Do Not Be Very Exited Of Your First Idea

Photograph by Anna Rok

After all the theoretical preparations and examinations in human rights issues in Poland our group started practical work in developing social campaigns. 6 groups worked on different topics – racism, LGBTQ, human trafficking. Even though two teams had the same broad topic, the focus of each team was very different.

Before our meeting with Marek Dorobisz, creative director of Next, teams tried to choose really interesting specific topics, make plans of their work. Today they finally met to get their first session of feedback of their work.

As for my personal impression I can say, that third rule of Marek Dorobisz – „Do not be very exited of your first idea“ – is really useful.

Photograph by Anna Rok

We thought, that our idea was really good, as did other groups. As the day of feedback continued it became clear that our team and other groups got a lot of constructive feedback. One common mistake for most groups was regarding the subject. It was challenging to pick a topic that was not „too wide and not concrete“. Anyway, this is ours first experience in social-advertisement making, so a lot of mistakes were a natural part of the process. Hopefully, we will come out with better deсisions. Many teams feel that they were able to improve to the so called Briefs, it means a document capturing a concept for a social campaign after the sessions today. We are ALMOST professional advertisers!

The most complicated question personally for me and also for my collegues was „What is the reason for people to believe you?“. Really, why people have to believe what you are trying to convey to them? Everyone has their own problems and care about them. The challenge in developing social campaigns is in both catching people's attention and getting  someone interested in the social problems that you are exposing them to. It is unlikely that the general public believes, that our issues are really important, so we will try to bring them to people.

Generally, all team members looked inspired. Many are looking forward  to the first round of results of our hard work. I am really curious to see results of our work at the end. The only thing that frustrated me and other guys is that only one of six social campaignes will be implemented. Even though the theme of the campaigns were assigned, many have taken ownership of the issue and would really like to see their designed social campaign become a reality. The positive element of the fact that only one campaign will be chosen is the competitive spirit that is really motivating. It is also clear that the experience is not only about who will win the competition, it is about the experience and the opportunity to learn together in a team. 

I think that this Friday was pretty productive and helpful for us, we realized most part of mistakes, changed some points and we are ready to work further on our campaign and get some positive results. Teams have to submit the edited version of their Briefs before they receive their next assignment tomorrow. There is an air of anticipation as the teams await the next step. We are looking forward the presentations we have to plan and ready to work on the next round of projects. 
- Olena Sholomei (Ukrainian Fellow)