Task 4

As a freelance creative team (House of Roi), we have a lot to consider.

Strengths

• Combined skills in several areas - Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Final Cut Pro, Quark, Dreamweaver, HTML, photography, screen-printing, book-binding, copperplate printing.
• As a student in an art college, we have a unique background. There are only four art colleges left in the country, so this give us a background that not many people can offer. We have connections with other students in the fields of photography, animation, film production, graphic design and visual communications.
• As advertising students, we are able to create concepts for marketing and promotion ourselves - once we have the idea, we only need to consider production costs.

All of these strengths ultimately will save us hundreds if not thousands of pounds. We already have a portfolio website being created (I have created websites in the past) and the only thing that we have to pay for is the hosting of the website. (£25 per year via 1and1 Hosting)

Weaknesses

• We have a lack of experience within an industry setting. The only way we can change this is by getting into placements in agencies and we will use the next year and a half in our course securing as many placements as we can, so that we are as prepared as possible once we finished the third year of our course in 2011.
• Video editing - though we have a basic understanding of editing video within Final Cut Pro, we do not have enough skill to fully edit a video from start to finish. We have recognised this weakness as being severe. To combat this, Claire & I have arranged a Final Cut Pro tutorial session with the IT department for the coming weeks. In the past it was said that there was not a high enough demand for a Final Cut Pro tutorial, but after placing signs around our studio we had more than 30 people sign up for a tutorial class. Once we have finished the tutorial, this will become one of our strengths. We have also arranged an advanced Photoshop tutorial and further InDesign tutorials for people who have no knowledge within that area.

Opportunities

• Leeds has many small and independent businesses, and being a popular student city, many of these businesses have strong links to the student population and are proud to support them. There is the opportunity to approach these small businesses and offer our advertising services to create promotions for them.

Threats

• Though also an opportunity, the fact we live in such a densely populated student city means there are hundreds of other students who are also keen to work with the independent businesses in the city. Places such as Opposite work closely with illustrators to create promotional displays for the store, and visual communications can often overlap what we do within advertising.

This is the SWOT analysis for my own creative partnership, as I don't feel it's appropriate to do a SWOT analysis for advertising agencies.

Task 3

Due to the nature of advertising as an industry, much of the marketing communication mix is not appropriate to consider. Unlike areas such as furniture making or fashion, there is no way to "personal sell", and advertising advertising seems a bit of a fruitless task.

Instead, it is more about just getting your work noticed. The best way to do this (if we are to assume that, as a freelance newbie, we have no clients) is to enter competitions such as D&AD, the YCN Awards, Roses Creativity Awards, Chip Shop Awards and any other competitive awards where it would be possible to bring your work to the attention of people within the advertising industry.

The Internet does prove to be a useful tool in advertising it is very much to do with who you know. The more people you know, the more likely you are to get work. Facebook proves helpful with this, with many agencies now having a Facebook page where you can become a "fan", and an increasing number are now also using Twitter.

In my current creative team, we have created the identity of House of Roi and we have our own website. The website consists of our past work portfolio, but the style and structure of the site itself also speaks volumes about us. If we had created a website that was visually unpleasant, it would reflect upon us badly as a creative team.

Enterprise: Week 2

Where are they – How will they find me?

Based on the principles that have been introduced in lecture 2 of the Enterprise module, investigate where your potential clients are located.

Where are my potential clients located?

Or

What media do my potential clients use?

What do you need to communicate and how does it match what your clients need?

———-

One of the biggest challenges faced by people such as me who are just trying to get into the industry is getting noticed. Whereas in a job in an office you would simply send in a CV and hope for the best, it is not possible to do this in the advertising industry. You need to be noticed.

A good way to do this is to enter student or graduate competitions run by organisations such as D&AD and IPA. This is where many agencies look for the freshest creative talent and it provides an important platform for students to get above others in an already saturated market. Agencies will look towards these awards shows for inspiration and recruits.

Another interesting way to get the attention of agencies on a very small budget is by creating some sort of viral advert. Virals aren’t known for their slick production and glitzy casting, it’s all about the idea. The creativity. If you can create something great for a viral and then upload it to a site such as YouTube, the hype creates itself and often it is the agencies that will come looking for you as they want to find who created the ad and get them on board.

Virals could be the best way forward as it proves many things - first that you are creative, but importantly in this economy, that you can create a good advert on a shoestring budget. Anybody can hide behind multi-million pound cinematography and fool people into thinking that the advert is “good”, but if you can create something on a budget but still get people to notice it, this is a valuable skill.

Enterprise: Week 1 - The Four Ps

Based on the principles that have been introduced in lecture 1 of the Enterprise module, investigate who you are as a creative in relation to who is out there looking for creative talent.

What skills do you have and who needs them?

What skills are needed and how do you go about developing them?

What are your professional/creative aims and how do they relate to the needs of the world at large?

———

As an advertising student, the product that I have to offer is an obvious one - I provide a service for potential clients, advertising their product/company in the most creative and original way possible.

What may be apparent to me as a creative may not be apparent to somebody who is in business as a baker, for example. They might be great at making cakes, but if they were to try and come up with a strategy of how to get their cakes into 1 in 3 homes in Leeds, they wouldn’t know where to start. Creativity is invaluable (but, fortunately, we can put a price on it).

At the moment I am “only” a student, so I have to recognise that my skills will not be as commercially valued as those who have been in the advertising industry for years and years, however, they are invaluable to certain clients.

Not every business has thousands of pounds at their disposal and can’t afford to instruct the best of the best to create a campaign for them, and this is where approaching an advertising student offers up a unique situation - the student gains invaluable experience, and the company gets an advertising campaign for free (or much cheaper than industry standard.)

As with most things nowadays, the Internet has significantly expanded the scope for business. Websites such as Odesk.com allow you to pick up jobs that potential clients have posted. They are very specific in their needs, such as asking for a promotional website banner and specifying that they will pay £50 for this to be completed.

As well as being able to pick up specific jobs, you are also able to create a profile with a simplified version of a CV. People who are looking for somebody to do a job for them can browse the profiles until they find somebody who they think are suitable, and can them approach them personally. This can be of great benefit to the freelancer as the competition on this kind of website is unbelievable - you have to remember, you are competing with the entire world, not just Bob and Fred from down the road.

With each job completed, this builds up your reputation, and more people are likely to approach you if you have a bigger reputation.

Online presence is a very important aspect in today’s market as it is the first port of call for many people - after all, how many of us when we need something will just go and Google it? Being in advertising, you are constantly trying to sell yourself as a fresh and innovative talent, so it is incredibly important to keep up to date with developments in technology. Calling yourself “fresh” and then having to admit you don’t have an online portfolio? It’s a bit of a contradiction. Technology is so important.

My creative aims at this very point in time are just to experience as much as I can before going into the industry. Though it may seem like I am at a disadvantage being a student with no experience, I actually hold something very valuable - I am at an art college.

There are very few remaining specialist art establishments left in the country, and even fewer in the North. If I am approaching agencies in London, then I am giving them the opportunity to not only connect with the North, but also the chance to break into an art school audience, where the much of the new and upcoming talent is sourced from.

We’re all going through difficult times at the moment, and if there is an opportunity for businesses to exploit a situation (let’s be frank with each other) they’re going to do it. I am ready to be exploited!