Innovation and what it means for advertising

The word Innovation has become an overused term in advertising. So many companies are trying to say they are innovative but whose to say they actually are? This is the question we asked ourselves while working on the campaign for Nissan. Nissan's tagline is Innovation for All. What does that mean? What is innovation? And specifically what does this mean for multicultural millennials? We used this to guide our thinking..and led to many brainstorming sessions. We didn't want to say innovation cause in the words of one of my team members - saying you're cool doesn't mean you're cool. Long story short, we decided innovation involves breaking limits. This drove our campaign and our Big Idea - What Limits? Ask me if you want to learn more about this.

The true purpose of this blog is to discuss this idea of Innovation and how it has been translated into advertising - successfully and unsuccessfully. So many people are jumping on the Innovation bandwagon in their advertising. In my opinion, the Innovation for All campaign didn't sell Nissan as an innovative company. Yes they made Fast Company's list of innovative companies in 2011, but did this tranlsate to sales? Meh, that's debatable. It didn't sell to us millenials at least - many of us were unaware of the campaign or even associated Nissan with innovation.

Now on to Apple. Now this is a company that is innovative yet it doesn't say innovation in their advertising. They demonstrate it through their products and their revolutionary ideas. They portray the experience. They've build their brand on this. You don't think about price when looking at Apple - you think of the experience, the prestige, the brand. It's all about the brand and the name they've built up.

Another semi-random point of interest is to check out this article from Fast Company about creating a culture of innovation. Innovation goes beyond an advertising concept to the heart of an organization. It defines strategy and that needs to be evident. One of the quotes that stood out to me was this: Understanding what innovation is, and is not, is critical for culture change.

To wrap this up, my point is define innovation in your advertising. Don't just say it. Show that your company embodies that idea. Prove to consumers why. They need to believe it. As my professor Matthew Wilson (and AAF District 9 Educator of the Year - woot!) said, you can no longer sell detergent by saying it makes your white whiter - we have to experience it, understand it. We are a generation that says prove it.

We Are Young

I hate to say this because I have been working on a campaign for Nissan, but one campaign that has stuck in my head is Chevy’s Sonic campaign using fun.’s song “We Are Young.” Maybe it is because I have been so focused on automotive campaigns, or maybe because I am in the target audience, but this campaign has caught my attention since it launched during the 2012 Super Bowl. To me, the brand is trying to convey that the Sonic is for this younger generation – it’s fun, it’s daring, it’s for you. The brand is literally saying “We Are Young.” It is inspiring.

This campaign took into account the interests of its target. I had heard the song before, and it really caught my attention despite my preference for a different style of music. The song has become a well-known song for millennials. By playing into this exposure, they were able to capture something that is important to this young generation. The stunts were more than just stunts; they helped embody the passion of the target audience. Personally, I would have never considered a Sonic, but yet, seeing these commercials has made me take a second look. And the campaign goes beyond selling cars; it empowers. The campaign creates passion and experience. Sometimes stunts come off as cheesy, but the insight that these stunts and the idea of adventure combined with fun.’s music would hit this target helped build a successful campaign.

"Set the world on fire"

NSAC Results

It's been a whirlwind weekend. We got back from Kansas City on Saturday after competing in the AAF NSAC District 9 competition. This was UNI's first year competing, and we are so proud of what we accomplished. We came away with 4 different awards - and I'm proud to say this is more than any other team (even 4 time winner UNL). We got 3rd place overall and also received 3 smaller awards - Best Incentive Award, Educator of the Year for our amazing advisor Matthew Wilson, and Best Female Presenter (Me!).

No one expected UNI to do so well - I'm not even sure we did. We were told last spring that we would get our butts kicked, so we came in with something to prove. We were proud of our campaign, and that confidence was reflected in our presentation. Our passion came out in our presentation, and I strongly believe that is what sold our campaign. We got a lot of positive feedback from the judges as well as other schools. The time spent on this campaign was well worth it, and I can truly say this is one of the most rewarding organizations I joined here at UNI. I wish I would have been there when a few members of our team informed the judges that we did our campaign in 4 months compared to the 9 months everyone else had.

Contact me if you are interested in seeing our final plans book.

#WhatLimits?

Finding Creativity via Pinterest

Creativity is a crazy process - one that I get frustrated with many times. I draw a lot of my inspiration from other sources - TV, mall browsing, random google searches, crane marketing...yes I did say crane marketing.

Pinterest is one of these new sources and has allowed me to follow some design experts that post great material. Although my Pinterest account seems to lean towards the food side, I do spend a lot of time looking at designs as well. One of my boards is solely devote to Designs I Love | Design Inspiration. Some of the designs are for a potential tattoo, but most are pinned because of general design, type, color, etc. I also have a board devoted to infographics - a new love I've found. And speaking of Pinterest and infographics - here's one about Pinterest being the next ecommerce game changer.

Some of my favorite designs from my Pinterest board are shown below. This is only the start...

Beautiful Simplicity

Kooky Design

Color Scheme

Sales

It's Day 3 of the National Convention, and we're done with competitions. Such a relief - no more memorizing! I still have a scholarship interview tomorrow, but I feel more comfortable with that.

PSE is dedicated to sales, and although I have gotten a lot out of the organization, sales is not the route I want to take. I stopped to talk to a few recruiters at the PSE Career Fair, but to get to a position like brand management, you need to start in entry-level sales. I know I'll have to work my way up in a compnay, but sales is not ideal for me. It's not that I can't do it - I did it for 2 years with the Northern Iowan. It's just not my passion. I would prefer to work a little behind-the-scenes with the brand image. I wish more ad agencies recruited at career fairs. Take note ad agencies ;) EdgeCore and Mudd are great about this and I've talked with both of them at the UNI Career Fair.

This blog isn't going the direction I intended, so I'll publish now and spare you the details of my job hunt. Stay tuned for more interesting posts on creative marketing.

Side note: I did get a t-shirt from Ferguson and a frisbee from Enterprise - nice recruiting strategies :)

The Job Hunt

I'm on my way to Indianapolis to compete in the Pi Sigma Epsilon National Convention and figured this long drive would be a perfect time to blog.

I will be graduating in May so I've been applying for jobs while also trying to stay on top of all my other responsibilities. Although I would love Terex to hire me on full time, I'm excited about the possibility of working in a marketing position outside the manufacturing industry.

As I was visiting my friend Hannah in Minneapolis this week, I decided to broaden my job search beyond Iowa. I would love to travel and although I'm a small town outdoorsy girl at heart, I wouldn't mind trying out the city life for awhile. I'd just have to take a few trips out into the wild to camp and fish.

I am excited about some of the positions I'm applying for as their marketing and corporate image is amazing. Although I haven't officially applied for anything at Target, I would love to as their image is so clean and simple but so effective. I love the beauty of simplicity. Several other companies embody that idea as well. Simplicity keeps a brand uncomplicated and doesn't confuse the consumer.

Currently I'm working on a campaign for Nissan for the AAF national student advertising competition and it gets me so excited to get out in the real world and apply what I've learned. This project has been the best experience for me in college. We've had crazy long meetings and arguments over ideas..we've been stuck creatively and had brilliant ideas as well. I see Nissan everywhere and fall asleep thinking about the campaign. It's a crazy process but I love it. Although I'm still undecided as to whether to pursue a career at an agency or go the company marketing route, I know either way that I'll have a blast living out my passion.

Google Doodles

Who doesn't love going to Google and seeing one of their new doodles? They did not disappoint today. In celebration of Mark Twain's birthday (176 years!), Google created a doodle of Mark Twain's famous character Tom Sawyer tricking his friends into whitewashing the fence for him. Pretty cool tribute eh?

Whelp while you're looking at Google, try googling Google Doodles (kinda a tongue twister) and check out some of their other tributes. My favorites - Google Balls (get close to the logo and the balls take off) and the Guitar for Les Paul's 96th birthday (you can play it). Another place to check out Google's past logos - http://www.google.com/logos/.

BTW did you know Mark Twain's real name was Samuel Clemens? Yet another author to go by a fake name. Clemens signed some of his other works usings names like Josh and Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass.