#truprosper

By Tru Prosper

Week 5 at Adam & Eve DDB was a very eye opening experience for me. I’m grateful for the opportunity to be right within a communications agency, indulging in similar activities as those who work for the company. 

It was fascinating to discover the fact that Adam & Eve work with a large  amount of clients to aid in advertising, content, brand management. amongst many other things. Adam & Eve work with well known brands such as; John Lewis, H&M, Google, etc. Going in with less knowledge than I did coming out, I did not have a complete understanding of how huge Adam & Eve’s reach was to the public. For example, upon our visit, we learned that Adam & Eve were responsible for totally taking the world by storm. 

For the launching of Fifa 18, a campaign to grab traction and attention was put into works, to which the in game football move ‘El Tornado’ was birthed. The amount of attention raised for the game from such a tactic was completely unexpected and unbelievable. There was so much chatter and buzz around the hidden move, that it became a trending topic therefore being discussed more often than Meghan and Harry’s wedding.

I believe the process for such a campaign would begin with a client approaching for help in reaching out to a new audience (or just to create a buzz). Adam & Eve would then essentially follow the process of: 

Defining the brief 

Defining the scope 

Strategic development

Creative concept

Creative development

Production

Deployment. 

After being given the summation of Adam & Eve DDB, we as a collective were given the task to create a campaign from scratch, revolving around Loctite superglue. Being given such a task was definitely an example of being placed in the deep end. It was both stimulating and exciting. We were put into groups of 5-7 people, where we bounced ideas off of each other and further developed a concept pitch for our campaign idea.

What had to be the most enjoyable part of creating a campaign was seeing all of our ideas come together and come to life. The group I was in fed off of each other, making it an ideal environment for our creative juices to continue to flow. From bizarre and wacky ideas, to continually adding and evolving it into something closer to the final product. Being in a situation such as this allowed me to really appreciate the amount of creative freedom we had. Every idea was welcomed.

In the end, my group developed three campaign ideas which I believe all swayed to a humorous side. Our first idea was set on a boat. Naturally, on a boat, furniture is expected to move and topple over. What we had illustrated was a drawing of a table tipped over, but a flower pot firmly glued to the middle of the table, in perfect condition, not falling. The tagline for this drawing was ‘Hold tight. Loctite.’

For our second idea, we opted to head down the innuendo route. We decided that for our second idea, we would base it around a couple in the bedroom. The couple would be “making love”, with a crooked picture frame above their heads, that had been glued to it’s spot. What the crooked picture frame suggests is the fact the picture is constantly falling because of such activities the couple decide to indulge in. The tagline we agreed on for this idea was ‘Enjoy an uninterrupted night, thanks to Loctite.’

The third idea revolved around the cheating scandal between Ryan and Rhodri Giggs. The final drawing of the idea was of Ryan Giggs on the football pitch, mid-kick, with Rhodri’s hand glued to his. The tagline for this idea was ‘Don’t trust him? Never get unstuck. Loctite.’

This week at Adam & Eve DDB has helped to open up an avenue that I’d like to pursue. 

Photo designed by Andrew Akinola.

By Tru Prosper

Week 3 has to be the highlight of my time here at Creativity Works thus far. Week 3 entailed forming groups of 5-8 people, where we worked together to create a podcast from scratch. 

We were firstly introduced to the roles and responsibilities of radio. The roles discussed were;

We moved on to discuss the importance of sound, where we had the pleasure of meeting Rob Janke. Rob was very helpful in breaking down the various things to consider when recording, such as clipping. I had a small understanding of how clipping worked, until Rob stopped by, where he explained that audio clipping is waveform distortion.

Rob went on to discuss how important positioning is when recording for a podcast. He said the recommended distance away from the mic would be between 6-10 inches. He then went on to mention that, projecting into the mic is a crucial thing to remember in order to get a crisp recording of ones voice. Turning your head away from the microphone can end up hindering the sound, thus making you appear muffled or unclear. Rob also mentioned how important it was to not wear anything noisy that would get picked up on the mic, such as a leather jacket or loose necklaces, etc.

After being given the rundown on the significance of sound, we were then presented with the tools we would need to get the show on the road. The tools included a laptop, a remote control with an extension cable, a windscreen, an AD-17 AC adapter (USB type), a USB cable, an adjustable tripod stand, a padded-shell case and a mic clip adapter. We as a group all became familiar with the instruments, before splitting off into our respective roles.

My role was the producer, in which I was in charge of making sure the groups vision was achieved. I was very pleased and thankful for my peers within the group, as they all showed amazing teamwork and listening skills. We as a group worked for three days straight, where we put together social media accounts, banners for our twitter and soundcloud pages, as well as researching content to discuss on the podcast.

We had come up with the name Culture Shot, where we played on the idea of small doses of good information. Given the fact our target audience would range from 18-24 year olds, we thought that small bitesized chunks of ‘culture’ would be a more effective way to reach our listeners. Our slogan we agreed on was ‘A podcast with topics on everything cultural, taken either bitter or sweet, with the perfect chaser on a good night.’ I’m extremely proud of this slogan, as I feel it captures the entire essence of the general theme of the podcast. 

To stay true to the general theme of ‘pop culture’ and news, we all brainstormed together and conjured up the idea to discuss topics such as; Brexit, pop/kpop and 60 seconds worth of headlines, where we threw in a random conspiracy. We thought the random conspiracy segment would serve as comedic relief, after discussing such hard hitting topics, such as Brexit. 

Once the topics were all in order, our presenters were then taken into a room to record. Once the recording was all done and taken care of, our sound manager, Mawuli, took charge and had the responsibility of mixing and ensuring our presenters voices sounded good. Once the recordings were cleaned up, the finishing task of placing the music bed underneath was completed, therefore rendering the podcast ready to be published. 

I was overall pleased with the outcome of our podcast. The task definitely highlighted how well and hard our team worked together.

By Tru Prosper

This visit to Twitter was not like our previous visits to such big companies. Although the visit was not like what we’d seen in the past, that does not take away from the fact that the visit altogether was very insightful and inspiring. 

Prior to us visiting Twitter, we had visited Matty Groves over on at AppNexus, where we reviewed and drew inspiration from various types of film documentaries. After taking a look at such amazing work, we were put to the task to construct a 90 second documentary revolving around any piece of item that holds a high amount of sentimental value to each of us. Once we were given this brief, we were handed the great opportunity to present our documentaries at Twitter (wow!). 

Fast forward to arriving at Twitter, it was presenting time. During the course of going over my peers fantastic work, I was both delighted and intrigued to see what items others had put such value in. While that was a nice aspect to the visit, seeing how others had put together and formed their documentaries was both stimulating and motivating for more reasons than one. It really made me start considering videography as a hobby, if not a profession. One documentary, if I had to choose one, would have to be Lucrece Grehoua’s ‘Boy In A Ship’.

This one stood out to me purely because it exemplified Matty Groves standard of a well contrived documentary. The elements that mostly stood out to me was the content. The documentary, to me, gave me an insight on one man’s view/take on a relationship he’d been in. While it wasn’t a generalisation, it did incite a variety of thoughts regarding men’s perspective on relationships. 

I'd also like to draw light to how well-put together the film was edited. There were various cutaways that served more purposes than one, for example, the cutaway where Emmanuel’s (the actor) hands were the only thing in frame. I felt that this short clip helped to show the audience that he might’ve been quite anxious. What that says to me, is that he is nervous, thus showing that he cares about how he might be perceived.

Overall, there were plenty of documentaries that did an excellent job of showcasing my peers skills. Thank you Twitter for that opportunity. 

Everyday on this course, I continue to learn something new. 

by Tru Prosper.

Written by Tru Prosper

A fifth of 15-24 year olds have stopped watching TV because they’re using Snapchat. Snapchat is unlike any other social platform, purely because it leaves the user to decide which content they wish to view. While Snapchat feature stories in the Discovery section, it is never as intrusive as other platforms, such as Twitter or Instagram who display adverts randomly on a user’s timeline. This fact alone, has allowed Snapchat to thrive off of this niche.

Sky and Channel 4 slumps in youth commercial impacts. Due to the youth being greatly influenced by the presence of social media, Sky and Channel 4 have noticed a drastic drop in how their youth commercial’s have been received.

Use Snapchat to tell a story, and ease of use. Snapchat has optimised their app so that the primary feature is the camera. They’ve put a lot of thought as to why they wanted to centre the entire app around the camera. It’s to create an ease of access for the users, and minimise the need for texting, even though a chat/text feature exists within the app.

Bring your brand to life with the usage of lenses. I had no idea that you, a regular Snapchat user, could design and create your own Snapchat lens. Tariq and Eugene, our guides for the Snapchat trip, highlighted the many ways big brands have partnered with Snapchat to sell or market a product. An amazing example they showed, was the world famous Michael Jordan half court dunk, where they managed to recreate an interactive AR lens, so users could both witness the dunk in “person” and buy a pair of sneakers right from the app.

Creating your own personal lens using LensStudio from the Snapchat website. As mentioned before, Snapchat have an application that allows anyone to design their own Snapchat lens. The application is called LensStudio and can be downloaded straight from their website. It comes with a range of templates that you can use, so that you don’t have to build your lens from the ground up (headache avoided). I designed my own and was able to send it to my phone as soon as I was finished making it.

Written by Tru Prosper

4YE, also referred to as 4YallEntertaintment or 4Yall, are successful YouTuber brothers, Trey and Jae. With a following of loyal viewers, 4YE have racked up a subscriber count of over 1 million and an overall view count of over 100 million from both of their channels combined. Now, if you’ve made it thus far, you’re probably eager to get into how 4YE are pretty much one of the godfathers of YouTube and social media today.

1. They put Toronto on the map (perhaps even before Drake). From day one, 4YE have never shied away from where they’re from. In almost most of their videos you’ll find, someway or another, they’ve referenced to their Toronto and Jamaican upbringings proudly, whilst inspiring others to do the same. 

2. One of the firsts to introduce funny Jamaican skits. They’ve managed to portray their Jamaican background through their skits, whether it’s about Jamaicans specifically, or a completed unrelated topic. They’ve collaborated with Toronto YouTuber ThatdudeMCFLY to create hilarious skits under the title  “Jamaicans be like”, being one the firsts to do a skit in that style.

3. Celebrity Cameos were never sought after, until they did it. Being the naturally charismatic YouTubers they are, it came as no surprise when Drake casually appeared onscreen in one of their skits. It seemed Drake was excited to star in a video of theirs, considering all the work they’ve done to give Toronto the recognition it deserves. Later on, it would come as no surprise to know that Drake sampled one of their videos on his album, More Life.

4. Their vlogs contain elements of their humour, making it completely distinguishable. If you’ve been following 4YE for as long as I have, you would’ve caught onto their humour by now. They’ve managed to convey their humour onscreen without having to include dialogue, thus setting them way ahead of the vlogging community. 4YE have totally mastered the art of editing, and it’s undeniably true. Venture over to their Vlog channel here and have a look for yourself.

5. Brought back the desire to rock Durags. It wasn’t a 4YE video if they didn’t mention their waves on swim at least once. They never shied away from expressing (comically) how important it is for your waves to be “swimming”. The constant mentioning of durag’s eventually created the desire for their viewers to jump back onto the trend again. This ultimately lead them to design their own 4YE stamped durags, which you can take a look at here (and perhaps purchase one too). 

Private Properties have become a recent rising topic of discussion in the borough of Lewisham. Many people have found the onslaught of skyscraper private properties overwhelming and quite frankly, bothersome. While there have been conversations about how these properties create a grand amount of living opportunities to those who can afford it, there has also been talk of the adverse effects these properties have created. The effects many have discussed include, overcrowding and limited parking. 

As you’d expect, with a substantial influx of new residents brings with it copious amounts of new vehicles. The resolution the council have decided would be the most efficient, would be to implement ‘permit resident’ parking. Whilst this is a good solution to the problem, charging residents for something they’ve been doing for free, seems pretty extreme. Is this really residence convenience, or just another stream of income for the government?

by Tru Prosper.

Tru Prosper Biography

Tru Prosper is a twenty year old freelance graphic designer, of British Caribbean descent, who hails from South East London. She has worked with famous British comedian, Angie Le Mar. The opportunity presented by Angie Le Mar has allowed Tru to expand her skills, from designing flyers, logos, posters and promo trailers, to radio assistant producing and videography.