By Alexandra Sims

 Musings on the broken sofa

Sometimes we need to power down and put ourselves in a state somewhere between apathy and deliberation. So on Tuesday I had a lie down in the pit and noted what came to mind while actively avoiding writing a script for D&AD.

1. Some things shouldn’t be improvised. It’s great to be able to think on your feet but winging it won’t always fly. You can try to argue you didn’t have time to prepare, or maybe you have an unwarranted confidence in your planning, but if it matters to you then you’ll make the effort. And you should put energy into every brief.

2. Eminem is a great muse for writing ‘with new force’. *wink* army brief *wink* *wink* I’m developing a nervous twitch trying to crack this thing.

3. If you’re someone whose hands shake regardless of nerves then coffee before a presentation is a bad call.

4. Being single-minded is exhausting.

Point four permits this tangent, beyond the broken sofa and onto some general takes from this week.
Firstly, get outside the studio, for sanity, for ideas and for research. We visited the agency that held the account of the brand that we are working on and spoke to the creative team responsible for their latest campaign. It was simple to arrange and incredibly valuable. When we asked if anyone else had been in contact they said no despite the brief being open internationally. Pool your resources because most people are happy to help.

Back to the sofa.

We had a master class from Martin who won student of the year, equivalent to a white pencil, so for anyone thinking about New Blood here is his advice.

1. Take the brand to the audience not the audience to the brand. Get them where they are.
2. Push your ideas. What other media can you use and have the holes been filled?
3. Keep it simple and be able to explain it to anyone in a sentence.
4. Execute the b—child born out of wedlock. Craft everything even the incidentals because nothing is a throwaway. Martin and Olly’s Peace Day idea wasn’t unique, another team had the same idea but that didn’t take it far enough.

5. Don’t tell the judges what the brief is just tell your story.

6. Remember to wear your brown ‘is it crap’ hat. Would you really care about this idea if you didn’t have it?

Was the above list a cop-out? Perhaps, but it’s useful all the same and I reluctantly have a short story to write and read in a Jamaican accent because if you didn’t know by now, a day at SCA is never the same.