By Rollo Skinner

Things I’ve learned on placement at M&C Saatchi PR

Day 1 :

• Pitch a lot of ideas to your CD. You never know which ones will spark something.
• Being able to get your idea Mac-ed up in a deck to sell the idea is essential. If it’s not clear the idea will struggle to go further.
• All those Metro briefs have really come in handy.
• As Sophie said, working on something that could go live is extremely exciting.
• Offices are quieter than school. It’s quite a different environment. It helps to have no distractions.
• PR is not what I thought it was. It’s not the schmoozy schmoozy world I pictured, but a highly creative and innovative industry. A lot of the campaigns I love are actually PR ideas. At school we have a misperception of what PR really is.

Day 2:

• Scamping in the morning on other briefs loosens you up. It gets you practising the techniques which are vital to push out ideas quickly.  
• We’re not used to such quick turnarounds. Brief given in the morning, ideas, by lunchtime and a deck made by the end of the day.
• Research needs to be smart. Focused and quick, to give time for creative solutions.
• 6 hat is flipping useful when moving at pace.
• Pitch everything. No matter how poor the idea. Who knows where the Creative Director will take it? Nathan developed our weaker ideas to make them the strongest.
• Start with quantity. Then reduce them down and develop the strongest ideas.

Day 3

• There isn’t time to be a perfectionist Get everything done then perfect it. But don’t perfect as you go. It’ll take too long.
• We should be experts on the campaigns in our portfolio, whether they’re ours or not. Know how to sell your partner’s ideas, who knows when you might have a book crit alone.  
• Always do extra. Always give more than is expected. Because no one is impressed by merely meeting expectations.

Finally…

• Don’t dwell. If something’s not working – change course. It should flow. Don’t get stuck in a rut, because in the real world a rut means slowing down, and time isn’t a liberty you have.

• The reality of school is, if we have 3 weeks to do something, we take 3 weeks. But often the ideas are no better than the Metro briefs.
• Don’t work to the deadline. Work a week ahead. See what happens.