Do Good Things

Call me cliché. Call me pretentious. Call me whatever you want, but it’s true and this past week that I spent in New York with the University of Oregon Ad program was hands down the best experience of my life.

Many people may say the same thing for very different reasons. One person may say it because they love being immersed in such a diverse city. Another will say it’s because of the nightlife. While those two aspects of New York are great in their own way, they are not the reasons why I sit here in my room in the relaxed city of Eugene, OR and am in almost disbelief that I was able to share that experience with some amazing people.

Patience is a virtue. My trip, along with about ten others, started out with us expecting to get in to NYC at around 2 p.m. with time for shenanigans, but due to a mechanical failure with our plane, it turned into us not knowing if we’d even make it there on time for our first agency visit on Monday. Instead of overreacting, we stayed patient, stayed positive and got there earlier than we would have if we’d switched flights.

Guys. Sharing a bed is not as bad as it sounds and it a lot more comfortable than a hard floor littered with dirty clothes, trash, and electronic devices.

Inspiration is everywhere. It could be graffiti. It could be fashion. It could be architecture. It could be the streets. It could be a hand-drawn presentation. Inspiration is everywhere.

For the most part, people have good intentions. Me and two other friends were approached by a random girl asking for help in finding her way around. After telling her we weren’t from around NY and we trying to find a bar she told us she just arrived earlier in that afternoon to find a job and it was her birthday. We invited her to join us in our journey to find a place to grab a drink and got to help make her birthday afternoon that much better.

Working at a movie theater can be the most interesting part of your resume. The first question I was asked was about working at a movie theater. If you look hard enough, experience can be found in everything you’ve accomplished. So when you are making your resume and feeling down about not having a great internship of job stop. Look at the job you had getting you through college or that barista job you had for a summer.There will be something that relates to the field you are entering, you just have to find it.

Life really is a lesson. We just have to pay enough attention to learn from it. Thank you to Deb Morrison, Harsha Gangadharbatla, and Dave Koranda for making this experience possible. #UOnyc12 will be a memory never forgotten.

Jan 27

NBA basketball is alive and kicking. Just a few weeks ago college football’s National Champs were crowned…. It wasn’t Oregon so who cares? March Madness is creeping up. And in a little over a week, America’s largest sporting event will be held. The Super Bowl. There isn’t a better time to be a sports fan.

While my twitter feed has been trying to tease me with ads that will air during The Super Bowl, I refuse to look at them so I can enjoy them when I’m supposed to. Durning the game.

One company that always seems to have some sort of funny or heartwarming spot is Coca-Cola.

In partnership with W+K in Portland, OR, Coke will be rolling out there Fan-Bears. These lovable bears are just like the ones we see so often with coke, except this time they will be just like all of us, watching and talking about the game in a live stream.

While so many companies will be solely relying on they TV spots, Coke will have TV spots and this live feed which encourages people to interact with the brand physically (drinking coke), during breaks in the game (TV spots), and during the game (live feed). It blows my mind and motivates me to come up with such a great and original strategy.

Coke and W+K need to invest in the Kobe System because they continue to be the gold standard.

Dec 02

This really irks me. I know the “consumer is always right”, but seriously people. It’s a fricken can!

White doesn’t make it taste any different. Look up the reasoning behind the design and maybe you’ll think it tastes better.

Coke is partnering with WWF to raise awareness for threat global warming poses to bears arctic habitat. The white can was intentionally implemented by Coke’s marketing executive’s because they wanted a “disruptive” campaign to grab attention.

“The white can resonated with us because it was bold, attention grabbing” says Scott Williamson, spokesman for Coke.

If you think the white can has a bad taste after reading about the cause, maybe it’s you that needs to be recalled.

Dec 01

Nov 30

I always love finding design tutorials even thought I classify myself as a strategist. In the advertising world, EVERYONE needs to be creative and if you’re thinking about entering the field and don’t consider yourself creative, get out now.

It doesn’t matter if you’re an account planner, strategist, media planner, or creative. You have to find your inner creativity. While this tutorial and the other design posts I’ve shared may be more pertinent for creatives, I fully believe that strategists and planners need to have some sort of grasp of design and truly enjoy learning about it.

For one it helps to get into the minds of the creatives that will be making the ideas come to life. Second it also shows what is possible and excites you about the design process.

Strategists, account executives, and planners all at times will interact with creatives and if they have knowledge and a passion for designing, then maybe they can give them the creatives an idea they haven’t considered.

This is making yourself indispensable. Learning something some consider outside your job title and providing ideas from new perspectives.

So whether you’re a creative, strategist, planner, or another tittle, I urge you check this tutorial and the others out and make yourself indispensable.

Nov 29

This fall at the University of Oregon in my Creative Strategy class, my classmates and I were given the task of creating a meaningful presentation on a developing field, trend, agency or philosophy. @RollieDingers, @williamscott22 and myself decided to take an idea from Tracy Wong of WDCW - appreciate the unsung heroes.

The project is called the Chihuahua Awards.

Our main goal is to seek out the people that work hard and go above and beyond the call of duty and tell their stories. It could be anyone from a receptionist, an intern, junior planner, anyone that has completely WOWED the people around them. We set out with the goal to tell these incredible peoples stories and award them in some way, to let them know that it’s not going unnoticed.

This has been a great experience working with two guys as driven as @RollieDingers and @williamscott22.

Above all it just feels good to make others feel special and to hopefully make a positive impact in someone else’s life.

23. 7 Things you should Know.

As this wild crazy term comes to a screaming end and we’re dealing with, as the wise Professor Morrison would say, the ministry of magic fucking things up; here are a 7 pieces of advice that you should know.

1. Brand thinking is relationships, actions + purpose, living in the world, good business, and growing opportunity.

2. You should be reading. You should be asking questions. You should be curious. You should be interesting. You should be solving problems.

-Find something about you that sets you apart from everyone else or just find someway to make an impact that others wont. Be special. Maybe you bring everyone cookies. Maybe it’s taking time out to see if you can help on a project that you don’t necessarily have a part in. Just find someway to set yourself a part from everyone else and run with it. Own it.

5. Job titles will evolve but be based on strong ideas, sound strategy, craftsmanship, and careful production.

- Reoccurring theme we heard from a few of our presenters: Don’t be an ass hole. No body likes a ass hole.

- Never stop learning. Go back to Thing 2. You should be reading. You should be asking questions. You should be curious. You should be interesting. You should be solving problems. JUST LEARN.

Learn as if you were going to live forever. Live as if you were going to die tomorrow.

Nov 28

22. I Stand With the Hat.

Today is a sad and confusing day for me and the University of Oregon community. Our leader, Richard Lariviere, has been fired because of his creative and bold ideas.

I dont necessarily voice my opinion on many political issues very often because I am not very informed on them, but the reasoning behind the dismissal of Lariviere has got me quite upset and frustrated.

I have witnessed instances like Lariviere’s, albeit on a smaller scale, first hand in places I have worked. I’ve worked for people who strive to push their job description and better their work places by thinking outside the box. Typically the people working in their department really enjoy working for them, but then one day these employees show up to work and their manager is gone.

Like I said, I’ve seen it on a smaller scale, but it still affects people in the same way. These employees lost the manager they respected and that takes away from their motivation and desire to work for their employer.

This is the feeling I get from around campus these past few days. Not that people want to quit, but that they are confused and their spirits have been deflated.

Phil Knight, co-founder of Nike, expressed his disapproval with the decision describing the move as “yet another application of Oregon’s Assisted Suicide Law. For the chancellor and the State Board of Higher Education, a ‘team player’ is someone who falls in line with excellence does not fit in.”

I wholeheartedly agree with Uncle Phil in this statement, but will take it one step further and say that this applies to the corporate world in general. This is not just an issue about an innovator being fired, but an issue about bold and creative minds being silenced.

Throughout this whole ordeal President Lariviere has remained staunch on his position that this should not be about his employment status, but about furthering Oregon’s educational system. “I hasten to remind you that this is not about me,” says Lariviere. “We must all redouble our efforts to bring about positive change to the governance, funding and accountability of Oregon’s public universities.”

This is a true leader. Through the most difficult of times he deflects the attention from himself, and continues to push for his goal of a better university and stronger educational system. I only hope we can find someone who will continue to push the envelope and get our great university and the Oregon educational system to it’s full potential.