Troy Holmes' Blog

My Comm 296 team this term was a pleasure to work with. The 5 of us got along very well and were very clear on what we wanted to accomplish for the term. Starting from day one we set out goals that we wished to achieve and I believe that we did meet them. Starting from our first group meeting, we were punctual and collaborative in discussion to ensure that we were efficient with our project but at the same time achieve a good mark.

Our assignments went well, we hoped to achieve a higher mark with our first one, but we improved with assignment 2 and will hopefully improve further with our assignment 3.

As for assignment 3 itself, I really enjoyed the assignment. Even though most of it was new to us (video producing and editing) it was a challenge that some of my group members were ready to tackle (good thing too, since I am not good with computers at all). I really like the freedom with which we were allowed to have with the assignment.

I believe we came up with a simple yet clever way to convey our video in, and it came out really well! Our video has all the required parts and goes into the key points/recommendations very well.

I really enjoyed Assignment 3, and that can be largely attributed to being a part of such a great team!

This is by far the best commercial I have ever seen, who else but Nike, the king of marketing, to put together an advertisement like this.

Nike is arguably the biggest professional athlete supporter in the entire world, rivalled only by Gatorade and adidas. From Tiger Woods to Lebron James, Nike supports every huge athlete that they can get their hands on. And that works, the athletes wear their products, people like myself see that, then want to get the same athletic gear as those that we look up to in sports.

But with this ad, Nike strikes a new cord. Its originality is unrivalled to me. The advertisement is so powerful, it not only takes away from the same old stuff showing an athlete doing amazingly athletic things, it shows that Nike is more than just a company that can sell you a product, but one that can help you achieve true greatness, whether it be becoming Pro, or losing some weight.

I truly enjoy this ad, it really captured my attention when I first saw it, I then rewound the show I was watching and watched it again. Never has an ad done that to me before.

So I applaud Nike on this ad, it shows they have a heart, and have truly believe that we can all achieve greatness, in our own way!

PS: And just for having such an awesome ad, I am going to shamelessly throw up some Nike Ads below (BECAUSE IT’S FREE, EFFORTLESS AND EFFECTIVE!!!!) – read my post below for my outlook on the internet and its marketing abilities.

This is where you can see the original post:

Cadbury’s Crave-Worthy Pile of Candy Keeps It Real

I do not normally get to interested in Marketing, as I feel it is mostly more about having good ideas than having good skills, BUT the new wave of marketing through social media and the infinitely powerful internet interests the hell outta me!!

This little ad by Cadbury is so simple, like it literally can’t get any simpler, YET IT WORKS!! To just upload a crappy low resolution of candy bars to a social media site, somehow can impact those whom come across it, which can drive one to crave one of those delicious purple chocolate bars.

It worked on me, when I came across it all I wanted to do was put my jacket on and trudge to the corner store in the rain, but my laziness won the battle with my stomach. Back to the ad itself, or wait, I don’t even think it qualifies as being called an “ad”. But it sure is!

Cadbury may have not intended the picture to be used as an advertisement, but it definitely turned out to be one. I am sure it drove some kind of craving into those who saw it, and at what cost???!!! NO COST AT ALL. This picture cost nothing to take, and nothing to put online, and yet it certainly drove up some sales due to the cravings it can induce and the impulses it created.

That it was intrigues me about Marketing, because of the new wave of the internet and the “constantly being ‘plugged in’ generation”, marketing has suddenly become a very cheap cost to a companies balance sheet. ITS SO CHEAP AND EFFORTLESS. Compared to the high production cost of TV Ads, the internet wins hands down as being the go to medium for marketing products/services.

I am so impressed with companies these days with their marketing schemes and I anticipate the marketing on the internet to blow up even more so than it already has!!!

So I came across Cole’s post and it really got me thinking and then I realized he had a very valid point.

His original post can be seen here: https://blogs.ubc.ca/cole/2013/02/25/why-marketing-is-a-useless-degree/

First off, I have for a while known that I will be going into Accounting with a concentration in Entrepreneurship. I am one of the lucky ones to be so confident in what I want to do with my degree here at Sauder, and I realize that there are numerous peers and fellow classmates of mine that do not know what they want to do.

But since first year, I have been surprised with the percentage of students that do enter the Marketing Specialization. To myself, it seems to be a very saturated area of business, where the amount of those looking for marketing jobs greatly outnumber the number of available jobs. This, to me, is the most discerning thing about being in Marketing. I know that I am using my university degree as a way to get me a good job and to start my career, Marketing does not strike me to have that ability compared to Accounting or Finance.

Like Cole, I DO NOT have anything against marketing, it is incredibly important and can either make or break a company in some cases. But what I do have against marketing is that it has oversold itself as a Sauder option. In my opinion, the top three specializations should be Finance, Accounting and General Business. General Business gives you a well rounded student, whom can be ready for almost anything in the workplace, and also if you are a General Business student, you can apply to an incredible amount of jobs, whereas a Marketing specialization can look constricting on a resume.

I completely agree with Cole on his post, and praise him for being very gentle about a controversial subject, but I also praise him for his bravery.

All in all, Marketing at Sauder has too many people in it, all wanting an job at Lululemon, BUT IT ISN’T GOING TO HAPPEN FOR 99.999% of them! Instead go into General Business and be asset in all aspects of a companies portfolio!!!!!

So its the day after St. Patrick’s Day, and while pondering the possibility of maybe getting out of bed for more Advil, I realized that I was one of millions of people to fall victim to the greatest marketing ploy by a beer company.

One cannot think of St. Patrick’s Day without picturing a pint of Guinness, it is literally the equivalent of roses and Valentines Day. And just like roses in the beginning of February, the price of Guinness wasn’t exactly kind to my wallet yesterday. After voluminous amounts of the stuff, the weight of my wallet clearly transferred to lots of weight in my stomach. But one cannot complain too much.

Guinness does taste good, and it does really make the experience of St. Patrick’s Day a lot better, which is why I am so impressed with their marketing team.

They successfully made themselves the equivalent marketing ploy of roses on V-Day and diamonds for women. I do not know how they managed to do it, and convince everyone that they NEED to drink Guinness, but they did. I was seeing girls that don’t drink beer double-fisting the black pints, just because they felt the need to do so.

And the very best part about Guinness is that every wants their posters!

I am thinking next year they should release posters to be bought by the public, not just people having to ‘borrow’ them from pubs.

Guinness has successfully moved itself as the go-to drink for the most popular drinking day of the year, and has also brought with it a reputation that even non-beer drinkers want to be a part of.

So next time, ditch the house beer and green food colouring, and be like me and suffer the financial and health problems of plenty of Guinness!!!!

Recently, Reebok launched a small ad campaign in Germany. The ad was mainly posted in workout gyms and facilities that were owned by Reebok. The ad is a very simple picture (below) that reads: “Cheat on your girlfriend, not your workout.”

Clearly this ad was aimed for males about 18 to 30 years of age. And what is even more clear is why girls don’t like it. The ad literally tells men to cheat on their partners with other people. Their has been countless backlashes against Reebok, coming from individual bloggers to activist groups. Reebok claims that its ad was not a part of a world-wide campaign and that it was certainly only intended to be used in a select few locations in Germany. But with the wonders of the internet and the speed of social media, the campaign has been seen by people across the world.

This ad has been brought down at the locations in which it was at, but it is too late for Reebok. The damage has already been done, I am not sure if the “funny” male-orientated ad helped increase Reebok’s popularity among men, but I can definitely be sure that it has decreased the popularity of Reebok among women. And rightly so, this ad has no class and Reebok should pay the price for such an awfully planned and unethical campaign.

Large companies like Reebok should be better than this. Its mind boggling, even as a male, that this ad was actually printed. Beside the adultery-encouraging phrase, lies the Reebok logo with its new “The Sport of Fitness Has Arrived” slogan. With such a positive slogan encouraging fitness, among both sexes, Reebok really ruined its chance in capturing the female demographic.