Tonight I’m doing some research for an advertising campaign project. I’m using Google Docs to write down key insights and brainstorm some preliminary strategy ideas. I also have Pandora playing in the background, because sometimes research needs a little music to keep things interesting.

After a while I decided to change the station I was listening to, and a video ad started playing. It’s smart on Pandora’s part to recognize when a user is actually viewing the page (like when they change stations, for example) and to play video ads in these moments when viewers might actually have a chance to watch them. As an advertising student, though, I realized what was going on and quickly switched tabs back to my Google Doc. I didn’t want to give the advertiser the satisfaction of exposing me to their message when they thought I might be watching.

But just when I thought I had beaten the system, the ad’s audio caught my attention. It was the theme from 30 Rock. Before I even realized how I knew the song my brain subconsciously associated the music with humor – something I like. I switched back to the Pandora tab as quickly as I had left it hoping to see a funny commercial. As I looked eagerly at the screen, however, I didn’t see the familiar 30 Rock characters I know and love. I saw a Google Doc.

Here’s the ad I saw:

I’m amazed at how instantly Google was able to integrate its brand message into my life. This might be the most relevant experience I have had with a brand to date. Two online services that I was using were able to share information to target me and present an ad that truly resonated with me. Even more impressive is that it worked! I almost tuned out the ad altogether, but the music enticed me to watch an ad that would have been meaningless had I not seen the video itself.

These are the kinds of connections I want to make between brands and consumers. Ads that enhance rather than detract from a media consumption experience. Better yet, ads that inspire a blog post.

I went to Office Max tonight because I needed copy paper and a three-ring binder for a sales presentation I have tomorrow. The cashier at the checkout counter told me that I could get $5 off my next purchase if I took a survey when I got home. I hardly ever take surveys, but after conducting several this semester for my advertising courses I decided it might be worthwhile.

Using my receipt, I went to the specified URL and entered in my survey code. I took the survey, received a $5-off coupon via email, and I’m printing it off as I’m typing this sentence. In fact, I just used the first piece of paper from the ream I bought. How about that.

While taking the survey I tried to imagine what insights OfficeMax was trying to uncover. Aside from the standard questions about customer service, questions about why I chose OfficeMax and what other stores I had recently purchased office supplies at were more interesting to me. It seems they want to know the reasons consumers choose OfficeMax over a typical grocery store, or other office supplier. Price, quality, carrying good brands, convenient store location, and having a wide selection were some of the options. I personally consider OfficeMax a leading office supplier brand. I wonder if they are simply conducting a maintenance survey or wanting to make bigger changes to the company?

As an advertising student I like to go through different consumer processes myself because I think it gives tangible meaning to the things I have studied. Experiencing these processes like survey-taking, in-store sampling, and others allow me to understand how things work in real life. Understanding the consumer is vital in planning a campaign because knowing how the consumer thinks, feels, and acts allows you to present your brand in a way that resonates with that consumer.

Today I went to HEB to buy some groceries. The first thing I saw when I walked in was a free sample table. They were handing out sample cups of freshly squeezed orange juice. There’s no way I’m going to pass up a free sample. I took a sip, and it was the best orange juice I have ever tasted. It was so fresh and clean tasting. I had to have some. There was a shelf full of bottles behind the sample booth, and on each bottle there was a $1.00 coupon! I was sold.

As an advertising student I’m always very self aware when shopping. I try to understand why I want something before I put it in my cart. “Do I really need this or am I being swayed by some outside influence?” I enjoy observing marketing strategies in real life and seeing how they work. Sometimes I’ll go halfway across the store just to put an item back on the shelf that I thought I wanted initially. This might happen when I see a 2 for 1 deal. If it’s something I came for, that’s great. But if I’m just buying something for the sake of the promotion, it’s probably not the best decision. I would be spending more money than I had originally planned to.

I guess it’s kind of a game for me. I don’t like the advertiser to “win” when I make a purchase. When I do see an advertisement or marketing promotion I try to envision what the overall strategy is behind it. Who are they targeting? Why are they doing this now? What are they trying to accomplish? When I realize I’m the target it’s gratifying, especially when the strategy works. The orange juice sample worked on me today after all. Their target must be people who want fresh, healthy products for a low price. I don’t think age or gender mattered as much. Anyone who shops at HEB on a Saturday is fair game. I don’t usually shop on Saturdays, but now that I think about it, that’s the only time I see samples. Putting samples during high-traffic days is definitely a strategic move.

In all, it turns out the sample lead me to find something new that I really liked and ended up purchasing. I have to admit, point of purchase can be highly effective. Maybe I’ll start shopping on Saturdays more often…

Sonic commercials have always been some of my favorite commercials. I was happy to see they began using the two guys sitting in their car again this year. This article talks about how Sonic went about rehiring them. Apparently the guys made a series of their own Sonic commercials on YouTube after they were phased out of Sonic’s actual advertising campaign. They made a Facebook page and a video asking for their jobs back. It turns out that Sonic was behind theseefforts all along and just wanted to bring these guys back into their commercials in a clever way. It was definitely a smart and inexpensive approach versus spending large sums on traditional campaigns.

Even though this event was fake, I think it’s a great example of how the internet can be used to market things other than company brands. Social media and other online platforms can be used to build personal brands and promote people as well. I think using these tools alongside traditional resumes and cover letters could create an advantage for anyone seeking a job in a somewhat creative field.

Speaking of making independent own Sonic ads, I actually made a video in high school for my school’s broadcast station about Sonic. I took the poem “Twas the Night Before Christmas” and incorporated Sonic into the story. It’s not exactly an advertisement, but I think the general idea could be used in an actual Sonic ad.

Today there are so many different ways to listen to music that I find it overwhelming. There’s iTunes, Pandora, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Grooveshark, tons of other online sites, and the AM/FM radio of course. You can even listen to songs on YouTube.

I grew up when CDs were at the height of their popularity, and because of this I appreciate the concept of music ownership. I’m sure this feeling is even stronger with older generations that grew up owning records, tapes, etc. When things moved digital I began using iTunes because it provided the ability to still own music.

It wasn’t until 2010 that I first gave Pandora a try – about 10 years after its creation. I can’t believe I waited so long to become a Pandora user! Never before had I experienced music being brought to me (aside from traditional radio) that was so specifically personalized. I wanted to “thumbs up” every song that played the first few days I used it.

A year after I started using Pandora, Spotify came out. All of a sudden, the world’s music was at my fingertips – for free. I used Spotify to find songs I heard on Pandora that I wanted to listen to anytime. Together, they have been a great combination for music discovery and compilation.

As great as these free services are, I still have a strong desire to own music. There’s something about an artist’s album being “mine” that is still appealing to me. I don’t want to own everything, but I do want to own the songs and albums from my favorite artists. I guess I use Pandora and Spotify for casual listening while I do more “active” music listening via iTunes and my iPod. It’s a strange thing to understand and describe, but I think others will agree that there are different levels of engagement depending on which forms of media we consume. I equate the casual vs. active music listening experience to watching TV vs. going to/purchasing a movie. You’re going to be more engaged in something you seek out yourself.

This concept can be applied to advertising. An ad is going to be much more meaningful and effective if consumers seek it out themselves. Content that engages users can create relationships with those users unlike any ads that are simply pushed at them. It’s an important thing to consider when going through the media planning process, especially for brands that want to become part of their consumers’ lives.

For our second campaign project, I’ve been doing a lot of work with the budget in Excel. I really enjoy working with numbers and formulas, and I like organizing data in ways that make sense. At first we were overwhelmed with different media rates and schedules and weren’t quite sure how to approach it. I made a spreadsheet that laid out all of our different media options, their rates, units, multipliers (spots/impressions/engagements), duration (days/weeks/months), and total cost. I also included columns for metrics measurement such as impressions, reach, etc. so we could keep track of that data as well. I linked everything together with formulas so we could adjust our spending in each media and see how it affected our total budget. In all, it turned out to be a very effective tool that helped us plan our media expenditures.

I also made a budget summary page to present the information in a more concise manner. I linked the values of the budget summary back to the original budget, so if we changed anything in the original budget the summary would reflect those changes. It’s just simple Excel stuff, but I thought it was pretty exciting. At first I was faced with the challenge of how to present the costs – by media or by flight. Since some of the media (i.e. digital) overlapped in all of our flights, I needed to figure out a way to show that overlap without creating confusion. I decided to put media categories in rows and flights in columns to represent their relationship. As a result, the spreadsheet breaks down the cost by both media type and by flight. For media that ran in more than one flight, I proportionally divided the cost based on how many months that media would be used in each flight. Online display, for example, is used in the Awareness flight for 3 months, Trial for 4 months, and Loyalty for 6 months. In Excel I did =(total cost of display)*3/13 for awareness, =(total cost of display)*4/13 for trial, and =(total cost of display)*6/13 for loyalty. This approach more easily shows how we’re spending money during each flight.

Mexx International is a fashion company offering a wide range of clothing for adults and children. Recently, the campaign for their youth store Mexx Kids has received criticism for its questionable depiction of young children. Print and poster ads feature young children posing provocatively and physically exposed. One ad in particular features four children – two boys and two girls – posing shirtless in front of a white backdrop wearing Mexx jeans. The children have serious and somewhat suggestive expressions that are typically seen in advertisements for brands featuring models at least 2-3 times their age. This particular ad was run in parts of Europe, but similar ones can be seen in Canada as well.

This ad is unethical in my opinion because it places children in a sexual context. Children can be a touchy issue when it comes to advertising and media, and Mexx definitely crossed the line in their campaign. Under no circumstance should children be objectified in the media. Like others that have criticized the ads have said, it borderlines on child pornography. I completely agree. There is no justifiable reason to show have these kids pose shirtless with suggestive expressions. It would be one thing if the kids were behaving as children and wearing the clothes to feature Mexx, but when someone intentionally puts children in an adult-like context – especially one that is sexual in nature – and puts that out in the public view to accomplish marketing goals, I find it to be absolutely unethical. It serves to further the trend of desensitization already occurring in modern society. Images of beauty in the media have already skewed our perceptions and expectations enough. Children are even more receptive and impressionable to these sorts of images, and it is unethical for a company to communicate such negative messages to youth.

I get that Mexx is trying to communicate a “mature” image for a kids’ clothing store, but did they really need to go this far? They could have had the kids doing something like playing the piano or painting on a canvas – fully clothed of course. Whatever the case, there are plenty of ways for Mexx to communicate its brand image that do not involve exploiting children inappropriately.

Several years ago, my YouTube channel received enough views to become eligible for monetization via Google AdSense. I opted-in and allowed Google to place ads on my videos. This was in late 2009. I didn’t think much of it at first, because the first two years I was only making a few dollars a month. This year, however, my earnings have really taken off. In fact, I’ve made $375 over the last 365 days! That’s over dollar a day for just having ads on my videos. I try to post new videos periodically and link them to each other to increase their views and total ad impressions. Here’s a graph of my account’s lifetime performance over the past three years:

This graph shows a monthly breakdown of data. The blue line shows monetize-able views on my videos, and the green line shows estimated earnings. Total clicks, average click-through-rate, average cost-per-click, and average revenue-per-thousand are also shown. This information has been helpful when working on school projects to get a good idea of how online ads perform. It’s been exciting to watch the growth and, of course, to make money at the same time. I hope to take this interest of mine and apply it to any projects, internships, or jobs that I have in the future.

Today I Googled “interesting advertising” and came across an article called 52 Most Interesting and Creative Advertisements. It had some great print and guerrilla ads that really reminded me how powerful images can be in advertising. Here are a few of my favorites…

It may not be a picture of a Beetle, but I immediately recognized this was a Volkswagon ad. VW has done a great job over the years keeping consistency among its advertising’s look and feel. It’s pretty impressive that a picture of a goat can subconsciously trigger association with VW. That’s serious brand recognition.

This Pringles ad made me laugh. First you notice the hot air balloon. No big deal. Then you see the fire-breathing man holding a can of Pringles. He’s just casually spitting fire and cruising over the city. Seems like a relaxing way to spend a cloudy day. It’s a clever way to highlight a new, and apparently very spicy, product from Pringles.

This is my favorite ad on the list. Out of Home, guerrilla advertising always interests me. I wish guerrilla efforts were easier to plan for and measure like traditional media because they seem to be the sorts of strategies I think of first when brainstorming media strategies. TV and radio can be so expensive, and there’s issues with clutter, audience attention, etc… I think the most meaningful (or at least memorable) brand messages come from tangible interactions like this Bounty campaign. It’s not only unique and interesting, it’s makes sense for the brand.

Studying media, it’s easy to forget about the creative execution of advertising that can really add value to a campaign. All of the numbers can get so distracting… populations, demographics, media costs, flight schedules, measurement metrics, etc. I guess that’s the job of a media planner though. It was just nice to take a step back from the excel spreadsheets and media plan decks and get a breath of fresh advertising air. I used to enjoy flipping through magazines just to find the best ads. Today I was reminded of my appreciation for creative advertising and of how effective a simple print or real-life image can be. It doesn’t always take lots of copy to communicate a brand’s message. Letting the audience observe, interact with, and interpret an ad can be even more rewarding, and, unlike TV, radio, and other fleeting media, print and out of home allow consumers all the time they want and/or need to engage with an advertisement. I think this is an important insight into why ‘permanent’ forms of ads are necessary to build brand consideration. Brands live in these forms and become meaningful entities themselves. A picture is worth a thousand words, and a tagline.

Alright, it’s 11:11 on a Wednesday night and I’m blogging. Something new for me. I never thought I’d get a Twitter either but it I actually really enjoy using it. It’s nice to have an outlet for my thoughts. I guess blogging is similar, just with more freedom.

What’s got me blogging is an advertising course I’m taking at The University of Texas – Advanced Media Strategies. It’s the first course of the TexasMedia sequence, a special program within the advertising school focused on media in advertising. The point is for us to begin developing content to add to our portfolios. I don’t have an online portfolio yet, but I plan on creating my own website over Christmas break when I have some free time. I enjoy design and I look forward to having a little project to work on. I don’t have much experience designing websites, but I like learning how to use new programs and software tools.

I know having a portfolio will be beneficial in the future, and although it feels like extra work right now, I’m excited to build my own brand and establish an online presence. Tonight I just wanted to start things off and get a feel for blogging. So here’s the beginning of my online journey. See you on the other side.