fran

hi! my name's fran magsalin, nice to meet you! - documenting my years in the m-school institute of marketing at lmu. - currently: 90045

[mschoolfran]

Spotify Wrapped 2018

Writing these blogs made me realize how much I love these yearly zeitgeist things.

This is Spotify’s third year doing the Spotify Wrapped promotions, where they provide every single user with a full summary of their 2018 year in music, down to the very first song they listened to and the first new artist they listened to:

I have a self-curated yearly miscellaneous Spotify playlist, but it was so nice that they also made me a Top Songs of 2018 playlist!  I was surprised to find that some of favorite songs of the year weren’t even on my 2018 playlist, so I’m glad that the algorithm threw them in there -- wouldn’t want to forget them!  Big shout-out to the Spotify AI though, because they also make every user a playlist of artists that aren’t in their typical music taste, yet may still be interesting.  I checked mine out the other day and was surprised to find that I liked a lot of the songs on there!

Check out my 2018 Top 100 playlist here.

Check out my “Tastebreakers” playlist here.

Additionally, they provide some fun insights about other Spotify users on billboards and online ads.  They’re funny, relatable, and a perfect use of all the data they take about us, the consumers.  The copy on these is insane, and I’d love to master the art of writing these billboards (time to practice!).  Check them out below:

my personal favorite, the yanny vs. laurel debate split my family for days

None of my playlists look like my friends’ because we get weekly recommendations for artists we may like, and the Spotify radio algorithm is so well-formulated that I sometimes forget I’m listening to new music instead of my “misc. 2018 favs playlist.”  Once again, Spotify is proving that they’re the superior music streaming site because they know their users and never fail to make a completely personalized experience.  

Take some notes for next year, Apple Music.

So, we’re here at the end of my first semester in the M-School at LMU.  A summary of HUG’s efforts and what I’ve learned these past couple of months is coming up sometime during Christmas break, so stay tuned :)  Thank you to Professors Rohm and Saint Clair for such an enriching semester!  Team HUG forever!

[mschoolfran]

YouTube Rewind

*Kanye voice* I miss the old YouTube, straight from the go YouTube…

It’s that time of year again!  As an avid YouTube fan and content creator myself, I have looked forward to YouTube Rewind every year since the first one in 2010:

I think it’s such a clever way to recognize where YouTube is currently at, and the possibilities of its future.  While it’s still a relatively new industry, digital and online video has definitely made its way and merged into the mainstream entertainment industry.  I have grown up alongside YouTube and its many phases, from Annoying Orange and Fred to the British YouTube invasion, to the currently popular vloggers such as David Dobrik and Jason Nash.  These “Rewind” videos document the rise of online video, and I’m super glad YouTube has committed to doing these for the past 8 years.

But how did this year’s Rewind become the most disliked video on YouTube of all-time?

While YouTube Rewind 2018 was meant to be “chosen by everybody,” it seems to be a very odd mixture of things to include.  It was a smatter of the year’s biggest internet trends (K-pop, mukbangs, Fortnite, Fortnite dances, etc), got weirdly emotional around the 3:40 mark, and had no real linear direction at all in terms of plot.  I was so confused the whole time -- Why are all of the YouTubers on a stranded island together?  Why is Emma Chamberlain driving a car in space?  Why does Ninja, who is primarily a Twitch streamer rather than a full-time YouTuber, have so much screen time on YOUTUBE’S Rewind?  

I can see why the video got so many dislikes.  I love most of the creators in it, but it seemed so scripted and just… way cringier than previous years’.  The old ones were more sentimental and focused on how YouTube is breaking barriers in the entertainment industry, since it was not taken as seriously as an industry or target market in previous years.  While they mentioned YouTube’s growth as a platform this year, I feel like this one just dwelled a lot (probably way too much) on the internet trends themselves.

What do you think? Cringy or not? Subscribe to my YouTube channel while you’re at it! (lol #influencer)

[mschoolfran]

The Grinch is in LA!

Not so holly jolly now, huh?

I was minding my own business, driving down Lincoln Blvd as one does, and saw a billboard similar to the one above, with the Grinch making a snide remark about why people shouldn’t move to LA.  I was too shocked to snap a picture, but my friend and I laughed for a bit afterwards.  I knew right away that I’d have to write about this for a WOW mention, because it’s genius in the same way that I find the Deadpool ads hilarious.

one of my favorite campaigns of all time. i love deadpool adverts

The Grinch Movie was released on November 9, 2018 and was not short on promotions at all.  I saw ads for the movie everywhere: on YouTube, at the actual movie theaters, and even at Flog Gnaw (BTW - Tyler, the Creator made the soundtrack to this one -- and it’s amazing).  But none of them were as clearly memorable as these billboards.

In fact, they’re so memorable that there’s a whole Reddit thread on these works of art, which are so obnoxiously green that they’d catch anybody’s eye.  I personally loved how mean they were, and how oddly relatable they were.  If I’m being real, I’m an LA transplant coming from the Bay Area - but I still don’t want more people following in my footsteps and making things more traffic!  Even though it was a reflection of real life, it was exaggerated to the perfect amount to make the reader chuckle.

These billboards were also put up in other major cities in New York and Chicago.  Because of this ad campaign, I definitely got interested in watching the movie, which was cool because I prefer watching trailers before deciding.  However, they also gave me a sense of the type of humor the Grinch employs in the movie without even hearing his voice.  Now that I know that Benedict Cumberbatch is voicing him, the billboards are even funnier when I imagine it in a snide British accent.

This billboard campaign is gracefully walking the tightrope between tongue-in-cheek and full-on offense.  Even my aspiring actor friends found the following funny because of the Grinch’s attitude towards things.  He’s a mean character, so he’s allowed to be mean; that is, if he was nice, it wouldn’t even seem like he’s the Grinch at all!  I also liked how it appealed more to adults, although the movie itself was made for children.  After all, the kids don’t make the financial decisions -- the parents do.  

What do you think?  Did the Grinch steal any of your Christmas spirit (or your pride)?  Let me know!

[mschoolfran]

Dolce & Gabbana: Biggest Flop of 2018?

These blogs are meant to show our favorite works, but I couldn’t resist mentioning this controversy.

In November, the Italian fashion house released a couple of ads on Weibo (a Chinese social media app) to promote their runway show in Shanghai.  There were a total of three videos, all of which depicted a Chinese woman trying to eat various Italian foods using chopsticks, including pizza.  There is a seemingly condescending male voice, who speaks in Mandarin and occasionally mocks the woman when she tries to pick up the various foods.  Check out this absurdity below (with English translations):

Whew. So much to unpack here.

Firstly, let’s just discuss the upfront stereotypes, racism, sexism, and general disrespect for the Chinese consumer displayed in these ads.  Firstly, they encouraged the model to use the chopsticks to tear apart the food, stab the food, and even waving chopsticks while eating -- all of which are considered taboo or poorly in Chinese culture.  Besides this, forks exist in China, as does eating with your hands when appropriate!  Dolce & Gabbana was really trying to “teach” their Chinese consumers how to eat with the cutlery of their own culture, which comes off as condescending; that is, this ad implies that without D&G, the Chinese consumer would not know how to eat Italian food.  Furthermore, there were many stereotypes with Asians made through very crude remarks, such as “Is it still too big for you?,” and even referring to chopsticks as “small sticks” in comparison to “great, traditional” Italian food.

From a business perspective, I think they could have done a much better job of actually connecting their products or what they do as a company with their Chinese consumer base.  Instead of having somebody eat Italian foods with chopsticks, why not have somebody actually enjoy Italian foods while wearing Dolce & Gabbana?  They could have also done it so that an Italian would be in China, learning how to eat Chinese food.  

D&G failed to show anything positive about their own brand because any attempt to do so was completely overshadowed by blatant racism, although the directors intended it to be a “tribute” to their Chinese fashion show.  With the ad only officially being in Chinese, it is very difficult to see what they attempted to do here, besides draw controversy and go viral -- which, in this case, came off as inauthentic, condescending, and just straight up disrespectful.  

I really hate to be that person, but there was absolutely nothing good about this advertisement besides how it was able to strike up many conversations about race and cultural appropriation -- none of which was ever intentional, of course.  It’s almost laughable because 25% of their consumers are from the Asia-Pacific region, and the Los Angeles Times estimated that this scandal could kill 20% of the brand’s value.  Multiple retailers have already dropped the brand from their stores, with funny videos to prove it:

People in China are dumping their Dolce & Gabbana in the TRASH over accusations of racism pic.twitter.com/bhhCIkOqTr

— Vocativ (@vocativ) November 26, 2018

Overall, this whole scandal shows the importance of really knowing your consumer.  This particular scandal is almost laughable to me because they really made fun of their Chinese consumer base and expected it to be a funny joke, and are now suffering the consequences of it.  I think if they make a genuine attempt at regaining that market and make going viral (in a positive way) their top priority, there can be some saving the brand.  

Lastly, this incident shows why global companies should hire a diverse staff in order to “check” things that may be seen culturally insensitive due to various intersections of identity.  I am honestly appalled that nobody saw anything wrong with this advertisement until after it was released, but more that D&G seems unfazed by their big flop. While I think the company has a chance to recover, they released a pretty stiff video apology:

What do you think? Racist or not? Let me know, I’m genuinely curious!

[mschoolfran]

WOW: Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival

No, this is not just an excuse for me to talk about my favorite weekend of the semester.  This carnival was a (very well-crafted) marketing ploy in itself.

Camp Flog Gnaw is a two-day event that recently occurred on November 10 and 11 at Dodger Stadium.  Originally known as OFWGKTA Carnival or Odd Future Carnival, this music festival-turned-carnival has been occurring annually since 2012.  Usually occurring between October and November, this is one of the biggest celebrations of “creativity, self-expression and inclusion” for people who don’t like to take themselves too seriously -- and I finally had the opportunity to go.

I’ll preface by saying that I am not a huge “music festival girl”.  I prefer going to smaller concerts at venues such as the Troubadour in Los Angeles or The Fillmore in San Francisco.  However, I loved everything about this weekend: the artist lineup, the focus on consumer experience, and all of the ways in which Flog Gnaw was designed as a complete head-first dive into the mind (and brand) of Tyler, the Creator.

The artist lineup is always hand-curated by Tyler, and while many were mainstream artists, he still showed homage to Odd Future (his original hip-hop collective) by including his friends on the setlist.  The artists were all genuinely happy to be there, and I was really surprised by the amount of homage each gave to Tyler.  Billie Eilish, a sixteen-year-old singer from Los Angeles gave an emotional speech about how she had grown up going to this “carnival for weird kids,” and now she was performing in front of tens of thousands of people.  I was able to see so many of the biggest hip-hop/pop artists out there, as well as the legendary Ms. Lauryn Hill herself!

pictured: me, way too excited to see my favorite artist, rex orange county. it was an emotional time

While I enjoyed flailing around at the barricade, I was most impressed by the customer experience at Flog Gnaw.  I have attended a fair amount of carnivals and festivals, and have almost always been unimpressed by the crowd control.  It seemed as if I’d always miss part of a set I wanted to watch in order to use the restroom, get some food, properly explore the carnival, or sit down and charge my phone.  However, Flog Gnaw had us covered.

Firstly, they partnered with Mophie in order to create a “charging tree” and relaxation station with over one hundred chargers for all types of phones and devices, as well as lounge chairs and other sitting areas.  Kevin Wattles, Director of Strategic Partnerships at ZAGG (Mophie's parent company) said: “[Camp Flog Gnaw] doesn’t attract the typical music fans that attend just to see a show, their audience is more tech savvy, engaged and represents a free-spirited generation of fans… this festival is so unique and important that it is the only music festival we are doing in 2018” (Source).  I found this charging tree to be super-helpful, especially when my own portable charger had died and I realized I needed to Uber home afterwards.  We just plopped down, charged our phones, and talked to the other fans at the carnival!

Flog Gnaw also partnered with Postmates in order to create an easier eating experience for all customers.  When we opened the Postmates app inside Dodger Stadium, we were prompted to a different version that actually allowed us to order our food ahead of time, and then just grab it and go back to enjoying our day.  This partnership really came in handy, especially when I only had a 15 minute gap to buy and eat food between Flatbush Zombies and Jaden Smith.  Ordering ahead of time let me skip the line and make it back to Jaden’s set EARLY!! I even had time to take a trendy picture with my my Postmates-ordered pizza:

As a whole, Flog Gnaw was a full weekend of experiential marketing, designed to promote Tyler’s brand as an all-around artist.  The carnival games had prizes ranging from Golf le Fleur socks to blankets and hoodies, and there seemed to always be 2-hour-long lines for his exclusive Converse x Golf le Fleur merchandise every time I checked.  If the festival was a person, they’d be wearing all Golf le Fleur (and I’d love it).  This carnival was authentically itself, and encouraged its attendees to likewise be themselves.

At places like Disneyland, where you are diving headfirst into the Disney brand, it’s pretty easy to see that they are trying to get you to buy stuff.  Because they are nowadays selling literally anything with Mickey’s face on it, it just seems… inauthentic.  Walt Disney is obviously not signing off on any creative decisions nowadays, and there seems to be a huge disconnect in the “magical” theme they’re going for versus the not-so-magical feeling of paying $70 for a very basic Disney sweatshirt.

In contrast, everything from the carnival walls, to the arcade prizes, to the visuals of the stages, and even the cups at the bar breathed GOLF WANG -- and that is probably due to Tyler’s artistry and his heavy involvement in the process of bringing this carnival to life every year.  In an interview with Forbes, Caroline Burruss, the VP of Global Partnerships at AEG, put it best when she noted that: “In Tyler, you also have an artist who really does the work. It’s not a scenario where his manager may meet with him once every three months and present him an overview of potential brand deals — He is really hands on with the creative in real-time every week” (Source).  Having his brand everywhere led to a ton of earned media online, especially since everyone loves taking pictures to flex on Instagram nowadays.  Here’s mine:

Overall, Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival was a hell of a fun time, and attendees including myself walked out with greater respect for Tyler and these artists -- and this is coming from me, who was lowkey terrified of him in 2013.  I couldn’t pass up on writing this long blog post because I found it to be such a well-done immersive experience that let fans pick Tyler’s brain in all aspects: creatively, musically, and through design.  I can’t wait to see what new innovations they bring in 2019!

[mschoolfran]

Wrapping it All Up: Just in time for Christmas!

Well, we’re finally here: the week before the semester ends.  I didn’t want to leave out any of the awesome advice we got from our final three speakers, so I decided to combine them all into one blog post, since I found all of it very helpful.

On November 28, we had the opportunity to hear from Mike Peditto and Andrew Dubois, who gave us some presentation tips for our final pitch.  I was also excited to hear about their career journeys, both of which inspired me to keep grinding harder to reach my goals (also, their individual slide designs were amazing).  Both of their bios encouraged me to find a career that challenges me, yet offers enough potential to grow -- and that it’s OK to leave a position if I’m not feeling fulfilled.  I was extremely intimidated by their success, but they’re super cool dudes!

In terms of presentation tips, they gave a lot of solid advice.  My personal favorite was to do things that are right for the audience rather than myself -- I don’t matter in the presentation, my audience does.  Another was to present with confidence, because people listening to presentations are rooting for our group’s success.  No one looks forward to seeing a bad presentation!  People can sense your nervousness through your intonation, posture, and body language, which is why I plan on presenting in front of a camera to see what I look like to other people.

Marc Reede gave us an inspirational talk on December 5, with three main takeaways:

The importance of having a mentor

The importance of staying in touch with connections

Failure as part of the process

One of my favorite things that he discussed was the importance of having coffee meetings with people, something that I’m always too shy to ask about.  My favorite quote that he said was: “You don’t need to be Magic Johnson to have a courtside.”  It gets so easy to think that I’m on my career journey alone because I don’t see my family, friends, professors, and other “supporters” every single day.  I shouldn’t be complacent about this -- instead, I should reach out to people more, go to office hours, and take up every opportunity to meet new people.  There are so many people around me that I can approach for mentorship, both formal and informal -- so why am I not doing it?

The days of me saying “I’m nervous about approaching ____” are over.  Marc’s advice and personal anecdotes were enough to help me get over my fear of looking dumb when looking for connections, especially when he implied that literally every successful person needed to do it in order to get where they are now.  I was even more convinced when he pointed out that most of the “cool jobs” in LA are rarely ever posted, and that a lot of them come out of connections.  Suddenly panicking about my future in the middle of class, I even made a to-do list for things to do before next semester:

Fix my LinkedIn.

Hit up old connections on LinkedIn and ask to reconnect.

Actually use LinkedIn to connect with the people I talk to on flights, the mall, and literally anywhere else → you never know who you could be talking to!

Marc’s presentation was a reminder that I shouldn’t be complacent about my position in life, although everyday life as a full-time student can get busy.  Even when I’ve started a real career, I should always be looking for ways to make more connections, especially because people my age are expected to have around 10-15 job changes in their career (absolutely terrifying, but challenge accepted).

In terms of HUG-specific things, we got a lot of feedback that helped veer us away from tunnel vision.  Our class and professors had heard our information for the past twelve weeks, so it was really helpful to hear some fresh perspectives.  The main takeaway from this was to focus harder on the backbone of our story.  For example, we put too much emphasis on the pink tax as a cause of the limited access to hygiene products for homeless women.  However, the main issue less about this added cost than the fact that pads and tampons already have high prices and are not donated nearly as often as food or water.  The pink tax is simply a symptom of the cost problem that we wanted to address, so we should treat is as such.  Even though we did a disruptive activation focused around the Pink Tax, it definitely should not be presented as equal of a problem to homelessness & the lack of feminine hygiene.

Overall, I’m so thankful to have met these three amazing men and hear their success stories.  It was also such a blast meeting everybody at the different agencies this past semester!  I valued everybody’s inputs and tried to soak up as much information I could, because honestly, I’m learning from the best in the industry -- how could I not?  The speakers’ feedback on HUG also really shaped our final project, and we really appreciated all of the comments (even if some were extremely critical)!  With that said, here’s to making more connections in the future!

Stay tuned for a final run-down of what we did as Hygiene U Give ;)

[mschoolfran]

Tackling our Goliaths at David&Goliath.

Also, talking hamsters.

My Catholic school background taught me about the David and Goliath story when I was younger, so I was curious to see why it was an advertising agency’s namesake.  The office was heavily decorated with D&G symbolism, from armor helmets to painted depictions of the battle on the wall.  But why?

While I was doing some research before visiting, I learned that D&G “was built on the simple idea that no challenge is too big, too small or too difficult. This has been our guiding principle since day one. And we haven’t walked away from a challenge since.”  I loved this idea, and was pleasantly surprised to see that it was applied to everything: their focus on challenger brands, their workplace culture, and everything in between.

My favorite part of the entire office tour was the “Goliath wall,” or a literal wall with a representation of different fears, challenges, or “Goliaths.”  In fact, we were surprised to find out that it was an assignment for every full-time employee, and that you could be granted time off to actually go complete your challenge, or conquer your “Goliath.”  Some expressed deep-rooted fears and anxieties, while others were about foods they didn’t like or random phobias of things.  I loved seeing when people accomplished their goals, as marked by a post-it note.  This photo wall expressed that D&G not only focuses on their success as a firm, but as individual people.  I found that admirable, since it can sometimes be hard to find a work/life balance.  Encouraging their employees to face their fears, try new or uncomfortable things, and take a step into the unknown is completely in line with the company’s philosophy -- theoretically allowing the employees to further resonate with it and emulate the philosophy in everything they do, work-related or not.

HUG had the privilege of presenting our creative activation ideas to six amazing people, three of which were LMU alumni, and two of which were M-School graduates!  It was awesome to see our alumni in action and get some feedback from them.  Shoutout to Madeline, Petra, Leslie, Natalie, Caleb, and of course Josh for their hospitality and helpful feedback!

We worked through most of our activation ideas, such as t-shirt sales, our pinky promise challenge, red wine nights at the Loft (an on-campus bar at LMU), and came up with a lot more.  We needed some fresh feedback on how to make our activations more disruptive, which was one of the things suggested by the TOMS investors.  We toyed with finding a way to e-commerce in order to engage our friends and family, capitalize off Giving Tuesday, and even having a monthly Period Awareness Week -- for that time of the month.  

We later found that a lot of these ideas that we agreed upon were too far-fetched or would unfortunately require too much planning that would not be feasible this late into the process.  Despite this, we had a couple things to think about.  Caleb gave us very specific instructions to tie things back to periods and the unfairness of it, from the costs to the fact that only women deal of it.  All of the hosts also encouraged us to keep trying to target men with our messaging.  We were stumped at first, but it dawned on us within the first five minutes of sitting back down at our table.

Coming out of this productive work session, we had one fresh idea: flip the pink tax… with donuts.  This video was probably the fastest we had planned and executed an on-campus disruptive engagement, and we were nervous.  However, it was a huge success!  We made a ton of people mad, but when they realized what was going on, they were finally able to empathize and see the bigger picture:

In terms of main takeaways, I realized I need to challenge myself more.  It gets really easy to be stuck in the day-to-day motions of the full-time college student life, but I need to make life more interesting and face my challenges and fears head-on.  On this same note, I was reminded that there is always more work to be done, and more ways to improve myself -- and the only way to do this is sometimes to take a leap into the unknown and go for it.  Lastly, I miss my hamster.  Seeing all the Kia hamster ads made me think of my lil guy.

I’ll close with one of the most iconic Kia ads, possibly of all time.  It’s a cultural relic.  I honestly remember the first time I ever saw it:

[mschoolfran]

Creative Content and Copywriting with Ronnie Lee.

I’ll be the first to admit it: I had no idea what copywriting ~really~ was.  I knew it was about writing the words of an ad, but anybody can write a tweet, Facebook post, or Instagram caption -- I’ve been doing all of them since I was 12.  Right?

I could not have been more wrong.

Ronnie started off the class by explaining the science of copywriting.  While it was something that definitely required more creativity and practice than sheer memorization, he offered some pointers to get us started.  Copywriting should engage both the attribute and the functional and emotional benefits of a product or brand in a creative way.  These exercises really help get to the essence of a product.

For example, 5-Hour energy:

Attribute: It has a cap and is small. Functional benefit: It makes commuting better. Emotional benefit: 5-Hour Energy makes you a better employee.

Attribute: It is inexpensive. Functional benefit: It is less money than a coffee. Emotional benefit: 5-Hour Energy lets you ball on a budget.

Attribute: It is a liquid. Functional benefit: It is liquid energy. Emotional benefit: 5-Hour Energy is POWER!

Alongside this exercise, he also offered us a ton of different “creative springboards” that would help us to brainstorm, including metaphors, personification, hyperboles, rhetorical questions, and parallelism.  I had already learned about many of these writing techniques in the twelve years of English classes that I took growing up, so it was nice to practice those once again.  One new thing that I learned about was Anesis, or ending a statement with a contradictory, undercutting, or even different ending than originally expected.  It was my first time learning about it, so clearly I wasn’t going to be the best at the technique.  

An example of anesis.

We then split up into our groups and brainstormed about how to best convey our products or ideas in easy-to-read copy, whether it be for a tweet, Instagram post, or even a print ad.  After ten minutes, we had a ton of new material to work with:

Send a h.u.g. to a homeless woman

Wear your h.u.g. on your sleeve

Let’s put the “men” in menstruation

We bleed h.u.g.s

#hugLife (hopefully on a print ad that shows “cool kids” can wear our brand too, or that supporting HUG contributes to a lifestyle of helping others)

#HappyHourHug

Dracula’s worst nightmare (on a photo of menstrual cups, just in time for Halloween!)

We also tried to come up with memes, but it just... was not happening that day. So glad I was able to brainstorm and get the creative juices flowing!

The feedback that we received was typical of most feedback that we had gotten throughout the semester: What exactly do you guys do? This was such a hard question to answer in 60 seconds in front of somebody that did not know much about periods.  No hate, though -- obviously this pointed to some issues that our brand messaging faced, so we met up after class and kept working towards getting it to a succinct elevator pitch.  We really appreciated the constructive criticism!

Overall, I’m glad that I finally know what copy actually is. I loved the print ads that he brought up as examples, especially the Volkswagen “Lemon” campaign.  I could see myself thoroughly enjoying a copywriting job, but I definitely have to brush up my technique a lot!  Hopefully I can find more ways and opportunities to improve my skills.

Til next time!

[mschoolfran]

Steelhead’s Strong Strategy

This week, we learned how Steelhead is spearheading the creative game.

As a student who is really interested in pursuing creative strategy, I was super excited for this agency visit.  I had never heard of Steelhead before visiting, and could barely find any information on it online besides that it was the super-new production arm of Deutsch, a very successful advertising agency.  I was thankful that our speaker, Eric Kaufman, gave a brief overview of the company’s history.  Basically, they had started in the same building as Deutsch, but as their clients’ needs increased (specifically, when they signed Sprint as a client), they started to gradually shift into a new building across the street.  

I honestly couldn’t tell you about the legal implications of why they changed their name, but I learned that Steelhead having its own name was a perceptual strategy in itself.  In-house creative arms are often seen as being “lesser than” full-blown creative agencies, so Steelhead establishing itself as Deutsch’s own separate-but-not-exactly “creative agency” would, in my opinion, potentially give it more credibility and thus makes it more attractive as a source for creative work from the viewpoint of future clients.  Its tight relationship and connection to Deutsch also allows for more trust from Deutsch’s clients, since most of the employees are already familiar with the brands and have really good relationships with them.  

Bryant and I <3 drugs (aka caffeine)!!

We then took a tour of the amazing office, stopping to take pictures at the “DRUGS” coffee bar, as well as the hidden speakeasy – so cool!  My personal favorite part was when we explored the sound stage.  It was so big!  I was fascinated to see people shooting photo ads for 7-11 food, and have potentially found my new future career: food stylist.  Literally just styling food to make sure It looks good in photos.

Cheesing a lil too hard because of how HUGE this sound stage was.

After the eye-opening tour, we sat down to unpack three examples of the challenges that the directors and strategists had to face.  The first one we explored was the Volkswagen World Cup campaign.  VW America clearly didn’t have the same credibility or presence as other worldwide brands at the competition, such as Coca-Cola.  Furthermore, America being eliminated from the World Cup made advertising to an American audience seem way more difficult.  They decided to remedy this by finding the reasons as to why Americans like soccer so much, even though we always lose: we’re used to losing, and when we do, we like to find another underdog to root for.  This brought us to the “Jump on the Wagen” campaign, which allowed users to choose a team they root for and vote online.  A lot of people played around with this campaign, and it made the World Cup/Volkswagen itself seem a lot less foreign to Americans.

We then explored what strategists are responsible for, specifically in the “National Taco Day” ad that they made.  They had different pieces of advice for all of us, but my favorite was that strategists are like cultural anthropologists; that is, they have to be familiar and consistently keep up with cultural trends in order to create content that “stretches” and can live in multiple different places at once.  I’m a huge fan of Taco Bell and any excuse to eat tacos, so it looks like they made the right call with this ad.

Lastly, we talked about Revival, which seemed like a pharmaceutical ad at surface-level.  I was really confused as to why they had these everywhere, considering that it had nothing to do with any of their clients online.  We were all SHOCKED to find out it was actually for an Eminem release!  There were tons of hidden clues about Eminem’s album launch masked under a commercial style that usually gets people to tune out.  This was my personal favorite example because it really understood the mind of an Eminem superfan: always on the hunt for Easter Eggs, and more importantly, searching for the deepest experience possible.

Overall, this visit to Steelhead excited me about a potential future career in creative strategy.  I really liked their emphasis on connecting with the consumers through creating moments of pathos.  The audience-first perspective was really emphasized, meaning that strategists had to put themselves into the consumer’s shoes in order to have a point of view that matters to them -- after all, “it’s all a waste unless it makes people think.”

[mschoolfran]

Team HUG at Team One!

This session wasn’t about trying to make cool ads -- instead, it was about trying to solve problems in the most creative way possible.

This past week, our New World of Branding and Advertising class had the amazing opportunity to hear from Chris Graves, Chief Creative Officer at Team One.  

He first opened by talking about the “business of influence” that Team One is built off of -- that is, rather than existing to create ads, they exist to shift mindsets, create movements, and drive change in society.  They can do this through marketing, or using the following steps:

Defining the problem

Defining the audience

What do we tell them?

How do we tell them?

Where do we tell them?

Now, what if I told you all of those things were absolutely worthless?

Well, not exactly.  While those steps of marketing are important, the main takeaway of the discussion was how to drive action through creative strategy.  One interesting way is to be empathetic with the consumer by asking yourself, “Who are they? Where are they? What are they thinking about?”

“WHY SHOULD THEY GIVE A SHIT?”

This is where strategy and creative work come in.  Strategy can help “turn intelligence into magic” by highlighting observations about the consumer that can unlock creativity.  The main goal here, as Graves urged, is to aim for “That is so true!” -- that is, aim for an insight so plain in sight yet so unnoticed.  My personal favorite example was the Selfie Stix from Pedigree (no, not just because dogs are my favorite thing in the entire world):              

There can be so many different takes on the same campaign or issue, and yet all of them can be as equally impactful in different ways.  However, no matter how much money you put into a project, it will never be effective if the expected outcome isn’t clear -- which is what HUG was struggling with for the past couple of weeks.

The breakout session was so helpful because we got to brainstorm with a bunch of creatives from TeamOne.  Shoutout to Jason, Ryan, and Jason #2 for giving us some fresh ideas and bringing new, more experienced perspectives to the table!  Our first success of the day was to find a message for our videos and other promotional activations on campus: Periods are uncomfortable.

As a group trying to tackle both the stigma surrounding periods and the issue of feminine hygiene for the homeless, it seemed impossible for us to find just one focus -- however, bringing everything back to the “uncomfortability” of periods seemed just right, since we could do it in both serious and very tongue-in-cheek manners.

One of the ideas we had was to get guys to sign up for “Speed Dating” with a couple girls at the Loft Wine Night… except the whole time, the girl will be talking about her period. We’d secretly record the guys’ reaction.  It would be cut into about a minute or two, and end with “Think this is uncomfortable?  Periods are already a pain in the ass for people who have the means to support themselves.  Now imagine not having any of the resources to be able to do so.”

Some sample dialogue I just came up with:

Woman: And that’s why I hate being on my period!

Man: Wow. I never knew about how bad it actually is for everyone! All the period commercials are lying to me. Do you guys not actually play tennis every time?

Woman: Never touched a racket in my life. But if it’s uncomfortable for me, it’s definitely more uncomfortable for homeless women who don’t have access to feminine hygiene products.

Man: Wow. Never knew.

Woman: Exactly.  We don’t talk about it enough!

Another thing we toyed with was displaying the alternative products homeless women are forced to use on their periods. This can take many forms, but two that we discussed were putting giant stickers of diapers or socks on Palm Walk.  We could also attach the physical objects (socks, etc) to the bathroom stalls of both the men and womens’ bathrooms.  Lastly, we were thinking about using some of the space in the Den’s pastry for one day to put pads and tampons to represent that some people would have to choose between feminine hygiene products and a meal.  Is that even sanitary?  Not sure.  But it was an idea we had never thought of before this session, and it seemed to resonate with the creatives we were working with.

We had a couple more cool ideas, but I don’t wanna spoil all of them just yet -- you’ll have to follow HUG’s adventures on Instagram @hygieneugive ;) Shameless plug.  With this brand new focus, though, I feel a lot more confident in going through with our activations on campus (and starting up a couple new ones)!

Thanks so much to Team One and Chris Graves for having us!  This was definitely a super informative and creatively inspirational session.  I genuinely enjoyed brainstorming and putting my creativity to good use -- after all, according to Albert Einstein, “Creativity is just intelligence having fun.”

[mschoolfran]

Nailing El Pitch at El Camp.

This was the most different yet most helpful agency visit I’ve experienced thus far.

We made the trek to El Segundo a second time to visit agency leaders Eric Johnson and Michael Weiss at El Camp, a coworking and office space for small creative businesses.  These places are always super innovative with their space, so I was really interested to see what El Camp brought to the table.  I was pleasantly surprised by how literally they took their name, from the vintage banners on the wall to the leather couches they bought from Craigslist:

My favorite part about the facility’s design was the theme of going to camp.  Eric explained that the office was designed as a place for people to feel like it was literally summer camp -- having fun while they’re there, and then going home already excited to come back the next day.  The office was stocked with cool snacks, glass “cabins” for meetings, and even a cool secret bookshelf door in the library, in case somebody needed to take a nap on one of the massage chairs.  Definitely my favorite office design to date!

dennehy seemed so excited to walk into the secret room. look at that lil smile on his face.

Eric really helped H.U.G. out in terms of discussing our business case and formulating our pitch deck itself.  Going into this meeting, we didn’t really figure out any of the real metrics besides how much the hygiene packs we’d make cost --  and that wasn’t even the real product we’d be selling to our consumers.  This prompted our group to meet over the weekend before our pitch competition and really grind out the numbers to prove that everything we needed funded for was profitable, or at least beneficial to helping us raise more awareness to our cause.

Scalability was another one of my favorite things Eric discussed because it really helped with our vision for the potential investments we’d get and our vision for H.U.G. itself.  I spearheaded most of the marketing efforts at a super-startup this summer that was not yet in the investing phase (I was one out of the two employees!), so I had the chance to observe how to formulate budgets and create a scalability model.  Doing this for H.U.G. was super satisfying -- it was the one thing that was “off limits” and one thing the founder believed only she knew how to do.  Thankfully Eric’s advice helped our team create an awesome and exponentially growing business plan!

The final portion of our day was dedicated to really nailing the pitch.  Michael gave a presentation on how to give a presentation, which tackled more about the actual delivery rather than the content itself.  This was extremely helpful for me, especially because I know I’m going to be anxious presenting in front of people who obviously have more control over the investment situation than I do.  

Stylistically, I found that his advice also helped.  He urged us to put one idea per slide, remove animations from the equation, and to really believe in what you’re saying -- or else the audience won’t.  

“The best decks make no sense without the presenter.” 

Since meeting with people at El Camp, our presentation has gone from an aesthetically pleasing Powerpoint to an aesthetically pleasing splatter of words and images -- none of which seem to follow a linear story without our verbal explanation.

example: this slide. what does it even mean? where are all the words? what??? --> you’ll just have to hear our pitch to find out!

Fingers crossed we can woo the investors into choosing our cause!! Thanks so much to Eric, Michael, and everyone that made this visit possible. It was honestly so refreshing to hear new advice that helped our team make much more progress!

[mschoolfran]

WWF’s disrupting the view with important issues.

It’s not there for its “cute-factor.”

A life-sized holographic African elephant popped up in front of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London on the morning of October 8, and is scheduled to appear on Abbey Road and in Shoreditch in the upcoming days.

Manifest Agency collaborated with WWF in multiple activations throughout the London/UK area days before the October London Conference on Illegal Wildlife Trade.  WWF is encouraging the public to put pressure on world leaders to put more importance on ending the inhumane trade.

The elephant is not just a “cute” reminder of environmental conservation -- it’s a public disruption and a call to action.

Sadly, according to the WWF, more African elephants are poached than born in a year.  The WWF is petitioning world leaders to commit to ending the illegal wildlife and ivory trades, providing more resources to park rangers, and closing all ivory markets.

WWF has also installed “animal crossings” on multiple crosswalks throughout the UK.  Each crossing is dedicated to a species that is heavily affected by the illegal wildlife trade; for example, snow leopards, jaguars, and turtles.

I’m a huge fan of drawing people’s attention to an unattractive problem in an attractive, share-able way -- after all, how many people would be okay with, let alone take a picture of a slaughtered elephant’s hologram?  The elephant is indeed cute, but going on the WWF’s website and checking their Instagram show that there’s more to the story than what is being presented.  

However, I think they could have benefited from posting a picture on their actual Instagram.  There’s little to no mention of it on there besides the hashtag #StopWildlifeTrafficking, with people that were amazed by the life-sized spectacular!

[mschoolfran]

MullenLowe - Analytics that Serve the Core Idea

I never really saw myself as an “Analytics” person because the thought of working with numbers makes my stomach do backflips.  However, our visit to Mullen LA made me fall in love with the idea of storytelling through analytics.

We began with a tour of the super-secret office.  The architecture was minimalistic, and the interior design was amazing, accented by the work they’ve produced for their clients.  This was probably one of my favorite workspaces we’ve visited, so it’s a shame I didn’t get to take any pictures on the tour.  The highlight of my tour was finding out that their office is dog-friendly.  So many doggos!

But really, an interesting fact about the Mullen LA office is that MullenLowe, a creative agency, is combined with MediaHub, which is a media agency.  This integration helps to streamline both the creative and media processes in ways that other agencies cannot, simply because both departments are steps away from each other.

I loved learning about the history of data analytics, especially with the story of the internet’s first banner ad, seen below:

Who would have thought that this web banner from AT&T got a 44% click-through rate….

While this one would be lucky to get 0.1% in present times? (also, how meta!)

Data analytics is more complex than ever.

There is so much noise that it’s hard to get a consumer’s attention, and so many ways that a consumer’s attention can be measured, such as clicks, views, swipes, and taps. However, analytics helps to focus every department on the core idea, meaning that the data analytics department overlaps with most groups in the agency, such as market research, media planning, brand planning, tech development, and even account management.

There are two types of positions that I learned about at MullenLowe, both of which have way more to do with storytelling than the numbers themselves:

Both have elements of storytelling, both before and after the campaign.  I also appreciated the emphasis on visual appeal and making the data accessible for people from the creative side, to accounts management, and every branch of the agency.

I found the KPI plan to be most successful for our Marketing for Good project.  I have outlined the different steps below for reference:

Business. What goal are we trying to accomplish?

Marketing. What consumer behavior are we trying to change?

Channel. What is the role of each channel in achieving the company’s goal?

KPIs. What are the key metrics that need to be measured for efficiency?

Diagnostic metrics. Are there any other crucial things that we should measure?

Not only does the KPI plan help track success, it also helps us to see where and how we can improve. This was extremely crucial for our project, where we will need to provide mid- and post-campaign reports that highlight the main KPIs and whether or not we met the goals we set.

We closed the session with a case study regarding our own project.  We came up with three phony (but still very plausible) KPIs and insights, as well as recommendations on how to solve them.

Since I enjoy planning and strategizing to solve and prevent problems, it was nice to look into the future and anticipate some problems that we could potentially have.  Our team had a lot of fun during this exercise and I will continue to use the same format for other problem-solving initiatives in my own leadership experience, even outside of the marketing world!

As I said before, I was originally very nervous for this session because I was terrified of how number-heavy an analytics role would require.  However, I realized that my passions for storytelling and visual design fits some of the responsibilities of somebody working in analytics -- and for the first time ever, saw myself fitting one of those roles.  Ironically, learning more about the position that makes data accessible to everybody else in the agency made this position seem more accessible to me.

Special thanks to Brian Rivas (M-school alum!!), Matt Jordan, and the dogs at Mullen LA for making this experience super memorable.  I hope to be back soon!

[mschoolfran]

Dollar Shave Club - How a Product becomes a Brand

We met Nick Virginio from Dollar Shave club, and he really hit us with some fresh scents & even fresher ideas.

Last week, we were lucky enough to meet Nick Virginio from Dollar Shave Club, who helped us understand how a product becomes a brand.  I was super excited about this session because I’m a huge fan of Dollar Shave Club, from their packaging, to the quality of their products, to their hilarious marketing campaigns (despite me being too broke to actually subscribe on my own).  My Principles of Marketing professor would also name-drop the brand in almost every class session, so I was excited to learn why their marketing was so magical.  

This session was super critical for the progress of my group’s project, so I tried to soak up all the information I could.  I was fascinated by the two-lane equity relationship between Dollar Shave Club and their sub-brands, such as Wanderer, Dr. Carver’s, and Boogie’s.  The relationship between the brands allows the larger company to fit more niche markets that usually wouldn’t buy from the master brand.  For the smaller brand, a positive association with the parent brand can drive consumers to the smaller brand simply because of its correlation to an amazing parent brand.  I don’t think we’re going to be developing a sub-brand anytime soon, but it was still an interesting insight to have.

Dollar Shave Club’s branding strategy can be broken down into four steps: inspiration, strategy, development, and adaptation.  These four steps help to bring a brand to life; that is, making it recognizable, long-lasting, and developing amazing relationships with its consumers.  

Inspiration. What are the current challenges and barriers that other companies face? What differentiates us?

Strategy. What functional/emotional benefit does our product or service provide? What promise do we give? Lastly, what purpose do we serve

Development. What are the logos, packaging, and pricing?

Adaptation. What potential does this brand have to develop in the future? How can we continue to change for the better?

We learned about the four steps in the context of Wanderer, DSC’s shampoo/conditioner/body wash brand.  My favorite takeaway their I-I-C strategy, where they introduce the concept in order to make people care, then use their influence to deposition their competitors, and finally closing the sale -- essentially convincing the customer to try it out.  These four steps also help to attract both members (people who buy the products already, regardless of whether or not from DSC), and non-members (people who do not buy this type of product).  They also have a really good relationship with their consumer base, so they adapt to the reviews (such as in the case of their bamboo body scrubber).

I was super interested to learn more about this strategy since my group is currently in our planning stage to create and execute a branding/marketing campaign within seven weeks, and we should have all four steps lined out and ready to present in time for the pitch in two weeks.  In order to get the most out of this session, I thought about how these four steps could be applied to our Marketing 4 Good Project, which focuses on feminine hygiene:

Inspiration. Other brands like Period give out Diva Cups and other menstrual supplies to women who need it, with a focus on period de-stigmatization.  However, we are focusing on hygiene de-stigmatization, with a one-for-one aspect to our profit model.

Strategy. The functional and emotional benefit of somebody buying our shirts/hairties/etc is that they’d get a high-quality product with the emotional benefit of knowing they’ve sponsored a woman at a shelter.  We promise and serve to help alleviate the effect of period stigmas, both on campus and off.  

Development.  We initially thought about making our products all red, but after pitching it to the class, they all said the red would be too… bloody.  So happy we did some product/concept testing before we moved forward with the idea!

Adaptation.  Our brand can be scalable in terms of sponsoring women’s health initiatives at LMU and at middle/high schools in the area.  We can also be permanent donors for a shelter in LA and even have free hygiene products in women’s bathrooms.

Besides these amazing take-aways, I was literally able to “take away” some Dollar Shave Club products and try them out at home, which honestly was the highlight of my entire week.  We spent the entire session sniffing all of their different products and trying to keep our “Ooh”s and “Mmm”s and impressed gasps to a minimum.  This was such a memorable experience -- thanks so much to Nick Virginio and the Dollar Shave Club team for supporting the M-School!

[mschoolfran]

Everything’s bigger and better with the iPhone XS.

The iPhone XS is Apple’s largest smartphone to date, and I’m not just talking about the size of the screen.

Apple has gained a cult following for their products, with people lining up days in advance to be the first couple of people to own an iPhone or iPad.  Everyone recognizes Apple’s sleek design, and even though other phones and devices perform better, Apple is still the second most popular phone brand.  I’ve been a huge fan of the Apple craze myself, with both my laptop and phone being Apple products. I am also fascinated when I see the lines of people physically camping outside the Apple Store for the new phone. I can’t tell if this is because Apple makes their devices more and more unusable as new series come out, or if because mindless consumerism has brainwashed that many people.

Regardless of the customers’ reasons for purchasing, Apple’s aesthetic power definitely brings in a lot of consumers.  I was personally drawn to the brand not because of my computer’s processing power, but because of the simple and intuitive design.  Sitting at an iMac just makes people feel more creative than at a clunky PC.

One of the main themes of their messaging is that their products help you to make real life better, and then share it with others.  I have included some of my favorite billboards below. Whether it be the powerful camera or the streamlined iOS editing apps you can use with the slide of a finger, Apple’s ads have focused a lot on art, photography, and videography.

But what happens when they focus on what’s real?

In Apple’s new ad, rightfully called “Growth Spurt,” everyday objects such as a wad of bubblegum, a golf ball, avocado toast, or even an entire skyline are supersized whenever the phone’s camera is directed to the object.  There are so many new capabilities being highlighted in a minute: high-res video, mobile gaming, group Facetime, and of course, the bigger screen.

Ironically named, Apple can help make your life bigger with the XS through the amazing creativity possibilities, but also by helping you foster connections with others and showing you the world from a different angle.  The juxtaposition between the XS’ name and the enlarging of the world its customers lived in was really clever!

Everything is brighter, more real, and bigger with the iPhone XS.

[mschoolfran]

Fall in love with Las Vegas in 8.2 seconds.

Love is written about in almost every song, is a focal point of almost every movie, and preoccupies every corner of my mind when I’m lying in bed about to go to sleep at night.  It’s the stuff of dreams.  For many people, love is just a fantasy.

How many of us can say we’ve really, truly fallen in love?

According to some studies, it takes 8.2 seconds for a man to fall in love at first sight.  While this time only accounts for physical attraction, Academy Award-winners Michael and Olivier Gondry used this timeframe to show people falling, literally, head over heels for each other during their stay in Park MGM by Virtue.  The films themselves are 30 seconds in total, but most of the time is dedicated to title sequencing and credits.  They are whimsical, dreamlike, and dive into the imaginations of either character.  If you blink even once during the 8.2 seconds, you risk missing a key part of the film.

I’m a huge fan of the “less is more” trend.  There are no words, only stunning and intentional visual cues that elicit an emotional response, a rush of adrenaline, and a longing to fall in this same type of love.  I’ve never wanted to go to Vegas, but after seeing these, I realized there’s a real human connection between the people that hang out there, even if just momentarily.  

After all, humans fundamentally seek emotional connection to one extent or another -- the best thing about love, however, is that it often finds you when you’re not actively searching.

Check out the other videos here!

[mschoolfran]

TOMS Shoes - What does it take to be a changemaker?

If eleven-year-old Fran saw a glimpse into the future, she’d be absolutely thrilled to see me visiting the TOMS Shoes Headquarters at Playa Vista -- honestly, my present-day self was pretty ecstatic as well.

This visit to TOMS Shoes was so special to me because I feel as if I’ve grown up with the brand.  I vividly remember my first pair of bright red TOMS that I got for my 12th birthday, the ones I bought for my first day of eighth grade that had “carpe diem” written all over them, and the striped teal ones that my parents got me in the summer before high school.  I styled each pair until they were worn out: their colors as loud as my personality, the message of the brand resonating with my heart.

A picture from a gloomy day after swim practice, circa 2012. My TOMS survived absolutely everything.

I have always been intrigued by TOMS’ One for One campaign.  I didn’t buy TOMS when I was younger just because they were all over my Tumblr dashboard, but because I wanted to give back to the community with my limited middle school allowance.  Physically holding my freshly-purchased shoes always made me think.  Even at a young age, I knew that because of my purchase, somebody who needed them would soon be holding shoes that looked and felt exactly the same: comfortable and stylish.  TOMS’ One for One campaign made giving back to the community a trend, pushing the idea of global sustainability into the mainstream consumer thought.

So what happens when every company starts giving back to the community?

With most companies now focusing on corporate social responsibility and sustainability, TOMS’ brand message can sometimes get lost in the noise.  For example, I was not aware that the “One for One” campaign was not just giving shoes, water, and eyeglasses to people in need.  They also do birth services, fund solar lighting, speak out against bullying prevention, and host Tomorrow’s Projects, where they give out a $10,000 prize per month to people who are determined to make a difference.

We had the chance to hear from Kate Faith, the Director of Global Brand Marketing for TOMS Shoes.  I learned that TOMS has impacted around 88 million lives as of 2018 -- but Kate urged us to never be content with even a number this big.  88 million is not enough for TOMS.

According to TOMS Shoes CEO (and my friend’s dad) Jim Alling, TOMS should be using its profit to be giving more back to the community.  The authenticity of the company’s work should align with the stories of the people they impact.  TOMS is using their profit and influence to continually find more ways to help people realize their aspirations to serve other humans.

During this session, we had the privilege of working with some product managers and designers on future collections.  I’m gonna tiptoe around the NDA we signed prior to this visit and tell you that what we were working on was huge -- and what I feel is a step in the right direction for TOMS Shoes.

In our analysis of the new products, we focused on four main points:

Product. What are the cultural trends?  Who would wear this shoe?  What kind of car do they drive, what kind of things do they like to do, and what do they believe in?

Changemaker.  Who is an influencer that can properly represent the brand, this product, and the message this product line is trying to convey?

Impact. What are the goals of this campaign? How can we find a goal that aligns with both the product and the changemaker?

Marketing and amplification. How can we tell the story through branding? Media? Other channels?

Our small groups each made a pitch to the TOMS representatives, which was terrifying and exciting at the same time.  The biggest takeaway from this experience was that, as consumers, our insights on the product and impact were valuable.  It was such a cool experience to be a part of their market research, and the pressure was real when we heard Kate typing notes on everything we’d say during the pitches.  I’m excited to see how or even if TOMS will use any of our ideas once they launch in the future.  It would be so cool to show my parents an ad and say, “Hey, I pitched that when I was at TOMS!”

TOMS Shoes is a changemaker.  

They rewrite the stories of people they aim to serve.  They take a belief that’s been tested and activate their products on a scale that hasn’t.  They are investing in and empowering an entire world of leaders, rather than leading by themselves.

So now, ask yourself -- what are the things I value?  What are the things that make me mad?  What do I believe in?  What is a small way I can make a big difference?

How can I become a changemaker?