For this post I created a PowerPoint presentation that describe what my blog is about and what kind of things I have posted.

You can find the file for the PowerPoint presentation by clicking here.

On November 19th, 2009, the “Parisian Love” video was uploaded to Google’s official Search Stories YouTube channel. It was then later shown during the 2010 Super Bowl XLIV as part of its commercial line up. The video was basically advertising Google’s easy to use search engine through a story of a guy trying to find love in France by searching for things like “How to find a job in Paris” and “How to impress a French girl.” The video received more than 7 million views over the past years just online.

What makes this advertisement so good? Well the answer is that it’s simple and sends a clear message to the audience. Much like the search engine itself the video was trying to show how easy it is to use Google search engine. Results come out fast and the results are clear for the user. Google is a corporation that works on other services and products but what it showed from this advertisement is that they wanted to go back to their roots and define what it originally was, a search engine.

Even though their advertisement was highly praised, I do believe there were some not so good parts of the advertisement. I didn’t really like the overall story they were using as well as the music in the video. Everything seemed too cheesy and cliche of a guy trying to find his love through the help of the internet. I understood the overall message Google was trying to use on how they help “push” people’s lives but they could of used another concept even simpler like a story of a guy wanting to make a model airplane. The guy would search Google for supplies, price, locations and guides on building a model airplane.

Also Google needs to step it up a notch with the idea of bringing perks to using their search engine. One of their biggest competitors for internet search engine is Microsoft’s Bing. The Parisian Love advertisement was obviously also aimed at Microsoft’s Bing search engine and how they are clearly much better than their competitors. However, recently Bing created a reward system for users using their search engine (video below). By using Bing the user gains points that they are allowed to use to receive gift cards for things such as Amazon.com and Fandango and other items. Google needs to create something for their search engine before their competitors such as Bing and Yahoo pass them in the future as better online search engine to use.

In the future I hope to work in the advertisement industry and help develop new advertisements for different brands. Whether it will be a short video advertisement or a billboard advertisement that I helped create, my creativity will help them shine. However, before I gain this so called “creativity” I need some inspiration from other people and their works in the advertising industry. I believe that creativity doesn’t fall down easily in ones mind and that a person needs to see other people’s works in order to get that extra push in creating their own ideas and style. Luckily for me I live in New York City where advertisements are everywhere and I can get inspiration whenever I walk outside. In addition, going to different museums around the city can help me understand different people’s sense of style from their work and help inspire me to create my own style and approach in making an advertisement. Website blogs relating to advertisements can also help give me inspiration.

Picture of outside the MoMa from Creative Commons

Whenever I go to a museum in the city it would always be days that I am free and have nothing better to do. I would wake up early in the morning and look through different museum websites in the city and see what exhibits that are showing on that particular day. I would then decide to go to the museum that catch my interest and would look furtehr through the website what other exhibits I can see while there. I particularly enjoy going to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMa). Going to MoMa I would usually ride the F train line and stop at 57th St. Then I would walk down to 53rd St where the MoMa is at. Being a City Tech student I am lucky to not have to pay in order to enter the museum. I would go to the museum and just show my student ID at the information center to get in for free. After that I would head first to the exhibits that I want to look at and then if I have time I would walk around MoMa to look at various other people’s works that I didn’t originally had my eyes on upon entering because I would sometimes find a person’s work to be amazing despite not having any interest in them when I entered the museum.

Furthermore, looking at different advertising blogs online can also give me inspiration. As I come home from visiting a museum I would often surf the web to look at different advertisements. One particular website I enjoy looking for inspiration is Ibelieveinadv. This website is a blog that posts different advertisements everyday. It is very easy on the eyes and navigating the website is very easy to look through past posts. In addition, each advertisement whether it is a video or poster has credentials in order to know what agency worked on the advertisement and what product or brand the advertisement focused on. It may seem that looking at advertisements and people’s art works a whole day can be exhausting, but I find it enjoyable and helps mend my own creativity for developing an advertisement in the near future.

This post will be a continuation from my last post for my series about Advertisements in New York City, specifically in the area of SoHo and Chinatown.

If we look at certain advertisements specifically in these areas we can understand why they attract to certain groups of people. A common advertisement seen in these areas can be an Apple product. Many consumers walking in these areas want to buy the latest electronic gear. Apple has been successful in attracting many people to buy latest product. One of their latest products is an iPad mini. You can see a billboard their advertisement of it located right between Canal and Baxter St, which is a location right between SoHo and Chinatown. The advertisement is appealing for consumers because of its simplicity. The billboard just shows a hand holding an iPad mini skewed to the right on a white back ground. People can interpret from this how portable and small the iPad mini is. The only text is the product name “iPad mini” on the top left corner so we exactly know what they are adverting. Long time users of Apple products and people who never used an Apple product can understand easily what they are trying to advertise.

Photograph of an Ipad billboard I took between Chinatown and SoHo

In conclusion I believe advertisements in New York City are a marketing strategy used by advertisers to promote their goods and services to the consumers. Advertisers have to look at the location and the demographic in that area in order to determine whether it is appropriate for their advertisement to be there. Successful advertisements benefit the advertisers but encourage a desire for products which people do not actually need. Many of these advertisements idealize aspect of life and culture that we would want to have. As Don Draper from Mad Men has said best “advertising is based on one thing: happiness“. Advertisements are everywhere in New York City and they supply us with products and services that we will be happy with in our daily lives.

This post will be a continuation from my last post for my series about Advertisements in New York City, specifically in the area of SoHo and Chinatown.

In Chinatown there are various advertisements written in Chinese that help Chinese people in their daily lives. For example advertisements such as for health care and TV service are shown in Chinatown for people to see. One of the latest service advertisements shown in Chinatown can be one for a certain Chinese cable channel called “TVB”. This advertisement is shown on a big billboard between Canal and Bowery St right on top of a local Buddhist temple and bus service department. People walking by can easily see the billboard and might be interested in getting a Chinese channel from dish network. The text is written in Chinese and there is a number that they can contact in order to get the channel. Advertisements in Chinatown cater more Chinese people because they are more populated in that area.

Photograph I took of a TVB billboard in Chinatown

Desires and needs are one of the features people look at in an advertisement. They question themselves whether they truly need a something based off an advertisement. Furthermore, certain advertisements are displayed to attract a lifestyle that people desire to have. There are advertisements in both Chinatown and SoHo that show these types of advertisements. These advertisements appeal to many kinds of people whether they are tourist or a consumer. For example in Chinatown between Canal and Centre St, there is an advertisement that talks about a casino located near JFK airport. People desire to be rich and one way is playing in a casino. This casino is nowhere near Chinatown. The reason why it’s put here is because of how populated the location is in. Tourist and locals here can be attracted to such advertisement because of how simple and informative it is. It explains that there is a casino in New York City and that it’s just “Minutes away”, but in reality it’s a few train stops away. An advertisement like these attracts one’s current lifestyle and wishing for it to become a better one.

Photograph I took of a Casino promotion billboard in Chinatown

This post will be a continuation from my last post for my series about Advertisements in New York City, specifically in the area of SoHo and Chinatown.

Advertisements seen in a consumer populated area can be ones where they focus on selling clothes. In SoHo there are many trendy clothing stores that people can go into and buy. Many of these stores advertise their clothes on posters and billboard in SoHo. For example Calvin Klein is one common store that always has a billboard advertising their latest clothes between East Houston and Lafayette St. Their latest billboard shows a male and female model wearing the latest Calvin Klein clothes. The billboard being mostly shades of orange and brown portrays a theme of autumn and that these clothes are meant for the fall season. There is also text in the center skewed to the left of where the models are at displaying “Calvin Klein Jeans”. People who look at this billboard can clearly see what they are trying to sell. They make consumers who look at this billboard think that by buying their clothes they can live the sexy and fashionable lifestyle as the models in the billboard. This type of advertisement attracts the desires of wanting to live in a style similar to what they are seeing in the billboard.

Photograph I took of a Calvin Klein billboard in SoHo

SoHo also has advertisements that attract people to live a certain lifestyle. There is one billboard located between Houston and Lafayette St that advertises a clothing store called REI. This store sells outdoor gear and clothing for consumers when they go hiking, skiing or other outdoor recreation. What is appealing about their advertisement is their wall of text “All the gear you need to get out this winter”. With the various pictures of winter outdoor activities they make the consumer want to live a lifestyle of fun during the winter. They make the buyers want to buy their gear so that they can enjoy the lifestyle seen from their billboard pictures of people doing things like skiing and hiking with their gear.

Photograph I took of an REI billboard in SoHo

I just wrote an interesting guest post on my Stephany Gonzalez’s blog. I related her blog’s idea of face painting and how it can be incorporated in advertisements. Check it out!

This post will be a continuation from my last post for my series about Advertisements in New York City, specifically in the area of SoHo and Chinatown.

When we look at advertisements in SoHo and Chinatown we wonder what type of people they are aiming at. Demographics play a big role when advertising in these locations. Let’s look at SoHo; an area that is known for many artists and art galleries, now has many varieties of stores and shops ranging from trendy boutiques to outlets of upscale national and international chain stores. While being a residential area for many different artists as well as middle to upper class people, it also became a commercial area. SoHo quickly shifted into becoming a consumer area where people often go to buy stuff that they desire and need in their daily lives. The sidewalks in this area are often crowded with tourists and with vendors selling jewelry, t-shirts, and other works, sometimes leaving no space for pedestrians. You will see many different advertisement posters and billboards relating to certain stores in SoHo such as Calvin Klein, Uniqlo and Apple. Advertisements here are more aimed at people who want to buy and waste their money on various things and services that are located in SoHo.

Consumers lining up for a sale in SoHo taken from creativecommons

Just a few blocks south of SoHo will lead us to Chinatown. This is another populated location where you will see many forms of advertisements plastered in this area. Furthermore, demographics also play a part in what advertisements will appear in this location. Like SoHo, Chinatown is both a residential and commercial area. The main difference is that it is more Chinese populated. There are some tourists walking around Chinatown in order to visit the many different Chinese oriented stores and restaurants. Advertisements seen in this location will cater to many different groups. There will be advertisements written in Chinese in order to focus on the Chinese population in Chinatown. Also there are advertisements that are written in English so that they will appeal to the tourist who come to Chinatown. Many of these tourist-aimed advertisements are there so that they can know what services are provided there.

Pedestrians walking in Chinatown markets taken from creativecommons

Photograph of one location in Chinatown taken from Creative Commons

Advertisements are everywhere in New York City. Many advertisements in the city are placed in certain locations in order to attract a key group. If you look at SoHo, an area filled with trendy clothing stores and boutiques, you will definitely see billboards advertising popular products. However, not all advertisements are successful in certain locations. You will not see a big advertisement in SoHo pertaining to a new Chinese cable provider. Instead, that type of advertisement would be better placed in Chinatown, an area that is Chinese populated. Advertisements in New York City specifically those in SoHo and Chinatown are completely different due to the fact that they are aimed at certain demographics and cater to their specific desires or needs in those areas.

Photograph of one location in SoHo taken from Creative Commons

In this 5 part series I will be specifically explaining about:

• Demographics in the two areas
• Advertisements placed in SoHo
• Advertisements placed in Chinatown
• My conclusion

In order to get used to blogging I had to write about one of the blogging topics suggested by from Chris Brogan’s brainstorming ideas post from his blog.

What sets social media campaigns apart from traditional media campaigns? Well it allows for something that’s never been available to businesses using traditional marketing in the past. Social media campaigns allows you to connect, educated and create an ongoing dialogue with your target audience. By traditional media campaigns, I mean books, newspapers, magazines, radio, TV, printed advertising such as flyers, brochures, billboards, posters. Now, many of the tools used in traditional marketing – advertising, public relations, content marketing, contests and promotions – are also used in social media marketing.