It’s amazing what can come out of a Friday afternoon get together by a few industry types.
Matt Alder Recruiting Futurologist of MetaShift, Jamie Leonard of Reconverse.com, Graeme Holiday and myself from 360 Degrees Advertising were pulling the industry apart as you do, when we got on to the state of the economy and employment in general. Raising the spectre of youth unemployment and the truly obscene figure of one million people between 18-24 being unemployed in the UK, apart from the general unemployment figure, the conversation took a turn towards the apparent or perceived disconnect between employers and young people.
On one hand employers are saying they can’t attract good candidates, others, particularly SME’s either don’t have the confidence in the economy to hire or don’t have confidence in the commitment of young people. On the other hand we have young people, Graduate and not, who say there are no jobs.
Into our conversation came the idea of getting some traction behind the idea of giving a job for Christmas. Not a job just for Christmas but as a Christmas present to a young person. Giveajobforchristmas. Between 1st and 31st December let’s encourage employers to offer at least one young unemployed person a job for next year. It could be just one job or a hundred. But anything that will make a dent in the UK’s unemployed young people figures is a step in the right direction.
I realize that someone somewhere (scrooge) may say this is a discriminating act on age grounds, however provided other age groups are not precluded from applying, let’s just say it’s the season of good cheer.
So we are now going into the twittersphere to promote www.Giveajobforchristmas.com, where you can post a job for free. (Note to employers. Please put some jobs on the site to get us going!). We will be live on 1st December. You can just email us with a job and we will post it for you prior to the 1st.
Word has it that Moley was seen reliving the 90’s on the Southbank recently. Underground sources have revealed that a good friend of the agency quietly slipped him a couple of free tickets for the Grant Lee Buffalo concert at the Royal Festival Hall.
Moley gets in the mood.
Moley sang along to the great Fuzzy and Mockingbirds hits and an attempt at crowd surfing was quickly halted by a less than impressed security woman.
Once the gig finished, Moley dragged us off to Gordon’s Wine bar which is an underground cavern of a place below the Embankment where old social Moley made some new friends, much to their amusement.
West Mersea will never be the same again. Moley managed to get an A-list invitation to a big birthday camping soiree recently and was well impressed with the size of some of the tents. He refrained from helping to erect any of them though as he had tried a few times while underground but the dynamic proved somewhat difficult before having that eureka moment; tents are a bit redundant six feet below ground.
Unfortunately, pictures of Moley are a bit thin on the ground because he went AWOL halfway through the weekend. We think he had too many lagers and then vodkas – we counted five empty vodka bottles in the gazebo on Saturday morning!
Anyway – we finally found him under all the blankets, blind drunk!
My name is Moley, i’m new to the team,
I’m well presented and very clean,
I’m taken on trips from here to Timbuktu,
Check my blog out from time to time, I’ll have some stories for you.
My journey began when TJ took me to Brazil,
I don’t recommed the food, it will make you ill,
We relaxed on the beach and swam in the sea,
Wore my Havaianas and went to Brazilian parties.
There isn’t much evidence, the trip was a blur,
Spent most of my days cleaning my fur,
A great first trip, not for the faint-hearted,
I knew it would be wild from the minute we departed.
It’s two weeks later and back in the UK,
And eager for my next adventure day,
Who knows where i’m off next, you’ll have to wait and see,
So until next time, it’s adios from me.
Currently on a break from writing the agency’s in-house exposé magazine, Moley is using his time traveling around with members of the team either on business or pleasure.
So the story goes, Moley got a bit fed up with spending most of his time in the dark. It has to said that a few members of the agency thought this was normal and can’t see what all the fuss is about.
After a bit of mudslinging, Moley dug deep into his resolve and persuaded the senior management that a global sabbatical was what he needed to clean his act up. After all, no-one wanted him to make a mountain out of a….no, sorry, I can’t write that, it’s lame.
Watch this space to read about what he gets up to and where he goes.
For the past couple of months, things here at 360º have been frantic to say the least. just before the turn of the year, the agency recruited new blood into its client service department and quickly realised it had found two great additions to the team.
Naturally, we wanted to ease them in gently but as with many great plans, things took on a life of their own. It seems personalities can overpower procedures.
Since their arrival, the fortunes of the agency have improved. Now this might well be a coincidence after all, this industry usually splutters its way to Christmas and then catches a second wind going into January and February. But, the industry has changed.
More and more of our day-to-day work is made up of long-term project work, and we had just embarked on a significant piece of employer branding work for one client. The difference however was more apparent with the success rate of our new business success.
From brand projects to education projects, we have worked with a new purpose and vigor because, I believe, there is a new energy emanating from 360º. We are now winning business not just through smart business strategies but because we want it and we go that extra distance to achieve it. This makes people proud and happy and of course, the cycle continues. It’s a good place to be.
Positive attitudes and a willingness to go beyond the call of duty have made their home in the agency again. People are smiling and people are keen to help regardless of the task. Thing is, nothing has fundamentally changed apart from having a couple of enthusiastic and energised people joining the ranks.
But is there a correlation between having an agency with an injection of bright new blood that smile a lot and this knack of winning business and the sudden awakening of existing business?
Who knows? Maybe it’s just that people are pulling together better than ever and even in moments of mad panic there’s still room for a joke or two. Maybe the communication within the agency is improving; we have daily status meetings – well nearly every day and everyone has something to say. Maybe there’s a better understanding of our products from clients and now they want them.
All I know is that this transformation can go almost as quickly as it came and I for one won’t let that happen.
This year, the coalition government announced more devastating cuts they were making to public sector jobs. For many, this meant the loss of employment, for the rest of us this has, and will, result in a huge impact on our community.
Public services that we all use, such as libraries, have come under threat of closure, some having already been shut down. Those unable to access a computer or the internet at home, may rely on libraries to apply for jobs or find general information. Libraries do not only contain books, they are a service provider and help many people in the community.
Protesters outside New Cross library
Cuts to leisure facilities are going to affect us all. Whether you are an enthusiastic swimmer, an exercise junkie or a lover of the arts, savings made in this area are going to be large and the cutting of jobs will result in the closure of centres. It is going to become increasingly more difficult for us to channel our energies into healthy outlets and keep fit. Arts such as theatre and music are also very important in bringing communities together. They can display cultural diversity, giving an insight into the beliefs and traditions of different members within a community.
Young people are going to be greatly effected by the cuts to public sector jobs, with fewer graduates already struggling to find employment. Along with the raise of tuition fees, George Osborne is scrapping the Future Jobs Fund, which supported the creation of jobs for the young, long-term unemployed. This means that 90,000 work opportunities have been lost. With thousands of young people jobless, and a growing amount leaving education with debts of over £40,000 perhaps we should be looking to conduct more apprenticeships and reassess the value of the university degree.
Job centres will lose staff through proposed job cuts, reducing a service that has provided valuable help and advice to those in need. With more people out of work because of public sector cuts, this is an area that communities are going to miss at a time of much needed support.
Cuts to marketing that advises those in the community of the benefits they are entitled to, are undoubtedly going to see an increase in those experiencing extreme poverty.People will not know what benefits they can get from the public service system and will be without the help and support they need.
Another public service, the NHS is going to see its staff cut in large numbers. There have been countless horror stories in the news recently about people being left to die or giving birth alone and these will only increase, as manpower is lost. Savings on wages will mean that those that retain their job will have to work extra hours, which can only result in a lower quality of service and more strain on our local GPs.
NHS Hospital staff at St. George’s Tooting
David Cameron’s idea of The Big Society will really come into play as services we have currently taken for granted disappear.It will be up to members of the community to provide support for the disadvantaged and leisure for those who have the time for it. To get a good quality service we will either have to pay a higher price for private sector services or will have to come together, as a community, to invest our time and money into providing a service for all of those that will need it.
Ask any creative what ad campaign they’d love to work on and a car or a beer campaign would probably get their vote. If only voting for an MP was that easy.
Enter politics. Now, this can be a minefield topic and one close to many people’s hearts. We at 360º are no strangers to the political advertising arena thanks mainly to the relationship we have forged with the Independent on Sunday, call it a coalition for want of a better word.
The Independent on Sunday
For the past few years, we have supported and supplied the IoS with a few political ad campaigns to whet the appetite of their readers and help raise some of the topical issues of the day. Whether, that has been straightforward party political advertising ideas or specific policy agendas, we have thrown ourselves into the political arena.
So, why do we do this? After all, we don’t get paid for it and we (creatives) work out of hours to do it. Well, that’s a good question and we will try to answer it like any good politician would. Now let us make ourselves absolutely clear and we think we have in the past; we believe in adding value in every area of our business and we want to improve the lives of everyone we represent…blah, blah, blah…Look, it’s just great fun. It’s an opportunity to flex some creative muscle and spin ideas that get gut reactions. It helps sharpen creative thought and gives everyone in the agency a chance to be creative – jobs for all. And, it’s a drug. Once you start doing these projects, you can’t stop.
Not only that, you learn something. I’m not sure we, as a collective, knew a great deal about the detail of the referendum planned in May for the Alternative Vote. Now we do.
So here is how it worked. We got a call from a journalist about a week before publication. He apologised for the short notice but to be honest, impactful advertising fairs better when time is of the essence. We grabbed the brief and the first available lunchtime and headed for the pub.
Get a few people in a pub with a bottle of wine and a few packets of crisps and you’ll be amazed at the productivity. This might be a good time to mention discipline. No, not where the wine or nibbles are concerned but where the ideas come from. With a brief that requires you to take a number of perspectives i.e. from all party point of views, you have to put your own political persuasions to one side to do this well. In fact, you have to sit on both sides of the fence and see the arguments from every political standpoint.
The brief was simple.
Should we change the way we vote in general elections?
Currently we run a (FPTP) First-past-the-post system which means whichever candidate gains the most votes, gains the seat; everyone gets one vote and that’s that. The grumbles come from the minority parties and the Lib Dems. They argue that a candidate can win a seat with less than 50% of the returned votes. In other words, the majority of voters didn’t want he or she to represent them in parliament.
Therefore, on May 5th, there will be a referendum asking the nation if they want to change to a different system known as (AV) Alternative Vote system. This gives the voter more than one choice. You can, if you want, vote for more than one party but must put them in order of preference. In the event that no one candidate receives 50% of the votes, the party with the least votes gets knocked out but their voters’ 2nd, 3rd or whatever number of choices they had get added to the other parties. This carries on until one party goes over the 50% target.
Our ideas
AV could create a popular but potentially weak government.
AV could take people even longer to cast votes. Chaos could ensue.
Dave and Nick may not be on speaking terms if AV gets the vote
AV will ensure politicians work hard for their seats.
Is AV one expensive makeover this country doesn’t need?
’Not like that, like that’. There is no magic answer Nick.
See, simple. There were quite a few angles we could approach; everything from the cost to taxpayers for changing the electoral system or putting a drawing pin on a safe seat to the division this referendum would cause to the coalition – Tories are keen to keep things as they are but the Lib Dems want to change and this whole issue was a key bargaining weapon for them when forming the coalition with the Tories.
You can view all the ideas published by The IoS here.
For us at 360º, it was just a case of taking the different propositions and create strong ideas for them. It didn’t matter what we believed was right in terms of electoral reform; it was just the concept that mattered.
