The MCCP team were at this year's Offset for the full five days. 14 days later, we consider the 9 best ‘So what’s’ from the festival.

1. MCCP Offset
round up-
9 ‘So Whats’ to
Game Change
Picture Source: iloveoffset.com

2. 1. Play with your work and make
your work play
Play is a state of mind in
which we become totally
absorbed by what you are
doing. When we play we
are less prone to
distraction and much
more open to innovative
thinking.
So what:
Always make sure you have total faith in
your work as this enthusiasm and
passion will translate into great output

3. 2. The most successful projects
are the personal projects
Creativity comes second
nature to Jeff Greenspan. His
personal projects are
publicity magnets and follow
his ethos of ‘interrupting the
dominant narrative’
So what:
Apply the same experimentation and open-
mindedness to your work as to your play/
personal projects to break repetitious
output

4. 3.If you’re on time you’re
already late
Richard Turley of Bloomberg BusinessWeek has re-written the
rules of print by setting new trends and re-inventing old ones.
More importantly the content of this magazine is always highly
relevant, valuable and ahead of the trend, which gives it longevity
and allowing it to compete with online news.
So what:
The best concept quickly becomes an
irrelevant concept if it arrives too late

5. 4. Ireland is sick of second hand
trends
As Colin Harmon, from 3FE
Coffee, observed; the Irish
people have grown bored with
cast off trends from America or
London
So what:
We have our own identity and culture and
thus enough material to celebrate our own
trends without forcing on the trends of
another country

6. 5. “Ours is a creativity borne out
of demands”
Mark Waites of Mother London
gave examples of some of his
agency’s best work which emerged
from project limitations, allowing
the creative team to realise their
full potential- “We didn’t have
enough money to make the full
body so we made it look as if he
was swimming instead”
So what:
Reimagine the inevitable restrictions
placed on projects as inspiration

7. 6. Build your own walls
Jessica Walsh, Mark Waites, Sam Arthur and Richard
Greene all use restrictions and limitations as platforms for
inspiration
“Give me all the restrictions, they make me
more creative” Jim Jarmush
So What:
If briefed on a job which has few restrictions you should build your
own ,because ;“If given the chance to do everything, we do nothing

8. 7. Don’t forget that we’re telling
a story
When asked what the future held for
advertising, the panel answered that there
was an opportunity to crack powerful
storytelling through mobile media but that
this goal had not yet been achieved
It’s too easy to get lost in the frills of modern
media and to forget that it’s the story that
people make a connection with.
So what:
Customers are intrigued by a compelling story and
not just an impressive media platform

9. 8. Digital solves some but not all problems
 Offset 2014 seemed to be one of the first conferences
that didn’t over- fixate on the potential of digital and
instead acknowledged its limitations along with its
strengths
 Imogen Hammond from Drive productions perfectly
encapsulated the changing relationship with digital:
“Never let the execution carry the concept, the concept is always key”
So What:
Digital should be used as the platform for a great concept, not merely an
afterthought to compensate for a weak idea

10. 9. “Just go out and do it”
Offset speakers advised that
designers, creatives and marketers
alike should stop taking the back
seat when it comes to getting
results. For example when
Sagmeister and Walsh wanted to
create font out of hair, smoke,
balloons and chalk they used these
actual materials on set rather than
re-creating them in Photoshop.
The end result was far more
impactful
So what:
If you want results sometimes you need to
just go out and physically ensure that they
happen

11. Find out more at our blog at
www.mccp.ie/share
Or contact us at:
Tel: 00353 (0)1 6350030
Email: kay@mccp.ie
jill@mccp.ie