Gavin Jones
As many already know I've done some work for Gelicity before, they are responsible for the Gellibaff range, it is a powder you add to your bath that turns it to a gel-like consistency. Gellibaff is for kids and Gel Spa is for adults. A second powder is added when you've finished, which is simply salt, it turns the gel back to water and you just pull the plug!
Back in 2006 Paul Morris and Wayne Horton discovered the sodium poly-acrylate, which is super absorbent. It was finding out how to turn the gel back into water that took a long time. Eventually their first product was launched, a gel for feet called 'Just for feet' it cost 99p.
Gelicity has continued to grow since it was first created, they turned over a staggering £2.4m in 2012. Of course it isn't always plain sailing, as they lost £20'000 when Woolworths went bust. And despite signing a huge deal with Boots due to the failures in the packaging and the communication of the product they lost another £20'000 during the release despite having a TV with the advert playing on a loop.
Their next contract was with Selfridges, I am still surprised that I was asked to take the photographs for their website, and even happier to see my photos on Selfridges I have already written a blog about it on my PDP development. However, at £10 the product was considered too cheap for Selfridges. So they re-branded entirely and upgraded the product to a metal tin and retailed at £19.99, initially it sold well, especially when they put reps in to display the product and its benefits.
The future of Gelicity looks promising with home tanning kits, molding kits, and a new product called Dragon's blood (an anti-aging serum) and a line of kids suntan lotion (to be sole alongside UV reactive bands) in the pipeline it looks like they have many places to go yet.
The talk itself was one of the ones I was looking forward to most at creative futures this year. Not only because I've done work for them myself but also because their story is both interesting and inspiring. The main focus was the importance of good communication, which is vital in both selling yourself and your product.
Creating futures creatively at TAPE community music & film LTD
Neil Dunsire
TAPE is a not-for-profit organisation based in Old Colwyn, north Wales.
They hope to become a charity by the end of April 2013. By maximising local talent they put on shows and festivals around the local area, such as Big Noise/Swn Mawr in 2012, a large community festival set in Eirias park in Colwyn Bay. TAPE work closely with young people on probation, those with drug and alcohol issues as well as young and vunerable people who are on the autistic spectrum.
They are currently in the process of updating their website, and have had young autistic animation students working alongside Kate Duffy (who's worked on Cbeebies) to create an animated character for the children's section of the site.
Some of TAPE's past projects include a film made with Waitrose. They had a budget of £64'000 to film Waitrose's staff and mentoring programme designed to help young people into work. Sadly TAPE came in 4th in the competition, solely down to the production value as they didn't have good make up or lighting in their video.
They have close links with the Princes Trust, and it was those young people who helped film, interview and edit the footage shot for the Waitrose advert.
TAPE hope to begin working alongside the climbing industry in north Wales, to make it more of a tourist attraction, as there is talk of building a climbing wall in an old quarry. TAPE will be filming for a period out in Mexico and Neil hopes to be able to offer some of that experience to the students of Glyndwr, some invaluable experience, but no doubt a fantastic chance to travel too!
TAPE also have a music studio that is available to use, and can offer training and sometimes employment to the local residents of the area. However, they don't tend to advertise much, and so the press don't really pick up on what they're trying to achieve.
Neil's talk was quite fast paced and I struggled to keep up with my notes. Despite this, I felt quite interested in what he had to say, as TAPE are based very close to where I live and I would really like to get involved with some of their projects.
Getting a job in the media (BBC)
Phil Hirst
We had a very similar talk to this last year by Wendy Rees. The context of Phil's talk wasn't all that different in my opinion. Again the emphasis was on the ability to be flexible, versatile and dedicated. Like many, Phil's path to his job with the BBC was varied and not straight forward. This seems to be the norm for most media jobs.
The ability to make decisions fast, solve problems and develop your skills are all elements that employers such as the BBC look for in their potential employees. It is also useful to have a rough career plan in mind he says, personally I'm not sure about this as it seems to contradict what most have to say, and that is the path into media often isn't straight forward. I'm 28 and I'm still not 100% sure about what I ultimately would like to do as a career.
A SWOT analysis is something I'm hearing more and more often. It stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Phil advises we do to one about ourselves in order to understand our strengths and weaknesses. We were given a handout with four questions.
1. Why do I want to work in the media?
2. What am I good at?
3. What do I want to do?
4. What have I got to do to succeed?
2. What am I good at?
3. What do I want to do?
4. What have I got to do to succeed?
To me they seem like fairly obvious questions. Like I said at the beginning of the 1st day of Creative Futures, I often feel like many of the talks are geared towards younger students, those just leaving school. I know about the importance of my CV, as well as showing that I've researched the company I'm interviewing for. It can seem a little patronising, and I got this feeling from Phil. He didn't have much to say that Wendy hadn't already covered the year before.
Phil also talked about qualifications, that many who already work at the BBC don't necessarily have degrees but will often have other qualifications instead or will have ample previous experience. This is also important, graduates with experience are much more desirable than those who have none. Luckily I've got plenty of previous experience in my field before even coming to university and have worked on many projects since joining.
Media jobs aren't often 9-5 positions, Phil explained, especially at the BBC. However they have excellent training facilities, offer a wide variety of jobs in a fast moving environment with good career development in a creative atmosphere.
His advice about getting into the BBC (and other media roles) is to be aware of all the opportunities at university and in the local area, gain work experience, volunteer with the relevant areas such as a student newspaper or radio station, and to enter lots of competitions. He also talked about purchasing and using the latest equipment, which I felt to be a little unrealistic where student finance is concerned. A lot of the talk seemed to be aimed at those wishing to join as writers or journalists.
Finally he finished with five top tips.
1. Make it count. Do as much as you can while you're at university, gain experience and give it 100% Work hard and work smart. Find the most efficient ways to do things, always pick and choose what you do instead of doing everything poorly. Be objective and create a 1 year plan.
2. Make friends. It's not what you know, but who you know. Network and put yourself out there.
3. Make media. Make videos/take photos, demonstrate your passion.
4. Make your own luck. Put yourself in the right place at the right time. Find out where the opportunities are and go to them.
5. Make it to the finishing post.
Remember JFDI! (Just f****** do it!)
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