This week I wrote a column for TalentZoo.com titled: “TV is not going anywhere, so we might as well fix it.” on the topic of targeted television advertising. Click here to read it.

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The day before the column ran, two high profile pieces were published on the topic of targeted (or “addressable”) television advertising, focusing on how the cable giants have teamed up and are in a race with Google to develop a system to deliver targetted ads.

• Cable Firms Join Forces to Attract Focused Ads (New York Times, registration required)
• Project Canoe: Cable Companies Paddle to Catch Up To Google in Targeted TV Ads (Techcrunch.com)

This competition is good for viewers, because it will quicken the delivery of targetted, more relevant advertising improving the overall quality of television.

[Update 04-08-2008]
Comcast and its media agency, Starcom MediaVest Group, have released a report on a 16-month targetted, or “addressable.” TV advertising study.

• Households with addressable commercials changed the channel 38% less, and ads were 56% more effective

Read the press release here: http://www.smvgroup.com/news_popup_flash.asp?pr=1663

Talent Zoo is a recruitment company, job board and community portal dedicated the advertising, marketing and public relations. I have been a fan of their content and their service for a long time, and I am happy that this week I had the opportunity to write a column for their New Media Edge section titled:

TV is not going anywhere, so we might as well fix it.

Television has the potential to be the most relevant medium of all. The only question is: How long will we have to wait?

Click here to read it.

If you enjoyed the column, please subscribe to my blog as I have several posts planned that should be of interest.

If you would like to feature my writing on your website, blog, or in your publication, do not hesitate to contact me at dylan.thomas@gmail.com. Also, if you are looking to hire an advertising art director in the San Francisco Bay Area, check out my portfolio and give me a call. I’d love to chat.

Last summer, Sha Nguyen and myself were chosen to compete on the pilot of AD FIGHT, an advertising-based reality television show produced by Reveille Productions (Ugly Betty, The Office, Nashville Star, The Biggest Loser, etc).

The show premieres Friday, February 15th at 7pm/6pm Central on the Oxygen Network, and will be reshown several times. Check you local listings to see if you get Oxygen.

If you can, please support us by watching. Job offers can be emailed to dylan.thomas@gmail.com and shasha.v@gmail.com.

Check out my portfolio at http://dylan.thomas.name

This is a partial summary of the presentation given by Chuck Porter (of Crispin, Porter + Bogusky) at the Minneapolis Creative Summit, hosted by AdFed of Minnesota on October 18, 2007.

Myths

Myth #1- “Everything Has Changed”

No it hasn’t. They said the same thing about radio and television. Interactive technology has changed some dynamics, but the fundamentals are the same.
All communications must be engaging, whether they are fables, parables, or, god-forbid, advertising.

“There is no learning without emotion.” -Plato

Myth #2- “The Customer is in Control Now”

They always have been, it was just easier not to listen to them before all of this technology gave them such loud voices. The flip side is that technology has made it easier to engage someone faster, and in greater depth. The best story tellers are always rewarded, and technology is amplifying that in advertising.

Rules

Rule #1- Stay loose, and back winners

Float lots of messages because no one knows what is going to work. Once you see what sticks, put resources behind those ideas.

Rule #2- Use pop culture to create brand moments

The BK King started out as a joke, and exploded.

Rule #3- Fly below the radar

They know you are advertising, get them in on the game and have fun with it.

Rule #4- Use traditional media in untraditional ways

Print campaigns for Molson

Rule #5- Consistency is good, surprise is better

CP+B does a lot of great creative that only runs once or twice, but the surprise of it leaves a much larger impact.

I been to many classroom and guest speaker Q&A where I was embarrassed by the questions being asked. The answers you’ll be given get depend on the politeness, honesty, and age of the person asked. Here are some old stand-bys that always come up, and the real answers.

Q: How much money will I make when I get out of school?

A: It depends. Somewhere between $12K and $70K depending on your location, your awesomeness, how likable you are, how much they need you, and a million other factors. On average, you can expect to make ~$35K in your first job. A wise advertising guy once told me:

For the first half of your career, you will be grossly underpaid. For the second half, you’ll be grossly overpaid.

Q: What if I’m offered an amount of money that I cannot live on?
(not to be confused with being underpaid, see above.)

A: It’s up to you. No one else can make this decision for you, but my advice is to find another job. It’s an ethical issue. To perform in a job, you need to be able to eat. Anywhere that does not support that is not someplace you, or anyone, should be working.

Q: How many pieces should I put in my portfolio?

A: This is usually asked by two types of people: the green, and the graduating.

For the newbies, it doesn’t matter at this point, focus on getting great work done, then read the below.

For grads, the questions is only valid if you are interviewing with the actual person you are asking the question. If you ask 10 creative directors (and I’ve seen it) they will vacillate and give you 3 answers a piece. I’ve heard of people getting hired with with riveting 600 (and 10) page portfolios.

They don’t really care, it just has to be awesome.

Q: What kind of stuff should I put in my portfolio?

A: A follow-up to the previous question. Again, it depends. If you are going to a shop that specializes in print, you want to have alot of print. At an online agency you’ll have to have banner ads and microsites. You will want to tailor your book for each interview, if possible.

A Few Points:

• You sure as hell better have a website.
  Don’t plan on getting hired without one. Doesn’t have to be fancy.
• The more interactive the better.
  It’s still rare in student books. More advertising is moving there, and agencies need people who can think that way.
• No one reads radio.
  Produce it and put it on a CD and on your website.
• Television storyboards never read very well.
  Produce it and put it on a CD and on your website.

Q: Is there more I need to know?

A: Yep, but this is a good start. Take control of your career. Be a student of the industry and how it works, not just what it makes, and you’ll be fine.

I am currently a 5th Quarter Art Director at Miami Ad School (I also spent some time at Academy of Art University). My first 4 quarters were in San Francisco, and now that I’m in Minneapolis with a 1st Quarter roommate, I find my experiences catalyzing into advice I wish I’d had in the beginning.

Some of this advice is specific to Miami Ad School, but most of it applies more generally, whether you are attending VCU AdCenter, Academy of Art, Texas Creative, Creative Circus, et al.

I know from experience that information about what ad school is hard to come by. Hopefully these posts will help you decide if it’s for you, and help you make better use of your time as a student. The better your information, and the more complete your picture, the better decisions you can make.

At Rassak Experience, we’ve been hard at work launching the Ray Hopewood’s 2008 presidential campaign on behalf of a client, BigFix, Inc.

What?

That’s what the San Francisco Chronicle said, and they were so interested in the story of our viral campaign that they put it front and center on the business section of the Chronicle this Saturday (June 9, 2007).

You can read the article here on SFGate.com:

Viral campaign spreading: Online marketing effort may germinate into business leads

It makes for an interesting read and focuses on how using non-traditional, entertaining methods of marketing can drive real results for clients. Click here for a picture of the paper. It’s a little odd, and very cool to see a website you designed printed in the newspaper.

Please forward it around, or digg it.

Also, check out the campaign at:

www.rayhopewood.com - campaign site

www.bigfix.com/rayhopewood - campaign news

The Sims have tapped all the aspiring filmmakers on Current.TV to find a good story for broadcast. Browsing the site, people have made some amazing pieces, buying the game, and composing “in-game” stories. Here is a small slice of life from provided clips.

Technorati Tags:
video, commercial, media, currenttv, vcam, gaming

Lexus has been playing hard to get (fitting given their “pursuit” campaign). Having introduced a three new ads that dive to the heart of “inspirational advertising” during the 2007 Golden Globes, the ads were nowhere to be found, completely shaking my confidence in YouTube and TV pirates everywhere.

The ads are signifigant in a number of ways:

• They don’t show, or mention, at anytime, a specific car.
• They are inspirational rather than aspirational.
• They connect Lexus with creativity and work rather than luxury and status.

These three points are a departure from their current and historic campaigns which focus on passion, status, iteration, and continuous improvement, always showing and basing the visuals on specific car models. These ads extend their concept of the “pursuit of perfection” through iteration and passion and apply it to other disciplines.

I first heard about these ads from my girlfriend, who hates advertising, but she was gushing about how great they were. She said the ads were so well done, so restrained, and so thoughtful that she couldn’t help but associate that thoughtfullness with Lexus and their cars.

Congratulations on a breakthrough campaign, Lexus. My only criticism is that the ads, given how much buzz they’ve been getting via blogs and word-of-mouth, they were impossible to find.

Soapbox Alert:
To extrapolate to a larger issue, I strongly believe that all companies should make all of their spots available either on their website, or via direct link to pages on video sites like YouTube, AOL Video, etc. Companies need to embrace their brand advocates and provide them with the tools for their own entertainment and evangelism. If people are looking for your commercials, they are the people you need, and you want to make it as easy as possible to interact with and promote your brand.

Enjoy!

Lexus Commercial - Ruby Slippers

Lexus Commercial - Composer

Lexus Commercial - Hello

technorati tags:video, lexus, commercial, soapbox, advertising, inspirational-advertising

Since the major networks are all starting to put content online after it’s been shown on TV, I figured I would check it out. That, and my DVR has been acting up. Here’s the rundown of my experiences.

FOX:

Wanted to watch: Prison Break, Standoff

Experience: Only supports Windows 98SE+. Sorry Mac users.

Conclusion: Wake up Fox and fix your site so I can use it.

CBS:

Wanted to watch: CSI: Miami

Experience:

Requires RealPlayer, which I hate. Didn’t feel like registering with Real, downloading the software, installing it, configuring my browser to use it, and hoping that it worked, so I haven’t watched any video on the site yet.

The site, however, is fast, smooth, pleasing to navigate, and pleasing to look at. You can’t really ask for more.

Conclusion: Huge potential, but I hate the Real hurdles that I need to jump through. I think it would be better for them to have implemented Flash, or Quicktime which have greater penetration, and in my experience, greater reliability.

NBC:

Wanted to watch: Friday Night Lights, Studio 60, 30 Rock

Experience:

Off to a slow start, but somewhat redeemed itself. The videos tended to “Not Be Found” while using Mozilla-based browsers but worked fine in Safari.

The overall experience is a bit cobbled together. Episodes are broken into parts (as many as 6 for hour long shows). After you’ve selected an episode to watch it loads a 5-second video that says “The following presentation is brought to you by [sponsors name]” and their logo/tagline. Then it plays a commercial. Then it plays the first part of the show.

When the part you are watching finishes, the process starts again, with the same sponsor and commercial, in my experience. I swear, if I have to see the new “Say Yes to Yes” Cadillac spot, I’m going to kill someone.

Conclusion: While it lacks some polish, it gets the job done, and NBC gets credit for trying to put all of their shows up ASAP.

ABC:

Wanted to watch: Desperate Housewives

Experience:

The ABC Full Episode Player is an example of excellent and seamless information design and media presentation. When you click on an show, the other shows dim and you see the episodes available. When you roll over an episode, it give you a quick description. When you click on an episode, everything dims and the video starts playing. Video quality is excellent and lets you dynamically pick a larger or smaller video size without interrupting the video stream.

Since Toyota sponsored the online version, it was presented with only 3-30second interruptions which flew by, during which there was a countdown. When the mandatory break was over, the timer turned into a “Continue” button. Two of the breaks provided a list of YARIS “Spy vs. Spy” clips to watch and I spent way more than 30 seconds watching them because I find them entertaining and went to the YARIS site to download a screensaver. The other was an Avalon TV spot and photo gallery.

Watching the show online was easier, shorter, and far less work than watching it on TV, even with a DVR. The result is a much more pleasant experience, and more impactful advertising.

Conclusion: Curled up in bed with my laptop, or watching on my big computer screen, ABC Online just might be better than watching TV.

Winner: ABC, for now. Expect the others to catch up quick.

Technorati Tags: advertising, dvr, technology, television, tv, video