.

I was very lucky to be chosen to intern at TBWA for the semester. This internship has taught me a lot of what it is like to work in the field of advertising and had gained me a lot of new friends.

Thank you for such a great time, TBWA Vietnam."

I promise she wrote this under no duress.  Rosa, you'll be missed.  Good luck in the future.  We'll keep an eye on the trades for your success.

- George

Spikes Asia 2011 - Day 1

The first day at Spikes is amazing and I will take more advantage of it till the end. The event acutally started at 12 in the afternoon rather than at 9 am so the guests can go through the shortlists. Thus, all have to make use of the short breaks between seminars and the dinner to see the works. 
I attended the Coca Cola seminar where the topic was: Is Tomorrow Agency's the Consumer? So here's what I sat in on.

An upcoming shift for agencies in the future?

Phenomenon:
The convention is the client gives the agency the brief. The creative idea will be discussed till an agreement and customers will let us know how well the idea works. However, Coke did the reverse thing. They gave the brief to the customers, meaning asking them to interpret the energizing refreshment from Coca Cola. In form of an online contest, the customers will submit their films and the leading ECDs in agencies will judge their films.
The response: 1.6 million films submitted during 2 weeks. 2 films are picked and will be adjusted a bit to become real TVC/ viral video about Coke.
 
Why the client comes up with that idea:
Brand communication comes to a stage where the customers connect to the brand individually. They are the ones who actually defines the brand personality and equity. The time of the brand will bring themselves to the customers and get them buy it seems to be over. Now, the customers are sophisticated and ready to lead the game.

According to Leonardo O'Grady, Director ASEAN Integrated Marketing & Communications, Coca Cola Asia Pacific, the success of the communication tend to depend on the individuals who know what the brand needs. Meanwhile, the vast creative source, customers with their all wants and needs, is still available and not taken the most advantage of. It's time to let them interpret the brand in their own way.

Agency's comments:
However, if the future is the co-creation btw the client and their own customers, what's the point of working with an agency? Although the short video shows the juries are quite impressed by the quality and quantity of the films, Rob Sherlock, Chief Creative Officer, DraftFCB still thinks it's too early to state anything. Even with the 2 films rewarded, only the first one really has an idea in it whereas the other rely too much on the crafting, editing and music. Interestingly, he also made a point that the competitors were asked to do films rather than prints because they are not there yet. It's still a playground of the pros only. Again, it proves the idea doesn't necessarily come from the creative or the guys in an agency. It comes from anyone, and now, it's amazing to see the creativity really makes things happen in an unpretentious and beautiful way. The agency needs to know this phenomenon. One, to get ready for the shift, meaning, it could work as an instructor to get the creativity of the amateurs onto the right path. If it's a good idea, it's a good idea. It doesn't matter where it comes from. 

Lesson Drawn:
Honestly, when I wrote about this thing, I worried that most people will think "OK, but nothing is really new, Nhung". Before attending Spikes, the word "co-creation" to me is not a big deal. Interaction? Somehow it seems it already happens in Vietnam when we asked the audience to do clips for a client, to tell their success stories? Nope. Co-creation means the customers are made to cook their own food according to their taste. Back to the point of why I get so excited abt it. Well, it reminds me of the Young Bloods Programme where we put potential students who never work in advertising before. And we give them on the job training while they make their own porfolio after a period of time. More than a head hunting project, I think we are creating a new generation. It is the generation that are active, passionate, creative, confident to define what a brand should look like. Who knows? Some of the ex -Young Bloods will win the award if the co-creation of Coke comes to VN?

Nhung Nguyen, copywriter

Spikes Asia 2011

Our very own copywriter Nhung Nguyen will be attending Spikes Asia in Singapore and sharing her experience with us. Stay tuned.

What's it like to intern at TBWA?

My initial fear of becoming an “intern” was to waste my summer photocopying, making people coffee, and being miserable without any achievements except the name of the agency on my resume. Fortunately, I have landed here at TBWA. I am grateful that everyone has been so nice and welcoming. I’m learning so much about the advertising industry from the creative and account perspective. I enjoy being involved with clients and seeing the process play through to complete a job. I feel so lucky to be able to listen in on the Creatives’ thought process on new ideas and to see the artists sketch out amazing drawings in minutes. I also appreciate everyone putting up with my broken Vietnamese and no one is shy to correct me when I’m wrong. I already feel like my understand of Vietnamese has improved by simply being here. Unfortunately, my understanding correlating to my speaking is another story. I feel that I will be returning to the States with a better understanding of an agency’s functions and procedures but also a broadened view of Vietnam, thanks to TBWA.

My experience at here has satisfied my curiosity for the premise of advertising but also given me a much greater understand into the industry. My job in the States at commercial production company started my interest in advertising and marketing but I never really understood how they got the jobs and how concepts are created for commercials.

I have always been very business focused in school, taking art instead of math would have been a crime in my book because I thought art and creativity was a slight waste of time. What am I suppose to do with my creativity? (It’s also because I am not creative) However, since being here I am constantly being amazed and inspired by the Creative Team. Thank you so much for letting me sit-in and ease drop on all of their creative thinking and seeing their artistic talent. I have developed an appreciation and gained a greater understanding on the importance creativity in the world.

As for the Account Team, everyone has been wonderful mentors. I never knew there was business involved in advertising. Obviously, someone needs to manage things on a business level but it never occurred to me that I could possibly go into advertising with a business degree. I have really enjoyed being involved in the client brief, creative brief, and execution of jobs.

One of the best things that I have gained from TBWA during my time here with the creative and account team is my broadened my way of thinking to expand outside the thought process of an American, and focus on who my target audience is. (Who ever it may be) I believe it’s a incredibly good lesson that I will carry with me in my career.

The Account Team has really gotten me involved with the client process and because they have, I now understand why the research I do is important to the job overall. I would like to go on more meetings with clients just to see how the account team deals with different situations but other than that, I’m fairly happy with the work load I’ve been given. 

- Julie, summer intern

Thanks, Julie.  It's been a pleasure to have you as a part of the team this summer.

- George

Room 13 kicks off in HCMC!

On Sunday, July 24^th, at 8:40am, 20 minutes before the official launch of Room 13 Vietnam, an 11 year old Long and his 9 year old sister Ngan arrived at the TBWA office. By 9am, the young artists were all seated and ready for Room 13 Vietnam.

"Ship offshore" by Ngan

The first day of Room 13 Vietnam was pretty organized, quiet, kind of like an art class. You could tell that the young artists were used to being students, being instructed by a teacher, so they were well behaved for the most part. Mr. Vo Binh, the artist in residence gently guided the young artists as they painted and we saw flowers, tigers, ships, a princess and a robot on the canvases on the first day.

Room 13 artists took to the walls of TBWA

Launching Room 13 in Vietnam was, without a doubt, exciting, but I’m more excited for a month, 3 months and 6 months later. What will come out of the young artists then? How will they be expressing themselves through art? How will they change when they see themselves as artists rather than students?

The goal is to encourage the young artists to have ownership of Room 13 Vietnam, to make decisions as to how to run the studio and how to sustain it.

We took a big step forward towards that goal on Sunday.  The amazing process has begun! 

Our very own Lee Clow. Making Vietnam proud.

Nice muscles.

Room 13 opens its doors in Vietnam this month!

Creativity is the color on the canvas, the waves in the ocean. Without creativity, our world would be flat, gray and painfully boring. Without creativity, so much of what exists today wouldn’t exist, like…. a fork! Someone had a creative idea to make a utensil with teeth that can also scoop up food. Solutions that are so familiar to us today had to be solved by someone who approached the problem differently and creatively.

When I think about creativity in my own life, I think about a story from my childhood. One day at the kindergarten I attended, we had an assignment to draw a crow, and a few days later, the parents were invited to the school for one of those “parents get to come watch their kids at school” days. On that day, my parents saw a room filled with pictures of black crows, because crows are, in fact, black. Except for one. My crow was HOT pink, probably because I used to like the color pink or maybe I just felt like drawing with pink that day. Why the hell not? The teacher didn’t say, “draw a BLACK crow”, she said, “draw a crow”.

Unfortunately, I’m not sure that I have that “creativity” and freedom within me today, now that I’m an adult. I probably care too much about being correct, what something is supposed to look like, sound like, etc. I think kids are damn creative by nature, and it’s a beautiful thing, but where can you find a place today that encourages this type of creativity and freedom? That place certainly didn’t exist in the educational system when I was a kid. Well, in Vietnam, that place is going to be Room 13.

Room 13 kids in Scotland

Room 13 began in Scotland in 1994 as an art studio run by children between the ages of 8-12. It’s not an art class where there is a teacher or an assignment. The children raise the funds to pay an “artist in residence” who is seen as an artist with more experience who can help them and guide them if needed, and to pay for supplies as well. The kids who participate in Room 13 can discuss and create whatever they like.

TBWA got involved with Room 13 in 2004, and has been supporting it by helping launch the program in various countries. Today, you can find Room 13 studios in many countries, including South Africa, India, China, Mexico and Turkey to name a few.

It’ll be interesting to see what the kids in Vietnam will create in Room 13. Will they feel lost without an assignment, or will they feel liberated and enjoy being able to express themselves freely? I certainly want to see a HOT pink crow come out of Room 13 Vietnam and encourage them to continue to tap into their own creativity.