Portfolio Stalking is Acceptable

We all do it. And anyone who says they don't is lying. I've been catching onto this whole Buzzfeed craze, and mentally writing a Buzzfeed article of my own in my head titled, "You know you're in the creative sequence when..." If I did, the number 1 situation would be 'you portfolio stalk more than you Facebook stalk.' One of my past campaign partners were meeting to discuss some ideas, and her computer was dead so she asked if she could borrow mine to look up her portfolio website and show me something, I was slightly reluctant because she had been the subject of some recent portfolio stalking, but obviously I couldn't say no without looking even more suspicious. I'm sure the autofill option in my internet browser did not go unnoticed when she started typing in her url only to find it was already there because I had been on her website literally the day before this meeting took place. At first I was slightly embarrassed but then I decided I didn't care because I realized if the situation had been reversed I wouldn't have minded at all. If anything it's flattering.
I'll never forget the day I was using a computer that belonged to someone else in the sequence with me and opening a new tab led to a window of their most visited sites, which consisted of at least three of our classmates. I was amused at first, but then relieved because I realized my search history was most likely very similar.
Moral of the story: portfolio stalk as much as you want. It doesn't matter and everyone else is doing it anyways.

Digital Screen for Hair Dye Newbies

Yesterday I went to Target and saw a really cool digital idea in the hair section of the store. There was a digital screen that was user friendly and interactive, where one could look up their hair color and what they wanted to dye it to get recommendations on which dye to get for the best results. My best guess is that this idea was aimed at females in their college years who have little to no experience with hair dye. In other words, me. As a brunette who tried going blonde over the summer because why not, I'm slightly resentful that this didn't exist until like, now. This is a really awesome idea, and it would've saved me several trips to the salon, not to mention like seventeen breakdowns when every at-home dye experience left me with hair the color of cat pee. Needless to say, I'm back to being brunette.

Tweet-a-Coffee

Post-twitter rant, I do think that Starbucks did an excellent job integrating this social media site into their recent digital campaign known as "Tweet a Coffee." This campaign, aimed at a broad audience of loyal Starbucks customers, particularly those between 15-30 that utilize twitter often, allows you to send anyone a $5 Starbucks giftcard through Twitter. The way it works is by users linking their Starbucks and Twitter accounts, then simply mention @tweetacoffee to send a gift card to whoever they want. The user also has the option to customize a message to be included with this. So the real question is, does it work? I'm sure I'm not the only person out there who is about to try and test it out, which I guess proves that it does.

My Thoughts on Twitter

I go back and forth on how I feel about Twitter. Right now I'm on a Twitter hate spree that can be easily attributed to my aversion to people who don't know how to use it. I consider myself a twitter snob, and the second someone #hashtagswholephrasesjustforthesakeofhashtagging they are immediately unfollowed. I used to use twitter to follow some of the celebrities I am a fan of, but that was before posting selfies every hour on the hour became socially acceptable. Now I follow my friends that understand hashtag etiquette, bands/musicians so I can see if they'll ever be performing in the Austin area, and the few actors that can formulate something interesting into 140 characters without a close-up photo of them making some goofy looking face.
It really, really bothers me when people incorrectly use social media, and I feel like this occurs mostly on twitter. Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake's hashtag video  that went viral touches on this, but rather than getting people to stop hashtagging #every #word #they #write, the video had the opposite effect and encouraged them to do so even more. MAKE IT STOP.

Karmic Synergy

I adopted this phrase from the TV show Greek, (which used to be awesome until it sucked and then got cancelled) but it goes by many names. Destiny, fate, whatever; I chose the term that sounded least like a trashy stripper. Basically, it means things always work out the way they're supposed to. One example could be today when my dad said he wanted pumpkin pancakes or cinnamon roll pancakes for breakfast, and then we went to Kerbey Lane and their pancake special was, I kid you not, PUMPKIN CINNAMON ROLL PANCAKES. Karmic Synergy is real.
To keep this post relevant to my blog, I'll tell another tale of karmic synergy that occurred between myself and my best friend/ portfolio classmate David Bassine. We're really adorable together. We call ourselves Broocine and I can't tell if people think its cute or annoying or self absorbed, but its a little bit of all three. At the time of said karmic synergetic incident, David and I were partnered up for campaign 2 in our P3 class on Burt's Bees. In our digital portfolio class, it was just announced that it was time to choose partners for the next campaign, which we didn't learn until hours later because we missed the class for reasons I can't recall. By then, everyone had paired up except us, which meant we'd be working on two campaigns together simultaneously. I think we were both a little nervous about it because we already spend the maximum amount of time hanging out we can spend without wanting to kill each other from too much togetherness. Little did we know that karmic synergy was behind all this.
We decided to work on Las Vegas' "What happens here stays here" campaign, and in the end we came up with some really solid ideas that we were both really happy with. In P3, Burt's Bees was a little more of a struggle. However, in the end we were both really excited about what we had to show for it. Yesterday we were texting about how happy we are with everything we have for our campaigns so far, and it occurred to me that this situation was total karmic synergy because if we hadn't gotten paired up by circumstance in digiport, we wouldn't have this digital campaign for Las Vegas that we are both so excited about.
Karmic synergy saves the day.

Creative Pressure on Halloween

Let me preface this by saying this blog post is white girl problems at their finest. I tend to have a lot of them. My biggest white girl problem is that no one actually has time to listen to my white girl problems, but luckily this particular WGP dabbles on the topic of creativity, so my paragraph-long rant can double as a required blog post for class. Anyways, here goes.
Sometimes I feel like being in the portfolio sequence makes people expect me to be creative in literally everything I do. They don't really realize that the sequence itself burns me out too much to extend said creativity much elsewhere. Today someone said to me, "Hey Brooke, what are you being for Halloween? I'm sure you'll come up with something really awesome, you're so creative!" and in my head I'm like "...can I just be a cat?" Needless to say, my Halloween costumes are just about as basic as it gets....Minnie Mouse and 80's decade girl. I would love to come up with something a little more imaginative, but I just didn't have the time/patience/money to go all out this year. (We can thank my evil professors that scheduled tests in the first week of november and my weakness for shoes for the time/budget constraints.)
It's unfortunate that I couldn't have more time to throw something much cooler together. Maybe next year. I'll have my shit together 366 days from now.
Here's hoping.

Little Ceasar's and Haunted Houses

One of the first days of our digital portfolio class, we were looking at examples of what digital campaigns are already out there. Little Ceasars' stood out to me the most. In summary, this campaign by ad agency Barton F. Graf 9000 consisted of entering your address on the website, upon which your house became "haunted" by little vector ghosts. Based on your address, you would be directed to the nearest Little Ceasar's location to pick up a pizza and "unhaunt" your house. The vector ghosts squeal "yay!" and disappear. That's it.
This digital idea is so random and has nothing to do with anything, but it works. Really well. It's clever and funny and I could see this idea prompting lots of people to go pick up a Hot-n-Ready from Little Ceasar's. It's just so interesting to me  how sometimes an ad campaign can be focused around an idea that has so little to do with the product, yet it's clever and brilliant enough to work. Ideas like this go against almost everything we've been taught in advertising classes at UT. It just goes to show how subjective this industry really is.

Are we ever satisfied?

In my ICM class on Monday, my professor was speaking on the topic of creative strategies. Since this is now my third semester in the sequence, most of what she talked about was redundant of the lectures I've countlessly recieved in my portfolio classes, but there was one thing she said that I found particularly interesting- "creatives are never satisfied with their own work."
I can't speak on behalf of all the other creatives I know, but from my own experience there is definitely a lot of truth to this. After I finish executing an art direction for one of my campaigns, I'll find myself staring at the computer screen for about twenty minutes trying to find something else to fix. Eventually I send pictures to my campaign partner and am only satisfied after getting their approval.
I could go on and on listing all the experiences I've had where this statement applies, both in and out of the creative sequence. I believe this statement could easily apply to anyone, not just creatives. Your biggest critic is always yourself. I've been trying my best to get out of this mindset so as not to feel discouraged when I'm not completely happy with the way something turns out, and that's why I love being in the creative sequence so much- even when I feel discouraged or not certain whether what I art directed works well with the campaign, I have a room full of peers in the same position and we are all willing to help each other out.

Trial and Error

When it comes to art directing campaigns, it's inevitable that you'll learn the hard way how to go about it. Being in the creative sequence, I've done my best to make sure each campaign I art direct has a different and unique style from anything else I've done, which usually means I'm teaching myself something new on photoshop or illustrator every time I start a new campaign. The hard thing about this is sometimes I'll have a vision in my head of how something should look but no idea how to go about it.
The best example I can think of is the Burt's Bees Beeswax Lip Balm campaign I recently art directed for P3 Midterm Critique. My partner David Bassine and I wanted the art to slightly resemble illustrations in storybooks (think Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol). I spent hours upon hours asking other art directors for suggestions and googling everything from "storybook illustrations photoshop tutorial"to "line art tutorial" before I accepted that there wasn't anything out there that could help me create the art exactly how I saw it in my head. In the end, I used bits and pieces of each of these tutorials to get the illustrations to look just the way I wanted. After that, the rest of the prints came together easily.
Basically, the point of this story is that no matter how long it takes to figure out the art direction, power through. Once you figure out the first one, the rest are easy because you have the strategy down. The final result of our Burt's Bees campaign we can be found by clicking here.

Despicable Me 2 Interactive Screen

There's something really cute about using interactive screens to connect with a user. No matter how old we are or how much we don't want to admit it, we all want to play on them. Even if whatever the interactive screen is has nothing to do with you, you're gonna be intrigued and play on it a little anyways. Or you're at least gonna want to. This is something that isn't seen as often as most other forms of advertising, but it's gradually increasing it's presence.
For the digital creative agency TVGla, promoting the movie Despicable Me 2 involved the use of such screens. They were placed in malls across Europe, and gave shoppers the opportunity to customize the actions of the lovable yellow minions in the movie using your smartphone. The fanbase for this film falls within a younger demographic, so this campaign targeted kids and parents.  Even if you've never seen the movie ( I haven't), everyone knows who the minions are and is going to find an interactive screen like this interesting, possibly enough to give it a try.

TNT Digital Campaign

This digital campaign that TNT did cracked me up. The agency responsible was none other than Duval Guillame. I linked to the video, which you can access by clicking here, but here's a brief summary of what goes down: In order to target fans of drama shows on television, a button was placed on a seemingly ordinary looking street in Belgium. The button that says "Push to add drama." When pushed, a series of ridiculous events occur almost immediately, and once its all over a giant banner rolls down from the side of a building with TNT's logo and it's signature tagline, "We know Drama." That summary doesn't even begin to do this campaign justice, the video below is definitely worth watching. Much like the previous post I did about Mercedes' invisible car, the reactions of bystanders is priceless. The cool part of this idea was that it took place on a quiet ordinary street in Belgium, where nothing particularly interesting happens. It sends the message that TNT can add some drama/ excitement to your everyday life, and it definitely caught peoples' attention.

Mercedes Invisible Car

While looking for some digital inspiration, I stumbled across a seriously awesome campaign by Jung Von Matt agency for Mercedes' new f-cell vehicle. They were trying to market their "most innovative drive technology," and found a really awesome way to do this. In this digital campaign idea, Mercedes was promoting their new fuel cell vehicle to increase awareness about it's minimal environmental impact. This idea reached out to adults that can afford luxury vehicles and are environmentally conscious. Minimal environmental impact was key feature to communicate in this campaign, and they did so by covering the car in screens and parading the car around Germany. A camera on one side of the car was connected to the screens so that the car appeared to be invisible. The idea was to showcase the vehicle's "invisibility" to the environment through this digital idea, and making the car appear to be invisible was a clever way to show this. There is a link to a youtube video showing how that made this possible that can be accessed by clicking here. The best part is seeing everyone's reactions.

Discouragement

I have something kind of important to say.
First off, this post goes out to anyone in the Texas Creative sequence, anyone who wants to be, and anyone involved in advertising. Mind you, I just got home from celebrating the graduation of a few close friends (not including myself- yay five year plans and victory laps!) but just being in that environment, surrounded by my peers who are about to be forced into the real world, I felt inspired to blog. Even if it's 2 a.m., what I have to say is really important, so listen the hell up because the next sentence I type is the most crucial part of this post.
Things are going to suck sometimes. That's just how it works. You're gonna work your ass off making something you're proud of, and then you're gonna be lectured on everything that's wrong with it. Whether its final critique in the creative sequence or it's an interview for an advertising internship, it's impossible to please everyone. I'm living proof of this. I worked like crazy on my four campaigns for P2, and all I have to show for it is a score of 6/10 at final critique. Yes, it's a little discouraging, but I'm finally starting to learn that it's okay.
I lied when I said earlier that this goes out to anyone in creative or in advertising. I'm really just trying to reach out to anyone who's ever felt like they aren't good enough, or anyone who has ever felt discouraged in their major, no matter what it is. The last thing I want to do is get all Disney-channel on you, but I have to for a second- DON'T GIVE UP. Just don't. You have so much time ahead of you to fix your mistakes and make things right. Hell, I've got only one more year to prove I'm good enough before I'm unwillingly whisked into the world of stress and unemployment, but you can bet your ass I'm gonna work like crazy to make it in advertising. I'm not gonna lie, the road to determination was not easy to find. I even convinced myself that I was in the wrong major at one point, but I'm starting to realize I was just making excuses. My score at critique may have been a low blow to my confidence, but the e-mail confirming I moved on from P2 to P3 in the Texas Creative Sequence reminded me of everything I've worked so hard for. There's still time to make new campaigns and improve the old ones, it's not even close to over. Things are about to change, and I'm gonna make sure of it.

Agency Spotlight: BBDO

BBDO is one of the largest advertising agencies out there. It is based in New York, but there are almost 300 different offices all over the world. Their mission is to deliver compelling commercials, and they achieve it well with "the work, the work, the work", a phrase that can be seen throughout their website. Speaking of the work, the work, the work, they do A LOT OF IT. Their clients include some of the world's leading brands, including Campbell's, at&t, FedEx, Johnson & Johnson, General Electric, Mercedes Benz, Volkswagen, Starbucks, Visa, Pepsico, Wrigley and many more.
BBDO's website is as impressive as their client list. It is clean, professional, and easy to navigate. Their work tab showcases a spot they did for Carlton Drought, which was called the best beer ad of 2012 by the Huffington Post. It's definitely worth watching, and after seeing this along with some of their other work, I am convinced this agency is as impressive and professional as it is made out to be.

TracyLocke Agency Spotlight

I heard about TracyLocke a few years ago at one of the campus career fairs. This was before I had been accepted to the Texas Creative Sequence, so I was totally fan-girling over them when I heard that this was one of the few agencies at the career fair looking for creative summer interns. I've come a long way since then, and now that I have a portfolio I decided this agency would be my next target in my research.
TracyLocke is based in Dallas but, they have several locations in other areas as well, such as San Fransisco, Wilton, and Soho. Their mission is to find new and groundbreaking ways to re-imagine retail in a creative way. Their website is incredibly easy to navigate and I really love the general look of it and its clean, modern feel.  The homepage shows samples of their work, including a Diet Pepsi campaign with Sofia Vergara. This campaign, called 'Love Every Sip', includes everything from radio commercials to in-store activation. For Valentines Day, they launched limited edition heart cans, in which the traditional logo is shaped like a heart rather than a circle. The campaign has been successful nationwide, as have many other campaigns TracyLocke has been involved in. My background research on this agency has led me to believe this agency would be a great fit.

Tocquigny Agency Spotlight

I need to start off by saying how much I love Tocquigny's website. The layout is interesting, the design has a modern feel to it, I'm loving the color scheme, and as a whole it is a hell of a lot easier to navigate than their name is to pronounce. Tocquigny is based in right here in Austin, TX. So far, other than the fact that I'd more than likely embarrass myself in an interview while trying to say "Tocquigny," this advertising agency definitely had caught my interest.
Tocquigny has worked with a handful of impressive clients, including Caterpillar, Dell Corp, IDG, Jeep, Seagate, Washington Times, and many more. While scrolling through the work they've done for their clients, one thing that stood out to me was the app they came up with for Jeep. The design for it is what caught my eye, but when I looked into it more I was intrigued by their creative way of allowing Jeep users to enhance their brand experience with the app to track their travels and share with friends. Tocquigny's creative strategies and conceptual thinking come through in all their work, and I could definitely learn a lot from them.

The RIchards Group Agency Spotlight

The Richards Group was my next target for my agency research. I have seen some great work come from this agency, so my interest was already piqued. The Richards Group is based in Dallas, TX. I've been to Dallas several times and loved it, so there was already potential before my research even began. I started by exploring their website. If you haven't seen it yet, you can do so now by clicking here. Though it didn't stand out to me in terms of design, it is much easier to navigate than other agency websites I have visited in the past. I tend to think very complex in anything I design, but in this case the simplicity works.

Though The Richards Group's clients were impressive, including Bridgestone, GameStop, H-E-B, Pier 1 Imports, T.G.I. Fridays, Chick-fil-A, ULTA Beauty, PODS,  Central Market, and many more, that wasn't what stoof out to me the most about this agency. Upon reading their 'About' section of the website, something really resonated with me. The Richards Group prides itself on being completely honest with their work. They firmly believe that to build relationships, you have to tell the truth. In an industry that has the tendency to be associated with trickery and deception, this is a refreshing thing to hear from an agency. I have a lot of respect for The Richards Group and could easily see myself working in this kind of advertising agency.

GSD&M Agency Spotlight

I can't go on an agency research binge and not talk about GSD&M. I pass the gorgeous building on all my frequent Whole Foods ventures, so the fact that working here means I get to live in Austin intrigued me enough to look into the agency more. I'd already done quite a bit of research when applying here for a summer internship (fingers crossed!) and was certain I could fit in here. Their clients include Southwest Airlines, Walgreens, Austin City Limits, and many more. Their work and the conceptual thinking behind it for these clients showed a great deal of creativity and initiative, two very important skills if you want to make it in this industry.

Their Jarritos campaign caught my eye while browsing through the website because its all about introducing the brand and raising awareness, which is something I am currently working on in one of my campaigns for P2. It was really helpful to see a good example of how this can be done in a creative and effective way. I really admire GSD&M for their strategic and creative work, and believe this agency would be a great place for me to thrive and learn more about making incredible ads.

Droga5 Agency Spotlight

This weekend, I was hanging out with a friend who asked me where I wanted to end up after I graduate. He was shocked when I told him I hadn't really thought about it. It kind of scares me to think about the fact that I only have about a year left before I graduate and set off into the real world, but I know it's about time I start looking into ad agencies that I could see myself working at. And so the research begins...
I have heard a lot of great things about droga5, so I made that my starting point. It's safe to say that with the exception of the first time I heard Adam Levine sing 'Sunday Morning", this is about as close to 'love at first sight' as it gets. Droga5's campaigns are all so out of the box and entertaining that you almost forget they're ads. My favorite piece from them is their Puma Lift Spot, which I can shamelessly admit to watching repeatedly for about seven minutes last night. As if that spot wasn't enough to sell me, I also learned one of their clients is Newcastle Brown Ale, which happens to be my favorite beer. Overall, droga5 creates some really brilliant and visually stunning work, and I could definitely see myself at this kind of agency after I graduate.

The Most Incredible Opening Credits EVER

I recently went to see the movie Oz the Great and Powerful with one of my cousins when it was out in theaters. I wasn't a huge fan of the movie itself, but I can appreciate how visually stunning every scene was. And obviously James Franco's perfection can't be overlooked. The gorgeous effects took off from the beginning, as Oz had one of the most incredible opening credits I have ever seen in a film before. It's also completely in black and white, which says a lot about how amazing it looks visually if it can grab attention without using any color. It perfectly captures the feel of the movie's initial setting, which takes place at a traveling circus. Even if you don't plan on seeing the movie, the opening credits are definitely worth watching at least once, and you can do so by clicking here for some of the most beautiful typography you will ever see.