Please Feed The Animals

Here are a few tips – all based on personal experience – that have served me well over the years. I hope they do the same for all PFTA readers.

Join your local Ad Club chapter.

It’s surely the most overlooked place to meet folks. First, it’s pre-qualified. The members are there because they want to network.

The thing is, anyone can become a new friend and source of information. Just think: sales reps for editorial companies or printers know exactly what local shops are producing. As well as the names of who’s doing the work.

There’s usually a committee that fits your interest. If there isn’t, create one – a social group if you’ve got the organizational gene, or a public service one if you’re a creative looking to improve your book or meet a new partner. Or if you’re an account person hoping for more responsibility than you’d get at your agency. And this is crazy, but maybe you just want to do something that makes you feel good.

Also, some Ad Clubs put on award shows. Jump on this. A seat on an award show committee is a chance to meet employees from every major agency in the city. And since it’s a longer-term commitment, it’s conducive to friendships blossoming.

I’ve had wonderful experiences with Ad Clubs while living in New York, Atlanta and now Seattle. I’m sure you will, too.

Take classes.

In Seattle, we’re lucky to have a gem called The School of Visual Concepts. The school even offers tuition discounts if you’ve been let go.

Since this whole interactive thing may be here to stay, there’s Flash, HTML, CSS and Dreamweaver. The classes are offered every quarter.

You don’t have to be a creative to take these classes. You can learn the vocabulary so you can speak fluently in meetings. You can understand capabilities, in terms of what can be done, by when and for what budget.

And then there’s the group of new friends you’ll find once you look up from your computer monitor.

Think about what makes you different.

Could you substitute another person’s name on your resume? If it’s so generic that you could, your CV is definitely not working hard enough.

In addition, you might take for granted accomplishments or qualities that others find fascinating. Unearth them, and put them on there.

I just looked at the work of an art director who’d been in the military for eight years before going on to portfolio school. To me, his service was far more impressive than any of his spec ads. The thought of his experience piqued my curiosity. I couldn’t even imagine what he’d seen. What he thought. The discipline he must have. And the way he relates to others.

It was merely a line on his resume. Luckily, for him, I stumbled across it and wanted to know more.

Everyone should have a portfolio.

In my 16 years, I’ve never been approached by an account executive or planner for copies of the work we all produced as a team.

For any discipline, having a website, portfolio or even press clippings would go a long way.

If you’re an account person, show the brief you wrote, the work that was produced, any press the ads received and the results achieved.

That’d be pretty damn impressive.

And finally, always be ready to extend your hand.

Sometimes, you’ll be helping pull somebody along. And other times, someone will be returning the favor to you.

___________
Dave Holloway is a Seattle-based writer and creative director. He’s won Cannes Gold, One Show Silver and the $100,000 Grand Athena. To order his book and DVD on getting the advertising job you want and succeeding in it, visit daveholloway.net.