Archive for May, 2011
May 23rd, 2011 By rob Filed Under: Uncategorized
If you have been wondering how much of an impact you have through your social networking presence then go here http://www.the-social-list.com/ and you can find out how important, or not, you are…well sort of. You can even compete against your fellow social network connections to see who has the most social oomph.
May 19th, 2011 By Guest Blogger Filed Under: Candidates, Employers, Everyone, Interesting, Weird and Wonderful
If you’ve got, ever had, or are desperately seeking a job in the media industry I’m sure you’ll all be familiar with the friendly email response ‘your CV is on file, we’ll contact you if a position becomes available’. It’s the big hand of the media industry cyber-slapping you in the face. I graduated in June 2010 and must have emailed hundreds of companies and applied for hundreds of jobs, just to be sent the same computer generated response every time.
I’m not blaming anyone, they receive a ridiculous amount of CVs by email, and if they sat down to look at and reply to every one nothing would be on television except maybe a documentary about how many people in the media industry suffer from depression. So after one too many slaps in the face I took a step back and reconsidered my angle entirely. If I was in charge of sifting through thousands of similar applications what would I want to see. The answer’s obvious really, something different, something that would make my day that little bit more exciting.
I came up with my idea based solely on this, what I would want to see as someone working in media? A video that distracts them with comedy and heart-warming amateurism, makes them forget that they’re just looking at my cover letter, seemed like the perfect option for me. It was an example in itself, proof that I could be creative and proof that I had the skills they were looking for. The idea of making it like a letter was decided after I read an article about how the writer was tired of computers and much preferred the human aspects of a letter.plus I’d received a pen for my birthday and it was collecting dust!
I finished it in around ten hours, it would have been sooner but I was determined to shoot it in one continuous take, and kept mucking up, if you’d have heard the audio you would have been impressed with my plethora of foul language!
The response was out of this world, it shot up past 2,000 views within a day, and it spread virally very quickly, I’ve had dinner dates, drinks at gentlemen’s clubs and loads of meetings with people not only high up, but people that were genuinely interested in me and ready to help me on my career. The best response by far was from the Head of Creative at 4Creative (the creative department at Channel 4), he actually took an hour out of his schedule to make a response video (it followed my video above)! It has so far led to me freelancing with a lot of incredibly creative companies and meeting a lot of incredibly creative people.
My advice to those graduating is to prove what you’re good at, and don’t get disheartened by the automated responses and negative feedback you’re bound to get along the road. I want to go into a creative position, either in TV production or advertising, so I produced something creative and had a lot of fun doing so, if you can prove to people you love what you do, they’ll love you for doing it.
Gareth Cash
@gareth88 www.garethcash.com
May 18th, 2011 By Guest Blogger Filed Under: Digital, Guest Blog, Interesting, Weird and Wonderful
Everyone seems to banging on about “digital” in the advertising, marketing and PR industries. If they’re not banging on about digital it’s “mobile” or “social” or a nonsensical point release of something that already exists:
• Enterprise 2.0
• Government 3.0
• World’s Oldest Profession 5.0
Organisations with little digital experience ask me what the role of digital is. That’s the wrong question. The question should be “how should our organisation operate in the 21st Century”. In the 21st Century digital technologies are an ordinary, everyday part of people’s lives. In this context it’s important to understand what digital is.
Connection
At its most simple, digital is connection, or, more properly, a network of connections. When the web was created this was the connection (by hyperlink) between one “page” of information and another. Digital is also a contemporary means of connection between one person and an organisation (more…)
May 17th, 2011 By rob Filed Under: #dylantalks, Candidates, Employers, Everyone
Dylan held their first quarterly #DylanTalks thought leadership event last Thursday at the Soho Hotel. We kicked the events calendar off with an in-depth look at the world of psychometric testing and how they can be used in the recruitment process.
Teaming up with Thomas International, market leaders in the field of psychometrics, Dylan managed to translate some of the mystery around this complex but incredibly useful subject. The event covered a broad overview of what assessments are out there, what they do and how HR and recruitment teams can use them to get under the skin of potential candidates.
We had a fantastic turn out from across agency land and the wider world of marketing. Feedback from the evening has been fantastic and all of the attendees were fascinated by the reports from their own Personality Profile Tests.
This is the first in a calendar of thought leaderships events that we have planned throughout the year. The topics will cover a range of HR related issues but our ultimate mission is to spread great ideas and knowledge within the world of marketing communications.
If you’re interested in hearing more about this event please contact Phil Edelston phil@wearedylan.com or Rob Long rob@wearedylan.com.
To stay informed about upcoming #DylanTalks events sign up for alerts here
To see what you missed check out our Flickr album of the event.
May 16th, 2011 By neil Filed Under: Employers, Everyone
We’re big fans of networking events that put on a good spread. Come on, we all love a good canape don’t we? Of course it’s not the only reason we go, it’s the icing on the cake, a cake that should give us the opportunity to chat to like minded, interesting people, learn something new, make us think, and hopefully make us better at what we do.
Recently, a bunch of us attended the Digital Shoreditch event, celebrating premier digital production and boasting a world class creative community of designers, developers and all round digital enthusiasts. A digital SXSW in a way.
We also featured our first Talented @ Talent event, a thought leadership forum hosted by us, catering to the HR movers and shakers at our partner agencies and providing an environment for learning. The topic of discussion, business and personal assessment (PPA testing) was co-hosted by industry leaders, Thomas International (more…)