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By AJ Coyne

Ogilvy Fellow

After months of anticipation the final of dialogue’s Creative Academy took place and did not disappoint. The ten talented finalists joined us here in Paddington to showcase their winning entries.  The format was speed dating style, where every entrant had the opportunity to pitch their work to some of the ‘top dogs’ in the industry. Quite a daunting task and having gone through a similar process myself to join the Ogilvy Fellowship I did not envy them. Their task had been to select one of eight P&G brands and develop a creative idea borne from a consumer insight that would persuade people to buy.  As a judge, I was fortunate to spend 10-15 minutes with each finalist and can honestly say the work created was outstanding. They had each naturally evolved the brief, found real consumer insight and created multi-channel and most importantly relevant campaigns.

After the speed dating had come to an end, we wasted no time in reviewing all the work and with 10 judges, I had a assumed that this would be a lengthy process, however after some deliberation there was one clear winner, Zoe. Zoe chose P&G’s Fairy as her brand of choice to answer the competition brief. Zoe brought a fresh lease of life to a well loved brand, identifying a new target market for Fairy to tap into. Alongside this, she presented a holistic campaign that was ‘spot on’ for the target, which included some quirky and innovative activation ideas.

After the decision was made, all that was left to do was to announce our winner. Quite an X Factor moment and incredibly nerve wracking, but once the announcement was made, the champagne was open and everyone was soon celebrating.

An absolutely fantastic final, worthy winner and great bunch of finalists, I have no doubt that they will all be working in the industry soon. That is it for dialogue Creative Academy 2011 – however 2012 is already upon us, so watch this space. All I can say is expect, BIGGER, BETTER, BOLDER.

By Leigh Temple

Dialogue prides itself in being experts in the art of persuasion. We persuade people to buy our Client’s brands.

Our persuasiveness doesn’t stop there, though. As a team, we are all masters in the art of coercion.

Under the cunning guise of proactively launching a fun and charitable internal initiative, I convinced the majority of the people in the agency to do something for me. Bake.

Why? Because I love cake.

Cupcake, cheesecake, fairy cake, birthday cake, Christmas cake – I don’t discriminate (and no, for the record, I’m not a fatty).

Knowing that my sweet tooth isn’t alone at dialogue and aware of everyone’s competitiveness, I instigated a Bake Off!

Each fortnight a different person bought in a tasty and creative home-made treat. The piggies of the Agency were then invited to sample the goods in exchange for a donation to the company charity (Many Ogilvy Hands). Votes were then collected, so that a winner could be crowned!

The entries far surpassed my stomach’s expectations and as you will see below, some were almost too good-looking to eat (and by almost, I mean not really):

I launched the competition with a GIANT Jaffa Cake…

Inspired by the location of our office, Fenella made a deliciously adorable Paddington Bear cake:

We also had two festive treats – A scrumptious (Quality Street-filled) gingerbread house by Nicky and a dialogue branded Christmas cake by Cords:

The winner of the Bake-Off is yet to be announced.  Why? Because I’m going t0 milk this intiative for as long as I can (and I reckon there’s at least another batch of cupcakes and a gateau in the pipleine)!

So far, though, I’m pleased to announce that we’veraised a tasty £170 for Many Ogilvy Hands!

By Nicola Guest

It may seem like a dim and distant memory to some, but the hustle and bustle of Christmas shopping literally haunts some people. A Santander study showed that three out of 10 people find Christmas shopping in crowded streets more stressful than looking after a young baby,  and many said they would prefer a trip to the dentist over hitting the high street at this time of year!  The study saw that Christmas shopping increased blood pressure to dangerous levels in 50 per cent of shoppers, who were spending on average 15 hours in the process, so we have to ask, is it all really worth it?

“It’s the giving not the receiving” we hear it said loads at this time of year, but does this really ring true?  If the giving process is less appealing than root canal treatment at the dentist it would appear not.  Is the recipient always so appreciative of the time, stress and effort that went into their gift selection?  nope!  A post Christmas survey in our office revealed it was typically our mums who got it right with her gift choices, as the thoughtfulness of them was appreciated the most.  Gifts such as novelty bottle openers and key rings through to shredding scissors found themselves on the least favoured gift list, with the feeling being that they were a waste of money and lacked real thought from the gift giver.

The average Briton will receive £28.53 worth of unwanted gifts at Christmas, and over 71% admit having no use for half the gifts they receive, with the ultimate kick in the teeth being that 1 in 3 have tried to return an unwanted gift at some point.

Doesn’t it all seem such a waste of money when we are in such tough economic times? I’ve heard some people say recently that their families have adopted the “Secret Santa” gift buying process. The idea being that instead of buying presents for every family member, they would select one name out of a hat each and buy only for that person a thoughtful gift of a higher value instead of lots of unwanted novelty tat. Makes a lot of sense to me; a win, win all round. The recipient is sure to like their gift and you have to spend less time shopping giving you more time to enjoy the festive period… mulled wine anyone?

By Jonathon Hatton

Flashing disco lights; very loud, cheesy Euro pop music and trampoline-ing basketball players.  Not necessarily what you might expect from a client SDM (that’s a Strategic Deployment Meeting for those of you not in the know), but it’s certainly what greeted us at the start of Gillette CEEMEA’s conference.

Generally, being told that you have to go to a three day conference isn’t the most welcoming of news, but a three day Gillette conference in 5-star hotel in Istanbul is a different beast altogether.  If Carlsberg did conferences….

So, yes, I did learn lots while I was there.  I have been working on Gillette for the last 18 months, and there is always so much more to find out.  It was great to get a deeper insight and understanding of the business, what it is trying to achieve, and how it is planning on doing this.  The knowledge I gained was both really interesting, and important to how I (and the rest of the Gillette CEEMEA team) can provide better work going forward.

However, one of the best things to come out of the conference was the human factor.  While I had met many of my clients briefly before, it was really nice to be able to spend time with them in both a professional and personal capacity.  Discussing their needs, the needs of the markets and how dialogue can play its part is invaluable to know.  First hand, direct feedback is always good to have.

The personal aspect is probably a lot more blog-worthy.  No sordid stories to tell, but needless to say the evening’s entertainments didn’t disappoint.  Not only did we get a whistle-stop tour of Istanbul, we were also treated to one of the best meals I’ve ever had.  But the evening’s festivities didn’t end there; with belly-dancing, dozens of tambourines, lots of dancing, even more laughing, and one or two quiet beverages to follow (senior members of P&G are now big fans of Jagerbombs).

The experience was a truly a great one, and I feel that on all levels I am better able to perform my job, and provide the best possible service for my clients, my friends.

By Cordelia Wren

With a population of in excess of 1 billion people, and a mind-blowing GDP growth of 700% in the past 15 years, the allure of India is proving irresistible to established brands.

Duracell is no exception. It has a clear commercial opportunity within low income markets such as India, Nigeria, Turkey and Brazil, although consumers remain wedded to zinc style batteries.

Duracell have only ever manufactured alkaline batteries, which are superior and are admittedly more expensive than zinc. So how do you convince these ‘low income, zinc consumers’ that paying nearly twice the price is really worth it despite offering a battery that lasts up to ten times longer?

First, of course, you need to understand who you’re talking to. A recent trip to New Dehli with the newly formed Duracell low income market team and research group Nie lson, gave me a rare opportunity to understand the attitudes, shopper behaviour and cultural nuances of consumers in an extraordinary market.

For first-time visitors like me, India can provide a bit of a shock to the senses. New Delhi felt like a vibrant collision of the modern and the traditional – a mish-mash of influences that somehow leaves cultural pride and heritage intact. I was however, pleased to learn that family is still very much a major focus for all.

Wherever I went I was welcomed with warmth, hospitality (and a steaming cup of Chai). Despite these families’ lack of wealth, I was struck by how friendly and happy these people appeared while living simple lives on the fringes of a rapidly modernising society.

Parents will often work 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, to secure their children a better future than the one that they had, while children’s lives away from school centred on creating their own fun or playing with the odd cheaply manufactured battery operated toy.

Opportunities to talk to consumers are invaluable, to experience life in their homes even more so. And while I was acutely reminded how easy it is to take our Western world for granted with all its trappings of modernity, for Duracell to appeal to the people I met, the answer here seems to lie in how Duracell can enhance the simple pleasures of family life.

By Sarah Green

What graduate wouldn’t like to have a guaranteed job with a decent salary next year?  Youth unemployment is at an all time high and the recession has seen many large organisations terminate their graduate employment schemes.  Final year students are undoubtedly bracing themselves for the job crisis that lies ahead.

Whilst we can’t claim to be able to solve this crisis, dialogue is aiming to support a future star with its Creative Academy competition. So we’re offering a future creative star the opportunity to have a paid for position within the creative departments of both dialogue and OgilvyAction; the activation agencies within the Ogilvy Group.

As part of the Ogilvy Group we have benefitted from some of the brightest students from its Graduate Fellowship Programme.   However the intake is traditionally for those aspiring to forge a career in account handling and/or planning.  Something that the dialogue Creative Academy intends to address.

What makes this different to similar schemes that other agencies offer is that firstly this is not an internship, it’s not a placement without a salary (not strictly legal) or ‘work experience’.  It’s a proper grown up job.  It gives the winner the opportunity to work for some of the biggest brands in the world – Gillette, Duracell, Braun, Fairy, Venus, Coca-Cola – and gives them access to the incredible talent and knowledge within the Ogilvy Group, and get paid.

Why now? We’ve been labelled many things over the years; sales promotion, trade marketing, shopper marketing and retail activation agency.  And yes we can do all those things and more.  Our ambition however, is to put creative thinking at the heart of our business.  As clients’ budgets are squeezed an agency’s overriding currency is its creativity.  Which ultimately comes from the talent it employs.

Various top design universities are taking part, and while we have focused on key creative Universities, such as Kingston, Bournemouth and others, this opportunity is not limited to advertising students.  We know that creativity can come from any discipline or background. Any graduate who feels they can create and execute an idea that can change or reinforce consumer behaviour is eligible for this amazing opportunity.

Our partners in the scheme are DNA http://www.dynamicnewalliances.com/ a boutique specialist Recruitment Consultant;  the MAA will represent the industry http://www.marketingagencies.org.uk/ and we will also have the involvement of P&G in judging our future creative stars.  Plus we’re exhibiting the finalists’ entries in our Westbourne Terrace office wine bar from February 2012.

For more details, visit our dialogue Facebook page …….

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dialogue-CreativeAcademy/169234989808325?sk=app_146429745455415

and our website

http://www.dialoguelondon.com

By Jonathan Hatton

Perspective is good.  We often joke in our industry that marketing isn’t life or death, and this is very true.  However, I recently got the opportunity, thanks to Ogilvy, to experience something that was a little bit more akin to this situation.  And boy, did it put things in perspective.

The Ogilvy Group has a charity ‘Many Ogilvy Hands’ that raises money to help build a secondary school in a small town called Buikwe in Uganda.  So far, so standard.  The amazing thing is that Ogilvy and Dialogue employees can volunteer to travel to Uganda and help first hand in building the school.

But the trip is so much more than helping to move some bricks and doing a bit of digging (although there was plenty of that too).  This trip was about people.  Being stuck in London you can get a bit jaded by our fellow humans – lots of doom, gloom, sour faces, annoying commuters, and people who feel that washing is optional rather than necessary.  But the minute I arrived in Uganda I never felt anything less than completely welcome by all of the people I met.

When you descend into the small town and pull up outside the school, it’s hard not to be swept up (both literally and figuratively) by the sea of energetic, screaming, joyous children.  These are kids whose days include carrying litres of water from a central tap to their home, travelling miles to get to school, and having one meal a day (provided by the school).  No Playstations, no designer trainers, no mobile phones.  And, in some cases, no parents.  The overriding memory I have of these kids?  Smiling, laughter, fun.

Of course, there were other people on the trip too, and it was great to meet people from other Ogilvy London companies and offices.  An experience like this is always going to bind people, and I am happy to say that, not only do I have a few more Facebook friends, I also have some dear friends for life.

Ok, enough of my preaching.  There is so much that happened on the trip that this blog can’t contain it all.  And it’s a hard thing to explain a trip like this without sounding pretentious and worthy, so at the risk of sounding like a Big Brother contestant or a chick lit novelist, all I can say is that this really was a life changing experience.

And I definitely have perspective now.

By Roisin Greene

So here I am. After four years of diligent study in university (ahem), an enlightening post-uni gap year (ahem, ahem), a novel’s worth of applications, hours of interviews and some gruelling assessment days, I’ve finally made it. Current Job Status: Employed. Job Title: Intern. With graduate unemployment rates at a 15 year high I realise that I am among the lucky ones.

Eight other fresh faced interns and I were delighted to be chosen to take part in the Ogilvy Summer Internship 2011. Last Wednesday, we arrived bright eyed and bushy tailed into 10 Cabot Square Canary Wharf, each of us anxiously hoping that our outfits were the correct ratio of smart to casual. Naturally enough I expected to walk directly into the 21^st Century version of Mad Men. I must admit to a slight moment of disappointment when I was offered coffee and cookies instead of whiskey and a cigar. However, I was soon consumed with meeting everyone, touring the office, playing with the digital gadgets and most importantly trying to figure out where the loos were.

After some pretty intensive induction presentations, which ranged from how to fill in timesheets to how to mix the perfect gin cocktail, we were finally ready to be set loose on the agency. First stop Dialogue in Westbourne Terrace. I realise that there is a fairly steep learning curve ahead of me but I’m hoping I’ll up to whatever gets thrown at me in the coming weeks.  This time last week I barely knew what shopper marketing was, now I find myself worryingly fascinated by the biscuit aisle in my local Tesco.

To anyone who might be hoping to succeed as an intern, I’d like to pass on some of the pearls of wisdom that were shared with me.

• It’s better to be overdressed than underdressed.
• Always arrive seven minutes early.
• Shine your shoes.
• Be sure to scald the pot and the cup before making tea (thanks Grandma).
• Imagine yourself as a bouquet of flowers as you enter the room (err, thanks Mum?).

For advice from people outside of my family I found this presentation really interesting. (What makes a good intern: http://on.mash.to/mV9hxP)

Week 1 down and I’m still finding my feet but I haven’t burnt down the building or made any catastrophic mistakes. So I’m celebrating the small wins, mad men style of course!

Take a look at any brief and you’re likely to see the need for holisticity. Any campaign, by definition, will be holistic as it should have enough scope to travel across several disciplines and affect multiple touch points.

But what makes a holistic campaign? The Idea at its core- or at least it should be. All too often it seems enough to apply the same message and identity over different media and smacks of ticking a big , convenient box of job done! It must be a campaign because it looks exactly the same everywhere. Shopper barriers seem to be ignored for the sake of literal continuity.

It’s not enough to take a lead discipline eg; ATL, which may be addressing awareness and apply it too, for instance, in store where the shopper barrier may be value. Which is why you are likely to see effectively a frame from a TVC along with the sign off repeated ad nauseam  over an entire in store tool kit.

This is where the idea should be used to address the touch point  barrier.

Adapting a core idea doesn’t mean going off on a tangent and move away from the product or brand benefit . It should be an opportunity for each relevant discipline to shine- to bring the idea to life in the most creatively appropriate way. Basically it should be adapted to talk to the shopper with a relevant message when and where they are most receptive. And that’s not to confuse the idea with the mechanic . A smart phone app that gains you entry to an on pack promotion is not the idea- it’s more a way of bringing the idea to life. It  might well be a ‘big’ way of bringing it to life though.

Holisticity relies on the expertise and creative skill of individual disciplines working to the same idea .

Without the idea it all comes unstuck.

Well it was an amazing night for all!  We here at Dialogue picked up 2 amazing awards.

GOLD for CHARITY PARTNERSHIP MARKETING

“go ahead! and Cancer Research UK’s ‘Race for Life’ Together we feel good”

Creative Team: Alison Hockley & Leigh Fowler

SILVER for FINANCIAL SERVICES

“first direct – re: solutions”

Creative Team: Jon Ashwell & Lewis Lloyd

We also had our very own Leigh Temple, who is a member of the IPM’s Generation Board, give a speech at the event.  This was met with a warm cheer from the audience.

Overall it was a great night and we are ecstatic with the results!