Friday Fun Day

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Tis the most important day of the week!

1. A brother politely informing his sister of why you shouldn't meet someone from MySpace in person.

2. I used to read the Dr. Date column in the Minnesota Daily a lot more than I do now, and I remember often seeing pleas from readers such as, "Dear Doctor, help me find the hot girl I saw on the connector last Tuesday after class." Well, now, New Yorkers can take a pro-active approach.
via Lolz

3. At the risk of getting political, check out 3trillion.org. The idea is that the Iraq War will cost 3 Trillion dollars. The website asks, what would you do with this money?
via Fallon

DraftFCB

It's official. I am moving to Chicago in September to begin work with DraftFCB as an assistant account executive. Not sure what account I'll be on yet.

Crazy. 4 weeks left until graduation... then grown up life?

(hopefully not too grown up)

part 2

(read the previous post before reading this one)

Ted was all about the launching of a new airline on a bare bones budget. The creatives developed a campaign where they built up buzz around a mysterious character named "TED" who did random acts of kindness around the community. Ted sent flowers to hospitals, bought people coffee, cheered for people at games, all in the hopes of getting local media coverage.

Like I said, we have $750,000 to work with. That is like radio spots for 2 weeks. damn.
But, that can buy a lot of free coffee. And when someone gets free coffee, they tell their friends about it.

What if we were to "rip-off" Ted. Northstar is a little bit harder of a name to work with, but what if we developed a character called, "The Mysterious Star" with an image like this:


The star would recognize that commute time is not the best time of day for people and would do everything she could to make it better. But how do you make the commute better without just teleporting people from point A to point B? Or is that the point? Is "time" really what makes it crappy? I would argue that if people didn't experience unexpected delays, that if they had a straight shot from A to B, they wouldn't really care. It's not necessarily the time it takes, but the miniature delays along the way that add up into one big delay.

I'm stuck. How do you make the commute better without making it faster? And how can you communicate the multi-dimensionally better nature of NCR without it actually being in service?

"Marketing as a service" and Northstar Commuter Rail

In my campaigns class, the capstone to my educational endeavors at the U of M, we have been assigned Metrotransit's Northstar Commuter Rail as our client. For those unaware, NCR will be a commuter rail line (Note, NOT an LRT like the Hiawatha Line) connecting Big Lake, Elk River, Coon Rapids, and Anoka with downtown Minneapolis. The line will lease existing rail tracks from Burlington Northern/Sante Fe railroads and will make 5 trips from BL to MPLS in the morning, and 5 return trips from MPLS to BL in the evening with 1 trip in the opposite direction during each AM and PM.

The assignment is to plan a 6 month integrated marketing campaign which will introduce the service to the public. Ok, cool. New product intro. Opportunity for fresh ideas.

Issue: $750,000 virtual budget (and even less than that in real life)

Damn.

First of all, our team has been having trouble coming up with strategy. There are so many benefits to the NCR (time savings, $$ savings, green living, etc). After interviewing people who fit the demo of the target riders, it did become apparent that "time" was the most valuable of these commodities. But even that did not seem compelling. One man said, "I'd rather just sit in my car, turn on some music, and zone out. Not have to deal with other people's chatter or the inflexibility of public transport. Want to be on my own."

Huh. This is a problem. American car culture is a pretty strong competitive force. People like their cars, and even though gas is going up, up, and up, people like their cars.

The other issue is the inflexibility of the NCR. The schedule is very limited, meaning, people will have to modify their schedules w/ regard to the train schedules. People don't like to be told what to do. hmm...

The one thing we did realize that NCR has going for it is the fact that commuting generally sucks. My group member Joe and I found that out first hand when we drove the commute from Elk River to Minneapolis at 8:15 in the morning on a crappy snowy day. It took over an hour, compared to the 35 mins that the NCR would take. NCR requires:

-no attention required on the part of the rider
-bathrooms available
-pay not attention to weather, NCR is unaffected (seems like it would be important in MN)
-no traffic in one of the most congested parts of the Metro
-workspace available if you want it
-saves time and $$

Basically, it does the job of the car without all the hassle. We have deemed it the opposite of your traditional commute where your traditional commute is like your mooch friend who constantly makes you lend him money, help him with annoying favors, be his wingman at the bar, and never returns the favor. The NCR is like a helpful friend who tells you about the deals in town, shortcuts from point a to point b, says he'll drive if you have work to do, etc.

Car = mooch friend
NCR = best friend.

This led me to remember the Ted case study that I read about in Juicing the Orange

(see part 2.)

"It's so easy, a 12 year old can do it..."

...said Aki Spicer from Fallon a few weeks ago during his presentation about the top 10 things marketers should know about web 2.0. Aki was referencing that many of these technologies that agencies and clients are somewhat scared and unsure about are easily being used about all different types of people.

I just saw this video today posted on LifeHacker and was like "Damn." Granted hacking your ipod touch is a litte more complicated than using a Twitter, Facebook or Hulu, but still. This video shows you how you can use an jailbroken iPod Touch (NOT an iPhone) to make calls using voip technology.



Although I don't know how old this kid actually is, he is a lot younger than me.

Images.like.no.other

The newest version of the Sony like.no.other campaign.

Foam in Miami.

Excellent.



via Agencyspy

Using Facebook for good instead of evil.

As a college athlete and college student seeking employment upon graduation, for the last 2 years I have been peppered constantly by people telling me how important it is that I set my Facebook privacy settings to "hardcore" so as to maximize my invisibility to outside media and potential employers who may look disapprovingly on my personal life. This has been advised mostly with regard to inebriated self-portraits and other incriminating shots depicting generally bad decision making.

While I cannot claim complete innocence from bad decisions over the last four years, I can say that I am proud of what I have accomplished both academically, professionally, and socially, and actually wouldn't mind bragging about it. Yes, my résumé does do me some justice in trying to prove my worthiness to future employers. But seriously, résumés are so impersonal. Many people, especially those less familiar with In-Design and Photoshop, simply plug their information into the pre-produced Microsoft Word résumé templates. Can you say BORING? Especially in advertising where creativity stems from the dynamic created between a diverse set of personalities. In this sense, college students like myself, could make use of their Facebook profiles to promote a more personal side of their résumé. With greater power... comes greater responsibility. Use this for GOOD instead of EVIL... mmmmyes.

It comes back to this idea of transparency. In allowing access to your profile in even a limited nature to all those interested, it could help validate the credibility of something like a résumé or an interview. Instead of hiding behind the privacy settings, you have given an employer, or whomever, a small peek into your life. It's a teaser that says "Hey, see, I'm not so bad. If you want to know more... hire me and we'll go out for a beer." In hiding behind the wall of secrecy though, someone might consider, "What is this guy hiding?" Then, when you go in for the interview, they'll make you sit down and say, "Hey... I couldn't view your Facebook profile when I tried. Would you mind logging onto your account and showing it to me?"

*shivers*
oooh. Your privacy settings just got PUNK'D!

Friday Fun Day

1. If you like to play online games (and like to play against people more than just the computer) check out Cafe.com which provides many simple multiplayer games for your amusement and procrastination.

2. If you are like me and like to make stupid bets with people, check out WhatsYourRecord.com a place for people from around the world to rally around stupid accomplishments.

3. If you like to discover new music but want to know more about the band your listening to (and who incidentally, you've never heard of) check out Wiki.FM, a mashup of the sweet Last.FM service and Wikipedia. It brings up the wikipedia page side by side with whatever song is playing, so if something catches your attention, you can instantly find out more.

4. Finally, I was walking down 15th ave today and saw this ad in a bus shelter. HILARIOUS. This is a simple way to infuse a young and cool personality into a product like whiskey which generally has an old and tired feel to it. The whole campaign is great. Check out the Canadian Club website to build your own.

My generation (a little inspiration)

This is sweet:


via Love & Fresh Water

Job search 2k8 (the endless search for a planner position)

It has been 10 days since my last post. Merde. This blogging thing is hard.



The reason for the delay has been my constant bouncing between Chicago and Minneapolis in search of a job. I have interviewed at DraftFCB, Arc Worldwide (little bro of Leo B), and Colle+McVoy over the past week. A total of 19 interviews between the three. I am tired... though excited.

The biggest issue I have had to face is the lack of "junior planner" positions. With DraftFCB and Arc, I have interviewed as an AAE (with the hopes of eventually transitioning towards planning.) With Colle+McVoy, I have begun to interview for the planning internship position (with no guarantee of employment upon completion IF I were even to receive an offer).

My main question became, "Why are agencies so inclined to hire junior account, but not junior planners? Especially when every agency is looking for a planner with 3-5 years experience?"

A friend of mine at Fallon offered that clients pay lots of money for agency help and agencies perhaps don't want to give such an open-ended job to someone with inexperience. The best I could do is get in, work hard, make myself indispensable, work harder, and ask tons of questions, and prove myself. And it probably won't be easy to do it at a big sexy world-renowned agency. Might have to do it at a small agency, then repeat steps 1-5 at bigger agency later. Also, agencies probably don't want to invest in a younger person who is more likely to "take the money and run" when the next new big thing comes along.

Understandable. Many of my friends are continuously searching for their next new job. My generation especially is apt to instant gratification and instant change. But I also see the value in trying to prevent that. Isn't advertising all about trying to cultivate brand loyalty? If an agency hires a junior, fosters their development, cultivates them, and gives them room to grow and explore... I would think that the junior would feel inclined to stay and give back to those who helped him or her.

So the final question that I pose is which is better:

1. AAE position at a huge agency with hope of someday transferring to planning (threat: no guarantee of transition)

2. Planning internship at a smaller agency (threat: no employment guarantee)

I doubt there is an answer to this question. If you have an opinion, post in comments.

I think this question can be applied to many different jobs and other situations too. It reminds me of my college search a bit: Carleton vs U of M (small, quirky, intimate vs huge, DI sports, anonymous).

This has been top of mind for the last week or so, so I needed to write something. Every agency has been a great experience so far and reminds me of why I am psyched about my future. Fun, extroverted, forward thinking. I am definitely lucky. Advertising is sweet.