Macle-aaaaaaaay how you doin?

~Dress ups and schmoozing up the big guys~

It was a warm Thursday evening and with the promise of food, alcohol and some potential schmoozing, ten Advertising students from Macleay College attended the AdNews Agency of the Year Awards. We asked the big questions. What makes a successful campaign? Who are the big players in the industry? Is it socially acceptable to take selfies with Sean Cummins?

The night was about celebrating the successes of the industry throughout 2015 and was a crash course on the scope of Advertising and Media. Every so often, as another award was called we would discuss which agency we aspire to join, glazing over as we thought about what our acceptance speeches would be one day.

So, in order to get on that stage one day, we learned two lessons.

One.

The Advertising Industry is a loving, albeit dysfunctional family… with great cheekbones. A family created amongst themselves consisting of unique individuals but ultimately who share the same goals. Tight knit groups of like-minded people that have worked hard to deliver an outcome that is as equally successful to the clients as to the agency. A 50:50 ratio of work hard play hard.

Two.

The importance on leaving the family legacy behind and focussing on innovation. Separating yourself from the opposition in a world where if you live in the past you get left behind. Staying relevant to trends and the issues of today is what all the winners seemed to be doing.

Of all the winners a favourite among the Macleay crew was GPY&R’s “Melanoma Likes Me”. They showed us how high quality, strategic thinking can convey a crucial message in an engaging way. The campaign was clever in its channel selection e.g. targeting Instagram users (Currently 400 million active accounts) while demonstrating a creative solution where they could get the message across in such a small window of time. The campaign reinforced a valuable lesson: that if you’re not saying something clever quickly no one is listening.

For ten, starry-eyed students the night was the perfect introduction to the work hard, play hard world of advertising and media. The next step is for us to decide if we want to be in the business for the fancy award nights with food and wine, or whether we will be on the stage under the bright lights being recognized for an amazing contribution to the industry. Hopefully we can aim for both.

Advertising Student, Brooke Demenezes