Creative duo issues shares to finance Cannes trip
They’re not selling the prospect of making millions from scented candles but the young, aspiring advertising creative team of Iain Nealie and Tara McKenty (known as ‘Plankton’) are quietly confident their forthcoming initial public offering, which launched today, will connect with Kiwis.
In a contemporary take on commercial fundraising efforts, the creative team is attempting to raise enough money to get them to this year’s Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival in France (21-26 June), the world’s only truly global meeting place for professionals in the communications industry.
Andy Blood, Group Creative Director at the TBWA\ Group of Companies, who hired and mentors Plankton, says they should be applauded for their initiative and the fresh thinking they’ve demonstrated to promote themselves.
“They’re both bloody clever and have already done some great work. Geoff Ross started out in advertising and seems to have done pretty well for himself lately, given the recent Ecoya IPO offer closed fully subscribed just above the target level at $10.1 million. Tara and Iain, on the other hand, will be happy enough with some money for two plane tickets to Nice and a little pocket money while they’re there. I reckon they deserve a punt,” he says.
Nealie and Mckenty are issuing 1000 shares of ‘preferred’ stock in ‘Plankton’ the moniker they operate under, and interested parties can purchase these via a purpose built web site and investment platform they’ve designed: www.planktonIPO.com
“We called ourselves Plankton because we’re surface dwellers: we’ve started small but we have big ambitions. But we’re not selling out: we’re simply selling shares in us, who we are, what we stand for and what we want to achieve in the industry.
So we’ve taken the term ‘futures trading’ literally, allowing people who are interested and supportive to invest in our future,” says Iain.
“Getting to Cannes is a pilgrimage of biblical proportions and as two microscopic creatives swimming in a big advertising industry ocean we need as much help as we can to get there. A quirky and creative take on an IPO seemed like the best bet,” he adds.
22 Comments
Yeasty!
what’s in it for me?
i always thought going to cannes is a reward for doing great work, and an average self promotion.
Another piece of TBWA\ inspired nothingness.
Advertising is the perfect industry for the self obsessed generation Y.
Generation Don’t bother if this is the best they can muster.
Damn. I got to get me a team name.
I want to go too. I’ll be holding a sausage sizzle outside the Warehouse.
Sell your possessions.
Are the share certificates infused with their DNA? Or are they the World’s Biggest Certificates? Or are they made from bits of paper collected from certificates around the country?
They’re specially made from google image search I reckon.
Maybe its just me but, why the fuck would i want to pay for someone else to go on holiday?
They even have an awards style video on their blog… wtf.
Sorry guys, Andy led you up the wrong path. The one you want earns you a place there. Seriously, $2k will get you 4 days registration and leave you enough change for about 10 beers. Nice idea, but those who have been will say you need to earn it, those who haven’t would rather not have you go first. But to your credit, you’ve done a great job.
So if they don’t get enough to go to Cannes, do they refund the money?
It’s a nice idea. Leave them be.
They’re trying to earn their way there in a novel way.
If you don’t like it, don’t buy the bloody shares. If it does work for them, that’s great.
Cannes is a big place and the last time I checked there were no rules of entry to visit the place.
If you believe that every person that’s ever attended Cannes had a real genuine right to be there, you’ve probably been there yourself and feel a bit special about yourself because of it and how dare these two young’uns devalue that by coming up with an idea that might actually get them there.
Which is, after all, exactly how you’re supposed to get there as a creative.
Is it possible that these two want to go because they want to learn something about the industry?
Whatever the reason, it doesn’t affect me. And it shouldn’t affect you.
Unless you’re worried they’ll do better work than you when they return, steal your jobs and buy their own shares in whatever the hell they want.
Touché 12.20
@11:12 AM
You’re right. Classic.
http://tinyurl.com/39ycz2r
Good on them.
If you don’t like it, don’t buy shares. By whining about it you just look jealous.
Good luck guys!
@12:10
I wondered why they’d decided to put a glue stain on.
Now I know.
@3:26
Well – copy, paste, then flip vertical is quite a lot of steps.
@12:20pm, @3:08pm, @1:23pm
Iain, Tara – Stop commenting about yourself. We all know it’s you.
Now they’ve bought out Mr Vintage Plankton shirts.
It’s as if they’re trying to make me hate them.