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Overall, I thought the Video assignment was a breath of fresh air in relation to all the other presentation/paper assignments like in other classes. Even though it took a lot more work than a presentation it was more fun. It would have been better to have to cram less info into a short video, though. This took away from the quality of the analysis and recommendations part, in my opinion.

My team (The 296 Coolkatz) was awesome. Everyone was on board and making decisions were really easy. I thought we all worked really well together and everyone played equal parts in each assignment.

Lastly, I thought the previous assignments were really helpful in completing the final video project.

 

Cheers COMM 296

 

Cole OUT

“you can choose to do what’s in your heart, you can bring your real work to the world, instead of a lesser version, a version you think the market wants. After all, what do you have to lose?” –>Seth Godin’s post lit a little fire inside me

Do something you love. Do something you love. Do something you love.

My dad, who’s a retired CA, has driven those 4 words down my throat for ages and here I am at school without a damn clue as to what I should do in life. I’m not really interested in anything that has to do with the business world.

Let’s jot down my interests:

  • sports
  • drawing
  • painting
  • extreme sports (i want to fly in a wingsuit before i die)
  • nature
  • reading
  • and goofing off of course

I don’t really know where to go with my life, and honestly I don’t want to end up behind some desk writing a bunch of numbers down–what’s the point of living if I hate it? I’d rather be broke working odd jobs around the world skydiving or jumping off cliffs. It’s a little selfish of me I’ll admit because I do hope to one day have a family and raise my kids and my hobbies (or dreams) all require a decent amount of money, and basically the only way I can get a decent amount of money is with a good, stable job. When I have a good stable job, though, I won’t be out traveling or jumping off cliffs–I won’t have time for that because I’ll be locked down behind a desk, making money to give me a good post retirement. I don’t want to have a good post retirement–I want a good now. That’s my dilemma. I need to find something I’m really like doing and that I’m really good at so I can be happy my whole life not just post retirement.

Sorry for such a ramble.

Cole

I agree with Troy’s opinion that this is a very moving advertisement. It features an overweight kid struggling through a jog, backed by some British dude in the background telling us greatness is something we can all achieve–no matter who we are (here’s the link to Nike ad). The power and uniqueness of this ad brought back memories of a commercial I saw a while back about smoking and the effects it can have on you. Take a look:

YouTube Preview Image

It’s very hard to watch, but at the same time it’s impossible not to.

Something about both of these ads leaves me awestruck. Obviously, the latter is a lot more disturbing, but I think both ads get the consumer engaged and thinking, which is a marketing department’s primary concern. I can’t recall any other commercials in which I’ve been so engrossed, but if you know of any please comment the link!

Hey y’all,

Haven’t you ever dreamed of being one of those INSANELY popular kids on YouTube who gets hundreds of thousands of daily views on their videos and makes crazy bank doing it?? Well, maybe you have, or maybe you haven’t. I’m here to talk about what I think makes a successful YouTube channel.

There are quite a few different, yet important, factors, but here are the MOST important 3:

Content, Production, and Regularity (in order)

1. Content

Every successful YouTube channel you visit or video you watch HAS some sort of content that is, apparently, relevant to a LARGE number of people. You need to make videos about sh*t that matters. That could be creating mountain biking videos, critiquing popular products, repeatedly hurting yourself to make people laugh, being really, really good at something–literally, the possibilities are endless when it comes to this stuff. Put yourself in your customers’ position, so to speak. If you wouldn’t think your videos are interesting neither would they.

2. Production

Once you think you have a good, original idea for a set of videos (or video if you just want one viral video), then you HAVE to start thinking about making it more eye catching. PURCHASE (or illegally download) some video editing software for goodness sakes and buy a half decent camera! It’s pretty self explanatory……if your video looks half decent, and not super amateurish, then there is a greater chance more people are actually going to watch it.

3. Regularity

The last main point is Regularity. This entails making regular posts (ie weekly or monthly). YouTube is essentially the same thing as having a blog, except it’s on video and you can do wayyyy more things. The tough thing is though, you need to choose a topic to YouTube about that won’t get old and won’t go away. For example, you won’t be able to create and sustain a successful YouTube channel by chopping off a limb each week because you’ll having nothing more to YouTube about after you chop the last leg off (i bet that’d still be super popular haha *facepalm*).

All in all to sum this up, you need to be smart and original and have a good idea to create a successful channel. This sounds like marketing for a company doesn’t it? Uhhhhhhhhh yaaaaaaaaa duhhhhhhhhhhh THE SAME GOES FOR ANY COMPANY OR BUSINESS! I know I ripped on Marketing as a degree in my last post; however, I still think it is vital for company’s success.

Coleeberr out.

ps. sorry this post is so short I could literally write a 5000 word paper because there’s a sh*t tonne of stuff to yak about

pps here’s some dope videos you should check out (the biking video is my cousin’s video he filmed and edited)

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/McCaul-and-Rheeder-Afterhours-video-2013.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3luc-03ZJuU

 

 

 

First of all, let me say I have nothing–I repeat–NOTHING against marketing, or any other intended major or specialization.

I googled “why marketing is a useless major” to confirm the theory, which I keep hearing all around me, that having a marketing degree is USELESS. Here are some responses (each paragraph is a separate response):

You get a job in fields with “soft” job requirements like marketing by either attending a name-brand university or thru having had internships (paid or unpaid). It would be nice if we lived in a world where everyone was looked at fairly, but we don’t. Kids from Stanford, Ivies, etc. are going to have a leg up for jobs in areas like Marketing because employers feel like they’re taking less of a chance when they hire someone already certified as being at the top by virtue of getting accepted to schools like that (and heck, they might have even learned something while there!). For the rest, resumes with Marketing majors are a dime-a-dozen. To stand out you need to have practical experience so that they think that you know what the job really entails, and so they can call your internship supervisor and have them rave about what a wonderful job you did.

Agree. I have been a marketing communications professional for 25 years, for technology companies. When there is a corporate takeover, merger, or downsizing, the FIRST fired are the marketing people. Choose a “hard” major.

clearly the only useful major is engineering and everything else is trash

I agree that every college major is completely useless. Engineering, business, science…none have a single bit of relevance to anything in the real world. The average engineer these days is only going to use their degree to fix their kids bike. Chemistry? Might be helpful when you’re making another mix drink to feed your raging alcoholism that developed as a result of the lack of employability. Physics? Med school? All of them are dead fields. College is pointless…everyone should drop out.

And my favourite:

If you insist on staying in school, I recommend majoring in basket weaving and quilting. At least it gives you a product to sell. I think that’s going to be my new major.

Basically, lots of sites and posts I’ve come across have recommended getting a “hard”, or a quantitative, degree since it gives you a specific skill set and shows how you would be an actual asset to the company. Marketing and entrepreneurship, to name a couple, are very “airy-fairy”, broad specializations with no real, hard skills (however it could be argued) to show your skillset, so companies are more reluctant to invest and take a gamble on someone with “real world common sense”.

It all depends on what you’re into, basically. Whether you want a guaranteed job, like most people who intend to specialize in accounting, or because, somehow, you absolutely love adding up numbers and balancing equations. Personally, I f*cking hate accounting (I hate pretty much all business courses–the intro ones mostly); however, given the job situation it would not be a bad idea for me to at least start out in accounting or finance or the like.

THAT IS if i get the 72% or whatever average I need. Damnit.

OUT

 

 

 

There’s skinny, and then there’s impossibly skinny.

The photos below were taken directly off of a Ralph Lauren website a few years ago.

Comparing the two photos side by side [altered photo on the left], we can see considerable differences in the two pictures. Shoulder to waist comparison in the retouched photo reveal an alien-like figure. GROSS.

These pictures are not new, nor did I discover them; I am simply using them for their ‘wtf’ factor, which brings me to today’s topic: unethical marketing.

First off, let’s talk about the modelling/clothing industry.

Almost every sign in every store or tv ad features a girl who is perfectly shaped, has perfect skin, perfect hair, and perfect everything else. Some of these advertisements include hair products, skin cream, clothes, etc. Valentina Zelyaeva, the Ralph Lauren model in these photos, looked to be already ultra skinny judging from the ‘unaltered’ version. Why on God’s earth would they take to airbrushing it to make her look skinnier?! The answer will forever remain unknown. Maybe it has to do with huge self-image problem we face today.

Unethical or just plain weird? Both I’d say. There is a huge anorexia problem in today’s society. In America One in 200 American women suffers from anorexia and 2-3 in 100 women suffer from bulimia. It is reported that 5 – 10% of anorexics die within 10 years after contracting the disease; 18-20% of anorexics will be dead after 20 years and only 30 – 40% ever fully recover.

The whole fashion/modelling industry is unethical in my opinion. It is lowering women’s self esteem to the point they think they need to stop eating to be accepted. This is an ongoing issue that has to change. How you ask? I don’t know. We can only speculate and suggest ideas like creating laws or such insane notions. Unfortunately, skinny is what we like so I don’t see any change happening. Maybe in the future self image will go back to how it was when lots of curves were good; where everyone had a little more cushion for the pushin’. Personally, I like a little meat on the bones.

Okay so I Googled craziest companies and came across an article which was featured on Forbes. It is then I learned about Talk O’clock; “The ‘social alarm clock’ with the tagline: ‘Let a stranger wake you up.’ Intrigued? I thought so.

Anyhow, so I registered, created my account, and now I only have to wait until 9:25 the next morning to receive a call from some stranger. He or she can literally be from across the world!

I realize that this is a little weird, and maybe expensive (I’m not quite sure if international, long-distance charges apply), but I may continue to use this site if it works because I cannot, for the life of me, wake up in the mornings. I’m sure there are more of you hit-the-snooze-button-15-times-type of people out there, and, if so, I would encourage you to try this site.

It’s pretty revolutionary if you ask me. SO revolutionary, in fact, that you can request to be called from either a man, woman, or automated robot. I requested a woman…..let’s hope it’s not some perverted lunatic who clicked the ‘F’ when selecting gender….

I shall post a comment to this blog to see whether I had a pleasant experience or not…

This is a response to Trevor Melanson’s blog.

popekissingimamWellllllllllllll, I think the picture says it all. On the left is “Pope Benedict XVI passionately kissing top Egyptian imam Ahmed Mohamed el-Tayeb,” who is on the right.

More of a publicity stunt than anything, United Colors of Benetton used this picture as part of their ‘UnHate’ marketing strategy. The Vatican’s subsequent announcement to take legal action only made the matter worse for itself, however.

In the ad business, it’s called earned media. A company does something newsworthy and journalists write about it and people talk about it. It is also known as the Streisand Effect.

As Trevor Melanson put: “The Vatican appears to have Streisanded itself.”

It’s certainly interesting and eye-catching, but does it help your company? In my opinion, it may get people talking about your company for a short while, similar to your “15 minutes of fame”, but it won’t keep people talking about your company. According to a BusinessWeek article, Vivek Wadhwa says the secret to getting attention is “you have to have a compelling message then make sure that the right audience hears it.”

Here’s another picture for your enjoyment:

Unhate

 

Since I’ve been at UBC I’ve become a coffee regular. All I can say is thank God UBC included Starbucks and Timmy’s on my meal card because otherwise I’d be broke-er than I already am.

I am writing in response to COMM 101’s Blog on the Keurig Single Cup Coffee Maker.

The Keurig system brews a single cup of gourmet coffee in under a minute, completely avoiding the hassle of selecting and grinding beans, measuring coffee, and cleaning up afterwards.

When I read this I immediately looked up the price of the Keurig coffee maker and its ‘k-cups’. The ‘Elite Collection‘ runs you about $160 and a k-cup box (24 coffees) runs for about $17–a pretty modest price for a gourmet coffee maker if you ask me. Doing some simple math on what my would-be spending for this year at average 1 coffee/day:

Starbucks: $720 on coffee!?!?!!?!?!?!!??!?!  HOLY %$#*

Keurig: $290

That’s a pretty considerable difference if you ask me, as well the $160 is a one-time expense.

I think Keurig has done well to create an instantaneous, low-hassle, gourmet coffee. It’s very appealing to cheap, on the go, lazy people like me.

Can you say Christmas present? 🙂

 

So why is Black Friday called Black Friday anyways? Well, Black Friday signifies the official start of the Christmas shopping season. It is the day after the American Thanksgiving, and to celebrate, stores hold massive sales. The term ‘Black’ describes the insanity of the day. Traffic jams, mobs of blood-thirsty shoppers and sometimes even violence all occur as a result of ‘Black Friday’.

In more recent years, an alternative to going out and physically partaking in the mad crawl of Black Friday has emerged; ONLINE SHOPPING!

While the savings from online shopping may not be as great as actually going out to stores, it is a pretty sexy alternative since it involves, literally, no physical activity (hallelujah!)—PLUS the deals are only going to increase as online shopping becomes more and more popular.

Surely, sometime in the future online shopping will replace traditional shopping. It may not be as ‘fulfilling’ for some people, but really who cares about fulfillment when you can save money and time by shopping online.

This also removes traffic jams and angry mobs from the picture.

…..wait, is an online mob possible?

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