What Happened to my Portfolio

Wowzers. My portfolio got a really high response. Thanks everybody. Now I hate all my ads. But it’s a good hate. Really, my reaming was surprisingly gentle. Though it’s still galling to bust ass and get told, “Nice, you’ve demonstrated you can tell an ad from a nutrition chart. Do it again, with feeling.” That's how it goes. Take it on the chin and grin.

Here’s some cold hard numbers: between Jan 17 and Jan 22, after emailing people about the new portfolio, posting it here and on ihaveanidea…

1544 unique visitors to cardboardmonsters.com
3490 received my email which had
477 opens
188 clicks. (That’s an open rate of 13.6% and clickthrough rate 5.3%. For comparison, industry clickthrough average on permission based email is 1-2%. Five point three percent is INSANE). Furthermore,
13 people emailed back with comments
8 comments at ihaveanidea (Bill Green, an AD working on his own portfolio,  said I “got off like OJ” with the severity of the critique there. True.)
2 people want me to work on a cool creative project with them
1 marketing company said “give us a call.” They drive Goldfish and Hot Tamales trucks around so I’m not so sure but it was nice they pinged me
Zero is the amount of ad agencies I’ll be working for tomorrow.

Thanks for the supportive comments here. Copyranter even said something nice and he doesn’t like anything.

Back to work I go. However, I’m torn. Do I hook up with a JAD, dress these debutantes up and see who wants to dance? Or do I take another class and bang out hot new bitches?

I feel I would make some really fine work in another class. It took me about half of the SVA class to write real ads. I fantasize about what I could do now, knowing what I know and working again in a structured environment. Drawback: Time, Money, Shooting Self in Face.

Extreme Makeover with JAD. Wheedle and pay them. Broadcast my revised work. Attack agencies with the ferocity of a meth-driven barracuda. Use 'clever guerilla tactics' to attract attention. Some of those ads are failing cause they don’t look right. Like the Bose ones are good ideas but I really need good photo pictures to express it fully. Wordlock would benefit from nice photos too. Swiss Army could use an experienced hand at the layout and typography and a new, professional looking product shot. Drawback: Poor ideas well executed are still poor ideas. I may not get hired. People will still tell me to ad school. I will have wasted time, money and cred. If I do get hired, it may be in some bitch position or a substandard agency. Upside: Cheaper, Faster, Not Shooting Self in Face.

What to do?

Comments

[Ben Popken]

It's funny how a lot of the feedback I've gotten in the imperative. You must do this, you must do that, even when the advice is contradictory. That's fine though, thanks for writing in!

[DAN]

Fuck ad school, take a few more classes...do freelance work.

Just keep doing it and don't expect to land a job as senior copywritter at some huge firm on your first try.

[Kenttontee]

Go to ad school.

And forget about writing all together. Idea is king.

And do a shit load of guerilla.

[David Burn]

Great questions. And it's nice you have this forum for asking them. Pre-interweb, it wasn't always that easy.

One of the biggest steps an aspiring writer can take is the step towards the trash can. It's a hard one to accept at first, but try to see it like you have even better stuff inside waiting to get out and you're merely making room for it.

My suggestion is go on a tear. School's great, but so is sitting upright in bed at 3:45 am with a new idea for a campaign.

[makethelogobigger]

If the crit don’t fit...