So India gets its first Portfolio Night on the 20th, in Mumbai. For the uninitiated, created by ihaveanidea, it is a forum for young creatives and advertising students to have their work judged by some of the biggest names in the advertising industry. The advertising promoting the event is creating some buzz in trade media. The spots are funny and capture the emotions of a reject who goes on to rubbish the Vodafone ads, a pumped up creative praised by Piyush Pandey the previous night displays some bravado in front of the client and a struggling team who can do no better than ‘servicing guys’.
The creatives send the right message – find out how good you really are. It kind of prepares them for what’s likely to happen and captures the mindset of most aspirants. The posters take an an even more offensive posture:
Rest of the posters at Portfolio Night (why the obsession with ass?)
This is a great opportunity for young creatives to showcase their talent, for their talent to be judged by the best creative minds and for the seniors to assess the quality of thinking among arguably the future of the industry. Since this is the first of such initiatives, moving forward one would like to see the show being popularized outside Mumbai: it may be difficult for non-Mumbai aspirants to make it if it’s only held in one city; a media partner who promotes the show well in advance would also help.
I hope such initiatives imbues the right attitude among aspirants, encourage the right kind of creative talent – ones who use their creativity to solve real business problems for real clients. And not just hope to be applauded for their creativity targeted only at imaginary clients.
6 Comments
Oh yeah! fantastic initiative. My friend and I are planning to give it a shot.
All the best! How does it work? You just take your best pieces of work?
You have to register with Rs. 1500 and an e-ticket will be issued. Your work will be critiqued by the creative directors present (not sure on how many CDs will critique one portfolio).
I feel Rs. 1500 is a little too high for students. Now I am contemplating on what to do. I have no clue as to if there'd be any recruitment or even Internship opportunities.
Thanks for the article, Mr. Bhat. Portfolio Night rocked. Every participant got to meet 3 CDs. And after the official judging sessions we could meet any CD we wanted. Very good feedback. Whenever the CDs saw a good idea in your book, they would honk this small pom-pom horn (like the BEST bus ones) kept next to them. If they saw a really good idea they would give you a Bournville because you had earned it (which is a terrific idea in itself). And if they saw a really really good idea they would hire you. I'm happy to be among the lucky few who came into the third category.
Excellent! Where have you joined? All the best!
Publicis … thanks a lot for your wishes, Mr Bhat. Must say you're an inspiration to me.