Let's advertise to each other

Let’s face it. No one likes ads. We don’t watch commercials or pay attention to those annoying little pop up ads anymore. Advertisers are realizing this. Here’s the good news: they are pulling away from those annoying little ads. Here’s the bad news: now they’re making us advertise for them, and we don’t even realize it.

Companies are now using viral marketing which is becoming a more effective way to advertise a product or idea. Advertisers are done trying to get the word out to everyone at once, they’re finding it more effective to tell a few people about an idea and step back to let it spread. If a few people tell their friends, and those people tell their friends, and those people tell their friends, this idea has reached hundreds of people.

It may sound as if advertisers aren’t doing their job. Some people might see viral marketing as the easy way out, but it is not as simple as it appears. Companies can’t tell a few people “Go tell your friends to buy Pepsi” and expect it to spread. Viral marketing takes careful planning and creativity. Spreadable ads need to be funny or interesting, something people actually want to look at. Companies also need to carefully plan who to send the information to first. The first group needs to be made up of people who would enjoy it so much they would pass it on to their friends.

Finding the right group
The first group that will see and potentially spread the ad is important. A Pepsi ad will most likely not be spread if given to a group from Atlanta, Georgia (where the Coca Cola factory is located.) Warner Bros. and Universal Orlando resort knew how to target the message of “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter” an interactive theme park in Orlando devoted to the Harry Potter phenomenon (opening 2010.) Instead of promoting the plans through mainstream media, the two companies decided to use the viral method. The first people to hear about it: Potter fans; seven fans to be exact. Orland Studios selected just seven members from Harry Potter fan sites to leak the news of the upcoming park. Those seven people started a chain that would alert the world of the project. This is a fine example of choosing the right starting audience. If Orlando studios had chosen seven random people from Facebook, the news might not have spread. Since it chose an audience that would be enthusiastic about the plans, the word was spread.

Making it interesting
Companies are realizing the power of YouTube. Some home-made YouTube videos are more popular and influential than the expensive commercials on T.V. Companies are starting to make their own funny and interesting YouTube videos to promote their products. BlendTec’s internet show “Will it Blend” gained popularity through its interesting videos in which a man uses a blender to destroy common household objects. The videos were funny and people shared it with their friends. But in reality, the YouTube videos they were watching were ads for BlendTec’s new line of blenders.

Other companies will put out an entire website to gain popularity. Burger King made a website that was a man in a chicken suit that could be controlled by the website’s visitor. People were entertained by the site and told their friends about it. This website turned out to be an ad for Burger King’s new chicken sandwich.

Clearly, viral marketing is working. Ordinary people are becoming the advertisers and it’s actually working. Personally, I think it’s a good thing. Consumers are choosing what products should become popular rather than the companies. Nobody is forcing us to pass these ads around. In a way, this gives more power to Gen Y. We’re basically choosing what ads to show the world. So, I guess I’ll join the viral marketing band wagon by passing this along, enjoy:

Look at me, I'm goal oriented!

Brazen Careerist is a website that Gen Y can join which will connect them to potential employers through their blog. The company is run by a business woman named Penelope Trunk who helps companies hire young people who have a blog on the website. Trunk believes that people who blog on Brazen Careerist make for better employees because they are more connected to the world and dedicated to being a part of the community than other Millennials. The website also helps students and employers get to know each other better. By reading blogs instead of resumes, employers can get to know what type of person they are hiring. Blogs do say a lot about a person.

I think it’s a smart plan, and I may make a profile later on. Perhaps it’s good for employers to read candidates blogs. A resume could list a dozen service projects that a person only did because her parents made her. A blog about how helping the poor should be America’s top priority says a lot more about a person’s true character.

My only complaint about the site is it’s a little too exaggerated. It’s full of mission statements claiming that the people on Brazen Careerist are changing the world. It’s true that Gen Y will lead the world in the future, but right now, we’re still students and we’re still learning, so just tone it down a bit. Other than that, this seems like a very valuable tool for any young person looking for a job.

If a man can become famous for loving Brittney, why not gain fame for loving wine?

I’ve never really understood wine enthusiasts. Swirling, sniffing, and examining the color of a beverage just seems unnecessary to me. You don’t see people do that with Pepsi. I always picture the stereotypical image of a wine enthusiast: a millionaire in a top hat and monocle sniffing a glass of Chardonnay. “Ahh, a fine year.” But this blog isn’t about wine enthusiasts, just one in particular. Gary Vaynerchuk is not the typical wine enthusiast. He doesn’t hang out at yacht clubs, but you can always find him on the World Wide Web.

Vaynerchuk grew up in New Jersey. His Russian parents owned a wine store there and so he took an interest in wine at a young age. Since he was underage, he got acquainted with the flavors that went into wine such as grapes, wood, grass, dirt, and an assortment of exotic fruits. He took over his parents wine business as an adult, and currently has more than 80,000 fans and has appeared on talk shows and news programs and has been written about in numerous magazines and online newspapers. How did this New Jersey wine lover gain such fame? Social Media.

He started broadcasting a podcast on a website called Wine Library T.V. In his online videos, fellow wine lovers can watch him discuss new wines, sample wines, and give tips on buying wine. He has made more than 600 episodes of his wine show. How did he gain so much popularity? Apparently there are more wine enthusiasts out there than we thought. Maybe some people just like his delivery. He is very gestural and passionate about his subject, not the typical stuffy millionaire. Perhaps this is how to gain fame on the web: having interesting personalities and going against what is expected.

I still question his popularity. I can’t imagine watching 24 minutes of a guy talking about wine without being bored, but the internet works in strange ways. It’s hard to tell how any online video gains popularity, but apparently Vaynerchuk knew the way. He stands as another example of the power of the web and social media.

How to become famous, without really trying

With new technology, mainly the internet, the world is becoming a more social place. Many argue that technology is actually taking away from social interaction and in a way it is, but it is not taking away from communication; it’s just gone digital.

Life before the internet
Say you go on a family vacation to Hawaii and you take a picture of your brother doing a crazy dance on the beach. When you get home, you would have the picture developed and maybe frame it so the rest of the family could see. You might take the picture to school or work to show your friends and tell them about your trip. Total amount of people who have access to the picture: about 30.

Life after the internet
You go on the same trip and take the picture of your brother. You upload the picture to Facebook or Flicker. Number of people who have access to the picture: millions.

As individuals, we have a lot more power to reach people now than we ever had in the past. This is from the rise in social media with such sites as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Flicker, and Blogger. Before the internet, if I wrote a poem and wanted people to read it, it could take years to get it published in a book of poetry and then the only people with access to it would be the ones who bought the book. With social sites such as Facebook or Blogger, I can publish my poem minutes after I write it and have it read by at least 100 people. That’s power that we often take for granted.

Social media is good for society because it puts the power of information where it belongs: with the people. We are no longer being told what to believe by major media corporations, we are now communicating with each other and forming our own opinions as well as the power to influence the companies that once controlled us. Social media allows people to unite even across a nation. When Amazon.com removed gay and lesbian themed books from its top list, the people responded with a nation-wide protest on Twitter. One company’s action that would have gone unnoticed by mainstream media became the topic of the news only because so many people were already reporting it. In a way, the general population is now telling mainstream media what to report. YouTube videos have been aired on national news just because of online popularity. YouTube videos have even been parodied on popular T.V. shows such as Robot Chicken and The Simpsons.

Original video

Simpsons parody

Social media is making stars out of everyday people. Waiting to be noticed by a talent scout is no longer required. Anyone with a webcam could end up being the next YouTube star. The popular video “Charlie bit my finger” was a home video shot by a proud mother, but now Charlie and his older brother have millions of fans and imitators. YouTube has made people stars for things most talent agents would scoff at: dressing up as a ninja and answering questions (Ask a ninja), protesting the ill treatment of Brittney Spears (Chris Crocker), and making a sexy music video about Barack Obama (Obama girl.)

Social media does have some downsides. It allows easier access to pirated material. YouTube faced a lawsuit when users posted clips from their favorite shows. Social media also makes rumors easier to spread. Dominos Pizza faced consequences when two of its employees posted a video of themselves doing unsanitary things with the pizza ingredients on YouTube. The company received numerous complaints and many customers vowed to never eat at Dominos again. The rogue employees claimed it was just a prank but Dominos still got a taste of the power of social media.

Despite its downsides, social media plays a beneficial role in keeping the world informed, entertained and connected. Mainstream media is using social media to connect with its readers through Twitter to better understand what people want in their news. Companies are using social media to advertise their products, and around the world, more and more people are connecting with the millions already logged on.

Make fans, not consumers

Gen Y is done looking at ads. We know every trick. We’ve seen every advertising method. Most of us don’t even watch commercials anymore, especially with the channel return button and now TiVo. As for print: who actually reads magazine ads? Don’t most of us quickly flip through them until we find what we’re actually interested in? Well, the companies who put these ads out are starting to realize this. At the recent “Ad Age’s Digital Conference” in New York, a financier named Fred Wilson shone light on the younger generation’s lack of interest in advertisements. He believes in order to be effective, advertising needs to be “earned” not “paid.” This means that instead of paying to have ads on T.V., agencies need to earn Gen Y’s trust through Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, and other online social networks.

Some companies, such as Burger King and Kogi BBQ, have gotten a jump start on this new philosophy. Recently, Burger King launched the Whopper Sacrifice campaign on Facebook. Apparently if you deleted 10 people from your friend list, Burger King would reward you with a free Whopper. It may sound silly, but it worked. About 233,906 people were de-friended with the application. I’m sure one could re-friend them later, but honestly; would you want to be friends with a person who dumped you for a pound of meat? A less cruel use of social networking has been Kogi BBQ in Los Angeles which alerts its Twitter followers where their traveling Korean taco trucks are going to be next.

Is this new way of advertising efficient? I think so. Companies know they need to advertise online and pop-up ads aren’t cutting it. Companies still need to inform us about their product but in a way that does not look like a commercial. I know, in a way we are being deceived. By deleting ten friends for a free Whopper we are allowing advertisement to reach us. But with an ad savvy generation, this is the only method that works. We may not watch commercials anymore but if we see an application on Facebook for free food we’re hooked. Companies have to earn our trust with deals and free things on social networks, we become fans of the company and then we will eventually buy our own Whoppers or whatever they’re selling. The days of buying ads are gone, as Fred Wilson said: companies need to earn their publicity.

Radio gets gate jumped

The new millennium is definitely the age of citizen journalism and free speech. Instead of relying on the big names of the media, individuals are taking charge and broadcasting their own ideas. In the age of information and technology, people are equipped with more tools to share their ideas with the world. Bloggers don’t wait to be published in the newspaper, Youtube fans don’t wait to be aired on T.V., and now podcasters are doing their own radio shows.

Podcasting is a relatively new creation. The technology was there, but podcasting did not surface until 2004 when the Apple IPod became popular and songs were sent to users’ music players via the internet. This came to be known as “podcasting,” a combination of “IPod” and “broadcasting.” A person can subscribe to a certain podcaster (such as ITunes) and receive audio files when the podcaster provides them. Podcasts come in an RSS feed that are read by a podcatcher, a computer program that translates podcasts into accessible MP3 audio formats. One website simplified the process: in order to create a podcast you must create an audio file, “add the audio file to an RSS 2.0 feed,” and then “tell the world about your podcast.”

Podcasting has expanded since the first IPod. Innovators realized that podcasting could do more than allow music lovers to download songs. Podcasts could distribute information and allow people to broadcast their opinions to the world. Today, there’s a podcast for just about everything from celebrity interviews to information about diabetes. Common podcasts include informational content, audio instruction manuals, news stories and commentaries, talk shows, and storytelling for children and the vision impaired. Many podcasts cater to a certain group of people such as vegetarians who tune in to hear the latest recipes, religious groups who want to learn more about their faith, or baseball fans who want information about all their favorite players.

Anyone can podcast. Big news names such as MSNBC and ABC have their own professional news podcasts, but you can also listen to high school freshmen debating which Family Guy episode was the funniest of all time. Podcasts not only let people listen to a variety of subjects, they let computer users listen to a variety of people. This lets people who don’t have the “radio voice” be able to share their opinions with the everyone. Podcasting does a lot for citizen journalism and free speech because anyone can broadcast their actual voice to anyone who’ll listen.

Although broadcast radio is the medium being gate jumped by this new technology, podcasts can never replace the convenience of the radio. Podcasts can be played on portable MP3 players, but since they need to be downloaded first, radio is still the choice medium for music and talk radio anywhere anytime. People are still going to listen to the radio on their way home from work. Podcasts can be beneficial to the radio industry. When a particular podcaster gains popularity online, radio stations can gain listeners by putting that particular individual on the air. So, although news websites are causing newspapers to fall, podcasts and the radio can exist peacefully.

Graphic designer for hire

Here's something that caught my interest:

-- The Harrison (AR) Daily Times seeks a page designer who has exceptional graphic skills and artistic flare, and can work with the news and ad staffs to create pages that set a high standard; must know Quark and PhotoShop, while background with InDesign and NewsEdit Pro is a big plus. Work samples and resume to Carol Lawson, Box 40, Harris, AR 72603-0040 or e-mail for more information to carol@commpub.com.
(3/30)

The job is for the Harrison Daily Times, located in Harrison, Arkansas. It is owned by Neighborhood Newspapers also known as Community Publishers, which owns several small town newspapers in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri.

The job interested me because it was looking for a graphic designer with "artistic flare." Creativity is one of my qualities that I value most. The ad also grabbed my attention because they were looking for designers who were familiar in Photoshop and QuarkExpress, which are the two programs I'm most comfortable with. They also looked for a background with InDesign which is the program I used when I was on yearbook staff in high school.

The thing I can do at Lindenwood to prepare myself for a career in graphic design is to take as many design courses as I can and familiarize myself with InDesign and NewsEdit Pro. The best way to get a job as a designer is to learn as many programs as possible because that will make my resume more appealing to possible employers.