Digital Frontiers

It’s amazing how much one can learn from old teacher who simply lectures you for 50 minutes on mind-numbingly boring Powerpoints. You can learn how text under your desk without looking at your keypad, or even how to draw a multitude of different crude drawings including this s-shaped phenomena.

Then, after four years and tens of thousands of dollars you will be able to achieve almost anything. Anything that isn’t important or actually tied to your career that is.

The single most important lesson I have learned in my college career (all four years of it) is that what you do outside of class is more important than how you score on an exam. Practical knowledge and experience will never let you down in a boardroom meeting.
Say you are in a meeting with a client and they turn down your pitch are you going to spit out the 4 P’s of marketing and any other junk you memorized in your classes, or are you going to roll with the punches and adapt.

I hope you make the right choice.

On a more specific note, the most important lesson from the Digital Frontiers course is to hear what people want, listen to it, and adapt your message/product to fit.

By using social media, like Facebook, Twitter, blogging sites, and other such platforms, you can reach just about anyone you could think of. The important thing is what to do once you reach them.

Fortunately, there is a precise model of communication that will fit every possible consumer. You can tell any one of them the exact same message and it will work. You CAN please everyone all of the time.

NOT.

There is no formula. So you must trust your instincts and be able to listen and adapt.

Overall, there are a few golden rules:

1. Trust your instincts
2. Get out there and get experience
3. Adapt, adapt, adapt
And the most important rule:
4. There are no rules when something changes and you are faced with a challenge

Oh, and when it comes to presentations, use Prezi.

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Premature optimization means that search engines are sending things to the first few pages based on faulty key words. No one cares if Google can find 637,000 pages in 0.03 seconds if none of the pages are relevant. One of the times when this is most frustrating is when searching for videos. Search engines are currently not living up to their potential. This is why I have a million dollar idea to revolutionize the way we search.

Imagine this. You are surfing through YouTube or any other online video web site and you simply cannot find a video that actually is relevant to what you are searching. Frustrated, you hop from clip to clip and fast forward through lengthy videos waiting for that sluggish red line at the bottom of the screen to catch up (p.s. Im pretty that this is what the angry German kid from YouTube was so perturbed about.) If only someone could find a way to put an end to the insanity!

Now imagine if you could search through any video with a click of a button. Not simply by keywords that whoever uploaded the video associated with the video, but by actual content within the video.

Instead of skimming through a thirty minute video which to find where it may or may not discuss, let’s say, redox reactions you can now search for “redox reactions” and a bar will pop up showing you at which minutes in the video they discuss it.

The technology behind such an idea may be complex, but the idea is simple.

Find what you are looking for faster and more efficiently.

This idea would best be marketed towards specific companies that depend on videos for their online components. For example, online educational websites could benefit because they could make much longer videos. With this product they could make long videos that encompass entire chapters or courses, and people could use this to search through the videos, almost like a video glossary.

Aside from approaching individual companies, this idea could be marketed using Facebook, Twitter, Vimeo, and other sites by making pages and even videos that explain the product. Then, with these platforms, I could reach out to businesses and people that could benefit from this idea and show them not only why it works and what it does, but why they need it.

Long gone are the days of hit or miss keywords and being “RickRolled”.

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For far too long advertising agencies have been total control freaks about the content that gets publish or distributed. And for good reason. Because up until recently “everyday people” haven’t had the tools or information available to them to necessarily create any ads or other user generated content.

This has changed.

Thanks to sites like YouTube, Facebook, and many different blogging sites people all over the world can create many types of content and upload them on the internet. Now anyone who has an idea and a camera can make a 30 second commercial and I believe that more brands should take advantage of this.

People are not stupid, and they know when you are trying to advertise or market to them, so why not let them in on the secret. Why not let people, yeah real people, help direct the image of the brand.

This is not to say that i think ad men should stay out of the conversation completely. However, our job is changing radically.

Instead of picking a good example of user generated content for marketing on Facebook, I picked one brand (out of MANY) that SHOULD be using UGC to drive their online advertising and marketing world.

Apple.

This ad, that was created by a fan of apple when the iPod Touch was released, is pretty great in my opinion. I do not know the inner workings of Apple, or how their advertising department works, but I think that they should use the creative nature of their users to their ADvantange.

UGC is probably best for brands that are already well known. Take, for example, Doritos recent success with user generated ads. Products like Doritos and M&Ms and Coca Cola haven’t really changed much over the years. Even when they do change, people have a good idea of the product already. So since ad people can’t really bring too many mind blowing ideas to the conversation, they should sit back and let consumers drive the conversation.

Beer brands, or any alcohol for that matter, is another type of product that would really get consumers involved. People know their feelings on alcohol and would probably create really funny and interesting UGC.

It is sad that so many brands have not taken advantage of their consumers. Ad agencies shouldn’t be scared. I’m not, and I’m paying lots of money for a degree in that field. I’m excited to work with consumers on a personal level and get their input. That way we all win. I do not think that anytime soon ALL ads will be user generated. But I do think that my role in a future agency or ad department will morph into a communicator and guide for consumers, while still using my creativity and ad sense.

Because what it all really boils down to is getting the consumer involved. That is what advertising has always been about. It is only the way in which we get them involved that is changing.

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When our group was first assigned to the MSE Program at UF, I must admit that I was a little perplexed. After looking into it for a few moments I was horrified that we were going to have to make an online marketing plan for the Materials Science and Engineering Program.
After several searches we realized we were really going to be working with the Master of Science in Entrepreneurship, which is certainly more interesting, not to mention it directly pertains to this course.
There was just one little problem.

The MSE Program has NO GOOGLEJUICE!

Although it is terrifying to have to work with a program that isn’t even easily found on Google, I decided to stay positive and think of this as a wonderful way to build a great brand for this equally great program.

We have decided to stay true to what our “product” is.

The MSE program is all about innovation, so we want to create a whole new website, under a new brand name, that will be a platform for students and teachers to create whatever they want to.

I know this sounds broad, but we want to integrate all the necessary social media sites and capabilities (Twitter, Facebook, blogs, etc.) into the site and make it a place for constant learning and innovation.

We have our work cut out for us.

However, I envision a site that incorporates blogs from leaders in many different fields, allows people to converse about these blogs and topics, post videos, link to any and everything they want, and, most of all, innovate.

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HIV Ads, or How I Value Ads, is a new epidemic that has taken over the world. Due to new changes in how ads are delivered, like online types, and how people interact with them, like zipping and zapping, people are having to ask themselves how they value advertising. Advertising is not new to these disruptive changes, however. Just take, for example, ANY media source. TV, radio, internet, video games, etc.

Although advertisers have struggled to adjust when the new changes first occur, we have always found new and creative ways to better use these media to our advantage.

Jeff Jarvis would have you “fire your ad agencies.”

Stupid.

I do admit that the entire business model has been thrown out the window. But following the advice of my grandmother, “don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.”

Businesses need to realize how important advertisers are to the success of an idea and a company.

Although Google has made online advertising something that is accessible to anyone with a computer and a wireless signal it doesn’t mean that people will be any good at it.

Far too often online ads get lost on the sides of the screens and people have far too many better things to do while on Facebook than look at any of the Facebook ads.

What companies need to do is not fire there ad agencies, but rather hire them and synthesize them into the entire business. Advertisers will no longer be what they used to. Rather, we must become artists of communication, making the most of these new technologies to help people all over the world make the best of their product, service, or selves.

Advertisers have to become more creative and more honest.

If you say your product is something it isn’t and people find out they will use the internet against you. But in this new “market of niches” we have the ability to be true to our product, and highlight what it really is, and use the internet to show that off.

Up until now online ads have just been pathetic excuses for advertising that don’t seem to get anyone excited about the product. Online ads are severely lacking any semblance of wit or creativity. It’s time for advertisers to take the reigns of this Google AdNonsense.

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According to the Law of Conservation of Energy, matter can neither be created nor destroyed.

Value, although it does matter, is not matter.

We can create value, or destroy it, with anything we want. We could create value with an idea, a popular song, a fashion label, or even something as mundane as a Post-It note.

And that is precisely what our instructors tasked us with achieving: in one hour create “value” just by using our creativity and some yellow sticky notes.

After tossing around a few ideas our group set out and wound up at UF’s Writing on the Wall project. This is a project where students can paint hurtful names they have been called onto cinderblocks. These blocks are then stacked to create a wall of slurs and curse words which are torn down to symbolically tear down “barriers between us.”

As I stared at these words, I couldn’t help but think that although this may help people to express their frustration it wasn’t really doing much to stop it.

That is where the “Speak No Evil” campaign was born.

After people wrote those words on the blocks we wanted them to pledge that they would do their part to stop this cycle of hate. We set up our sticky notes in between the two halves of the wall and asked passersby to either sign their name on one or even write a hurtful word, or two, that they would pledge not to say to others.

Some people got pretty creative and the videos can be found on YouTube.

Overall, I feel that our group did a good job of creating value with the notes.

If even one person left our wall and thought twice before calling out a curse word at someone then our campaign was a success in my eyes.

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I was lurking through the blogosphere the other day and I stumbled upon an interesting post about “radvertising,” which is a term I would like to discuss in my own blog. Radvertising is basically any advertisement that is entertaining, witty, is tied to the product, and will be spread throughout the internet by consumers.

http://startupblog.wordpress.com/2009/03/24/radvertising-james-boag/

If an advertising creative can make an ad that is so fantastic that it creates a buzz online, then the product that is tied to it should, in a way, “sell itself.”

This, to me, is the goal of advertising, and the best contribution that the internet has made to advertising.

However, after the discussion in class about social media and how marketing is changing I feel that most marketers have no idea how to use these technologies to the best of their advantage.

So far the marketing game plan has been simple; if it is a social media, use it. Twitter, sure. Facebook, ok. If enough people use it that it is relevant, then you should make your company an account and blast out tweets into cyberspace.

Wrong.

What marketers should do is focus their efforts to best segment and target the audiences. If your consumers aren’t the type of people that use Twitter, or if Twitter will just be a way for you to show your account exec. that you are using social media then you probably shouldn’t.

Take for example the makers of the Snuggie or the Jitterbug cell phone. Twitter is not the best idea for these companies. There is no way that the people at Snuggie have enough information to share on a Twitter page, and the Jitterbug is not exactly targeting the young people that Tweet all day.

Simply put, online marketing and advertising has gotten out of control.

As a future advertising exec. I hope to not make these pitfalls, and I have been seriously considering how to construct an online marketing plan for the MSE Program, which is what I was assigned to. I am really excited about this undertaking, and I feel that it will be challenging since we are essentially marketing a part of UF. A degree.

I am not sure if we will end up finding a use for a Twitter page, but I know that we have our work cut out for us.

In the end, to tweet or not to tweet. That is the online marketer’s question.

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Hi, my name is Chelsea Poulin and I am a first year advertising major. I do not have much background in technology, as far as programming or anything like that goes, but I feel that I have an average knowledge of computers and other tech things. I think I am a mac person because they are simple and user-friendly, and it makes me feel like I actually know how to do some cool stuff on my laptop. I am on my computer pretty frequently, although I check facebook more than my school email so if i could forward my email to facebook that would be cool!
I really chose to take this course because I want to become more fluent in techspeak. I know that technologies are revolutionizing our planet and I want to be able to keep up with this exciting fact. I hope to get a deeper understanding for how I can use many different technologies and apply them to my future career in some type of advertising or marketing field. My favorite company for tech stuff is definitely Apple, but a non tech company would be Starbucks.
My facebook name is simple, Chelsea Poulin, and my twitter is @chelseapoulin. My blog is http://keyboardismightierthanthesword.blogspot.com/. Don’t go on it yet as I have literally done nothing with it. But I really want to have a great blog going by the end of the semester.

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