A lot can happen in one week in the creative industries. And if you’re a 16 year old who has just sat your GCSE’s, a week spent at a creative agency can hopefully be life-changing.
Or at least that’s the feedback we got from our latest Isobel summer school recruits, who presented to a guest-judging panel last week, including the deputy mayor of London Joanne McCartney. The subsequent winning team’s creative campaign will now run nationally later this month.
As an industry we compete with every other industry for the very best talent. The more we can engage with younger people, from as wide a range of backgrounds as possible, the better chance we have of advertising appealing to more people as a future career.
Formal graduate schemes have a clear role in recruiting talent, but in my experience they still tend to attract people from a relatively narrow field. The benefits for agencies having a truly varied work force are well documented, so starting work experience-style opportunities at this relatively early educational stage is important for us.
Our summer school week is also hugely beneficial for Isobel. Trying to individually present what it is that we do, to people who have zero knowledge of our industry, brings with it some interesting challenges.
Like many agencies, we’re inundated with requests for work experience and internships. And the requests seem to be coming from further and further afield. But we like to focus on the key educational age of 15-16, and partner with schools close by to our agency. Before A-Levels, before university and before you’re allowed to leave school. This age guarantees we’re offering the opportunity to the widest selection of people, who might just get inspired by a potential career in advertising.
Time spent at an agency by the young and curious can vary hugely, both in content and ultimately in value. All too often it can be a box-ticking exercise, with a hurriedly organised random selection of admin tasks not really helping either party.
Ultimately, work experience participants get out what the agency is prepared to put in, and that’s what our Isobel summer school is all about. So we invite ten Year 11s from a range of local London schools into the agency to experience the world of advertising and the wide spectrum of opportunities that exist within the creative industries.
They spend time with every department, learning about strategy, creative, client management and even finance. This year, they even spent time with a professional actor, learning presentation tips.
Our summer school week is also hugely beneficial for Isobel. Trying to individually present what it is that we do, to people who have zero knowledge of our industry, brings with it some interesting challenges.
This year our participants worked on a live creative brief – to create a campaign to attract young people across the country to visit London. We thought this was a timely and highly relevant brief, given some of the unfortunate events that have taken place in our city recently.
Our two teams presented to a high profile judging panel comprising of: Joanne McCartney; Jessica Feeney, senior marketing officer at the Greater London Authority; and Steve Hastings, planning partner and founder of Isobel.
The winning team’s campaign #LondonersEyes, encouraged young people to see London through their eyes, and to discover the parts of London they never knew existed.
The campaign planned to utilise outdoor media, Instagram and YouTube, with a highly polished and engaging film. The outdoor element of the campaign will now run in selected sites in Birmingham, Glasgow and Bristol.
The deputy mayor got involved in our programme because she recognises the importance of the creative industry to London and the genuine value in young people gaining experience in it. This value is definitely double sided – it’s great from them, and for us.
Despite their school’s close proximity to the agency, "the world of advertising" often feels a million miles away from the future thinking of most of our participants. But when they leave, our industry can become centre stage in career plans and we think that’s a great thing.
This year we were amazed at the combination of skills (especially production skills like film-making), and the instinctive talent and enthusiasm for creativity that our participants showed. It’s a great reminder of why many of us got into advertising ourselves.
Jamie Williams is a partner at Isobel.