SUNDAY SUMMARY SCAB – By @SCA2Dean
By Marc Lewis
SUNDAY SUMMARY SCAB
29th January 2017
Alumni reading this might remember the moment things seemed suddenly to become impossibly busy. I imagine that this week will be remembered by most of the Fat Penguins as the one that’s felt most like Boot Camp so far.
We have been juggling five big briefs this week, two of which were due on Friday. Time management skills are starting to be properly tested. Practice makes perfect.
Let’s treat PB6 as a dress rehearsal for when I finally let you loose on the New Blood briefs. Make every moment count, push every idea, give yourself time.
I was out of the studio quite a bit this week, and so I am looking forward to reading SCABs from Fat Penguins, reflecting on this week’s master classes.
Monday
Caitlin Breeze
We started the week with a master class led by Caitlin Breeze.
I heard from many of you that it was a top session, from a class act. I look forward to reading the SCABs that have been promised, and I am grateful to Vikki for helping to organise this session.
Pete Cain Back Home
Pete returned from working in Dubai for a couple of weeks, getting a well deserved welcome.
His return is a boost and his feedback is rightly well-respected. But it comes with a price. The amount of opinions that you trust might have rocketed by anything from 20 – 100%. When you get conflicting opinions on strategy from John, Pete, me, or any of our visiting mentors, remember the techniques that we shared with you.
Tuesday
Ivan Pols
Tuesday began with Ivan challenging us to think about a career outside advertising, or, at least outside an agency. He has spent a career arriving in creative agencies just before they become brilliant, and they often dipped when he left. Coincidence?
So it was fascinating to hear what Ivan is up to, and what he sees as opportunity for us students.
Execute at 80%
Tuesday also began with us 80% of our way through to the deadline for PB3 and TBWA.
When we discover the teams that won these two briefs, I believe we will find that they had settled on the idea by now.
This means that you want at least one big idea signed-off by everyone through to your craft mentors before Tuesday.
Wednesday
Pete Cain at Town Hall
Pete led Town Hall with a master class, including lessons learned from his Dubai gig.
I haven’t read a SCAB about a Pete session for quite a while, so it would be good to read one soon. Pete is going to be sharing wisdom every Wednesday for the rest of the year.
Thursday
Honestly, I thought that the presentation to METRO was better than Week 1, but not as good as Week 2. We should be getting better every week. We should be using our creative techniques, hoping to get an idea that is good enough to land in our portfolio.
Master class with Rob
Rob tells me that he sees a lot of potential in this intake.
Friday
Great to see that everyone made the deadline for PB3. There was some very good work presented on both briefs, let’s use Monday to push for greatness on some of our TBWA campaigns before they visit school on Tuesday.
Gratitude
Thank you for putting so much thought and craft into Friday’s reflections. I enjoyed hearing your inspirations and I thought some of the slides were fantastic. I have shared some of my favourites on our social media channels.
Partners for PB6
You have the option of changing partners for this next brief, or you can stick if you prefer. You must decide who you are working with and agree it with them before Town Hall on Monday.
Once you have agreed partnerships, please create a PRIVATE Slack channel using the following format;
Pb6_name_name
Then invite your mentors. When you have done that, I will upload your PB6
Summary
There was good energy in the studio all week, and a lot of good work has been produced. We can see progress all around the studio. Many students feel like the penny is nearly dropping.
I am encouraged to learn that a group of students meet before school every day, to practice SMPs and scamps. Fantastic. The winners of 2016/17 will come from this group.
See you Monday.
Marc
