Vanilla Extract and Brown Sugar

I arrived to my cubicle today and all I can smell is vanilla extract and brown sugar...I suspect that either someone used my corner desk to prepare cookie dough or that an office in my immediate vicinity held a recent workshop on the art of cookie preparation. Will look for flour trails later...

A couple of big events have happened recently. For one, I got to participate firsthand in a pitch to new business (when agencies compete for new clients or to fight for current ones.) It is, as you may imagine, a very busy time. Because on top of your normal workload, one must find time to invest resources in new business, which in some cases can be even bigger than your current workload. Now of course being an intern means I don't quite have as much stress and work to worry about, but it was still intense and fun to be apart of. I can't really divulge (or I feel that way) about any specifics but I was working on some fun copy that I ended up being utilized so that is always exciting.

The real kicker to this experience was how the office was when the client came in for the pitch. You could just feel the tension/excitement in the air. Gotta admit, McKinney pulled out some mad rabbits out of the hat for the pitch and for sure it left a strong impression on the client. It has been interesting to see how everything that has been done for this was able to carry a consistent message. For that to function we had constant contact with the Account Planners to ensure that our ideas were on target. Last thing needed here is a visual that stands out for being an anomaly.

Once the client had left, the place turned into a school campus on the last day of class. People were loud, relieved, etc. I even saw some people skipping down the halls. But perhaps that was because the bar taps were opened a couple of hours earlier for the staff to relieve some stress. I talked to a couple of people who had worked some crazy days leading up to the pitch so I am sure they were getting some much needed bar nourishment to wet their palates.

The other notable event of recent was an opportunity to have a sit down with a few other interns with our CEO. I had seen him around the office on a few occasions, but never took the opportunity to introduce myself formally. He started by going around asking our names and going through all those common little icebreakers everyone has experienced. What stood out to me, was that he knew who I was — more specifically, that I was the guy from Rock Hill, SC. I was impressed to learn that someone as important as him still takes the time to be in the know about his staff — even the unpaid ones.

Things are just chugging along

Really nothing exciting to note in the past week or so but there are a couple of points of interest worth noting.

Last Friday, I had the opportunity to sit in on client pitch for some web banners we had done. These were in no way glamorous at all — just your standard web banners, but it was exciting and new to sit in and see how it all works. I had been under the impression that you go into these meetings with a few options to give the client and you talk about them and how they meet the objectives of the brief followed by your recommendation. While that is how it goes down, what I found interesting (and I am sure this varies based on project and based on client) but the pitch was more or less done via ad-lib. In other words, most of the dialogue coming from our end of the phone was based on reading how the client reacted to certain pieces — the ones they react favorably to more or less became our "recommend."

I would imagine that for higher profile pieces that you are willing to fight very hard to have your recommend the final choice, but when dealing with this kind of work, it is best to just let the client make the call. Just tryin' to pay the bills in this case.

A couple of days ago, about a third of the interns got together to discuss feelings towards the internship program with a HR representative. I gathered some interesting tidbits from my peers regarding the program but really, it is hard to objectively make comparisons as only two of the six people there are in the same line of work I am. But I have been, overall, very happy with my experience here. I have learned a lot about myself as well as some intimate knowledge into how agencies run which has been encouraging as it has helped solidify my belief that this is in fact what I want to be doing.

I only have a couple of gripes concerning my time here...things I think could improve things for interns as well as the agency (granted they really have no expectations of their interns which they told us all up front.) For one, only a select few even noticed that there were created interns to assist with projects. I keep meeting employees and almost every time I get "Oh wow I didn't even realize we had interns right now." I don't expect the agency to shut down so that we can be introduced to those who may have contact with us, but some way of notifying people would be beneficial I would think.

Secondly, I would like to be "integrated" better with other creative teams. I posted early on how great it was on my second day to tag along with a creative and help concept...to see that dynamic firsthand was great. Then to go to all appropriate meetings regarding what we had done was also nice, but since day one, that interaction has been all but nonexistent. Now I don't blame anyone for this...for the most part everyone I have come in contact with has been very eager to help us and lend a hand, but at some point it gets to be too much to always be nagging other to involve us. Perhaps if they would just dedicate creative interns to a specific team or two that issue would not come up (and this is how interns in other disciplines have been integrated here.)

Like I said though, overall this has been a great experience so far. I think it really is up to me to seek out what I want to get out of this (like with a lot of things, of course "Outliers" puts some interesting perspective on what effect outside variables have on what happens to us) internship and if I try to involve myself more I now I can milk this place for all its worth.

Super Creepy Doll Invading Private Space

Look at this thing. The creepiest doll I have ever laid eyes on. Please note that the head is two-sided so that you have an "awake" side PLUS the "sleeping" side. But I think what catapults this bad boy into the stratosphere of elite creeper status is the body. Not only is it improperly proportioned, but the whole thing is completely limp — the head is the only solid part on the thing. So you have this over three feet frame of foam with a head of plastic.

So how did it get here? Well, as some of you may know, I currently am residing at my aunt/uncle's place as I do my internship in Durham. So yesterday, an elderly neighbor named "Sybil" brings over unannounced a pot full of the dankest egg salad + this doll that she bragged about finding in her attic to give so graciously to my three-year old cousin. Why this thing was not locked away in a remote location/attached to cinder blocks and dropped into a river is still a mystery to me. Now, I admit that I can be a judgmental individual so I did my best not to think that this doll was out of the ordinary when it was brought over. Initially I was more concerned with the smell that was violating my nasal cavities (this was, no doubt done on purpose by Sybil I speculate.) Furthermore, my aunt emerged for the stairs and delivered her thank you's to Sybil who was then on her way. At this point I thought it best to just let it go and pretend that I was imagining that a) this doll was a prop in a Steven King novel and b) the house smelling like a rotten corpse was nothing more than my mind playing tricks on me.

However, as soon as Sybil departed my aunt immediately accused ME of violating public air space fully thinking that the smell was not the food that was just brought over. Soon this subject was overshadowed by the doll. She also confirmed the +10 creepster meter that this guy had surpassed.

All afternoon this thing was hot conversation at home. Even that evening when we were all sitting around watching "Lost" — which, don't even get me started on home stupid this show is — my aunt thought it would be funny to prop this thing between the uncle and myself. It was there for all of two minutes when my uncle evicted it from its location. It soon left my mind as I became preoccupied trying to understand how a show with no direction has such a following until late that evening when the doll was placed, unbeknown to me, on my toilet for me to find at one in the morning. Scared the living egg salad out of me.

In retaliation I placed it in Adam's (my uncle) car for him to find at 5 am when he heads off for the gym, buckled up in his driver seat. In retrospect I think a rear passenger seat of his Passat would of been a better location as then every time he would turn around/look in his rear-view mirror, he would be subjected to this thing. The stage of the story ends on a funny note (I say thing because the pranks are in no way over with the doll) as apparently he woke up in the middle of the night to relocate it to my car but could not find the doll as I already had other plans for him.

So now I must scheme up some new locations for it to be relocated to. Any ideas on how to maximize the creepy factor of this guy?

Some Thoughts on Augmented Reality

A little bit ago I posted links to an exciting, emerging technology called 'Augmented Reality.' For those unfamiliar with it, essentially you have a product with some sort of code on it that your webcam reads, and then creates a 3D rendering on top of the product that has a varying degree of interactivity attached to it.

Here is an example I played around with

While there have been lots of examples of this (such as chess games where you literally can move nonexistent pieces,) the most successful example of this to date was pointed out to me recently at work — interactive 3D baseball cards. Unfortunately I can't embed the video but it can be found here:

http://www.t-immersion.com/

For those too lazy to watch the first minute or so of that video, he is essentially what goes down:

Click to Enlarge

I think that Topps is doing a great thing here in an industry that has stagnated in recent years as it seems to have lost touch with its demographic as technology continues to dominate new trends for younger kids/teens. I have no idea how well this will fare as I really have no grasp on where card collecting stands with kids these days. I mean, think about utilizing this technology with something like "Pokemon" and "Magic: The Gathering." You could literally see your character carry out spells and kill sequences on screen.

Another example with great potential are these augmented cards:

Augmented Cards in Action

Think about the ability to create custom content for a greeting card. Maybe you could go online (or like an automated machine in a store that you can do this from,) fill out the text, select animations (maybe you animate the text, or perhaps there is some other theme you would like to see come to life — based on what you think the receiver would like. The options really are limitless,) and then have the card sent directly to your friend. You may not even need to have anything written on the card as it could all be viewed through your webcam. The one major drawback to this technology being that not everyone has access to a webcam. But over the next few years most everyone with a computer will have one as the majority of new computer purchases come with them built in.

So we'll see. This technology is still in its infancy, but the move towards interactive digital media is in full swing and it will be interesting to see it unfold over the next few years.

Nearly Halfway Done Here

So as you may recall, more or less the subject of my last post involved detailing how a projects gets completed as I went through the motions (tedious at times) of getting a piece ready for print. Here is the completed ad:

The full ad

The body copy that I spent my time working on

As that is probably hard to read here it is in full:

"How do you turn an ogre into a household name? By creating cutting-edge computer-generated animated films like Shrek and bringing SHREK THE MUSICAL to Broadway. Add in the likes of Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda, and you see why Dreamworks Animation is a leading innovator in the entertainment industry. No wonder they switched to the market known for its imaginative approach to listed-company visibility and visionary thinking —giving them access to the most advanced trading platform and unmatched suite of corporate services. NASDAQ. The global market for companies that move life forward."

The are, naturally, lots of things that must be kept in mind when developing copy for clients. I think in earlier posts I (hopefully) addressed those issues, however I wanted to shed light to the fact that there are lots of tiny little stipulations that must be noted. Certain words must be avoided as their meaning may lead to a lawsuit. So when you say something like "industry-leading" or something like that, it must be first approved by legal as it may cause a lawsuit.

Moving on to what I consider to be the more interesting detail is the fact that the client may request you include very specific words or direction for the copy to take. This ensures that the intended message is being conveyed as well as providing the copywriters guidelines to follow. This to me is both a good and bad thing. On the one hand, you can disagree immensly with what they want you to say for whatever reasons...wether you think that the message they are going for is off mark, etc. However, I think it helps provided needed limitations to help start the brainstorming process as you now have a starting point.

And therein lies the challenge. How to effectively and creatively convey the message they want you to? How can you take the clients cues and craft a beautifully flowing paragraph that is compelling but yet concise, highlighting the key points so that readers will walk away remembering what it was you wanted them to?

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I don't have much to say about this past week or so...I have gotten more work that will likely get published. It has occured to me that they have us doing lots of "grunt work." By that I mean stuff that is mundane and requires very little creativity. Don't missread that as a complaint however. I am extrememly greatful to be in the position I am in and relish every opportunity to further my skills. So while I may be executing stuff that noone else wants to do, it's all new to me and I would never take it for granted.

My only real complaint about the format of things here is our (interns) lack of connection to the other creatives. Everyone typically works in a small team of 2-3 and collectively brainstorm ideas/concepts. As I noted in my first post, my first real day on the job had me tagging along w/ a team and I got to see firsthand how this process takes shape, but that would be an isolated incident as to date that was the only time I got to participate with the creatives. I am going to try and inject myself into a team as there is so much to gain from being "in the trenches" with them. Years of knowledge, insight, advice, etc — these are all things that can be gained.

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In the past week or so their have been some big meetings. They were very large scale and involved all the employees coming together to discuss recent work for clients. The atmoshpere for this was very positive and upbeat and I suspect the aim of these meetings was to boost morale, remind everyone just how great a place McKinney is and most importantly, to show everyone the fruits of their labor. So while only a small pertentage of people were actually involved in the exectution of the displayed work, I think it was good for everyone to be reminded that in the grand scheme of things they helped accomplish what got done. Essentially what had gone down was a giant pep ralley now that I think about it.

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With the realization that this week already marks the halfway point of my internship, looking forward my aim really does not exceed to continue to hone my craft and develop a stronger portfolio. Along the way, I hope to engage my coworkers more in an attempt to strengthen not only work relate skills, but to also build stronger bonds with the actual people here themselves.