I thought i had it all figured out...... until finally i figured it all out.

           I just came back from the best night that ive had in a really long time! Why, might you ask?... Well, because I went to Midnigt Rodeo for the 2nd time ever. I'm sure that if you are from Austin, then you've heard about it. What I find so amusing, is that people from Texas State drive 30 miles out of their way  to hang out at this amazing 2 step hoe down that Austin has to offer. It’s a short 10-12 mins from the UT campus. Go South on 35 and then take the 231 exit. …. You'll run into a huge neon "midnight rodeo" sign, you cant miss it. This is me and my friends dancing the nigh away. 

 Have I convinced you yet? 

It just occurred to me as I was updating my facebook status and uploading a new album of picture from tonight that I myself am a brand ambassador and I didn’t have to  do anything other than do me, be me, live the way I do, and communicate with others as I already do. We all are, .. Well I mean at least all of us facebook/ social media users ( which is pretty close to the whole U.S. population) contributing to this greater cause, the revolution of advertising.

I am a walking, talking, visual ad. The statuses that we post about the new frozen yogurt place around the corner, or the pictures we put up about the place we went to over the weekend are all considered advertisement, just of course on a more personal level, which if you werent aware, is more effective than anything.

You are going to trust your friends opinion of something way before you trust a random stranger who you know is only looking out for the best interest of their brand. This stuff is effective, and it happens everyday.  Digital advertising has revolutionized photography… now a days, anyone can pick up a camera and take a picture, its more than just publicity, it’s a statement.

Words of wisdom

         The professionals speak up about photography and advertising....Featuring Mrs. Maria Rivera herself.........

Okay, I lied, .... she was going to, but unfortunately every has to deal with the burden of car trouble every now and then. so yeah unfortunatelly for me, i am Blogspot dummy and have no idea how to delete this post......

Thus the reason for this pointless entry.... the end.

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Ha Ha Ha. ( In an evil Disney movie laugh) Not so fast.

There is a light at the end of every tunnel.... conveniently for me, we had a guest speaker today in my photography class.... and guess what!? He is a famous photographer! and on top of that, he is an Advertising photographer! SCORE!

So, with that being said, i finally got my interview for my blogging pleasure. 

Ladies and Gentlemen, introducing Will van Overbeek.

A quick little spill about this really interesting guy. Overbeek has been working for the photography industry for over 30 years contributing his art to many prestigious magazines: Texas Monthly, Rolling Stones, National Geographic, Sports illustrator, and many others. He has also been a free lance Advertising photographer and has photographed the visuals for print ads for clients such as: Mc Donald's, Canon, Adidas, ESPN, Honda, Heineken, Southwest Airlines, and many others.

Q- Is the world of advertising photography fading away?

A- Absolutely not! If anything, its just becoming more competitive. Anyone with a camera can be considered a photographer now, but the question is, do they have the right kind of portfolio to prove it?

Q- What do you think will happen to photography as technology continues to improve?

A- As technology improves, photopraphy mediums change along with it, but that is not nessecarly a bad thing. Many people think that film photography is better than digital, but they are all dillusional, digital photography has many more advantages without a doubt. That goes to say that the future looks bright for photography.

Q-How do you think the shift from print media to digital media will affect photography?

A- There are many possibilities for the industry, you have to realize that advertising photography is all around especially on the web, every web page you browse on has advertisements clearly displayed, many of them are interactive, but also many of them are still frame banners ads that would not be possible without photography. Also keep in mind that magazines are not dying off anytime soon.

Here are a random selection of photographs hes taken:

http://www.willvano.com/ADVERTISING/

Here you will find a slide show of the Advertisements that he has created.

Will Van Overbeek, you saved the day!

 Will Van Overbeek.Will Van Overbeek Photographer. 2011. Web.  24 Mar. 2011 < http://willvano.blogspot.com/>

Back to the Basics

After church at the Austin stone ( which is amazing if you never been) i had my boyfriend take me to target to get a new toothbrush which i accidentally left at home over spring break. Any ways on my way out of the door, on a beautiful display Target had a display of 3 General Mills Brand cereal. It was the most beautiful sight I have ever laid eyes on, and its not just because I'm a cereal freak. (Cereaously, ha I eat cereal like three time a day! No joke.) These boxes caught my eye like a dazzling diamond ring in a Tiffany's store window. It was no ordinary cereal packaging at all...

Its looks like these boxes were from the 1980's jk i am really bad a determining an accurate perception of time.... i honestly have no clue what time period these boxes relate to. Any who, i did some research and found out when this cereal was created:

• Cheerios (1956)
• Lucky Charms (1989)
• Honey Nut Cheerios (1984)
• Trix (1968)
• Cinnamon Toast Crunch (1984)

Ha so turns out i was pretty close in my prediction after all.

Along with that research I was able to unveil the other throwback cereal boxes that are apparently only available in target stores for a limited time. 






By now we are all used to false advertisement when it comes to food product, but, as demonstrated in these not so clearly resolutioned photos, these cereal boxes are the closest perception of reality as it gets. The cereal photographed and displayed on the front of these boxes look a little more dull and lifeless and closer to reality than I have seen in years. Its AWESOMEEE!!! 



All in all, this is a very clever method for gaining cereal dominance, a marketing strategy that really works and is obviously aimed at the "old people" target audience, but though i was not alive during the creation of these executions , i still appreciate its intent. I regret not going back and buying a package, looks like ill be making a trip back to Target soon. 

Vintage always wins!

Katie. (2011,February 7). Get ready for retro packaging from General Mills. Katietalksabout. Retrieved from http://katietalksabout.com/get-ready-for-retro-packaging-from-general-mills/comment-page-1/

 

 

 

Game face

Adidas goes" all in" on with what  they claim to be their greatest ad campaign EVER released on March 14th. This Adidas campaign is action packed and features some of the biggest celebrities in today's pop culture ranging from athletes to musicians such as  NBA star Derrick Rose, Katy Perry, Hip hop artist B.O.B  and soccer stars David Beckham and Lionel Messi. The creative concept of this campaign intends to showcase the brand diversity,  the “one-brand anthem” that will promote each of the athletic apparel company’s three product lines: Performance, Originals and Style.

“Today’s consumers are not one-dimensional,” said Patrik Nilsson, president of Portland-based Adidas America. “They live across the cultural spectrum and that’s where Adidas has its edge."

This creative approach captures the passions of all these various athletes and artists in all their glory  or defeat. 

This ad campaign would be nothing without photography an in this case video as well, It  is the center piece of this campaign, celebrating the game face and freezing that moment in time.  Going a step further, Adidas is asking fans to submit their game face for a chance to be featured in a commercial that will be aired during the MTV awards on June 5th.

Photography again is at the heart of this campaign by creating the cultural scene and by engaging the target audience to become part of the brand

(2011,March 14) Adidas launches  biggest marketing campaign in brand's history. Prnewswire. Retrieved from http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/adidas-launches-biggest-marketing-campaign-in-brands-history-117934324.html

Parker,L. (2011, March 4). Katy Perry and David Beckham star in new Adidas Advert. Allvoices.com. Retrieved from http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/8532099-katy-perry-and-david-beckham-star-in-new-adidas-advert-video>

They are animals

 

I don't know about you, but the last time I saw a lion lighting himself on fire or an elephant jumping out of a 12 story building was like ..... ummm never, so quite frankly i don't understand the meaning behind the New Wranglers "We are animals" tagline. However that's not to say that i don't like or appreciate it. Because I do. :) seriously I cannot say that any other Wranglers campaigns specifically caught my attention. This one does. Who doesn't like the thrill of watching people get glass in the face and being showered down by fire extinguishers? Sign me up! .... (I'm just kidding. i would never risk my life for the purpose of a 30 sec advertisment that people will more than likely forget 15 seconds afterwards. ) 

 

Could you see this advertisement being successful had photography never been introduced?.... I think not! We will continue to see more and more eye engaging, shocking, irrational, and out of the box ideas as more and more brands attempt to break thought the clutter and gain their title of supremacy.

Straun, John."Wranglers we are animals "stunt" campaign. SuperPunch. 2011.13 March. 2011.<http://superpunch.blogspot.com/2011/03/wranglers-we-are-animals-stunt-campaign.html>

print advertising vs digital advertising.

You know, there has always been great controversy over print advertising, whether it will fall off the cliff next month, or if its in it for the gold…… or maybe im just making that up in my head. I don’t know.  What I do know tho is that many companies are decresing the revenue of print efforts and investing that money into digital advertising instead. Take The New York Times Co. for example. 

 "The New York Times Co. said Wednesday that the decline in print advertising revenue has gotten smaller since late January.

In the fourth quarter, print advertising revenue dropped 7 percent over the previous year. The company said the print advertising decline was in the low single digits in February.

Digital advertising revenue grew in the mid-single digits, though it's still not enough to offset declines in print. Digital advertising made up just 15 percent of total revenue in the fourth quarter."

This doesn’t surprise me at all:

Major Benefits of Digital Advertising

1. The biggest benefit of digital advertising in particular for web advertising is that it is quantifiable. The biggest drawback to broadcast and print advertising is that it is impossible to get an accurate number of the viewers or readers that might see an ad. With tools like Google Analytics it is possible to see exactly how many people have visited a website or clicked on a banner ad. This means you can actually see how effective advertising.
2. The cost. Digital advertising is simply the most cost effective form of advertising ever created. For the price of a traditional newspaper want ad, an advertiser can reach millions of potential customers all over the world. Start up companies and small businesses can effectively compete with large corporations.
3. Flexibility. Digital advertising can be quickly changed to deal with changing circumstances. Unlike print or broadcast ads which can take months to prepare and can’t be changed quickly. Digital ads can be revised almost instantly. This means it is possible to create a campaign and have it up and running in a few days.
4. Versatility. In today’s world an effective digital ad placed online can reach people through several different mediums. Viewers can see it on the internet, through social networks or even through their cell phones. If the ad goes viral millions can potentially see it.
5. The capability is there for ads to go viral. This means that your viewers can actually become part of the advertising process by spreading or posting ads that they like. This can greatly extend the reach of advertising without greatly increasing its cost.
6. Trust. The newer digital advertising mediums are generally more liked and trusted than traditional media. In many parts of the world average people view traditional publishing and broadcasting organizations as propaganda outlets for government or big business. The same people often trust digital outlets because they have more control over them.
7. Growth potential is unlimited. Most traditional media is plagued by falling viewing figures and sales. At the same time digital media is growing quickly. This means those who want to reach more people need to sue digital media.
8. Focused. Digital media is much easier to focus on a particular group. This means an advertiser can reach only the readers or viewers that they actually want. They don’t have to pay large amounts of money for ads that will only reach a few customers. For example a company selling a new knitting needle could advertise on websites for knitters and reach those most likely to buy the product.
9. Better grade of customers. The people that use digital media are usually better educated, more affluent and younger. They are more likely to be the kind of customers that advertisers actually want to

Yeah… that basically sums it all up, actually, I don’t know if "sums" was a good word, because that was actually rather lengthy if I do say so myself. In fact I can guarantee that you probably didn’t read the whole excerpt above to its entirety. Am I right? ….. If you did read it all, then sorry for offending you, Bravo!

http://www.statesman.com/business/technology/nytimes-co-gives-improved-outlook-on-print-ads-1292100.html?cxtype=rss_ece_frontpage

Who knew ogilvy was so cool!

 David Ogilvy: The Original Mad Men.

okay so let me be frank, when learning about Ogilvy in both Adv318j and Adv325, i was bored out of my mind. Who did this guy think he was making all these rules and undermining everyone.. uh ... annoyed! But.... I knew that ogilvy was pretty much the founding father who stressing the importance of photography in advertising, so i knew that it would be in my best interest to blog about him. 



Famous for Rolls Royce, Marlboro, the cowboy, guiness, dove soap, the first advertisment for margarine, mercedes, and way too many to list, he used photography and copy write to sell the items. Before photography it was illustration for advertisers. His pictures portrayed the dream life, good life and the result of using a product was, sold a business and the product.

Someday ill have the time to read 'Ogilvy on advertising'. Until then, ill just refer back to my $200 advertising text book.

After much research, I was pleasantly surprised by what i found out. Ogilvy was a really cool guy. ehh nevermind, scratch that.... Ogilvy was a really cool guy,   I'm not going to jump to conclusions too soon. What I mean't was: Ogilvy made some really cool ads!

Hahahaha ... sry i have to interrumpt my ogilvy conversation for a brief moment. A silly little bird just flew head first into the window of CMA building from where i am blogging this blog. I have never seen that happen before, only in movies and commercials. ahh i feel soo guilty for laughing! . ... Wait.... backtrack a bit,  " head first"? okay I don't quite know where I was going with that, what other way would they be flying? ..... anyways, what provokes a bird to react in that manner? Ehh.. I don't know but I would sure hate to be experiencing the head ache that he is feeling.

Okay, back to Ogilvy.
Writers block.
Writers block.
yadda yadda yadda
Train of thought derailed.

Aha!.... My impression of ogilvy is forever changed thanks to the photos on this website: check em out:
http://rawmade.com/culture/amazing-advertising-x-david-ogilvy/

I guess not all of his rules are too old fashioned, he centered his advertising around photography centered print ads. You would think that after all his years of contributing ads, that this style would eventually wear out, but it hasn't. His ads transformed and  grew as the culture and the trends change and technology emerged.

Ogilvy is not just black and white Rolls Royce ads that I had always categorized him by.  His portfolio is rich, diverse and full of fresh ideas, ideas which are interesting, effective, and most importantly, they sell. 

Gross, D. ( 2009, February 12). The original mad man. News week. Retrieved from http://www.newsweek.com/2009/02/11/the-original-mad-man.html

Foley, C. (2010, March 29). Amazing Advertising x David Ogilvy. Raw Made. Retrieved from http://rawmade.com/culture/amazing-advertising-x-david-ogilvy/