Evaluative Review of Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO

Assignment brief: Part 1: Evaluative Review of an advertising/branding agency (2,500 words)
The first part is a 2,500 words evaluative review of a top UK agency of your choice. In order to do this, you will need to research the agency and the type of work they produce. Choose one of the agencies from the following list:
Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO adam&eveDDB
McCann Erikson Bartle Bogle Hegarty
VCCP Leo Burnett
Grey London Ogilvy & Mather
WCRS Publicis UK
The above agencies all have global reach and offices around the world, however, for the purpose of this assignment you should look at their past and present creative work in the UK. Write up a 2,500 words evaluative report demonstrating your knowledge and understanding of the agency you have chosen and the work they produce. This will require you to undertake secondary research in order gather information on your chosen agency from sources such as WARC, Campaign and various other advertising publications (don’t just use the agency’s own website - gather your data from a much wider range of sources).
Structure your Evaluative Review as follows:
Introduction and Background to Agency A brief synopsis about the agency history, reputation, size, location, and the type of accounts that they handle. This background could also include other information such as the ‘mission statement’ of the agency (if they have one) or any particular philosophy the agency may have adopted together with any information you may be able to gather with regard to the agency culture itself. What is the agency really famous for, who are the key people in the agency?
Critical evaluation of the creative work Here you will need to show examples of the advertising campaigns produced by the agency, (some from the past and some from the present), and provide some critical commentary on each, evaluating their levels of creativity and effectiveness. Illustrate this section with plenty of images of the advertising that you are referring to. (note: You may wish to sub-section this section as you see fit)
Conclusion Summarise your key evaluative insights and observations on the agency you have chosen to research.
Reference List All sources of information must be properly referenced using the Harvard system.
Not included in the word count: Appendices, References (Harvard style)
Assignment brief: Part 2: Reflective Statement (500 words)
Part of preparing yourself for the job market involves self-examining your strengths, weaknesses, skills, interests and aspirations. There will be many decisions that you have to make based on your own needs, abilities, hopes and desires, and these need to be realistically appraised with regard to the various opportunities that may present themselves to you. For this part of the assignment you are required to write a 500 words individual reflective statement examining your own employability with regard to the type of jobs/career that you are aspiring to. Be open and honest with yourself. Try to identify your skills, attributes and experiences that would be of value to a potential employer and also where there may be gaps that need to be addressed. What are your strengths and which areas need to be developed? One thing that may help you with this process of self-reflection is the ‘Graduate Capital Model’ developed by Associate Professor at University: https://www(dot)southampton(dot)ac(dot)uk/careers/staff/employability-exchange/curriculum-development.page - identity_capital
As this part of the assignment is a personal reflective statement, you should write it-up using first person (In most other cases your assignments are required to be written in ‘third person’). Write this as though you were talking to yourself, as indeed you are appraising yourself. You should be honest with yourself – Whilst you need to identify all of your positive attributes, you should also identify areas that need to be addressed or developed further. This statement should not be seen as one you that may send a prospective employer, but instead, one which you would use for your own personal reflection. As you are restricted to just 500 words, this is also an exercise in being focused and concise. Although you may refer to ‘The Graduate Capital Model’ above, you should not treat this statement as a literature review or place much emphasis (if any) on discussing theory, as you do not have enough words to do this. You may have to begin by writing a more comprehensive draft, and then editing it down to the key areas of reflection.