An Adventure with Wieden+Kennedy and Brandon Thornton (Class Speaker Prep)

            On Monday night, I attended Brandon Thornton’s presentation on finding your voice.  Partially because it was extra credit for both my Advertising and Integrated Marketing Communications class, partially because it was about finding your voice (and I definitely struggle with that), and partially because I wanted a bit of prep before his Advertising presentation on Tuesday.  Here’s a bit of what I learned from the presentation, as well as from a bit of research…

            Brandon Thornton is the Lead Strategic Planner at Wieden+Kennedy, specifically on the Nike basketball account.  He is from Richmond, VA and is a Virginia Tech graduate.  Upon graduation from Tech, he took the first job he could, and worked for UPS, solving shipment issues.  He was not all that enthused to be working there and eventually decided to apply to VCU’s Brand Center.  From there, he was a store manager for American Apparel, and after many attempts, he finally reached his goal of working for Wieden+Kennedy.  He started as an intern, but has moved up to his dream of being the Lead Strategic Planner for the Nike Basketball account.

            As far as Wieden+Kennedy, I had never heard of it (I know, I’m pretty out of the loop in the advertising world).  But after researching it, I realized that I am very familiar with their work.  Obviously, I am familiar with the brand Nike, and have seen many of their advertisements.  Wieden+Kennedy has also worked on the Levi’s, Velveeta, Old Spice, Target, Diet Coke, and many other accounts.  Recently they have done the Old Spice advertisement with NFL player Greg Jennings, Facebook’s first ever advertisement, and Procter and Gamble’s “Thank You, Mom” advertisements during the Olympics just to name a few.

With all of this information, here are my questions…

Toying with going to grad school eventually myself, did you feel that you needed to attend some sort of graduate school in order to achieve your goals?  Why or why not?

I know that Nike Basketball was your dream, but now that you’ve reached it, have you decided on a new goal?

Are there certain tests you use to evaluate a creative?

An Adventure with the Top 10 Female Ad Icons of All Time

            I recently read the article "Ad Age Picks the Top 10 Female Ad Icons of All Time".  I was drawn to it because I find brands to be really interesting, especially the spokespersons/mascots for them.  I figured, because of my interest, I would recognize all of the ad icons mentioned.  To my surprise, I only recognized half of them (Morton Salt, Betty Crocker, Miss Chiquita, Rosie the Riveter, and Flo).  The other five did not ring any bells.

            This was a bit of an awakening to me, of just how many advertisements are out there, and how long they have been around.  I have always know that there were many advertisements, but to think that there are widely recognizable icons that I haven't heard of (I know I'm fairly young) makes the world of advertisements seem so much bigger to me.  Its also a big realization of how much a brand or company can change their way of advertising, because I have heard of the companies that are mentioned in the article, but I wasn't aware of their icons.

            Though this article didn't have all that deep of an insight, I gained quite a big insight.  My eyes were opened even more that advertising is much more than what I have seen on TV or in a magazine.  Advertising has been around for such a long time and can have big changes throughout that time.  And the next generation of children may not recognize even the icons I recognized because of the constant change.

An Adventure with Oreo

            Motel 6, Lifesavers, Oreo, and many other brands/companies celebrate anniversaries this year.  To go along with the celebrations, the brands came out with different advertising campaigns to remind the consumer of their product and just how long they have been around.  Oreo specifically had a pretty interesting campaign.

            2012 marks the 100th anniversary of Oreo.  To celebrate, Oreo launched the "Daily Twist" campaign, which is the idea that for 100 days (it is their 100th anniversary after all), Oreo would produce a new advertisement of sorts that corresponded with something that occurred (or was going to occur) that day in history within the past 100 years.  These advertisements have ranged from the landing of the Mars Rover to the announcement of the iPhone 5.  They can be found on Oreo's website, or their Pinterest page, Tumblr, etc.

            I personally find this campaign to be quite creative.  I am not entirely sure what the creative brief might have been, other than to remind the consumer of Oreo in a creative way, while recognizing their anniversary.  This campaign definitely strays from the typical dunking your Oreo in some milk commercial.  Oreo cookies of all varieties are showcased, like the vanilla cookie and the different colors of icing.

            The campaign just ended on October 2nd, but I loved that it was so creative and not only was found in the typical print or TV spot, but social media was utilized as well.

Another Adventure with Target

            In my last post, I talked about the "Falling for Fall" advertisement that Target is currently airing.  Funny enough, in my Consumer Behavior class, a group presented on another web advertisement that Target is promoting called "Falling for You".  Target is again trying to promote the fall season's clothing in a different way than "Back to School".  As a young adult, you are no longer going back to school, so Target seems to have gotten the idea that they should also try and reach out to the younger crowd.

            The "Falling for You" campaign is a series of short episodes that come out in weekly installments as a romantic comedy genre.  At first glance, they are just short videos, almost like a mini-series.  But what makes them an advertisement, is that they are wearing and using all things sold at Target.  And as you are watching these videos, the items shown pop up in a side bar and link to Target's online store.  It is a pretty cool concept in that it is encouraging people to come back to the site to view the next video the following week, with even more product from Target.  It definitely encourages impulse buying, as well as promoting fall purchases.

            As far as the creative brief for this, I definitely think Target wants to reach a bit older audience than the typical back to school shoppers, but those that are still young adults.  They are also trying to get more shoppers to use their online store, making it much easier to find the products they are drawn to in the episode by directly linking them to the site.

An Adventure with Target

            Over the past few weeks, I have noticed that Target has launched a campaign for fall.  This is one of the first seasonal specific advertisements that I have seen.  Yes, there are the typical shopping "seasons" such as "Back to School", "Spring Cleaning", etc., but rarely do you see an advertisement for a seasonal type of clothing and house goods.  Obviously, I was intrigued.

            I thought that not only was this type of advertisement something that isn't all that common (advertising a season), but it was just a creative commercial in general.  It shows how seamless, simple, and fairly easy the transition from summer to fall can be.  And this specific transition is typically thought to be not all that exciting because it is the end of warm weather, the end of summer break, and the end of family vacations.  Though I am already a lover of fall, this commercial made me love it more.

            Being in creative brief mode, I was curious as to what it might have been to result in this commercial.  Were they looking to not only create interest for fall clothes and house wares, but also the season?  And maybe show that Target can make the fall season fun, not something to dread at the end of the summer. Whatever their creative brief was, I think it succeeded in the idea that I am now more than excited to go shopping at Target for all my fall needs.

An Adventure with the History of Advertising

            Advertising has been around for ages.  I kind of figured this was true, though I couldn't believe just how long it had been around for.  Or how it originated.

            In some of advertising's earliest forms, it was used as persuasion.  Like persuasion to view a gladiator match (yes, that's how long advertising has been around).  The concept of advertising really blew up when the Gutenberg press was invented because it was much easier to print those advertisements, and place them in magazines/newspapers.  Which also helped these publications to become cheaper than before (and sometimes even free).

            As technology became more advanced, advertising became more and more prevalent.  Media buying (essentially purchasing advertising space in bulk and selling to others) started to arise, making advertising a bit more affordable.  This practice is still in use today.  Just like many of the other practices that have come out of advertising's history.

            Personally, I find this pretty interesting.  As students in grade school, as well as in college, we learn all about our world and country's history.  Its really cool to learn about the history of why advertising is the way it is.  It makes the subject matter more interesting to me.  Advertising is not a new concept.  It is a concept that is constantly changing, but also remaining fairly stable, that affects peoples lives just like the history of our country.  It has shaped, and is still shaping our culture.

An Adventure with Modea and Steve Grant (Class Speaker Prep)

            After learning a bit about advertising agencies as a whole, I was surprised to hear that there was quite an up and coming agency here in Blacksburg, VA.  Most of the advertising agencies that are large and successful are found in large cities (NYC being a popular location).  Initially, I thought that the location would be a strategic issue for Modea.  It might be a lot harder to get the word out about and draw clients in.  But after looking at Modea’s list of clients, I can see that they are not struggling with that problem.  Modea has a healthy list of clients, which I can only infer that there is a good and positive perception about Modea and the type of work they put out.

            Not only is their work ethic positive, but Modea also seems to have an awesome work environment.  I am definitely a believer that a factor in producing great work is to have a positive and encouraging work environment.  If people don’t like their job, they won’t necessarily put their best effort into what they are doing.  You can see this in Modea.

            Some Modea Facts:  Won Small Agency of the Year, Best Culture from Ad Age’s Small Agency Awards; Expanding (hopes to have about 200 employees eventually; currently in the works of building an office where the old Blacksburg Middle School was)

           

My Questions for Steve Grant and Modea:

Clearly Modea has a very fun work culture.  What is one of your favorite parts about that culture?

What drew you to Modea?  What did you think you could bring to the culture there?

What exactly are your responsibilities as Head of Strategy for Modea?

What has been one of the most challenging projects you have worked on, and looking back, would you go about it differently?