Category Archives: Social Media

Why @Nike Should Jump On a Threadless Shoe #NikeLetter

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This week on Nicekick’s YouTube channel, some of my work was featured from the concept drawings I made about high performance shoe designs without using shoestrings. Jaques Slade, and everyone at NiceKicks are doing a great job at promoting #NikeLetter. If you haven’t already read about Matthew Walzer, a high-schooler from Florida, who proposed the original idea through a viral letter he wrote to the CEO of Nike, Mark Parker.

Mark Parker should listen to Matthew for three reasons:

1.) Nike is one of the most respected athletic brands. They were one of the first companies to make stars out of athletes. They had the idea of creating recyclable shoes. Their killer advertising campaigns have helped them build an international empire. They are on the front-end of innovation, and when something like #NikeLetter trends, they should look at as a profitable business move. Threadless (stringless) shoes might be the ticket to a unique selling point to their next huge idea, Threadless Athletic Shoes. if Nike engineers these shoes correctly, they will be the first company to release a high performance threadless athletic shoe that everyone can wear. Maybe Threadless shoes are the future of athletic gear.

2.) #NikeLetter isn’t going away. There is going to be a lot of backlash and responses from sending all of those orange postcards to Nike. Ignoring Matthew will hurt the brand, because Nike is facing it’s own campaign quote “If you have a body, you are an athlete.” It’s on their Twitter bio, right out there where everyone can see. Matthew challenged Nike to live by that quote. The letter has already gone viral, so it’s Nike’s turn for a response.

3.) Nike is filling a need, plain and simple. Obviously, there’s no shoe like the one Matthew is asking for. So if there is no other shoe like that out there, and you are the only company with the most recognizable shoe brand in the entire world, with the widest international reach, why not?

 

WKU Cares.

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I’m designing a tee shirt to benefit Kentucky Cares, a branch off the Red Cross for tornado relief across Kentucky. Love it? I’m still in the designing mode, but the finalized shirts will be ready to purchase on campus soon! Go Tops!! The shirts will probably be about 15.00 and about 5.00 per shirt will go towards Kentucky Cares and the Red Cross. Let me know what you think!

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Trending #WKU to go to the #NCAA Tournament.

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Trending #WKU to go to the #NCAA Tournament.

Tonight WKU was on the worldwide twitter trends…twice!

I don’t usually talk about college sports, but my Tops made it to the big (red) dance. I’m so proud of them. This was cool though. They were actually trending on Twitter worldwide! Who knew a little school from Kentucky could shake things up so much. I’ve told everyone I’m writing a book on the spirit of WKU and it’s true. Check back because I’m about to unveil a cool project in the works to benefit the Hilltoppers and the rest of Kentucky. It’s going to be big!!

What You Really Do In a Day (Infographic Time!)

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24 hours is simply not enough time for all the things the “Average American” supposedly does everyday. Honestly I think we spend a lot more time on Facebook than we lead on. Look at how integrated social media is in our life! You could argue that you could fit two or three of these things in together, taking your hours back down to 24. That’s possible, but if you have a child, a dog, a spouse, or a tall diva friend, you’ve got more problems than you can handle right now.

p.s. I’m sorry I abandoned you all for a few days. The infographic made me do research.

Did I Ever Tell You I Worked In Paris?

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It’s true! I did graphic design work for an entire summer for the Global Editor’s Network who’s main office was tucked away in Paris, quite close to the St. Paul (or Bastille) stops along the metro line. I went with a group of people from my school as part of an internship program and that’s when I really fell in love with the idea of having a career abroad.

There is just something sickly exciting about living somewhere in sweet, ignorant, bliss. Being in Paris was a lot like crash-landing on venus if venus solved everything with baguettes and goat-cheese. It was a different world all-together, but it made me realize what a wonderful world we live in.

I got a lot done in Paris. I designed a brochure that my client showed the Chinese Ambassador to France. Some of our stuff was actually in the New York Times Online Edition, and we helped plan and strategize for the NEWS! World Summit, which was held in Hong Kong in November of last year.

So if I could do all of that in one summer, you’d think I’d have no trouble with my current bucketlist, which is today’s daily design. It’s inspired by-you guessed it-Paris. I spent a lot of time on the metro going to and from work everyday and that became a small symbol of my daily life. So I made the metro my bucketlist design.  so starting off with number one, I’d like to:

Digital World Post #6: Future of Advertising

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Write a blog post about near-future of Advertising. How will our industry change in the next year? Make 5 realistic and measurable predictions. 
Things that I think will be different in the next year…hmmm. Well, if you could make everything even simpler than it already is, I would say that is where we are heading. It seems like “Siri” is going to command attention for the next few years or so. We are about to open up a new chapter in technology that has a lot more to do with talking to inanimate objects. What I mean to say is that technology will be easier for us to communicate with. We already have Kinect, a gaming system that boasts that “you are the controller.” We can talk to our cars and our phones, and we have face-time to talk to other people. So what the heck does that mean for advertising?
  1.) It’s Siri’s world, we just live in it.
  2.) Subtle advertising is key
  3.) Let the consumer advertise (since they love sharing so much).
  4.) We still love to play
  5.) Lay it out for the consumer.
I think advertising will go in a subtle direction. For example, let’s say you go to the movies with your friends and you ask Siri for directions to the theater. SIri could promote a specific movie based on promotion. Or maybe you are headed to the store to get groceries for the week. You could ask Siri for the weekly deals and she could give you special coupons and discounts on promoted items. When you are driving on a road trip and you are low on gas, your car might promote a certain gas-station based on your location. Same thing with food, destinations, rest areas, and so on. I think advertising will get even more integrated into our daily decisions. I would go so far as to say, decisions will almost be made for us. Kind of scary huh? It may be scary but it’s also extremely useful if you break-down on the road and you need a tow. Maybe you are in a new town and you want recommendations to good restaurants. It would be so easy for companies to pay to get Siri to make a product pitch to the consumer.
The next thing I think will happen is sort of Angie’s List on steroids. We all have seen those commercials for what is basically Trip Advisor for different products and services. It’s a review site. Well, what if you could offer and listen to a review in real-time responding to Siri’s recommendation. It would be huge for movies, concerts, basketball tournaments, and other real-time events. It would also be very useful and easy to offer a recommendation for daily activities like grocery shopping, finding a baby-sitter, and looking for local events and things to do.
I’m also a big believer in the power of play. Advertising has already gone in this direction with interactive ads that the consumer gets to control. Check out this cool Range Rover Advertisement called “Being Henry.”
Again, I don’t think you will see any huge breakthroughs this year, but I do think you will start to see that we will be consulting our electronics much more often. Yikes.

Digital World Post #4: Product Placement

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Product Placement, who uses this and why?

Today we have a million and one ways to get around watching an ad.

SO, someone smart decided to create product placement to promote products without creating advertisements that people may skip over or choose not to watch.

The Truman Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhIIPbO_6xg

Here are some examples of great product placement:

The Office.

Of course, I use my all-time favorite show, The Office to describe product placement. They do a really great job at referencing pop-culture so I couldn’t leave them out! The office has advertised everything on their show from social media outlets, to recycling and health matters, to orange juice. They use daily banter and conversation to bring up specific culture references that lead to product references, but they do it in an oh-so-subtle way.

http://youtu.be/Xcf4JBWBoEE

 

Other television show references include 30 Rock, American Idol, Seinfeld, Friends, How I Met Your Mother, and Glee.

Digital World Post #3- Entertainment Marketing

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How is blogging used by the entertainment industry to market its products (TV shows, awards shows, musicians and actors, etc.)? Provide examples and links.

Blogging is absolutely a huge part of the entertainment industry. I guess there are a couple different categories to entertainment blogs. 1st, there are blogs that are written by the band members, actors, news anchors etc. It might be their personal blog outside of their normal job on the show. They still represent their brand even if they aren’t always talking about it. Another type of entertainment blog is a fan site, or a blog dedicated to the show or brand of entertainment. The third type of blog is a promotional blog, setup by the writers of the show. The main reason I think blogs are a good venue for the entertainment world is because they provide their audience with a lot of daily content that keeps the buzz going on their brand. Relating to the audience is important too. Some people truly want to know where their favorite celebrity purchases their clothes, or what kind day they are having.

Blogs mainly promote their associated entertainment by commenting about an event or gossip surrounding the actual show. For example, http://perezhilton.com/ gossips about the entertainment industry in general. The idea of Perez Hilton is to provide a guilty pleasure for people who are looking for drama surrounding the entertainment industry. Perez mainly focuses on reality show type drama that focuses on Kim Kardashian, Lindsey Lohan, Dina Lohan, The “Real Housewives,” Miss America Competition, and Lady Gaga. It also mentions many young pop and rap stars like the Jonas Brothers, Lil Wayne, PINK, Britney Spears, Justin Beiber, etc… In a way, it promotes different entertainment themed events because it comments on the results of award shows like the MTV Music Awards, the Grammy’s, the Oscars, and the Kid’s Choice Awards. Most of the “drama” produced on Perez Hilton is negative, but that is the way Perez gains attention and viewers and he actually has a large audience that will watch the award show just to be in the loop with what he posts on his blog.

On the other side of the spectrum, news anchor Megyn Kelly from Fox News has a “blog” that automatically updates viewers online about the news stories that she covers http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/america-live/index.html. This blog is almost purely an RSS feed featuring her stories and videos. It does not include her personal view or opinions.

However, http://gosselinfamilyfansite.blogspot.com/ Kate Plus 8, a show recently cancelled on TLC, keeps it’s audience updated with their blog even after their show was cancelled. The phenomena in this case was reversed. Kate still likes to update her viewers on her family, I’m guessing because she must have future plans for her show in the works.

The point is, blogs can do a lot for a brand, and the authors behind the blog show a level of commitment to their viewers that is much more of a personal interactive level.

Here is the office’s take on a blog from YouTube: