Deciphering Code.

For those of us looking to enter the industry (students) and fill our own niche are faced with certain decisions to be made. Study in this field will require that you to choose a discipline in which to study intensely, whether it's art direction, copywriting, account planning and the countless others that I will go more in depth in later entries. Another choice that has emerge out of today's industry is the choice to choose a more traditional role/agency or an interactive digital role.

Personally I'm more for the latter, I see our industry is already heading in that direction taking more of a technological approach. In that regard I wanted to touch upon one of the disciplines that is growing and becoming more in demand (developers). This can mean a multitude of things such as flash developers, information architects and coders (front end/back end development). Today's consumer is more sophisticated, tech savvy and harder to reach then yesterday's consumer, couple that with them having more choices in media. This translates to customers being more in control than brands, and herein lies the dilemma. Brands have to incorporate integrated media into their brand experience in order to grow.

In this day an age of Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter, Blogs, Vlogs and other social media. Brands are looking at digital agencies to help them deliver engaging content that is compelling. That's were one aspect of the mentioned disciplines comes into play. The web2.0 consist of websites no surprise there, but what most don't realize that all of these websites encompass coding to execute the development. Now coding is its own language in itself from HTML, XHTML, CSS to JQuery and too many others to mention, is what those websites are running on. Learning coding takes a great deal of time to learn especially when you start to get into high level code.

It would be a wise decision for students to study a more digital discipline than a traditional one which I believe is dying out slowly. Well actually I don't think it will die out completely as there will always be print (magazines), TV and radio and even those mediums are being remodeled to accommodate this new tech world. Learning programs like actionscript/motion graphics, BBEdit, Java, PHP, C++, SQL etc... Would benefit the user immensely, just something to think about if you’re looking to emerge in this industry and take it by storm.

Advertising Week 2010

Well I would like to start out by saying that I know I'm late on posting my thoughts on this years Advertising Week, which was held Sept27-Oct1.

I'm sure you can identify with being grotesquely busy, sometimes you have the best intentions of doing something and they can at times get recoiled to the back burner. So with that in mind let's get on with it.

Advertising Week 2010 was held at the infamous New York Times building in mid-town, the building has a superb architecture structure. The entire building is one big screen basically in which you can see out into the street but not in. Upon entering the doors every news station was there in addition to AOL, Bloomberg, Yahoo, Microsoft etc… All of the industries agencies were there such as Razorfish, DDB, Organic, BBDO, TBWA Chiat/Day, Big Spaceship, JWT and a whole slew of other.

Some others notable mentions are non ad agencies like Facebook, Louis Vuitton, YSL, Fast Company, Contagious, St. Regis Hotels, Google, The Huffington Post, Cirque Du Soleil, NBC Universal, Adobe, MediaBistro etc… In addition to schools/students attending from Academy of Art University, Miami Ad School, VCU BrandCenter, Portfolio School, Parsons, SVA and some others coming from as far away as Canada.

The seminars spoke on engaging consumers on a multitude of platforms such as traditional, digital, media networks, public relations, social networks and mobile. Plenty of free stuff handed out books, food and coffee; the last two were of major importance I must have my coffee or I won't feel right as though somethings missing in the day.

Upon entering I went in with the intention of soaking up as much knowledge as humanly possible. And at the end of each day my head was spinning. Tons of creative talent coupled with brilliant minds that are the movers and shakers of our industry. Information on our fragmented society and how we can reach this new customer that is desensitized. How agencies created out of the analog age would benefit, from breaking down these silos that cater to an analog age and create new silos that embrace an technological digital age. Additionally how we can cross collaborate with brands fusing traditional creative with an integrated technical aspect.

Next event was the Big Ad Gig, which took place high up in the sky of the New York Times building. Eight creatives fought tooth and nails to win one of the coveted five internships at the following participating agencies, Crispin Porter + Bogusky (Andrew Keller), Ogilvy (Tham Khai Meng), JWT (Ty Montague), TBWA/Chiat/Day (Jimmy Smith), The Ad Council (Priscilla Natkins) and Atmosphere Proximity (Andreas Combuchen). The lucky five presented work for the Ad Council to the previously mentioned names serving as judges for this competition, as well as a large audience. If that wasn't nerve wrecking enough advertising hopefuls had a limited time of 4 minutes to present. Talk about pressure beyond belief! In the end needles to say was five very happy individuals who have a bright future ahead of them.

Now to the juicy part I attended some pretty wicked parties. One was in a movie theater in mid-town somewhere around the 50's. It was for Night Of The Ad Eaters tons of people attended and boozed it up at an open bar, in addition to some good dance music, some half naked dancers and nude body painting. In-between the festivities were running ads from all over the world which never see the light of day (meaning they haven't been run on any media before).

As a student entering Ad Week it was full of fun and extremely informative. Not to mention an awesome student discount of about 20 dollars, as opposed to $90. All in all beautifully run, all seminars ran on time and I look forward to next years Ad Week.

To Create or discriminate that is the question?

Hi again,

I was watching some TV doing research LOL, and came across an ad campaign that made me start to think, is this clever advertising or discrimination? Let me explain, there's a running ad campaign for Planet Fitness. Before we go further I would like to comment that I'm not fond of PF, I've been a personal trainer for 9 years, and have been to multiple gyms all over. PF is not in my opinion a gym, it's a social club for people who have no interest in getting fit. But I digress because I can go on and on, but I will spare you the agony.

Planet Fitness is owned by PFIP, LLC and their model is "The judgement free zone", judgement free? Alright so what does judgement free really mean?

Judgement:

1. The act or process of judging; the formation of an opinion after consideration or deliberation.

Free:

1. Not imprisoned or enslaved; being at liberty.

This brand states that they do not judge people but their ongoing TV ad campaign screams the complete opposite. In each ad they have an avid bodybuilder conveyed as being a complete idiot. I realize that the general population most likely doesn't relate to bodybuilders, but to flat out make a mockery of them in my opinion is wrong. I know plenty of bodybuilders and I must say that a lot if not most know more about health, nutrition and human physiology than even some doctors. I don't think those are traits of a mentally challenged person.

In fact Planet Fitness goes out of their way to install "lunk alarms" within it's facilities. I know your thinking what's a lunk alarm? An alarm goes off if a person is lifting "too heavy" or grunting. Well excuse me if I would like to progress in my fitness program, heaven forbid if someone takes their workout seriously. I've heard stories of people being denied to enter, on the grounds if they look like a bodybuilder/dress like one.

I think PF needs to be reminded that bodybuilders are the ones who innovate in the fitness industry, not this biggest loser nonsense. Bodybuilders have been dieting and training far longer than your average Joe, just look at Jack Lalanne he's been in the industry since the 1930's and is just hitting his stride.

Mullen Advertising is the Boston based agency responsible for the recent campaign. I'm sure Mullen was only producing what their client (Planet Fitness) wanted, but at what cost? If the ad is tasteless what is that really saying about your agency? I think Mullen was presented with a pretty nice check and just decided to jump on it, sure this is a business and we all what to make capital, but not at the expense of the creative.

This brand preaches one thought but acts in another. I don't want to make too strong of a comparison but what's the difference between this and all the other backwards thinking looking back into the history books. They need to change their motto to "A judgement zone" instead.

Advertising's future being norished?

Hello fellow industry people,

Welcome to another installment of Shove It Up Your Ad. After speaking with one of my professors, I thought to take an inside look at a certain habit or attribute for lack of a better word, concerning the advertising industry which seems to be a trend at the present time.

What is to nourish? According to web definition: nourish - To promote or sustain growth. With that said when we look at the advertising industry are we contributing to growth? I've heard plenty of individuals speaking about the subject, and I've visited plenty of agencies websites that state "We are always looking for new talent" but I've come across something different.

There have been few occasion's that I know of in which an agency/organization has been reached out to and never garnered a response. This is not only an agency trend, but sponsoring organizations have fallen into this habit as well. Now I know that this is the norm in some cases, but what if I told you that the agency told the individual (job seeker) of it's interest acquiring them?

This employee hopeful reached out to this agency (Hint G) and yet again never received a call back?! Correct me if I am wrong but isn't the meaning behind nourishing future talent supposed to entail communication, encouragement and contact to continue industry growth? I understand things can get hectic and just maybe you've forgot to reach out to the initial contact, hey I'm guilty of it myself. But when an agency contact receives a phone call, and HR says "let me call you back in 5 min" which they never did, I can hardly see how that person is contributing to industry growth?

So what should be done to insure our industry doesn't dissipates? Agencies play a major role in that they should continue making the industry an exciting career choice, that people of talent will be more than eager to enter and not be put off by this non-communication. Now this is not to say that agencies owe anyone any favors, but there should be a common mutual respect on both ends.

Can't we all just communicate?

Digitizing? What is it and what does it mean in today's market?

Has traditional advertising become obsolete? Our industry is on the brink of major change, and we as advertisers are in for one hell of a ride. Today's ad agencies are faced with a new set of challenges that needs solving. We live in a digital age where technology and consumers are running the show in how advertising is communicated and consumed. Today's consumer is harder to reach than 40 years ago. The analog age was a time when pioneers such as Leo Burnett, Bill Bernbach and David Ogilvy paved the way for the industry to talk to consumers through Print, Radio and Television, and that age is quickly coming to an end, sort of.

The agency models created for that age no longer work as effectively as it once has. The Consumer market is extremely fragmented compared to back then, and we are going to have to find ways to reach them, while at the same time make brands relevant. These consumers are constantly bombarded with numerous ad campaigns to the point that they are becoming immune. So the industry now is faced with this dilemma, making great creative that is compelling, relevant and garners an emotional response which resonates to the consumer market. In an ever changing broad bandwidth landscape, that's moving at lightning speed, factor into that the consumers control. Ad agencies are no longer in the position to cater to clients in the same manner, now the primary objective is to integrate these brands into consumers lives.

That's were platforms come into play. Up until now the advertising industry had relied heavily on mass media campaigns. The problem with a campaign is that when introduced to the open public, consumer interest rises until it's run it's course. Once the campaign is pulled interest dissipates. So we are constantly riding this sort of roller-coaster wave. With a platform, behavior of the consumer market changes because brands now have an owned media. In which the consumer then uses and integrates it into there lives, keeping them engaged with a brand for a much longer duration of time. Campaigns will serve as use to create initial consumer interest for these platforms. This also means that clients and agencies can gage consumer trends, and determine if the acquired services pays out in terms of ROI.

Some traditional agencies are incorporating more digital advertising into their models. Such as Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Goodby Silverstein & Partners and Grey (G2). If other traditional agencies don't wake up soon and make such changes to their models, they will soon die out like Dinosaurs. Some major players in the industry have said that the agency landscape is going to change dramatically, these big agencies are most likely going to shrink down and will have to rebuild their silos.

Then we have agencies that are fully digital like Razorfish, R/GA, Organic and Night Agency just to name a few. These digital agencies are in a much better position than their larger counterparts. What's core to these digital agencies is technology and analytics, the very thing that is driving the advertising market. Digital agencies have in place silos that more effective for this new digital age. This equates that brands will be in a better place financially when seeking services from these agencies, because these agencies hold production houses within their housing. Not like traditional ad agencies that out source these services to third party production houses, all in all keeping the cost for brands on the lower end. Especially when we look at paid media.

My opinion is that digital agencies is truly the right way to go in this age of technology. The same way other things evolve like music, at one point music was distributed from vinyl to a track, cassette tape, Cd's now we have itunes. It's just the name of the game of evolution. Some agencies will die out while others will thrive. So strap in tight because when it's all said and done, we are going to look back in awe at how drastic things will change.

The proverbial creative brief.

Creative briefs can make or break a single campaign ad, or integrated ad campaign. The creative brief serves as a important tool for agencies. All advertising shops use creative briefs (and if not they should) when conceptualizing any campaign, whether it's print, out-door, social media, guerrilla or viral. Creative teams rely on the brief to give a clear and concise enough vision in which to communicate an idea. So with those things in place let's look at what makes an creative brief.

Most creative briefs start with a client and the Account Planner. The AP is the link between what a client wants to portray, and what the ad agency has planned to solve it's client's problem. The account planner will gather as much info in the client's brand, and determine what's the best solution in which to communicate it's brand message to the consumer market. This person will then compose a strategic creative brief to execute this goal.

An effective creative brief consist of these elements, Who, Why, What, Where, When. These questions will be answered with very specific answers. Who are we looking to reach with our campaign? Why are looking to reach these consumers? What are we offering to these consumers? And where and when would we reach out to consumers.

This enables the creative team to create concepts both visually and with copy. This is a big process that I will not go in-depth about now. But it's a very big process. But I digress. From this brief, all information will be condensed down to it's most simplistic element. Also the creative brief shouldn't be more than one page but on certain occasions you might end up with more, of concise strategy. Any brief that has more than one strategy will only cause confusion among the entire creation of the campaign, because it will lack targeting power.

Here are a few examples of effective creative briefs, from some of the best known shops

Crispin Porter + Bogusky (CP+B)

http://www.ygaward.com/pdf/2009CreativeBrief.pdf

Batten Barton Durstine Osborn (BBDO)

http://www.unc.edu/~cachi/j171-roudybush.pdf.pdf

Saatchi & Saatchi

http://dungtym.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/brief-mc-satchi-agency.pdf

There you have it my friend, the creative brief in all of it's splendor. Now go and create an inspiring, powerful and thought provoking creative brief. Until next time.

Wieden + Kennedy New Old Spice Spot

Hello once again,

In today's industry there are some agency's that are distinguishing themselves from the pack. That's exactly what Wieden + Kennedy is doing, creating fresh spots that are engaging and edgy some examples include Nike, Coca Cola, EA Games, Dodge, Levis and Target to name a few. W+K has taken an established brand in Old Spice and re-birthed it. With the the acquisition of the talented Isaiah Mustafa playing the lead role.

This campaign has targeted a specific audience group to reconnect with the brand, And I for one feel that it's working. I find myself feeling a curiosity that I didn't have for the product before, and that's success measured. If a campaign can move a consumer to take action and become emotionally involved with the brand, then that is a successful campaign well strategically played out.

W+K campaign Smell like a man, man: http://www.wk.com/campaign/questions

W+K is known for taken chances where other agencies won't and for being fearless with it's approach, Dan Wieden and David Kennedy are doing something right with their shop, based out of Portland OR. What's also so fascinating with this shop is that W+K is not part of a big global network, they are independently owned. I whole heartily agree with their philosophy of embracing failure in order to learn and grown within your respective career paths. And it seems that this philosophy is working to the T. I really look up to this shop for it's work, creativity and culture.

And look forward to one day walking through there door to embracing failure and welcoming optimism.