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PITCHES & PILSNERS AT THE EACA INTERNATIONAL ADVERTISING SUMMER SCHOOL

Leaving Prague airport on a Saturday night last month, speeding past beer billboard after beer billboard as I made my way towards the city centre, I felt that mix of apprehension and excitement that comes with facing into the unknown. I was there to attend the EACA International Advertising Summer School 2017 (run by the European Association of Communications Agencies every year), not knowing anyone and not really sure what to expect from it all. One week later however, as I made the same journey in the opposite direction my feelings had changed considerably – while I was sad to be leaving the beautiful city of Prague and the great people I’d met, I was also feeling inspired and motivated to go back to Ireland and apply all the things I’d learned to my day to day work.

The week kicked off with an introduction and briefing session with McDonald’s Czech Republic, the client who we would be pitching our ideas to at the end of the week. We then launched into the first of many great sessions with this year’s trainers, looking at the future of advertising and topics such as the creative battle between AI and humans (we’re still winning for now!). Other sessions from the week made us think about how even something as ordinary as toothpaste can change the world through great advertising, or had us putting on improv poetry performances to better understand how to really connect your content with your audience.

Once classes were over, our evenings were left to us to explore Prague and work on our pitches. At the beginning of the week we were put in groups, with each group having a mix of people from different countries and different disciplines to ensure all bases were covered. It was strange going from complete strangers on Day 1, to a fully functional pitch team 4 days later but without a doubt the tight deadline brought us all together far quicker than expected and it was such a satisfying feeling when we finally cracked our idea and everyone got behind it 100% (give or take a couple of sleep deprived outbursts along the way!). While a lot of our time was spent working in classrooms or in hotel lobbies late into the night, we tried to get out and see Prague as much as we could, having ‘brainstorming sessions’ at the riverside bars and doing ‘market research’ at the main sights. One of the great draws of the course for me was the added benefit of getting to visit a city that’s been on my list forever, and Prague certainly didn’t disappoint!

On Friday, all 60+ of us gathered together again to present our ideas in front of a panel made up of the client, the creative agency and other industry experts. All week the sessions had been designed to help us think about this final presentation and while it was a great experience getting up and pitching our group’s idea to the judges, it was just as interesting listening to the other teams and seeing how they had applied what we’d learned that week and also the influence of everyone’s individual backgrounds on their pitches. The course was an amazing learning experience, both reaffirming things that I already knew from my own experience in the industry and opening my eyes to elements of advertising I’d never even really thought about. I’m super grateful that I got the opportunity to participate in the 2017 course, and for anyone considering applying for next year I’d say 100% go for it!

 

A Czechtastic Adventure by Helene Colijn

05:00PM. An early evening, walking passed the gates in Brussels Airport with hand luggage in one hand, a Starbucks in the other and with my blue purse hanging on my shoulder I was well prepared and happy to fly to Prague for yet a new adventure. Not knowing what would await me this week, I was already fortunate enough to meet some lovely people in Belgium. We had a great laugh, sat together in the plane and time flew by as we realized when we landed. Luggage chasing and taking a taxi to our hotel was just the beginning of everything. Late dinner, lots of jokes and some Czech food made us realize that we were going to have a great week ahead of us at the 2017 EACA International Advertising Summer School!

Do you know that feeling when you just want to throw your phone out of the window because of its terrible alarm? Well, I guess everybody knows, especially on a Monday morning at 07:00AM. At least I knew it was for a good cause. I did not sleep at all, not because the bed wasn’t right or the neighbours were noisy. No. I was just too excited for the first introduction day!

Stepping outside my comfort zone, but with an eager soul, I left the hotel with the right essentials: some paper, a pen and my fully-charged laptop. I was ready to kick off this fantastic week.

A warm welcome was presented by Micky Denehy followed by our client’s briefing. The client’s brief made us clear that we had to think about a fantastic campaign to get McDonald’s back on track and involved into the lives of Czech teenagers. An easy task, you would think, but reality showed us differently. When meeting the other members of my team, it was clear that curiosity played a big role and that breaking rules of trust were crucial to get to know each other. Being able to be mixed with students and professionals was a real opportunity for most of us. Not only for me as a student -to get to know the taste of the advertising world- but also for the professionals to teach me valuable lessons.

“Being able to be mixed with students and professionals was a real opportunity for most of us”

Once settled in our groups, our minds were blown away by the first lecture from Dietmar Dahmen. A drill of thoughts whizzing through our heads. Within 2 hours we got so many impulses to think about the future and how revolutionary campaigns with new technology could really change the advertising world. I think that is when our campaign idea started to take shape into our heads.

At the end of a long day, we were more than welcome to grab some drinks and to get to know all the participants. It was great to know that everybody came for a different purpose or to learn other things. Inspiring people from all over Europe, networking and trying to pick up something to take back to their agencies. It was so different for me, all these new impulses while at the same time learning from past experiences. I have to say, I kind of felt like ‘finding Nemo’. A little lost, a little shy, but still brave enough to look around and discover what this summer school and professionals had to offer me!

The rest of the week we could account on two lectures a day, taking us through how algorithms changed the way advertising works or how strategic planning is important in your campaign, breaking your creative limits and what you really should do to understand the business of your client. Sigh, let’s be honest here. For a 19-year old girl like me, not all lectures were as interesting as my Instagram feed, but you know you pick up the bits and bobs together with the notes I tried to take. Paying attention for nearly 6 hours a day was a whole change for me, but when it got interactive I was more than pleased to get my voice out there.

“It was great to see how mixing international impulses made a delicious smoothie”

Of course, how could I forget about the great “BAAAAAAA…” exercise to showcase our presentation voices. How much I loved that lecture by Siobhan Stanley, it was not only interactive, it was a lesson you could take with you for the rest of your life and it certainly helped me for the pitch the next day.

Working until 08:00PM, a coke and a fresh salad every day, our hearts and souls were put into this campaign. Well, that coke and salad were meant sarcastically if that was not already clear… Of course, we had beer and burgers AND chocolate soufflés and just lots more fun. Good nights reassured! Truly needed after a stressful, hungry and nerve wrecking week. I couldn’t be happier than looking forward to Friday, getting to know all the different ideas from all the groups and to know who the grand winner of this week is.

It was great to see how mixing international impulses made a delicious smoothie, coming up with the best ideas and showing that cooperation within your group is crucial when making a campaign. For me it was just a wonderful experience. I did not only learn how to pitch or how to create a campaign within a short amount of time. No. What I took away from this is that there is so much more in the world to be curious about and that it is worth the effort for a student to get involved in as many things as possible to gain the knowledge and gratitude and to make friends for life. Because during those funny evenings, I know for sure that I’ll still be eating chocolate soufflés with those people back in Belgium!

Go for it and make the most memorable memories of the next EACA Summer School!

Putting E-learning at the Heart of Professional Development

e-learning plays a key role in Inspire! by EACA’s training offer for many reasons. Over the last few decades, the work environment has changed significantly: professionals have become increasingly more mobile, understand and appreciate the value of continuous training in a fast developing industry and don’t shy away from re-inventing and innovating their jobs and roles within the industry.

In order to keep up with the fast pace of change, education and training needs to be able to reflect such developments in working attitudes: traditional, face-to-face, corporate training does no longer correspond to the demands of its audience: unlike e-learning, it desires a large group of people to come together and free up their time, it is often outdated and requires the trainer to be able to connect to an audience with often diverse and unpredictable identities.

As technology continues to dramatically transform human experience, it is inevitable that the learning process must also undergo some changes. EACA has committed to this cause, supporting and providing CPD in its industry for many years. For instance, its current e-learning offer -under the Inspire! by EACA brand- is comprised of 6 online courses: the European Advertising Certificate; Commercial Certificate; Search Certificate; Advanced Certificate; IMCC Diploma; and Squared Online. These online courses were established through a close cooperation with partner organisations, such as the IPA or Google.

Future Challenges

As a relative new concept in education, e-learning is yet to convince many HRs and managing directors. Teaching and learning in an e-learning environment happens differently than in the traditional classroom and can present new challenges to instructors and learners participating in this online learning environment.

Challenges often go together with questions, such as ‘How can you ensure that learners will complete the e-learning? Do you allow them time at work to study or do they need to work on it in their free time? How do you assess their performance? Does the learning need to focus on information that the learner needs, or does it need to assess the learner’s abilities to process that information and apply it to their day-to-day jobs?’. The questions don’t always lend themselves to a clear-cut answer, and often trial and error is key.

Another challenge is the age and technology knowledge gap between different students. e-learning relies on technology and tech-savvy learners: while it may be a good fit for young professionals in the advertising industry, it might not be the answer for senior staff in the medical industry, for instance.

Where to go next

For Inspire! by EACA, the next step is to expand our offer of online training through partnerships with bigger players in the industry; e.g. Facebook Blueprint; Programmatic and Mobile Google Masterclasses; Digital Ad Traffic Academy, and others.

One of the more popular and recent formats of e-learning are podcasts. At the moment, Inspire! by EACA offers 6 webinars a year on a relevant topic by an industry professional in the form of a live webinar. The idea would be to develop this in a series of podcasts to reflect its consumers and their habits: people are more on the go, have less time to attend a live webinar, and would benefit more from having the liberty of choosing when to listen to a series of podcasts.

For Inspire! By EACA, training is the most valued attribute by employees in our industry sector – and the least invested in by the management of agencies. To sum up, e-learning can make a significant difference by providing benefits for all stakeholders involved:

  • For employees, it brings personalized and flexible learning. Unlike traditional training, the course content can be accessed, anytime, anywhere by anyone. They can learn at their own pace, repeat the content over again and test ideas without having to face the judgment of a group of people or trainer.
  • For management, it brings job satisfaction. e-learning is a cheaper investment than most trainings and improves the management of your staff: employees can engage with e-learning whenever they feel most productive, they are encouraged to explore new ideas in online brainstorming sessions (e.g. Google Hangouts) and their ideas become available to inspire future learners. e-learning also makes it possible to carry out quick updates and implement recent changes and development in our industry.
  • For the provider, e-learning is cost-effective. Each time the course is accessed, your return on investment improves because you are dividing the fixed production costs by the number of uses.
  • For the industry, e-learning means better trained staff, which means better work, which in return has a positive effect on the industry as a whole and the economy in general.

Weighing up the advantages and disadvantages,  it is clear that e-learning should be put at the heart of professional development in this day and age. Young professionals must adapt to the future, not the past, and it starts by creating a learning environment that is relevant to them today.