Yesterday I had the absolute pleasure of listening to an hour or so of Trevor Beattie's opinions and advice about the advertising industry as well as the recent U.K government election and what the power of the Internet can accomplish.
Trevor is one third of the London based Advertising agency B.M.B (Beattie McGuinness Bungay). A very impressive client list awaits viewing on their website bmbagency.com. Including Samsung, Virgin and Carling amongst others.
Trevor started the talk by introducing the theme of the afternoon's chat. " Whats the big idea?". Mr Beattie pointed out "That without ideas...there is nothing else" and that there is hardly ever a "big" idea ( citing the invention of the wheel and the Internet as the only two he could think of). More that there are thousands of little ideas and that they build on each other or "fly in formation".
Trevor was of the opinion that ideas should be constantly generated and people should be forthcoming with these ideas and to not stop advertising once a campaign is lauched but to continue with the same message.
A couple of pearls of wisdom from the man
" Worry about the details, its the little things that count"
" Don't be mundane take risks but be prepared to take flack for that, people who don't take risks wont like you for it"
Trevor is obviously a man who knows what he is talking about, and having just come off a gruelling election campaign against the Conservative party, he knows how to take a knock or two as well.
Battling a cold and the exhausting effects of weeks of election turmoil, Trevor continued by stressing that anyone wanting to get into advertising or the media should go in with an open mind about where they might end up. Having helped the production of the amazing Bafta winning film "Moon" and after working with the independent newspaper for some time , Trevor did not classify himself as an " ad-man" any more. With multiple jobs and projects being worked on at the same time he could not pin down exactly what it was he could call himself, but made sure to impress on us that this was a brilliant thing, and the possibilities of many different creative jobs all stemmed from a single first one.
Next year Trevor will be one of the first people to fly on Virgin Galatic's commercial flight to space. After showing us a rather moving video of the test flights and the reactions to them he explained again that all this has stemmed from a simple job in advertising and having the courage to do what you what to do in life.
I am reminded of a quote i heard recently, "very few people get to find out what they love to do, fewer people actually do it". Mr Beattie clearly loves what he does and enjoys causing a stir with it. " Do something fun and in reflect your personality in your work and cause trouble".
Despite Labours recent loss in the election and subsequent resignation of Gordon Brown as PM, one suspects that this will only make increase Trevor's passion for his election campaign work (as a unpaid adviser no less). His passion for this role has and dedication to fighting the Tories is inspiring when he could just as well be enjoying kicking back and relaxing by now.
Trevor pointed out something I had mentioned at the start of my time here at university, that this is an exciting time to be coming into the industry. With the advent of massive change as the digital era becomes more encompassing of the media industry, know is the time to get on board with the changing of the guard.
On a personal note, like Trevor I am the first person in my family to truly enter higher education at a university level but I can only hope and strive towards emulating his success.
I left feeling inspired again and felt that wonderful pang in my stomach again of knowing that how lucky I am, and that I have found something I love to do.
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