Thursday, February 21, 2013

Vine: What’s Cool about It?


When new exciting products come out I try to avoid all reviews and chatter about the product so that I can form my own pure opinions before they are skewed by others. I’ve been playing with Vine for several weeks now so I’m ready to share my thoughts.

So far, two key things stand out about Vine for me; creativity and a different view; literally.

Compared to YouTube or other video platforms, Vine seems to really be attracting creative and artistic people who are embracing stop motion and really pushing the envelope in artistic ways. It’s as if a bunch of young filmmakers were unleashed on me, and I get to watch Gumby and Pokey in a battle against Batman all in just 6 seconds. It’s fun, and it’s serving a different purpose than other video platforms.

Secondly, and this is what I enjoy most about Vine, is a reduction in selfies. I’m aware that many people enjoy using video platforms to show their face to the world, but that’s getting old and boring and the world is getting cluttered with selfies. Because Vine isn’t setup with a front-facing camera, I think more people tend to record what they see, instead of themselves, so now we get the opportunity to see the world through the eyes of others and I’m truly hoping that Vine will not change that feature. Now don’t get me wrong, many people still see themselves as interesting and worth looking at so they simply flip their camera phone around BUT I will say that there’s a great majority that are allowing us to see the world through their eyes, and this is truly refreshing.

So far I feel that Vine is pretty cool and has positioned their product as a unique tool that is here to stay. Also, it’s rather user-friendly and intuitive which is half the battle.

A few brands have jumped on the bandwagon so far, including Urban Outfitters who was one of the first, showcasing a video of dogs and another of beer (entirely unrelated to the brand).  I’ve also noticed a few agencies and companies testing out Vine, including BuzzFeed who is rather active; giving us an inside perspective of what it’s like to work there. Several celebrities quickly embraced the platform including Adam Goldberg and Jimmy Fallon utilizing the platform as a snapshot into their lives; just a few step beyond Instagram.

It will be interesting to see which big brands will embrace this platform for advertising, and since consumers hate ads it may just be the perfect place to keep their short attention span. Just imagine the pre-roll for a 6 second ad.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

19 Trends for the 19th

This is not as easy as I thought it would be but this time I'm trying to move beyond trends from 2011 (thank you Jeff Dickens for your constant support cough cough). Also, I really need to make this list at the beginning of the month when I don't have to come up with so many trends simply to satisfy the blog title. Anyways, enjoy!

1. Stop motion
2. Cold brew coffee
3. Checking in with GetGlue
4. Rose gold
5. Pingpong
6. Snapchat
7. Fennel
8. Sophie the giraffe
9. Gluten free
10. Peplum tops
11. Herringbone
12. Unique ice cube trays
13. Keeping calm and carrying on
14. High top wedge sneakers
15. Mint (the color)
16. The Harlem Shake
17. Zombies
18. Retro swimwear
19. Google Hangouts

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

29 Trends for the 29th

Here are 29 trends for you, with no context, in no particular order, left for you to ponder.

Also, I stuck "reform" in there and I'm not sure it's a "trend" persay but the topic is running rather ramped these days so I feel it's worth a shout-out.

1. Ombré
2. Cauliflower
3. Big buns
4. Horizontal scrolling
5. Gourmet doughnuts
6. Mason jars
7. Denim dress shirts
8. Southern food
9. Online dating
10. Spinning
11. Pinning
12. Inspirational Quotes
13. 6 second videos
14. Animated gifs
15. 50 Shades of Gray
16. 3D Printing
17. Rural reality shows
18. Farm to table
19. Immigration Reform
20. Healthcare Reform
21. Nail Polish
22. Kendrick Lamar
23. Crowdfunding
24. Pop-Up shops
25. Taco trucks
26. Whiskey
27. Extreme Marketing (think Felix Baumgartner)
28. Bicycles
29. Apple (not the fruit, duh)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Monday, January 28, 2013

Typography: It's All the Rage

On a recent project about the current and future state of digital, I learned of a coming trend towards a greater emphasis on the visual typography of websites. After all, the majority of a website is text, so naturally this makes sense. I feel this is largely driven by visual typography on social media platforms like Pinterest.

With that said, digital isn't the only place for creative typography, big brands are quickly moving on this trend too.

This weekend I enjoyed some Dominoes pizza and noticed their box (to my surprise) is solid black. Secondly, it is covered with a range of mixed typography, as if it's been lifted right off of the boards of Pinterest. It's very unfamiliar for the category so I just wanted to say kudos to Dominos for taking a leap of faith towards creativity, it's refreshing.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Barbie, She's Not Your Average Doll


Barbie has 6,816,586 likes on facebook and 160,868 “talking about this”; I am one of her many fans and she is one of my most favorite facebook friends. Yup, I said it, I called her my friend. The funny thing is I never even played with Barbie dolls as a child.

Barbie isn't just another brand intruding on my social space, to me, she feels real. She’s funny, she’s true to herself, she’s engaging (not boring), and she isn’t pushy. I just adore the language she uses as every perfectly crafted word seems to be an extension of herself, and thus an extension of her brand. Am I taking this too far? I think not.

Here are a couple of her recent posts:

“OMD. I’m so excited to share a never-before-seen Life in the Dreamhouse clip with you, dolls! Hope you enjoy watching it as much as moi... stay tuned for more Season One extras!” – 5,624 likes, 432 comments, and 2,636 shares
“Fall is the perfect time of year for one of my fave activities... glam-ping!” – 10,605 likes, 696 comments, 4,193 shares
“It's no secret that my favorite color is pink... but it's not just any pink! Pantone 219 is so fab, I had to devote a custom dress to it!” - 5,499 likes, 794 comments, 2,746 shares

If you haven’t already befriended Barbie, go ahead, give her a chance. Not only will she make you smile, but she’ll serve as inspiration for communicating your brand more effectively in social media.   

Monday, January 21, 2013

Semiotics in advertising


As I’m waiting for the metro…

Friendly man: Can I borrow your pen?
Me: Sure
Friendly man: I am soooo proud of you, you’re such a good student, keep up the good work and you will succeed
Me (guilty as I haven’t been a student in over 6 years): Thanks (giggle)

This is a conversation I have with strangers quite often and I don’t believe it’s because I look young (which I hear is true), but because I use a backpack instead of a purse, and just happened to have been reading a book at the time.

Book + backpack = student

Why is this interesting to me? When I worked in primary market research I was briefly introduced to the concept of semiotics. It is an idea that is greater and more complicated than my current understanding, but what I took away from the idea is that Semiotics is the study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation. Signs acquire meaning and value with becomes culturally accepted; it becomes ingrained in our culture without notice. This becomes relevant in the world of advertising as we use signs and symbols to represent different messages and ideas that must align with our expectations. And sometimes, we deviate from what is expected.

For example, red, yellow, and orange are all commonly used colors in fast food advertising. Greens and browns often signify natural and organic. Black and white could mean that a brand has a long history or is trying to get across a serious message. Two hands shaking means a deal has been agreed upon (often used in banking), a thumbs up means something is good or somebody is happy. I can go on and on and I think you get the picture.

In advertising, not only must we be aware of the meaning assigned to signs and symbols, but that adaptation over time. For example, something as simple as a pattern can mean one thing to one group of people in a particular period of time, and then evolve. As shown below, if I asked my grandma about this pattern she might say it’s Navaho or associate it to American Indians but ask a teenager and most likely she’s seen this pattern incorporated into fashion design at Forever21. If you asked me, I’d call the pattern “Hipster”. Put a girl in an ad wearing this pattern 10 years ago and it’s Navaho, but today, its trendy.

As culture and trends rapidly evolve, keeping abreast of these changes is a crucial ingredient to effective advertising.