Industry insiders launch pop up communications agency to assist creative college leavers
With over 15 years’ experience in advertising and marketing James Hillhouse and Susie Burdekin have launched pop up communications agency Commercial Break, which will be open for business in London for two months over the summer.
Commercial Break is aiming to break down the walls of the communications industry for young college leavers from under-privileged backgrounds. The team have already been commissioned to deliver the creative work for video game manufacturers, Ubisoft, and will be working on the marketing campaign for one of their upcoming titles.
Thirty students aged 18-19 from London colleges applied for work at the agency and a three-phase selection process was implemented to select the final eight employees. James Hillhouse, co-founder of Commercial Break, commented: “We want to make sure that creatively-talented young people, who just happen to be from under-privileged backgrounds, get the break they deserve.
“It’s crazy to think that an industry based in London is so unreflective of the diversity within the city. We really believe that the sort of young person involved in Commercial Break is going to bring a different kind of creativity to the industry.”
Head of brand marketing at Ubisoft, Mark Slaughter, added: “We are committed to making a contribution to helping young, creative individuals get onto a career path that makes use of their talent.
“As a client, we are always looking for creativity and new ideas that challenge the status quo and we believe the participants will bring a fresh perspective, especially as many of them form part of our target audience and will be on the same wavelength as the consumers we are trying to reach.”
Commercial Break also intends to support finding paid internships for the eight staff members following their pop-up agency experience. Companies in various fields within the creative and media industries including, The Field (experimental marketing), Beta (integrated advertising agency) and Cherry London (partnership marketing) have all expressed interest in supporting the internship scheme.