Thursday, September 23, 2010

Week 11: Final Evaluation

The knowledge that I got in this class is incredible. I learned so much about how things work in the field of advertising, a field that I am really interested in. The class had many opportunities to really use your head. We had a chance to rap our self’s in thought, so we could understand the concepts that they were thought.

Another thing that I liked was the many example of yesterday and today’s advertising. How advertising is really The Brain from “Pinky and The Brain show” dream comes true to take over the world. And that’s how much of an influence I believe advertising is. It moves and chances, its flexible and adaptable, and it creates eras and cultures.

The class also gave me a chance to see were this craziness came from, and allowed me to finally know an inspiration for my career: our old genius George Lois.

I had the opportunity to learn all of that and many other things thanks to this class. Mr. Pinto was a great teacher to have, and his knowledge and experience were of great help for those who inspire to walk on the same path.

As I said the class was great. And kept me thinking and finding new materials that in ages I wouldn’t have thought I was going to use for a professional class. Which I thought it was great. I participated as much as I was asked for. And even if my reading was kind of bad, I never backed down. And so here I am, giving me a grade. Over all I think I deserve a B+ because of I messed up one of the criteria of the final project for reason that were out of my control. But outside that I will like to think I did a good job over all.

Bonus feture: The final ads








Thursday, September 16, 2010

EOC Week 10: Art Serving Capitalism

I have spent a long time studding advertisement. How many commercials work and the impact that they have on us. Then you go back a few steps and you learned how all those idea came to be. The people and their views. Their feelings and what they stand for. Soon after you realize that how much their ideas, philosophies and values have done such an impact that you can feel extremely related either with the product they helped to advertise or the artist its self.

This is something the ad companies look for. Their well deserve goal: your interest and attention. And not only that, you feel amaze of the great creativity these people have. They have managed to catch your attention and some time you even want to congratulate them for that.

As an artist you feel appreciated. Your work has impacted someone. Your idea that was exploding to come out of your head now wonders in the mind of thousand that were exposed to your work. Now that’s a great feeling of accomplishment. And then the next thing you know, you have huge check in your pocket, and you have no idea where it came from and the only reason that you know its yours is because it has your name on it.

The great rewards of hard work. All of them want them, but very few gets them. Your work did not only brought you fame as a talented artist, but it also brought fortune to you and your client. That is what “art serving capitalism” is all about. Allowing your art to help your client achieve their goals. And with great success, comes big rewards.

I am a strong believer that one should be proud of their work that you do and should get all the credit that you deserve. But then something pops to mind, a phrase that a very wise men thought has I grew up:

“Once you find a job that you love…..you will never have to work again.”
Jose Ortiz, my father.

In other words, just do the what you love and the rewards will come to you all by them self. As I said, its good when people appreciate your work, but it’s even better when you get pay for something that you love doing, and would have done it for free.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

BOC week 9: Triplets



So there I was waiting for all night on Christmas eve for Santa, only to find out the next morning I run out of Coca Cola drinks. Then everything made since. The Coca Cola company as always been the top soda drink in the market. Even to the point that their logo is among the top worldwide known logos that people seem to be more familiar with.

Well it comes with no surprise that Coca-Cola has some pretty good marketing going on. A drink that takes care of thirst because of its refreshing and cooling flavor in a hot summer day. Just by looking at their ads makes you think of the most cold drink imaginable. But what happens when you’re not, for instance in my case living in Las Vegas were is extremely hot, but you live were the opposite. Or even worst, will any one drink a cold refreshing battle of Coca-Cola on a cold Christmas eve? Well yes, and that person is Santa.

If Santa can drink it in the middle of a blizzard, well heck so can you. And here are some examples of Coca-Cola Ad campaign that they always do during Christmas season. By using a well establish character they are able to create different ads each year but without losing the familiarity, allowing the not only to create twins or cousin, or even triplets….but many other relatives also!

Final Project 6: Analysis of Project in the Real World

Learning about advertising has never been this fun for me. I always have been a big fan of commercials, of how companies fight to get your attention every day. With this project I have come even closer than ever to that world of advertising. And it’s greater than I thought!
First you have square one, the big idea, and the hook that will bring everyone to your product. That part right there at the beginning of all is the most challenging. Trying to come up with simplicity in order to be different is an adventure itself.
It may seem somewhat easy to just blast out something and try to make a commercial out of it. But the truth is that is not that easy. I will admit that this project’s ads were somewhat of a challenge for me. From thinking of what project on the ad’s to actually doing it. Luckily had some support from my love ones, and the magic of working as a team made something frustrating in to something fun.
Working for a serious advertising company may be far from fun. But if any of the good fun I had appends on the real world of advertising, I can only imagine the great ideas and joy one could have from working as a team.
With all the work I put in, for being my first project of this kind I will like to say I did pretty good. If this was a real situation, and had the all the good stuff to make my ad’s I think I would have brought some good business to the company.

Final Project 5: Cretive Content

As I mention before, I will create some ads on the comic side of the vitamins. The age range that I am trying to get their busness doesn’t tent to have serious thoughts. They like to mess around, have fun, to know that having a healthy life style it will pay up the one and only thing we all want: the attention of the opposite sex.
As someone who trained with higher goals in mind, I know that many of the other people share another thing other than just the desire of a great body; they all have since of humor. After a workout the last thing I wanted to see was another person showing off their bodies and promoting they got it just by taking some made up supplement.
In this case, I use 3 separate models for my photo shoot. All of them wearing some type of shirt or sporting clothing to represent the average athlete. But what really stands out is the way the fruit and vegetables are being use. I wanted to show the miss use of our healthy foods in a way that will translate in to a thought of “is there any other way?” this referring on the easier way to take your fruits and vegetables.
One of the model is lying down with a sports shirt and with some mascara, and this goes to tell that someone like that should be playing sports and no a spa. The second one is someone buff, someone that should be playing but has a fruit basket on his head instead. And the last one is girl that its really annoyed that the fact that she has to hold an orange to get the vitamins that she need in order to have a complete work out.
All of this put together with the slogan: “Take your vitamins, seriously” gives the consumer a little refresher on the funny side, and in the right choice for their health supplements needs.

Final Project 4: Promotion

For the promotion of Centrum I have created several pictures, but that in the end will only be a set of 3. I will like to convert them in to ads that we can put inside a gym right near the exit. That way it will be burned in to their memories as soon as they finish a good work out.

It will be also great to implement them in to health magazines. They are many of these magazines out there, but they concentrate mostly on developing muscle or losing wait. But Centrum is way different from all of those products, even if Centrum has several of the nutrition properties of the many other products that may actually scare the consumers from taking them, our multivitamins actually promotes just what everyone is looking for: good health.

Now there is something that most people do not put in to account. Many of the body builders started from cero at some point. Even when they were thinking about getting great and big bodies, they all realize that that will not happened if they did not fallow a healthy diet. They will not achieve this by just taking huge intakes of wheat, no, they were going to do so first by taking vitamins.
That’s why my ad will be a greater hit, following the advice of the book:

“Advertising involves creative problems solving. If your idea is creative and doesn’t solve the problem, it’s not an effective ad”
Advertising by design, Chap. 3 Pg50

Centrum is the one and only that will rise from the other competitors, because everyone starts from square one, and Centrum is here to help them to jump start there day. The ads will reflect all of this; they will show how important it is to have this type of vitamins in their daily diet. Also, small ads on the pharmacy or drug stores will help steer the consumer attention to the right choice, to our product.

Final Project 3: The Big Idea

The multivitamins industry has more than just a few competitors. I liked I talked about it before, One-a-day is the strongest product out there that gives Centrum a run for its money. But even when they promote the same type of benefits on their products, Centrum will be promoted in to a more direct audience….the average Joe in the gym.
How has not gone through some point in life and wonder about their health, physique or even the thought of how they look? That will be everybody, but Centrum does not promote lost wait. What it does promote is health. Now when someone wants to achieved the above goals, they don’t think immediately about supplements. No, they think about going out to the park, routines, they thing about the gym!
Like George Lois said: “…to grab the viewer’s and reader’s attention via clean and evocative cause-and-effect concepts…”
Advertising by Design, Chap. 1 Pg8
And that’s what I plant to do. This is where the aim is: Ads with a hint of comedy. Now why this route? Well when one goes endless hours at the gym they don’t want to know that all that time will go to waste as soon as they hit the doors and they find a Mc Donals. There is no more greater relief that to know that all that hard work will continue add on with a healthy diet and Centrum will be there to assist with that.
Compare with One-a-Day, Centrum will try not to focus on the idea of divide gender type supplements. It will generalize with its main products, that way it will reach all potential consumers. Now, the comedy on the propose ad will alleviate the stress that we all go through when at the gym, since it is there were the ads will concentrated on. Not with the idea of replacing the main slogan, but to assist it, I have come up with a slogan to come with the ads: “Take your vitamins, seriously!” and that’s the Big Idea.

Final Project 2: Competitive Analyses

In the field of multivitamins, there are two that stand out in the market: Centrum and One-a-day. Even when both of the products promote several benefits to the consumer, with also similar ingredients, they are also very different from each other.
One of the mayor differences from Centrum and One-a-day is that Centrum is aim at all types of consumer, while the One-a-day it is known to have its product divided for the male and female gender. It is obvious that concentrating the on one type of gender dives the whole market that there is for multivitamins. But Centrum does not do that, it makes its product aim at a over-all consumers.
Centrum has always had the majority of the market because of this. Also what helped bust up their sales was the catchy slogan “….From A to Zinc.” While One-a-day only has their product as their slogan, the disadvantage on the market looks big. Never the less, a very powerful slogan that has allowed it to stay strong on the market.
Another thing that helps Centrum in the industry of vitamins is that it has established itself as a more serious competitor. While One-a-day sounds more like they are trying very hard to appeal to different type of ages and genders. And even in that case, Centrum has provided the same option by also creating a split market for men and women vitamins with a better consumer approval rate. And only that, while One-a-day have several options from vitamins for pregnant women to try to appeal to teenagers, does not focus to a more serious issue that it is Cardio vascular issues like Centrum does with Centrum: Cardio; A product focus also at men a women.
The whole project need to be focus on this major areas, the brain storming has hard considering the one of the facts that they show in the book “Advertising by Design”, Chapter 3. Pg 51. Were it tells us that: “all ideas, from logical to absurd, are encourage” which make my decision even harder since I still don’t know how to focus this project.
At the end, both afford several options for all ages, but at the end of the day, this multivitamins juggenaut are judge by the consumer, and both of them share a good piece of the market. Centrum being on the top of the list!

Final Project 1 Centrum: Take your vitamins, seriously!

What has caught my eye for this project is the product “Centrum”. A multivitamin that promotes to have all of the vitamins essential for one’s good health. This product is aimed at much older audience. My goal to take down that bar just a notch. Make it a bit more appealing for a more younger market that I usually sells to.
Centrum already has a very catchy slogan: From A to Z. Meaning that has all the vitamins that one need raging from vitamins A to the letter Z for the nutrient latter. The only way I am going to accomplish to lower the bar to a different audience is by changing or adding a new one. Whit the help of a photo ad campaign I will try to use the phrase: Take your vitamins, seriously. By this I am trying to imply that there are many other ways to take your fruits, from which is commonly known to be rich in vitamins and is how most people consume them, and show them that there is no better way to have that intake but by consuming Centrum for a better and healthier life style.

I came with that conclusion with the help of many years on the wait training programs that have taken during my military life. A Healthy diet is extremely important for successful training and the getting the most of your training. But younger people do not put attention to this little fact that have a huge impact in their buddy building goals. Most of them think that taking high protein supplements are going to help them achieved that goal, when in reality they just need that healthy supplement. And comedy will allow me to attract that audience by using “ Take your vitamins, seriously” and making them more appealing and come more familiar with the product with simplicity that could deliver a much better result that average Flintstones vitamins.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

EOC week 8: Really good example of Chap. 8


Many if not all of us get expose to advertisement from dawn to dusk. But very few of them really can catch our attention by making us, by using very little elements, to use our imagination and become part on whatever they are trying to communicate through those pages.
In an interview done to several design experts for the book “advertising by design” by Robin Landa, they were able to give us what they thought of were the most important points one has to consider when creating an ad.

While browsing some magazine I was able to catch on eye on several ads. On a comment from the chapter that we are currently reading was from Michael Sickenger:

“Using the pictographic images in place of letter can be provocative (for example, the logo for the sopranos TV series, where the letters r is replace by a gun)”
-Advertising by design, chapter 8: pg163-

As I keep on looking at all of the ads, I finally found that catches my eye. The ad is for the play
“Phantom of the Opera” that is currently playing at The Ventian Hotel and Casino. The ad is simple but yet shows flow and lots of information. Also, the ad employs what Michael Sickenger was talking about, were one of the letter is replace for an image, in this case is the “O” in Phantom is replace for the Phantom mask.

The ad is simple coping with the well know rule of simplicity. It gives just one review, shows lots of movement and the image of the main characters of the well know tragic story. Another thing that pops out of the ad is once again the font. Carlos Segura, from Segura Inc. , Chicago, gives us this tip:

“Use the appropriate font for the job, not the best one installed in your computer…. Typography is the single most important element that contributes to the “body language” and “tone” of a piece of work…”
-Advertising by Design, Chapter 8: pg 162-

So there you have it, one of many ad that has successfully catch my eye. Hope you like it, and watched the play, because I am about to. Good job Ad agency!!!

EOC Week: Authority

So for my project I will be concentrating on the product Centrum. It’s a vitamin supplement that gives all the nutrition that one’s body needs. Base on the what we just learned from chapter 8, I will be using the visual concept ad.

One of the ideas given on the book came from Denise M. Anderson, DMA, New Jersey. She explains to make choices for our ads “to be appropriate to [your] project objectives (client, market, period, etc)” Centrum has always focus on the health side and focus on a much mature audience. My plan is to use visual, for example photography, to focus the product to a much younger audience that it commonly focuses their sales to. This would be accomplish by keeping the idea of nutrition, but presenting another not so appealing or miss use of alternative options of the consumption of the vitamins compare with convenience of just taking Centrum.

Also let us not forget about the font type. An advice given by Steven Brower, Print magazine, New York, has also change the layout of what I had plan for the photo campaign. “Never, ever, ever stretch type. It distorts the letter forms, creating thin verticals and thick horizontals, among other ghastly things.”