Commercial Break Returns with Beats

Last year, James Hillhouse, freelance planner formerly of DDB, launched and led an admirable new scheme to get young promising creative talent from disadvantaged backgrounds into the creative industry via unique pop-up agency Commercial Break. Fast-forward a year and he’s back, with a new team of apprentices and a new lient in Dr Dre’s Beats, signalling the success and a niche for a programme of its kind.

Set up and launched out of a need for a more diverse range of people within the industry and to offer an opportunity to young people with ambition based on their talent and application, rather than background and wealth, the scheme proved a great success in 2012, with the chosen team of successful applicants completing a brief for Ubisoft, and even going on to bag positions at agencies.

This time round, the six new youngsters will work to a brief set by the music brand and here, Hillhouse tells us a bit about last year’s programme, why the scheme is important and what’s changed this year.

Tell us a bit about the success of last year’s inaugural Commercial Break?

The main thing from last year is that our belief that there’s exciting, untapped creative talent out there was proved right.  Not only that, it was great to see the agencies that were part of the scheme getting excited about the original, fresh thinking our team brought to them on their placements.

We produced a whole host of creative work from stunts to apps; work that was rawer and more exuberant than the kind of thing we’re used to seeing from games communications.  Eventually Ubisoft bought a terrifically cheeky, and slightly twisted, consecutive page ad for lad’s mags, and provoked a huge response both here and in America.  The brand manager at Ubisoft told me she’d never been involved in a print ad that had been so talked about.

Did you always plan to bring the programme back in 2013?

2012 was always about understanding if our idea was viable.  So, although we didn’t bank on doing it again, we hoped we would do.  What we’re trying to achieve is going to take more than a couple of years.  But it became clear a couple of weeks into the project that the core idea worked.

After a successful partnership with Ubisoft, where did you start in looking for a new client and was there a certain criteria?

We’re a particular type of agency, and so we need a particular type of client.  They need to be open-minded.  They need to not be bothered about a few rough edges.  They need to believe in fresh voices.  It’s also vital that we’re working with a brand that our team know and like, not only for the insight they’ll be able to bring, but because we want them to have some bragging rights about what they’re doing.  Beats fits those criteria more than any brand I can imagine.

Did you follow the same application process this year, with the creative form, interviews and group workshop?

By and large we followed the same application process.  The big difference is where we looked to recruit from.  In addition to colleges in disadvantaged areas, we also teamed up with The Prince’s Trust, Spear and The Job Centre.  That opened up all sorts of different talent to us.

You’ve extended the age range this time to up to 25. What was the reason for this?

Whilst last year’s team performed really well on their placements, there was a feeling that some of them were perhaps a little callow to take full advantage of the opportunity.  Our focus isn’t just to give people a taste of the industry, we want to get them jobs.  We think by broadening the age range we’ve got more chance of doing this. 

And was the criteria for the applicants the same, in the sense that they had to be from disadvantaged backgrounds?

We’ve actually been a lot more specific about this this year.  Going older has also enabled us to look to people who are long-term unemployed also.  There are good people out there with bags of creative talent who are banging their heads against a wall trying to get a job.

And you’ve managed to get some other parties involved in 2013 such as Saatchi London, in addition to last year’s such as Emanate and Cherry. Is that a reflection of the relationships you made last year and more people wanting to get involved?

Agencies like Emanate and Cherry London have been there from day one, and just ‘get’ the project.  We couldn’t do it without them.  But what’s great is that there’s a lot of interest out there from other agencies.  I think most people in the industry would agree it’s still absurdly narrow in the type of people that fill it, and that something needs to change.  So, we’re picking up agencies like Saatchi London that are committed to doing things to make a change rather than just grumbling about it.

Where will the team work from this year and are all the six applicants from London?

We’re working in a fantastic space on Embankment provided by 3Space, a charity that uses buildings sitting empty before renovation to house all sorts of social enterprises. 

Are you still in contact with last year’s team and how are they getting on?

We’ve stayed in contact with last year’s team.  We’ve help them find new horizons, so it’s only responsible of us to keep helping them on the way.  They’re all doing really well in their different ways.  One has just ended her second placement, which was extended due to her performance.  Another is about to head into another placement.  There are a couple that we ended up steering into further education.  As with any group, we hear from some more than others.  But even the more reticent ones will call us out of the blue for advice or just in search a sympathetic ear.  The fact is you develop a relationship with them, and that continues long after they’ve left the project.

This year we’re instigating a mentor programme so that they’ll be other people in the industry doing this for them too.

Tell us about the programme and schedule for this year? How many days a week and hours will the team be putting in? 

We’ll be working with the team for 2.5 days a week.  As with last year, we’ll be mixing up creative work with talks from industry insiders like Steve Henry.  The big difference this year is that we’ll be dedicating the half day to tooling them up with some work and life skills that will improve their chances of getting a job. 

What are you most looking forward to personally about getting started this year and do you think you’ll do anything differently this time round because of last year’s experience?

For me, it’s all about working with them.  As with anything, the preparation can be a drag, but when you’re getting stuck into a task with them, you remember why you’re doing it.  The energy, honesty and freshness they bring rubs off on you.  Last year I felt I was much better at my own job because of the lessons I’d learned working with them.

Anything else you’d like to add about Commercial Break in general?

The only thing I’d add, and I’m slightly repeating myself, is that it really is fairly absurd just how white and middle-class this industry still is.  This is an industry founded on originality, but it’s never going to be truly original when it’s populated by the same sort of faces from the same sort of backgrounds.  Our project’s intended to give people a break, but more than that, it’s intended to give the industry a shot in the arm it so desperately needs. We realise we’re too small to change everything, but we’re going to have a bloody good go at making a sizable dent in it.
If you look at our team this year, half are white, half are ethnic minorities.  I don’t think there are too many agencies, irrespective of their size, that can say that, and that’s pretty chastening.

Keep up to date with the agency's progress this year by following @CommercialBreakers.