London Calling

 

The moment it sunk in that I am moving to London, my memory sent an electric shock down my spine. I vividly recalled my obsession with the Great Britain, Londinium, United Kingdom, Big Ben, high tea. I  remembered that from when I was 11 till I moved to Canada (where new elements started occurring to me), I was completely bonkers about Britain! I wanted to live there, I wanted to be British, I wanted to brandish the Union Jack everywhere I could.

 

Let’s face it. 

 

I am moving TO LONDON! This is happening. 

 

I am so absolutely excited about the possibilities of London. Of the busy and dynamic current of lives that it is, of the immense history, world class culture of all types, of the multicultural mix of people that I am delighted to meet, of the prime location and Heathrow, Heathrow, Heathrow that is the hub to everywhere else in the world. One of my most amazing friends (Kat!) is living there right now, and she loves the city. My other European friends are a stones throw away. This is it. THIS is the change I’ve been wanting, THIS is the godsent gift to my present situation. This is the fate grabbing me by the the collar and presenting me with the pearl of my twenties. Living in London in your twenties is probably one of the best things that can happen. 

 

I am immensely grateful to life. I am immensely grateful to my company that is moving me to work in our London office (in Camden, no less!). I am excited! 

To Add to My Facebook Disappearance

It’s been a few days since I’ve deleted my Facebook and I haven’t missed it actually. Mostly because, if I want to return, it would be for contact information. I can sneak in there and get it stealthily and then deactivate the goddamn thing again.

But this isn’t what I’m writing about. I’m reading “Marshall McLuhan: You Know Nothing Of My Work”, a Douglas Coupland biography of the legend. Coupland should do way more biographies, given his style! I’m really enjoying them. Or I’m enjoying McLuhan’s interesting life. Because he was such an intellectual, you know

Here is a quote.

The Maelstrom

Marshall loved Edgar Allan Poe’s 1841 short story, “A Descent into the Maelström,” and I love him for introducing me to it. In Poe’s tale, a young man sits at the top of a Norwegian mountain, beside the narrator, a seemingly old man of the sea. However, it turns out that the old man is, in fact, young—he had been prematurely aged by a storm a few years before that had led to a massive vortex in the ocean into which the man and his two brothers were swept. The younger brothers held on to large fragments of the ship and were swallowed. The narrator, though, noticed that heavy objects went down first; he held on to a barrel and managed to avoid his brothers’ fate. It ends with the narrator knowing darn well that the younger person could care less about his story of survival.

As nearly all those who try to relate McLuhan to the internet have noted, this maelstrom is a marvellous metaphor for the way to keep one’s head above water in a changing world. Rather than be sucked into a yawning, gaping mess, be nimble and analyze the broader scope of what’s going on. Don’t hang on to something that’s going to drag you down. You may not like your environment, but don’t allow it to overtake you or drown you.

I immediately thought of my decision to abandon a technology that I personally find burdensome and massive in that Yahoo-versus-Google-search-engine-homepage way.

In my profession (interactive advertising), I need to be nimble and I need to know about all the technologies. But I don’t have to use them all if I don’t like them. I finally understand why more senior strategists don’t bother with some tools. But boy am i happy when they bother with Twitter & Instagram (my current faves).

PS. Blogging from the iPad. Could this be it? Blogging more? Taking the time to formulate thoughts and sharing them once in a while instead of getting drowned in Facebook nonsense?

Why I am Deleting My Personal Facebook Account

I am no stranger to social networking. My first foray into it manifested in the form of the LoveHate.ru forum, where you simply write what you hate and what you love. “Simply” is an understatement. I had my first taste of Internet drama there. But it was fun social experience. I had a LiveJournal blog for the longest time, and nothing can replace that type of blogging. I did a stint on MySpace. I never had Friendster. WordPress is too public for my liking. I don’t like Tumblr. I have Pinterest. I have enjoyed Twitter for the 5 years that I’ve had it and Instagram is fantastic for the visual self. I understand social networking. Heck, my job requires me to, and I like it. I have a dummy Facebook account to perform work duties and research, when needed.

But I am deleting my personal Facebook account because I have not been enjoying using the service for the past two years. Why should I continue using the service that I don’t like? I’m not getting anything out of it. I have not used it to express myself to the fullest extent. Yes, I have reconnected with a couple of people from the past, and guess what? I’m taking down their emails and Skype names and phone numbers before I depart.

On Facebook I have a mishmash of close friends, acquaintances, coworkers, people I don’t even remember and classmates I don’t talk to anymore. I haven’t taken the time, nor will, to organize my contacts into complicated groups just so I could curate my content better. I’d rather use LinkedIn for business purposes. Do I even need to be up to the minute on everyone? I don’t think so. Time is precious. I talk to my closest friends on other channels anyway, and I never took Facebook messages seriously (EMAIL, FOLKS).

I have gained way more from my follow list on Twitter – I consume more interesting content on Twitter than I ever did on Facebook. I like the fact that Twitter doesn’t own any photo that I share on it. I don’t like that some arrogant psychopath obsessed with “connecting the whole world” (the whole world doesn’t need to be connected, in my opinion, you Zuck) has access to so much of my data just so he could serve crappy ads to me. The ever-changing privacy settings are getting to me too. I also don’t want someone’s extended family coming up in my friend recommendations. These two New York Times articles have added to my confusion too: Facebook is Using You and Death of the Cyberflaneur.

I don’t mind missing a few Vice parties and other du jour crap because I now won’t get the Facebook invite. Those who care enough will invite me in person. I can reach my close and not so close friends on other networks if I want to. I prefer to catch up one-on-one anyway, over homemade dinner and a good glass of wine. I want to spend more time on smart blogs, interesting publications, educational videos and what not. Yes, I may miss some opportunities to gain more traffic to my articles on The Genteel, but what can I do? I’m not happy using Facebook. But I am always happy to catch up in person. I’m still going to be around. A lot. Maybe I’ll even start blogging.

See you on Twitter and Instagram

TAXI giveaway?

A month ago (or maybe more than that) I noticed a dramatic increase in a number of TAXI (as in the agency) messenger bags in the Spadina & King West area. The company must have executed some kind of a giveaway. Was it the back to school idea, or what?

Either way, not only have I spotted at least 4-5 different folks. All male, by the way, which begs the question of whether 1) there are not a lot of women at TAXI on Wellington, 2) women have better bags and purses to carry around 3) or only guys were given these bags. The last one, I hope, is a completely preposterous idea. I just wanted to have three scenarios in this list. The point is, there’s a lot of these bags around.

Not only that, but I have one TAXIst living in my neighborhood. Which is far from King & Spadina (by my standards). This geek bikes to work every morning with the messenger bag over his back. I want to yell at him, “Hey neighbor!” but I don’t.

I Hit the Jackpot, or Checkmark One of My Dreams

Four years ago I was sitting in the David Lam library at Sauder School of Business (University of British Columbia, Vancouver) and researched the “enemy” trenches. That is, I was looking at university programs in Toronto, Ontario.

Back then I realized that finance wasn’t for me. I mean, I could do it if I set my mind and heart to it, and I had flashes of success, but I also suffered from delusions. I kind of was lying to myself about financial sector being rewarding enough for me. I think I was doing the finance program to subconsciously appease dad because, really, he wanted to do it in Canada, but couldn’t for many reasons. Anybody who immigrated knows of potential career complications.

But to move to the brighter side: back in January 2006 I realized that I needed to get into advertising (and marketing). I always thought and daydreamed about it, always saw it as the right mix of creative and analytical… Advertising was the way. And since I worked pretty hard to get into west coast’s awesome business school, I didn’t want to give it all up and go into Arts at Ryerson (no offense, but those of you who dealt with either, or both, know what I mean) or start from scratch at OCAD’s Ad program. So I went for Marketing major and Finance minor at Ryerson.

…I got it with no problem, picked my courses, including hindrances like Stats 2 (I already did the whole year in the course of one semester at UBC), ITM 102 and other crap. But I had to suck it up.

In fall 2006 I moved to Toronto with only two suitcases, knew one person in the city well, and lived at a random house for a month. I set out some goals. I networked, I worked hard, I reached my academic goals (Deans list and Golden Key), I always worked part-time, I interned, I hustled and hustled and hustled. There were semesters where every week I only had one day off (and even then I had to study), or none at all. And yet I met the most people and partied harder than ever. I tried my hand at entrepreneurship and whatnot. I also learned as much as I could, asked difficult questions and always checked in with my inner self to make sure I was going the way I wanted to go.

In the past year I’ve steered in a general direction of where I wanted to go but I hadn’t quite hit the advertising agency jackpot. The biggest problem was me refusing to do internships for free. I put 3 hard years into communications, marketing, entrepreneurship, online marketing and social media jobs and positions. I simply can’t afford to not get paid. Who’s going to pay rent and bills; and the student loan? So I sucked it up and kept plowing, waiting for the perfect moment.

NO was not an answer.

Hard work was the way. Meeting people was the way. Marketing myself was the way. Sticking to my word was the way. Sticking to ethical practices was the way. Sticking to my heart was the way. Sticking to health and physical activity was the way. All of a sudden I had the most amazing vision of the future and the most fervor than ever before (recall my December and January posts).

This February I jumped the gun and got an interview at the raddest interactive agency (in my opinion) and wham bam I’m in their strategy team!!!! When I got the offer, I squealed like a piglet on the call with mom.

I worked so fucking hard for this. You guys have no idea how many all-nighters I pulled for business cases, for industry reports, for essays (btw, Philosophy Award, y’all), for all the stuff that I finished for myself or for group mates. Or how much personal life shit I went through in the first three years since my move. There’s a lot of blood that I shed for all this and I’m ready to give up even more, if needed.

Because I AM WHERE I WANT TO BE. All these years I had this vision. And today I am living in it. I have amazing opportunities ahead of me – international, national. Today, more than ever before, I am surrounded by inspiring, intelligent and interesting people. I have a chance to hit the gas pedal and shoot into infinity. Every morning I can’t wait to spring into action. I’m still just learning the ropes at this agency, and I’m thankful for that. Because soon I’ll be thrown into the water and it’s sink or swim from there.

I am lucky, yes. But I also made my luck my whole life.

I also realized that I can do anything I want. I could always have done anything I wanted. With my personality, passion, ideas and drive – the world is seriously my oyster, and crab, and lobster and all kinds of shrimp. Some people fall back on business and other “solid” professions because they’re scared. Or because they’re pressured into it. Or what-ever. Doesn’t matter. Other people are afraid to do something creative or risky because, well, it’s really risky. I can go into anything (well, except medicine) and succeed. This wonderful development in my life just proved that. And made me tad bit more ambitious. Actually, a lot more ambitious.

On that note, my personal development goals now revolve around artistic pursuits. Stay tuned to hear about creative successes.

I’m just gaining speed. I’m just gaining speed.

Chapters and Facebook

Last week Chapters Indigo offered an interesting offer – 25% off your next in-store purchase, all the way up to December 24. You go to their Facebook fan page, become a fan, then print out their unique coupon. Check out the screenshots. This is what you see when you follow the Facebook fan page link I provided two sentences ago.

When you click the “click here” button, an option to share with friends will appear. Of course you don’t have to share, but why would you not, given the holiday spirit and the ease of information dissemination via one simple click?

The moment you hit “Publish” or “Skip” your coupon appears. Notice the “Print” button, which automatically sends the coupon to nearest available printer.I really like the use of social media here!

1. Chapters can measure the success of this campaign simply by monitoring coupon scans, which I’m sure have a special “from Facebook” code on them.
2. Chapters Indigo Facebook fanbase will grow, obviously
3. Chapters minimized the number of steps required in coupon acquisition (I’m always annoyed, but accepting of “Fill out this form…”, “Check your e-mail”, open e-mail, print the e-mail, etc)
4. …And embedded a simple viral factor

Brings thoughts about what Meteor Solutions calls earned media. Those that share the deal with their Facebook friends are effectively participating in the According to them, it’s your content, shared by your customers through email, blogs, and the social web. You can buy as many banner ads as you want, but when your visitors share your message for you… that’s earned media. It’s powerful, it’s growing, and it’s everywhere.

There we go. Maybe I’m so into it because I love reading and Chapters is better at delivering books than Amazon. Oh, and it’s Canadian. Didn’t think I’d ever get to this, but I’m heavy into Canadiana lately. But that’s for another blog post.

Why Doesn’t Every Consumer Staple Company Do This?

In a quest to find a personal hygiene product, a stick deodorant, to be precise, I ventured into Shoppers Drug Mart, which is a Canadian (and better, in my opinion) version of Duane Reade or Walgreens in the US, Jean Coutu in Quebec and London Drugs in the Canadian West.

Walking through the aisles populated by at least one individual lost in thought and intimidated by choice of products that he or she came to buy, I stumbled onto my section. It is important to state that at first I kind of chuckled at old men bent over rows of toothpaste, females ardently arguing over two boxes of hair color which shades looked exactly the same, young guys figuring out bath tub cleaning supplies, and old ladies hovering over stacks and stacks of hand cremes and facial moisturizers. So many choices, so little time, so much uncertainty.

Then I became part of the comedy that I first laughed at. Seriously, how the heck am I supposed to choose an antiperspirant, there are like 50 of them begging for my bucks. OK, there is a gel type and a white stuff type. I pick the white. That’s a start. Then I start taking tiny steps to the right and to the left, unable to choose between two different brands (I felt like trying something different as my previous deodorant wasn’t particularly thrilling).

And then EUREKA. I see the brilliant people behind DOVE screaming their product benefits at me via a very visible sticker on their Ultimate Beauty Care antiperspirant stick (Radiant Silk type, btw). I immediately grabbed it, smelled it, like it, put it in my basket and walked away.

If at least ONE market player explicitly tells me why they’re better than their extremely similar competitors in the consumer staple market, I’m going to go with the loudmouth brand. Thanks Dove, thanks Unilever actually.

The 6 benefits and advantages are, just so I could hopefully inspire you to switch brands:

1. all day wetness protection
2. all day odour protection
3. formulated to stay on skin, not on clothes
4. Dove 1/4 moisturizers
5. smooth & silky application
6. beautiful fragrance

As a relatively unpicky (but quality-seeking) consumer, I want all of those features. But notice something? Every antiperspirant stick brand can make the same claims, perhaps sans the Dove 1/4 moisturizers part, but with their own secret ingredient. We’re talking consumer staples, we’re talking spending 15 minutes deciding between thing A and thing A. It’s almost all the same. And yet Unilever was the only one that explicitly shoved the differentiating factors into my face.

Bravo, you win my $4.39!

Think Outside the Dodecahedron

Here it is again! While reading Sean Moffitt‘s SlideShare Presentation: Word of Mouth – A Prescription for the Bad Economy, I saw a slide which was yet another miracle from the BBDO NY’s office for UK-based The Economist. I understand it’s last year’s, but I don’t get to see many billboards, especially The Economist billboards here in Canada. “Think outside the dodecahedron.” First of all, dodecahedron is any polyhedron with twelve faces, but usually a regular dodecahedron is meant: a Platonic solid composed of twelve regular pentagonal faces, with three meeting at each vertex. Second, ’tis brilliant. I’ve seen the blogosphere really take on the expression. Thirdly, I personally think that the ad is not “telling you to think outside the dodecahedron”, as if you can do it just like that. This is more about the power you will attain by reading The Economist (damn it, I missed the last two issues myself, they’re in Toronto, and I’m in Vancouver until the 2nd). This is thinking about the thinking outside of the box. Squared, cubed. It’s about innovation².

By the way, while we are on the topic, check out the rest of the amazing advertising slogans (following the cut) created for The Economist and selected by Chand Arora. My favorites are highlighted:

On Talking Fast

Last week at work a young handsome man of African descent told me that perhaps I should speak a little slower. He said something about 50% slower. I shrugged it off, and said that people can actually adjust to a fast pace, especially if you’re making crystal clear sense. It’s definitely easier to adjust to a faster speech than an accent or incomprehensible blabber; worse yet, it’s incredibly hard to understand a poorly constructed or illogical dialogue.

Now, I’ve looked at the Introduction to the Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy, and guess what: “I advised the reader to restrict himself to ninety words a minute in television commercials. It is now known that, on average, 200 words a minute sells more of your product. Pitchmen in open-air markets know this, so they talk fast.” (p. 17) That was in 1988. Twenty years later, I’m willing to bet on 300.

Why am I likening myself to television commercials (obviously, the effective ones)? Because I see myself as the product. My own self. A Brand. Those of you who know me personally (and not), know exactly what I am talking about. I am selling myself, and it usually works. In addition to talking fast, the mind has to be going twice as fast, as I’ve to come up with punchlines, think about possible objections or answers to questions before you get to formulating them. Most of the time, it’s intoxicating to listen to a fast speech :-p My thinking doesn’t stop when my mouth stops. Imagine what a blessing it is when writing exams and papers. Wouldn’t you, as my employer, want to have someone who can outthink the sceptics and plunge into problem-solving before the vast majority does?

High on life!

As usual, I am bursting with energy, enthusiasm and ideas on how to make the world a better place. Or, perhaps, a better place for me? Not really, I care about many things, including the welfare of animals, women’s rights and treating everyone as kindly as possible (for we don’t know what battle they’re fighting, right).

I had a great information interview at BBDO Toronto today. I spent 90 minutes there, and met amazing people, asked them questions, answered their questions. Mad respect for BBDO yet again.

(Damn, I should be finishing my last marcom assignment, and yet again, I am writing here, because so many thoughts are appearing).

Okay, more than ever before, I want to be in advertising. I want to help people (clients), I love creative folk, and I can communicate with creative folk, i see the big picture, and I can analyse the numbers. In fact, the finance minor would probably help. I possess the gifts of translating the numbers into cohesive sentences. I am also a perfectionist. I pay goddamn attention to details, and, oh I’m sorry, but I can get quite demanding about those darn details.

The point is, I’ve given my answers to the right people (which is the above version with some +/- adjustments), and the right people are happy. I am also happy because, more than anything, I want to throw myself into the battle. Rawr!

Product Placement

Product placement works. Like magic. It is also one of the cheaper and more effective ways to reach the consumer – show the product in action and worry less about the PVRs. In fact, how about more collaboration with television series and what not on putting products into the hands of actors? How much more/less would that cost? And how certain can you be now that the audience will certainly see the product in action?

The first effect of product placement that I remember in my short life involved us, 16- or 17-year olds, watching one of Michael Moore’s (yuck) documentaries. I believed it was Bowling for Columbine (or another one) with my Law class. If memory serves right, there was something about McDonald’s. While the movie bashed it, a whole bunch of us got hungry. Guess where we really wanted to go after the movie was over.

Mad Men. Those folks smoke and drink non-stop. For every misfortune, the remedy is to drink. For every great thing – more drinks. Whereas I don’t drink more frequently, I definitely seem to grab my favorite Djarum Blacks more often than not. Ooops!

PS. Happy December. In two weeks I’ll be in Vancouver! Wee!

BBDO NY for The Economist

I love The Economist. I love their advertising. BBDO forever!
Look at this smart way of getting their message across:

I simply can’t get enough. These pizza boxes with world food distributions stats appeared in 20 Philadelphia-area pizza shops. They are strategically located around universities and colleges, showing how students’ food consumption affects the rest of the world, and how The Economist is relevant to their lifestyle.

If I wasn’t hooked already, I’d go out and buy an issue immediately.

My Life in a Literary Nutshell

What I do:

Confessions of an Advertising Man

What I have done:

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

What I’d like to do:

A Moveable Feast

MindBase

As you may know, Yankelovich came up with a MindBase psychographic segmentation scheme.

I found the test online, and lo and behold, this time around I knew the answer before I finished the questionnaire. DUH.

But I wanted to say some other things in this post, besides the result (which I think is highly dependent on age, even though I don’t plan to shut down my power generating facilities for at least another 43 years)

I am Expressive my motto is Carpe Diem I live life to the fullest and I’m not afraid to express my personality. I’m active and engaged and I embody a true “live in the now” attitude with a firm belief that the future is limitless and that I can be or do anything I put my mind to.

Mad Men

Oh Gosh, in episode 7 of the season 1 Roger pours vodka into a glass of white calcium-rich liquid as he tells his wife (via phone): “Mona, I am drinking my milk.”

My professor Marla Spergel suggested I watch to get a faint/not so faint idea of what the advertising world is about. The award-winning series Mad Men (from the producers of The Sopranos) certainly caught my eye. Besides the constant smoking, gorgeous costumes and notable script, the show’s wit and solid character development make it a worthwhile show to watch. I’ve been streaming episodes from the first season; have no idea what happens in the second yet.

I won’t write at length what my opinions are on the “original” idea of the advertising agency, but I certainly am glad that things have changed. Thank God for the advertising standards and self-regulation in the industry as a whole. I don’t know how I would feel joining the ad force in the 60s, but I am certainly optimistic about what I can bring into that world once I graduate (very soon). It ain’t as bad as you think it is. Just look back to compare.

Oh, the Halloween Simpsons episode featured a Mad Men parody. Homer killed off celebrities so ad men could features ze celebrities in their advertisements. Watch the parody opening credits here.

PS. And the original opening credits, which are quite attractive: