She had just seen some of the most recent work from our SPANK intake and was impressed.

She had identified a trait that runs through all of our students.

They like to tell a good story.

We try to bring great story-tellers into the studio because we can learn so much from them.  Today we were blessed to have Jörg Tittel as one of our visiting mentors.

I was quite pleased with the quote that I offered up, so I wanted to post it up on our site.

Story telling is in humankind’s DNA.  Our primordial relatives  -  those who were the marketers of their day  -  learned that the best way to get people understanding, feeling, remembering, transmitting and sharing important information is through the framework of a simple story.

This is why story-telling has always been such an important part of what we call the Communication Arts. (Some people still refer to them by their ‘oldie-worldie’ labels of Advertising, PR and Design)

In a multi-platform world the importance of story-telling is amplified because we are constantly being bombarded by an exponentially overwhelming wave of information.  Our minds are engineered to find or form patterns and then store them in small chunks  -  and the framework of a simple story does its job brilliantly.

In today’s multi-platform, inter-connected world we can share the story in non-linear or in linear ways.  We can whisper the story personally through some channels or shout it loudly and publicly through others.  Or vice versa.

So the story lives through PR, social media, user experience, advertising, product design, direct marketing, and so on.

Our job as practitioners of the communication arts is to find ways of telling stories that resonate and create positive experiences between people and then execute them elegantly with craft and passion.  Always with the purpose of persuading behaviour.

See.  We really are no different to our primordial relatives!

What do you think?  Do you agree or disagree?  Am I overstating the importance of story-telling?  Comments welcome below.

The brief for this year’s scholarship competition is simple, but challenging.   We want you to show us how you would get the Queen’s attention.

We don’t want you to do anything illegal.  Nor do we expect you to actually meet the Queen.  We just want to see what you plan to do.  We want to see your ideas.

There are three scholarships to be won.

• One for the idea that gets the most votes.
• One for the idea chosen by our Dean
• One for the idea chosen by our students who are running this competition (Helen & Thirza)

More information can be found here.

Good luck.

Whilst most ad school students are starting to enjoy their Easter holidays, ours have another week of existing on not much more than adrenalin and the nutrients provided by our friendly local boozer.  If you are on your holidays and want to get a taste for what it is like to study here, then I hope that you will take up this invitation to get involved.  There are scholarships to be won – and plenty of opportunities to impress some of the ad industry’s top talent.

Here’s everything that you need to know

• We hold something called Town Hall at 9.30 every day at SCA.  All sorts of things happen at Town Hall including masterclasses.   I always give a presentation of the week ahead to my students at Monday’s Town Hall.  The SlideShare below is what I will be presenting at Monday’s Town Hall.

• The presentation shows that we have six fantastic masterclasses this week and lets you know when they are scheduled for.   They will all be streamed live.   If you follow us on Twitter you will receive an alert when we start streaming.

• The presentation shows that we are setting a new brief on Monday morning.   Our students will need to juggle this new brief with all of their other projects.   You might not have that disadvantage.

  UPDATE  -  Choose from one of these two briefs  -  Amoy    or   Schwartz

• Come and show us your response to the brief on the afternoon of Thursday 5th April.   If you impress us you might win a scholarship on the spot, to start here in September.

• The team running our main Scholarship Competition will be taking questions on the afternoon of Thursday 5th April.  They won two of last year’s scholarships,  so they should be able to give you great insights.

• We are going to be noshing hot cross buns before taking some of our mentors to the aforementioned local boozer.

We told her that she could start in September 2011, or defer her scholarship until September 2012.  She chose to defer for a year, so that she would arrive well prepared.

One of the things that Sophie has done in her deferred year is speak at a TEDx event. She talks about her passion and she talks about what’s wrong with the current education system.

It is well worth watching.

http://sophiebosworth.wordpress.com/2012/01/01/taking-the-stage-at-tedx-london-the-education-revolution/

PS – A message to Executive Creative Directors – Sophie Bosworth is well worth watching.

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Click the birdie to find out more – and maybe join us too.

On a completely separate subject, I have been nominated by MiAwards for marketing personality of the year. I am probably the oldest by a long way so need a bit of help to get over the line. Fancy spreading the word and getting a few votes for me. My over 60 mates think twitter is a type of budgerigar.

http://vote.miawards.me/

Note there is a DIFFERENT phil jones on the marketing director award, he is MD of Brother and nothing to do with me.

Phil

THIS SCHOLARSHIP COMPETITION IS EXCLUSIVELY FOR RESIDENTS OF KENNINGTON, OVAL & VAUXHALL

FOR OTHER SCHOLARSHIP COMPETITIONS – CLICK HERE

Words can start a movement. They can make someone fall in love with you. Or out of love. Words have the power to make you change your mind about something. Words can take your mind anywhere.

We are looking for wordsmiths living on our doorstep. If we find what we are looking for, we promise scholarships worth nearly £10,000 and guaranteed work placements at London’s top advertising agencies. We will train you to become a copywriter, coming up with ideas and campaigns for all sorts of famous brands. Your words will reach millions of people world-wide.

The rules are simple. (i) You must live in the red bit shown in the map above, (ii) You must be between 18 and 24 on 1st January 2012, (iii) You must be ready to start at the School on 19th September 2011, (iv) You must be able to attend School full time, five days a week for 18 months. (v) Entries close on Friday 15th July at 5PM.

How to win a scholarship

Describe your neighbourhood in all three of the following ways; (i) By using between 3 and 7 words, AND (ii) by Using between 7 and 15 words, AND (iii) by Using between 50 and 200 words.

Save your work and send it to us by either; (a) Uploading  a Word document or a PDF. Make sure you include your name on the document, Or (b) copy and paste your work into the form found here.

Good luck.

Maverick Madmen.

We wear all in one jumpsuits and herringbone jackets,

We ride motorbikes to school and watch crappy TV.

We are political activists, kick boxers and listeners,

We save lives at the weekend and deliver Yo Sushi.

We start cults, knit jumpers and play the guitar,

We wear flip-flops in winter with a cup of green tea.

We are innovative frapers and avid blog makers,

Tomorrow’s big thinkers are what we’re going to be.

We stand-alone by thinking together,

Do yoga in hot pants made of leather.

It’s so intense that we can’t sit on the fence,

Constantly kept in a high state of suspense.

We moan. We bitch. We gripe.

We praise. We act. We fight.

We all run at different paces, having come from different places,

Competing to be the winning team.

We are leftfield thinkers, who aren’t always right,

We are here to be heard, to be seen.

The briefs are all live, so just to survive,

We have to work on through the night.

We do sometimes play, but in order to stay,

We have to hit deadlines that are pretty damn tight.

We have a network of 400 mentors,

We hang out with them in school every day,

From creative directors to business investors,

We work with them, we listen, we play.

If our boxes are ticked then agencies pick,

Who they want for a 6-month spell,

We think in the real world whilst living the dream,

Will we last? Only time will tell.

We take the rough with the smooth so we can improve,

We are switched on from dawn until dusk.

We are inspired to do the very best that we can,

Either we win, or it’s bust.

We sell or we die.

We are the students of SCA2.