Get to Know Your Hungry Interns

It's never too late to get to know the intern corral! We may be at the bottom of the hierarchy here at BG, but some might say we are the legs that hold the table up.. so, you're welcome Bailey Gardiner.

Claudia Huizar (PR Intern 1)
Home: Oxnard, CA
School: San Diego State University - Public Relations and Spanish
Favorite Food: Baby Back Ribs
If you had a super power: I would know every language in the world
3 Fun Facts:

• Can't pronounce "minestrone"
• Used to co-direct a non-profit
• Use six packages of Ketchup when I eat a burger

Life Goal: Own my own PR Firm

Sarah MacQueen (PR Intern 2)
Home: Rancho Cucamonga, CA
School: University of California Santa Barbara - Communications and Sociology
Favorite Food: Sushi
If you had a super power: Mind Control
3 fun facts:

• Citizen of New Zealand, England, and USA
• Obsessed with English Bulldogs
• Went backpacking through Europe after College

Life Goal: To be happy (Awe)

Kelly Logan (PR Intern 3)
Home: Morgan Hill, CA
School: San Diego State University - Public Relations
Favorite Food: Sushi or Pizza
if you had a superpower: Teleportation
3 Fun Facts:

• My mom's sister married my dad's brother
• I am family friends with a few MLB players
• Ireland is the coolest place I have ever been

Life Goal: To be part of something extraordinary!

Sarah Allen (Graphic Intern 1)
Home: Temecula, CA
School: Art Institute San Diego - Advertising
Favorite Food: Macadamia Nut Crusted Mahi
If you had a super power: To be able to Fly
3 fun facts:

• I had my finger torn off when I was 5.. but they sewed it back on
• I've zip lined over the Hawaiian mountains
• Used to get my exercise by slow dancing to Bob Marley

Life Goal: To be a Creative Director

Kiera Ross (Graphic Intern 2)
Home: Washington DC
School: Art Institute of San Diego - Graphic Design
Favorite Food: Thai
If you had a superpower: Invisibility
3 Fun Facts:

• I used to collect turtles.. 9 of them
  
• I hate tomatoes
  
• I really enjoy the sound of trains
  

Life Goal: To go cage diving with Great White Sharks

Matt Diez (Ad Intern 2)
Home: Livesmore, CA
School: Art Institute San Diego - Advertising
Favorite Food: Lasagna
If you had a superpower: Shape-Shifting
3 Fun Facts:

• Surfing since I was 14
• Hosted a college radio talk show
• Currently learning to speak Greek

Life Goal: Travel to every country.

José Higuera (Ad Intern 1 "aka Me")
Home: Mexico City, Mexico
School: University of San Diego - Marketing and International Business
Favorite Food: Indian Buttered Chicken
If you had a superpower: be Superman.. (lots of superpowers)
3 Fun Facts:

• I've traveled to over 40 countries around the world and even lived in Hong Kong a while
• I've jumped off the worlds tallest Bungy
• I have a twin sister who is a foot shorter than me with red hair and green eyes

Life Goal: Take a Virgin Galactic flight to the Moon

How a Viral Marketing Campaign can Take Over the World

Especially When It Puts You In Gotham City

The most fun that I have ever had taking part in a marketing campaign hands down has to be the 'Why So Serious' campaign done by Alternate Reality Branding company, 42 Entertainment in preparation for Warner Brothers' The Dark Knight. This interactive campaign was so detailed and elaborate that it was impossible not to stay glued to my computer waiting for more.. plus, pretending that I lived in Gotham City for about a year was a fanboy dream on its own.

Why So Serious?
In the months leading up to the release of The Dark Knight, an alternate reality experience attracted more than 10 million viewers to real time Gotham City, a city where the Joker had begun leaving his mark on posters and bills, and started building an army of henchmen all over the world. Whysoserious.com started leaving clues from the Joker, revealing coordinates that would eventually lead players to Comic-Con 2007. Here, players gathered to take their first orders from the Joker, which they found typed up in the sky as a few planes left a cloudy phone number above. Players hit the streets dressed as their leader and Gotham City began to spill into the real world, building excitement and anticipation for The Dark Knight.

The website then left ransom notes for 49 cities and location descriptions for people to look for new clues as to where he would strike next. Their efforts put together yet another piece of the puzzle, which revealed one of the first official images of the Joker. In a request to hit local international landmarks in full Joker get-up, a worldwide community formed. A Gotham City newspaper led made this world even more realistic, a world where nothing was saved from the Joker. The Gotham Times kept players up to date with Gotham news and even a televised news channel was made available starring Anthony Michael Hall as the news anchor, along with Police reports and audio tapes to expose crooked cops. The next clue was a list of specific bakery locations where players had to arrive and introduce themselves as Robin Banks to receive the joker’s special present, a cake, at a first come first serve basis. The hidden package inside of the cake held a Joker phone, card, and press badge to keep in constant contact with this Gotham underground world.

I Believe in Harvey Dent

A campaign to take back Gotham City from criminals like the Joker came into play as well. Prospective D.A. Harvey Dent contacted phone carriers for their support in his campaign with the slogan “I believe in Harvey Dent.” Dent asked for players to show their support. The response was overwhelming as pictures from around the country poured in. Dent-mobiles brought Harvey Dent’s message to 33 cities as citizens took to the streets and marched, protested, rallied, screamed, and chanted “Harvey Dent! Take Back Gotham!”

As the immersive marketing campaign was reaching a critical mass, it even reached bowling allies around the world. The website once again showed a list of cities, but this time with a list of addresses with numbers attached to them. The numbers turned out to be locker numbers and combinations at specific bowling alleys. Inside the locker, the lucky player would find a bag containing a custom Jokerized bowling ball, another Joker phone, and more clues that eventually led to the reveal of an exclusive trailer of the dark knight.. but the Joker got there first. The trailer had been vandalized with smiley faces and “Ha Ha Ha’s” as soon as it became available.

Citizens for Batman

The campaign reached its climactic ending during the week of the Dark Knight’s theatrical release. Hundreds of players gathered, calling themselves ‘Citizens for Batman’ in downtown New York City. At 10pm sharp, the bat signal was projected against one of the nearby buildings. Once again, the Joker had plans of his own. The bat signal was quickly vandalized in front of everyone’s eyes, along with everything else in Gotham City. Every website, every newspaper, every article, every piece of this alternate reality was market by the Joker as his final act of chaos before the events of The Dark Knight.

So just in case anyone thought it was cute but a waste of money, The Dark Knight went on to have the highest opening of all time and was the top grossing film of 2008. Since then, I have yet to see a campaign as immersive as Why So Serious, but with The Dark Knight Rises in theaters next summer.. here's hoping we'll get some of that fun again soon.

Up, Up, and Advertise

So about a year ago, I was recommended a book called 1000 Places to See Before You Die because I love adventures, and therefor I eat that stuff up. The book covers anything from touristy clichés to places off the beaten path around the world, and while looking through the United States section, I stumbled across a little festival in Albuquerque, New Mexico called the International Balloon Fiesta. After a quick Google search, I found out that Oct 1, 2011 launched the 40th anniversary of the festival.. So I decided to book a flight and see what the fuss was all about..

The Fuss
The fuss was that over 600 hot air balloons from across the globe gather once a year in Albuquerque to pretty much block out the sun (but not literally). Impressive was an understatement. If I had to use one word to describe what it was like to see that many balloons in the sky at once, I couldn't. It was amazing, magical, and, not gonna lie, it was nice feeling like a little kid again staring endlessly at all of the pretty balloons for hours. But after I was done drooling, I was able to get myself back into Ad-Man mode and started noticing that a lot of companies do go the extra mile in finding ways to get their names out there; even in quirky hot air balloon festivals.

Care to take a guess as to how companies advertised their brands at this particular festival?



While there are hundreds of normal balloon-shaped hot-air balloons at the festival, a lot of people go to see the crazy shapes that people come up with to make hot air balloons out of. There were Goblins, Witches, Penguins, a Spider-Man Pig, and even a massive Darth Vader head (crowd favorite.. and mine too). Obviously.. a lot of companies showed up to jump on the bandwagon. This friendly lookin' Cow comes courtesy of the New Mexico Dairy company, Creamland. It doesn't stop with the balloon either. They spent the day handing out trading cards of Airbelle (the name of the cow) that displayed the history of both the company and the balloon.



Another company that was all sorts of enthusiastic about their ballooning was Wells Fargo. They actually brought three balloons with them; two normal shaped balloons with Wells Fargo printed along the sides and one shaped like their famous Stagecoach. The wagon was instantly recognizable (they didn't really need the other two in my opinion) and it was refreshing to see that banks can have a fun side too! In fact, the Stagecoach even stuck around for the Twilight Glow; basically about 80 of the balloons returned at dusk to inflate and light up sporadically for about an hour while everyone just watches in awe before the night time fireworks show. Good for you Wells Fargo.

Mind Ninjas
After leaving the festival, I realized that I didn't learn anything about any of the brands that were advertising in Balloons.. BUT, I was able to walk away with warm fuzzy feelings towards them because they were part of the whole experience for me.. and they do it for 8 days! Not only is that commitment, but it's something they don't really have to do at all. Granted, an average of 100,000 people usually show up on any given day of the festival, but in competition with 600 other balloons, no one's attention span will stay on one balloon for too long. Budweiser advertised in a Bottle-shaped balloon, Pepsi in a Can-shaped balloon, and even Farmer's Insurance was there. These are all companies that take part in the balloon festival just to be part of the eye candy for the crowds and, in the process, they plant a little seed for people to remember them. So the crowds walk away liking brands for just that reason... those mind ninjas.


This is me after a day of being attacked by mind ninjas. Enjoy.

Geeks Need Advertising Love Too

We watch, we react, and then we form an impression; this is the whole point of advertising. But in this new age of advertising overload, it seems harder and harder to retain anything you see out there.. point being, how do you stand out from all the clutter these days??

Over across the pond they've recently come up with some pretty awesome ways to stand out and turn advertising into one memorable experience.

The Lightsaber of Zeus
To mark the release of "Star Wars: The Complete Saga" on Blu-ray, the famous London BT Tower was transformed into the World's Largest Lightsaber. Now, coming from someone who watched the original trilogy about 50 times and may or may not still have all of his Star Wars action figures locked away in his closet, this is one of the coolest things I have ever seen as a fan of Star Wars or as a person on this planet. Personally, I think whoever realized that the BT Tower looked like a Lightsaber handle was a complete genius because if there was any way to grab the attention of every person in sight of the London skyline, this was it..



There to kick off the event was Anthony Daniels, otherwise known as C-3PO, who launched the release by pressing a massive power switch that was following with the classic roar of the Lightsaber ignition. Then, the state-of-the-art lighting projected a beam of light 200m into the air from the top of the 189m tower. More than 60 4,500W lights (standing 1.3 m high and each weighing 124kg) combined to produce a parallel blue ray of light.

Off in the distance, platoons of cosplay Stormtroopers and one very convincing Darth Vader gathered with fans for photo ops to keep the celebration going. You've seen the cliché shots of people holding up the Leaning Tower of Piza or pinching the point at the top of the Taj Mahal, but holding a giant Lightsaber from off in the distance has to take the cake on this one; even though Darth Vader's Lightsaber was red.. what's up with that??

The Wizarding World of.. Hong Kong?
Over across the other pond, Hong Kong advertisers transformed the Times Square Mall on Lantau Island into a little taste of the Harry Potter experience as part of the promotion for the summer release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. I was actually in Hong Kong to see this exhibit in person (I didn't go just to see it mind you), but it was pretty spectacular nonetheless. The HK Metro stops right under the mall, which was perfectly fitting for the fact that the famous Platform 9 3/4 along with the Hogwarts Express was parked right outside of the Station. Then you walk into the mall, which has a big open area in the center and quite fitting for the replica of the Wizard shopping district of Diagon Alley..



Did you wanna get your own wand? Ollivander's had you covered. Maybe you could pick up a copy of the Daily Prophet to read up on your Magical news stories. Books? Flourish and Blotts, the bookstore, was there too. Even a Pet-shop to buy your own fake pet owl! I'm not much of a Harry Potter reader myself, but this definitely grabbed my interest and I actually felt like a child for the short time I spent exploring this little exhibit. The movie soundtrack was even playing through the corridors and you actually felt like you were in this magical world.

In terms of advertising; this was a home run. I can't think of a better way to attract people to watch the movie than putting the viewer in the movie themselves! I'm sure even non-fans went and bought a ticket after getting a taste of this little wonderland, I know I did..

Vacation or Vocation: The Road after College

What's up peeps, the start of a new semester means the start of a brand new Ad Intern here at BG, which means you all can officially refer to me as AdIntern1! (just trying to keep it original). It might be the start of the school year for us college students but its my last semester at USD and finally that time to start having those nightmarish thoughts about what in the world am I supposed to do with my life as a college grad; work, travel, nothing, military, CONVENT?!? The conflict that most young people have is whether it's worth dedicating the rest of their lives to a career in order to satisfy the life they want around them, or doing something out of the box and satisfying the life they want within.
Here is what I decided..

The Dilemma: A Successful Career takes TIME.. No Time for Travel
In the last four and a half years of college, you wouldn't believe how many times I've heard the phrase "It's so hard to get jobs in this economy" and "these days the job market is SO competitive for recent grads".. it's depressing and I don't like it. It's obvious that these phrases are grilled into our heads in order to motivate us to work harder and do more to stand out, but it leaves you with the bad taste that maybe life is going to be an endless competition to get the best job and continue to try hard to stay ahead of the game. Unfortunately, I totally get it. Bad economy means that every incoming grad is desperate for the best job they can get and if they don't then they settle for something less. The more grads settling for lower positions, the harder it is to prove that you deserve to be at the top. But how do you differentiate yourself enough to get that dream job?? Sure, you can get lots of work experience by interning (aka what I'm doing right now) and getting good grades, maybe even involving yourself in a club or two, but then you finally land the job before you graduate and your life transforms into a 40 hour work week and so on.

It may happen or it may not; but I don't want to look back one day and say "I should have seen more of the world back when I had TIME."

The problem is that insecurity we have of being left behind in this cookie cutter road; go to school, get a job, start a family, die. If we actually gave ourselves the time to go explore what's out there, we may not get the job because applying to a job as "unemployed" is very different to applying to a job as a "student".. right? The scary employers might look at us as lazy for taking some time to ourselves before dedicating our lives to them.. right? I don't think so.

The World is Too Small.. and Life is Too Short
Between traveling with my family, studying abroad twice, and interning abroad for a summer.. I've been to roughly 40 countries around the world, and yet I still feel like I've only grazed the tip of the ice burg. Through travel we learn humility, we become multi-cultured, and we have the ability to comprehend just how small the world really is and how beautiful the people who live in it are. We live in a globalizing world and the more that time goes by, the more connected we all become. Simply put: if an employee decides to look down on the fact that you took some time to see the world before joining their organization, then it may just be time to find a new place to work.

Rough It and Do Good.. It's Good for the Soul
One thing I've learned from traveling is that it doesn't matter if you are in the Amazon, on a Safari in Africa, or deep in rural China.. you've gotta rough it. The sweatier, the dirtier, the more disgusting the food is, and the more uncomfortable you are.. then the more amazing the experience will be. A Hilton hotel gives you NO insight on what the culture of a country is, or what any of the people living there are like. Staying at a gross hostel.. you see a different side. It's something real, and it's worth doing. Going to China doesn't mean seeing the Great Wall. It means staying in a village and getting to know what day to day life is like somewhere far from where you know. Of course, you can't rough it forever. the older we get, the more difficult it becomes to make all of those hikes and sleepless nights and long days with little food; but as a young person we can. We can take it. We can endure these experiences, and they could very well define who we become.

Now, at what point in our lives do we have enough time to travel without the responsibility of a job and are perfectly capable of roughing it here and there without getting into too much trouble..? RIGHT NOW

I think that if you have never traveled on a large scale before then now is the best possible time to open your horizons and see what's out there.. and if you have already traveled and you think it's time to get a job because you already got enough worldly experience: WRONG. Then you have the perfect chance to do even more; go live somewhere, volunteer, do non-profit, give back to the world for a few months before you dedicate the rest of your life to yourself. There are problems in the world that no one will ever hear of and mostly because they aren't encouraged to learn about them first hand. Think about it: looking back and saying to yourself "I remember those months I spent volunteering in Africa after college" sounds a lot more interesting than someone who wishes they had done something like it. Yes, I could probably get a job to start right after I graduate; but taking a puny little fraction of my life to keep the adventure going, I couldn't imagine a better way to start it all.

So there you have it peeps. My advice: GO TRAVEL. Go see new things, meet new people, do something for someone else and in the end it will be the best thing you did for yourself in the first place.

So come December, look out world, I'm on my way.

BG University: What I've Debunked Since Graduation

Hey everyone, this is my first blog post as the Graphics Intern here at Bailey Gardiner! I knew that working would be different than my four years as a Graphic Design major at SDSU, but I wasn’t positive about how it would actually differ. I’d like to share some of my previous misconceptions and what I’ve learned so far from my time here.

College is the peak of learning

Sure I learned the elements of design and useful skills in school, but I’ve learned so much in just six months at Bailey Gardiner. In college I would sometimes work in Photoshop or Illustrator in roundabout ways, but since I’ve been here, I’ve learned to create much more efficiently. From “aha!” moments using the pen tool, to the diligent management of layers, the learning never ceases. This is one of my favorite aspects of working here, that I’m constantly forced to learn how to do things that I’ve never encountered before. Whether I’m learning it from Google, asking a coworker, or just poking around in a file someone in the creative team has worked on, I’m always eager to gain knowledge of new methods.

Clients are just like teachers.
Nope, they’re not. They’re similar in that we are attempting to please them with the work we present, but they are vastly different in other respects. We were essentially paying teachers to help us become better designers and get a degree, but clients are paying to help their business. It doesn’t matter if I really like the color blue: if I can’t defend how it’s going to benefit the client, I’m going to use the color they want.

You do the work, send it to the client, and it’s done.
The process of creating here is much more involved than I anticipated. Work passes by numerous pairs of eyes, internally in our office and externally with the client. It’d be a disaster if the Traffic Manager and Coordinators didn’t keep us organized. Job bags with CSRs and print outs circulate through the office, where coworkers initial and mark changes, then it’s sent back to the Creative Team to make the revisions. This process is repeated before it’s ever sent or presented to the client, who then has more adjustments. This series of steps is repeated a few times before the final piece is approved and can move to production. This differs greatly from school, where we completed all revisions as students, and teachers made comments which were much more vague and discretionary. When we turned in work to be graded, we never really knew what grade we’d receive. Conversely, when you finish work with a client, you know they are pleased with it or they wouldn’t have signed off on its production. Sometimes getting to this point is a challenge, but it’s always rewarding to see something you’ve worked on come to fruition.

People at work will be boring compared to people at school.
The office, at least here at BG, is actually more laid back than most of my classes were. I feel lucky to be here, which is home to a ping-pong table, a hula-hoop and an office full of awesome people. My coworkers find a way to balance being productive with actually enjoying their time spent here. We spend more time at work than anywhere else, spend more time with our coworkers than anyone else: it’d be miserable if nobody talked or laughed or played music for the office to enjoy. I’ve met some of the coolest, funniest people here. Although two of the greatest ones recently left (miss you, Ashley and Michael!), there is rarely a shortage of camaraderie here at BG.

Marketing a Fallen Athlete

When Lebron James entered the NBA he did it with a 13 million dollar contract from the Cavs and a 93 million dollar contract from Nike. Obviously Nike, with no rules on how much they could pay him, believed that his once in a lifetime talent combined with his charisma would leave them with a marketing monster. Fast forward 7 years and Lebron, for lack of a better term, made a big whoopsies.

Nike was not new to marketing for a fallen athlete and has in their past created many redemptive advertisements that attempted to restore an image. In the following four commercials, Nike stuck to a theme of individuality while adding a personal twist for each athlete.

Charles Barkley: "I'm Not a Role Model" Ad

This was the original villain ad. Charles didn't really make a big mistake. He was only guilty of being Charles Barkley and saying loud outlandish things that people tended to wag their fingers at. This reputation for not caring about what he said led to criticisms that he was a poor role model. Nike capitalized on this and made a commercial where Charles bluntly stated that he was in fact not a role model. Nike emphasized that Charles was a cavalier and individual, whose job was to play basketball, and that Charles was very good at his job. The ad was simple, strong, and effective.

Kobe Bryant "Hate Me" Ad

Living in Southern California makes it really easy to dislike Kobe Bryant. If I run away to another country and lose contact with everyone it's probably because a Laker fan drove me insane. In 2003 when Kobe was accused of rape he had a lot more hatred to deal with. The case was settled, but an already embattled Bryant needed to make a mark for Nike and himself. In his commercial, Nike emphasized Kobe's legendary work ethic and his obvious success as a basketball player. Kobe speaks directly to his "haters" and leaves them having acknowledged that its his success that breeds the hatred.

Tiger Woods "Earl and Tiger" Ad

Unless you are an alien or an infant you probably heard that Tiger Woods had a tough go at it recently. Nike, who had hung their hat on his consistent marketability, needed to push forward in order to restore his brand. Where the previous two commercials highlighted the athlete's workmanlike attitudes and successes, Nike painted a picture of Tiger as a man, not a golfer, who needed to reflect. They didn't make the past go away but instead showed Tiger attempting to harness what he had done so that he could become a better person. The ad received its fair share of criticism, especially for using the voice of Tiger's deceased father, but it garnered at ton of attention and paved the road back for Tiger's public perception.

Lebron James "What Should I Do" Ad

I am one of approximately six Lebron James supporters outside of the city of Miami. When Nike took this ad public I was amped. It's a very well made commercial and it addressed many of the issues people had with him. Looking back on it now, I realize that Nike missed big time, and the ad fed the fire of the people that turned on Lebron. Instead of sticking with a theme of showing Lebron as a basketball player, he became a caricature of a tragic hero. Lebron asked us a rhetorical question that we had answers to. We knew that the way he did what he did was wrong, and by asking us what he should do facetiously he was putting down our intelligence. Like the Charles and Kobe ads, in his ad Lebron should have been playing basketball and not feeling sorry for himself. Nike sure got a lot of attention, but the commercial became the cherry on top of the poop sundae that Lebron James made that summer.

Subliminal Advertising

It has always been obvious to me that psychology is a major part of advertising, but until this past semester none of my classes had really delved into the intricacies and relations between the two. My social psychology professor spent a class period on the subject, and nothing surprised me until he got to the subject of subliminal messaging. It turns out that shockingly, subliminal messaging does, to a certain extent, work.

Check out this old George Bush campaign advertisement. On the surface, it seems fairly straightforward, but after watching it one time go back and press 8 repeatedly. The Bush crew decided that when the word bureaucrat flashed onto the screen in reference to Al Gore, the word "rat" would be emphasized for a split second. They believed that the viewer would subconsciously think of Al Gore as a rat after seeing this. Turn out, despite what we may have thought, they may have been onto something, but only if the rest of the commercial was effective in priming the viewer to think of rats, or more likely Al Gore, in a negative light.

In a 2001 study at Waterloo college researchers performed three experiments surrounding the idea of subliminal messaging. In each of the experiments the researchers checked to see that the students were unaware that there was subliminal messaging. In the first study researchers wanted to see if priming individuals subliminally would effect behavior when there was motivation surrounding a task. They did this by getting the participants thirsty and flashing thirst related subliminal messages on a computer screen. The results (graph below) show that thirsty individuals who received subliminal messages drank more water than thirsty individuals who were not shown subliminal messages and non-thirsty individuals who received the subliminal cues. If people were shown subliminal cues and motivated to drink water they drank more than those that did not receive the cues and were not thirsty. Motivation + Subliminal message= behavior.

In the second experiment, researchers tested whether the persuasiveness of an advertisement could grow with a subliminal message. They followed the template of the last experiment for the most part, but showed the participants two ads for very similar energy drinks. One energy drink had subliminal messages that emphasized how thirst quenching the drink was, while the other drink used subliminal messages with words referencing how many electrolytes it had. At the conclusion of the experiment participants who were thirsty and got the subliminal primes were more likely to choose the drink with the subliminal cues emphasizing thirst than the other drink. This was not the case for thirsty individuals who were not subliminally primed as well as non thirsty individuals who were, as they chose the two drinks equally.

The third study looked to see if the results carried over for something other than thirst. Researchers primed participants subliminally by flashing a sad face on the computer screen and then showed them an advertisement for a CD that wold hypothetically make them happier. Individuals who were primed with the sad face were more likely to believe the CD would be effective in raising happiness, probably because the subliminal message had put them in a sad mood subconsciously and they needed the attitude raising effects of the CD.

Based on these findings, the Bush ad should have worked, but only for people who were already motivated to find Al Gore's flaws or think of him as a rat. It is scary to think that our subconscious can be toyed with to a certain extent by advertisers, but if nothing else there results show that the worst thing that will happen is we will confirm or act on our original disposition.

Interactive Advertising

This past year something wonderful happened in my life: the San Francisco Giants won the World Series. The Giants are by far my favorite sports team and have given me headaches since I was very young when they kept finding new creative ways to lose. Their championship gave me a huge boost and sense of joy that I haven't experienced in my lifetime surrounding sports.

The one player that probably most benefited from the championship is Brian Wilson. His combination of a ferocious fastball and even more ferocious beard has made him excessively marketable. Major League Baseball used his growing persona and began a marketing campaign surrounding him and his beard. Fans are able to go to a web page where they can click on sections of his beard and watch a short video of what happens at that section. I spent 35 minutes one night clicking on the different sections and laughing my tail off at the imaginative happenings that take place within Brian's beard.

This style of interactive advertising has been utilized more and more lately as advertisers find new ways to grab consumers attention. Below are a few of my favorites that I have seen.

Tipp-EX

In this hilarious interactive you-tube video Tipp-EX allows the viewer to choose interactions between a bear and a hunter. Type in "eats" and "marries" for a good laugh.

Johnny Cash Project

This website won the Webby award for best use of online media. On the sight the user is able to get creative with some portraits and submit them to the sight. The portraits are used later in an online mu sic video for the song. The first video they made was pretty cool.

Sharon's Sale

Really cool ad. Cannes film festival asked people to submit videos to bring attention to a world cause. In this entry you can move your mouse over the items in the video to see the prices. One of the things for sale holds some shock value.

Welcome to Foodie Friday!

Happy Friday kids!

Welcome to the first installment of our new series, "Foodie Fridays." You should know that we take food very seriously here in the intern corral - after all our blog is called feed the interns, right?


Today for lunch we ventured down to our favorite lunch spot and San Diego gem, Mexican Fiesta... where the food is appetizing and ambiance is questionable. On a scale of 1 to Mexican deliciousness, the interns give it two thumbs up. If it had a legitimate Facebook page, we would "like" it.

Our dishes of choice:

Alessa and Robin - bean, cheese and rice burritos
Michael - chicken burrito (which "tastes like it was barbecued)
Ashley - California burrito

Next time you're in Little Italy, check it out! See you next Friday.

Things I am Liking...

It's been a while since I last blogged on Feed the Interns and boy, do we need to catch up! I'll be here all summer with a colorful cast of characters inhabiting the in the desks at Bailey Gardiner.

For my first entry of the summer season, I'd like to share some things that have caught my attention lately.

1. I'm liking (aka loving!) the intern corral at the Bailey Gardiner office. As I begin my extended internship at BG, I'm excited to announce that I have a lot of company in here! There are four full-time interns this summer... creative intern Alessa Sotelo, ad intern Michael Harris and PR interns Ashley Shafer and your's truly.

2. I'm liking the NYC PR Girls Blog. These three sassy ladies working in the big apple share fashion trends, industry events and hot spots in the city. A recent post, Summer Intern Survival Guide, is a great read for fellow interns. My favorite "Must Have" is a journal. It's a great way to catalog your thoughts after a hard day's work. Track things you're proud of as well as opportunities to grow.

3. I'm liking Facebook Insights and Google Analytics. A slightly nerdier thing to admire but I'm serious. I'm helping the BG team out with the Del Mar Racetrack account this summer and focusing a lot on social media. You can learn some pretty awesome stuff from both of these tools. All PR pros and new pros should utilize these facts and figures.

4. I'm liking this super neat-o consumer PR meets social media meets tech campaign. I found this little gem on Twitter a few days ago. TopShop, a trendy little store in New York (and a few other international cities) will feature the iPad, Instagram and Facebook to create an awesome in-store digital experience this summer. Customers wanting to participate will get a free styling session and their make up done. Then they can snap a pic on the new iPad 2 in their TopShop outfit and select an Instagram filter. Next, the customers turned models can print their photo and upload it to Facebook. Talk about integration!

5. I'm liking @SFMoMA's tweets - Who ever is responsible for this Museum's tweets deserves a high five! Their tweets are human, funny and engaging. Last week, they asked what modern artists inspired a tattoo you have, or who would inspire you to get one. They had so many responses that they put together a collage! How cool is that?


What are you liking lately? Let me know!

My Advertising Development

I have taken 10 psychology classes in my life. In every one I have had to sit through a lecture about Sigmund Freud. If you aren't familiar, Freud was an absolutely crazy cocaine addicted fiction writer/ evil genius who moonlighted as a psychologist. Despite saying almost nothing logical, psychologists still admire Freud as a stalwart in the field. He did contribute to the idea of developmental stages, which if nothing else is an average way of organizing life. Going along with this idea, I figure the best way to begin my blogging is to mix my psych knowledge with my past advertising experiences using stages.

"I Want It" Stage Ages 2-8

My first memory of advertising happened when I was five or six. I was at my buddy Donald's house during a commercial break of a Power Rangers episode. During every toy ad I listened to Donald declare over and over, "I want that." He wanted every Hot wheel and every action figure no matter how big, small or far from his interests. Donald was a year older than me, which naturally made him cooler, so I followed suit, excitedly declaring my need for each toy on the screen (minus the Barbies, those were for girls!) Each ad was the same. They all had two older boys doing the most elaborate thing they could do with a simple toy and a loud narrator acting way too excited about the product for a man his age. It didn't matter to me what they were selling, all I cared about was being as cool as the kids in the commercial and my friend.

Beer Stage Ages 10-13

No, I did not drink beer when I was 13, but I did love beer commercials. To this day I remember laughing my face off at the first Budweiser "wassup" ad. I obviously could care less about the product at the time, but the hilarity of the beer commercials that were and are still thrown at Americans left me feeling like I had just watched a mini sitcom. I could not buy my own things, so I evaluated ads not by the message but instead by how entertained I felt after each commercial.

Smart Teenager Stage Ages 14-18

In the 9th grade I had an assignment to find a fraudulent advertising claim. This was a dangerous task because giving a teenager a reason to be cynical about the world is like giving Sigmund Freud pen and paper (I won't stop until my professors do.) I became the kid who after every ad had something critical to say about the product. I thought this made me intelligent, but instead I was just annoying. In my evaluations I wasn't thinking about the advertisement as much as I was finding ways to criticize the product. To follow a teenage tradition, I will now use hormones as a scapegoat for my stupidity.

Intelligent Stage 18-Present

I realize how self-serving and conceited this title is, but I don't care. I am a smarter evaluator now. I have put aside my cynicism and have instead moved on to using the knowledge I have gained about people in order to think about why an ad is successful.

Going forward as a fresh new intern at BG, I plan on learning as much as I can from the experts that surround me so that I can both contribute to the best of my abilities as well as grow individually. If that doesn't work I'll just become a psychology professor and give sarcastic, half hearted Freud lectures while he laughs at me from the grave.

The Good, The Bad & Social Media

As a graduating college senior enthralled in all things social media I began to wonder if I could use my social interests to my advantage. Turns out you can! All the time I spend updating my #Twitter and stalking Facebooks pages can actually help me develop my life in the "real world" a.k.a. get a job. It is just all a matter of what type of content you produce. Here are the suggestions I felt were most helpful:

Twitter:It is not just for sharing what you ate for breakfast or how you feel about the weather, it can be used as an effective networking and job search tool. The CEOs, HR reps, and recruiters of all your favorite companies are on Twitter and communicating with them directly is at your finger tips!

1. Friendly and Professional Profile - don't use your old aim snfrom middle school where you were "HoneyBun101" (that was not mine, jfyi) and don't put music lyrics in your biography section (unless, maybe you work in music). Use the bio section to tell the twitter world what you do and what your goals are. You want to be easily found and followed by people that share your interests
2. Following and Followers- Use Twitter to find and follow new people. It is very easy for them to follow you back
3. Posts - Make your posts public, there's no use in using twitter as a tool is important people can view your posts. Be consistent; post often and about interesting (and appropriate) information. Use hastags, # on key words like #job, #jobsearch, or with the company's name your trying to work for "Looking for an amazing and fulfilling #internship. #bgsd, do you have anything available for summer?".
4. Link your resume to your Twitter - in the website section place the link to your online portfolio or resume. If your like me and haven't created one yet, use the link to your public LinkedIn profile.
5. Promoting - this is a tricky one, as much as you want to promote yourself first, it is best to promote others before yourself. In return they may do the same for you!

Facebook:

Now, we all know Facebook is the best/worst culprit of prolonging procrastination in students and today's youthful workforce. There is just so much to look at and so many people to "creep" on. I never would have guessed it could be used to help find my next job, but some sources say if you play your Facebook cards right it can. I'm not completely convinced I should mix my Facebook life with my professional one, I like to have a little separation, but here's the how-to.

1. Follow Co.'s Facebook Pages - this can give you more of an idea of the company's personality and culture. They sometimes post job listings as well - be the first to see them!
2. Contact Employers Directly - Facebook, like twitter, puts you on a level playing field with employers. Using Facebook you can directly message them, instead of just being another resume that is submitted online.
3. Job-Proof your page - Let your network know you are on the search for a job. Make sure your job search information is available to everyone and everything else is only available to your friends. Make sure to fill out your employment history. If you have a professional site you'd like to share it can easily be added to your information field, and some application, like Slideshare now even let you showcase past work.
4. Other suggestions I haven't played around with: Consider using Branchout to professionally network with Facebook friends. Another idea is to utilize Facebook Ads to target and gain attention from certain employers.

Hope these help!

If you have any questions you can find me on twitter @_sadiesades

~Sadie (Ad Intern)

Tips from an Ad Intern:

On poster distribution and hanging

This post is not so much about the art of taping up a poster, although I will touch on that. It is about my experience distributing promotional posters and flyer all around San Diego. These tips I learned fist hand from my biggest task off the #bgsd campus yet- distributing the Seaport Village's Busker Festival promotional material. The event is next weekend April 16 and 17.

It looks REALLLy cool.

Tip #1: Choose the best locations to reach your audience.

It's tough these days to find space available for public postings, but I had pretty good luck focusing mainly on cafes and small shops. The cafes that were targeted were both small privately owned coffee shops and large chains like Starbucks. The shops that were chosen were a mix of salons and clothing stores with customer bases that seemed to fit the demographic of people interested in a busker festival.

This array of location choices should give us a good mix of people being exposed to the flyers. A wide variety of people frequent these locations; families, singles, college kids and people interested in the arts and community.

Tip #2: Google maps is your new best friend.

Not only can you add multiple locations to your route, but you can also rearrange your different locations to create the most efficient path.

Step one; organize your locations by zone in the city. For example my selected areas were Little Italy, Downtown, Hillcrest, and North Park.

Step two; plug in all location you wish to visit, chose your mode of

transportation (bike, foot, car, public transport), and then click and drag your via points to create the best route.

And your done, Tah-Dah!

Tip #3: Park efficiently.

Chances are even if your locations are in walking distance from one another; you'll need to park your car. Don't always pay at the first lot you see, especially in the downtown area. The prices can range from $5-12 an hours sometimes. If you spend an extra few minutes driving around you can usually find a 30 min spot, or at least a metered spot that you can pay $1 to for an hour and use up some of that change weighing down your purse or pockets.

Tip #4 and #5: Be prepared and smile.

People react more happily towards happy people! It's science. Be polite, seem interested and always ask questions with a smile. Storekeepers will want to help you out more if you seem interested in your product and care about their company.

Shop owners also appreciate you coming prepared with scotch tape and thumbtacks. The only surface I wasn't prepared for in my distribution path this week was magnet boards. All of the Starbucks in San Diego that I went to had "community boards" which was amazing, but they were all magnetic. This only caused problems when there were no open magnets, but they did allow me to move things around in order to post my flyer.

Best of all, I got to see parts of the city I'd never seen before & enjoy a few beautiful days.

~Sadie :)

New Facebook Questions: Yes or No?

Most of you have probably noticed something new in your Facebook news feed... a query, a cute little bar chart, a couple options to choose from and your friend's thumbnails. What is Facebook up to now?

As frequent Facebookers know, the cronies and comrades of Mark Zuckerberg are always trying to improve the social network of our generation. This new application is simply called "Questions." It allows anyone to type up and ask a question to the entire Facebook nation. The service is supposed to act as a resource for everyone, from students to businesses.

Why should I care about Questions?
Questions are informative; as Facebook puts it, "learn from your friends." Whether we admit it or not, we care about what other people think. Where is the best place to eat in San Diego? Are you going to the Lady Gaga concert? NorCal or SoCal? Everyone wants to know what everyone else is doing, saying, liking, etc. I mean, isn't that why we are on Facebook so much in the first place?

What makes Questions different than other Q&A sites?
Unlike other websites like Yahoo! Answers and Quora, Facebook Questions is not open-ended. Answers are definitive and can be suggested through a drop-down menu suggesting existing Facebook pages.

What does this mean for marketing and public relations?
Informal research just got a lot easier. Businesses and organizations can now speak directly to consumers and publics. They can make better informed and appropriate decisions by simply asking a question they would like answered. What's your favorite flavor at Yogurtland? Who do you want to see in concert this summer? Where is your favorite place to go shopping?

My next question is, will you be using Facebook Questions?

What Makes a Celebrity Icon?

Is it a pretty face?

great body?

pure talent?

Or, do some people just have that certain "something"? As more and more articles popped up surrounding Elizabeth Taylor's passing I began wondering not just how, by why she had lasted in Hollywood as long as she did... which was basically her entire life. She was in countless movies, prom

otions and ad campaigns. Her performance deb

ut came at the ripe age of three when she performed ballet before the Queen. She first appeared in film at age ten and her last motion picture was just a f

ew years back. She had 8 husbands, a love affair with expensive jewelry and food, and was always on the brim of eloquently having a double chin. However, she was at one time regarded as the most beautiful woman in the world. Would that happen in this day and age? She wasn't a stick, she didn't have a personal trainer and hadn't had plastic surgery like the Hollywood stars of today.

The truth was that she had a remarkable symmetrical face, which has been pro

ven time and again to equal beauty. Taylor

therefore didn't have a bad angle and had men and women alike swooning ov

er her.

Back to my question... why did she become such an iconic figure? Perhaps it was natural talent. She had very little professional training and was able to play a wide range of roles. For a good part of her career on the silver stage, all you had to do was cast her name in a movie and it was a hit.

Maybe it was elegant beauty, her face could sell almost anything and she never had lack of activity in her love live. Her eyes and smile sold shampoo, fragrances, boxes of chocolates, and even carpet flooring. Ad Week's blog, Ad Freak, takes it as far as to call her a "marketing pioneer" - she w

as the first celebrity to launch her own line of perfume in 1991, which is now commonplace practice.

Ms. Elizabeth Taylor was able to have a 7-decade long career in an industry known for loving the young and beautiful, and passing on the older and already viewed. She beat the odds. She wasn't supper

thin, and she had flaws she allowed the world to see. Taylor captured the heart of America and is rightfully placed in the same category as Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, and Grace Kelly.

Who will be our generation's iconic Liz Taylor or Marilyn Monroe?

Why them the

m? Why Liz Taylor? What creates and preserves and icon?

~Sadie

Professional Association Involvement: A PR Must!

As a Bailey Gardiner PR intern and the president of San Diego State's Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) chapter, I am a huge advocate for professional associations and the benefits that come with participation.

The public relations world is small and the quickest way to jump in and familiarize yourself with the community is to join PRSA (if you're a professional) or PRSSA (if you're a student).

PRSSA is the largest organization for students interested in public relations. There are over 300 chapters and 10,000 members in the United States. If your college or university doesn't have a chapter, PRSSA National offers an affiliate program that connects you with the closest PRSA chapter and professionals. PRSSA supports the advancement of the public relations field and the professional development of future practitioners. Every year they hold a national conference, national assembly and regional activities.

Another option is to join the Public Relations Society of America San Diego Imperial Counties. PRSA SDIC holds networking events, socials and workshops for local professionals. There is even a NewPros committee to help introduce us newbies into the professional world.

Personally, I've seen my professional association involvement pay off tenfold. I've met some of my best friends, grown as a professional, expanded my network and learned a lot about public relations. But most importantly, I've built relationships and isn't that what PR is all about? Not to mention I've done a bit of traveling with PRSSA, which wasn't too bad... :)

I encourage fellow interns and students out there to get involved and see what kind of benefits they reap. Hopefully I'll see you at a few events coming up in the near future.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, let me know!

Best,
Robin

Little Italy, Home Sweet Home

Hello World,

Not only have I had a blast spending the last few months getting to know the staff and goings-on at Bailey Gardiner, but I've also had the opportunity to further acquaint myself with Downtown San Diego, an area I previously refused to drive around in (one-way streets have never been my thing).

Just before I started in January, the office picked up and relocated from Hillcrest, a move many at BG were excited about. I'm here to say that the enthusiasm for the new digs is still goin' strong, as I received many a chipper response to a recent inquiry of mine. Since I am going to be interning here until June (yay!), I thought I'd send some love to BG's new(ish) Little Italy neighbors and share the responses from my question: "What is your favorite thing about Little Italy?"

Drumroll please...

• Melina Cazimero: 1. Filipis 2. Bon Appetito 3. dog friendly

• Anne Cornetta: Mexican Fiesta is legit..so what if its not Italian or really legal....

• Erika DiProfio: I love my new running path- straight through Little Italy, down to the Embarcadero and through Seaport Village. Makes my runs go by a lot faster.

• Callan Green: MEXICAN FIESTA.

• Katy Harrison: It's a great place to go for a run - we can just make our way down to the harbor. As for eats, I love Spicy PickleFormaggi's for lunch and InFlux is great for coffee meetings with clients, friends or colleagues.

• Katie Levien: The fabulous running route along the embarcadero. Woot!

• Theresa Schell: My favorite thing in Italy is kinda nerdy but I'm not ashamed- Blick's Art SupplyLandini's.

• Carrie Shields: Windows. Lots of windows. Designated parking spots and fewer homeless. And access to so many great restaurants and boutiques.
  

• Alex Tuthill: Does Mexican Fiesta count?? JK I love how clean and beautiful it is.

• Maya Wasserman: Mexican Fiesta.

• Lizzie Younkin: Everyone boasts about Mexican Fiesta (YUM) but you can cut the line by going to Taco Express. Just as good but way quicker! I'm a secret fan of the frozen yogurt place. And there's nothing better than jogging along the bay, past the Star of India and through Seaport Village. We get a nice workout on the Convention Center stairs too. :)
  

As we can see I think there are two real contenders here...at very opposite ends of the spectrum. Running vs. Mexican Fiesta...hmmm...

Regardless of the true winner, (though I believe Callan and Maya's simplistic answers show true dedication to their decision) I think I'll have to make it a personal goal of mine to visit/try out all of the things on this list.

Thanks guys!

- Elli

PS - I'm getting much better at the one-way streets thing for those of you who were concerned. :)

Tweet-TV or Tweet-V?

What should we call this new phenomena?
Gone are the days of waiting to chat with your friends at lunch about the latest Gossip Girl (GG) or football game. Now we can share with our friends, followers and readership instantly. With a few strikes of a keyboard and a click or two of a mouse our ideas race off across the web for the world to see. Responses can come just as quickly. We can direct our messages to a small audience or send them out onto the ever-growing stage of social media to see who joins the show. This instant interaction has proven to be infectious.
Real time chatter about favorite programs, award shows, and game highlights is a blessing or a curse, depending on your side of the conversation or outlook on social media vs face-time. The leading platforms for the real time chit-chat are Facebook and Twitter, which is obvious to those interested or involved in social media. Because of this new buzz around instantly sharing thoughts and opinions regarding live broadcast, networks are racing to find new ways to engage the younger crowd in real time.

Social Media and Commercials

To really make an impression, a TV spot doesn't cut it. Now-a-days consumers need it all. We need a Youtube clip, Facebook page and Twitter profile we can interact with. Oh, and it all has to be easily relatable - no one wants to work to understand the connection between platforms.

The goal of using social media in a ad campaign is to build buzz among the audience and consumers before, during and after the program airs. The Super Bowl, Grammys, and most recently the Oscars all had mixed media campaigns that fell along side them. Twitter has become an amazing resource in tracking the interactions of consumers to the TV program and more notably the response the Ads that premier during the program itself.

Eminem vs. MnMs

The Super Bowl:

Equals, the biggest day for ads all years! Companies pay $3,000,000 to play their ad during the big game. It's one of very few times during the year that people actually tune in for the commercials. To capitalize on this, a "Brand Bowl" was created to track the twitter responses of ads aired during the game. The scores were tracked with the help of the #brandbowl hashtag. The winner was Chrysler featuring Eminem.

Oscars:

During the Oscars the MnM "Hostage" commercial captured the strongest brand association among Oscar viewers. Mars Inc. has a firm grip on the idea that social media has become part of today's culture. They know they need to be everywhere and interacting with their consumers on their website, Facebook, in the bloggosphere and on Twitter.

~ Sadie

P.S. I'm becoming a pro scanner/emailer/copier - the job is tougher than you'd think.