BrandsAmongMany

From the Great Schlep to Gobama, Barack Obama has taken over the interactive “air waves.” Some of the most popular videos on YouTube in recent months directly support Obama’s campaign for presidency and the dozens of celebrity endorsements doesn’t hurt. The “Probama” user created content is significantly helping Obama gain popularity amongst young voters, especially considering the time they spend watching movies on YouTube or forwarding funny videos on Facebook. Obama is sucessfully winning the interactive front of the presidential race. The most recent work of Obama loyalists is Wassup 2008.

Recognize those dudes from the Budweiser commercials? Yeah, that’s them alright, back from an eight year haitus. In case you need a refresher watch this, this, or this. Nice to see these guys back in their element and no longer hosting the show, “The Best Commercials You Have Never Seen and Some You Have.”

So yesterday morning I got a friendly email from a reader named Lornie:

Hi Danny,
Have you seen this yet? not sure what to make of it….
http://lifetakesvista.com/
Lornie

At first glance, of course, it looks like any other email I get from various PR people looking to promote the newest campaign by agency X or company Y, most of which I ignore (I’m not usually too interested in playing shill for some company’s new TV campaign). The only thing that led me to look into this one a little further was the fact that Lornie’s email didn’t come from a PR company account and didn’t name agency X or company Y. Well, that and the fact that I actually hadn’t seen the Life Takes Vista effort yet.

So after taking a quick look at the Life Takes Vista site, my immediate question to Lornie was…

What’s your connection to the campaign?

To which she responded:

zero. i dont work for msft. (actually unemployed at the moment) not sure if its from msft because i searched the web and didnt see anything on this…or theyre trying to be stealthy!

At first I took her answer at face value. But, in the midst of looking further into the campaign to ready a post, I stumbled onto a couple of other blogs who heard from a “loyal fan”, Lornie:

jkOnTheRun
James Kendrick’s Twitter
The Ranch
Flickr

Of course, these aren’t the only blogs talking about the effort. There’s still the lingering question of who the heck is responsible for this campaign (blatant rip-off?). It doesn’t appear to be an official Microsoft effort. In fact, there’s discussion around that question in a couple of places:

AdRants
CrunchGear

Hrm. As CrunchGear points out, this feels either like a very smart effort by a couple of ad students to get themselves noticed (feels like a reach to me) or an effort by a couple of bored Crispin employees who didn’t get the idea through during the original effort. A little further digging reveals that the Life Take Vista site is being hosted by a company in Denver under anonymous administration - only a stone’s throw from Boulder…

Suddenly Lornie seems less like a friendly reader and more like a PR agent that she seemed like to begin with. Lornie, I’ll be the first to offer my most sincere apologies if I’m wrong - we appreciate a tip as much as the next guy - but this one just feels dirty. A search for the email address the tip was sent from reveals nothing, which would be rather unusual given how many forums, websites, etc. most digitally savvy ad students are signed up for. And a search for Lornie’s full name also reveals nothing…no Facebook profile, no LinkedIn account, no personal website…nothing.

So short answer…I’m not sold. This feels like nothing more than a covert, subversive attempt to get eyeballs on a rip-off campaign. Which it seems to have accomplished - along with building a wealth of negative brand equity. Kudos!

Just a quick welcome to our newest writer, Max Katsarelas. An ad student at Michigan State University, Max has bounced between student and agency life over the last couple of years in pursuit of his advertising and creative dreams. Say hello to Max here, or at any of these other fine social media outlets: Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr, Tumblr, or Twitter. Max previously wrote for us over at Beyond Madison Avenue; he offers a unique look at the industry from a student perspective. And, of course, he’s always open to your thoughts on where to head from here, so feel free to offer him any thoughts you might have.

I had originally planned to write my first post on Brands Among Many about college advertising curriculum and their lack of professional resources. I emphasized how colleges are out of touch and a 4.0 GPA coupled with leadership positions doesn’t guarantee you anything on the creative side of advertising and by anything, I mean a job. I also pointed out that there are vast differences between a business or engineering major and an advertising major.

In advertising, agencies don’t seek out interns, which explain why out of the hundreds of companies at a career fair you’ll be hard-pressed to find a single ad agency present. In addition, most of the advertising internships are unpaid- other majors wouldn’t even think of an unpaid internship. Lastly, schools offer loads of professional resources to help prepare students for every major, that is, except advertising. We have no idea what we’re getting ourselves into and truth be told, the college chapter of AAF only prepares us so much.

Aside from all these pitfalls, colleges offer an experience essential for art directors and writers. In the midst of homework or studying, I often hear students ask, “When will I use this in life?”  If you’re a political science or english major, you’ll probably never need math. If you’re a business major, you’ll probably never need science. And if you’re an engineering major, you’ll probably never need humanities. In advertising, a well-rounded college education creates not only a large wealth of knowledge, but life changing experiences you can pull from when creating a campaign.

To excel in this industry, the best thing a college student can do is live it up. Go out to party on a Tuesday to see what type of people actually party on a Tuesday. Meet international exchange students and try things that wouldn’t normally interest you like a root beer pong tournament hosted by the fundamentalist Christians. Try that weird Korean restaurant named, Emo’s and go to the obscure foreign film playing down the road. Break rules, do illegal things, (I’m talking about stealing a road sign or something, not exposing your genitals) and play Edward Fortyhands. Take an astrology class, a yoga class, and attempt to take a chemistry class. I hate to sound like I’m preaching here, but step outside your comfort zone.

All this stuff is going to be beneficial. Heck, you can write about your cool experiences in your resume or portfolio. Anything to show you have been around the block gives you a leg up, plus it doesn’t even have to be advertising related. As long as you present your experiences in a creative way that shows off some chops, you’ve got a piece for your portfolio. These experiences will be essential when you’re interviewing and when you have to relate to the, oh so important, target market. It may even help you land a job with W + K via WK 12, an experiment disguised as an ad school, which recently accepted twelve grad students based on their unique experiences and backgrounds, not necessarily their skills. If all else fails and none of that helps you, at least you have a bunch of cool stories to tell people while you bag their groceries.

I kid, of course, so here are some pieces of advice to keep in mind if you find yourself at any generic university as an advertising major:

• Read advertising blogs. ihaveanidea, adfreak, and American Copywriter are all good starting points
• See what kind of ads are out there at Creativity-Online or Ads of the World
• If you’re a writer- write! You’re life should consist of writing, reading, and watching movies all the time. Learn how people communicate.
• If you’re an artist, draw/paint/sketch/sculpt all the time.
• Want an internship? Send out letters/e-mails to ad agencies. Attach your art work, writing samples, or resume. Tell them who you are and why you would benefit the agency. If they don’t respond, call them up, ask to speak to the creative director (figure out his or her name first!) and give them the lowdown.
• If you’re new to the ad world, check if your school has an AAF chapter or see if your school has any professors who worked or work in the industry.  Ask to meet with them and pick their brain.
• Take any advice at your own discretion. When it comes to this business, there are no right and wrongs. I do think, however, it’s essential to practice art direction or writing, otherwise it’s a free for all.
• As I have said before- do cool shit and write or draw about it and if it’s awesome put it in your portfolio. Then, when someone takes the time to look at your work and asks about it, you will have a great story to tell.
• Lastly, remember advertising isn’t like any other industry. If you end up getting an M.I.P. don’t plead innocent and have to deal with random breathalyzer tests for three months, probation for a year, and expensive tickets. Just take the guilty charge, pay the ticket, and continue to party like it never happened. As far as I’m concerned, if an agency won’t hire me because I have an M.I.P. (not saying I do) on my record, I don’t want to work there.
• For more information, make the jump and watch.

J. Crew has been widely lauded lately. They’ve taken huge steps toward separating themselves from competitors like GAP and Banana Republic by bringing a distinct feel to their brand. Unique partnerships and tactics – like offering vintage Rolex watches and high end, created just for J. Crew pieces, as well as their recently opened Tribeca Men’s Store – have set the company in a league of their own.  But, despite the company’s recent rise as one of the premier mid-level fashion brands (Is it just me, or is it a little scary when $70 shirts are “mid-level”?), consumers are standing up and taking note of their sometimes questionable statements and actions facing loyal customers.

Perfect example? While poking around in hopes of finding a coupon or free shipping code for an order I was placing, I came across this short but interesting thread of comments. A distinctly unhappy undertone from a few customers was compounded by this statement, presumably from a J. Crew employee:

Just so you know, we’re onto the people who abuse coupons and we will now check all pre existing orders to ensure you have not used the same coupon twice.

That, of course, instigated even further negative response from the contributors. Complaints of poor service and a decline in quality are most prominent – an issue that I’ve noted myself based on my latest order. I’m still waiting for a sweater that I ordered on Sept. 24, and I’ve received not follow up or further indication of when the item might ship (despite it being listed as “in stock” when the order was placed). I also had a couple of items that were simply dropped from my order due to “lack of availability”, but that I was able to reorder the following day.

For a company with this kind of following, and make no mistake, they do have a following, moments like the comment above are just about inexcusable. Perhaps it’s true and they are cracking down on coupon use, but there’s no reason to broadcast it to the world. We can only hope that this was a random incident by a proud employee.

Perhaps this is a perfect demonstration, then, that larger companies need to start thinking about social media training. They need to understand that their employees actions have resonance for their brand. Sexual harrasment training is mandatory at just about every sizeable company today, and that’s an issue that only costs them money in the event of a lawsuit. Social media mistakes are a daily occurance, but go unchecked at every turn.

There’s money to be made in this folks. Someone step up and make it happen!

There’s a couple of conferences coming up here in NYC that look very promising:

The CLICK NY conference, a 1-day interactive conference presented by Creative Review and the Art Director’s Club, is going down tomorrow. The line-up of presenters is pretty impressive; of course, Tom is speaking so I’m vaguely obligated to talk about how awesome he’ll be! Go listen to his thoughts on the creation of POKE and where we’re headed. There’s a host of other speakers who are sure to offer interesting insights into the industry as well. Have a look at the CLICK site to see the full list.

The other upcoming engagement that caught my eye this morning is The Feast: Social Innovation Conference. That one takes place on October 16, and the list of presenters easily rivals that of the CLICK conference. Be sure to make it to PlayPumps founder Dale Jones’ speech. We’ve done some ideation for PlayPumps here at POKE and their effort is both really interesting and socially conscious.

So there’s a couple of events that should keep you occupied during the first half of October. The only problem I can find with them? The price! Sorry guys, as much as I’d love to hear you speak, I just can’t shell out $400+ for a day of speeches. Will you videocast them for us?

Every once in a while there’s a new spot that pops up and takes the (ad) world by storm, quickly becoming the “talk of the town”. The latest in that genre seems to be from the fashioneers over at Diesel. This mashup has been flying back and forth across our office (and across the web) since the middle of last week, so I figure it’s high time to give it a nod.

No, it isn’t a masterfully genius piece promoting their newest jeans. In fact, if you blink you might even miss the branded payoff. But it is funny. Diesel has taken a selection of the grandest of ’70’s porn and made it SFW. ish:

Apparently this amalgamation of cartoonified skin flicks is intended to promote their 30th anniversary celebration, coming up on October 11 (get it? 30th anniversary…’70’s porn…). Though I have to admit, even after watching it a couple of times, I didn’t pick up on that fact until I stumbled onto the associated website.

So, no, I’m not going to sit here and delve deeply into the brand value of such a creation. This one, we’re going to take at face value and simply laugh at. So enjoy it.

Oh, and on a side note. We had a group of ad school folks here at POKE last week and decided to share this gem. Mid-way through, one of the students exclaimed loudly

Hey, that’s from Debbie Does Dallas!

and promptly turned bright red. Can you spot the clip?

We were selling rich women their own fat asses back to them.

Yep, here we go again, quoting movie lines to make a point about branding. Hey, not my fault if Ed Norton has a way with words (Not sure what scene I’m referring to? Have a look here.).

So, the question is…are we? As marketers (advertisers, branding gurus, digital desperadoes, call yourself what you will) we sell ourselves on our expertise of many areas. Sure, we call it “marketing” or whatever, but when it comes down to it, we’re selling our understanding of human nature (psychology), our ability to tap into that in a manner that will gain attention (creativity), the potential of that message to have an impact on the people we’re talking to (strategy), our ability to sell our ideas through to the client (salesmanship), how well we can actually create what we’ve said we can create (production), and a slew of other bits and pieces that we encounter along the way.

That’s a lot of “expertise” – a lot of different minds – that comes together to be successful at this thing we do. That’s lot of points along the way for something, even the smallest point, to go slightly awry. It’s no wonder, then, that we might occasionally get caught up in our own heads. It’s easy for us to get excited and see the potential behind an idea that makes perfect sense to us, based on our background, but has little meaning or resonance for the “average joe”. It’s easy for us to get caught up in the excitement of buying back our own fat asses.

This begs the question: how much of what we do, especially digitally, actually reaches out into the “real world”? How many of the soccer mom’s in Wisconsin engage in the newest methods of digital communication – the mechanisms that we often consider the forefront of the digital revolution?

Consider this: just the other day I found myself explaining Twitter to a project manager at a popular traditional “hot shop” that we’re partnering with on a current project. If she didn’t know what Twitter is, can we expect the masses to encounter a message that we propagate using it as a distribution tool? Probably not.

Perhaps more importantly, though: do they have to? If the mechanisms that we’re using to reach the influentials are successful, does it really matter if the soccer mom hears directly from us? Isn’t that the point of targeting the influencers - so they’ll spread our message to the masses? Aren’t the social media tools that we use to spread our gospel really just weapons in our arsenal that can be used to reach the specific people we want to hear about our cause because we know that they’ll help spread the word?

Or more simply put, are we buying or are we selling the fat asses? And do we have the gumption to accept the voice of reason and understand when we’re getting caught up in our own heads? I don’t expect a simple answer. It will vary by company, by project, by client, by concept.

But as soon as we lose awareness of the question, we lose our ability to control the answer. And once that’s gone, we’re just another cog in the fat ass economy.

As I was writing up a post for our sister site, ThingsAmongMany this morning, a thought hit me regarding branded art partnerships and their prevalence in advertising…

The lines between art and advertising have been a blur for as long as either has existed. The cycle of one borrowing from the other, borrowing back has been a never-ending process that has spurred both amazing breakthroughs as well as bitter fights – just look at the popular case of Sony vs. kozyndan. But lately, the notion of branded artwork has made a jump to the forefront. Scion commissioned popular artists to contribute to their Want 2 B Square campaign. Microsoft has made similar efforts for their Zune and Xbox branding. A slew of other brands that seem to allude me for the moment have also jumped at the trend.

The latest I’ve noticed, and perhaps the best use of branded artwork that I’ve seen to date, is a recent effort from Green Works, a brand that creates plant-based, environmentally friendly cleaning products. Green Works commissioned British graffiti artist Moose to create a 140 foot long mural in San Francisco’s Broadway tunnel. The catch? Moose doesn’t work with the standard spray paints and wheat paste. His work is called reverse graffiti.

Invented by Paul “Moose” Curtis, a then kitchen-hand in Leeds, reverse grafitti is the process of creating artwork on a surface by cleaning it. Not quite clear? Have a look at Symbollix, Moose’s agency for creating branded works of reverse grafitti or watch this vid on the San Fran project:

Of course, branded artwork has a downside sometimes as well. It’s often considered “selling out”. It associates a brand with a specific artist’s work and often creates an image for the brand that it simply can’t live up to. Of course, those brands can afford to pay for that image and the artists are agreeing to its use (most of the time). What do you think? Should the trend continue?

Noticed a tweet by the crew over at Imperial this morning that stirred some thoughts:

Oddly enough, this short little statement does an excellent job of encompassing much of my interest and my progression through the industry (though slightly out of order). I started as a marketing major in undergrad, moved on to the creative side of advertising, and have now found myself inching closer toward product development as the opportunities have allowed (and hopefully will allow more in the future).

So the question, of course, is “what’s next?”…

As times have changed and the mechanisms for delivery have fragmented and spread, “the industry” has struggled to keep up. In my experience, the connection between strategy and creative is tenuous at best. So is the connection between creative and the medium. Add the prevalence of new technologies – both technologies that help the delivery of a branded message as well as those that help the consumer to avoid those messages – and suddenly it seems that “tenuous” might be a generous offering. Realistically speaking, we haven’t cracked the formula on the first three. But that’s never stopped us from jumping toward something new in the past, has it?

What will that be? I have no idea.
What should it be? How about working to perfect the understanding of what we already have?

The television-driven model is well into its death throes – in fact, it might already be dead if there were more openness toward embracing the future. It’s only our refusal to admit that what we’re used to isn’t necessarily right anymore that’s holding us in the past.

It is changing though. Brands are finally realizing that they don’t have to spend multiple millions of dollars producing television spots to see results.

Don’t believe me? Have a look at Kellogg who’s planning to cut commercial filming by 10-20% next year. For a company that makes 350-400 television commercials a year, that could cut as many as 80 spots from the production schedule in 2009 at a savings of $1M for every 3 commercials.

Product development is an area where most agencies are barely scratching the surface. Case in point: at my last ad agency job, I threw out an idea for a new package design for one of our clients that aligned perfectly with the 10-minute diatribe that the strategy team had just presented. The response:

That’s package design. That’s outside our pervue.

Um…NO. How is anything…ANYTHING…that has to do with the brand we’re working on “outside our pervue”? Until that mentality is shunned by agencies, product development won’t have a place within their walls. Instead, it will be pioneered by the small, seldom-heard-of companies that focus directly on that niche in the market. And they’ll have free reign until someone can step up to challenge them.

So, to answer the question…
Product development is a nearly untapped market for our industry right now. And it will remain that way until the agencies get their own houses in order. Until we can rethink the marketing and advertising sides to align to the realities of the modern market. And who will be king? The one who can do just that and then make product development a serious part of their repertoire. Let’s get now right before we worry about what’s next?