We are having our first days at Publicis Dialog which so far have been extremely informative. The guys here are responsible for targeted one-to-one communications, certainly a good field to be in nowadays as it's very measurable and can be extremely effective. In the last few hours we have met the CEO of Dialog who has given us some good insight of what this discipline can achieve and how it works. Then we have had a look through the current creative work, e.g. mailings that have gone out recently, and got briefed on the HP, COI-(Central Office of Information, Zurich and Renault-business.

What's more, the preparations for our agency-quiznight are running high - as I myself have never participated in this very British tradition I am now going to bed with an encyclopaedia of ancient Germanic history every night to be able to cover this apparently highly demanded topic on Thursday. Exciting!

So far our stint at Publicis Dialog is going very well and I’m looking forward to join the Zurich-team tomorrow (the best team in the agency, they say). In any case, here is a sample of their art that I quite like:

Curtains close on IPA 1.

Well, last night was the culmination of our efforts at IPA 1 in the form of eleven 5-minute presentations. It's a great course and we met about 80 other new grads from different advertising, digital and media agencies, really good for networking and given the incestuous nature of our industry, we could well end up working with some of them in the next few years.

Davina and Paddy both put on good presentations and Jenny was a star in her group's video. Regrettably, the klaxon had sounded before I got the chance to reveal Group G's mind-blowing conclusions to the rest of the IPA.

However, for the benefit of our blog, I'll sum it up in one sentence from my mate George Washington Carver.



'When you do the common things in life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world.'

Variety is the spice of life

The last few days have seen me doing a variety of different projects and tasks. Last week myself, Davina, Ian and Jenny spent the afternoon at a premiership football ground taking part in a shoot for a new on-line advert. Davina found her calling in life pretending to be a WAG whilst Ian and I were perfectly cast as football crazed fans over celebrating a goal. Rumour has it that some of us may have made the cut for panel advertising on the underground so keep an eye out, but I doubt Ian and I will be selected as we are both modelling dirty moustaches for MOvember at the moment! Would you want that as the face of your brand?!

The next day Ian and I were at a less glamorous location shooting another ad. This time we were on a council estate in North London but due to top level secrecy I am unable to divulge exactly what we were doing there.

Then today my past experience of working in the lingerie industry in New York last year has been put to good effect. I have been working on a research project into the UK lingerie market and some of the brands within this field, which has allowed me to sit at my desk surfing lingerie websites and looking at women in underwear without fear of my superiors or IT department getting very suspicious?

What other job could offer me such a variety of work day in day out? I love this job!

A WAG night out

On Thursday Davina finally got her long-desired breakthrough as a TV-personality: all four of us were invited to attend an LG photoshoot at Fulham stadium where we cheerfully posed as "crowd" in different scenarios of varied difficulty. Then Davina caught the eye of the director and *bling bling* was chosen to pose as WAG - only inches away from the camera! I myself seem to have been much less spectacular as he kept calling me Jane and told me to move closer to George (this was only possible by moving behind him). Well, I guess not everyone has the qualities to be a WAG. Boohoo. I compensated by stuffing myself with as many sandwiches as I could possibly take without ruining my shape - important to watch your figure as a professional model or so I've heard.
The results of our hard hard labour will be coming up on this blog as soon as we can get our fame-hungry little hands on them. So long!

Creative week one ends

Well it has been one week since we took up the reins as creatives- and I am sure of one thing- it's not as easy as it looks!

It has been interesting to see the process from a creative point of view- and it has given us a greater appreciation of what they do. As well as playing pool and fussball, they come up with some inspired stuff.

Turns out Paddy and Ian actually came up with an identical campaign to the best idea from the real, full-time creatives' work! So pretty damn good...they might be heading to cannes after all.

I however, am defintiely going back to account management!

Good Morning Mister President...

On Wednesday morning, most of us woke up with a feeling of trepidation. A new president was upon us. (Apart from Paddy and I who stayed up late until it was beyond reasonable doubt).

The picture above was all over the metro and was released around Manhattan the eve of the US presidential election. The posters immediately became collecters items. This, to me, is what advertising should be all about. To release messages so powerful that people want them for themselves. Can we do this?

YES WE CAN!

Match Point Davinator

Davinator and Paddy the Rock Walsh sizing each other up

Before the big match...

Even more fun with Jenny and Davina

Davina turns me into a sun worshipper with some vicious brown powder she found at the bottom of her gym-bag. Tried to scrub it off but can't! Any advice???

Work in progress

This is our tried and tested creative working process leading to optimal results: Davina practices the presentation and I read a magazine.

The box of truth (Well, for Ian anyway)

The Boys are going to Cannes!

This week we start our 2 week stint in the creative department, and myself and Ian plan to be the best grad creative team in history, make the next 'Gorilla' or 'Cake' advert and be flown off to Cannes next year to have accolades heap upon us...well that's the plan!

Davina and Jenny have taken up camp in the office next door, however due to unknown IT problems Jenny has to sit outside the office in the hallway to access the internet! She looks like the naughty kid at school who has been sent out of class!

Ian and I this morning have been contemplating the dilemma which will soon be upon us. Who to vote for as BBC Sports Personality 2008. Obvious front runners were Chris Hoy and Rebecca Adlington, but now you have to throw Lewis Hamilton into the mix and Andy Murray. If Joe Calzaghe beats Jones Jr on Saturday he has to have an outside shout as well.

Team GB has got team of the year wrapped up, and I am pretty sure the young personality award will go to Tom Daley or Laura Robson. But all eyes will be on the main prize in the coming weeks and keep checking back as I update you with the latest betting odds!