HATE TO SAY I TOLD YOU SO! ALRIGHT!

I'm not sure if there's a cosmic force or a divine entity that determines fate.  Let's say you're driving down the road and you don't normally stop at Starbucks but you have this inkling for a grande mocha latte.  Something inside of you is screaming "STOP AND GET SOME OVERPRICED COFFEE!"  And you do.  You park your car in the parking lot and go inside (because this particular Starbucks doesn't have a drive-thru).  As you walk up to the glass door, you twirl your keys around your finger.  Today hasn't been a particularly good day, but it hasn't been bad.  The hipster-indie contemporary rock fills your earholes and the barista greets you as you step inside.  And then there it is.  Your "John Dorian Moment."  It's just her. The room goes dark except for a spotlight on her coming from nowhere. She's moving in slow motion, like a highlight of Adrian Peterson running over William Gay.  Every one else disappears.   There's no wind but her hair is still flowing in the breeze.  She's only there for you.  This is fate.  It's destiny.  At least that's what it feels like.

Maybe that's a bit of an over-exaggeration of what happened to me this morning, but it's close.  I saw last night that a friend of mine on Facebook had gone to see Pink with special guest, The Hives in Columbus.  I love The Hives.  This made me feel nostalgic so this morning I made some coffee and listened to them on Spotify as I poked around Facebook and Twitter.  Then on my timeline I saw a "suggested post" informing me that The Hives will be playing at House of Blues in Cleveland on Sunday as I'm listening to The Hives.  Was it fate? Destiny?  No.  I used my Facebook credentials to create my Spotify account.  Facebook saw I was listening to The Hives and showed on my timeline they were playing in Cleveland.  Otherwise I would never had known about it.  This is an example of advertising on a social media platform done right.  It was an advertisement that I was actually interested in.  It wasn't based off of some algorithmic equation trying to sell me a Pittsburgh Steelers credit card because I update my Facebook status about how much I hate the Pittsburgh Steelers.  The algorithm obviously don't count sentiment into the equation.

Then again, I wouldn't even be listening to The Hives right now if my friend didn't go to that show in Columbus last night.  Maybe it's fate after all.

Make A Splash

I was searching my old flash drive from college, looking for copy examples I may have left over and I came across a video my group made for the charity: water project we worked on during my final semester at The University of Akron.  I wrote and read the script and the video was produced by a video production company whose office was located on campus. 

Tom Hamilton Makes Me Want To Listen To Grass Grow

Tom Hamilton is the voice of the Cleveland Indians.   The way the man calls a home run gives me chills.  It’s not just about the way he calls a game, though.  He tells stories about the past of whoever is up to bat.  It doesn’t matter if the batter is one of the good guys or on the hated Chicago White Sox; he tells divulges details of the batter’s past that reveals the humanity of the batter.  Then it happens.  The crack of the bat emanates from home plate.  The pitcher buries his face in his glove.  He doesn’t want to know what happens.  Paul Konerko hits a three run shot to the Home Run Porch in left field but you would think Johnny Damon scaled the 19 foot wall to rob Konerko of his victory lap.  Hammy can make anything sound interesting, even if it’s just me hitting the snooze button on my alarm clock or sorting through my laundry.  This got me thinking of something.

What if WTAM made a television commercial promoting Tom Hamilton calling the Tribe games (I’m sorry I had to use the Indians terrible tagline to start off this paragraph)?  It’s impossible for me to adequately describe how bad Rick Manning and Matt Underwood are because no matter what I say, I’m still paying them a compliment.  The video for the commercial is simple.  It’s one shot of someone lying in bed.  The audio is Hammy describing the situation.  The script is below.

 (The scene starts with a grown man lying in bed.  The muffled sound of three children and a dog can be heard.)

“Matt had to be up 20 minutes ago to help his wife get the kids ready for school.  He was up late watching television, a decision he, no doubt, regrets now.

 (Sound of alarm clock. Muffled sound of children gets louder.)

The alarm sounds.  He whiffs on his first attempt to hit the snooze button, but hits it after fumbling around searching for the alarm clock.  Matt gets a few more minutes of rest.  He can hear the bustle of his family downstairs getting louder.  The pillow is wrapped around his head.  THE DOOR BURSTS OPEN! CHILDREN ARE PILING INTO THE ROOM SCREAMING THEIR LUNGS OUT! THE FAMILY DOG JUMPS ON THE BED! HE’S BEING PUMMELED BY HIS KIDS WITH PILLOWS! MATT IS AWAKE! MATT IS A-WAAAKE!” 

Tom Hamilton’s future Hall-of-Fame pipes make this spot work.  The events in the spot are meant to be simple.  It’s a relatively uninteresting series of events that may be described to a few family friends or co-workers.  Hamilton’s voice inflections describing the scene as if he was calling an Indians game sells it.  He could make me want to listen to grass grow.

THAT. JUST. HAPPENED.

For a team like the Cleveland Indians, they're having trouble finding their identity on and off the field.  Up until three days ago, they were the leaders in the AL Central division.  Yet, they rank dead last in the MLB in fan attendance.  We've seen the star closer, Chris Perez, and uninspired TV play-by-play caller, Matt Underwood, call out fans for lack of support.

You can have the best product in the world (in this case, the division) but nobody knows if you market the product improperly.

I hate the Indians "What If?" campaign so much that I'm not even going to ask an ironic rhetorical question using the phrase that displays how ineffective the tagline is.  It's an indefinite phrase that can easily be turned to have a negative connotation.  The campaign didn't premiere until after the Indians started the 2011 season 30-15, well on their way downhill.  First of all, the 2012 version of the commercial mainly focuses on the mid-90's Indians team with Kenny Lofton, Omar Vizquel, Jim Thome, and Sandy Almoar.  I get that the nostalgia can trigger a powerful emotional response, but none of these players play for the team anymore.  Sandy Alomar is a base coach for the Tribe, but will likely be leaving in the next few seasons when a lower echelon team decides to make him a manager.  I'm gonna call it, he's going to the Seattle Mariners.  My point is this: Why are you showcasing four players who haven't been an integral part of the team since 1998, two of them currently on other rosters?

Here's my suggestion: 86 the "What If?" campaign.  "What if the Indians made the playoffs last season?"  See what I did there?  Replace it with "THAT. JUST. HAPPENED."  Chris Perez retires the side on 9 pitches. THAT. JUST. HAPPENED.  Travis Hafner hits a walk-off Grand Slam.  THAT. JUST. HAPPENED.  Michael Brantley robs a home run in center field.  THAT. JUST. HAPPENED.  Masterson shuts down Verlander and the Tigers.  THAT. JUST HAPPENED.  Focus on the players that are currently on the Indians roster.  They make unbelievable plays week in and week out which means the ads can be easily updated with new highlights that keep the campaign fresh.  "THAT. JUST. HAPPENED." is a definitive statement.  It focuses on the present and who is on the team today.  "THAT. JUST. HAPPENED." gives the fans something to yell in the stands or at their TVs the next time Santana throws out a would-be base-stealer.  It gives the team and the fans an edge.  Everyone in Cleveland knows they could use it right now.

This Is What I Get For Having An Irish Last Name

If you came to this blog post it's because you're screening me for a job interview.  You can't find me on Facebook and if you can, you got absolutely nothing out of it other than I like wearing band t-shirts proclaiming how Incredibly Handsome an Army of Jasons are (Note: It's a t-shirt promoting my friend's band at the time, The Incredibly Handsome Army of Jasons.  I was supposed to join the band as the drummer so that all three members of the band would be named Jason, but I'm a terrible percussionist).  So now we know how common of a name Jason is.

This brings us to my last name, Kelly.  A quick Google search tells me that there are over 250,000 people in the United States with the last name Kelly.  That's a tad over .0008% of the population.  When you search Google for Jason Kelly you get a tattoo artist, make up artist (who apparently lives within 30 miles of me), an actor who played one of the kids in Mystic River, a hockey player, and a financial adviser who is allegedly a science fiction writer.  I say allegedly because he played off the Y2K scare.  If his book was made into a movie I can only imagine Nicolas Cage having the lead role.  But I digress.  I'm supposed to differentiate myself from the competition of other applicants to the job which I'm also applying for and the dozens of other Jason Kellys in the world which is difficult.  We're all incredibly handsome.

I know this blog post isn't going to sell you on hiring me.  All I'm asking for is an opportunity to interview with you, whether it be in person or on Skype.  

jasongkelly.jk@gmail.com

Finally, if you're a girl I just met and you Googled me before a date then I guess you'll just have to go out on that date with me to get to know me.

I Thought Copywriters Were Supposed To Be Creative

When you work in marketing, you need to come up with ideas for campaigns.  When you need to come up with ideas for campaigns, you can't.  When you can't come up with ideas for campaigns, you look  for inspiration.  When you look for inspiration, you rip off the source material.  Don't rip off the source material.

I was watching a Cleveland Cavaliers "game" last night when I saw a commercial promoting the club, but ripping off of DirecTV's current "When You" campaign (Note: Before you think "game" has unnecessary quotation marks, another pet peeve of mine, you can't really call their performance a game).  I've noticed that this has been happening a lot.  Maybe it's been happening all along and I haven't noticed until recently because my television consumption has gone up tremendously in the past year.  This irks me because there are professionals with commas in their paychecks who are ripping off great copy.  The worst part is, these people are getting away with it.  They're getting away with mediocrity.

I'll link the Cavaliers spot if/when I can find it on YouTube.

I'll Never Make An Obligatory Blog Post Of My Favorite Ads of 2011

Going to a first interview for a job is a lot like going on a first date.  I get dressed up, spend 10 minutes trying to get my hair to look just right, and I get really nervous.  The date usually goes okay.  We spend some time telling each other about ourselves and try to get a feel for each other.  I get asked, "Where do you see yourself in five years?" which I really have no answer for because I don't know where I see myself in five days.  Then we dive into our favorite things where we see what we have in common.  I babble off my favorite music, movies, television shows, books, etc... which is radically different from what my date likes.  Rob Gordon once said "...That what really matters is what you like, not what you are like... Books, records, films - these things matter. Call me shallow but it's the (expletive deleted) truth."


This brings me to my favorite 20 minutes of an interview at an agency: "What are some of your favorite ads?"  Unfortunately, it's mostly about shoes, video games, and alcohol.  But what else is there?  Car insurance?

The Puma FAAS commercial turned into an inside joke between one of my friends and I.  Our conversations devolved into us yelling "SHUT IT!" at each other.  It reminds me of the days when people would greet each other with "WAZZUP!" and there was always that one person who screamed it for a ridiculous amount of time.  That, and the song is really catchy.  

I used to have a negative perception of K-Swiss.  I have a positive perception of Danny McBride.  His character in Eastbound and Down is now the MFCEO of K-Swiss in this NSFW spot.  Sure it's filled with cursing and with it being 5 minutes long isn't really a television ad, but it's my list and now I'll at least look at getting a pair of Tubes when I buy my next pair of training shoes.  Plus, the writer of the spot, Matt Heath at 72andsunny, is apparently a writer of the third season of the show.

Captain Morgan just has this swagger to him.  He's under attack but he's not worried because he has plenty of rum to share with his enemies.  I can only imagine his pick-up line.


Captain Morgan: "ARRRR!  You got a little Captain in ya?"
Woman: "Yes, as a matter of fact I do."
Captain Morgan: "Ye want some more?"

One of my all-time favorite songs is "Undone" by Weezer.  The song is about a knit-sweater unraveling by pulling on a single piece of string.  The sweater is a metaphor for a relationship that is coming undone by a tiny issue, but that issue was enough to snowball and bring up other things, causing the demise of the couple.  This commercial is a giant metaphor.  Not only is Derek Rose in beastmode, he's doing so against two horsemen (one wearing Magic blue, the other in Celtic green) and three matadors with Heat red and yellow capes, who are representative of Chris Bosh, LeBron James, and Dwayne Wade.  And let's not forget the obvious: he plays for the Bulls and he is the bull, and his last name is Rose, which are normally thrown to the matador.  Perfect spot.

Blake Griffin wants to be in Rage?  In case you don't know, Rage is an ultra-violent post-apocalyptic shooting game similar to that of Mad Max.  Blake Griffin is an up and coming NBA superstar.  The two don't mix.  I think it's great because it's acknowledged in the commercial, breaking down the 4th wall.  There's that and "TIGER JUMP!"  In case you're wondering, he did make it into the game.

One of my first jobs was working as a bagger at a grocery store.  During my training, I had to watch a campy video that wasn't meant to be campy about how to do my job.  It was incredibly boring and I quit that job two months later.  This is the complete opposite.  The Stella Artois Perfect Pour is a campy video that's meant to be campy.  It uses puns to entertain the audience.  The spot also does what it intends to, teaches how to perform the Perfect Pour.  Sure, the brew doesn't taste any different and is a show for the customer, but it's a process that isn't done by any other brewer.


Honorable mentions go to (1) State Farm Casual Wednesday commercial for the "Office Space" reference, though Gary Cole should have asked for the TPS reports, (2) DirecTV's The Truth spot, (3) Allstate's Mayhem, and (4) any T-Mobile commercial with Carly Foulkes.

Anything You Can Do, I Can Do The Exact Same Way

A friend of mine on Facebook, okay fine, an acquaintance on Facebook recently posted a status update asking "Why are all the men in erectile dysfunction commercials so sexy?" which got me thinking about commercials for prescription medications because the first thing that came to mind was Dr. Kelso's monologue about his experience with the Blue Bombers which was funny but disturbing, and I had to think about something else. Quickly.


Marketing prescription medications has to be extremely difficult.  With names like Cymbalta, Pristiq, Zyrtec, and Claritin it's difficult to ascertain which medication is meant for which medical condition.  What makes it worse is that the commercials for all of these medications are identical.  The person in question has an STD/blood clot/depression/arthritis/flatulence which makes him or her completely unable to perform that day's simple tasks.  As soon as the sufferer takes the recommended dosage the clouds clear, symptoms subside, and the entire family is all smiles as they play on the beach/front yard/in the living room for family night.  This begs one question.


How do any of these products differentiate themselves?


What I've done here is compiled a list of medications that are all meant to treat different medical conditions.  None of these products are competitors of each other.  Or maybe they do.  I don't know what any of these medications do except for Claritin and that's only because of the product name.  It makes sense.  Breathe with clarity: Claritin.  It's an allergy medication!  Or does it break down mucus?  It doesn't matter.  Because all of the commercials for these products, despite being for different medical conditions, all follow the same basic template.  The user has a treatable condition that is preventing him from doing the day's task until he takes the medication and then is able to go on with his day.


Viagra and Cialis, ironically the ones that are for ED where this blog post starts, are the ones that differentiate themselves from one another.  I have to believe that this came from proper market research and extensive focus group sessions.  First, the Viagra commercials show a middle-aged man presented with a problem, and because the middle-aged man is "experienced" he "knows how to get things done."  He easily solves the problem and is on his way but not without sexual innuendo from the narrator.


Pfizer knows their market well.  Erectile dysfunction isn't a problem for young adult males, and middle-aged men hate being reminded that they're getting older.  Cialis takes a different approach in its advertisements.  They show middle-aged couples enjoying a romantic getaway.  Cialis is saying in its commercials that the effects of the medication lasts longer than Viagra so couples can wait "until the moment is right."  This suggests that users of Viagra were unsatisfied with the duration of Viagra's effects and opted to do the deed when one of the two wasn't in the mood, or not at all.


Viagra uses brand position to sell its medication to men who are experienced and know what to do.  Cialis found a shortcoming in how long the effectiveness of Viagra lasts and positioned itself to exploit that shortcoming.  I think the reason why nobody looks depressed or upset in those commercials is because they know they will be having sex within the next 30 minutes to 36 hours.

ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED!

I've talked to a couple of creative directors over the past month.  Both of them enjoy the work I've done with the storyboards and short print spec ads.  One of them suggested I do something longer.


Gamers, people who play video games, have a perception of being lazy and childish.  Most people think that all gamers do is sit around in their parents' dark basement and snack on Doritos and Mountain Dew.  That's not true.  My mom doesn't have a basement.  When I'm playing video games, I like to have the lights on.  I don't even like Mountain Dew.  I prefer Pepsi.


A lot of video games can be very challenging.  The most important part of a challenge is completing it and pushing yourself as far as you can go to finishing your objective. It's what gamers do while playing video games and it's what people do in life.  The idea behind the ad is to use video games as a template to how to evaluate problems and difficulties and to critically think about how to overcome them.  


I took the image from a Google image search.  I got the idea for the copy from Nike's "My Butt Is Big" ad from last year.  Happy Birthday XBox!

All I Care About Is Dark And Brutal

In the movie Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny, Jack Black and Kyle Gass hear of a myth.  There exists a guitar pick made from the tooth of Satan.  Whoever is in possession of that pick becomes the greatest guitar player in the world.  Guitar legends Eddie Van Halen and Angus Young at one point have owned this pick, and it made them the guitarists they are today.  

Some people say metal was started by Satan himself in the depths of hell.  While musically it has derived from the blues, the heavily distorted sound many metal bands use and morbid lyrics have made many conservatives think that metal musicians, starting with KISS, worship Satan.  

I haven't seen a single print ad that references this myth.  Most of them show the guitar being held by Slash or Dave Grohl or some amazing guitar legend that most people haven't heard of like the guy from Shinedown.  No American guitar manufacturer does anything to really differentiate themselves in advertising.  I came up with a campaign for DBZ Guitars, founded by Dean B. Zelinsky who designs guitars meant for heavy metal, that embraces the "origin" of metal, from the depths of Hell.  If metal started in Hell, shouldn't the guitars be made there too?

I took the guitars straight from the DBZ Guitars website and the background is concept art from Mortal Kombat.  The first one is a nod to Wayne's World where Wayne starts to play Led Zeppelin's "Stairway To Heaven" until he is stopped by a store clerk who points to a sign proclaiming "No Stairway To Heaven".  The second one is my favorite, listing the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and saying the fourth of the group (You) is Death.

And Today's Gatorade G-Series Performer Of the Game Is...

I can feel it.  The roar of the crowd is pulsing through my veins.  I can barely hear the clacking of my teammates Nike football cleats in the tunnel.  My center grabs and fistful of my Reebok jersey and yells through my face mask "ARE YOU READY?"  Before I can respond, he slams his Riddell helmet against mine giving it the first blemish of the season.  Gus Johnson and Cris Collinsworth are no doubt giving the viewers the Gatorade Prime starting line-up.  If this were last season, my Old Spice Swagger stat would undoubtedly be 45.  I'm only a rookie, but I lead my team out of the tunnel.  The barking of the crowd is deafening. I look at the scoreboard only to see myself on the Jumbotron.  My live image is surrounded by billboards for AirWest and StarkTec?  I've never heard of those companies.  That doesn't matter.  JasonAtTheDisco's trash talking in my ear piece snaps me out of my daze.  I have a head-to-head match in Madden 12 to win.


I grew up playing video games.  I love them.  It's an escape for me and a way to "hang out" with my friends that don't live nearby.  Here's a problem for marketers and advertisers: how do you reach someone who is saving the world from the evil clutches of EvilBadGuy?  How do you reach someone who isn't reading a magazine or newspaper but instead they're punting gnomes in Azeroth?  Well, you go to where they are.  And you punt some gnomes because it's fun.


Madden 12 lends itself to product placement and advertising very well.  The game emulates a television broadcast of the game while you play it.  Gatorade G2 Series sponsors the starting line-up (Prime), impact player (Perform), and Performer of the Game (Recover).  Reebok and Riddell provide the NFL with equipment so they also provide Electronic Arts with equipment, and in return, get product placement.  Every player in the game wears Nike shoes.  During breaks in the game, water boys go out on the field and re-hydrate the team with Gatorade squeeze bottles.  Gus and Chris even call for a commercial break after each quarter and during the 2 minute warnings.  The only thing missing are actual commercials and real companies on the billboards of the scoreboard.


The key to advertising in video games boils down to one key factor: is the game more realistic with your product in there without being overloaded?  With a game like Madden you expect to see the players drinking Gatorade and wearing Nike cleats.  In racing games like Forza Motorsport or Gran Turismo you expect to be driving Mitsubishi, Acura, and BMW cars.  In Rock Band you expect to see the band playing Gibson guitars. The product has to represent the lifestyle being portrayed in the game.  If Nvidia had an advertisement in Half-Life 2 for its GeForce series of graphics cards, it would make sense.  You would need a graphics card in your computer to play such a game.  However, it doesn't add to the realism of the game.  If anything it would take away from the experience because of the setting.


Now if you'll excuse me, I have to take Nathan Drake to Subway.

MAN UP!

Here's an example of Miller Lite's "Man Up" campaign which features men doing "unmanly" things such as wearing skinny jeans, whimpering at the airport because he's leaving his girlfriend for two days (the girlfriend is obviously completely fine with it), or lugging around a carry-all.

Completely ignoring the fact that this campaign is being called sexist and homophobic, Draft FCB's attempt to change the perception of Miller Lite's masculinity is a complete failure.  MillerCoors should have done more marketing research before writing up a creative brief for Draft FCB.  The vortex bottle neck is a gimmick much like Coors Light cold activated label (Bud Light jumped on the bandwagon with its customizable bottle labels).  The vortex bottle does not provide any "enhanced beveragification" but gives them a chance to make up a word that nobody ever uses.  Maybe if MillerCoors' marketing research had shown that Miller Lite doesn't taste great, resources would have been devoted to creating a new recipe.

However, I do not work for MillerCoors' marketing department.  I want to create ad campaigns, and ad campaigns I shall create.  Ad campaigns that are better than this.  If I were working for Draft FCB, here's what I would do:

I wanted to focus on simplicity.  Other beer commercials focus on the image one portrays while drinking said beverage.  Those commercials tell you how men should behave and give you unreasonable expectations.  The "Man of the Day" campaign relies on men doing something nice just for the sake of doing something nice and get a reward in the process showing positive reinforcement which is more effective in influencing one's behavior than negative reinforcement.  Instead of having poor Guy berated by his bros for drinking an inferior beer, we have lucky Sean sharing a cold one with a beautiful woman and her sweet grandmother.

When MOGs Attack!

Here is my second original ad concept.  We were charged with changing the perception of how easy it is to use Windows 7.  My group had difficulty coming up with a tagline. Normally the best work come after all the obvious brainstorming ideas have passed but for some reason we weren't functioning that day.


However, we settled on "So Easy" which gave us a lot to work with. Next, we had to choose our target market.  For this particular ad we decided on a middle-aged mom.  Her son had just gotten married, and she's not happy about who he married.


Similar to the New Era ad, this was non-commissioned.  It was submitted as a final project for a class at The University of Akron.  The photo is from a wedding I attended last summer and yes, the groom's mother absolutely loves the bride.

When Does An Ad Campaign Grow Stale?

Too much of a good thing can be bad.  It doesn't matter whether it's good for you or not.  Too much sun can lead to skin damage.  Too much water can wash nutrients through your body.  Once in a while, we just need something different to offset the monotony of the over-done.  People need a change of pace.  If we're presented with too much of the same, we get bored.

The case can be made for advertisements, particularly television commercials.  We can skip over print ads in magazines and newspapers.  We've learned to tune out ads on websites unless it gets splashed on our screens before we can reach the content we want.  But we generally have to sit through TV ads (unless we can fast forward on DVR).  We're force fed 30-60 seconds of filler so that the actors/news anchors/reality "stars" can get paid.  

Once in a while, a campaign will stick with the public.  Two campaigns that people are talking about are Dos Equis' "The Most Interesting Man In the World" by Euro RSCG and Old Spice's "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" by Wieden + Kennedy.  These two campaigns are focusing on one thing that makes a man: experience.  With experience comes the know-how when put into certain situations that men may not normally be comfortable in.  Before we go any further, let's look at what the point of advertising is.

Are companies trying to increase sales or increase brand awareness?  Just because a consumer is aware of your brand doesn't mean that consumer will purchase it.  I'm aware of Tampax Tampons but as a single male, I have no reason to purchase that product (until I get married).  The reason why I'm aware of Tampax Tampons is because of advertising.  My mom watched a lot of Oprah as I was growing up.  Anyway, since the campaign, Dos Equis has seen an increase in sales this year.  Old Spice has seen sales increase by 27% over 6 months.

So when does a campaign grow stale?  When copycats try to mimic the campaign? When consumers start dressing up as your spokesperson at Comic-Con?  When sales finally start to flatten out or (gasp!) DECREASE?  Wieden + Kennedy has done a great job by switching up the spokesperson for Old Spice over the years getting B-movie cult icon Bruce Campbell, Neil Patrick Harris fresh off of reprising his role as Neil Patrick Harris on Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, NFL linebacker Ray Lewis, former NFL player-turned-actor Terry Crews, and most recently, Fabio (?).  Dos Equis has been backed into a corner.  Where do you go from The Most Interesting Man in the World?  How can you effectively plan a campaign without knowing when consumers will grow tired of it and switch to competitors?

These are just two examples of campaigns that have increased sales for their products, yet are getting tiresome.  Old Spice was able to keep it fresh, but adding Fabio to the stable was confusing to me.  The man is 52 years old and was the cover boy to trashy romance novels read by bored housewives sitting in the stands of their 11 year old's baseball game.  Wieden + Kennedy has done an excellent job in re-positioning Old Spice so far to target not just men ages 18-25 (incredibly difficult to reach due to media usage habits), but also women.  That's not to say Euro RSCG hasn't been effective with Dos Equis.  I'm just ready to see if they can outdo themselves.  What's interesting to me right now is how Kenny Powers will fare as the MFCEO of K-Swiss, and how long it'll be before I get bored with that.

My First Print Ad

In my Creative Lab class at The University of Akron, we had a final project where we received a creative brief from another group in the class. The brief we received was for New Era. The brief wanted the advertisements to focus on consumers wearing New Era caps for fashion purposes while out at social events such as going to the bar. New Era's tagline is "Fly Your Own Flag." Of course, we couldn't use that tagline because that would be too easy. My group brainstormed several taglines for our campaign and decided on "New Season. New Era." 


The campaign is a story focused on a male who was recently dumped by his girlfriend. Instead of sulking at home, he calls up his buddies wanting to go out and have a good time. While he was out (wearing his New Era cap) he accidentally bumps into a girl wearing the same exact hat where sparks fly and a blustering romance ensues.


Fast forward to a few years later into the timeline: our couple is getting married! The wedding is beautiful. All the guests have a wonderful time. Our bride looks beautiful and our groom couldn't be happier. Now it's time for the wedding pictures. The wedding party grabs their New Era caps and sports them for the photos.


The next chapter in our hero's life is fatherhood. He and his wife have their first child. He's passing his love of his favorite sports team on to his kid, as all parents love to do.  This leads us to why our tagline was chosen.  "Season" and "era" basically mean the same thing.  It's a period of time with a specific time for a beginning and end.  Obviously, the time from beginning and end of when a specific sport is called a "season."  But in this case when we're talking about a season, we're talking about eras in a young man's life.  His season with his ex-girlfriend ended, so he started a new season with new one.  That season ended and a new one started by marrying her, and a new season started when their first child was born. 


At The University of Akron, I've worked on marketing plans for businesses that have been implemented.  I also worked on a marketing plan that's been chosen as a semi-finalist in a national competition for a non-profit organization.  This is just the first example of what's to come.  Hopefully, my Photoshop skills will improve.