Craig Ketchum

Go head, Battenhall

On our first day of media tours we started things off with certified hitters.  Battenhall is the agency of dreams, the agency that was promised, spoken about in advertising circles of old but only in hushed, longing whispers… they have plants!  There was clearly effort put in to the layout of Battenhall to make it open for collaboration.  I might get tired of the open space set up, sometimes you just want four walls around you and silence.  Battenhall offers unlimited vacation and work from home, so I imagine the employees don’t burn out too much.  The speakers were phenomenal.  They spoke about every area of operation within Battenhall, which was genius.  I really appreciated being able to talk to a data expert since I don’t usually get to discuss those things.

Burson, Cohn and Wolfe was more typical of a big agency.  They had some of their creatives speak to us but they couldn’t offer as much man power as Battenhall.  They also fought the uphill battle of keeping our attention while fighting jetlag and heat.  We did an exercise of taking a brief and coming up with a creative concept for it, useful… but difficult while exhausted.

Despite the rainy weather throughout the day London proved to be just as beautiful as we thought when we arrived.  In Soho every side street has something interesting to offer.  I could roam the streets all night and not get bored.  Unfortunately for me, pubs distract me from my wandering.  I’ve almost completely lost my voice and cash.