My review of 2017.
Following a great year in 2016 wasn't going to be easy but I'm pleased with how 2017 turned out.
A big part of the year was moving on from MAGNAFI. Leaving was something I found very difficult having made such great friends with the guys there and enjoying some great successes in the previous years and I made the tough decision to move on following early 2017 ad campaigns for women's shoes, women's dresses and women's boobs!! Storm Doris also decided to make an appearance on our outdoor shoot for the shoes which made for a nice challenge!
Having left on good terms with the team, I continue to work with them whilst in my new role as Creative Director at Trunk and through One Minute Briefs. Most recently I ran a social campaign to say #ThankUNHS and a music video featuring Johnny Vegas and Shaun Ryder was created, which reached hundreds of thousands of people. It's great that I can still collaborate with the guys to make great things happen. Unfortunately, no Xmas Number 1 this time.
I took a short time out after leaving MAGNAFI and took some time to have a think about what I wanted to achieve in the future. Did I want to work on big brands with huge budgets? Did I want to move away? Did I want to do something different? I was lucky enough to receive job offers from Dubai, London, New York but it was a project here in Manchester that interested me the most. And, not just because it's a 30 second commute from the apartment I just bought.
Trunk have the skilled team to create great content quickly and turn ideas into reality without the barriers of a typical agency. You don't have to have huge budgets to create engaging content. And since I've been at Trunk, we've created work that has been shared across the world... from nothing.
In fact, in my first week, I was on the set of a TV shoot for Nextbase Dash Cams with social influencers Goubtube, Jahannah James and 'Bad Education' TV star Jack Bence. An integrated campaign was created to highlight the Bad Drivers of Britain and features sponsorship idents on Dave as well as numerous social films.
I even starred in one of the ads myself. Not bad for the first week!
Not long after that, we were working with more influencers. And there aren't many people more influential than the Class of '92! Working with the amazing Truth Creative, we created a film to promote the launch of their new educational venture in Manchester, UA92.
An inspirational project with some inspirational people. Very proud to have been involved in it.
Other people who have inspired me this year are the young people who helped share ideas and write the script for an animated film that I'm also incredibly proud of. The whole team was involved at one point or another with this project too.
We also created and starred in a video alongside the likes of Fifth Harmony, UB40 and WWE stars to help spread a positive message out to people across the world on #StopCyberBullyingDay. It was a great success and trended as the stars themselves posted the video out from their own feeds as the film went viral globally. This was supported by a One Minute Brief which had huge reach.
This year I also too One Minute Briefs to London after popular OMBLE demand. This was the 4th #OMBLive event and it has grown each year. Doubling in size from the previous year in a brilliant venue. Everyone got the infamous free JagerOMB and the amount of support on show was amazing as I did my talk. The night featured a Live OMB tournament, gallery, awards and great speakers from Mellor & Smith, Creative Equals, my friend & fellow CD Ian Fletcher and, the person I co-founded Agency Quotes with, Vikki Ross. (Incidentally we published our second Agency Quotes book this year too) Get your copy here! http://www.lulu.com/gb/en/shop/nick-entwistle-and-vikki-ross/agency-quotes-volume-2/paperback/product-23088371.html
On the subject of books, 2017 also saw the release of our second One Minute Briefs book. Full of great ideas, testimonials and stories from the OMBLES. A great celebration of instinctive creativity and the growth of this incredible community. Grab a copy here: http://www.lulu.com/shop/nick-entwistle/ombook2/paperback/product-23271648.html
After the intensity of trying to fill a nightclub with OMBLES in a city nowhere near me, I got straight back involved in a campaign that brought back #MerryCritmas after the success of last year.
Father Critmas rang me up and said he wanted to parody IT Movie, so that's what we did in the streets of Manchester as he came back bigger, better and badder than ever. Check out the main film and the behind the scenes video we shot below.
The campaign was featured in the likes of The Drum and Adweek as one of their favourite Xmas campaigns of the Year and has resulted in hundreds of invaluable and potentially life-changing opportunities for junior creatives to get advice and insight from some of the best Creative Director's worldwide with the likes of BBH, AMV BBDO, Wieden + Kennedy, McCann, JWT involved. To be part of such a fun global campaign and helping the creative industry as a result has been brilliantly rewarding. We even launched a game called Critmas Tosser. Can you beat my high score of 36 here? https://trunk.agency/critmastosser/
We already have plans for #MerryCritmas 3 and look forward to making it even bigger.
Last, but most definitely not least, thing to mention is the campaign we did for the #LyttleFight to help raise money for Neuroblastoma sufferer Isabella. This is by far the best and most rewarding piece of work I have ever been involved in. Starting with an idea through a One Minute Brief, written in collaboration with her family and shot beautifully in just a couple of hours, it really was a true team effort. The results made it all worthwhile, 16 million plus views on the likes of Viral Thread, Unilad and The Hook and featuring on TV with the BBC as her story went viral. More importantly, tens of thousands of pounds have been raised to help her achieve her target of getting to America for life-saving treatment.
As well as this, it has been great to do so many One Minute Briefs campaigns for good causes this year, including a collaboration with Havas for Organ Donation, EchoUK heart charity, The Drum #DoItDay, Erenjang Project and the WWF as well as many other successful and fun collaborations.
We have also sponsored numerous awards events including the Drum Creative Awards, Roses and the Chip Shop Awards and saw an OMBLE win the Grand Prix for the second year running.
Trunk and OMB have been shortlisted for a number of awards this year and it's great to have that recognition alongside some big names considering Trunk is only just a year old.
I've also done talks at Universities including Edge Hill and Leeds as well as done talks and workshops at the V&A, Glug and Pecha Kucha, so overall it's been a packed year and I'm looking to do even more in 2018.
Happy New Year everybody!!!
Following a great year in 2016 wasn't going to be easy but I'm pleased with how 2017 turned out.
A big part of the year was moving on from MAGNAFI. Leaving was something I found very difficult having made such great friends with the guys there and enjoying some great successes in the previous years and I made the tough decision to move on following early 2017 ad campaigns for women's shoes, women's dresses and women's boobs!! Storm Doris also decided to make an appearance on our outdoor shoot for the shoes which made for a nice challenge!
Having left on good terms with the team, I continue to work with them whilst in my new role as Creative Director at Trunk and through One Minute Briefs. Most recently I ran a social campaign to say #ThankUNHS and a music video featuring Johnny Vegas and Shaun Ryder was created, which reached hundreds of thousands of people. It's great that I can still collaborate with the guys to make great things happen. Unfortunately, no Xmas Number 1 this time.
I took a short time out after leaving MAGNAFI and took some time to have a think about what I wanted to achieve in the future. Did I want to work on big brands with huge budgets? Did I want to move away? Did I want to do something different? I was lucky enough to receive job offers from Dubai, London, New York but it was a project here in Manchester that interested me the most. And, not just because it's a 30 second commute from the apartment I just bought.
Trunk have the skilled team to create great content quickly and turn ideas into reality without the barriers of a typical agency. You don't have to have huge budgets to create engaging content. And since I've been at Trunk, we've created work that has been shared across the world... from nothing.
In fact, in my first week, I was on the set of a TV shoot for Nextbase Dash Cams with social influencers Goubtube, Jahannah James and 'Bad Education' TV star Jack Bence. An integrated campaign was created to highlight the Bad Drivers of Britain and features sponsorship idents on Dave as well as numerous social films.
I even starred in one of the ads myself. Not bad for the first week!
Not long after that, we were working with more influencers. And there aren't many people more influential than the Class of '92! Working with the amazing Truth Creative, we created a film to promote the launch of their new educational venture in Manchester, UA92.
An inspirational project with some inspirational people. Very proud to have been involved in it.
Other people who have inspired me this year are the young people who helped share ideas and write the script for an animated film that I'm also incredibly proud of. The whole team was involved at one point or another with this project too.
We also created and starred in a video alongside the likes of Fifth Harmony, UB40 and WWE stars to help spread a positive message out to people across the world on #StopCyberBullyingDay. It was a great success and trended as the stars themselves posted the video out from their own feeds as the film went viral globally. This was supported by a One Minute Brief which had huge reach.
This year I also too One Minute Briefs to London after popular OMBLE demand. This was the 4th #OMBLive event and it has grown each year. Doubling in size from the previous year in a brilliant venue. Everyone got the infamous free JagerOMB and the amount of support on show was amazing as I did my talk. The night featured a Live OMB tournament, gallery, awards and great speakers from Mellor & Smith, Creative Equals, my friend & fellow CD Ian Fletcher and, the person I co-founded Agency Quotes with, Vikki Ross. (Incidentally we published our second Agency Quotes book this year too) Get your copy here! http://www.lulu.com/gb/en/shop/nick-entwistle-and-vikki-ross/agency-quotes-volume-2/paperback/product-23088371.html
On the subject of books, 2017 also saw the release of our second One Minute Briefs book. Full of great ideas, testimonials and stories from the OMBLES. A great celebration of instinctive creativity and the growth of this incredible community. Grab a copy here: http://www.lulu.com/shop/nick-entwistle/ombook2/paperback/product-23271648.html
After the intensity of trying to fill a nightclub with OMBLES in a city nowhere near me, I got straight back involved in a campaign that brought back #MerryCritmas after the success of last year.
Father Critmas rang me up and said he wanted to parody IT Movie, so that's what we did in the streets of Manchester as he came back bigger, better and badder than ever. Check out the main film and the behind the scenes video we shot below.
The campaign was featured in the likes of The Drum and Adweek as one of their favourite Xmas campaigns of the Year and has resulted in hundreds of invaluable and potentially life-changing opportunities for junior creatives to get advice and insight from some of the best Creative Director's worldwide with the likes of BBH, AMV BBDO, Wieden + Kennedy, McCann, JWT involved. To be part of such a fun global campaign and helping the creative industry as a result has been brilliantly rewarding. We even launched a game called Critmas Tosser. Can you beat my high score of 36 here? https://trunk.agency/critmastosser/
We already have plans for #MerryCritmas 3 and look forward to making it even bigger.
Last, but most definitely not least, thing to mention is the campaign we did for the #LyttleFight to help raise money for Neuroblastoma sufferer Isabella. This is by far the best and most rewarding piece of work I have ever been involved in. Starting with an idea through a One Minute Brief, written in collaboration with her family and shot beautifully in just a couple of hours, it really was a true team effort. The results made it all worthwhile, 16 million plus views on the likes of Viral Thread, Unilad and The Hook and featuring on TV with the BBC as her story went viral. More importantly, tens of thousands of pounds have been raised to help her achieve her target of getting to America for life-saving treatment.
As well as this, it has been great to do so many One Minute Briefs campaigns for good causes this year, including a collaboration with Havas for Organ Donation, EchoUK heart charity, The Drum #DoItDay, Erenjang Project and the WWF as well as many other successful and fun collaborations.
We have also sponsored numerous awards events including the Drum Creative Awards, Roses and the Chip Shop Awards and saw an OMBLE win the Grand Prix for the second year running.
Trunk and OMB have been shortlisted for a number of awards this year and it's great to have that recognition alongside some big names considering Trunk is only just a year old.
I've also done talks at Universities including Edge Hill and Leeds as well as done talks and workshops at the V&A, Glug and Pecha Kucha, so overall it's been a packed year and I'm looking to do even more in 2018.
Happy New Year everybody!!!