WHIP – Junior - Celebrating life at the bottom

Sep 26, 11

The Monday Morning WHIP // 146

When it comes to coming up with ideas, sometimes trying too hard can be the worst way to handle it.

Ever had one of those days when the ideas don’t come?

Not absolutely no ideas, obviously, but no good ones.

Well don’t worry. It happens to all of us. Honest!

So what to do when the ideas don’t come.

I’ll be honest with you and say I don’t have a definitive answer.

But the one thing you should never do it get all hot ‘n bothered.

Because the harder you try, the less chance you have.

I don’t know why. The human brain just seems to work that way.

What I generally do is put the project I’m working on to one side and go do something else.

That can be going for a coffee, going for a walk or even wasting time on Facebook and Twitter.

But chances are, when you least expect it, an idea will dislodge itself from your subconscious mind and make its way out of your head and onto a piece of paper.

This may not happen in an instant, but it will happen.

You just have to be patient and believe in yourself.

Sep 19, 11

The Monday Morning WHIP // 145

This week, Stan (http://branddna NULL.blogspot NULL.com) tells us to reconsider an age-old medium.

Sunday mornings for me are spent at the kitchen table, with bagels, jam, coffee and the Sunday papers.

This has been a ritual I have followed for as long as I can remember.

Quite why I do it, I don’t know. After all, I gave a talk at Melbourne University about five years on the demise of the newspaper.

Yet I still read them.

Obviously I’m not the only one, as today’s copy of The Age had not one but three full page, full colour ads for Telstra.

Not to mention a full page, full colour ad for Qantas and a full colour double page spread for a pharmacy chain.

That is some serious advertising spending.

The sort of advertising in fact, that many in our industry, myself included, thought might well have become a thing of the past.

Interestingly, the Telstra ads were long copy too. Not seriously long copy, but long enough to require more than a casual glance to take in.

Fact is, these kinds of ads could only run in a newspaper. So please don’t go confusing a clever poster idea for a press ad.

The newspaper is a medium unto itself. A medium that many young people don’t even bother with.

That’s not a criticism by the way. That’s a fact.

Kids don’t read newspapers. Nor would I if I was your age.

But old fogies like me do. And as long as that is the case, people will be required to do press ads.

So why not spend some time with a newspaper this week.

Sure they may be filled with yesterday’s news, but between their pages is your chance to do something amazing.

Sep 12, 11

The Monday Morning WHIP // 144

Stan (http://branddna NULL.blogspot NULL.com) says: Sometimes you’ve got to be bad to be good.

Every now and again someone shows me an idea that at first glance could really be called nothing other than bad.

That idea could be totally off brief. It could be ill considered. It may be that the tone of voice isn’t right.

Or most likely it could be just plain wrong.

I’ve had ideas like these myself during my career. Lots of them.

That’s because getting the bad ideas out is simply part of the journey of arriving at a good one.

So if you find yourself with a rapidly growing pile of screwed up ideas in your bin don’t worry about it.

It’s all part of being a creative.

Aug 29, 11

The Monday Morning WHIP // 143

(http://branddna NULL.blogspot NULL.com)

Stan (http://branddna NULL.blogspot NULL.com) reminds us this week that just because we’re in the business of ideas, it shouldn’t be joyless

In my experience, having fun is the key to having great ideas.

So it stands to reason that if you’re not enjoying doing what you do, it will probably show in your work.

And if you didn’t enjoy creating something, then chances are the people looking at it won’t love it either.

So stop complaining about the quality of briefs, the crap timelines, the shitty suits, your part-time job and all those other things that get in the way of you being awesome.

And just be awesome.

Of course if you can’t be awesome, you’ll need to work a little harder, but the same rule still applies.

Aug 22, 11

The Monday Morning WHIP // 142

This Monday get doing, get making, get calling, get mailing, get printing, get shooting, get – well – doing something. Because as Stan (http://branddna NULL.blogspot NULL.com) tells us it’s all about making it happen yourself.

Japanese writer Haruki Murakami is the author of one of my favourite coming of age novels – Norwegian Wood.

When he’s not writing Murakami is running. A lot.

He’s completed several marathons and has recently published a book looking at the links between his writing and his running. It’s called What I Talk About When I Talk About Running.

Like me, Murakami believes that talent will only get you so far. And that persistence, passion and discipline are essential to success.

Here are three points from his new book. I suggest you give them some consideration:

“I’m often asked what’s the most important quality a novelist has to have. It’s pretty obvious: talent. If you don’t have any fuel, even the best car won’t run.”

“If I’m asked what the next most important quality is for a novelist, that’s easy too: focus – the ability to concentrate all your limited talents on whatever’s critical at the moment. Without that you can’t accomplish anything of value.”

“After focus, the next most important thing for a novelist is, hands down, endurance. Fortunately, these two disciplines – focus and endurance – are different from talent, since they can be acquired and sharpened through training.”

As I’ve touched on many times in these Monday Morning Whips, talent is just the beginning.

So stop sitting around, wondering why nobody has yet to recognize your genius, and get stuck in to making your career happen.

Aug 15, 11

The Monday Morning WHIP // 141

It’s Monday. Which means it’s time for another Monday Morning WHIP. If you’ve just landed on this site, you might be wondering what the heck this is. Well you’re about to find out. See, every week for the last couple of years Stan’s been serving up his unique brand of ‘smarten the fuck up’. And this week is no exception – Stan’s serving the truth. What happens next is up to you.

It’s graduation time at Award School.

And over the last week or so dozens of eager young creatives in Sydney and Melbourne have ventured tentatively into the world with a fresh new portfolio under their arm.

They’ll be joined tomorrow night by a bunch more from Adelaide.

Which means that there is now even more competition for the handful of creative jobs that come up for juniors each year.

Sorry.

Aug 08, 11

The Monday Morning WHIP // 140

This week Stan’s (http://branddna NULL.blogspot NULL.com) advice is simple…

Digital is now an everyday part of our life. Both personally and at work.

We shoot on digital cameras. We write on computers. Even our TV signal is going digital.

So it stands to reason you should have digital ideas in your folio.

By digital ideas I don’t mean clever banner ads – they’re just ads done digitally.

I’m talking about ideas that either exploit the opportunities offered by digital or ideas that would not be possible without digital.

Now the problem with ideas of this type is that they can often be hard to explain with little more than a picture and a few words.

This however is your problem. Not mine.

You need to learn to use your creativity to explain or sell an idea as simply as possible.

An elevator pitch is the term they use in Hollywood. They probably use it in Silicon Valley as well.

So if you have some clever yet complex thinking in your book, put your thinking cap on and find a way to make it easy to understand.

Because if you don’t you’re going find it very hard to get people to fall in love that that idea.

Aug 01, 11

The Monday Morning WHIP // 139

Nothing like a bit of inspiration from Paul Arden to start the week.

The late Paul Arden once said that energy had a lot to do with being successful.

I have to say I agree with him. Hard work always pays off.

Of course there will always be a handful of people who are possessed by genius. People who don’t need to try. But most of us are not.

We are talented. We are creative. We are big thinkers. But geniuses we are not.

What Paul Arden also said was that energy was around 75% of the job.

And that if you weren’t prepared to put that much effort into your work then you should at least learn to be nice.

So put aside your ego. Think about someone other than yourself. And focus as much of your energy as you possibly can on doing a great job.

Unless of course you do happen to be possessed by genius.

In which case we might get you to come and speak at the next Junior Drinks night.

Jul 25, 11

The Monday Morning WHIP // 138

Only Stan (http://branddna NULL.blogspot NULL.com) can say it all in three little words.

I read a great article in the Harvard Business Review this week about internships. It was probably about 1,000 words long.

Rather than share a link to the article with you, I am going to give you my advice on doing an internship.

It’ll save you a lot of reading time, as it is nowhere near 1,000 words long. Here it is;

Make yourself indispensable.

Jul 18, 11

The Monday Morning WHIP // 137

This week, Stan’s (http://branddna NULL.blogspot NULL.com) really got the whip out. Read below, and if you start to get the feeling your cheeks are burning, do something about it.

Know what I’m sick of?

I’m sick of excuses.

“The brief’s not good enough.”

“Didn’t have enough time.”

“This just a rough.”

“We thought we’d fix it later.”

“Yeah, I know, but…”

“Really needed more time.”

“It’s just so hard.”

Etc etc etc.

The time has come to stop finding reasons for falling short.

And that time starts now.

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