PWNED

Ah yes. Video games. This will be my second post on video game advertisements, but in this fine segment I'm straying away from the sports aspect and focusing more on the ads themselves. I am surrounded by video game fiends; from my brothers at home, my manager in Austin to my boyfriend in Houston. Even though I might not be the craziest gamer on the planet, I still manage to keep somewhat up to date with what is coming out. And on that note, I can definitely appreciate whenever a company (in this case a game) creates some truly creative advertisements. Below I have picked out three of my favorite game ads that I have come across recently-Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Dead Island and Assassin's Creed II. Enjoy!

This Call of Duty video is probably one of the funniest ads that I have seen for a video game. I have re-watched this video numerous times, because it A; funny B; creative and C; relatable. This is like the ad trifecta. I have tried my hand at a little COD, and I am definitely the n00b. Hands down. I know there are specials techniques to this game-trust me-I've seen them first hand...but it's just too much fun to be like Dwight Howard at the end of the video and shoot the grenade launcher into the blue clear sky.

Ah Dead Island. I'm a huge zombie fan so when my boyfriend was playing this and sending me texts about creating new weapons to fend off the swarming zombies-how could I not be interested? I've played this game a little bit, and it's definitely fun. The video on the other hand, is very emotional. I've never seen a game ad like this before. The overall execution is amazing and powerful. While going through my twitter feed a couple  months ago I remembered briefly reading something about this becoming a movie because the trailer was so great. My initial reaction was confusion. Really? How could a video game ad be that powerful and emotional and have enough content to make a feature length movie? But then while at work, my manager showed me the trailer, and I was blown away. And much like COD, I have watched this video over and over again.

Alrighty, so my next selection comes from Assassin's Creed II. This was an ad that was run in Game Pro magazine. When you come to this page, you read the copy and it's simple enough. But the real surprise comes when you turn the page....\

These two pages are stuck together by some sort of glue, and when you finally pull them apart...the result is a masterfully executed decapitation (no pun intended). This ad is brilliant. It is ads like this that originally peaked my interest in getting into the advertising world. The shear creativity and outside the box thinking that is inherent in this ad, and the prior two, is exactly what I love about this industry and what continues to amaze me everyday I see something new.

Catvertising. It's a thing.

My cat, Mr. Tinkles, is amazing. Granted he might be a little overweight, but I love him anyways. Cats are a constant source of entertainment. Seriously though. Who hasn't seen a cat doing something bizarre, like getting stuck in a box? Or, trying to no avail, to shake a piece of tape or some other sticky substance from their paws? It's pretty funny and always a welcomed break from our mundane work day.

Here is one of my personal faves. Love me some Keyboard Cat.

Toronto advertising agency, John St. recently created a parody video where they take advantage of this growing fad. Their video focuses on the concept of "Catvertising". Creative Director, Stephen Jurisic states, "nobody wants to see ads anymore. They want cat videos". And who's to say he is wrong? I think the world could use a few more cat videos.

Last year, John St. also released a video entitled "Pink Ponies: A Case Study", where they showed, "how they made an 8-year-old's birthday part a success in an already cluttered birthday market." The video shows a breakdown of all the components of the "campaign" (including direct mail and social media) that went into effect to make Chelsea Bedano's birthday a success.

Both of these videos from John St. are very creative and a great example of thinking outside the box. Enjoy!

[Also, a special shout-out to Ad Week for posting these videos!]

They are out there...

I have always been a fan of Aliens and UFOs. They absolutely fascinate me. On any given day of the week you can catch me watching an episode or two of UFO Hunters along with a variety of History Channel "Alien" themed shows. My thought is, if Aliens really do exist I need to know as much about them as possible before they come. That way when they show up at my door in angry mob form (slight Spongebob reference for all you intense fans like me) ready to take over the world, I will be prepared (and most likely nerding out hard-core).

So, naturally, when I came across this compilation of Alien themed ads, I was in love immediately. Below are my faves, but the link to the rest of the group is here: http://creativebits.org/inspiration/ufos_advertising Enjoy!

Video Games, Sports and Athletes as Brands

When it comes to video games…my skills are seriously lacking. I’m pretty sure I peaked with GoldenEye back on the N64. But that is definitely not the case with my brothers, they are video game fanatics. But 99% of that can be explained by the fact that I’m a girl, and well, they are teenage guys. Guys in general just seemed to be drawn to video games like a moth to a flame, and I wouldn’t even be surprised if a study came out next week explaining how guys are born with natural video games skills.

Video games have a way to capture the attention of boys and men (and yes, even some women) unlike any other medium. Players devote countless hours to perfecting their skills. This is the same when nearly any type of video game whether it be Halo, Call of Duty, or NBA 2K11. But slight differences arises from sports video games. Majority of the time, players will inherently choose their favorite team and player, and before I dive into the rest of the advertising that takes place in sports video games, I believe that athletes and teams are in of themselves, brands. They are recognizable worldwide, provide a service, and worth, in some cases, millions of dollars…just like the typical brands that we think of (i.e. Coke, Adidas, etc…)

To many people there is a distinct difference between players, teams, and the brand sponsoring either the team or the player. But in my opinion, now more than ever, players are becoming a brand in and of itself. Sure there are brands that are associated with the respective sports and teams, and numerous players are brand representatives, but overall the big money makers are the teams and players themselves. People aren’t paying money just to look at an Adidas jersey. People are paying money to the Argentinean team play and Lionel Messi score a game winning goal.

So going off of this idea of the player as the brand, I know from talking to my brothers, and even from personal experience, that when it comes to your favorite player, you absolutely love to have the opportunity to own almost anything with their name on it. While talking with my brother I asked him who his favorite NBA player was. His response was Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder and a former University of Texas player. I then followed up with another question as to whether or not seeing Kevin’s face on the cover of the game would make him more inclined to buy the game (versus just have the generic NBA logo or a collage of random players), and his answer was “absolutely, it’s just another way of showing your support for that player and that team”. So picking the right athlete to grace the cover of your latest game could potentially boost sales from sports fanatics who are just itching to own another piece of their team.

GOOOAAALLL

*[I need to go ahead and put out a disclaimer before you continue to read through this blog: I love soccer, and as a result my entries will show a heavy bias towards it being the best sport in the world (which it is, obviously, but I digress)]

Soccer has always been considered the beautiful game. The way the players seem to float across the field with such finesse and grace, all while eluding the opposing defenders and maintaining complete ball control, is a true pleasure to witness it. You can see the passion and love for the game oozing from each player to such a high degree, that other sports can’t quite mimic. In America though, soccer has garnered such descriptions as “boring”, “slow”, and the inevitable “way too low scoring to even attempt to keep my attention”. With these kinds of descriptions in tow, it is no wonder that this sport has been pushed to the back burner in favor of high scoring sports like basketball, high action sports like football, and of course, America’s pastime, baseball.

To a true soccer fan though, soccer is not merely a “game”, it’s a way of life. Fans seem to mimic disciples in the way they follow their team. But if you want to witness true passion for, not only this sport, but for one’s own country in overdrive…look no further than the World Cup. The World Cup is one of the few sporting events that claims to be, and is actually, a global phenomenon (*cough* Baseball’s World Series *cough*). Rooting for your country unties a country like very few things can, and this past year’s World Cup is no exception to that.

Going into the World Cup, the United States was already considered the underdog. The entire world knows that we don’t put a priority on soccer, so when we were paired up to play England in the very first round of the Cup the general consensus was that we would be sent home from South Africa with at least a 3-0 lost under our belt. But at the end of the first game, America, England, and the rest of the world for that matter, were shocked that we were able to hold England to draw. This was the spark that Americans needed to become full-fledged soccer fanatics.

You could feel the mood change overnight after that game. Soccer fever had hit America. Americans immediately wanted to stay up to date with all of the games. Who was winning? Who was scoring? Who got a red card? HOW IS AMERICA DOING?! The answer to these questions came in two different functions: ESPN Mobile Updates and Twitter. Social Media has peaked during the past couple years through the utilization of such platforms like Facebook and Twitter. These websites have given advertisers new ways to reach their target market in a more personal manner. By interacting through these spaces the audience feels as though there is an actual conversation going on, instead of the advertisers forcing all of their “New and Exciting” products down our throats with flashy commercials (that we inevitably end up fast forwarding through anyway). Facebook and Twitter have given people a way to connect instantly around the world and feel connected despite being miles away from many of their “followers”.

With ESPN Mobile Updates you signed up on their website and would receive alerts directly to your phone with details from every game throughout the world. This wasn’t necessarily a new feature to ESPN but it became more relevant during the World Cup, because do to the fact that the Cup was taking place in South Africa, the time difference made it difficult for many viewers to actually watch the games at their broadcasted times.

Twitter took advantage of this soccer fever that was sweeping the world and decided to customize the appearance of tweets. Whenever you tweeted and created the hashtag  #worldcup, a soccer ball would show up, and then whenever you created hashtags with the abbreviations of the different countries playing in the World Cup, their respective flags would appear. These unique hashtags added some much needed pizazz to the public timeline, and it became a competition among the different countries to try and get their country to reach higher on the Trending Topics List than their opponent. Those this was directly advertising for FIFA, it definitely drove traffic to TV channels and websites that featured World Cup updates and scores. So in this case, Twitter almost seemed to provide some free “advertising” for channels like ESPN, ABC, NBC, and for the FIFA World Cup in general. Buzz will generate traffic, and twitter was definitely creating buzz at that time.

My Love Affair with Adidas

The last weekend in January I participated in the Paige, TX Tough Mudder, which to date, is by far the hardest, most strenuous, most miserable, and most awesome experience event of my life. 10 miles and 19 excruciatingly difficult obstacles (which were designed by the British Special Forces, no less) later, I was exhausted, ready for a nap, and in desperate need of some new shoes. The combination of 40 degree water, mud, hay, and electric wires took their toll on my poor shoes.  Apparently I wasn’t alone in this either, and in fact, this is fairly normal for every Tough Mudder challenge because there was a designated area to donate your muddy shoes.   So in the end I left battered, bruised, tired, and shoeless-which meant it was time to go shoe shopping.

Goodbye, dear friends.

I have been playing sports for my entire life, so when it comes to buying athletic gear of any sort I have my brands that I immediately go to. I didn’t realize how strongly I preferred some brands over other until I went to buy my new shoes. After 14 years of soccer I have come to be a loyal Adidas consumer. Any other brand was incapable lasting for an entire season. Looking in my closet now, I have three pairs of Adidas sweat pants, one Adidas sweatshirt, six pairs of Adidas soccer socks, over five pairs of Adidas shorts, and five pairs of Adidas shoes.  I hadn’t purchased a non-Adidas pair of shoes in over eight years. Buying Adidas had become a habit over years of playing sports. All my uniforms had typically been Adidas and, because I knew Adidas footwear would last (partly because I wanted my cleats and uniforms to match) I would instinctively buy Adidas all the way around. It occurred to me when I walked in to Academy that I hadn’t willingly bought a non-Adidas pair of shoes in over 8 years. Nonetheless, I was planning on continuing this and adding to my Adidas collection.

Ah, the glorious pile of destroyed shoes.

But, tragedy struck when I walked into the Women’s Shoe aisle. There were no Adidas shoes in my size. None. There were 8.5s and 9.5s—too bad I’m a size 9. It had become so ingrained in my mind to buy nothing but Adidas that I nearly settled for an 8.5 shoe size, solely due to the fact that I was so reluctant to buy another brand. It was then that I realized the profound effect that sports can have on brand loyalty. Sports in and of themselves are the embodiment of passion, drive, and loyalty. Athletes devote countless hours, days and even years to sport, and when there is that kind of passion and devotion behind a sport, athletes will seek out the best gear from a very young age. I believe a prime target Sports apparel and gear brands should be targeting is young teenagers. At this age they are finding “their sport” and entering higher levels of play such as Club Leagues. If they are able to find a durable and reliable brand at this age they will come back year after year to this brand for all of their sports needs-no matter what the sport. This is coming solely from my experience. I’ve been loyal to Adidas since I was about 13 years old and I viewed, and still view, their brand as the most dependable and classic sports brand on the market.

And we're off

Oh hey there, well, whoever is reading this.

I'm once again trying my hand at blogging, this time though, it's not for a class assignment which will automatically mean that I will enjoy it so much more. It's the same story whenever I am given reading assignments in my English classes. Sure those novels may be ABSOLUTELY wonderful, but the fact that it's "homework" and I'm getting a grade from it, immediately subtracts all enjoyment and interest from it. But I digress.

With this blog I am hoping sort through and, in a way, chronicle this transitional point in my life. I'm on the verge of starting a new chapter in my life and becoming an "adult". So here's to learning new things, figuring out what I'm going to do with my life, and (hopefully) getting through it all in one piece with at least a little bit of my sanity still in tact.

In the meantime while I figure out something worthwhile to write about, I'm going to post some of my more entertaining and interesting articles that I have saved on my computer but, until now, haven't posted for the world to see. So, with that said, enjoy!