Why I work best at 3.30 in the morning…

 

3.30am - My Primetime

The favourite part of my job is when I conduct ethnographic research, or as Saatchi calls, “Xploring”. One of my most memorable assignments was in New York City where I spent an evening in a stretch Hummer limousine ferrying about several groups of friends around Manhattan. We would drop them off at a bar and would act like a town car – all for the privilege of helping us (and the potential alcohol client we were pitching) understand what it was like for young professionals to ‘have a big night out’. This shot was taken at 3.30am in the morning where Heather (on the left, me on the right) was fielding a phone call from one of our (now very drunken) research subjects. We were in some horrible Turkish restaurant serving even more horrible filtered coffee, but it was enough caffeine for us to keep filming and observing as we pulled together a funny documentary on the nightlife of twentysomethings in Manhattan.

As usual, we had little budget and little time to do the project, but thanks to Craigslist we pulled together a great bunch of people and thanks to Dunkin’ Donuts, we later pulled together a strategy and territory that blew the client away. We ended up winning the pitch.