The Star Online: Business
The Star Online: Business |
| Posted: 02 Sep 2011 06:42 PM PDT VIZEUM Media Services might not be one of the biggest media agencies around, but chief executive officer Andy Miller truly believes that there is an advantage to being small. "We're probably ranked between eighth and tenth in terms of billings size (when compared to other media agencies in the local industry). We're still small in the market," he tells StarBizweek. Being a relatively "small player" in the market, Miller says Vizeum has the advantage of offering its services at a reduced budget compared to the other "big boys." "I've always felt that you don't necessarily need big budgets to come up with great campaigns. Innovative thinking does not come from having more people and more billings." Vizeum, which is part of the Aegis group, has been in Malaysia for five years and today has a total staff strength of just over 40 people. "And I've always believed that the most strategic thinking comes from low budget campaigns. With a lower budget, the focus has to be harder (to come up with great work)," Miller adds. Still, Miller doesn't deny the advantage of having big budgets behind a particular campaign. "Having a big budget means the campaigns can be more integrated. But you always need to work around the budget that you have," he says. Miller says Vizeum has had a "pretty good year so far," having won some businesses relating to the tourism and meeting, incentive, convention and exhibition (MICE) sectors. With economic crises currently looming over the US and Europe, Miller says he is positive about the Malaysian tourism scene. "I think tourism levels in Malaysia will remain healthy for this year. Thailand is still suffering from its political problems. Though they're settling down it's still in people's minds." Miller feels that with the economic problems in the United States and Europe, the question is whether the long-haul tourists coming to Malaysia will be affected in the near term. "Malaysia is still a value-for-money choice and I am cautiously optimistic about our local tourism sector," he says. Miller shares a similar sentiment for the outlook of the media industry for the rest of 2011. "We've seen a buoyant year with no major event (unlike last year, where the FIFA World Cup boost spending)." Next year will see England hosting the Olympic Games. For now, Miller feels that the event will neither have a positive nor negative impact on the local media planning industry. Vizeum made headlines when it became the third biggest winner in terms of medal tally at the Malaysian Media Awards (MMAs) in July, beating some big, well-known players. The first and second spots went to leading global media specialists Universal McCann and Mindshare Malaysia respectively. Vizeum won two golds, three silvers and one bronze at the prestigious event. "We were very pleased to have won big at the MMAs. The recognition we got (from our peers and competitors) was way above what an agency of our size would usually get," Miller says excitedly. However, he adds that winning awards is not the "be all and end all" for a media agency. "Winning awards is an endorsement from the industry that you're on the right path and a measure of the quality of work that you're doing." To stay ahead of the competition, Miller says that Vizeum was in the process of finalising its consumer connection system (CCS), a tool that describes the usage of bought, owned and earned media and its role and function to consumers. "It will be the largest CCS that Malaysia has ever seen and it will be available from November onwards. It will redefine how media planning is done and will be for use for all our existing and potential clients to help give them richer and deeper insights." Miller says the CCS was developed by global market research company Synovate and will include feedback from over 3,000 respondents across Malaysia. "It will cover touch points in both traditional and non-traditional media. When we add this to the already tried and tested tools that we have, the CCS should prove very useful and powerful in the market." Miller also says that Vizeum, via parent company Aegis, was active in training its staff. "We train our people as a group. It's imperative to do it to keep our staff abreast of the latest information and it's also important for them to know that they are being trained for the future." On a another point, Miller notes that while there is added emphasis on non-traditional media today, especially in digital space, traditional media is still important and will always remain an important avenue for clients of both media and creative agencies. Advertising expenditure (adex) grew 15% to RM5.02bil in the first six months of 2011 versus RM4.38bil a year earlier, with newspapers continuing to command the lion's share of the total ad spend, according to data from Nielsen. Newspaper adex accounted for 41% of total ad spend in the first half of 2011, followed by free-to-air TV and pay-TV, at 28% and 22% respectively. |
| Tips on freelancing for a visual artist Posted: 02 Sep 2011 06:41 PM PDT Title: Creative, Inc: The Ultimate Guide to Running a Successful Freelance Business Authors: Meg Mateo Ilasco and Joy Deangdeelert Cho Publisher: Chronicle Books Although it calls itself the "ultimate guide" for freelancing, Creative, Inc is more of a guide for those with a penchant for visual arts. While it does provide information that potential freelancers in any field could utilise, much of its contents are specifically for illustrators, photographers, graphic designers, stylists and other similar visual arts fields. Each chapter covers a specific aspect of freelancing interspersed with interviews with creative professionals from various related fields. These professionals are either people who have launched successful freelance careers or are corporate professionals in charge of hiring freelancers for their respective companies. For those in the visual arts fields who are thinking about starting up their freelance careers, this book is useful as it covers a whole range of topics from how to "set up shop" to balancing business and personal lives. The interviews also provide insightful knowledge on things like how to promote one's business, obtain more clients and manage one's time. Not being a visual artist, many parts in the book did not apply to me. There are definitely fundamental qualities that all successful freelancers must have such as the ability to manage money and clients but portions that were specific to designers and illustrators were not relevant. Some of the things I found useful were their tips on how to start up a professional blog and personal branding. Ilasco and Cho also provided examples of estimate and invoice letters, as well as a breakdown on how to construct these, which I found extremely useful as well. Since both writers are designers, it's no surprise that the book doesn't look like the run-of-the-mill guide book. With an eye-catching cover, rounded corners and interesting page layouts, this book was not as difficult to read as expected. Although the chapters were kept short, they were extremely informative. While it may not be something that you constantly refer to, it's a good book to pick up if you're thinking about starting a full time, freelancing career. |
| Posted: 02 Sep 2011 06:41 PM PDT Title: The Accidental Creative: How to be Brilliant at a Moment's Notice Author: Todd Henry Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover MAKING the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity Charles Mingus "Meet Amos. He is a manager at a Fortune 100 company, and though he is not a typical creative' he faces all the pressures that accompany creative work. Amos is a brilliant, accomplished, and fast-rising leader who is currently helming five major projects for the company. He manages the communication and marketing needs for his department, gleans consumer insights that can be applied to new projects, and coordinates product development input from R&D. In addition, Amos is responsible for developing his direct reports and ensuring that the organisation that reports to him is in alignment with the company's priorities. There are several constituencies to please at multiple levels in the organisation, and Amos spends a lot of his time just trying to identify his true objectives within the barrage of input he receives from his superiors. The most difficult thing, according to Amos, is that amidst all the meetings and pseudo work,' he knows that his main job is to move the needle' and make progress on his projects. He knows the real value he brings to his company is the ability to generate key ideas at just the right time to properly direct the course of a project. Amos gets to think about his work much less than he'd like because he's just so busy trying to stay ahead of everything else...he has to work nights, let stuff go, or just accept that everything he does can't be great, even though that is the expectation." Amos' situation is becoming more typical these days. It is not enough to just do your job anymore. In order to thrive, all of us, regardless of our role, have to be ready to generate brilliant creative ideas on demand. The marketplace has morphed from one made up of manufacturers mainly supported by manual labour to one where millions of people are making a living with their minds. Due to this, the term "creative" is no longer just limited to that advertising guru dressed in designer jeans dreaming up the next big idea. A "creative" can be anyone who needs to solve problems, innovate, design things, write, think and strategise; a person responsible for crafting systems that form the foundations for an organisation's future growth. Two of a kind There are "traditional creatives" such as designers, writers, visual artists, musicians and performers that deliberately choose a career that allows them to exercise their creativity on a daily basis. However, there are also the "accidental creatives" people such as managers, strategists, consultants, salespeople, client service representatives who need to add unique value to their work, carve a niche in the marketplace and push a business hunch from conception to execution. Todd Henry, author of The Accidental Creative: How to be Brilliant at a Moment's Notice, has written a book that is touted to help both groups. If you are a "traditional creative", the book will help you establish enough structure in your life to get the most out of your creative process. It will also teach you how to stay engaged over the long term; a general problem for those who must produce continually on demand. For the "accidental creative", the book should help you unlock your latent creative abilities by teaching you to do what many brilliant creatives already do instinctively, and how to do it consistently. Henry is the founder and CEO of Accidental Creative, a consultancy that helps organisations generate brilliant ideas. In 2006 he started The Accidental Creative, which has grown into one of the top business podcasts. Henry acknowledges that creative work generally comes with a unique set of pressures as many of us can feel out of touch with the mysterious process through which creative work is generated. "On some days, ideas spring forth effortlessly, and we feel poised to attack any problem that comes our way. On others, we struggle with a single obstacle without any significant momentum." We are asked to "produce ever-increasing amounts of brilliance in ever-shrinking amounts of time." In the new "create on demand" workplace dynamic that is becoming more commonplace, we need to consistently invent brilliant solutions that meet specific objectives by defined deadlines. If we do it successfully, we get to keep our jobs. If we do not, we get to work on our resume. It can be frustrating to be accountable for a process we have so little control over, especially in the modern marketplace, where our career success is directly tied to our ability to generate great ideas consistently. In this book, born out of his consultancy and popular podcast, Henry has created a practical method for discovering and more importantly controlling your personal creative rhythm. Nurturing creativity The book is divided into two sections. Chapters 1 through 3 deal with many of the pressures faced by creatives in the workplace, and why doing brilliant work day after day can be so challenging. Chapters 4 through 10 offer some practices that you can implement to help you experience higher levels of creative insight on a daily basis. Henry talks about the "assassins of creativity" and emphasises how managing five key elements i.e. F-R-E-S-H can save the day: Focus: Begin with your end goal in mind Relationships: Build stimulating relationships and ideas will follow Energy: Manage it as your most valuable resource Stimuli: Structure the right "inputs" to maximise creative output Hours: Focus on effectiveness, not efficiency Henry reasons that the "always-on" manner in which many creatives approach their work is arrhythmic, but the creative process is naturally rhythmic, there are "peaks and troughs of productivity, an ebb and flow to idea generation." We therefore need to incorporate practices that instil a sense of structure, rhythm and purpose into our lives to "create a space for our creative processes to thrive rather than to expect it to operate in the cracks of our frenetic schedule." Henry highlights that when we violate the natural rhythms of the creative process, we may initially still be able to produce a very high volume of work, but we will eventually find that, in time, we will not be producing our best work. Instead, we will find that we will trend towards mediocrity; and that great ideas will no longer come with the frequency that we prefer. Many creatives tend to "sacrifice their long-term viability on the altar of short-term productivity"; eventually discovering that the trade-off simply is not worth it. When you fall into a pattern of reacting to everyday pressures of your work, you may unknowingly do things that cause damage to your creative muscles. On one hand, the lure of another conceptual breakthrough is seductive, but on the other, we must deal with the reality that our work is being both timed and judged. It is difficult to stay excited about work when we feel that practical limitations will ultimately prevent us from really doing something we believe to be truly great. Using an analogy from military strategist Thomas Barnett, Henry explains that "every organisation begins as an advanced force and ends up as an occupying force." We need a "leviathan" force to aggressively capture new ground but we also require this same force to do the largely administrative work of occupying that ground that is captured i.e. dealing with systems, processes and protocol in executing ideas. Henry shows us methods to balance our "race to brilliance" with the constraints of real working life. I recommend that you read this book to ramp up your brilliance and visit AccidentalCreative.com to learn how to do more with less time. |
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