Bank of Creativity

The Struggle Is Real - Blog Post by Nick Entwistle

In this post I want to share some of the realities we face in our lives.

It’s all too easy to see all of the ‘all smiles’ content via social media that can often mask what really goes on behind the scenes. We see it with our family and friends on our Facebooks & Instagrams but it is often forgotten about when it comes to brands and organisations. It's easy to forget that there are real people behind those too.

Last week I began a 14-day isolation as I, at short notice, finally got a date for my spine operation to repair my slipped disc. The discectomy is booked in for the 17th of December. I had the chance to take the op privately for £7000 on October the 10th last year, which was just after our #OMBLIVE6 event, in which I was trying to hide the excruciating pain I was going through. In hindsight, if I realised a global pandemic would be cancelling operations for many months, I’d have taken it. Instead, after discussing options with my consultant, we agreed that I would have a CT-guided lumbar epidural corticosteroid injection, as a stop gap to take away some of the pain, and make life liveable, with a view to having the full operation via the NHS in March.

Then, of course, the lockdown was announced in March and operations and check-ups began to be cancelled and postponed. Mine was one of them and the NHS could offer no answers for months as to when they would be up and running again or where I would be within any waiting list.

At a time when I was having contracts, events and film projects cancelled, it was a huge worry. This also came at a time when One Minute Briefs was growing rapidly and becoming a creative outlet for those stuck at home. The feed became relentless every single day, which was of course a huge positive but not necessarily paying the bills at a time when we were receiving no government support (and still haven’t to this day) as a Forgotten Limited Company. We even ran a campaign in support of ForgottenLTD to try and make Rishi Sunak listen.

As if everything that was going on in the world wasn’t enough, I was now having to try and stay motivated to keep going every day at a time when the work just wasn’t there. Motivation itself was a real struggle for me already as I was on controlled drug Gabapentin, which is for Epilepsy and nerve pain. The side effects of which are tiredness, drowsiness, dizziness and, at worst, they can make you have suicidal thoughts.

So, at a time, when every day is like Groundhog Day, they definitely aren’t the best drugs to be on.

At our last real-life OMBLive event, I spoke about the struggle to get up in the mornings due to the severe pain I had been in. I spoke about how this had come alongside issues within the family and how I’d also been battling with neighbours from hell. All of this was overwhelming. However, one constant in my life has been the OMB community wanting that daily brief. And, I’ve ran the last 300 without any breaks. Over the past 18 months, this has definitely forced me to wake up in the mornings when I could have easily have stayed in bed to avoid the pain. But now it has become just to walk in to another room of your house to work. Sometimes you question yourself… is it really worth it?

Before the lockdown, I did my very best to get up and out of the house despite the pain and do my best to carry on as normal. Growing the community and sharing the story. The picture below is me before a talk I was doing at Lloyds Bank in September 2019. I was embarrassed about the picture at the time as it shows the pain I was in. The sciatic pain caused by doing something as simple as sitting down or standing up was unreal. Oh, and to add insult to injury, if you look closely, you can see my finger is taped up. I had cut off the tip of my finger the night before (doing art to try and relax funnily enough) and it was still bleeding heavily the morning after. Just 20 minutes before the event I was considering cancelling but I somehow made my way down to do the talk and then went to hospital afterwards.

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Not long after that, I was due to fly down with a few friends to London to watch American Football at the new Tottenham Hotspur stadium. It was great to have something to look forward to. But the night before was the worst pain I have been in, in my life. Life was genuinely not worth living. I didn’t sleep at all. I was up at 4 in the morning reading blogs about how people could possible deal with this pain.

I read about someone who was a successful stock trader with a great family, car and house. Yet he said all he lived for every day was to have the comfort of hugging a bean bag to get away from the pain. Nothing else in his life mattered anymore apart from gaining himself that pain relief. And I could completely relate.

The pain is indescribable. It’s even far worse than the heart attack I suffered a few years back. But because that happened to me, I have to make sure I am exercising my cardio. Yet I can’t, every walk I do gives me pain, I gave up the game I love of football and I have been unable to exercise in gyms or go running.

I remember in August doing a shoot for Quest Media. We shot at 8 different locations in a day and getting in and out of the car was unbearable and excruciating. But I was determined to deliver a great campaign for them and not let anyone down.

I then took on a month long freelance project with Ear To The Ground in October. Going on shoots with Gary Neville in my first couple of days. I was responsible for the creative direction across a few projects. And, I remember how I would wheel myself on my chair across to the film editor whenever he had a question, to avoid the pain of having to stand up. Quick questions became a daunting prospect and I couldn’t act in a normal way anymore. I tried to hide all of this at first, but the best thing was to be honest about it and let the people around you know that you are suffering so they can understand.

So to get the epidural injection on October the 17th, in the middle of this project, was an instant relief. I was suddenly completely numb. I remember having it and then attending the MPA Awards that night. But I didn’t feel right and left early.

I then had a course of physiotherapy to coincide with my pain relief. But often the stretches I’ve had to do have brought on even more pain but I have persevered as much as I can. I even joined in with football for 10 minutes here and then just before all football was cancelled. Essentially playing on one leg but trying my best to keep some sort of level of fitness.

The medication I am on means I struggle to be able to wake up quickly in the morning and I am sometimes slow in my conversations or forget what I’m saying mid-sentence. But I have become completely reliant on it.

That’s a worrying thought in itself, as I know they are very difficult to come off. But they are at least allowing me to live in some level of comfort. However, if I’ve been for a walk or I drive, or miss my meds, the pain comes back in waves. This has come alongside a communal dispute with my property management company Zenith, who have offered abysmal service for a year but hold you to ransom to take your service charges. Something I will look to create a campaign on in the New Year. This and everything else that has gone on, has led me to go to the doctors with anxiety and depression. Resulting in me having heart monitors fitted due to palpitations

With all of this in mind, I had planned to try and take 2020 fairly easy and stay positive. I made a resolution to say yes to all trips and I had Bali, Oz, Dubai, Spain and Poland all booked. Covid came in and cancelled all of them and I have, as a result barely left my flat.

As One Minute Briefs has grown over the lockdown period and we work with more and more brands, I have wanted to grow with more staff but have held off on doing this due to the uncertainty of the world right now and I knew the operation would come up at some point, where I will be in recovery for a number of weeks. Not knowing when this would be has really held me back.

I kept asking but they could give me no answer. Until, late in November, my consultant rang me and said they have a date for my surgery. December the 17th. It came as a shock and I have had to think quickly about the Christmas period and where I will be for my recovery. I had my pre-op on the 4th and will be in for an MRI on the 9th.

This last minute news forced me into a quick decision on this year’s merrycritmas.com campaign. It would have been much easier to cancel it this year… but I tried to do the impossible and write, produce and direct a film within a week. We somehow managed it and have something to show for it with the brilliant work of a number of contributors pro-bono. The results of which, you will see this Wednesday as we launch the campaign with The Drum for the fifth year running. We look forward to creating more book crit matches for young creatives with Creative Directors than ever this year.

Following that, I’ve since started my isolation due to Covid and will be spending time recovering at my mums following the op. Me being me, an exciting opportunity has come in over the next week, and I’ve taken it. This will be to do a film/stunt for a very big brand and it’s something I did not want to turn down after a year of not being able to create big campaigns.

But I’ve been told for a while by a number of people that I must take a break from One Minute Briefs. A lot of people think there is a team of people behind OMB but it is me running everything behind the scenes. But the support of the OMBoard members has been brilliant as they help me do posts across our social feeds and advise on any issues we face as a community.

OMB has become more of a way of life than a job for me. It is part of my routine and is truly rewarding when I see all of the positive stories coming out of it every single day. The joy it brings, when people receive a tweet or a like from a brand or when they get their first win, is something that I never get tired of. But to keep the feed running as it does, takes many hours a day. Working weekends and into the evenings is a normal thing and, although it doesn’t feel like work, the demands of it every day can take it’s toll when you receive thousands of notifications a day. I actually have to turn notifications off on my phone as it drains the battery rapidly. We get so many tweets that we are even now begging Twitter to stop hiding tweets from new accounts as it is blocking them due to the relentless amount of posts coming through our feed!

Last week, I had a long chat with Tiger Savage, a world renowned Creative Director who has been an inspiration of mine and has since become a friend alongside her husband after we collaborated on campaigns for their brand, King of Shaves. Following our discussion about life, health and wellbeing, she has told me “You must take a break!” This along with other people telling me the same thing has made me realise, I do need some headspace. And with the op coming up, now is the ideal time.

So that’s what I am doing. I am stepping aside from OMB during this project, op and recovery period.

I hope to return stronger and, fingers-crossed, pain-free in the New Year with a rejuvenated feeling to help grow OMB and the Bank of Creativity into an even bigger worldwide platform that this positive and supportive community deserves.

It’s been a difficult year for all, but together we have still achieved some amazing things including setting a number of Twitter trends, featuring Live on ITV’s Peston, sparking a worldwide #StayAtHome campaign for Guinness, collaborating with huge brands like ABSOLUT, Pringles, Adobe, O2 and KFC. As well as supporting various charities/causes like NHS, UN, Oxfam and WWF. We’ve held our 7th annual event online, which was possibly our best ever despite the circumstances. And, after a successful collaboration with industry inclusivity initiative Outvertising, we’ve even signed a year-long partnership with Clear Channel, which will see some of the inspiring OMB content created being seen by the public right across the United Kingdom.

Overall, I just wanted to say that, despite all of the physical and mental pain, it’s important to keep going. Stand up for what you believe in and don’t worry about not progressing in the way you want to. Things change in life and success isn’t defined by how much money you make or how big you grow.

It’s about what you do for yourself. And, if you are trying your best despite what the world throws at you, that is all anyone can ask for. Your legacy will be what you leave behind and the lives you help improve. And, if you can help other people, they will help you in return.

Thank you to everyone who has supported me during all of this. Let’s hope for a better 2021!!!

Nick

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One Minute Brief of the Day: Create your own A4 artwork/poster around the theme of ‘Courage’ to help raise money for the advertising and media support organisation, NABS.

As an official NABS ambassador, I’m delighted to share today’s brief with the OMBLES in the hope that you will all get involved in this great initiative and generate loads of buzz around the NABS Art Auction, whilst showing off all of your incredible quick-fire creativity for a great cause!!

Today’s One Minute Brief of the Day:

Create your own A4 artwork/poster around the theme of ‘Courage’ to help raise money for the advertising and media support organisation, NABS.

Tweet your entries to @OneMinuteBriefs and @NABS_UK with the hashtags #NABSArtAuction & #Courage

Prizes:

  • Shortlisted work will be exhibited in the virtual art auction alongside advertising legends such as Dave Trott, Sir John Hegarty and Mark Denton, who are all taking part. 

  • A portfolio crit from one of our NABS 100 Club

The NABS 100 Club is a group of like-minded industry leaders, from creative and media agencies, media owners and clients, who we call upon throughout the year for our talks, one-to-one and group mentoring events.

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Client:

Founded in 1913, the advertising and media charity NABS exists to improve the wellbeing of everyone in our industry.

NABS are passionate about helping people to thrive, and do that by providing a range of support services. Because they are a charity, these services are free to use for people working in advertising and media.

 

About the Campaign:

NABS’ annual charity Art Auction invites submissions from across the industry, whether you are an account manager, buyer, planner, creative or copywriter.  As an industry, we’ve shown remarkable resilience and empathy during this difficult time. To celebrate our strength of spirit, this year’s theme for NABS annual art auction is ‘Courage’

We’re asking the OMBLES to submit an A4 poster/work of art around this years theme, which NABS will then auction off to raise money for its much-needed services.

It could be a painting, a digital design, a photograph, a print or poetry … just apply the theme of ‘Courage’ to your piece and design it to fit A4 size. Shortlisted entries will feature in the virtual auction.

2020 has been a tough year for everyone. In the face of extreme stress and hardship, NABS has never been more needed. The number of people contacting NABS about redundancy has more than doubled so far this year. In Q2 NABS Advice Line took more than 1,400 calls – a 30% increase YOY. With lockdown causing the cancellation of vital fundraising events, NABS are anticipating a forecasted drop in funding of 40%, whilst at the same time, requests for financial assistance are the most common reason for contacting NABS.

We can’t wait to see what courageous creativity the OMBLES come up with!

NABS: https://nabs.org.uk/

FAQ: https://nabs.org.uk/about-nabs/frequently-asked-questions/

Twitter: @NABS_UK

Instagram : @NABS_UK

Facebook: NABSUK

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2F_dTXXNp0

Art auction in the media:

https://www.creativebrief.com/bite/fuel-your-imagination/nabs-takes-art-auction-virtual-fund-industry-support

To submit your artwork visit the NABS website. The deadline for submission is 14th August 2020.

Header banner artwork © Revelry-Reverie by Estie McLaurin

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One Minute Brief of the Day: Create posters to support the INvirolution Festival with @envirolution #myfutureplanet

Today sees a chance to find interesting ways to promote a Manchester-based community and sustainability-focused festival, as it uses this crisis era to seize a digital opportunity.

The world’s problems and needs have not disappeared despite an additional crisis, and this is the moment to keep the environmental movement in the public eye through a series of positive and uplifting campaigns. 

We’re excited to see how the OMBLES take this one on.

Remember to tweet your entries to @OneMinuteBriefs and @Envirolution with the hashtags #myfutureplanet and #INvirolution facebook.com/events/675201886266325

The winning ideas will be featured in a gallery during the Festival and shared via the interactions on social interaction happening throughout the day!

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INvirolution Festival 2020 will be hosting a festival-sized lineup of great music, workshops and inspirational talks from leading activists and climate heroes, including Rob Greenfield and Lindsey Chapman. Fellow sustainable-movement leaders Green Gathering festival and Extinction Rebellion will be hosting their own stages for the digital INvirolution.

To help spread the reach of the event, which is set to include participants from every continent (except Antarctica… yet!), the festival is encouraging the use of the hashtag #myfutureplanet which gets people to talk about how they want the world to look like after this crisis is over. 

The OMBLES are being asked to share fun positive ideas in the form of notes, designs, sketches, posters and more to help spread the word and, who knows, maybe even get #myfutureplanet trending ahead of the festival on Saturday 20 June!!

These festival organisers are not paid - everything is voluntary, and we all rely on occasional funding rounds to make things viable. The creativity of the OMBLES is well-known, and we are calling on everyone to get stuck in and make #myfutureplanet a world conversation for the next week. 

The brief does not require you to make people visit the festival to be a winner, but it is certainly welcome!!

We hope to see you all joining us on http://www.invirolution.org/ on Saturday ❤️

RSVP Here: https://www.facebook.com/events/675201886266325/

Social Links:

https://www.facebook.com/envirolutionUK

https://twitter.com/envirolution

https://www.instagram.com/envirolutionfestival

Find out about more about the organisers here: http://envirolution.org.uk/

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How we helped Father Critmas create hundreds of book crits for junior creatives across the world.

Currently in Barbados on a well-earned break drinking a Long Island Iced Tea on my lilo. A big thank you to everyone who helped with this year’s campaign. And, a big fuck you to those who didn’t.
— Father Critmas

With all of the remaining book crits from our #MerryCritmas campaign now finished, we are proud to publish the results via the film above.

Although Father Critmas was difficult to work with, having written, produced and directed his own music video, we thoroughly enjoyed the experience and would like to thank Trunk, GAS Music, The Drum, Unity Radio and NABS for helping to make this happen with their support, as well as the incredible filming and music.

Putting together the campaign takes a lot of hard work behind the scenes and creatives David Felton, Louise Chorley and Lizzie Owen worked extremely hard alongside us to make it a success and do some good for the creative industry. It’s so rewarding to be creating campaigns that genuinely make a difference to help junior creatives get the advice and opportunities they need to further themselves in the industry.

This was the third year of running the campaign and our best one yet. Father Critmas wanted a music video and it wasn’t easy but we pulled a team together of One Minute Briefs student followers to be his backing singers and Federal Charm members appeared in his band. Mike Sweeney from BBC Radio provided the voice as Father Critmas sadly lost his voice on the day following a particularly scathing book crit the day before the shoot.

Once the film was finalised, it was shared through Father Critmas’ social feeds and was shared on publications around the world including Adweek, MPA, Shots, and The Drum. To coincide with the release, we ran a One Minute Briefs campaign asking our followers to share their ideas to promote this year’s campaign using Xmas song lyrics. This had huge reach across the industry. All of this activity resulted in masses of sign ups on the first day from both juniors and senior creatives. And from then, we had a strong stream of sign ups for the following 2 weeks whilst we shared a daily ad’VENT’ calendar. These included top creatives such as Rory Sutherland of Ogilvy, Victoria Buchanan of Tribal Worldwide, Mike Rigby of R/GA New York, Carole Davids of HeyHuman and Shaun McIlrath of Iris Worldwide.

Hundreds of junior creatives were then matched with senior creatives from major agencies around the world according to their location. Some were done by Skype and it was great to see lots done in person as we received plenty of Critmas selfies. We have since received messages thanking us for the opportunities we have created for them. Some have got placements at big agencies off the back of the campaign. Seeing stories like this makes it all worthwhile and, despite Father Critmas being the grumpiest Creative Director in the world, we’re sure even he would be happy with that.

We’re looking forward to Critmas 2019 and hope to make it even bigger and better than ever!

If you want to be involved as a participant or sponsor please email interest@bankofcreativity.co.uk

The hardest thing to advertise...

As we all know, the hardest thing to advertise for people in advertising to advertise is themselves. Luckily, we’ve got an incredible community of creatives to help us do that.

Today we ran a campaign to advertise the Bank of Creativity through our very own One Minute Briefs platform and our followers blew us away with so many amazing ideas which we have posted to our Facebook page and featured in the album below. It was also a great test of how the launch of our website is working to communicate with the creative industry and every single submission gave an great insight into the work we do through visual or copy.

We’ll be choosing a winner over the weekend who will win free tickets to our 6th annual One Minute Briefs event! Check out all of the entries below and if you want to run a One Minute Brief like this for your brand or agency and get social reach in the millions like we did today then please get in touch!!