Category: AAD Community

Collect and Analyze Materials: Examples of TV/Radio commercials and Public Service Announcements

So, when I think of my favorite commercials, I immediately think of the Old Spice commercials with Isaiah Mustafa and I don’t believe I am alone.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owGykVbfgUE[/youtube]

This youtube video alone has 44 million views (already generating some revenue for Old Spice). When the first commercial came out, I remember everyone talking about it. It was the definition of going viral. And then they came out with the 2nd commercial, which was also an instant success. These commercials rock-stared Mustafa into instant stardom and even got him his first big movie deal. Then Old Spice launched a series of short videos in which Mustafa answered questions submitted through the internet. I remember some guy even had Mustafa propose to his girlfriend. Needless to say, these commercials were a marketing success. Everyone was talking about them and in my opinion, you would have to have no sense of humor not to enjoy them. But, then I heard a rumor that the commercials didn’t actually have big effect on Old Spice’s profit, so I investigated:

“The Old Spice campaign is considered a huge social media win, one that hundreds of social media experts have praised, but here’s where the story takes a bit of a surprising turn. I was sure that Old Spice planned to use the information it has on its almost 120,000 Twitter followers to start engaging with each and every one of them on a personal, meaningful level… As of September 2010, almost two months after Old Spice ambushed Twitter, the Old Spice account has tweeted only twenty-three times, and not one of the tweets talks or interacts with an actual person or user of the brand. Ad Age published an article that begins “Old Spice Fades Into History”… To me, it looks like Old Spice is a sprinter stuck in a traditional marketing mind-set, not a marathon runner living in the Thank You Economy. – Gary Vaynerchuk, March 2011, Fast Company: http://bit.ly/PD6lZm

So, while the rumor I heard was wrong: Old Spice sales rose by 107% after the 2nd commercial, they did not fully capitalize on their new-found internet glory. They had done everything right, but then forgot to maintain their fandom. According to Vaynerchuk, this lack of attention sends the message to consumers that:

“They’re glad that I, and thousands of others, spent our money with them, and now they’re just going to sit back on their laurels, enjoy the spike in revenue, and move on to a new campaign.” Old Spice may have had a short success, but they did not build a lasting relationship with their customers that would spark loyalty.

 

So, I don’t have a good example of a public service announcement, but I do have a great example of radio marketing: Radiolab.

All of Radiolab’s credits are either read by their listeners or people they interview. This tactic not only provides an opportunity for listeners to be involved in the show and actually hear their voice on the radio, but also keeps people listening during the commercials. It is true that they don’t let everyone read the credits, but it’s great way to build excitement over something that people usually wouldn’t care about. I think this would be an interesting model for a local public radio station to use. The station could post the PSAs on their website and people could call in and record their reading of the PSAs over a voicemail. Then people would listen for the PSAs in hopes of hearing themselves on the radio! Plus, it would save work for the station. I say, the more people are involved, the more they are invested.

Biopic Movie

Assignment Description: Students create a 2-4 minute video biopic or one based on a passion that represents who they are, an interest, etc, but the intent is to create a piece that demonstrates their knowledge of how to use video as a viable communication tool in their Arts Management area study.

My Biopic:

[vimeo width=”300″ height=”200″]http://vimeo.com/59186745[/vimeo]

Reflection:

This time I used iMovie and I liked it so much more. I still feel like I still have a lot to learn about the program, but in just a few hours, I turned out a much higher quality video than the one I made with Movie Maker. Although, this video was far less complicated to create. I only had one song, two kinds of transitions and the same pan movement for each picture. This is partly because the tone of the video necessitated a simple design, but also because I learned from last time that simple is better. I was worried that it would be difficult to insert an audio recordings over a song and then add a video on the end, but it wasn’t. The most difficult thing was timing the slides to the voice over, but I think it worked out well!

 

 

Collect and Analyze: Brochures & Newsletters

I am not sure the difference between a brochure and a mailer. I believe you can mail brochures, so I think the definition blends. Regardless, this is a brochure for Unique Oregon I picked up a while ago:

 

:

 

First of all, I love the design of the front. It’s eye catching and it makes you want to open up the brochure to see why these images are numbered. Then you discover that each image lines up with a place on the map! So, it becomes like a fun treasure hunt, matching all the images to place. Then you flip it over and see an adorable photo of local business owners and plea to give locally. I think this is very effective because first it draws you in with excitement and then it asks you to support them. If the front and the back had been switched, I don’t think it would work as well. Plus, because it has a map of all these cool places in Eugene, I’ve kept it as reference for shopping. Thus, it has helped me support local business.

Most newsletters I get are through email. In fact, I signed up for so many mailing lists in Portland, that my regular email is completely overrun. However, there is one newsletter I always click on:

 

For one, GOOD is an amazing organization. All of their articles are incredibly interesting and they do great work supporting the arts. Though it was their newsletter that first pulled me in. I started reading them obsessively because they always had some interesting topic I wanted to know more about. Plus, they get you to go to the website by only giving you a small clip of the article. If you click on the title, it directs you to the website, and then you see a list of the most popular articles and you get sucked in. And there are things you can do, like on this newsletter, you can nominate a teacher or sometimes they have challenges such as building your own tool kit. My only complaint is the newsletter comes quite often, but at least it always has good content.

OFN Practicum: Postcard 1

Link to Postcard

Alex Llumiquinga Perez

Andean Instrument Maker

Otter Rock, OR

“It was just a hobby when I started… I never thought I’d do this as a career.”

Alex is a master artist of crafting and playing Andean folk instruments. Growing up in Ecuador, Alex was surrounded by music and remembers his grandfather plucking leaves from trees and using them as instruments. He received his first flute at the age of 11 and his first charango (ten-stringed guitar) at the age of 12. Traditionally made from armadillo shells, Alex fondly recalls that his first charango had a panther carved into it.

Through performance, Alex immediately fell in love with Andean folk music. He formed a 5 piece band called Chayag and landed his first professional music performance at the age of 17. The band soon started spreading his love for Latin American folk music by touring the world. As he grew older, he became interested in learning how to craft Andean instruments himself, like the charango, bamboo flutes and river cane flutes. Over the last decade, Alex has developed his instrument-making techniques and now owns his own workshop. He loves teaching instrument-making skills to children, but when it comes to his own children, Alex says “I’m waiting for them to tell me they want to learn.”

Alex Llumiguinga Perez earned Oregon’s Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program award in 2012. For more information about traditional arts in Oregon, visit the Oregon Folklife Network at ofn.uoregon.edu.

Oregon Folklife Network:

Making a meaningful difference in Oregon communities by empowering our tradition-keepers to pass on their skills and knowledge.

For more information about the artist and his craft, visit www.andeanmusic.org

OFN Practicum: Week 4 Log

This week Maya and I met on Monday to discuss some of the issues we had come across and compiled a list of questions. Maya has sent a list of these questions out to Emily and Riki, which include questions about what links we should be providing (especially for the older artists we found in the archives), whether or not we should contact artists and if we need to ask for permission to post about them. Other questions pertained more directly to the Art of the Rural’s guidelines. We just need to get a better definition of rural so we aren’t picking artist that don’t represent their mission. Also, we were wondering if we should have a postcard to represent Eugene even though it’s a fair sized city. I need to email Savannah about these questions as well some map capability issues I talked about in the last post, though I’m going to wait till after our meeting with OFN on Monday. Maya and I also plan to do some more research in the archives next week now that we have identified more boxes to look through. This week we focused on creating our first drafts of postcards, as discussed below.

I chose to do my first postcard on a current TAAP artist: Alex Llumiquinga Perez. He is one of the few international artists I’ve found so far living in rural Oregon. I created a first draft of my postcard based on information about him on the web, his TAAP application and a newspaper article. You can see my first draft here. In crafting the draft, a lot of questions came up as to how OFN would want the postcard structured. For instance, do we need to describe the TAAP program? Are we focusing on the artist or his/her craft? I essentially tried to emulate the content I found in the TAAP application and I mentioned that Alex is TAAP awarded including a link. Maya and I also thought it would be nice to include a quote from the artist for each post and that the location should be forefront. A lot of the postcards I looked at on the map did not say what town they came from, which I thought was strange for the purpose of the map. Thus, I think we put the location of the artist in the title, so people can see what area this artist represents. Maya and I will be comparing our postcards and trying to find a good format for us both to follow hopefully before tomorrow’s meeting.