Are you finding it hard to get in to advertising or even just to get a placement? Nigel Edginton-Vigus, Creative Director at Wunderman has been there.
When you’re busy ‘doing’ your career, you
don’t really stop to analyse how you got into it in the first place do you? Or
you don’t until the D&AD ask you. So with the delightful Dr Rhiannon James
in the padded leather, wing-backed armchair (no doubt peering attentively over
a pair of expensive horn rimmed spectacles) and me lying prostrate on a comfy
chaise longue, here goes. “Mummy!” Oh dear, let’s start again.
Steven King was once asked why he’d chosen to write horror novels. He replied; “What makes you think I had a choice?” And that’s pretty much how I feel about this game.
Yes I did terribly at school, except in art
and English, so you can see where I was heading. And true to form I flourished
at art-college. Although even there I spent most of the final year on placement
at all the best agencies I could get into (working all hours with the brilliant
Dave Buonaguidi). Of course, there’s the ultimately rewarding slog through
placements that I went through just like everyone else. Over the years, I’ve also
sold Betterware door-to-door, been an apprentice panel beater and sprayer,
driven breakdown trucks, worked in bars and sold print services. I’ve been a
designer (I won prizes for it and everything!), ran my own design agency for 6
years and worked in both new business and account services. I’ve even worked on
a traveling funfair, which I loved, and I’ve been redundant. Twice.
But while I’ve enjoyed doing all these jobs and learnt something valuable from them all, I’ve always felt compelled to be in advertising.
And D&AD’s always been there to
help me. In fact, here’s a little story that might give you hope if you’re
trying to break into the industry yourself. I was ‘downsized’ from a job as a
new business manager at a design agency, back in ’96. I was in my late 30s, had
a two-year old daughter and suddenly, no income. Christ! However, the situation
forced me to think about what I really wanted to do: write ads. So I signed up
for a D&AD workshop, got a book together, pestered all the CDs/teams I met,
designed a mailer and within weeks I was working as the oldest junior writer
Carlson had ever employed – as well as the cheapest! I won’t bore you with my
career trajectory from there. But it perhaps shows that hard work, tenacity, grim
determination, enthusiasm and love of what you do (plus a generous measure of good
luck) can take you quite a long way.
And when you work with such bright, fun, talented, exciting, switched on, curious, creative, often dysfunctional and always passionate individuals, what’s not to love about the business?
So that’s how I got into advertising. Now you know and I’ve remembered.
On the subject of getting into the business, one of
the most important things you can do as someone trying to get into this
industry is consider yourself as a brand. Then make sure you market and
promote yourselves. Which is why I always set a self-promotion brief to
every placement team I take on. Here’s my current favourite from Mark
Lees and Laura Davies. They’re now on an extended contract with us at
Wunderman. So it worked.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Tjav1JFqi0
Although it’s got me thinking: how did
advertising get into me? But that’s months of analysis.
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