WHAT I WANT TO BE WHEN I GROW UP: A Creative Problem Solver!

Last Wednesday I had the opportunity of experiencing another first: my first company visit with the M-School!

This experience was slightly less nerve racking than my first day of class, largely due to the requirement of doing some pre-visit company and speaker research! Going into the site visit I already knew a little bit about Team One, a premier advertising agency in Playa Vista, and Chris Graves, our speaker and Team One's Chief Creative Officer (CCO).

I was excited to learn more about Team One after exploring their website and discovering that I was actually familiar with a lot of their work! Remember Lexus' 'December to Remember Sales Event'? That was all thanks to Team One!

Upon arrival to the site, I was shocked to see how large the physical space actually was. I always imagined ad agencies to be smaller places of business and was truly impressed with the building alone.

Fun Fact: Our professors, as well as Chris Graves, told us the building actually used to be home to a postal service. This made for some fun structural components that were still in place, most notably, large numbers above giant windows. These giant numbered windows used to be where carrier trucks would come to load up or unload mail!

It would be deceitful however to say I was most impressed by the space Team One worked in (and I was impressed), I was primarily impressed by the overall work environment and clear dedication to 'creative problem solving' as Chris put it.

While the catered burritos and friendly dogs were great additions to the company visit, it was Chris Graves' presentation which left me with the most to think about. Chris gave us a brief rundown of company layout/ structure but spent the majority of his presentation focusing on actual Team One advertisements and projects.

Most memorably Chris stated, "We are not ad-makers, but creative problem solvers".

Chris proceeded to present to us a variety of ways Team One has accomplished creative problem solving. My favorite was Team One's Lexus Super Bowl commercial. Unlike the popular Super Bowl commercials played throughout the duration of the widely-viewed game, Team One aired their commercial a week prior to the game!

At first I assumed that this meant less views, less media exposure, and overall less return on investment. And boy was I wrong!! Team One effectively avoided premium ad placement prices while attaining more impressions than many brands whose ads aired during the actual game. This sounded like the ideal outcome... how was this possible?

Team One knew how to target a 'hot topic'. They placed more emphasis on the timeliness and trendiness of their topic, than the actual placement of their ad. Overall, their ability to create a humorous advertisement meant more earned media coverage and greater success.

The Super Bowl advertisement was only the tip of the ice berg, Chris showed us several ads and projects, from Team One and elsewhere, that really left me yearning to divulge my creativity! After a fun experimental group activity we left Team One.

What a fantastic first company visit! I cant wait to see what more I can learn from these creative and inspirational industry professionals.