Freedom is one of our most valued principles but the experience has showed that in order to make the Comments section a useful tool, for both Creators and Brands, it needs a set of rules (horrible word yet sometimes demanded) and a firm hand when the rules are ignored :)
The Pitch Comments section was thought to facilitate direct contact between the Brand behind the Brief and the Creators participating in order to improve the outcome of the Pitch. However the way it is currently used, by Creators on one side and Brands on the other, it hardly brings any satisfaction to none of the two.
Most of that is due to the lack of explanations and guidelines on BootB’s side and we are the first to admit it. While waiting for the September enhanced Comments tab that will give you more freedom of expression, we have decided to establish a set of rules on how to use the current Comments Section so that it boosts the experience of all part involved.
Additionally BootB will post–moderate all comments and remove those which violate the rules stated here below.
Check them out (available in English and Italian)!
How to optimize your BootB participation? Here at BootB, we thought there’s nobody else better qualified to answer this question, than our own best Creators!
Closely following the Comments sections of all Pitches and interviewing or exchanging casual emails with some of you, the idea pop up: a BootB Best Practice Guide, designed by BootB Creators for BootB Creators. There are no better advisers out there when it comes to giving tips and suggestions on how to get the best from BootB :)
To get things rolling, we’ve started by contacting the Top 5 Creators and we’ve gathered their precious input in a preliminary version of this guide. Additionally, we’ve included great pieces of advice from interviews with our recently winning Creators.
However, we are confident that the biggest part of the Creators community has important learnings and valuable suggestions to add so we invite you all to participate by leaving comments. We will keep an eye on your recommendations and we will regularly update the Best Practice Guide.
Here is a quick preview of the guide, divided by Pitch Process stages:
∞ Pitch Selection – make sure your not wasting your time or the time of the Brand
“Participate only if you you’re convinced you will bring a significant contribution and design with passion – when the creative Solution is prepared with dedication and excitement, while in brief, most of times it stays head and shoulders above the rest” says Armint.
∞ Solution Preparation – don’t flood, design to win and keep your feet on the ground
“Read carefully what the Brand has to say, try to understand its needs and go the extra mile when working on your proposal. Again, one should keep in mind that while the Solution may be absolutely great, for various reasons it just doesn’t fit 100% the Brands needs. Many other Creators will participate, so always remember that you might not win. When that happens – take it easy!” says mxone.
∞ Post Solution Submission – don’t fill up the Comments section with feedback requests
“Use the Comments section to ask precise and helpful details. Did you get an ugly Thumbs Down? Don’t waste time and effort to ask useless feedback. Work on another Solution before the end of the Pitch.” says Tumitu.
∞ Free additional advice – wildly creative recommendations
“Enjoy the ride! BootB is a wonderful opportunity to express yourself creatively. If you’re trying to make it in the creative industry, use these briefs as a way to improve your folio. All Briefs are live and most offer the possibility to create something truly wonderful!” says flood.
Interested to know more? Here is the full Best Practice Guide (v 0.1)! Have a great read and have your say!
Surfing around the web we found a very nice collection of creative ads. Some are old, some are more recent but they have all something in common: great creativity!
Which brings us to our challenge: Can you correctly identify what is being sold? To check your guess, mouse over the pictures.
Ready?Go!!
BootB is proud to present its new enhanced Registration and Profile systems, available starting March 20, 2010. Back in December 2009 we promised to improve the BootB user experience, and thanks to the efforts of our tireless programmers, this is just one of the many improvements we’ll be implementing in 2010.
The online Registration System has been significantly upgraded, offering a simpler, more convenient process. For our longstanding users, you can feel more confident than ever recommending BootB – the Republic of Unlimited Creativity – to your peers. Spread the word! The broader the BootB network becomes, the better it will work for everyone!
Our previous Profile System will make room for this new system. An upcoming release organizes user data into tabs, neatly structuring the “My Profile” page. Here is a brief overview:
Public Profile: We’re always curious to learn more about our users. We strongly encourage you to complete your public profile and upload an avatar that will put a recognizable “face” on your username. This is an opportunity for Brands to show off their logos and for Creators to express their creativity! You’ll see that we’ve even included scores for each field in this section.
Manage Account: Here you can change your BootB password, email and interface language.
Legal Data : Filling out this section is a requirement for using the platform: Brands cannot start Pitches and Creators cannot publish Solutions until they’ve filled in this section of their Profile. This is because everyone working through BootB is protected legally (respectively the Brand Agreement and Creator Agreement), and we must have accurate information about the people we’re doing business with. This applies to all our users, including Brands and Creators who have already worked with us in the past.
Manage my Brands (Brands only): This section enables companies to manage multiple brand names and/or products under the same account. You can connect a Pitch to one of your additional brand names, or start a new Pitch as “Anonymous” when you want to keep your identity a secret.
Our tech whizzes have taken every precaution while implementing this new Profile System. However we encourage you to verify your data after March 20 to make sure the transformation has gone smoothly.
Don’t be afraid to tell us what you think! On the off chance you encounter bugs or abnormal software behavior, please contact us at info@bootb.com.
Last but not least, we want to take this chance to let you know that we will be working late into the night on March 19 to implement these new Registration and Profile Systems. While we do so, the BootB website will be unavailable to the public for roughly 2 hours (11pm - 1am GMT). We apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause, and we look forward to seeing you online starting early on March 20!
This important message is for all of you who use your computer to tell a visual story – from web-designers to video producers. Are you an artist with technical mastery over digital tools? A computer graphics passionate with digital media experience?
Are you familiar with any of these?
∞ Web-design
∞ Mobile applications
∞ Digital Audio – sound tracks and effects
∞ Digital Still Images
∞ Moving Images Language
∞ Digital Video
∞ Storytelling with Animation (including 3D)
∞ Digital Characters Creation
∞ Advanced Photorealism
If yes – for sure you will want to know that www.BootB.com has loads of super captivating digital pitches in the pipeline! If you didn’t register with us yet, make sure you do so that you can start capitalizing on your passion.
This is only one of the crushing but true statements Hugh Macleod does through creative cartoons. While surfing around the web we ran into his blog and we thought you might want to see some of his art drawn on the back of business cards.
Simple words and some scribbles – this all he needs to express complex subjects like emotions, business challenges, angst, love.
“Merit can be bought. Passion can’t” – we couldn’t agree more! This is just one of the many precious tips Hugh Macleod is giving from his own experience to those who want to be more creative in art, business or whatever. If you are interested to see more check http://gapingvoid.com/.
Enjoy and let us know what you think!
Interested to know where you stand, how can you improve your ranking or just curious how it works? Answers to all of that are available on the Top Creators page - the list is refreshed every Monday!
You’re not yet among the 150 most successful BootB Creators? What are you waiting for – there are many open pitches waiting for your creative input. Now is a good time to shake the Top!
Keep checking it regularly and work on moving up in the rankings!
It might look like we are challenging mathematics here but actually we are proud to celebrate the one year anniversary for the BootB Blog!
It is hard to believe one year has passed since we have posted our first entry on this blog! So much has happened since November 2008: we have seen people wearing BootB T-shirts all over the world, we have shared news, events, short-lists and winning solutions with you, we got to know better our best Creators through interviews and last but not least we have rocked the BootB party together!
No doubt it is easy to lose track of time when there are numberless moments to celebrate!
This anniversary it is not just an occasion to look back but to look forward as well! BootB intends to share many more special moments with you. We are expecting the upcoming year to bring a lot of exciting news for all our users!!
Keep being unlimitedly curious!!! :)
Today is a big day! We are pleased to announce the new BootB Home page! We know you didn’t see that coming but we were working hard on this major release and we’ve preferred to keep it secret so we can surprise you in the end :)
It is not because of the soon to arrive winter season that we’ve decided to change BootB’s “coat” :) It is because we wanted to refresh its “look n’ feel”. Plus we had a lot of enthusiastic feedback to incorporate! A big THANK YOU to our committed users. Please keep that feedback coming!
And this is just the beginning, we didn’t relax yet! We have other improvements on the roadmap!
