How to Get a Summer Internship by ICON Assistant Director Michelle Azzi 

Advertising and Beauty

by David Argov | AdWerks Director

This commercial isn’t real, and neither are society’s standards of beauty.

http://vimeo.com/34813864 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knEIM16NuPg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ei6JvK0W60I

We’ve all seen the Dove Evolution campaign, followed by the Beauty Pressure and how Dove exposes the unjust pressure the beauty industry puts on girls to look beautiful through unrealistic means . But after viewing Fotoshop by Adobè, made by California-based filmmaker Jesse Rosten, it poses the question: how should we as advertising students react to this negative perception?

We could flat out deny that this is being done by professionals – but we know we’d be lying.  We could say, yeah it’s being done by advertisers that are evil, but I’d never do such a thing – is that something you even have control of? Or we could admit point blank that it’s happening and will probably continue to happen – but something that can be changed. I personally would choose the latter because it speaks the truth with a hint of optimism.

The beauty industry is about making people believe that they too can become beautiful like the models, actors, and musicians they idolize. The keyword: believe. Photoshop can be compared to as the same outcome as makeup. I’d imagine when makeup was first created, people huffed and puffed that it no longer shows how a person really looks. Well, makeup didn’t go anywhere and neither is Photoshop.

While it sounds like I’m endorsing Photoshop’s use in morphing people into robotic, perfected versions of themselves, I’m not. While I think it may be wrong to change a person’s race or weight size for a magazine cover, I don’t think it’d kill anybody to remove a blemish or wrinkle when your face is blown up for a billboard.

I believe as students in advertising, it is important to make boundaries as to what Photoshop should be used for and where it crosses the line. That will alter for each individual, but that is what I believe is a step in the right direction. However, if you’re one of those people who think Photoshop shouldn’t be used at all, whatsoever, then I dare you to go a week without makeup or taking a shower or doing your hair and then take a professional headshot. Then send it to me and I’ll get it online for everyone to see. Then we will see if you change your mind. 

Netflix’s Hasting makes hasty move in schism

By Cameron Philipp-Edmonds | Publicity Director

If you haven’t heard about Netflix before, then you have most likely never been on the Internet or you’re a poster child for forever alone. However, if you aren’t an active subscriber and you don’t pay attention to rants on your Facebook newsfeed then you may be unaware of Qwikster.

On September 18th, 2011, Reed Hasting, the CEO and co-founder of Netflix, decided that he had a great marketing opportunity on his hand. He wanted to have one business solely for streaming media and the other for media rental. Thus, he decided to split his Netflix juggernaut into two separate entities with all DVD rentals being handled on a separate site known as Qwilster.

From a purely numerical standpoint, the move makes phenomenal sense because it allows Reed Hastings to maximize his profits, cater advertising and brand to each brand, and better fir the needs of his customers.

From a public relations standpoint, many Netflix subscribers want Reed Hasting thrown in jail. They were already upset with Hastings after he upped the charges of his services, and now he is making it more difficult for sers to get the product they are now paying double for. Hastings’ hasty moves resulted in Netflix losing over a million subscribers.

Losing a million subscribers may not seem like much, but to put it in perspective, that is nearly 5% of the business Netflix does. Obviously, Hastings took this into account and decided the new revenue streams he created outweigh the lost in customers. But, what I expect he didn’t anticipate, at least not fully, is the backlash that followed his decision for schism.

Netflix may now have a new wealth of potential for revenue, but now it must deal with its poor public image. This might ruin Hastings’ scheme completely and jeopardize Netflix’s role as market leader in the streaming video industry.

So a move that was meant to further the gap between Netflix and its competitors has ultimately narrowed the opening. 

Grooveshark Bios

AdSociety had the opportunity to have Grooveshark come to our second meeting, here is a little bit about the people working at this great company:  

Mike Garrett has not graduated from UF yet. When he does, it will be with a B.A. in Religion, and minors in Philosophy, Psychology, and Jacking Your Facebook Status. A year ago he knew nothing about advertising, and now he goes to conferences where people in suit talk about advertising and regard him as both an expert and king among men.

Jennifer Hutton is the modern reincarnation of the Egyptian mother-god Isis. “Iron Fist” Hutton, as she is better known, has a passion for watching others cower in hear at her feet, and favors people who immediately find themselves weeping in her presence. Her current favorite food is Kraft Spongebob Squarepants Macaroni and Cheese. 

Tiffany Lasky-Tumarkin is a recent UF Grad and former AdSociety/AdWerks member. Now living in Brooklyn, NY with other UF AdSoc Alum and loving the ad scene and life in the big city. When not managing Grooveshark campaigns, Tiffany can be found eating Siracha on everything and singing showtunes out loud with Alex.

Alex Estrada graduated from the University of Florida with a B.S. in Advertising and a minor in Anthropology. She works for Grooveshark as Senior Art Director on the Digital Media Team making external and internal promotional campaigns happen. She likes nail art, reading books on a Kindle, astrology, and exploring NYC.

Zach Tetreault graduated from UF with a Masters in International Business and Bachelors degrees in Music & Business. He currently manages International Advertising programs at Grooveshark while striving to maintain a healthy business relationship with “Iron First Hutton.” On weekends you can find him snorkling through the pristine waters and river grasses of the ancient Itchetucknee. 

Rachel Morin graduated from UF in May, receiving a BSBA with a concentration in Finance. She interned with the content team at Grooveshark in the spring of her senior year, and accepted a full-time position at Grooveshark post-graduation. After a fitful romance with content and legal, she joined the ad ops team in August with absolutely no relevant advertising knowledge. If she ever needed a biography, she would hire a ghost-writer.

Tyler Hancock grew up in Winter Park and graduated from UF last May. He interned and later worked at Ozean Interactive, a digital agency here in Gainesville. He is a new addition to Grooveshark and has been with us for six weeks. Tyler came to Grooveshark with no knowledge of the publisher side of digital advertising. 

Why you shouldn’t rule out media as a career

by Catherine Pinkham | Event Planning Director 

Most college students (myself included before last summer) don’t really consider a career in media while in college. This is most likely because it is one of the lowest paying entry level jobs and also because Media Planning as a class is a real bore. But, after working in a media company in New York City for a big entertainment account, (at PHD working on Discovery/TLC/Animal Planet) I’m here to tell you why you should consider this avenue if you haven’t seriously look at it already.

I’ll start with perks because it’s a definite upside. No, you shouldn’t choose a career on the sole basis of getting wined and dined. But when you look at a thread bare starting salary of about $35,000, lots of free catered lunches and nice (and I’m talking NICE) dinners out really go a long way to cushion that. In addition to food and drink, in the three months I internet I also got a shopping spree at Earnest Sewn, where I came out with a $200 pair of jeans and matching top, free Nike ID’s, a wine tasting, several movie premieres, concerts, and cooking classes, all with my team. Making a little less money than other people at your level in account, planning or creative services suddenly doesn’t seem like a drag!

Media Planning has many different departments which makes it advantageous as a career for several reasons. Firstly, people with many different interests would find it rewarding. Do you like social media? Like Mad Men style traditional advertising? Like innovative ro interactive stuff? People with all of these interests are very (are equally) valuable to a media team. Your interests will make you shine. And people working in media tend to move up at a little faster pace than those in account, etc. In addition, there are plenty of high level jobs for the future and the field is growing as media get more complicated and media ventures become more numerous.

Lastly, most of us are creative but may find that we are not A CREATIVE. If that’s you, then media may be your answer. Because many accounts have just a media agency on the record, media planners often plan much more than placement. I was a part of many brainstorming sessions and came up with some copy and even overall ideas for campaigns. 

So, I hope that my experience at least makes some of the undecideds out there at least look further into the many types of careers that media can offer. Yes, it includes a lot of math, which we advertising majors traditionally stay as far away from as possible but it’s nothing complicated or impossible and it’s actually interesting statistical information. There are many other reasons, I went into my internship knowing I didn’t want to be a media planner and came out convinced it was the job for me! 

T-Mobile Plays Angry Birds

by Ruth Perez | Vice President Internal

Angry Birds has become a phenomenon amongst smart phone users, and though it is very entertaining as is, imagine playing a live game of Angry Birds.

No need to imagine! A life-size version of Angry Birds had been created in Barcelona where participants can play the game on their smartphone and watch it happen right in front of them.

Of course, advertisers could not let this spectacle go to waste. “T-Mobile is capitalizing on Angry Birds fever with a clever YouTube video titled Angry Birds Live,” said Steven Sande.

Angry Birds Live is a great example of the transformations that the advertising realm is currently experiencing. Why have boring ads that are made to solely sell a product when you can gain brand equity by being an innovative, original, fun brand.

To read more and watch Angry Birds Live visit: http://www.tuaw.com/2011/06/10/t-mobile-ad-illustrates-angry-birds-immense-popularity/

Social Media in 2011

It’s only June 2011, and there have already been countless current examples of social media playing a huge role in shaping our world this year.

Social Media is becoming the communication norm for many global citizens. A national survey (http://us.cision.com/news_room/press_releases/2010/2010-1-20_gwu_survey.asp) of reporters and editors revealed that 89% use blogs for story research, 65% turn to social media sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn, and 52% utilize microblogging services such as Twitter. (socialmediatoday.com)

You don’t even need to take their word for it—think about yourself, and how often you use social media to keep in touch with friends, stay current with what’s going on, or decide on what to do or what to buy.

It’s only going to grow. Apple has built Twitter deeply into their new iOS5. You can tweet directly from Apple’s applications including Camera, Photos, Safari, Contacts, YouTube and Maps. Apple wants everybody with an iOS device to use Twitter, and is making it as easy as possible to do so.

“The implications are vast. Twitter will essentially become the default social network for iOS users. It’s as if Apple reached down in a God-like fashion, grabbed Twitter with its almighty hand and lifted it up to the social networking heavens.”

— Mashable.com (article)

Aside from growing into the standard way to communicate online, Social Media platforms can facilitate change ranging from stopping the spread of disease to massive political revolutions.

“HP’s two most recent campaigns focus on malaria detection and counterfeit drugs in Africa. HP partnered with Ping to equip workers in Botswana with smartphones to collect malaria data, notify the Ministry of Health about outbreaks, and tag data and disease surveillance with a GPS coordinate. If successful, the network of data will make up a geographic map of disease transmission in the country to speed up response time and scale up net coverage.”

—Mashable.com (article)

In Egypt, Facebook, Twitter & Youtube were instrumental in uniting the country’s citizens to protest and call for the resignation of their president, Hosni Mubarak. After social media was used to orchestrate a demonstration where millions took to the streets across Egypt’s major cities on January 25^th, it took only until February 11^th before Mubarak stepped down as president. For more on this revolution, check out the New York Times’ in-depth interactive piece.

“The people of Egypt have spoken, their voices have been heard, and Egypt will never be the same.”

—Barack Obama, United States president

The potential of Social Media as a game-changing idea is old news. We’re lucky enough to be the generation that is seeing, experiencing, and utilizing this new, groundbreaking communication power every day. Whether or not we realize it, we (the Internet generation) all have a hand in shaping the future of how Social Media is used—and in order to do that purposefully, it’s important to understand the magnitude of current Social Media use and growth. So I will end with an infographic:

William Newton is a senior Graphic Design student at the University of Florida and is this year’s ICON Director for Ad Society. Follow William Newton on Twitter: @willdjthrill

Playing the Number Game on LinkedIn: Ideas About Building Your Network.

By: Cameron Philipp-Edmonds | Publicity

LinkedIn refers to the people you associate with not as “friends” but as connections, and rightly so. Thats’s because LinkedIn isn’t the you that parties and likes to have fun, LinkedIn is the you that means business and gets it done. If your social presence was a hairstyle it would be a mullet because while Facebook is party in the back, LinkedIn is all business up front. So often times the people you are connected with might be the people you don’t really talk to at work (or that you don’t even really like). Yet, you are connected to them because it is not only an asset to you, but it becomes an asset to them too. Because everyone is playing the numbers game.

LinkedIn is similar to Facebook in that in many ways your profile can be viewed as a popularity contest. Just as some people may find someone with a lot of friends on Facebook cool or well-liked, other people may, and often do, find someone with a lot of connections on LinkedIn desirable and an attractive person to connect with. The big different is that while getting as may friends on Facebook that are cool and fun may give you the reward of tons of part invites, humorous statue updates and crazilty tagged pictures, those same friends would do more damage than good on LinkedIn. If a potential emplyer is looking through your LinkedIn connections and see that you have 23 friends working as “Beer Pong Champions” and several friends listing their employment as “Special Brownie Bakers,” then you aren’t going to be well favored. This isn’t to say that you should deny your friends’ invites on LinkedIn, this is to say that you should be more aware and sensitive to how your friends can affect your ability to look good on the interweb. You have to analyze the worth of adding that person versus telling LinkedIn that you have no clue who they are and that you don’t want any more requests from them. More often than not, you’ll end up adding that person because it helps your numbers. 

While you’re off adding people and trying to make yourself look good, you will often come across several choices that have potential to give you some serious heartburn. First of which is do you add your boss? The answer may surprise you because it’s a big yes. LinkedIn is not just a networking site; it is also a tool for recruiters and, more or less, an online resume database. Seems counter-intuitive then, doesn’t it? Not necessarily, because your boss can give you a good recommendation and the bigger presence you have, (more connections, more recommendations, etc) the more attractive you are as an asset to the company. That’s because you are effectively becoming bait and a poster-child. People doing business with the company will see how accomplished and pro-advancement the company is and potential recruits will see what a great opportunity it is to work there. The boss-employee connection on LinkedIn is almost always win-win situation. The only time you run into trouble is if you are outwardly and obviously shopping for another job and your boss finds out. You’ll get some bitter resentment coming your way if your boss finds out that you’re leaving the company for another job through LinkedIn and not through your mouth.

The next choice that can leave you questioning yourself at the keyboard is: are teachers off-limits? The answer is absolutely not. Some people say you shouldn’t add them because it can make things awkward in the teacher-student dynamic or it has the potential to make you look like a creep or stuck-up. But I say go for it. This is another win-win situation, especially is you and your teacher are on good terms. It’s a compliment to the teacher for them to know that you thought of them as a good tool for your career advancement. Also, either one of you could write a recommendation for the other, offering insight about the commendable work the other is doing.

With that being said, add your boss, add your teacher, add your colleagues and add your friends. Get your numbers up and build your profile to reflect your strengths and your career goals. However, remember that LinkedIn makes everything transparent; make sure you are revealing to the public what you want them to know and see. If you have a moment of uncertainty, then just remember the old adage: “what happens on the Internet is permanent forever.” 

Social media can help build more than an online community

By Melissa Tadlock | AdBiz

Recently, North Florida was home to an Extreme Makeover: Home Edition build. For every build, there is a local company responsible for working with the builders, gaining as many supporters and sponsorships as possible, as well as generating all the PR for the event. This time, Gainesville’s very own Marketing Mudwas chosen as this marketing agency for the build! This was such a huge honor and to do it right and ensure success, they turned to none other than one of their specialties, social media.

 To gain support, spread the word and raise awareness, Marketing Mud maximized two pillars of social media, Facebook and Twitter.  In addition to designing and building the Web site for the build, they designed a custom landing welcome page for Facebook coded in a new Facebook language, FBML, which allows the Welcome tab to appear similar to a Web site with graphics, links and other information. The Facebook page, managed partly by Marketing Mud intern and Ad Society member Calvin Tam, was used for everything from driving traffic to the Web site, to a method of communication for builders asking for supplies, to a day to day update of the progress through posts and pictures.

Marketing Mud also designed and managed the Twitter account for the build. Maintaining cohesion across the digital platform, the custom Twitter page matched in style the Web site and Facebook pages. Tweets were used as short updates about the progress of the build as well as information about the silent auction and pictures from the photographers.

Here are some of the amazing statistics about the impact of the campaign over the seven-day build: 

• Total visits to the Web site: 59,861  
• Total page views: 275,165 
• There were visitors from all 50 states and 2,049 cities 
• The leading source to the Web site, other than directly from the URL, was from Facebook with 12,835 visits
• Heaviest traffic in one day: 2,737 visitors

Total visits from mobile devices:  

•  iPhone: 2,665 
•  Android: 1,772 
•  iPad: 765 
• Blackberry: 351 
•  iPod: 281

 Not only did Marketing Mud have huge success in the digital realm but they also did their part in fundraising. They designed, printed and sold t-shirts to raise more than $10,000, every dollar of which went straight to the family for support. 

Just goes to show that social media is surely on the rise and can do great things when used well.  Great job Marketing Mud!