Interview 4 Questions

1. Based on your experience, what defines a successful ad campaign, or a successful ad?
2. What do you think are the most essential elements in a campaign?
3. Can you please define concept?
4. Do all ads need to have a concept?
5. How important is the execution of an ad?
6. Which, do you think, comes first, or is more essential: concept or execution? Why?
7. Which are all the different mediums ads could be in? Which is the most popular?
8. Where is the future of ads going - in relation to the medium?
9. Can the medium a campaign is exposed to effect the power of the campaign?
10. When you're concepting for an ad, do you always have the medium in mind? [Or the media plan in mind?]
11. Being a copywriter, can you please explain the process of coming up with a campaign for any given client?
12. What is the role an art director plays in the creation of an ad?
13. What about a creative director?
14. How important is the brief in creating ad campaigns?
15. Which departments are most essential to the creation of an ad?
16. How closely do the creatives work with the production team? Media team?
17. What role does the client play in the creation of a campaign? Do they interfere a lot, or do they let you do your work?
18. How would the perfect client act?
19. When coming up with ads, what is your main priority: pleasing the client, pleasing the consumer, or winning awards?
20. What is the most important element in a successful ad campaign?

Interview 3 Questions

1. Based on your experience, what defines a successful ad campaign?
2. What are the basic elements needed in a ad campaign?
3. How important is execution in an ad?
4. How important is concept in an ad?
5. Is an emotional connection with the consumer and the ad needed for the campaign to be successful?
6. Do you think the budget for traditional media (tv, print, radio) is going to change in the next 5 years?
7. Do you think interactive, mobile, or product placement is taking priority in agencies?
8. Do you think these answers might change given the different departments in an agency?
9. Is there any common ground within the departments when agreeing to whats important to a successful campaign?
10. What is the most important element in a successful ad campaign?

Interview 2 Questions

1. What made you want to go into advertising?
2. What school(s) did you go to?
3. What degree do you have?
4. How long have you worked in advertising?
5. Would you go back to school for a different degree, or to a different school?
6. What is your dream job? - How long will it take you to get there?
7. Has any of your work won any awards?
8. Are you happy with where you are now, in terms of the work you've put in?

Interview 1 Reflection

What is the most important thing I learned from the interview and why?


The most import thing i've learned from this interview was that being creative will not necessarily guarantee that you'll fit in into an ad agency. I never really put much thought into that. I had thought that being creative was going to be enough, and of course I knew that iPoly's team oriented education was also going to be a big up, but then again it might not mean i'll fit in. The way Hernan explained it was that it is a great job, but also a very stressful job. I guess I need to think about this a lot more. That answer just really got me thinking, so it definitely is the most important because it's something that can affect my future.

5 Min. Presentation: Rough Draft

Objective: Students will learn about the different departments in an ad agency.
Procedure:

1. Introduce myself and my topic choice.
2. Introduction question(s): Has anyone watched the TV series Mad Men?/ What do you know about advertising?/ What do you know about advertising agencies?
3. Introduce Departments. (Creative, Production, Accounts, Media)
4. Briefly explain each department, what they do, and how they interact with each other.
5. Ask questions to check for understanding: Who would be in charge of getting clients?/ Who would concept for their client?/ Who does the research to find the best possible audience?/ Who makes the final product?
6. Explain that my end goal of my project is to get into an Art School and start a career in advertising.

Materials/Resources: I'm planning on using a poster, or if possible a digital poster (*projected) of the departments.

Interview #1: Saulo Sequeria

1)   I’m interested in studying advertising. What can you tell me about it?

SS: Well, it depends. It depends on what field your interested in. For example I’m a producer, so what I do is – a digital producer – so what I do is I manage the creative team, I manage accounts, I create time tables, I deal with a consulting company that Toyota hires for helping get the right estimates, negotiations. Digital means interactive – which is websites, banners, i-videos stuff like that.

2)   From your perspective, what could I study that would be significant to other people?

SS: Well advertising is significant in its own way because it always touches people in… it depends how you react to an ad. So the ad could be, if you do an emotional ad, you can react in a certain way; if it’s funny, you know it all depends in how the creative is executed and what it is meant to be.

3)   Who else would you recommend I talk to?

SS: I could probably give you some numbers of creatives I know, or the creative directors. Pablo Busani, who is the creative director at Conill, [he is] also the Vice President. Veronica, who is the ACD, which means Associate Creative Director – who helps out Pablo.

4)   I am required to complete 50 hours of service learning related to my topic. What kinds of places or activities would you recommend for this requirement?

SS: Well, I mean you have to know what an agency life is about, right. Just because you’re creative doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to fit in well within the agency and the team. So first thing I would do is I would look for an agency, a creative or an advertising agency that is willing to give you the opportunity to shadow someone within different teams so that you get to understand the role of each team, or department. So if you want to be a creative, maybe a week you can shadow a creative director or an art director. The next week you can probably go into production, and probably shadow a producer. Go into the account team. So you know all the different aspects of advertising, and how you need to work within teams. And teamwork is so essential to advertising that you need to understand how things work.

5)   What books should I read in this field? What other resources can you recommend?

SS: There’s the book I let you borrow, Hey Whipple: Squeeze This, that’s a really good book for art directors. There’s another book I think called Don’t make me think which about digital interactive production. And then there’s tons of resources, like magazines. Like: Archive, CMYK, Layers, art magazines; Anything that you seek inspiration from. Links, if you’re into digital there’s: fwa.com, which has the best sites that are currently now on the internet, and it’s updated weekly. There’s also bannerblog.com, that shows all the creative banners, like takeovers that all the companies create. Digitalbuzz.com: that gives you information about digital advertising, so anything that’s digital and unique.

Extra Questions!

6)   What caused you to go into this field of work?

SS: Just because I like being creative, and thinking outside the box. This is one of the fields thats willing to give you the opportunity to be creative within yourself. And its not so button up, in a way that you don’t have wear a tie or a suit to work. It’s more relaxed, more chill. You work in a creative environment and they give you the opportunity to be creative. Whatever the means, you’re open, they give you that chance for you to come up with ideas.

7)   How was the educational experience of advertising?

SS: I consider advertising like being a doctor. Advertising, you always have to keep yourself immersed within the field, because there’s always new things happening. Just like doctors, there’s always new germs, new vaccines, new diseases coming out that you have to inform yourself about and learn about. The same way with advertising, there’s so many new mediums out there. With social media getting so big, that’s where the future is heading. So you always have to keep learning and keep yourself immersed within the subjects.

8)   Do you like your job?

SS: Yeah I like my job, but as all jobs, it can be stressful at times. It’s all about structure, and everyone talks about process, and yet there’s really no process because everyone breaks process. …The way the creatives work, creatives have the liberty to take their time. Although there’s always a production schedule and you have to follow time schedules. The creative directors mindset is sometimes: I want my creative to be good. So it can be challenging at times.

Discussion Questions:

The most important thing I learned from this interview is that I can’t take a creative job as a very relaxed job because obviously it is not. It can be stressful, and the fact that working in teams can be difficult at times – as proved by my iPoly experience – just proves that being a creative can take real work and patience, more than I had ever thought. I did get names and numbers. Paul and Veronica – which are 2 creatives. I also got many resources (links and magazines) that can help me in this project. I think that the creatives are the most useful because they are what I want to be in the future, and meeting them will just to wonders for my dream, and me actually wanting to fulfill it. My interviewee is qualified because he has worked in a great ad agency for years now and he really knows how it works, and how someone can’t just come with ideas and be successful. It’s a job where you need to be well rounded and well educated.

Interview Check

1. Who are you interviewing and why?
     I am interviewing Saulo Sequeira because he is a Senior Interactive Producer at Conill, an ad agency. He has a lot of experience in interactive ads and can lead me in the right direction for this project.

2. You’ve been assigned 5 questions, what other questions would you like to ask your interviewee?
      I would also like to add: What caused you to go into this field of work?, How was the educational experience of advertising? Do you like your job?