How a “Shitty” Campaign Won me Young Glory Gold

Working with different people is awesome.  By different people I mean a person from a different country, with a different background and with a different way of thinking. I was born in Uruguay, a very small country from South America.  So I have a very distinctive background.

One of the best people I’ve ever worked with are my friends Bilal and Alexia. Bilal was born in Pakistan.  Alexia in Greece. None of them were doing the Masters Degree, they were doing the regular 2 year Portfolio Program.  The three of us developed relationship outside the school. We shared a similar sense of humor and we had always talked about doing some work together. It is normal that, especially in this line of business, you are very close to a person you consider your friend but you can’t actually work with them. Having fun at the bar does not mean you can pull up an ad campaign. I had already worked with Bilal and the experience was great, but never with Alexia. So I was looking forward to.

We decided to try for one of the most important contest for students: the Young Glory Award. This is a monthly contest, were a selected agency submits a brief on any topic. That time, the brief was not easy: “Pick a transaction account (i.e. a ‘debit card’ or ‘everyday’ account) from any bank in the world. Then come up with a way to get more people taking up that transaction account… a lot more people.” We had no idea where to begin. Eventually we came up with this idea. It was just OK, so we decided to sleep on it. On our next meeting, we really pushed ourselves and we ended up with an idea that was either amazing or pure crap. Literally. It was madness or brilliance. Probably both. We decided to focus on first time parents that needed to start saving for their new son’s education. After a lot of discussing, we found a human truth: in America, parents want their kids out of their houses by the time they turn 18 (the time they should be going to College). So our idea was to send to these parents, as a direct marketing execution, diapers with the line: “Plan Ahead so you don’t have to put up his s*** past 18. Open a savings account. Send your kid to College.” At first, we had a big laugh but then we decided it was the way to go. It was bold, different, and it caught your attention. So we submitted the idea. We knew it was not going to be “just another ad”. The judges were either going to love it or hate it. A month later the results were available. We had won Gold.

On and all it was a terrific experience. I had so much fun working with people I had recently met but had become friends. And we did it on a very successful way. This post should be discussing “What are some of the most significant learnings in the past year and how have these “new and improved” skills set and credentials given you a competitive edge”. So I think I should just go to the topic. I learned that you need to be open to any idea. It may be good or bad, but you need to consider every possibility. I learned that you can understand people from all over the world if you listen to what they have to say. Most of the students that have amazing stories behind, and backgrounds completely different from yours. It is one of the most exciting things this program has to offer. That won’t be on your Portfolio, but it is something that will make you a better thinker. And finally I learned that you need to loose your fears and trust your guts. After all, what’s the worst it could happen? You don’t get the award but at least you’ll have a great story to tell.