Reflections about our Creative Week workshop
Earlier this week, under the umbrella of Creative Week activities, our agency opened its doors for a small group of youngsters eager to learn more about advertising and creative ideas.
The initial reception for this workshop surpassed our wildest expectations. All seats were booked within a day from announcement and there were more than 30 people in the waiting list. Unfortunately we couldn’t accommodate everyone but we thought the best experience for participants would be to have the workshop at our offices and not opt for ‘a bigger boat’. This way, all participants would have a chance to experience firsthand the insides of an advertising agency and in addition to the workshop, they would have a chance to meet other members from our staff, ask questions and speak about advertising campaigns.
The workshop included an informative part. Our MD, Suela, began explaining a bit from the history of McCann Tirana and what it means to be part of one of the biggest advertising groups in the region and worldwide. Our AD, Alma, along with our PR Manager, Sibel and two dudes from Accounts, Albi and Elvin, followed up with a colorful and detailed presentation on what is that advertising agencies do, how they are structured and an overview of the workflow starting from the client to the end product.
A couple of jokes and some references from “Game of Thrones” were used to explain the main positions in an agency and the rivalry between departments (remember, Media vs Creatives, Media always wins :P) and we also showed a clip from “Mad Men”, a must-see TV show if you’re thinking about a career in advertising :)
After a short break and chit-chat with our staffers, our creative team, Flonia, Gazi and Soni, picked up the pace, going deep into the psyche of creatives, talking about concepts, the process and techniques, a handful of case studies, a step-by-step guide and a couple of juicy, world-shattering tips.
Wait. There is more. Later on, participants were split into teams and after being handed a brief, they were coached by our creative and accounts teams during the idea generation process.
Near the end of the workshop, all teams presented their ideas to the group in the form of an open discussion evaluating all ideas under a concise structure and all presentations were send off with warm applauses from the group.
Bottom line:
We really enjoyed hosting the workshop and we were quite impressed with the ideas generated in such a short period of time. We loved all the reactions, the questions and all the effort put in by the participants during the exercise and the open discussion. Everyone looked curious and eager to learn more on every process, and we would like to encourage them to remain hungry and really consider a career in advertising.
We also want to sincerely thank everyone for participating and for the heartfelt testimonials that you left for us. We really felt all the love back <3
Now we’re enthusiastically looking forward to the fifth edition of Design Overview (aka DOiT) and you’re probably still in time to get your ticket. See you there ;)