Not just billboards: Outdoor talk with Merlee Jayme

THE PHILIPPINES, FEBRUARY 13, 2012: Coming from a lull after the holidays, the Creative Guild’s Raw School initiative pumped up 2012 with DM9 JaymeSyfu’s chair and chief creative officer Merlee Jayme, with a talk about what makes for good, bad, and ugly outdoor advertising.

 

In time with her role as a part of the Outdoor Jury in the Cannes Lions and ADFEST, the latter of which she heads the panel of judges, Jayme enumerated the type of work that she and her fellow juries will be seeing in the judging process. She clarified to the young creatives that outdoor advertising isn’t limited to billboards. Common forms of outdoor advertising include posters, installations, and ambient and transit ads – but as commonplace as these types of advertising go, these can also go wrong in the simplest ways.

“Too small text, too many fonts, too many elements like logos and graphics, too many colors,” Jayme ticked off her fingers the many and oft-repeated visual errors . And then there is also what she has dubbed “Digi-Belo” (referring to the popular Filipino aesthetic surgeon) – the digital “beauty enhancements” that steers too far from the true image of the person depicted in the advertising materials.

 

Jayme also underscored the common error of lifting directly from the existing print ad. What works in a newspaper or magazine doesn’t actually translate to a poster or a billboard. “If you want to use the same image or graphic, maybe you can change the copy to a shorter one,” the ad executive suggested, mentioning that the “two-minute rule” applies to outdoor advertising. If it can’t be read or completely understood in that short amount of time, then it probably won’t be as effective.

welovepost, the venue host for the night, had managing director Pedring Lopez onstage for a bonus talk, walking the young creatives down the production and post-production trail since the early days of film to the fully digital productions. “We don’t have anything against film. Film is still the best, it’s still the benchmark. But let’s admit, in digital, there are more tools,” said Lopez. He enumerated a few films that have been fully shot in digital, the including the highly anticipated prequel to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Hobbit.

 

However, no matter how modern equipment and editing tools can get, the quality of work still depends on the people using the technology. “Technology shouldn’t be the one pushing the boundaries. It should be us. The artistry should still be there,” Lopez reminded the young creatives.

 

The night ended with a raffle draw, where Jover Bantilan (Workshop One), Dianne Taar (DM9 JaymeSyfu), Jimmo Garcia (DDB Philippines), Pamela Demetillo (SLG Ads), and Margarita Salvador (Lowe Philippines) each won four day-passes, courtesy of adobo magazine, to the Hot Air Balloon Festival in Clark Air Field, Pampanga.

 

Raw School is a project of the Creative Guild of the Philippines, with the goal of educating young creatives through the instruction of seasoned professionals within the industry. For more information and schedule of classes, contact Vanne Tomada of 4As at (02)893-1205 or (02) 813-4397 or visit the Raw School 2011 Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/RAW-School-2011/269400413084659.