Deceptively Simple: Round 2 (a.k.a. The Ideation Process)

I am pretty sure my roommates think I do not do much for grad school. It seems all I do is sketch and scribble notes into somewhat of a da Vinci-esque notebook, stare longingly into space, flip through pretty picture books (Communication Arts is a school book!), read blogs, and sit in coffee shops. A hard day’s work.

Most outside of industry do not realize it is hard work. (Mad Men is not an accurate portrayal of today’s industry…) People constantly think they can make ads. Well, I suppose they can, but not the award winning advertising I hope to create. Generating smart, original ideas is extremely challenging. Creative advertising is like solving a very intricate puzzle or problem. The more you think about it, the more confusing it becomes until finally you step away and BAM! There it is. Our job would be easy if great ideas were easy to come up with. The list of questions and concerns is endless as well. Does the idea have legs? Can it live in multiple mediums? Is it original? Is it compelling? Does it make sense for the brand? On and on…

I have spent the last week relentlessly concepting ideas for my portfolio class. It can be a bit sickening when I really add up all the time I spent thinking about this measly little product and I still don’t have an idea I feel satisfied with. (I mean, couldn’t I have thought of a solution to the health care crisis in this time?) However, outside of advertising school, there is usually more than one measly little product you are thinking about. As an advertiser you have to balance multiple clients and projects, thinking about one brand and putting other projects on the back burner. I call it idea multi-tasking.

Creative advertising is a game of imagination.  I hope the coaching at the UT creative sequence will enable me to produce ideas with more ease and confidence.  I hope it will also continue to help me push boundaries and break old rules.  My biggest fear is creating mundane advertising. The day that happens should be the day I quit.

Alas, I know my creative concept is out there. Maybe if I just brainstorm a little bit longer the solution will come…

Social Media: Deceptively Simple

I have a love-hate relationship with social media.  I love that the advertiser get access to an infinite number of targeted groups.  I love the opportunity that accessibility presents.  The ability to exploit that opportunity, however, presents a challenge.  Currently, I am assisting David on a rather rare social media project, which is proving to be quite the challenge.  We want to do something innovative to create buzz while creating a long-term strategy for the client. We both have been wracking our brains. Seriously, I even dreamed about it last night. (In my dream I discovered a solution and—damn—now I can’t remember what the solution was.)  The point is that using social media in an interesting, organic way is difficult, especially if you have a tricky brand that deals with delicate issues.

In conjunction, I am currently doing research on a paper titled “How Can Advertisers Use Social Networking Communications to Deliver Messages More Effectively?”  (A rather broad question, I know.)  The answer throughout was strategy. But, gosh golly that seems to be the answer to all brand communications, which always annoys me because it is such a general statement. Is that really what successful social media campaign boils down to, strategy? I personally think it also boils down to two other things; a goal in hand and a damn good bona-fide creative concept. These may be derived from a strategy but I really think the key is to be interesting, otherwise your strategy won’t be compelling and buzz worthy.

On a different track, Austin City Limits is this weekend.  The event producers have done a great job at promoting the concert and the surrounding events via social media.
“Rare Magazine was giving away free wristbands to see Broken Social Scene (one of my favorite bands!) at the Austin Power Plant. They announced the day and time of distribution through a Tweet alert, and the wristbands were gone within 30 minutes.”
They were gone within 30 minutes. Unfortunately, I was taking a catnap during the Tweet announcement and missed out.

Finally, if you have any suggestions for a “burning question” relating to social media, please comment and tell me! All semester for my Theories of Persuasive Communication’s class, I will be writing papers and researching “burning questions” in social media that are relevant to the current industry. I would love to hear your insight, and hopefully I will be able provide reflective answers. You’re the experts; please let me know the issues you have and it can help guide my research.

Have great weekends everybody, and have a blast at ACL!

Practical Applications are not an Urban Legend

(a.k.a. Reason No. 100,001 that I love grad school)

Often undergrad students ask themselves, what is the point of this class?  What is the point of this assignment? I admit these thoughts definitely slipped into my mind on several occasions.

As much as I understand the relevance between theories and advertising, I was still a bit turned off from my Theories of Persuasive Communication class originally. I just want to make ads, I bleated.

Our professor recently asked to come up with “burning” questions about the advertising industry, which we will use to write our first of several papers. Jason Fellman of FG SQUARED had a burning question that came from clients concerning social media marketing. Clients want proof. Give me numbers, stats, case studies! What am I paying you for again??? Well, evidence you want, evidence you will get. As I am eager to make connections between classes and my internship, I pondered the query.

Is social media a viable marketing tool for B-to-B companies?

WHOA. Wait a minute, social media for B-to-B? It took me a second to digest this. (Lets not forget, I am an intern and a student; it’s part of my job description to not know everything and to ask lots of questions.)  I honestly was not aware social media was being utilized by B-to-B in common, current practice. 

Just like the clients, I wanted to know if social media was a viable tool for B-to-B companies.

There were more than several interesting and relevant articles relating to B-to-B utilizing social media, Kodak being one of the companies depicted as an innovator in this new force. As a general trend, salutes were made to the B-to-B companies engaging in social media. 

I am going to leave asking a burning question of my own to all the advertising creatives out there. Where do all the advertising creatives go after they are burned out from this industry? Where is the graveyard of art directors, copywriters, and creative directors?

Football Season

Yesterday, I read over and assisted in editing a script that will potentially be used for a web video.  I am interested in watching the process of how the video will be produced.

The creative room timeline has been pushed back due to client needs, which of course take precedence. David and I are still trying to figure out how to pay for some of the stuff we want to make it into a creative incubator. The do’s and don’ts of the new Austin parking meters is still on hold. Hopefully we can get these projects going soon.

Another project I am excited to begin is assisting in the design of a Facebook banner for a game called GridIron Live (beta version) by Challenge Games. The banner invites users to become a fan of GridIron Live on Facebook.  It is extremely challenging to get users to click on Facebook banners. (I know I don’t!) The second challenge of this particular banner is that the banners are targeted towards females. I know that I fit into the stereotype of women being uninterested in computer games and football. Yet I get to put myself in the shoes of some girl who may be passionate or just intrigued because that’s all her boyfriend wants to do when she comes over. I am about to start brainstorming ways to get females to become a fan of GridIron Live. Any ladies out there play football games online?

The Design Bible

David suggested I read the book, Ten Faces of Innovation, by Tom Kelley. According to David, this is the bible. The author works for IDEO (a design firm) and pretty much holds my dream job. Another book David loaned me is the Universal Principles of Design, which I really like. I try to conquer a few pages every time I come into the office. 

Yesterday, I learned about digital analytics. I will be measuring FG SQUARED’s social media sites’ traffic and usage. Although my interest lies with creative, I understand we need the stats to back up our work. Otherwise everything is pretty much useless and down the toilet, in a client’s eyes. Therefore this is a good exercise for me.

A project we are hoping to begin next week is the Do’s and Don’ts of the new Austin parking meters. We are going to make a YouTube video that hopefully involves a wrestler teaching us important messages about the new parking meters. FG SQUARED could also benefit from the publicity if the video gets some recognition. Seriously, those are some complicated parking meters.

In Full Swing

I have some great news to share. Thank my lucky stars—I was accepted into the creative sequence at UT! I can’t even express how relieved I am, except for the fact a tremendous amount of tears were saved. I think the creative sequence is going to work wonderfully in tandem with my internship at FG SQUARED, both giving me different insights on solving marketing problems through creative means.

Additionally, it is my second week at FG SQUARED and David’s $20.09 campaign for UFCU will be wrapping up shortly. I have had the opportunity to sit in on several conference calls regarding the campaign. I also assisted in designing a button for David’s blog, which you guys can check out at http://twentydays.wordpress.com/next-challenge/. (It’s the “tweet this blog” button.) Currently, I am writing a creative brief for “the creative incubator” room. The challenge with the room is that it needs to be a place that spawns creative ideas and a place client meetings can still occur. However, I think the room will actually be a great place to showcase FGSQUARED’s creative thought process to clients. The assignment is a pretty awesome opportunity because I can learn to write a creative brief, even if it is a bit of an alternative creative brief, so to speak. I am having fun writing it. This work lets me flex my creative muscles through both the writing portion and having to concept ways to have the space ignite creative brainstorming sessions. The room is being decorated on a budget, which shouldn’t be a problem because the office happens to have quite a bit of designing material. We are painting one wall with white board paint and putting a Wii in the room as well. It should be a really cool space. Not to worry, I’ll be posting a before and after picture of the room and possibly making a little YouTube video out of it. Can’t wait to show it!

One Month in Austin. Day One FG SQUARED.

I recently moved to Austin hailing from NYC to begin my Master’s in Advertising here at the University of Texas at Austin.  I moved here not knowing a soul, missing my friends and tromping around the city with a grande posse. Regardless of my loss, my motivation was in full throttle and kicked me into high gear as soon as my feet touched the dry Tejas soil.

Prior to moving to Austin, I worked in an advertising job for over a year which consisted primarily of media planning, which I felt crushed my imagination and my spirit. I do not want a job that consists of spreadsheets. EVER.  I know the dangers of having a job that you do not thrive in. Hence, I made a promise to do everything in my power to find my place in the advertising world. I confess, I am an advertising nerd.  I love it.  I would rip ads out of magazines and hang them on my wall even when I was a little girl.  Before I moved to Austin for grad school, I was hounding UT advertising alum that had relocated to NYC. I even went to the Art Director’s Club show to check out other UT student work. (Great work, I must say!)  I studied advertising and sociology at the University of Georgia as an undergraduate. However, now I have the opportunity to fully hone in on the trade. I also have the advantage of coming from an advertising background to know what I want to gain from my experience here.

I know the best learning experiences truly come from outside the classroom, making an internship my first and foremost goal while attending UT Austin.  I adore beautiful, smart print.  However, the industry is drifting further and further from the print era.  It is expensive and a bit unrealistic.  This was a driving force for my desire to learn and understand the interactive side.  I didn’t have the opportunity to learn that much about it as an undergrad at UGA and my client in NYC was primarily old school with print and events.  Needless to say, I am completely stoked to become part of the team here at FG SQUARED.  My boss’, David, enthusiasm is what brought me on board.  So much energy; I love it!  I feel I have a lot to learn and FG SQUARED has a lot to share.  Can’t wait to see what is in store and to keep you guys posted!

It’s been great, but Time to go

Ladies and gentlemen, this is my last blog entry. I will be officially done with my internship at the end of this week, and I cannot thank all of you enough for actually reading my entries. When I first started blogging, I was worried. I was not quite sure if my writing was up to par or if I could actually write anything worth reading. However, writing this blog has been a great opportunity, and interning at FG SQUARED has given me so much experience.

I first came to FG SQUARED anxious and unsure about my skills. I was not confident that my knowledge in advertising and marketing at the time would land me a job later on. But after interning here, I know FG SQUARED has taught me the technical skills that will help me be more successful in my career. They did not give me boring or grunt-like work. I had little supervision and they gave me a lot of trust concerning my opinions for client work. FG SQUARED implemented my suggestions and did not sneer when I, the intern, spoke out. Overall, it is a great place to work, and I thank them.

Even though my time here is done, please keep checking FG SQUARED’s multiple online pages to receive updates on what they are doing:

www.facebook.com/fgsquared

www.twitter.com/fgsquared

www.youtube.com/FG2Squared

Seriously, they actively help the community and care for Austin residents. Also, for those looking for internships for the fall or spring semesters, they are looking for more people.  If you want to learn more about marketing and designing skills, go to www.fg2.com to apply.

Thank you all, once again, for reading my blogs and keeping up with me. There might be another intern updating this in a few weeks, or someone else might take this over. Hopefully, this blog can continue and be even better. Thank you and take care.

-Chris

Chris Bosh can Twitter and Weddings are Awesome!

I just finished with my presentation about some of the advantages of social media channels. Using Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube properly can generate all types of coverage and awareness. One of my last assignments before my internship is over is to determine the best way to use social media channels to generate traffic to the www.fg2.com main webpage. Well, hopefully you all clicked on it, and that was one way to generate traffic to the awesome webpage. Do you know one of the people who can utilize social media channels most effectively? Chris Bosh.

For those of you who may not know Chris Bosh, he is an NBA All-Star playing for the Toronto Raptors. He is a marketing product for many different companies and himself, and he advertises himself extremely well. People first noticed his creative ways when he created a YouTube video to get more votes for the 2008 NBA All-Star game. Some of you might have seen it, but for those who haven’t, he dressed up as a used car salesman and pleaded with the viewers to send him to New Orleans with a country twang accent. Needless to say, he and the video looked absolutely ridiculous. But it worked.

Bosh posted the video December 28, 2007, and to date the video has 716, 486 views. I’ve seen ESPN cover the YouTube video; TNT analysts Kenny, Ernie, and Barkley; and various friends have sent me the video. Bosh was able to take the simple concept of getting votes to the NBA All-Star game to a global viral effort. He got free publicity that many companies strive for, and he was able to achieve his goal by getting into the All-Star game. However, YouTube was only the first stepping stone for Bosh; he also mastered Twitter.

Starting early July, Bosh and Charlie Villanueva made a bet about who could get to 50,000 Twitter followers first. The loser would have to appear and become a character in the winner’s YouTube video. Each posted various YouTube videos to promote the race. ESPN even interviewed Bosh about the bet. Both tried by whatever means possible to win the bet. Villanueva even promised to donate a pair of shoes for a child in need for every new follower up to 50,000. As of July 24, 2009, Bosh was losing to Villanueva, who only needed 3,172 followers more to win. However, despite all of Villanueva’s efforts, Bosh won the bet and now has 56,893 followers.

Bosh might have an advantage when it comes to generating YouTube views or getting Twitter followers since he is a professional athlete. Nonetheless, it is hard to ignore his uncanny ability to use social media channels to accomplish his goals. I hope my goal of generating views for www.fg2.com will be successful. Maybe I need the help of Bubba =D.

Thanks for reading, and I hope everyone has a great weekend.

-Chris

P.S. I want to just add this for your viewing pleasure. I think this is absolutely hilarious and awesome!

Almost at the Finish Line

Wow. I have less than 20 hours left before I am officially done with my internship. I haven’t been working on any client projects, but I have been helping with internal projects such as our new website. It’s pretty tight; what do you think?

http://www.fg2.com/

I never realized how much time and effort went into designing a website. Some people that I’ve met make it sound so simple. It also didn’t help my assumption when my only experiences with websites are Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and the now seemingly archaic Xanga (which really was only about 5 years ago).

For this site, though, the entire FG SQUARED team contributed to the design, and it took literally months to redesign and perfect the pages. All of the content needed editing and all the Javascript and Flash animation needed adjusting. Please, trust me on this. It may not sound like much, but after spending a few hours clicking and clicking and double checking to make sure graphics and videos worked properly, I soon realized that the preparation time to launch a good-looking website is monumental. I would definitely recommend advertising and marketing students to at least learn the basics of html. That is definitely a skill set I need to learn before I graduate and enter the “real world.”

Since I had to cut back my hours here at FG SQUARED due to summer school, I didn’t work any long shifts. This was a “blessing in disguise” type of situation because it allowed me to have even more freedom at FG SQUARED. When I wasn’t helping with the website, I was updating the blog and looking at the statistics for FG SQUARED’s various social media networks like Facebook and Twitter.

I really did just start blogging on WordPress a few weeks ago, and now I have less than 20 hours before I am finished with the internship. It’s pretty crazy how fast time goes by. But don’t worry. This isn’t my last blog entry or anything =).

Working here has been a great experience, and I want to give some advice to those readers who are about to start an internship or those who are currently doing an internship. I’m sure many have heard advice about being a good worker: being on time means going 10 minutes early, dress nice, be nice, ask for more work, etc. I don’t want to touch that advice because while, yes, it are important, we have all heard it before. I want to discuss two aspects that I think are important.

1. Talk to your co-workers—especially those at the top level of the company (if they are accessible) . I can’t stress enough how important this is. I honestly did not do it enough, but making a conscious effort to talk to all the employees helps in many ways. Not only did it help me make future work references and network contacts, but I was also able to make the day go by quicker through interactions.  My internship would have seemed 10x longer if I didn’t talk to anyone. Also, as my friend Grace would advocate, it is vital to go try to talk to the superiors in the company. The “superior” title may make them sound inaccessible or pompous and arrogant, but they’re not. Many of the executives, as long as they’re not busy, are willing to give advice and talk to the intern. This isn’t even considered sucking up . I promise, the superiors were once interns as well, and they are willing to give advice. Go talk to them.
2. 2. Have swagger; believe in yourself. I was a little timid when I first worked at FG SQUARED. I didn’t really talk to anyone; I was shy. But as I got more comfortable with the people and the atmosphere, I gained the confidence I needed to distinguish myself. I finally began to shed the shyness, and I began looking at the people here as equals, not superiors, which eased my mind tremendously. I continue to address them with respect, but their titles don’t make keep me quiet. I mentioned before in a previous blog entry that I needed to voice my opinion. That’s exactly what I did. I don’t just nod my head in approval while knowing my opinion has value. By having swagger, I have made myself noticeable and relevant.

Confidence cannot be taught. It’s a learning process that took me some time to achieve. I can’t guarantee that swagger or talking to co-workers will make an intern successful. But I do believe the office life will be more bearable by adhering to these two pieces of advice.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you have a great week!

-Chris

P.S. What advice would you give to interns?