I am back with the third instalment in my monthly blog series. I just about made the end of July as I’ve been very busy indeed. Busy is good, but it means that you struggle to find a blog topic at the very last minute. Don’t worry though, as I am typing these words I think I have an idea. And it’s going to involve some pictures and videos...
…The blog is three entries deep now, and I thought I would delve into what I do a little bit more, and some of the stuff that shapes my way of thinking – It will be completely clean of course - Fingers crossed.
Recently, we’ve had a lot of pitches and proposals. Now I won’t go into who they were for or what we did for them, but what I will do is show you an example of a really interesting pitch. Here we go:
Yes. I know it’s from an Emmy Award winning television series. It’s not a ‘real’ pitch. But at the very least it shows a different way of doing things. Laptops and Powerpoint presentations can be great. You can make loads of things bounce in-and-out which is fantastic. But maybe, just maybe, there is a different way of presenting that same information. This counts double if it is an idea you are presenting. If you want to read it off a piece of paper or a giant all-conquering projected slide that’s fine. This is not meant to be some-sort of dogmatic written piece, it’s just a bit of fun for a Friday.
So continuing that ‘bit of fun for a Friday’ theme let me show you one of my favourite advertisements from recent years. Perhaps you’ve seen it already, regardless it’s one that definitely deserves repeat viewings:
A walking, talking, French, bear-skin rug director is a wee-bit unusual I’ll give you that. But it’s perfect. Now I admit I may be predisposed to like that ad because I like surreal things. What I don’t like though is surreal for the sake of being surreal.
Does that make any sense?
Let me give you an example – That bear could have been replaced by all manner of different things. Let’s say it was replaced by a talking tissue box with a moustache that sits on the living-room table. That’s surreal. The idea still kind-of works. But it would only be half-as-good…And that’s purely down to the moustache.
The bear advert also has a brilliant reveal. In fact the majority of the Canal+ adverts have brilliant endings; this one is especially good too.
We could be here for a long time talking about the Canal+ adverts, so its best we move on – I have words to type, and you have some words left to read.
Let’s finish then with some of my favourite print advertisements. These are all examples of Tom McElligott’s work and you can read more about him here & here. Right onto the actual ads:
Simple.
And immaculate.
Now if you’ve got to the end of this; first of all thank you very much. Second of all, you are probably asking yourself the question - What has all this stuff got to-do with recruitment? Well everything really. At Nine Twenty we state on the very first page of our website that - ‘we believe in being different’ – And in order to be different you’ve got to think differently to everyone else.
How do you think differently to everyone else? Well you need find some inspiration.
And that’s exactly what everything you’ve seen in the paragraphs prior are to me.
Yes, even the talking bear-rug.
If you wish to discuss any ideas further, then please get in touch at the following address:
gmorrison@weareninetwenty.com
Until next time…
Grant Morrison, Marketing Executive, Nine Twenty