The Complexity of the Simplicity of Men (Part 1)

The bigger question in advertising is, "What do women want"? It is typically not, "What do men want?" The ease of answering this question could stem from the fact that it is my own personal opinion or the difference in complexity between men and women the reside in western cultures. Let's go with both reasonings shall we?

Men are simple. Sorry. I'm sorry, but you guys truly are. Most of you will agree with me on this... but I know a few men out there would beg to differ. Actually, most of the men I have dated were very in touch with their feminine sides (this was also their self-proclaimed selling points when trying to pick me up). In the end, this is exactly the key point advertisers must focus on. What "gets them the girl" or "makes them look hotter then their buddy" or "gets them laid". Even if your the emotional guy, you still have share common ground with the simplest of them all.

Men are sloppy. If it wasn't for women, men would lay around in their week-old underwear all day, watching TV, and eating the grossest of fried foods. I know this from hanging around with a large group of college men. Granted, they wouldn't display this sloth everyday, but at least 4 days out of the week.

Men are competitive. They are competitive all the time. In their conversations and debates, their video game playing, their jobs, their mental and physical health, and of course their quest for women. This is were the other 3 days out of the week come into play. Real life example: In my business causal to wear-whatever-you-basically want" workplace, I have witnessed a unique chain of events within the outfit decisions of the single men. Friday's are the days they look good. I am taking nicely ironed, button down shirts, nice shoes, nice shave, perhaps even a fancy suit jacket or sexy pair of pants.

Why this sudden dress up? Women at the bars and clubs during Friday night happy hours and late night parties. They would never dress like this on Tuesday. The middle of the week dress code for them is crappy T-shirt they got for free and extremely wrinkled cargo shorts. Now, lets not be a double standard here. Women also dress up when they go out on the weekends.. but they also dress up when they go to work. Or at least still look cute, clean, and their hair done.

It must be noted that all of this is for pure stereotyping (this IS an advertising blog) and should be used with caution. The true advertising challenge exists with the guys that for one-- are NOT single. If they already HAVE the girl, what is their motivation behind purchasing now? Two-- are GAY. What girls do they want to attract besides hags? AXE better make those pole dancing women into Chippendales quick. Three-- the guys who just don't think that way. You know, they ones who use natural beauty and charm to entice women. They will use any bar soap, have a scruffy shave, and eat chicken wings at the bar and will STILL get the girl. OR they will use more body lotion then their female conterparts, shave everynight, and order a salad over a long deep conversation about self actualization and not care about getting a girl until he betters himself =) Oh, the possibilities that are not the alpha male!

This notion could go on forever... until next time!

Gardening and crap

Finally. Sprout does gardening. It finally makes sense now. With the lack of much to do after my 9-5, I decided to purchase a hoe. Actually, a friend bought me the hoe-- a token of her affection towards my graduation. She believed that just renting a hoe would have been awfully too dirty and unsafe(and I no longer have health insurance to boot).

After leading a helping hand to my best friend and her cute little herb garden, I took to my backyard with that hoe. The first strike mind you was in 100 degree weather.. needless to say it took me like 4 days to finish digging up the grass (with a little bit of help of course). For a minute, my friendly little helper wanted to put an end to the gardening idea and continue digging for coal. She was overly excited to find coal particles in my backyard. They don't call it the diamond city for no good reason now do they?!

Now, I planted the garden Sun from LOST style.. I made a plot of dirt and then I planted in rows. No stakes, no mulch.. well there was some fertilizing soil from Lowes happening. For some reason, I went with these starter plants:

1. Early Girl Tomatoes
2. Sweet 100's
3. Red and green bell peppers
4. Hot banana peppers
5. Japs
6. Zucchini Squash

I like eating all these delicious items, so that was really my only reason behind the madness. It's been 2 weeks since I planted them. My bell peppers are starting to peak up (is that the correct terminology I don't know?) and my tomatos plants are sprouting out of control. I suppose this means I should build a stake around them. I also have a cute white picket fence in the works.

Smokers get there own personal TV??

A new advertising medium released in Brussels entitled, Ashvertising, has been popping up outside of trendy establishments-- ready to entertain any smoker the draws near. From my personal social smoker point of view, I think it is totally a conversation piece or conversation holder for any two people or party hanging around outside. How many times have you "gone out for a smoke" ready to be entertained. Especially, since you are being forced out into the street because your grossing everyone else out.

Selling points for business owners:
1.) You don't have to clean up cigarette butts anymore. Or you can just buy regular ash trays for around $5.00.
2.) Clearly, it does make your establishment look soo much more cutting-edge. I'll have to say that one.
3.) Makes for interesting and distracting moments for customers and/or employees.. hmm well I wouldn't want me employees to be distracted.. and I wouldn't want my customers glued to the Ash-Tube-- they would stop getting drinks!
4.) ..Then again who stops getting drinks?
5.) Oh, and free installation. Nice.

Selling points for advertisers:
1.) If you have a lot of respondents who smoke from your clients' surveys this may just be a cool option. I can just picture all the startling ad spots now.. that say stuff like "Hey you! Yeah You the one with the cigarette!" Ok, that would never happen haha.
2.) Really good targeting.
3.) Your target market likes to smoke.
4.) Your target market is so obsessed with TV it will watch it anywhere at anytime. Especially, when they are standing around aimlessly for 10 minutes.
5.) It's something new for your media team to buy?? =)

I'd like to see how it would do in NYC or perhaps south Philadelphia? I would imagine the damage would be unmanageable.

Saving the Spark: Developing Creative Ideas by Mark Boulton

Ideas. They’re at the heart of every creative process. However, almost no really good ideas are flashes of inspiration. They may start that way—a single glimmer of something special—but in order to work, they need to be honed. Like a really good cheese, they need to mature. Indeed, the “flash of inspiration” idea—the Eureka moment—is only part of a longer process that, if ignored, will see most ideas simply fizzle out.

So, how do you “have” ideas? Sit about and wait for them to pop into your head? If only most of us had the luxury to do so. No, for most of us, ideas have to be squeezed out of us every day. To stand up to this challenge, you need to arm yourself with some good tools.
As if by magic

There is great prestige attached to the word “creative.” Creative people apparently magic up ideas—wonderful solutions to the most complex problems—with the ease of a skilled magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat. The gathered crowd goes wild. What skill. How do they do it?

Well, I’m afraid I’m here to shatter that illusion. It’s not magic. These people are no different from you and I. They just have a different way of looking at problems and solving them. The good news is, they use tools that anyone can use.
A brief brief

At the beginning of most web development projects, there is a brief. In general, it’s not the best starting point for any project. Most briefs are not brief—they tend to run into several pages and are more akin to functional specifications or requirements documents. They are not the stuff of inspiration.

When I receive a brief, I try to get to the very heart of the problem, and rewrite it as an idea brief.

An idea brief is a sentence, or two, that sums up the project and frames it as a problem statement. A question that needs an answer. Something like:

We need to redesign our news service to appeal to a more global audience.

or

How do we engage an older audience for our social networking product?

This simple sentence is the question you are trying to answer and should be used as a springboard throughout idea generation. Once you’ve got one, and are happy with it, print it out and stick it on the wall. Constantly refer to it throughout the development of the idea or product. Does your solution answer that question? It’s so easy to get bogged down in the mire of documentation—it’s your job to pull yourself out of that, and the idea brief is the perfect tool to do it.
Structured ideas

So now you have your idea brief, where do you go from here?

We can’t rely on sparks of inspiration for ideas. How many times have you sat down in front of a blank piece of paper, or a blank computer screen and thought “I can’t do it today—nothing is happening. Right, I’ll play on the Wii instead.”

Most of the time, ideas need to be worked at. They need to be crafted: cajoled into shape by a dedicated, passionate team. We have one good tool to help us with that: ideas sessions.
Ideas sessions

We’ve probably all done these. They were called brainstorms until recently.

I used to loathe the idea of ideas sessions. Surely it’s a recipe for disaster? Get a bunch of people in a room to solve a problem. Everyone will have a difference of opinion, but you need to come to a common solution at the end of it that everyone agrees to. It hardly ever worked.

There are several things that need to be in place for a successful, productive ideas session.
The project team

Ideas sessions are a group activity that takes place with key members of the project team. This is important. In order for the ideas to be taken seriously, they need buy-in from the people who matter: the CEO or marketing director. Without that internal buy-in on the client side, an idea, no-matter how great, will almost always fail.
A good facilitator

Another important member of an ideas session is the facilitator. They should be trained in creative facilitation and are there to coax and squeeze the best ideas the team has to offer. They should remain impartial though—they’re not there to judge the ideas, but to apply the grease to the creative cogs.
Running order

I know it can be restrictive, but these sessions need a running order. People like structure—even “creative” people—no matter what they tell you! A typical running order for an ideas session might be:

1. Attendees introductions / ice-breaker
2. Reveal the brief—the aim of the day (the idea brief)
3. The rules of brainstorming
4. First burst
5. Stimulus—the Four Rs
6. Passionometer

Rules.

Following attendee introductions and revealing the idea brief, the facilitator lays down the law. The rules of brainstorming are important for keeping everything running smoothly during the session. They are:

1. All ideas are equal
2. We’re here to have lots of ideas
3. No judging
4. Analyze the ideas later
5. Everyone’s equal (no pulling rank)
6. Have fun
7. Keep to time
8. One idea at a time

First burst

Next up is the first burst. A first burst aims to get those really obvious, preconceived ideas out and on paper before moving on. Everyone will come to an ideas session with some preconceived ideas of how the project should look. Generally, they are the most obvious ideas and they will have been worked out to some detail. More often than not, they are the safest, least risky ideas.

The facilitator should record ideas and encourage attendees to speak up, but the important thing is to not get hung up on one direction or another. The aim is to have a lot of ideas. It really is about quantity, and not quality. At least, not yet.
Stimulus

Once the first burst out of the way, and all the preconceived and obvious ideas have been recorded, it’s the facilitator’s job to begin coaxing the ideas out of the attendees by using stimulus. The Four Rs are very useful tools for steering idea generation without a session becoming stuck down a certain line of thinking.
The Four Rs

I mentioned the Four Rs as tools for generating ideas. They are used by a facilitator in an ideas session to move the attendees from one idea to the next so they don’t begin to analyze or judge previous ideas, or become stale. The Four Rs are:
Revolution

Revolution is turning an idea on its head. Taking assumptions and reversing or removing them. E.g., a pub has four walls and a roof. What if it didn’t have walls, but still had a roof? Or to frame it in web development—and this is a great example of what 37signals did with Basecamp—what if our desktop software could live on the web?
Re-expression

Re-express the idea in a different way or from a different point of view. This is a fantastic vehicle for putting yourself in your user’s shoes. E.g., what if you were six years old and your parents were buying a booster seat for the car for you. What makes a cool booster seat in your eyes?
Related worlds

Think of a related world and use ideas from that world. E.g., cooking and gardening. What elements of gardening could be used to sell more recipe books?
Random links

Forcing a connection with a random object. This can lead to some of the greatest ideas. Random links often generate ideas which are off-brief, but that doesn’t matter. Sometimes, the most truly innovative ideas can come with random links. I’m sure Citroën designers were using random links when they decided to make the 2CV car look like a snail.
Loads of great ideas, what now?

The facilitator will record all the ideas on a single sheet of paper. After the session is finished, the facilitator will go through all of the ideas one by one and the group will rate them by the Passionometer (a fancy name for some stickers). One sticker for “not feeling it,” and three for “wow, this is great.”

The most highly rated ideas are shortlisted and then enter the next phase of development. That next stage could involve other ideas sessions, but more focused around one idea. The aim is to focus the idea down to specific, actionable problems or statements that allow a development team to take that idea and follow it through.
A flash of inspiration

Billy Connelly once said, of the House of Lords in the UK, “It’s a place where good ideas go to die.”

I think he was referring to the notion that ideas (in his example, legislation) can be watered down far too much in a forum of debate. To discuss, or hone, an idea at length is to destroy it. True, this can, and does, happen all too regularly. But, armed with the right tools, and developed in a structured environment, ideas can be realized to their full potential.

The flash of inspiration is important, and so is the final product, but pay attention to the bit in between.

Remembering Second Life (and my 90 page media plan!)

Here is an article I wrote that was published by Ithaca College's Fuse Magazine, a student-written publication for prospective students and their families. Sharing real student photos and stories and to provide honest, accurate student perspectives on Ithaca's academic programs, people, and campus life.

Virtual Learning

Video game junkies rejoice! Virtual worlds are not just for after school anymore—now they’re part of it. Second Life has made its way into the classroom at Ithaca, where students in the integrated marketing communications program have been exploring its impact on buyer behavior.

Last semester, I delved into this virtual culture owned by Linden Research as a member of professor Kim Gregson’s Audience Research class, researching and analyzing interactions between users—known as avatars—and the advertising of popular brands like Adidas, Coca-Cola, and many others. While immersed in a video game atmosphere I got the opportunity to interview Second Life users about their attitudes toward companies that sell and advertise products.

A typical day of research consisted of what many students do in their spare time—socializing online and playing games. I began my project by visiting virtual places like H&R Block (where I received some useful tax advice that I gladly used when filing my taxes this year). As a Second Life resident, you get to choose your appearance by customizing your avatar to look just like you . . . or maybe not. While exploring other islands in Second Life, I received many virtual promotional items to customize my avatar, including t-shirts, coffee, and even a Nissan car. It was fascinating to analyze my own consumer habits after interacting with various brands. After being given these items in-world I was much more aware of these brands in real life.

Second Life is also a popular place to hold events, classes, and business meetings. Holding lectures on Ithaca’s island in Second Life allowed us to accommodate special guest speakers such as Aaron Uhrmacher, senior account executive from the global public relations firm Text 100. Events like these enable students to network with professionals in New York, London, and even Japan without ever leaving campus. I attended two in-world lectures and received internship offers from Text 100. I also made virtual connections with a graphic design firm in Los Angeles. Much like my interactions with other students there, talking with professionals in Second Life allowed easier conversation for both parties involved, and the interaction was even more personal than it would have been on the phone or via email.

Interviewing Second Life residents opened my eyes to people’s entertainment, social, and purchasing habits. If I had to conduct these interviews in real life, I don’t think I would have been given the time to ask questions or gathered the same in-depth answers.

My immersive experience in Second Life was a lot of hard work but also very exciting and engaging. It focused me on where the future of marketing and technology are headed and challenged me to fully understand consumer behavior within a new social environment.

Print Your Living Library

Issuu.com is an online community portal that enables users to upload online print publications in a unique magazine format. For free! Membership is open to everyone from business to private operations to students. Signing up provides users to become apart of the online community to share and explore art and work. Community members like to share their work, show off, and receive critiques. Feedback and information sharing is the most prominent usage of Issuu. Within a minutes time, you’ll have an animated online magazine you can post anywhere on the web and share with people.

The Chris Anderson Free Economy principles that apply to Issuu would be the labor exchange and freemium strategies. It is a mixture between the two because it offers a web based software and service for no fee. It has labor exchange benefits also because Issuu promotes the site that offeres print publication content. Currently, Issuu is in its beta testing and does not have upgrade membership options.

Issuu does not currently gain profits through massive advertiser models. Yet, advertisers can pay to have their ads published on users embeds. Since February 2007, Issuu has been venture-backed by Sunstone Capital.

Here is an example of one of my publications. It is a collection of Felicia's Atomic Lounge ads.

About Issuu:
Issuu (pronounced 'issue') is a dedicated team who strive for excellence in online publishing. Our product and services are based on providing instant gratification for people, businesses, and advertisers. In essence, we reduce some of the frustration associated with publishing on the Internet.

Diageo's Fabulous Tanqueray Gin

Diageo is a world's leading premium drinks business with vast collection of beverage alcohol brands across spirits, wine and beer categories. One of these prominent brands includes the famous Tanqueray Gin(Number 1 Inported Gin in the US). Although not one of their key categories, Tanqueray has become a very popular brand within their umbrella brand equity and portfolio in the North American market.

Tanqueray.com was designed primarily for experiential users. I don't think task users would need to visit this site for anything. Task users would be more inclined to visit Diageo.com for Tanqueray product information like ingredients or how its made and its history.

Overall, Tanqueray.com is a simple, branded viral type site that is part of their Tony Sinclair brand reposition. I can agree with AdJab's blog reviewing the latest advertising campaign on this statement: "way better than Bacardi's ridiculous "Bacardi and Cola" 1970s-style pornstar wannabes. " I really disliked that campaign. Maybe it's because I am not a huge fun of Bacardi to begin with. Anyway, the smooth socializing world traveler, Tony Sinclair, is associated with the personality of the site. Through, the site is nicely branded, it could have more interactivity. Having all the TV spots for the campaign is a major plus and I think traditional wins this time. Also, as a 22 year old female, I am not part of the media reach for this campaign, yet I do like it. I must say, Bombay Sapphire's Inspired Campaign got me much more excited. It's their whole artistic glass and modernized fashion approach. Reminds me much of the Blue moon still life campaign. Marketers finally realized that hipsters and martini lounge lizards indeed enjoy a fine cold one.

The Tanqueray site is completely Flash-based so it does not include original or easily visible SEO tactics like meta tags right in the open. Search engines are capable of find the site though html title tags.The landing page title tag is simply, "Tanqueray -- Ready to Tanqueray? Always in Moderation." As for actual meta descriptions and keywords, they must be on a hidden file underneath called "labels.xml" (not too sure).

Since visible site content is in Flash, any other actual .html content consists of:
"The Tanqueray, Tanqueray No. Ten, Tanqueray Sterling and Tanqueray Rangpur words and associated logos are trademarks. Imported London Dry Gin 47.3% alc/vol. (94.6°) 100% Grain Neutral Spirits, Imported by Diageo North America, Inc., Norwalk, CT © 2007 Charles Tanqueray & Co., Amsterdam B.V." This site text can be found in the footer of every page. In addition, the site is linked at the bottom to THEBAR.COM and KNOWYOURDIAGEODRINK.COM " <-- This is in the footer. Search engines can pick up this text.

A well designed Flash site makes for grand branding experiences, not so difficult to browse but very difficult to optimize for the search engines because it lacks scannable content. In order to optimize, the site most likely embedded strong MetaTags on the initial entry page that is usually html only. On the tanqueray site, this is mainly where visitors focus on just inputing their legal age, but the content surrounding this interface includes html text that search engines can scan as well as MetaTags within the page source. Using the right keywords for items like description, tags, and title names work wonders for Flash based sites. It drives them to the entrance of the site before diving right into Flash content.

On Google's keyword search, Tanqueray is 5th on the list when you type in the word "Gin". Tanqueray.com has no paid or sponsored keywords on Google probably due to its viral strategy. The site was more then likely indexed by the Web developers and could have also achieved the Top 10 rating by number of hits that Google's Web crawler has analyzed.