The simple, one-line brief was to advertise bike stabilisers to celebrate World Bicycle Day. This direct, bold headline-based ad sprang to mind as a way of showing exactly what stabilisers help to prevent.
This was a very specific brief to advertise ketchup but using a headline only.
Another idea for the ketchup brief - using words and no imagery (other than a product logo).
As if anyone needed any further persuasion to use GIFs on social media and messaging! But, if they did, this would be my idea. Or one of them.
Sometimes the obvious headline is the right headline. But not always. In this case, with a brief to promote bird seed on special offer, it seemed to work.
Cigarette butts are one of the UK's largest form of litter. But smokers generally don't consider dropping their butts as a bad thing. This was a campaign, with social action charity HUBBUB, about raising awareness of the problem and changing perceptions. I'm really proud of this headline.
At the height of the Covid 19 pandemic, #ForgottenLtd were appealing to the UK government to not allow small limited companies to fall through the financial support cracks. So many of them received no help whatsoever. This was my attempt at getting their attention and raising awareness of the problem.
A second idea for the #ForgottenLtd protest. Asking the government whether they could "see" what's happening to smaller limited companies as a result of their lack of financial support.
A simple proposition: promote online garden shed purchases with Sheds.co.uk.
Chester Zoo were on the brink of financial collapse during the pandemic. They desperately needed financial support from the public to remain viable and also asked people 'adopt' an animal. I saw this beautiful, sad-eyed giraffe on their website and thought he made a great central character for the ad.
The simple brief was to advertise 'Classic Cars'. I've always loved the Jaguar E-type, especially the convertible model. This seemed like a great line to accompany a lovely hero shot of the car.
The Ford Capri is my idea of the classic 70s 'wide-boy pose-mobile'. So I wanted to juxtapose that sleek, long, sexy (?) body with a headline that exposed its more parochial, provincial reality.
Another response to the One Minute Briefs classic car challenge. For this I really enjoyed placing a very contemporary phrase ("Sick!") into a retro car (Aston Martin DB4) context.
One more for the classic cars brief. This is my personal favourite from of the batch. Taking the idea that the classic old VW Beetle was affectionately known as the 'bug' and also referred to (even by VW themselves in their own ads) as 'ugly'. So, add in the notion of having more fun in the open-topped version and you've nearly got the title of a famous Disney song...
The brief: to promote cat flaps for Pets At Home. Just couldn't resist a classic Spoonerism!
SES Water company wanted to encourage people to use their hosepipes less during the long, hot month of May 2020. Thought I'd just go bold and direct.
Another idea for SES Water, but this one was to encourage people to take much shorter showers to save water.
One Minute Briefs wanted to make a 'Black Lives Matter' statement and specifically draw the creative community together in solidarity against inequality within the ad industry. I thought that using a Pantone swatch was a great metaphor for a totally multicultural society..
Here's another of my ideas to bring the creative community together in support of 'Black Lives Matter'. A more wordy approach in contrast to the more graphical one above.
Using the theme of 'lollipops' to advertise existing products. Seemed to go well with the iPhone and general Apple tone-of-voice.
This was a campaign designed to show people that the NHS was still 'open' for everyone, despite the COVID 19 pandemic. Many people were staying at home and allowing non-Covid conditions to worsen as opposed to getting them seen to immediately. I went for something a little wordier to show the wealth of medical skills still available to them at our wonderful NHS.
Had to advertise 'light-up trainers' for this brief. I did a load of quick-fire ideas, but this was my favourite.
Advertise sunscreen!
Advertise 'Heights' a brain-training, concentration-improving organic supplement. They wanted to communicate that people use gyms to train their body, so why not use 'Heights' to train your mind.
A public health warning to raise awareness of people touching their mouth or face with their hands during the pandemic.
This uses direct, laddish humour to highlight the important of self-checking for testicular cancer in support of International Men's Day.
Try to persuade people to visit art galleries.
An old joke. But there's no reason those can't make great new ads. Another idea to promote specific art exhibitions.
Advertise involvement in the 'Movember' charity 'grow a beard' movement.
What if leading razor brand Harry's were to (briefly) support Movember?
Always had a bee in my bonnet about the way large football clubs fleece their youngest fans. And that's coming from a born-and-bred Manchester United supporter! This was a brief to advertise football kits, but I just had to take the negative angle.
Advertising soup for Lidl. Sometimes (just sometimes) a gloriously bad pun is the way to go.
Another suggestion for the One Minute Briefs soup brief. Encouraging people to get their veg!
And another soup idea!
Yet another one from the 'soup' brief suggestions. I obviously like soup because I just kept coming up with loads of these.
Sale (or should that be sail?) now on at Waterbed Warehouse. Attention-grabbing headline.
Advertising the Land Rover owners podcast. There was only one possible headline for this really.
The brief here was to encourage people NOT to visit UK beauty spots, national parks and beaches at the height of the COVID 19 lockdown - and to stay home, stay safe and save lives.
This was to advertise hot chocolate. Sometimes it's best to be truthful and honest with a product to help sell its benefits. And those longer-form headlines can really draw you in to a more interesting brand story.
Advertising Starbucks' latest chocolate treat.
King of Shaves wanted a fun campaign to encourage people to shave again (after months of lockdown hirsuteness.
JBM do 40-minute mentorship podcasts to inspire business people and entrepreneurs. They wanted to encourage as many people as possible to subscribe.
Same brief for JBM mentorship podcasts (as above) - just a different take.
Advertise bananas (or, more specifically banana bread). I went for something that has a classic 70s catchy sloganeering ad style. I love the chirpy, rythmic feel of this.
The brief here was to promote Zappify, a virtual smartphone-based alternative to boring old business cards. This was a really quick idea and a very basic visual.
Another idea for Zappify (see above). With this one I wanted to highlight just how people don't really have a place to store the business cards that they get given anymore. It was a way of saying that physical cars are obsolete.
A One Minute Briefs brief that was all about One Minute Briefs! They were recruiting. This seemed like a perfect headline.
This challenge was to promote a brand using the theme of emojis. So I've tried to replicate the classic Economist poster campaign. The ones so beloved of us copywriters!
A really fun brief to promote crock pots/slow cookers.
Advertising this great eco-tips book by Natalie Fee.
And another for the same book.
Manchester environmental organisation Envirolution had to run an online global 'festival' during the COVID-19 lockdown period. And they wanted to raise awareness of the event. I used their logo to create the Olympic rings symbol.
Same brief as above for Envirolution. This one focuses on the fact that it's a festival that you don't need to turn up to in a muddy field, but yet still has all the similar elements - music, talks, different 'stages', cooked demos, etc.
Again, for Envirolution. I love headlines that are, in some way, incongruous and seemingly contradictory. I call them 'friction headlines'. Saving the 'rainforests' and 'logging' are obviously completely at odds with each other. So together, in the same headline, it draws you in.
This was another winner. This time based on a brief to advertise posh/gourmet dog food.
Another pun-tastic gourmet dog food ad.
This was to promote piano lessons.
Another set of ads to promote piano lessons. I've grouped these together as a mini campaign of headline-based concepts.
For this one, we were all given this same 'cat in a suit' image and had to incorporate it into an ad for any brand or product. I just did the first thing that came into my mind - an ad for sofa story DFS.
Advertise crisps. In this case, Pringles' 'Extra Hot' flavour. It's a very basic, hastily visualised scamp but it gets the concept across (I hope).
The brief asked to use favourite cartoon characters to promote a product or service. This seemed like a fun way to riff on a famous Netflix series to advertise Winnie the Pooh.
...or how about using 'Tom and Jerry' to promote pest control?
A slightly surreal one. We had to 'advertise' the idea of 'Lorem Ipsum' - the Latin 'dummy' text that designers use in their layouts when they don't have actual copy to include.
And another for the same 'Lorem Ipsum' brief (see above), in the form of a recruitment ad for a copywriter.
American Express - helping to spread the 'stay at home, save the NHS, save lives' message during the pandemic.
Don't drive and text!
This one was to promote awareness of national Carers Week for Carers UK and to alert people to the fact that over 6.5 million people currently act as a carer for a relative or friend without recognition or reward.
