My First Year In Advertising

Believe it or not (I'm not sure I really do) the end of this month marks my first year in advertising. For as long as I can remember, I've wanted to work in this industry. When I was younger I used to play a game with my best friend where you would choose an object for the other person and they'd have 30 seconds to come up with an advertisement and present it. Now that I'm in the place where this actually happens - it takes them longer than 30 seconds, obviously - it's pretty hard to believe it. Although I'm not creating show-stopping ads (yet) I'm definitely climbing the right ladder.

I've learnt a huge amount in the last year, more than I imagined I would. If I met myself from a year ago now, I'd be shocked by how little I knew - I don't think I'd even heard of Campaign magazine (advertisers' version of BBC News) and now I spend my day scouring it for new ads, hires, mergers and industry news.

The biggest lesson I've learnt this year is that advertising can do more than just sell. This was definitely some thing I was aware of (see my post from Blogtober last year on Why We Should NOT Ignore Advertisements) but I didn't know the extent to which advertising was moving towards this. The most successful campaigns from Cannes Lions (our version of the Oscars) this year were doing more than selling, they were impacting popular culture and creating change. People have started coining phrases such as 'solvertising' and 'goodvertising' but really it's just advertising at its best. Advertising of the future. Some people think advertising is slowly dying off but I think what these ideas show is that it's alive and making a difference.

I've also found out just how much time and effort (and how many people) go into creating these amazing, award winning ads. What I used to think happened was: a client told you what they wanted, a strategist turned this into a brief and gave it to the creative team (an art director/designer and a copy writer), they brought the ideas to reality and the account manager delivered them back to the client who then jumped for joy at your amazingly innovative yet refined ideas. Obviously I didn't think it was quite as simple as this but I never imagined how complicated the process was and how many different roles are involved. Collaboration is such a buzzword in the industry but it seems that to be truly successful you need to have a 360, fully integrated, cost effective solution. 

What surprised me was the unspoken hierarchy in advertising agencies other than CEO to Account Executive or Intern. The hierarchy of brands. The first question you'll get asked when you meet another advertiser is "what do you do?". In the normal sphere of employment this is taken literally but what ad people really mean is "who do you do?" and they're not being crude, they mean what account do you work on, who are your clients. Secretly (or sometimes not that secretly), they will judge you on who your client is - whether they're blue chip or a bigger (money-wise) account than their own. Working in the PR/Communications department I've been spared from this, sort of. My client is our own employer so no one has the nerves (or stupidity) to degrade part of what they represent - it's almost like I work in HR - and yet they're not particularly interested either. It's a really interesting place to be and has given the opportunity to be involved in a broad range of areas in the company.

Luckily, in advertising (an experience based career) 22 is considered young once again. My friends and I are always complaining about how old we're getting but here I'm considered youthful, fresh and Millennial. A key trait of Millennials is that we are 'digital natives'. Any technical issue and we're the first person to be asked (it's like living with your parents all over again..). But in fact it's actually quite a popular trait for employers. We don't need digital training, we just get it. Before I started working in my current role, and actually before I started working full-time, I didn't know how sought after this was. So instead of grumbling about my age (I'm definitely starting to get bags under my eyes, no grey hair yet though), I'm revelling in the fact that I've not hit 30 yet.

Finally, one lesson I've learnt in the last year which applies to any profession is the importance of making time for yourself outside of work. It's so easy, especially in the digital age, to spend your personal time talking about or doing work (whether it's checking emails, making notes or reading extra articles). And while I think this is great that my friends and I care enough about what we're doing to want to do this, if all we do is work, we're not going to be as productive as we could be. I read a really interesting article today about a company that has reduced it's working hours to 5-a-day. I'm not saying everyone should work less, I'm saying taking time to do what you want to do is really important too. At university I had such a flexible timetable I could easily balance my work and personal life. Now I work 40 hours a week it's not quite so easy. But it's still important that I find time to do things I enjoy such as hockey, seeing friends and writing my blog. I want to do the best work I can and I believe that being happy in my personal life enables me to do that.

I'm interested to know what you've learnt either about yourself or your industry in the last year or so. Leave me a comment below if there's something you'd like to share! 

Who Likes Cake?

In the last year my friends have realised that I like to bake. I'm not saying I should be on The Great British Bake Off or anything - although that would be awesome!! I'm just saying I like try to do something a bit more exciting when I make a cake. I'd like to prove the misconception wrong, that student actually can cook! Here are a collection of some of the ones I've made this year (all in a student kitchen with no electric mixers). They're not as good as the ones on Cake Boss (such an amazing TV show) but I think they were enough of definitely a challenge!

Going in time order, one of my closest friends, Beth, decided she would make her first ever cake as a birthday present to me. Although I rather ungratefully called it a Hagrid cake (it looks remarkably similar to the one Harry Potter gets in The Philosopher's Stone) it's tasted pretty good and I ate a fair amount of it for breakfast for about a week.

So I in return promised to make Beth a cake for her birthday. I know that she's a big fan of animals and especially horses so I decided I would try and make her a horse shaped cake. I watched a couple of YouTube videos and then just went for it. 

One video I watched suggested drawing around a picture of a horse and creating a shape guide on baking paper which I could then secure on the top of the cake with pins and carve around. I thought this was a clever idea as there is no way I could freehand cut a cake into a horse shape. 

For the icing I did two layers of crumb coating (basically buttercream used to make the cake surface smooth and without crumbs) and then used shop-bought roll-out icing. Since making the cake I found out that to colour roll-out icing you should use a colour paste rather than liquid food colouring as it makes the colour much more intense. For the mane I used a weird cheese grater contraption that my mum had bought me, very similar to a playdough machine. Overall, I was pretty happy with this cake, although as my first time with roll-out icing, it was very stressful. 

Following on from this, another friend, Harriet, asked me to make her a birthday cake. For this is resorted to a trusty favourite of mine, which I made similarly for my own 18th birthday, a princess cake. 

The crumb coating for this is particularly important as you don't want crumbs in the outer layer of the skirt. You also need to cling film your doll and make a hole for her to stand up in. For this I used a cup. I pushed down in the centre, went through the 4 layers of cake, twisted and pulled out the centre pieces.

The icing for this is entirely buttercream and a tip I learnt to make the surface extra smooth is to use a strip of paper and run it over the cake , drawing upwards and taking off the excess icing. To finish, decorate the skirt and make a top with an unusual nozzle in your piping bag (preferably with a different colour icing). 

Another of my closest friends, Charly, had her 21st birthday this September so I decided to make her a cake too. I had a couple of ideas, perhaps a hockey playing top with her number on the back, but I decided on something involving her as an image. My initial plan was to make her whole head out of cake, but I quickly realised that this might be a bit too difficult and so instead I ended up making a rectangular cake with her face made out of icing. This was my return to roll-out icing! But with the right colouring this time it was a lots quicker in that respect, but the size and hand moulding made it pretty hard work. 

I also decided this time to change my cake to passion fruit flavour rather than plain sponge. This was tricky as passion fruit isn't a particularly strong flavoured fruit and can be pricey! I went for adding tropical juice to the mixture as well in the hope to get an more exotic flavour. Edible glitter on top was just a final touch to make it look a bit more special.

Like I said at the start, I am no cake making expert like Mary Berry. I just enjoy taking on the challenge of something new and unusual. If you want to know how exactly to make any of these cakes you can either contact me samanthablundell007@gmail.com or watch a some videos on the internet. All I've learnt from cake making has come from watching YouTude videos, taking hints and tips from frequent cakes makers and through my own trial and error. Why not watch some videos yourself and give cake making a try? It doesn't have to be someone's birthday! It can just be for you!