Cadbury

And this was the first two or three weeks I was here. I had sort of worked on a few projects and the ECD who'd actually brought me into the agency was doing his best to help me out and get me started and get some work made. And I didn't have a partner. I was just sort of floating, working on little random projects here and there, and was a bit of a ... I was just sort of random. Nobody really knew what to do with me, because I came straight off the tennis court into the office, so nobody really knew what to do. [1276]
And so we just threw some ideas together and the client ended up sort of liking two of them. And than that meant that we were on it, and we wrote four more. In the end we came out with nine TV spots. Which was pretty cool after only being here for two weeks and getting to go on a two week shoot and come out with nine spots. Which was pretty rocking. [1277]
Cadbury's very, very, not conservative, they do good work, sometimes. But just anal maybe, I would say, if that is a .... [1278]
We wanted to evolve the idea. And what else can we do with these factory workers and with these account team members and all this sort of stuff, or the marketing team. And the client was just really picky about, "We're not shooting anything outside of the factory." It has to be these core people. We can only do these type of antics for the factory workers. We can't do anything really crazy because it'll tell kids ... Because you're advertising to the children basically, so it'll tell kids to do out and do these crazy things. So you can't do that. We have to use this terminology when referring to the gum. We always have to say, "It's ridiculously long-lasting." There has to be all this Strid posters and branding all over the set. On the table, you have to have X number of Strid packs. [1280],[1279]
And it's never testing for quality creative. It's testing for things that we really don't care about like brand awareness and all that sort of stuff. Which generally, the higher you score in testing, the crummier creatively your spot is. So, all creatives hate this testing process. It seems like it's a bit of a vicious circle, but I won't get into that. So that's always a pain. [1314]
And, even in post ... Because what they do is they shoot these number of spots, and then they put them all into testing, which is this rigorous process. And it's never testing for quality creative. It's testing for things that we really don't care about like brand awareness and all that sort of stuff. Which generally, the higher you score in testing, the crummier creatively your spot is. So, all creatives hate this testing process. It seems like it's a bit of a vicious circle, but I won't get into that. So that's always a pain. [1281],[1282]
So you'll shoot the spots, you'll send them to testing. If it tests in the green, then the spots okay. If it tests in the yellow, than you have to address the things why it tested in the yellow. You have to go back to another cut where they say, "Strid." Or in the end tag, you have to do something different to make the brand awareness more. Or you need a big banner that you go in in post and retouch onto the wall this big STRID banner with the logo and the tag and everything like that. And then they retest it. And they don't show the spot until it tests in the green. [1285],[1283],[1284]
And then, once again, it's been death of a thousand cuts. And you just hope, as a creative, you get your cut first, and then you keep that and put that on your reel. And then they can do whatever they want to do with it. It's not your fault. [1286],[1287]
But, it was a great experience. I'd been in the industry two weeks and I got to shoot all these TC spots. And it was sort of sink or swim. [1288],[1289]
I mean we were able to get what we wanted. And obviously we shot a ton of spots, and we did a number of weeks of editing and things like that, which all adds up. Money wasn't a terrible issue. This was their big campaign. So they're gonna spend the money that they need to spend to get it done. And especially if they're gonna spend the additional money to put it all through testing. Because they pay for that. And then pay the additional money to have it re-edited. And then the additional money to have it retested. Money wasn't ... [1290]
For the first spot it was an issue, because it was a flavor launch and they'd already set the date when the flavor was launching. So we had to have the spot ready for that. And then for the others we had a bit of time, because it was for additional flavor launches. So we had time to get them ready and fill in all those [inaudible 00:39:57] [1291]
It was already an existing campaign, so it was trying to think of a better way than it had been done before. And where can we take these marketing team people and this president and do something funnier and evolve it a bit? But again, a lot of our inspiration was killed by client restrictions and things like that, so it was a bit difficult. So here's your guidelines, here's the campaign, now we need nine more spots to go with it. [1292]
We came up with one which I thought was pretty cool where we managed to get the president out of the factory, which was a huge task. And we got him into a convenience store, because we wanted to show the effect of the gum on the general convenience store owner. And so we had our Asian deli owner who was very pissed off that none of his Strid gum was selling. So he yelled at the president, saying, "It sold the first day but then no one ever came back." And it's because the flavor lasts too long. So that was fun. That was good. [1315]
Good. At times, yeah, good. I think in the end it was just a bit frustrated. Because again, it was just death of a thousand cuts. They just were relentless with ... And the spots ended up suffering, in my mind, because of what they were trying to - [1293],[1295],[1294]
Yeah. We always presented the work personally. It was a bit more of a laid back thing then Rolex, for example. It's a kid's brand. They wanted to hear from us. We're the target market, so why not here it from the horse's mouth? And that relationship was good. I always had a good rapport with all of them. [1296]
One of our senior ECD's never had a good rapport with them. So that made things a bit tough at times. [1297],[1298]
This person just didn't seem to have a good rapport with anyone. He just didn't have great client - [1300],[1299]
Didn't have a great client, you know ... [1302],[1301]
Social skills, yeah. Just never seemed to click with any of the clients. [1304],[1303]
It was good. We were always really frustrated because they'd sort of promise things before consulting the creatives. The client would give feedback and they'd immediately promise it. And say, "Oh, yeah, we'll have it to you by the end of the day." [1316],[1317]
It was good. We were always really frustrated because they'd sort of promise things before consulting the creatives. The client would give feedback and they'd immediately promise it. And say, "Oh, yeah, we'll have it to you by the end of the day." Whereas that's not the process. Get the feedback. Tell us. And we'll tell you when we can give it to you by, not vice versa. So that was really frustrating. We were about to kill each other, I think, at the end of it all. There was two account girls, and there was Danny and I, and I think we all knew that we were not very fond of each other at the end of it. [1306],[1307],[1308],[1309],[1305]
Well, it was a great thing because I was able to shoot. But I don't think of it as a bad thing because this was my first experience with the industry. [1310],[1311]
I think any project really has its ups and downs. I was just excited to be on a set and see what it's all about. And be able to do it and see it happen. And be able to call the shots, which is cool, because it all really comes down to myself and Danny, which is great. And to come up with an idea and then shoot it and then see it in front of you. And be able to spend a million dollars doing it. And get what you want. It was great. So, like I said, you get your cut first. And then you just sort of choose your battles from that point up. [1312],[1313]
Reference Tags
[1276] Inexperience,[1277] Organizing effectively,[1278] Risk compensation,[1280] Forceful conflict about ideas,[1279] Micromanaging,[1314] Irreconcilable differences,[1281] Forceful conflict about ideas,[1282] Micromanaging,[1285] Forceful conflict about ideas,[1283] Micromanaging,[1284] Yielding conflict about ideas,[1286] Forceful conflict about ideas,[1287] Yielding conflict about ideas,[1288] Optimism,[1289] Self-relevance effect,[1290] Appropriate resources,[1291] Balanced workload pressure,[1292] Micromanaging,[1315] Empathetic disposition,[1293] Dismissive,[1295] Insufficient Feedback,[1294] Micromanaging,[1296] Communicating ideas across domains,[1297] Communication issues,[1298] Unresolved relationship conflict,[1300] Communication issues,[1299] Unresolved relationship conflict,[1302] Communication issues,[1301] Unresolved relationship conflict,[1304] Communication issues,[1303] Unresolved relationship conflict,[1316] Internal changes/challenges,[1317] Irreconcilable differences,[1306] Indecisive leadership,[1307] Insufficient Feedback,[1308] Lack of organizational encouragement,[1309] Unresolved relationship conflict,[1305] Yielding conflict about ideas,[1310] Appeal to novelty,[1311] Self-relevance effect,[1312] Appeal to novelty,[1313] Self-relevance effect