SHHHH! The best agency in london doesn’t shout about it.
There is an ad agency in London that has won D&AD pencils in each of the last six years, including a Gold.
It doesn’t pitch unless it can do great work for the client.
It doesn’t have solid creative teams.
It wins awards in print and TV.
It doesn’t appear to give the first fuck about the Gunn report.
Its biggest client produces many things that you have enjoyed over the past 30ish years.
Any ideas?
and what about this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r725j0GiZJM
(Not sure why those links aren’t working. Will try to fix.)
And these:
Then there’s the Lost trailer shot by David LaChapelle, ‘ENDSFRI’, the Jamie Oliver trails, the cockle pickers poster, Iraq: The Bloody Circus, The entire More 4 launch, the Shameless posters etc. etc.
On the one side this confirms my assertion that if you want to win awards, get a TV station or a newspaper for a client. They have products that people are already interested in, so half your job is done. On the other side, I think 4 Creative make what they do look much easier than it is. The work is genuinely fucking good and I don’t see that kind of quality coming from the agencies of any other TV stations, especially not so consistently over such a long period of time.
Hats off.
Beautiful work.
All the more tragic that they commission so much vapid shit. It’s easy to forget just how bold C4 was for its first 15 years of life.
Yes they don’t have waste of space planners, account people and politics it’s just about the work not how far you can crawl up someones arse!!
It’s no surprise there are so many start ups, everyone has cottened on to get rid of the dicks and it’s a piece of piss!!!
Yes, but could you count creatives as dicks too?
It feels like they just work with cool directors/photographers/screenwriters etc and let them do their thing… Like they’ve said fuck the agency model altogether. Here’s a loose thought – what can you do/make for us?
Dunno anymore.
As one of the many freelancers who has worked with 4 Creative I can say that it is a breath of fresh air. Planner free, politic free, decent people (Brett is one of the best people I’ve worked with) and a gift of a client: a TV channel. Unilever this isn’t.
that’s like comparing rough trade records to pixar?
anyway. 4 creative have produced some awesome work. wish i had their briefs.
Lovely lovely work. But they are essentially both the agency and the client which possibly makes a difference. If I was presenting work to myself, it would fly through.
I think that just confirms that they have set themselves up in a way that leads to great work. They could have gone to an outside agency like the BBC (whose work is also good, but not as good as C4’s).
And you could present stuff to yourself all day. Doesn’t mean it’ll turn out great.
Please remember 4Creative don’t have any clients. They work for themselves.
I’m sure you could all do great work when you can approve and produce your own work.
Also remember the likely hood of any of you being involved in the production of any of those ads is very slim to nil (you know, the bit that makes it all worth while).
To have a year or more to produce idents (which deserved all the glory they get) is not the world any of you live in (they weren’t done by ad men) and can only be done when you’re self funding/creating.
Do those same creatives produce the same quality of work in an agency? For that matter would Channel4?
4 Creative does have other clients:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-I34JWCY74w
I don’t think the ‘produce and approve your own work and it’ll automatically be brilliant’ holds. Seen any good house ads or promotions apart from ‘there’s a waiting list for the new Skoda’?
And, like I said, if the way they do things works, then maybe others should follow instead of complaining that they have it harder.
I agree More4 have done some excellent work. But as a creative, who wants to come away with a book load of ads for one client/service (albeit award winning). I don’t think it really shows off how you can attack any client/brief. I feel the same way about DDB and VW/Harvey Nichols. Yeah well done you can do VW ads. What else?
That appears to have hampered ex-DDB creatives enormously.
Ben 12.28: I’m not saying that it hampers anybody. And DDB creatives are very talented. I mean personally I would prefer to work at an agency that can answer an array of briefs in different ways. That’s much harder to do and for me reflects a great agency.
It’s a cracking body of work. Well done to them.
Anon 12.22 – that’s a pretty poor example.
Scamp and Scowling AD moved to be CDs at BBH.
Thierry and Damien are doing very well at Mother.
Adam and Justin are CD’s.
Ben and Emer are CD’s on John Lewis.
Dylan is ECD at Saatchi’s NZ.
Graeme is at Y&R New York.
All used to be at DDB, doing VW ads.
“I don‚Äôt think the ‚Äòproduce and approve your own work and it‚Äôll automatically be brilliant‚Äô holds”. I sort of think it does. It would at least be very good. I mean how many really good ads have you written that have been killed by outside forces.
Also they as that SyFy that you’ve linked to, proves the point. They don’t do it on other clients.
Slightly off-point.
Ben, who would you say is the best creative headhunter in London at the mo…?
I agree it’s a great model but it’s not an agency and they’re not producing what we call a house ads.
Go work there. You’ll see.
I know they’re not house ads as such, but house ads are written by the ‘client’ and most are nowhere near 4C’s level. You could cite budget but 4C’s posters are also better than any house ads.
AD GEEK 01.05. Like I just said to Ben, I’m not saying the CREATIVES won’t do well, or that they CAN’T do other stuff or that they will be hindered by working at limited client/brief agency. I was saying I would rather work at an agency that can produce an array of great work for various clients. This, for me, is what makes a great agency.
Willy McWilly 1:07 – they’ll find you.
I’m Greek, not a Geek.
I was just trying to show that the particular example of DDB creatives writing for VW has not hindered their progress. So in answer to your ‘what else’ question, the answer is, ‘a shit load’.
I take your point about tackling tougher clients though. It would be a triumph to turn around the fortunes of a struggling brand, rather than just writing the next Honda/Guinness/Levis (much like Trevor did with French Connection).
Blah – 1.07,
Thanks, that’s helpful.
Of course I know quite a few headhunters. Just wanted the consensus on who’s the best.
I like Vicky Sacker but hasn’t she buggered off to Holland?
i would rather be beattie than craigan.
beattie gets far more pussy.
Isn’t Jeremy in a long-term relationship?
AD Greek 2.21: I meant ‘what else’ as in the agency not the creatives.
Astrid Boesze?
Rubbish name.
Great headhunter.
There’s enough of an approval process at Channel4 for the C4Creative directors to ‘get’ advertising (and the way it works). Maybe that’s because it was established by an adman (Dave Buonaguidi). Look how many good directors have come via the channel.
There’s not some much of an approval process that results in ideas to be researched out of existence.
The people are bright and the work is consistently great.
Right, I’m with you.
Kwik Fit, Tropicana, Budweiser, COI Teaching, Phillips, The FT, Marmite.
Isn’t Beattie in a long term relationship?
No idea. I interred from G-L that…well…
Let’s just drop the subject, shall we?
I don’t think it’s any secret that 4 creative is one of the best places in town to work. It has been for ages. Perhaps for the same reason MTV in the states used to produce loads of good stuff: they still have a client, it’s just that their client produces a good product, believes in the potential of advertising and wants to produce good work. Most agencies struggle to get all three of those in a client.
Bret forraker is leaving/has left, will prob effect them quite a bit.
Isn’t the best agency in london an agency EVERYONE wants to work at? Who wants to work at More4?
Something for the weekend.
The Peckham Terminator
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2waIvp265CM
I know i’m about 4 weeks off the pace here but for what its woth – DDB did the More 4 launch work for C4; quite ironic given all the ‘all they do is VW’ comments…