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The excitement around the agency still hasn’t died down from the ninja’s job shadows last week. Heather, the agency manager contacted the ninja’s top choices of businesses they wanted to visit in various locations and get an inside look on how the business operates. Two ninja’s were offered job opportunities, congrats to Kalya Cruse and Kayla Spelling.

I was lucky enough to visit iostudio, an advertising agency in Nashville, TN. Iostudio is an fast growing agency that hosts an in house call center for the National Guard, who is one of many clients they work with. Iostudio started 15 years ago and they have continued with the motto, discover, documentation, development and deployment. The name iostudio comes from input, output and the combination of the creative nature of advertising and the discipline of the military.

I was able to hangout with several of the iostudio employees, who were Ashley Wilson, Tom Woodard and Brad Pray. Ashley Wilson, Account Executive showed me a day in the life of an AE. Being the Sr. Account Executive at Imagewest it was easy to follow along since we had a lot of the same duties. It was great to see that my work level at Imagewest and projects at Western Kentucky University are relevant to the advertising industry in the real world and I will be fortunate enough to continue what I love achieving after college.  Tom Woodard, Business Development Director was great to network with and discuss industry happenings. I ended my day talking to Brad Pray, Recruitment Manager. Brad illustrated what he likes to see on cover letters, resumes and websites. It was helpful to receive the advice coming straight from the person who interviews potential employees.

This experience was beneficial in so many ways, such as: building confidence before I go on my first interview, get an inside look on how an agency runs, making connections, having an idea on where I want to apply to and realizing I pick the best major for myself.

Paige Johnson

According to Dennis Woodside, Google’s Senior Vice President of American Sales, in 2015 we will be able to receive the web anywhere and everywhere.  He talks about how advertising is now engaging with the consumer, instead of bombarding them with advertisements. The old advertisements that were only a one-way channel will now decrease to fewer than 20 percent. Dennis claims that there will be over 10 billion mobile subscribers and 300 million internet-enabled televisions.

“All retailers will go mobile. Couponing, circular spending and formats will migrate, with offers that are more targeted, personalized, and accountable,” said Dennis. Applications will be developed that have the capability to see who is in the store, see the inventory and make wireless payments.

Other ways advertisers will be able to customize advertising is to record data to modify how successful advertisements will be before they run TV ads. Then advertisers can analyze to see if things months down the road need to be changed. When using this system, advertisers will be able to run 1,000 different types of ads to 1,000 different types of demographics, and then continue to measure the data.

“We will move from just recording data to modifying the system in real time: continuous improvement,” said Dennis, who also came up with the digital tip sheet: The Four Bs.

Be Found

The search is still the hottest app, because it’s real-time, personalized, visual and knows where you are.

Be Engaging

In another time and date someone could be dull and get away with it, but not now. Consumers have the choice to ignore advertising they don’t care about and with technology, now they can either opt out or skip it. Consumers now trust social branding and friend recommendations.

Be Relevant

Real-time relevance matters more now than ever, with technology companies’ use they can be more connected with the consumer through multiple channels.

Be Accountable

Measuring online behavior can benefit the company when they know when a customer is likely to purchase. Accountability pays.

Paige Johnson

Old advertisement was about interrupting the customers when they were driving or focused on other things, for an example: listening to the radio, watching T.V., or reading the newspaper. There was no engagement or interaction with the customer. Companies paid for this advertising, and then crossed their fingers, followed by some hope and a prayer that customers will see their product and want it.  It was about coming up with the best jingle to interrupt the consumer while engaging in entertainment. With DVR, iPods, recycling, RSS feeds, spam, and cell phones, people are not seeing or hearing the advertisements, like they did years ago. When people are watching T.V. they DVR or TIVO their shows, also instead of listening to their radio while driving, they can plug in their iPods or there is built in Pandora in some of the newer vehicles all with the intent to avoid commercials. Recycling is playing a big part in blocking advertisements; people are not sending mail out as much, instead there using email. Also, since spam boxes come with emails, advertisement is filtered right through to the spam box. The newspapers are dying off and people are using RSS feeds instead. Through social media, people can get news automatically, through twitter or Facebook. Also, with the smart phones, they can have their RSS feeds or social media feeds sent straight through to their phones. Since landlines are going away, that means telemarketers are having fewer customers to call. In order for a company to have their product or service to succeed, they are going to have to create a brand experience for the customers.  They are going have to have a product that is good and what people want. Then you need to know who wants the product or service and reach them through what they use. Advertisers want the customers to come to them too, to respond, and get involved with the product.  There are three different types of media to reach consumers: paid, earned, or owned. Paid media is basically paying for commercials, ads in the newspaper, or radio space. Earned media is when customers are telling positive input to other customers. This is the best kind of media, because people trust their friends or someone that has used the product or service before. Last, owned media is when the company owns their own website.

Paige Johnson

A brand is the difference between a tennis shoe and a Nike’s shoe. It’s the difference between a winter jacket and a North Face jacket. Branding is about the experience the consumer has with a product or service.  Companies used to use symbols to show ownership; formally this was the way a company branded products. Currently consumers do not buy products, they buy personalities; brands humanizes products. Brand experience is about creating a customer experience. To create this customer experience you have to understand unmet needs and use technology, communities, and imageries to meet them. Advertising is branding, in the past, advertising would interrupt the consumers to get their attention. For advertising to work in today’s society, the company has to form a brand experience. This concept has not always been around every great idea had to start with someone.

Paige Johnson

The team is researching daily, as we prepare for our trip to Paris, France. An area that we are researching more in depth is Social Networks. Usually when people think of social networks they think of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Linked In. Since we will be working for a global company, the team has to think globally and know what each country is using. Two blogs that have caught our eye are Hub Spot Blog and Ignite Social Media Blog. Here are some of the social networks statistics that I thought were most interesting:

• Mixi is a social network in Japan that has 22 million users. The site offers check-ins and tagging information through mobile devices, which is similar to Facebook.
• Foursquare is actually being used mainly in Indonesia compared to all countries and in Waterloo, Canada compared to all other cities.
• Flickr is mostly utilized by the United Kingdom and 46% of users have had some college.
• Live Journal is a Social Network that women in Singapore are most interested in.
• Netlog has a large number spent by men in the age group of 25-34 in Brussels.
• QQ is used almost all by men in China, 25-34 with an income of 0-24,999k.
• Tuenti is a Social Network used only in Spain, with 40% of users is in the age group of 18-24 and with some college education.
• Weibo’s users are typically women 25-34 in Hong Kong that have a Graduate Degree and have an income of 0-24,999k.
• Yelp is used by nearly all of the United States, age group of 35-44, with an income of 50-74,999k.

Paige Johnson

Most people struggle on what to post on their Twitter. When Twitter was catching on, so many people were posting status updates from Facebook to Twitter. Businesses need to realize that Facebook and Twitter have two different audiences.

Twitter is about communicating and the tweets should be about professional business topics. If ever confused on what to tweet, always remember to retweet. Both social networks are free advertising for your business and there is no reason not to take advantage of free advertising. Also, I get a lot of businesses telling me they don’t have time to tweet. Use your tools, Tweetdeck, by using tweetdeck you can time all your tweets for different times of the day. Take a little time to find interesting facts about your business industry and come up with several tweets. Stalking is always been considered very strange, but with Twitter it is all about getting the most followers.

Facebook is more of a upbeat fun place to share things about what’s going on in the business and it can be laid back status updates. With Facebook the key is about engagement and you can do that by uploading pictures of your business and events. Also, by posting questions and fun status updates you can have  customers respond on your page. Facebook is not only getting people to like your page, but having them spend time on the page. Having them post back there answers or comments, then shooting them back to your website from there.

Paige Johnson

Working for an International non-profit organization is fun and challenging at the same time. Having to communicate with someone seven hours a head of me by skype and email is all new. As I get closer to my graduation date in December I think about all the projects that will also be challenging.  I feel honored that Global Editors Network wants me to be apart of there new business to bring in more memberships and have members register for the World Summit Conference in Hong Kong. It feels great to finally be working for an agency and Imagewest has been giving me great experience. I wrote my first Press Release for the agency, I never thought I would be doing Public Relations work. My degree is in Advertising, but now I feel more well rounded doing other things outside my field. I also have been working on social media for Imagewest, research for GEN, and now I am starting on projects for GEN. I also enjoyed being apart of the NASC competition where I worked on the JCPenny campaign. (We received 3rd place) Although I felt, I received a lot of experience from the competition, I like working for a company one on one who values our ideas. This way I can see our ideas being used for the organization and see how everything plays out.  I am ready for all the adventures, opportunities, and challenges life throws at me. I want to work, grow, and succeed in the Advertising field, because I love being apart of this world.

Paige Johnson

I read a blog on The Next Web called “A lesson from Zappo’s: The Like button is not a social media strategy.” This is were I got the idea of writing a blog to see if likes on Facebook are helping clothing companies. Companies strive to have the most likes on their Facebook daily. Daily we see commercials pop up and they tell us to like their page, but do they ever go back to the fan page. Consumers need engagement from the company and they need content worth looking at the on the fan page. When someone likes a Facebook page, that doesn’ts mean they are engaging. When customers start to respond to pictures, questions, and other comments, that’s when they are paying attention to what the store has to say. I have looked at several clothing and department stores to see who has the most likes compared to whom has the most engagement.

• JCPenny has 1.8 million likes and an average of 49 comments per wall post.
• Gap has 1.5 million likes and an average of 20 comments per wall post.
• Macy’s has 1.9 million likes and an average of 31 comments per wall post.
• J. Crew has 337,892 likes and an average of 31 comments per wall post.
• American Eagle has 4.7 million likes and an average of 57 comments per wall post.

The likes on the fan page are not having much effect on how much customers will respond to the store. They are enjoying interesting content that benefits them.

Paige Johnson

First week at Imagewest Agency Internship has flown by, getting ready for our trip to Paris, France to work with Global Editors Network (GEN). Imagewest will be working together with the GEN, a non-profit organization. GEN consists of Editors-in-chief and senior news executives from around the world using different platforms such as: print, digital or broadcast, to preserve the quality of journalism. Imagewest will be developing goals, strategies, and tactics to grow GEN’s memberships and increase registration for the NEWS! World Summit 2011 in Hong Kong. The excitement is building in the office and as we get closer everyday. We are learning a new French phrase daily such as, je parle un peu Francais (I only speak a little French) and the dos and don’ts in Paris.  The count down has begun as we rush to research all that we can. Wish us luck!

Paige Johnson

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