Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.
My favorite Ari Gold moment of all time. Why must all good things come to an end?
You’re on a boat with the man your man could smell like.
Can I just say, this commercial is easily in my top 3 ads of all time. Knowing that their demographic is both men & women (who do the shopping for their men), the geniuses at W+K came up with this awesome way to talk to/entertain both. I even stop the DVR during recorded shows to watch this commercial. It’s. That. Good. And it was all filmed in one long shot. Below two of the guys on the Old Spice account talk logistics.
No matter how many times I see this commercial for Halls Refresh, I always feel weird/awkward/icky inside. The sexual tension is just too much for me. Creep factor = 10.
One of my favorite Michael Jackson songs is “You Are Not Alone.” It’s almost tragically poetic that he could write such a beautiful song but not be able to hear his own lyrics. Isolated from the outside world after decades of controversy, it took his death for the country to really show how much they still loved and embraced Michael. But I’m straying from the real topic of this post, as I often do. The point is that everyone needs to be reminded that they are connected. As alone as they feel, there are people out there going through the same thing.
A while ago I stumbled onto this website called “We Feel Fine.” The system searches out blog entries that include the words “I feel (insert emotion),” or “I’m feeling…” When found, it records the full sentence and categorizes it according to the feeling expressed. It then organizes it into an interface with floating tons of particles, each representing a feeling posted in the blogosphere. Things like color, size or shape of the particle indicate the nature of the feeling. When you click on a particle it reveals the full sentence and any information it has about the author. You can also filter the particles by feeling, author’s sex, age, weather or location.
But more that just the random particles careening across the screen, Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar have created six different movements (Madness, Murmurs, Montage, Mobs, Metrics, and Mounds) to categorize and display the information in real time. Basically it’s an infographic paradise.
During his TED talk, Harris said, “”I think people are very similar, but I also think we have trouble seeing that. As I look around the world, I see a lot of gaps, and I think we all see a lot of gaps. We define ourselves by our gaps: language gaps, ethnicity gaps, age gaps, gender gaps, sexuality gaps, wealth and money gaps, education gaps, religious gaps…but I think that actually despite our gaps, we really have a lot in common.”
Chalk it up to naiveté, being new in the world of marketing, but I thought that the important intersection between marketing and psychology was obvious. It’s one of the reasons that advertising and marketing initially appealed to me. But after reading “Why advertising needs behavioral economics” by Rory Sutherland, it would seem that maybe the world doesn’t value that connection like I thought. Sutherland asks, “Why is marketing – and, more importantly, the vital study of human behavior – so little celebrated in the wider world of business?” Perhaps because I was brought up in the Journalism School that I take for granted the idea that everyone knows that everything should be firmly based on research; and it seems so counterintuitive that you would go forward in business without knowing about people – the people who buy your product, the people who support your business, the people who drive your bottom line.
The Internet has drastically changed the music industry. It’s been said before, but I never really considered how until my sister emailed me this video:
To make money through major labels, you need blockbuster hits. You need to be the next Lady Gaga, Britney Spears or N’Sync (forgive my obviously girly examples). They spend so much money producing, distributing and marketing the physical CD releases that it’s more effective to try to make money from one super mega-hit than many smaller singles that could cumulatively sell the same number as the mega-hit; hence the age-old problem of over-played songs on the radio. Surely there exists more music than the 10 songs played over and over on 105.1. It’s artificial scarcity –> variety exists, but you’re only exposed to a sliver of it. Labels just didn’t want you to know it. But now in the information age, with digital music sales, it’s almost as easy to make as much from the small hits as the one mega-hit. Paired with the low-cost of digital tools, there are millions of people, like Levi Weaver, out there making music for every genre you can think of and those you would never have dreamt of, and making it independent of a major label.
So here is Levi offering a fresh perspective, a new model – basically fundraising. Instead of looking at it as buying a CD (a very impersonal transaction), Levi is asking that you donate money to support him. In return for your donation, you will receive a CD. He offers a glimpse in to his world. Supporters know that the money is going directly into his hands, instead of through a distributor –> record company –> representative –> agent –> musician (or however the equation goes).
Back to how the Internet changed the game, I guess it boils down to accessibility and choice. Now how do record labels harness these to make more $$$? I think the answer has to do with making it easier for the consumer to sift through all the choices.
As the leaves start to turn rust-colored and more frequently we see the dark clouds heavy overhead, it feels weird to not be packing up my room in anticipation of the annual migration south to Eugene. No, this year I will watch as my sister makes the journey alone. Well, not quite alone since she broke her ankle and we have to do all her moving for her, but I’m metaphorically watching her go. You get it, right?
So how will I spend my days if not wading through the giant puddle that is the University of Oregon in the fall? Job Search-apoolza 2009! That’s right. My internship is ending and I’m now in full job search mode. And my first act of job search was to attend the Career Center’s GET CONNECTED. It wasn’t so much the job fair portion of the evening I was interested in, the employers were not exactly what I was looking for, but the actual discussion panel that was there. The panel included:
Heather Flynn, Staffing Manager, Waggener Edstrom
Valerie Larson, Recruiter, Portland Energy Conservation, Inc.
Lisa Weiglin, Senior Recruiter and University Relations Manager, Tektronix
Breelyn Young, Talent Acquisition Manager, GlaxoSmithKline
Jason Abernathy, Human Resources Manager, Fisher Investments
Although my interests aligned closest with the PR field from the above choices, I was really interested to hear from all the fields. They were able to give some great insight into job hunting and the hiring process, which I shall now impart onto you:
The Search.
It’s no secret, a lot of companies prefer to promote from within, through referrals or networking. As cliche or old as the saying is, it really is about who you know. Meeting you in person and talking to you can give them much more than just seeing your resume can do, as impressive as I’m sure yours might be. At least for me, networking seems really scary and throws me out of my comfort zone, but the panelists pointed out, your network is already bigger than you think. Parents, friends’ parents, fellow alum. Start there and let them know you’re looking for a job. Maybe they know of one, maybe they know someone in the business you can talk to. Informational interviews can be gold.
If you have a specific company you are interested in, get their attention on the web. Follow them on Twitter, become a fan on Facebook, comment on the blog. If you have something smart to say, they will listen and remember it when they see your name on a resume, for example.
What they want.
Flexibility. Most companies want someone who can do the job today but also grow with the company in the future. The old 80/20 rule comes into play with qualifications. 80 you have, 20 you can grow. But if you don’t have the 80, don’t apply. In this economy there will be someone who does.
Passion. Enthusiasm. Innovation. Integrity. Adaptability. Resiliency. Urgency.
A match for the company culture is paramount. Some say interviewing is analogous to dating. The fit/vibe/chemistry, whatever you want to call it, needs to be there. As my dad always says, liking the people in the office is almost more important than liking the work.
The interview.
It’s the intangible skills make you stand out. Preparation is big. Know the clients, know the work, know the awards and show it with questions – smart questions. Mimic the language they use so they can really start to see you in the company.
You’ve heard this before, but they said it again, you are your own brand/product. Sell yourself as you would a brand. Think of 3 marketing messages you want to really get across and relate everything back to those. Trying to say too many things about yourself waters down the message.
Structure your stories and examples in terms of Problem –> Solution –> Result.
Above all, show that you want the job and follow up with personal thank you note.
Maybe it’s because I’m in advertising (and when I say “in,” I use it loosely to mean my degree is in advertising, while I have yet to actually obtain a job), or maybe it’s just because I watch too much trashy reality TV, but whatever the reason, very rarely do I see an ad that I love. Even more rare is an ad that I actually remember and talk about. But the planets must have aligned just right because Euro RSCG came out with this Clearasil confidence commercial. To this day, this commercial is my hands down, bar none, absolute favorite commercial.
As my foray into social media continues, I have created a Twitter account at the behest of my Research Methods professor @gHarsha <— see, I’m learning! My inital opinion on the microblogging site was, what is the point?? Isn’t it just the same as Facebook status update? And what was worse, none of my friends are on it. Why would I use this?
It wasn’t until said professor had us do an assignment where we were supposed to explore the reasons that Twitter could be the “next big thing” and what it would have to overcome to get there. After doing some seriously in depth research considering the topic, I started to see why people have embraced it.
Five ways in which Twitter could change our world:
1. It’s a way that people can connect to friends, neighbors, coworkers, people across the world, celebrities, ect.
2. Minute-by-minute updates useful for trend watching, emergency alerts and sporting events among other things. For example, social media has been more effective in alerting people about emergencies, like the Virginia Tech shooting, than the traditional university alert system. Some universities already have new alert systems incorporating social media.
3. Effective in mobilizing efforts and gathering eyewitness accounts during a disaster such as the attacks on Mumbai. People “tweeted” about what they saw, help lines and contact numbers for those who had friends involved in the attacks, as well as pleas for blood donors at specific hospitals that were low on supplies.
4. It can be used as an effective campaign tool. Whereas campaign emails get lost in inboxes and spam, tweets cut through the noise with a short and to-the-point message.
5. Users can receive the messages anywhere they are through a variety of outlets – text messages, instant messages and RSS news feeds.
Five hurdles to becoming the next big thing:
1. Twitter doesn’t generate revenue and exists on funding alone which limits its long-term viability. It will likely have to adopt an ad supported business model.
2. Some users complain about feeling “too connected.” Many users tweet all day about mundane things like what they are having for lunch or everyday annoyances making it hard to separate valuable content from the noise.
3. They have had a lot of security problems. Hacking the main system has compromised several high profile accounts.
4. Due to the exponential growth over a short time, Twitter has experienced several outages.
5. Rumor mill. Unsubstantiated rumors quickly snowball through tweets that are re-tweeted over and over again.
So after some time, I have conceded my previous stance on the triviality of Twitter and am not afraid to admit that I usually check Twitter before I log onto Facebook… in fact I’m starting to find myself thinking in 140 characters or less. Tweet me @egavette
