Breaking into the competitive world of advertising can be a daunting and seemingly impossible task. It’s difficult to know what creative directors are looking for. How do you make your portfolio stand out? How can you nail that all-important interview?
The Dots, a professional creative community that I founded, recently hosted an advertising portfolio masterclass, which gave emerging art directors, copywriters and creative teams the chance to get their work reviewed by some of the UK’s leading creative minds.
We asked them for their top tips for getting into advertising.
Here’s what they had to say…
1. Be ambitious and passionate
Two things that all creative directors at the event saw as integral to success were enthusiasm and passion – for both the role and industry. They want to be sure beyond doubt that you really want the job and are prepared to commit to it 110%. When Caroline Pay (deputy executive creative director at BBH London) was asked what she looks for in a creative, she replied: “Ambition, greed, hunger, confidence, passion for our industry and culture. Mainly it’s all about ambition and I want the most power-crazed people working for me.”
It’s a perspective that was echoed by Jon Gledstone of Mr President: “I look for enthusiasm, first and foremost. Keenness, eagerness – it’s really important when someone comes into an agency that they fit into the culture and the ethos.”
2. Be nice
You can be as “power-crazed” and hungry for the job as you like, but if you’re not nice, chances are nobody will want to work with you. Creative director at adam&eveDDB Richard Brim’s advice: “Just be nice and be enthusiastic about the work and realise that we’re doing something people would kill to do.”
Hollie Newton, creative director of Grey London, also emphasised the importance of having drive but remaining self-effacing: “It’s a difficult balance to remain really ambitious but also completely aware enough that you can laugh at yourself at the same time.”
3. Be yourself
One of the most important tips we learned from the creative directors was to be yourself. As much as you want you and your portfolio to stand out from the crowd, don’t try to be someone or something you’re not.
“My interview tips would probably be to just be yourself. It’s a cliché but it’s better to just be comfortable in yourself rather than to go crazy and creative on people,” said Eloise Smith, executive creative director at Lowe Profero.
4. Be original
This was an underlying theme in all of the creative directors’ points: in order to prove that you’re better than other applicants, being original is key. As Alistair Campbell, creative director of Guardian Labs, said: “Make sure you get beyond the obvious; what you’re looking for is work that’s different from everybody else’s – work that, if you had 10 people in a room, the other nine wouldn’t come up with.”
Newton added: “In a creative, I look to be surprised. Perhaps [it’s] quite silly, quite unusual. I like ideas that I genuinely couldn’t think of myself.”
Smith summed it up nicely: “Creative directors will be able to see the big idea, so don’t try and wow people with science – don’t try and wow people with clever media ideas. Think of clever ideas first.”
5. Be brave
Don’t be afraid to differ from the conventional ways of doing things. As Andre Laurentino, global executive creative director for Unilever at Ogilvy & Mather revealed: “I expect them [the new blood] to contradict everything I believe in and possibly make me think about that and say: ‘Wow, I learned something’.”
Newton backed this notion: “It doesn’t matter if they [the ideas] are completely wrong. I started out completely wrong … I think 90% of what I do is utterly wrong!” In a nutshell, if you’re brave enough to do something different to what has been done by everyone else, you’ll stand out from the crowd.
Pip Jamieson is founder and CEO of The Dots
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