I am thinking that because it's Thursday and I have heard nothing back from Ogilvy that it would be safe to say that I didn't get invited for an interview. I would be a liar if I were to pretend that I wasn't disappointed, but it might be a blessing in disguise. It was an amazing fellowship opportunity. I strongly recommend you take a look at the site, there is a lot of good information there for getting into advertising.
I wish everyone who did make it to the interview good luck. I was doing some research and came across a wiki that had some good information about what the interviews might be like. Take a peek there, it never hurts to be prepared. I am going to start getting my thoughts together for when I do go in for an interview.
I went down to visit the Ogilvy offices in Chicago two years ago while I was at MCAD. I rounded up a small group of amazing MCAD students, and we took a road trip down to Chicago to attend a advertising careers day put on by the Chicago chapter of American Advertising Federation. It was excellent day long conference, there were speakers and small break out sessions. Our professor Nancy Rice had gone to the trouble of setting up a few agency visits for us. We had the opportunity to go over to Ogilvy and have a tour and be able to ask some questions. It was really good.
I was also fortunate to hear Brian Collins speak about his work with the Dove campaign at MCAD. Brian was an inspiring speaker, he was very cool. After he was done with his lecture he asked if we had any questions. Finally a fellow student Laura Novak asked a question. Brian awarded her 1,000.00 dollars for being the first person to ask a question. I knew I should have asked, she beat me to it. In all fairness it was a good question. It was a good way to teach a lesson. I am sure all the students at the lecture will always remember that, I certainly do.
I was talking to a friend of mine and she asked me where I thought I went wrong, well I told her that I would post my answers here.
UK Families throw away 4 million tonnes of food a year, adding an average of £420 per year to a household's shopping bill. The government has approached your agency to put together a creative communications strategy to stop this. What would you do?
My first question is what is the government trying to achieve with this communications strategy. What is the problem they are trying to solve? I have to first ask why is it a problem for UK families to be wasting this amount of money on food. Is it a problem of landfill space and waste collection? Or is it the costs and effects that the food waste is having on the environment? Is the problem that because UK families are overspending and wasting food other areas of the economy are being negatively impacted? I would also have to consider the repercussions for creating a strategy that would eliminate £420 per household spending on food. Impacts on the food and farming industry would have to be taken into consideration. I would need to be able to define who is going to benefit from this strategy.
There could be many different directions once the problem has been defined. One example could be if it were an issue of over crowded landfill space and negative impacts on the environment my team could go the direction of creating a strategy that would encourage the concept of composting food waste. Messages could be crafted to encourage people to use their food waste to fertilize vegetable gardens. Different messages would need to be created if the direction was that people needed to save money.
In reflection I think I didn't answer this question in the way they would of liked. Perhaps they just wanted a straight up strategy and I certainly didn't give it to them. I guess I think too much and want to ask too many questions.
Tell me about yourself question.
I once found myself with a group of friends in a bar in Soho that was absolutely heaving. Being that it was Friday night it was at least five people deep at the bar. I was quickly getting the feeling that we might end up having to spend the evening together, sober. I shuddered.
After waiting for what seemed like ages our small group gave up hope and headed downstairs to see if we would have better luck there. We found the bar, but alas there was no one tending it. We also found a very desperate thirsty group of people surrounding it. Despite the lovely tiki décor the natives were getting restless.
I immediately felt a sense of duty. Something had to be done. Within in seconds I found myself behind the bar and naturally began serving the people. I was pulling pints and mixing cocktails. A twist of lime, make mine a double, shaken and stirred. It only lasted a few blissful moments before my boyfriend pulled me away. I guess that kind of thing isn’t too legal here in London.
As we made our way out of the bar and onto the street my friends immediately demanded to know why I hadn’t bothered to serve them a round. I simply replied that it wouldn’t have been fair to let them jump the queue.
Hi. My name is Rhea O’Connor and I like to get things done. I look for opportunities and then make things happen. Last fall I came to London to study Marketing and Advertising. I loved it here so much that I decided to stay and make it my new home. It also helped that I found the love of my life and we got married at an Elvis chapel this past August.
When I am not posing as a barmaid in Soho I enjoy learning new things, going to the library, collecting stamps, attending Pez conventions, running the London chapter of TechKaraoke, going to LikeMind gatherings and reading books.
UK Families throw away 4 million tonnes of food a year, adding an average of £420 per year to a household's shopping bill. The government has approached your agency to put together a creative communications strategy to stop this. What would you do?
My first question is what is the government trying to achieve with this communications strategy. What is the problem they are trying to solve? I have to first ask why is it a problem for UK families to be wasting this amount of money on food. Is it a problem of landfill space and waste collection? Or is it the costs and effects that the food waste is having on the environment? Is the problem that because UK families are overspending and wasting food other areas of the economy are being negatively impacted? I would also have to consider the repercussions for creating a strategy that would eliminate £420 per household spending on food. Impacts on the food and farming industry would have to be taken into consideration. I would need to be able to define who is going to benefit from this strategy.
There could be many different directions once the problem has been defined. One example could be if it were an issue of over crowded landfill space and negative impacts on the environment my team could go the direction of creating a strategy that would encourage the concept of composting food waste. Messages could be crafted to encourage people to use their food waste to fertilize vegetable gardens. Different messages would need to be created if the direction was that people needed to save money.
In reflection I think I didn't answer this question in the way they would of liked. Perhaps they just wanted a straight up strategy and I certainly didn't give it to them. I guess I think too much and want to ask too many questions.
Tell me about yourself question.
I once found myself with a group of friends in a bar in Soho that was absolutely heaving. Being that it was Friday night it was at least five people deep at the bar. I was quickly getting the feeling that we might end up having to spend the evening together, sober. I shuddered.
After waiting for what seemed like ages our small group gave up hope and headed downstairs to see if we would have better luck there. We found the bar, but alas there was no one tending it. We also found a very desperate thirsty group of people surrounding it. Despite the lovely tiki décor the natives were getting restless.
I immediately felt a sense of duty. Something had to be done. Within in seconds I found myself behind the bar and naturally began serving the people. I was pulling pints and mixing cocktails. A twist of lime, make mine a double, shaken and stirred. It only lasted a few blissful moments before my boyfriend pulled me away. I guess that kind of thing isn’t too legal here in London.
As we made our way out of the bar and onto the street my friends immediately demanded to know why I hadn’t bothered to serve them a round. I simply replied that it wouldn’t have been fair to let them jump the queue.
Hi. My name is Rhea O’Connor and I like to get things done. I look for opportunities and then make things happen. Last fall I came to London to study Marketing and Advertising. I loved it here so much that I decided to stay and make it my new home. It also helped that I found the love of my life and we got married at an Elvis chapel this past August.
When I am not posing as a barmaid in Soho I enjoy learning new things, going to the library, collecting stamps, attending Pez conventions, running the London chapter of TechKaraoke, going to LikeMind gatherings and reading books.
did you get through? Congratulations!! :)
ReplyDeleteNo, I didn't get through. You?
ReplyDeleteha sorry I didn't mean to seem like I hadn't read your post, it only came up with the picture earlier and I thought you were just like "look at what came through my door..." Now I realise I made a small error.
ReplyDeleteNo I didn't get through either, got the letter this morning. Great letterhead. I really liked your answers though, especially the first one. Personally, I hadn't really thought of anything other than it being a bad thing (the £420).
Your other post with the list of achievements is really inspiring too, I've been feeling exactly the same way recently, I might do something similar.
Wishing you luck with the rest of them :)