LET'S HEAR IT FOR THE BRAND!

It is my favorite time of year--college and high school football season! Have you noticed how team uniforms have changed over the past few years? Teams have been re-branding themselves--in some ways with new uniforms. TCU (Texas Christian University) are the horned frogs; their colors are purple and black. This year they have new black uniforms with purple highlights. Their new uniforms use the frog's scaly body armor as inspiration for patterned numbers, sleeves, gloves and helmets. Nike says the uniform's detailing is a "visual reminder of the 'bloodlines' and brotherhood of the team [and] creates a head to toe aesthetic from cleat to helmet."

Georgia Athletics, in collaboration with Nike, has a new department-wide brand identity system. The university and Nike looked at Georgia's primary identity (the "G" logo), their secondary identity (the bulldog logo), typography, and color palette. The university wanted a brand identity that was consistent in all areas of their athletic programs. Georgia's traditional Power "G" logo is the primary brand identifier and was fine tuned. Even their bulldog graphic has been updated to "reflect the strong, iconic characteristics of the animal itself as well as the spirit of The University of Georgia Athletics."

My favorite college football team, the Auburn Tigers, does not change its uniforms often. Auburn's colors are orange and blue with white used as an accent color.  Navy jerseys and white helmets have been the tradition since the 1960s. Their traditional "AU" logo has been used on the helmets since 1966.  Orange jerseys have only been worn three times since 1946. The university's new marketing campaign is "This is Auburn." According to the website, this marketing campaign "provides a flexible way to describe the many positive qualities contributing to the university as a whole."

How do we make sure our product or program is distinguished from the rest? I stumbled upon the importance of marketing during my years as a cheerleader coach. When I began coaching in the 1980s, cheerleading was a social activity; team members were even chosen by popular vote of the student body. As I grew as a coach and as the activity gained more attention, I saw this "social activity" evolve into a skilled athletic activity. I have a competitive personality, and this certainly worked well with encouraging my teams to continue to perfect their skills and enter cheerleading competitions. It was in the 90s that a choreographer opened my eyes to better marketing and branding of my teams.

When we think about high school mascots, we may think of tigers, bears, wildcats, panthers. In our area we have several schools with the same mascot; how does one "Wildcat" stand out from the other? Our cheerleading uniforms had always been enhanced with either EHS, CATS, or WILDCATS. EHS is a bit more distinctive, but which EHS--Elba High School, Etowah High School, or Enterprise High School--you see the problem. WILDCATS is even more generic--this gave us no distinctive branding. As our talent level increased, we were gaining more attention, but audiences only knew us as EHS or WILDCATS. This is where the choreographer helped us "brand" our team. He explained that by using ENTERPRISE on jackets, uniforms, etc., we would be more distinct and recognizable.

 

This made sense, so we entered into a process of informally branding our teams. This was not an easy process because it meant purchasing new cheer vests, warm-ups, and other clothing with the lettering ENTERPRISE. Trying to fit 10 letters across the front of a size 2 vest was a challenge. I remember a phone call from the manufacturer who said I would have lettering from arm pit to arm pit--didn't I want to shorten the name? Nope! The point was to have the entire name on our uniforms. As we bought into the branding process, we worked diligently to perfect "the look." This entailed uniform hair styles, hair bows, shoes--every uniform aspect was the same (actually that's the definition of uniform!). I knew we had accomplished our goal when I overheard a coach comment, "That must be Enterprise walking in the gym"--she had only seen my team from the side, but she knew by "the look" it must be Enterprise. We had been successful in our branding choices.

This branding process had unexpected benefits. I think we performed better with ENTERPRISE on the cheer uniforms. I know we behaved better when in public with ENTERPRISE CHEERLEADER on t-shirts and jackets. We weren't just representing a high school, we were representing our city. This bit of pride nudged us to work harder and perform better. We won several state and national championships while wearing ENTERPRISE, and I have to give some of the credit to the branding process.


In researching branding, I have found we can even brand ourselves. This may sound a bit strange, but this is becoming popular with professionals wishing to further their careers. This may also be important to keep your identity distinctive. There is a story about one young man who had excellent credentials, but his resumes were continually rejected. He learned that upon Googling his name, one of the top results was an article about a man with the same name who was a convicted sex offender. Peter Kistler is this man, and he co-founded BrandYourself to help people control what shows when their name is Googled. According to their website, 75% of HR departments are required to Google prospective employees. Their promise "is to make it as easy as possible to help anyone improve their own search results and online reputation."  I'm not advocating you use this service, but I do suggest you look into what appears when you Google your name. Have a friend Google your name. If you don't like the results, it is time to brand yourself. Suggestions from Nate C. Hindman include purchasing a domain that contains your name such as DebbieBracewell.com, building a personal website, using LinkedIn, Facebook, and/or Twitter to build a professional profile, and signing up for Google Alerts to let you know when your name is used in news articles or blog posts.

Branding is not new; however, with today's technology and the invasive nature of social media, it is something we should seriously consider in the world of business and in our professional lives. If we have too many slogans or logos, it may appear we don’t actually know our identity. If we haven’t changed our slogan or logo for a long while, it may appear we are too set in our ways to change. Whether you are branding yourself or your business, take out those logos or slogans, spiff them up so they send the message you want sent.

PIN IT TO WIN IT

The more I delve into digital technology, I more I realize how much there is to learn. This week I have been introduced to a new term in the social media and technology arena--crowdsourcing.  Crowdsourcing is not a new idea as it has been around for a few years. I have actually participated in crowdsourcing; I didn't know the terminology. Have you used beta software and reported problems back to the company? Have you contributed to a Wikipedia article? If the answer is yes, you have participated in crowdsourcing!

 Jeff Howe and Mark Robinson coined the term crowdsourcing in 2006 in an issue of Wired magazine. As they described, crowdsourcing represents the act of a company or institution taking a function once performed by employees and outsourcing it to an undefined (and generally large) network of people in the form of an open call.  We all know what outsourcing is, but crowdsourcing takes the idea further.  Instead of hiring workers in India or China, a company puts out a call for assistance, enlists their help with a problem, and pays a fee for the selected solution. Threadless is one such company. They put out a call for t-shirt designs, and their community of followers vote on selected designs. The winning designers receive $1500 (2006 figure) and $500 worth of gift certificates and t-shirts. Great idea! Threadless does not need a design department nor the equipment that goes with such a department. They operate with a smaller number of employees and get fresh design ideas daily. Their website boasts as of September 20, 2013: You've helped us pay $8,774,411 to over 1,200 artists worldwide. WOW! Imagine being able to boast that your design was selected for production and may be worn worldwide. This is a great way for beginning artists and designers to have their work noticed.

iStockphoto is another industry that has benefited from crowdsourcing. According to their website they began in 2000 to provide royalty-free photos. As we know, photography from professional photographers can cost $$$, but iStockphoto's do not. They began offering free pictures but later devised a payment plan that offers credits to use in purchasing photos at a nominal fee. According to their About Us page, anyone, anywhere can join us for free, find the digital media they need and sell original content of their own. This is crowdsourcing--an open call for contributions using a network of interested people. Anyone can apply to contribute material; check out their FAQ page for details on the application process and their payment schedule. Again, this is a great way for amateur photographers to sell photography and to have their pictures used around the world.

Have you seen the Dorito's Crash the Super Bowl Contest? This is an all call for creative consumers to make a Doritos commercial to be played during Super Bowl XLVIII. The company is asking for a 30-second commercial to feature the red or blue bag Doritos chips. Lots of prizes are offered to include money,  a trip to the super bowl, and the winning commercial will be aired. The rules to the contest are in a 16-page informational piece. This is a great opportunity for all creative consumers. For the winner and finalists, this could be a starting point for a lifelong career.

All of these are great opportunities for amateurs and for the companies. The companies save money and the amateurs have an opportunity to get noticed in a field in which they are interested. I can see the positives of using such a system, but negatives can also be seen. If I am a professional photographer, I would not be happy with iStockphoto's concept. Photography equipment is expensive as well as the training. Digital cameras have taken me out of the picture (no pun intended), and iStockphoto hinders my attempts to make a living. Another negative could be the time and employees needed to wade through all the submissions--whether t-shirt designs or photos. Someone has to sift through to find what is appropriate or desired. How is plagiarism prevented or found?  In the end, who owns the product and can the designer still include the design in a portfolio as a work sample? These are questions I have, and I haven't found the answers yet. But I do see many positives for both companies and creators.

Where does "PIN IT TO WIN IT" come in? Pinterest, of course! My favorite digital playground is Pinterest! Pinterest can be used as a crowdsourcing tool, especially for market research. In Pinterest Knows Your Customers Better Than You the author gives several examples of how to use Pinterest for research. One example describes a boutique clothing store owner using her personal account to pin clothing she was thinking about putting in her store. The number of re-pins gave her an idea of what might sell and what might not. Genius! Holding a contest on Pinterest is a great opportunity to see which products or ideas are popular. Nancy Messieh has several other ideas for promotion and research:

• Host a contest. Ask followers to pin photos of themselves using your product. The best picture wins a prize.
• If you are considering adding a new product, pin pictures of the new products and ask followers to re-pin their favorites. The number of re-pins gives you an idea of which product might be successful.
• Pin photos of your products and ask users to re-pin their favorites. Then randomly pick a user whose re-pining gained attention. This gives you, the shop owner or business owner, an opportunity to see what gains the most attention.
• If you are in a service industry, ask followers to pin pictures of themselves serving others through ways your group suggests or endorse.  

Like me, you are probably thinking of several more ways Pinterest can be used for crowdsourcing for your company. That's what makes Pinterest so much fun--we have a platform that can be used in so many different ways to support and promote our interests.

What I am learning through blogging about digital technology is that nothing is static--if something stays the same, it will fade away. Digital technology that evolves with its users will be with us for a while.

SIGN SIGN EVERYWHERE A SIGN

Sign Sign everywhere a sign

Blocking out the scenery breaking my mind

Do this, don’t do that, can’t you read the sign

This song by the 5 Man Electric Band relays what many of us think about the proliferation of advertising. Advertising is everywhere—signs on the fence at baseball fields, billboards dotting the highways, buses, race cars and pop-up advertising on websites. Advertising extends to branding college bowl games with the Capital One Bowl (formerly the Tangerine Bowl and the Florida Citrus Bowl), the Chick-fil-A Bowl (formerly the Peach Bowl), the Allstate Sugar Bowl (formerly Sugar Bowl which is played in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome). You can see the clever advertising angles here. What else is fair game for an advertising medium? Will we one day brand hurricanes, stars in the sky, newly found planets, etc.? 

In the current digital age, advertising has taken on new forms and means of reaching an audience, even a specific segment of an audience. Search advertising and digital display advertising are the top two forms of digital advertising, according to The State of the News Media 2013. This report predicts that by 2016, digital display advertising will be the top form of digital advertising. No surprise as to which search company leads in digital advertising—Google. Tibken, a writer for CNET News, reports that in the first half of 2012, Google made more money than all U.S. print media combined—at least $20.8 billion. To be fair, Google is a world-wide entity, but these numbers surely stand out as a testament to the popularity of digital advertising. An eMarketer report said that digital global advertising spending as a whole topped $100 billion in 2012 and predicts the next few years will see much growth.

From my readings and research I have learned that about 40% to 50% of adults own a smart phone. Those of us who do are familiar with some form digital advertising through the phone.  My WSFA weather app has banner advertising at the top that changes every time I open the app. My AP mobile app has banner advertising at the bottom. As noisome as these may be, we learn to live with them; they are part of the digital landscape. Smart phones have given advertisers a new frontier—location-based advertising. Our phones are mobile; they go with us from location to location. Why not have advertising that also goes from location to location—ads change to fit our surroundings. Adfonic’s Geo-location White Paper uses the terms geo-targeting, meaning a “geographically recognised region, such as a State or city” and ringfencing which is the ability to direct ads bases on a specific location such as retail outlet or hotel chain.  Many of us have used our phone’s navigation apps. We know we must turn on the GPS signal of our phone in order for the navigation app to locate the phone and direct us to our destination. On a recent trip to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, I found location-based ads appeared on several of my phone’s apps along with coupons for tourist attractions in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. Groupon, LivingSocial, and many other apps direct specials and coupons to our phones directed by our location.

Lauren Hockenson article, “Bright Lights, Big City,” has an overview of the latest in digital display options.  One of the coolest digital displays available are the displays that resemble a hologram—a virtual assistant display. Several of these are already in use at airports in Washington, D. C., Dubai, and Edinburgh. Tensator’s Virtual Assistants can be located in airports to assist passengers, retail locations to build sales, or anywhere to assist with information, guidance or purchase ideas. They speak any language, and motion sensors can be integrated so that the assistants are not continually repeating a message. Tensator says their Virtual Assistant is “completely customizable.” This brings audience entertainment as well as information--increasing sales and foot traffic. Casio has a Virtual Presenter that is described as an interactive display that is also “completely customizable.” Casio’s Virtual Presenter will run for almost ten years without taking a break! Wow! The uses for these virtual assistants seem unlimited.  

 Another type of digital display is one found on street corners—an intelligent lamppost. The developer of the lamppost, Ron Harwood, worked at Disney before developing his intelligent lamppost. Intellistreets is a lamppost with built-in signage and has the capability to alert passersby to possible safety concerns or directions. The lamppost has a camera and a microphone to sense problems in the area. The lamppost can play music, announcements, count pedestrian traffic, and, yes, it offers street lighting. Cities can install these not only to assist citizens, but also to sell advertising. There is some controversy about these being a "Big Brother" tool, but Howard says, "If you look at all the city services that could be accomplished wirelessly and all the budgets that are being accomplished to do these things, including gunshot detection and traffic cameras, we are layering costs that Intellistreets solves with one unit." These innovations take digital displays to new hieghts, and they offer an amazing technology.

I don’t know that anyone can predict where this technology will go in the next few years, but it is clear that our world has embraced digital technology and digital advertising. Remember our first mobile phones—those huge bag phones we lugged around? We thought those were the best invention! Now we use our smart phones as our mobile laptop computer. Personally, I can’t wait to see what’s next in the digital world!