WOOT!!

The time has come where we can finally reveal our ads for Warrington Borough Transport! Just to refresh while it's been so long, these were formed from a concept me and Sarah had during our time at AND Partners last October which the client gladly accepted. Still only small fry compared to your drumming gorillas and the like, but other than a leaflet we did for VivaLaDiva at Pravda, these are our first proper advertising babies seeing the cold, harsh light of day.


Our original scamps


The finished articles

4-page leaflet using artwork from our ad

The leaflet is something Lee and Sam formed after we left placement, but it uses the image from our ad so I'm shamelessly plugging it on here! For the moment our ads are appearing on WBT buses in the region to promote the U19 Savercard (which was originally U18, it's not a typo on our scamps!), but there's talk of them being rolled out into adshels and bus backs at some point. Whatever happens we're just happy to have work out there being seen, and the canny thought that the teens seeing it will never once think "I wonder who came up with these ads?" is actually kind of cool. Sure, someday we want to do something as big as Gorilla or Balls (possibly a gorilla's balls, you never know!), but for now it's a good feeling that Joe Public are seeing our work.

Though we sadly didn't get to see the project through from start to finish, we're glad we got to head to the shoot for it in February, and we've been enlightened as to just how long even the simplest of ideas can take to come to fruition (6 months!). Cue Oscars-style speech! Thanks to the AND Crew for giving us the opportunity to have our work produced, to Lee for letting us mock him as always at the shoot, and to Ste for keeping us in the loop about everything that was going on. Cheers guys!

Easter update

Just a quickie! Unfortunately me and Sarah received an unfavourable response from Finch yesterday - turns out they opted to go for a more experienced team which is understandable based on their standing at the moment. A tad disappointed, but knockbacks are always to be expected, more so now than ever. And at the end of the day it's another contact we've gained, plus Kerry said she'd put us in touch with some of their contacts closer to home in Manchester, so there's always that silver lining somewhere.

Right back to the chocolate eating. Not as a form of consolation, just because I love scoffing!

Long time, no type!

Seems like the resolution to update the blog more has fallen by the wayside a little! Been pretty busy over the last month with normal work stuff (i.e. the 9-5 job) so little to report from Team Sparkley. However, today we did have a jaunt over to Liverpool to an agency called Finch for an interview (yes, an actual interview, not just a random book crit!)


Unfortunately the CD was busy, but we got to see the lovely account director, Kerry Dennison. Admittedly it was pretty much like all the book crits we've had, but with a little more emphasis on what experience we've had since uni and also a lot more background and current info on Finch itself. Kerry liked much of our book and seemed to like us, and it turned out we were the last candidates for their job opening to be interviewed, so we should be hearing something from them sometime in the next week or so.

Still a lot of ups and downs for Team Sparkley at the moment as we've both been looking for any work we can get our hands on, whether it be together or separately. Desperate times call for desperate measures, as they say! Sarah had an interview for an artworker job yesterday, and for the time being I'm staying on at my temp job to keep the cash coming in and considering writing a book to pass my free time more creatively and hone my copywriting skills as much as possible. Whatever happens, we're just looking for any way to help us onwards and upwards, regardless of when that elusive "big break" finally happens.

On a lighter note away from all the doom, gloom and economic depression, we had a rather nice wander down to the Albert Docks, stopping in at the Tate along the way - hooray for a bit of culture (there's little of it in Wigan and Stockport, you see). True to our roots, our favourite part was the souvenir shop - me with my gigantic pencils, and Sarah with her pornographic art books. Very classy.


Hopefully we'll be hearing some good news soon, be it as a result of today or our many other endeavours/fingers in pieholes. The snippet of information we learned today that we never knew before is that Liverpool has an underground service. And it smells better than London's.

For the One I Love

Here's a little shout out to my lovely work wife, Sarah. For all the times you say "Nom nom nom!" to me, this is for you!

Stupid Sheilas

What the hell? I read possibly the stupidest article in the paper this morning. Word has it that having attempted to sign up for Swiftcover insurance, musicians are being told they're ineligible for it due to Iggy Pop being their frontman. WHA?!?! How on earth does being a musician make you a liability to an insurance firm?

Also revealed was that Esure (you know the ones - "Calm down dear, I'm just punching Michael Winner in the face!") does not insure film directors, and Sheilas' Wheels refuse to insure people who drive pink cadillacs.

Australian? Own a garishly pink dress? You're out!

Whatever next? MoreThan not covering anyone who owns a dog named Lucky (yes yes, old ads I know, but it appears insurers are crazy!), Norwich Union/Aviva not insuring anyone who has ever changed their name?

Perhaps I'm well behind the times and this has been going on with all manner of products and services for years, but I just don't understand why the ASA have allowed these instances to occur, discrimination being the buzzword these days.


On a brief note whilst I continue to fathom this out, me and Sarah received the first visuals of our ads for Warrington Borough Transport today and they're looking pretty good! No matter how big or small this achievement seems to anyone else, we can't wait to see our first printed ads out there and be able to say "We made that!"

Feel free to make sick noises!

Ze book

A new link has been added to the sidebar now, which is an online showcase of mine & Sarah's book. Feel free to take a look and leave comments or contact us via email (also in the sidebar).

Ta!

Back to the day job

That's your lot folks, our fortnight at TBWA is up! Never the best feeling leaving placements behind, but having been given a chance to prove ourselves at the church, we're more certain than ever that we want to work there. Two weeks ago it was just an idealistic view that it'd be pretty freakin' cool to be part of such a team, but having seen it from the inside, it's become a goal for us.

We had a great end to our stint there with some more good feedback from Paul, and he sent us on our way with another brief for us to tackle and some certificates of our time there which was pretty funny. I personally have had the best time there, and feel like I'm learning more and more as I go along my little copywriting journey, particularly with Paul's encouragement with has helped my confidence no end. Needless to say, that man is set for a whole load of pestering from us in the months to come, and we hope to be taken back into the church some time in the near future.

My record of achievement!

For the time being it's back to the grind for me come Monday when I'll be returning to my "day job", though only for a few more weeks before heading to the life of limbo once more! We're just going to take things as they come, keep working on the book and pushing to get it out there, and we shall see what the next few months bring for us. We've left a little mark or two behind at TBWA, so we'll see whether they're discovered (though Fergus did catch us in our suspicious act - d'oh!). Thanks for having us, and hopefully we'll see you soon for more Cheese Pub action!

Our Bex flying the UCLan flag for us at TBWA!