Love, Ducks, Pancakes, Sex, Drugs and a Cup of Tea

Week one and my project had the green light, in fact it had 3 green lights as the MD, Chris, told me that I was going to be dipping into almost everything that the agency has wanted to do for a long time, but never really got round to it. A day of making pancakes for all my colleagues was followed by a reality cheque: I had eleven weeks to leave my mark on this company and not just float in and out unnoticed.  A social media audit, research and insights, a trip down to London for a Glug event and I’m not even half-way through.

From my very first week I was invited to sit in on brainstorming sessions and got to see first-hand how an idea is born, under loads of pressure to be the best in the industry. I could see how that idea is transformed into a concept, backed up by market insights; and one day soon it will be one of those great advertising campaigns that get all my friends talking (and buying).

I’m not sure if all agencies work in the same way as Love, but I find the decentralised structure a great benefit to creativity and good communication. Formal channels are blurred and the team morale is awesome. With a really feminine Spotify playlist on, as Ed and I work in a part of the office dominated by a dozen or so ladies, sometimes I wish I had my headphones on. However the atmosphere is otherwise fantastic and it’s really hard to be the first one to go at 5:30 when I look around and the office is just as busy as it was at 9 in the morning.

I guess one thing that makes an agency different from client-side marketing departments is the diversity of working for different awesome brands like Umbro, Nike and PlayStation at the same time, making sure we don’t go “native”, working on the same brand, in the same way, and failing to see the bigger picture.

Six weeks to go and it now becomes all about results and justifying my time spent with this agency that I have grown to LOVE.