The last one...

So I've missed the last class.. again. I seem to be constitutionally incapable of waking up before 8 a.m. But from what I've heard this last post is about our overall feeling on new trends in advertising and our fav trends. First of all, I have to say this was my favourite class despite the fact that I didn't show up for each class (it was my body's fault, not my mind's, I swear!:) If it wasn't for this class, there is no way I would have learnt about all those cool trends and have checked out and found all those new sites. And even more, I would have nothing to talk about in my internship interview. So thank you!

Guerrilla marketing and branded utility are definitely my favourite trends. I would love to work in an agency that specializes in guerrilla marketing. From the consumer's point of view, I can say that I've learnt quite well to ignore traditional advertising. The only reason I pay attention to it is because I'm in this industry. I also have to admit I don't believe almost anything I hear or see in ads. Very skeptical. Word of mouth has much more effect on me than a super expensive TV spot. That's why guerrilla advertising, in my opinion, has so much power. People see unusual and cool stuff and spread the word. Then I get hooked and go and learn for myself. Same with branded utility. Checking out something useful is awesome and makes me so much loyal to the brand than any traditional advertising.

Right now, in my career, I'm taking a road of media planning. What I have realized is that media planning can be so much cooler and so much more creative than traditional NewCap and Ottawa Citizen mix. And new trends are constantly changing media planning. Remember a solar-powered billboard for Nedbank in South Africa? Or "Save Our Climate" billboard for WWF Canada that used sunlight to show the effects of global warming? Here is the link if you haven't seen it yet - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLpvnnu66v8. It's pretty cool (was a nominee for Media Innovation Award from Marketing Magazine). This stuff is innovative use of media but it's guerrilla marketing in a way that it creates buzz and even those who haven't seen it themselves will hear about it from others. As a media planner, I need to be aware of this stuff, and I need to be aware of those trends. Online videos, shows, movies and podcasts are also something I have to constantly keep updated on - a big media placement potential lies there. Same goes for all the social news and networking sites. I need to know what's new and coming and working in the world of branded apps, widgets and other manifestations of branded utility. Basically, I need to constantly update and educate myself on all those trends we have talked about in this course since my career will have everything to do with them.

I also want to mention one really great site I came across while doing research for one of the blog posts - New York Festivals (http://www.newyorkfestivals.com/). That's where you can learn about International Advertising Awards In All Media. I have learnt about so much cool and different stuff in their Innovative Advertising Awards section.

The last thing I want to say is thank you. For baring with barely awake us each week. Reading all of this each week. And just helping us to see the bigger picture of the ad world. I've realized there is so much that I don't know yet and have to learn (in life and in this industry) and it's AWESOME!

It's all about experience (and permission to offer it)

Experience Marketing: American Girl
What American Girl, a division of Mattel, has done is just mind-blowing in terms of complete experience it provides its customers - daughters, mothers, families and friends. On the company's website, http://www.americangirl.com/, American Girl is described as "one of the nation's top direct marketers, children's publishers, and experiential retailers." The company offers " inspiring products for each stage of a young girl’s development—from her preschool days of baby dolls and fantasy play through her tween years of self-expression and individuality'. The products include books, dolls, clothes, toys and accessories. But that's just the top of the iceberg. What American Girl really sells is experience. Starting with American Girl magazine, variety of activities on the website, Real Girl of the Year and other awards, movies featuring American Girl characters, fashions shows, bookstore events and affiliated charities to American Girl Place and Boutique and Bistro.

American Girl Place in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles offer an unforgettable experience. American Girl Place Los Angeles opened in April, 2006 at the Grove, a shopping and entertainment centre. The Place includes several Boutiques; American Girl Theatre where visitors can watch a musical; American Girl Cafe where girls can put their favourite dolls in the Treat Seats next to them and enjoy "girl-friendly menu choices"; Photo Studio where girls can get their picture taken that will appear on the souvenir cover of American Girl magazine; and Doll Hospital Admissions services for "dolls in need of some extra care".

Following the success of American Girl Place New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, American Girl Boutique and Bistro were opened in Dallas and Atlanta in 2007. According to American Girl press release (January 16, 2007), "the American Girl Boutique and Bistro will carry a rotating selection of the company’s popular dolls, outfits, and accessories as well as a variety of its best-selling American Girl books. In addition, American Girl fans can treat their dolls to a new ’do in the Doll Hair Salon and enjoy brunch, lunch, dinner, or an unforgettable dessert in the casual Bistro. Designed as the ultimate place to celebrate girls’ birthdays and other special occasions, each American Girl Boutique and Bistro will feature separate party rooms where girls and their friends can enjoy American Girl–themed parties, complete with organized games and activities, special food and cake, and party favors. Various girl-and-mom-friendly programs and classes will also be offered at the store throughout the year."

American Doll offers one of a kind experience that is equilly appealing to moms and daughters. I'm honestly just blown away by all the creativity, consistency in all efforts and understanding of the target audience this marketer shows. It's almost like a Disneyland - exclusively for girls.

Permission Marketing: Seth Godin
I came across a blog of Seth Godin, a guy who wrote a baunch of books offering fresh view on marketing including one called "Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers." Check out his blog at http://sethgodin.typepad.com/. I found a couple of entrees on permission marketing which really made me think about this topic. Seth says "permission marketing is the privilege (not the right) of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who actually want to get them." In his opinion, those who give you real and obvious permission really do pay attention. And the permission has to be obvious. "Real permission works like this: if you stop showing up, people complain, they ask where you went." He emphasizes the importance of patience and humility for permission marketers.

I certainly think this is something we need to pay closer attention to. In today's world saturated with advertising people have learnt so well to ignore it - I'm one of them. I don't want to see, hear or read what I don't care about.. do you? Sometimes when you walk down the street in downtown area, you'll get an odd guy or two passionately trying to tell you how to get to heaven. Did you ever actually stop and listen? I didn't. I was focused on moving away from him as fast as I could. So aren't we doing the same thing practising "interruption marketing"? And then hoping someone will like the guy's tie or accent and will finally listen to his "get to heaven in 3 easy steps" speech. Just something to think about.

Branded Utility: M&Ms

Check out http://www.mms.com/ because it's friggin SWEAT! I must have spent a good couple of hours on this site. BecomeAnMM is one of the fun things the site offers. Create your own character then take a pic of him/her in a Photo Studio or have him/her star in a movie (and you get to choose your own soundtrack too). Here are my pics:

And that's not all. Download wallpapers and Screensavers. Send fun e-cards. Play numerious games. Prepare for the Academy Awards by getting tips on throwing your Oscar party, learning about Red Carpet Do's and Dont's and Dressing for Scene. Get recipes, holiday ideas and party tips. And of course customize your M&Ms and even your M&Ms merchandise. M&Ms really does take it to a different level by offering you a complete fun brand experience and a lot of useful cool stuff which what branded utility is all about.

Also check out http://www.psfk.com/ for posts on Branded Utility. I suggest reading an interview with Benjamin Palmer of Barbarian Group (http://www.psfk.com/2006/11/branded_utility_1.html) and one with Gabor Vida of Teknision (ever heard of him?) (http://www.psfk.com/2006/12/branded_utility.html)

Broadband Revolution? Hmm

Alright, so I took on the Broadband Challenge and...
...and well, I still prefer regular TV.


I started out with MTV.ca. The site allows to watch music videos, music news and TV shows episodes. Great! I decided to check out A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila. All went well until one episode after another would freeze after about 2 minutes into it. And never work again. Not fun. I don't know if I should blame my Internet connection for this misfortune (although I have high-speed) or not, but I quickly lost interest in this site and moved on.

Next was Joost. A baunch of shows, videos and even channels. Awesome! Except in order to be able to watch anything, one has to download Joost. I started the download but after realizing it would take quite a while, I gave up. Plus some content is not available in Canada. Moving on.


About Torrent stuff. I did have ABC (Yet Another Bittorrent Client) on my computer at some point in the past. However, whenever I tried to download something, it would never work. Finnally, I deleted the whole thing. I have heard some people using it succesfully, however. Unfortunately, I am not one of them.


I also have LimeWire. It's great for downloading music. But movies or shows... well, I guess I just don't have enough patience.


I really liked TED, however. This great website offers a lot of talks that can be searched by date, topic, tags as well as ratings such as "most jaw-dropping", "most persuasive", "most courageous", "most inspiring", "most funniest" etc. Surprisingly, I was actually able to watch a couple of talks without any problems or slow downs. I definately think this site is good for education and insparation, but not as an alternative to traditional TV.

Then, off course, there is YouTube. A great source for commercials, music videos, political info and funny stuff. But, again, is not a replacement for traditional TV.

There is another website I had success with in the past - http://www11.alluc.org/alluc/. A year ago or so I spent nearly 3 days watching OC and Friends on it. And I definately used it as a substitude for traditional TV. However, that was at a friend's house and I didn't seem to have any connection/speed problems except for few occasions. When I tried to watch full TV shows episodes at home though, I experienced some problems again. Which makes me think it may have something to do with my Internet connection.

A word on advertising. I don't remember seeing any ads at all to be honest. Obviously, if you download stuff, it's commercials-free. On MTV.ca, I saw a tiny clip for MTV while watching a TV show episode. There are really no ads on YouTube (I've read somewhere they are making a point not to saturate the site with advertising 'cause that may drive people away). Haven't seen any ad content on TED either.

The verdict? Not a fan of downloading. Not a fan of staring at a screen waiting for stuff to unfreeze and load. Not such a big fan of watching TV online. With a little more patience and better Internet connection, I could probably spend a little more time watching stuff online. But for now.. for now I'll stick with the good old TV. And even though I only have 4 channels at home, I find it enough and more satisfying than watching stuff online. For some reason, I preffer to read online rather than watch or listen.

Social News or "I'm in Control"

Since the concept of social news is pretty new to me, I decided to do some research. What I have found amazed me. As it turns out, there are over 380 social news sites online. I came across Dosh Dosh, a blog "about how to make money online". Check out this post http://www.doshdosh.com/list-of-social-media-news-websites/. It provides a list of 48 social news sites devided into 2 categories: General Social News and Niche Social News.

Among General Social News, there is Digg, Netscape and Newsvine, a new-to-me site that I've found quite interesting. Newsvine's got articles on a variety of topics. Users can submit links to articles from mainstream media as well as create their own profiles and blogs. As the owners of the site describe it, "At Newsvine, you can read stories from established media organizations like the Associated Press and ESPN as well as individual contributors from all around the world. Placement of stories is determined by a multitude of factors including freshness, popularity, and reputation. Contribution is open to all, and editorial judgement is in the hands of the community." You can check out local weather, read news from mainstream media or written by Newsvine columnists (basically people like you and me with their own blogs), search news by tags or users, take a look at the "most active" articles (most voted and/or commented on). The topics covered are much broader than those on Digg in my opinion and appeal to a broader audience. I think Newsvine users and visitors have a lot of control of what they want to read. The way I see it it's like mainstream media PLUS opinions of many individuals. If you don't like the mainstream article on the topic, you can always find one that someone has written to express his opinion which can be pretty similiar to yours.

There is a wide variety of sites among Niche Social News sites suggested, ranging from celebrity gossip and wine to stock and investment news and open source software. One that may be of interest to us, ad people, is perhaps Design Float (http://www.designfloat.com/) focused on design-related content. The site covers advertising, web design, graphic design, identy & branding etc. After clicking on Advertising category, I've selected Creative Advertising entry and guess what. The link took me to a Russian (!) blog that features a whole lot of guerilla marketing stuff from all over the world! Check it out at http://malevi4.wordpress.com/2007/12/17/creative-advertising-2/. All the stuff posted is in English (except for the author's comments) so you should have no problem understanding it. Well, let me tell you I found that pretty amazing, and am planning to come back to Design Float again.

Overall, I think Social News is a huge trend right now, and I don't think it's going anywhere any time soon. So we, advertisers, need to find ways to use it to our advantage. We have to be careful, however, since I think part of the reason those sites are so popular is that people feel freedom and in control. Overpopulating these sites with advertising will take that away and may kill the trend all together. How can we use this trend in advertising? Take a look at Chictini (http://chictini.com/) and Iliketotallyloveit (http://www.iliketotallyloveit.com/). Those sites are focused on new cool trends, styles and products and have links to online retailers where those products can be purchased. This is where Social News and advertising effectively merge in my opinion.