be your digital best / digital marketing philippines

Mad Men "The Other Woman"

noreply@blogger.com (bea) — Thu, 31 May 2012 15:38:00 +0000

One of the best things about our industry is the passing on of craft. We don't learn a set of skills, or end up with physical products. Ours is a craft of mind shape and form.

It takes brilliant mentors to master and then teach young padawans how to wade through intangibles and abstracts, how to find, shape and sharpen thoughts. It takes mad and passionate visionaries to show us how to weave logic and leaps of creativity into ideas that can be turned into words and pictures that start conversation, sell products, and once in awhile maybe even change how people do things.

I rarely feel like Mad Men acurately captures our industry. There isn't nearly that much alcohol, nobody dresses in suits, all of the AE's are girls and there are no planners. But Don and Peggy are a mentor and protege that remind me of those who have been my teachers in our crazy world.

I had an idea once of writing a show about advertising and the pilot was going to be young account executives, creatives and strategists trying to quit. It is so hard to quit!

The most acurate part of Mad Men could be having "Mad" in the title becuase it hurts so much to do what we do - the hours, the politics, the people-pleasing, the crappy bosses, the bad briefs, the low pay, the mental blocks. It is insane and it drives me crazy. But learning from the best has always been great incentive. I haven't always had good teachers, but I've had great ad mentors.

Some bosses have shown me what it means to be a business leader and not just a boss. Some have shown me how not to get screamed at by co-workers. Some have taught me how to think and leap harder, faster, better, stronger.

I love what I do and the playground that has been created for us. I love having found my life's work in a group of crazies. I hate that we need to move on sometimes, but there are always people we need to learn from and teach.

This episode was insane. Joan is crazy and awesome. There was a pitch! Megan asked Don about the strategy! Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce finally presented something at the client's office! They won. And Peggy got a job offer from another agency.

Mad Men maybe finally hit on something that is so advertising, the fluidity of movement within our industry. I guess I haven't really maximized this myself, but it is who we are. Hello, Goodbye.

Superhero Content Planning

noreply@blogger.com (bea) — Sun, 13 May 2012 15:29:00 +0000

This movie was so awesome that even my mom, who rarely comes with us to the movie house, saw it twice.

What I thought was pretty remarkable was how the story was so well-paced even if there are so many main characters to keep track of, the entire Avenger team of Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, Thor, Black Widow and Hawkeye, plus Nick Fury, Phil and bad guy Loki.

In other ensemble films with so many backstories to establish (Valentine's Day, anyone?) character development usually suffers. But Avengers pulled it off without a hitch and the film was able to focus on the task at hand - a story of different super-personalities coming together to form a team.

This was executed flawlessly through good screenwriting in this film, but more importantly through careful content planning that was several years in the making.

Iron Man (2008) was the first Marvel film in this set (I mean those with characters that they included in this Avengers movie), with Nick Fury making a cameo at the end to ask Iron Man to consider "The Avengers Initiative".

Shortly after the release of Iron Man 2 in 2012 producers announced the entire Avengers cast, but it took two years to release the first film installment.

During that time producers were busy establishing the other team members - Black Widow had already made her debut in Iron Man 2, and in 2011 Captain America and Thor (along with Hawkeye) were launched in their own films. That left only Hulk to be introduced in Avengers, and the end-result was an awesome ensemble film.

Even if it isn't exactly the same as branding, there are good principles we can draw from this in terms of Content Planning: Some stories are best told from different points of view. It's ok to spread content in a non-linear fashion, and over different executions - and content can be crafted so that viewers enjoy even the "setup" bits.

Mostly, this shows how much it helps to have the end in mind - what story ultimately needs to be told and what is the best way to get there. To give us a clue how far ahead producers are planning, Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury contract is for nine films (not counting the first Iron Man), which means we've got five more to go!

good job

noreply@blogger.com (bea) — Sat, 05 May 2012 10:01:00 +0000

Yesterday was a great day.

I've sort of fallen in brand love. That is, I handle a brand that I've come to really care for. It is an old brand that has started to feel a little clunky and truth be told, it has fallen on tough times. It is still a moneymaker for now, but little cracks are starting to show. They aren't so obvious yet, but if my loved brand doesn't think carefully about space, position and identity, the cracks will become holes and end up a leaking bucket.

I've had a gut feel for awhile about where I think this brand needs to go, what it needs to stand for to close the tiny cracks. People love this brand, I think, because of what it has meant to them over the years, not because of a clear identity that has been built over the years. But this brand still has equity and gravitas. And I've had a feeling that we could think this through for them and help its brand managers rediscover its potential.

As a digital "specialist" agency, however, we don't often get to present total brand points-of-view. Our job is usually amplification of executions that an ATL agency has already done. To be honest we don't often agree with their approach, but it has been slow going gaining credibility to show that we can think brand, too, and that we think differently. But digital planners need to be as proficient as traditional agency planners at brand-level matters, because brands come to life on digital, 24/7, in-depth, on-demand. Whether we ask them to or not, consumers become co-brand managers who comment, create and project brand identity. And brands that don't have a strong sense of self could end up getting lost.

Yesterday we finally got our shot to share a piece of our dream for this brand, a starting point to where we could take it. We delivered a think piece that was little over the ask, but our client bought in to it and reflected on the critical questions we raised. In the end they thanked us for one of the best takes and understandings of the brand that they'd ever heard.

I was so happy, proud and felt so validated to have gotten to share something that I think will really help this beloved brand. We'll have to wait and see where this piece of thinking brings our agency but yesterday was a good day, that reminded me of the important role planners play in the communication process.

We are engineers of space in mind, of vision and brand dreams, of relevance and clarity. We are architects of identity, principles, value and personality. We are designers of form and action. In terms of discipline nobody else can or cares to do what we do. And I love that I love to do this.

Yesterday was a great day.

Generation X&Y: The Analog-Digital Straddlers

noreply@blogger.com (bea) — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 16:12:00 +0000

This may never happen again.

As children my cousins and I built castles, houses and fortresses out of couch cushions. We played make-believe games like Office-Office, House-House and Doctor-Doctor (or a variation, Nurse-Nurse). We would put together props - secretary stations for Office, clean-up kits for House, doctor bags (complete with fake syringes) for Doctor/Nurse. I even put homemade library cards on our books when we wanted to play Library-Library. And it was always more fun to play the subordinate part - the maid instead of the house owner or the secretary instead of the boss, because you got to play with the tools. And whomever was the guest got to choose their part first, because that is what we were taught it meant to be a good host.

We used to spend hours playing board games. Each of our houses had, besides the usual Barbies, Cabbage Patch Kids and My Little Ponies, entire closets of board games. My family was especially into educational board games; some of our favorites were By Jove and Wildlife Adventure.

Even more popular than games at our house were books. My siblings and I grew up with the children's classics - Green Eggs & Ham, Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, Stone Soup, Tikki Tikki Tembo, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Harold and the Purple Crayon, Goodnight Moon, and so many more. We eventually moved up to bigger-kid books, like The Berenstein Bears, then Cam Jansen and Nate the Great. We soon reached Nancy Drew and The Three Investigators. All hard copies.

We watched TV of course, but mom limited our viewing hours by putting our only set in their room. Episodes of our favorite TV shows like Jem and the Holograms were limited, so channels replayed season after season and we were happy to watch them over and over.

Movies were only available as rentals from our neighborhood shop. I remember running my finger up and down wooden shelves with slots perfectly sized for Betamax tapes, later resized for VHS tapes. Eventually the shelves turned into racks for huge laserdiscs slotted into cardboard covers housed in Yves Vincent-branded plastic wrappers. I still remember the smell and sound of plastic hitting plastic that the laserdiscs would make as we browsed through the available titles. It would be so hard to choose which one (or two, if dad was feeling generous) cartoon or movie we were going to take home. And because we had only a few discs at a time we would often watch Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, The King & I, The Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, Singin' in the Rain, Land Before Time, Back to the Future, Star Wars and Indiana Jones again and again, memorizing songs and dialogue.

The music I grew up listening to came on cassette tapes before we had CDs - Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson, Broadway musicals and Disney soundtracks. Dad would warn us not to fast-forward or rewind too much or else risk damaging the tape. But I learned how to compile my favorite tracks into blank cassettes, to avoid having to FF through individual albums.

Photos were taken in batches of 24 or 36, and we would watch how many pictures we were taking because we might run out of film. On family vacations abroad we made sure to pack extra rolls, but with my friends I was limited to my parents' extras. It took 3 days then eventually a few hours to get photos developed, and friends and relatives made copies via negatives.

I remember getting our first computer. I learned to type on a DOS-powered word processor (no selection, just arrow keys and backspace). Our very first game was Dig Dug. My mom sent me to computer classes during the summers that made me feel so advanced when we started using PCs in school. We saved our work on big floppy diskettes that we kept in boxes in our den. I remember when 3.5" discs came out, that I carried in individual hard, clear plastic cases in my uniform pocket, impressed by the 1.4MB capacity. In high school we hooked up to the web, with a connection that we had to reserve among family members because it used one of our phone lines. Around that time mIRC then ICQ became popular, which is when I learned to Alt-Tab because I wasn't allowed to chat. I remember the first batch of cellphones, all Nokia 5110s with LCD displays and the first phone game Snake, and the 3210 I got for my high school graduation.

By the time I was in college Internet research was a basic tool and laptops quickly became popular among students. Digital cameras were all the rage and soon mp3 players were must-haves.

Today I carry an four screens with me everywhere - work phone, personal phone, iPod, iPad. When I travel I also bring my Kindle and a camera, which adds two screens to the running total. Whether at home or at work I'm usually in front of a laptop. The members of our family all watch digital TV episodes and even my dad is slowly digitizing his CD collection. My brother is s gamer and my six-year-old niece is an iPad addict.

Our generation is in a unique position. We were born into an analog time, but the emergence of digital technology is woven into our adolescent and teenage years. While our parents and grandparents will always feel a level of discomfort with digital technology, and our children will feel completely at home with multiple screens and a barrage of content, we are the only group to straddle both worlds. We remember one but still stand a chance of feeling completely at home in the next.

We will be the last group who will appreciate the capabilities of technology vis-a-vis our analog experience - gigabytes of space versus the 1.4 MBs we were once afforded, wireless access over dial-up, app libraries instead of the one Snake game. But for the children and teens of today and tomorrow, these new paradigms will be basic expectations - screens everywhere, being always-on, information in real-time and at our fingertips.

Design thinking

noreply@blogger.com (bea) — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 13:12:00 +0000

Thinking...

Planners are designers. What design thinking?
Digital planners are information designers. Wayfinding thinking?
Digital thinking and actions are leaving the digital space.

Processing in time.

Engagement Planning is like HopStop

noreply@blogger.com (bea) — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 15:00:00 +0000

Meet my mousepad.

It features my favorite city. I beat for New York because of all the tastes, smells, art, music, theater, people, parks, museums, pigeons, cabs, friends, subway crushes, halal stands, crazy but sensible street-crossing rules. One of the things I like most is the transit network that makes it possible to find your way around a crazy city - the trains, subways and buses that make it possible to navigate this crazy place and get from Spring St. to Chinatown or Columbus Circle.

Maps and wayfinding systems inspire me. Just like seeing an efficient transit map empowers me to explore new cities, sot do good digital experiences allow users to search, absorb and discover. Just like New York, there is so crazy much to see and experience in the digital space.

This thought inspires me in my work. Engagement Planning / Experience Planning is not just figuring out who we are talking to, what makes them tick, and what we need to tell them, but how to get them to identify a Point B, and then to help them figure out how to get there in the least amount of time, stops and with the least amount of effort, thought or friction.

This requires a different kind of thinking - how many stops are people willing to go, what we can do to ensure they will take each next step, how to make sure they feel validated when they get to their end-destination.

I live for this stuff.

*HopStop.com is a website and app that gives transit direction options, given user input of a starting point and an end point.

the new SLEEP

noreply@blogger.com (bea) — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 14:32:00 +0000

Part of the promise of digital technology is access to unforetold levels of data that can be used to make everything we do more efficient. Even sleep?

I don't think I have sleeping problems; that is, I don't usually wake up tired or feeling like I haven't gotten any shut-eye. But guess I can't be completely sure that I'm getting highest quality of sleep available. Today, just as easily as we can count our daily number of steps or take our blood pressure, we can gain access to information about our quality of sleep.

The Zeo Sleep Coach will monitor sleeping patterns so that we can find out how much quality sleep we've gotten - how much light sleep, deep sleep and REM. The coach asks questions about the number of hours slept, amounts of caffeine or tobacco consumed and other factors to give pointers on how to improve quality of sleep.

(via)

(via)

Zeo seems to be doing for Sleep what Nike+ did for running, or Fiat EcoDrive did for fuel efficiency - a platform solution that gives us more information about daily activities to help us do them more effectively.

If given the opportunity (and an extra $200), I would try the Zeo out. It is a concrete solution to the promise of "The Quantified Self", the idea that knowing more about the everyday things we do can help us do them better.

But thinking about this seems to open up many questions. Do I want to sleep with a band on my head for the rest of my life? What if I want to sleep face down? What if Zeo tells me that what I thought was pretty good quality sleep is actually terrible quality - won't I feel too pressured to sleep properly? Or worse, what if all the changes I make don't end up giving me better quality of sleep? Does this end up a waste of money?

The Quantified Self concept itself raises questions. If we really want to quantify everything we do, who is going to do the counting? Will there be one master device to measure everything, or will it be a 1:1 thing - a measurement device each for sleeping, eating, sitting, standing, driving, typing, breathing, etc? In any case, who will process all of this data so that we can maximize it? Will a time arrive when there are no more uninformed decisions, when step, bite, snore or breath can be optimized?

It will be interesting to see how the promise of self-knowledge unfolds in actionable, concrete, operationable ways. And until we find a real solution, perhaps ignorance is bliss.

The Storefront: A role for social media

noreply@blogger.com (bea) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 07:19:00 +0000

As far as consumer experience goes, brands with brick & mortar establishments have a huge advantage. Shaping a consumer experience is much easier when a brand has an entire space can do the talking: Jamba Juice is about easygoing health, Nespresso for serious coffee drinkers. Benefit is a fun make-up brand, Mac more glam. Besides marketing and packaging, a storefront is a way to immediately tell consumers what to expect from a brand. Is it homey and inviting? Minimalist and serious? Or is it for specialists?

When it comes to RTD beverages or drugstore cosmetics, all the branding happens on the packaging. Advertising sets the mood, but when touchpoints are across disparate spaces, it is more difficult to give consumers a feel of the experience we want attached to the brand. POS might help but these materials are dedicated more to functional messaging that seems to take precedence. Advertising may not hit everyone, and when there is only thirty seconds or 60-by-40 feet to tell a story, it is difficult to set the mood.

So especially for FMCG's who lack a physical place to spell out their brand feel and values, social media can play this role.

2011

noreply@blogger.com (bea) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 16:38:00 +0000

This was a crazy year.

As always, a learning year.

So much happened that it has been difficult to process as they happen.

But, good stuff.

We got lots of great ideas approved. And got clients to learn that good stuff takes quite some time to figure out, think up and produce. We brought one client into digital listening. One of my strategy ideas was featured at the Ad Congress. Even if I wasn't directly involved, I was proud to watch several of our works go viral. One of our fanpages hit a million fans.

This was an epic year, better than I've had in the six years I've been doing digital.

The work is not, is never, done. There is so much more to do, always so much more to learn. But a few things that became clear to me this year, that helped me navigate the crazy space that is digital:
Never think you've figured it out, but never stop trying to understand what is going on. Digital work is team work, and the best work that gets produced is by the people you work closest and most honestly with. Learn the old school to make sense of the new. Try everything with a mind set to Play. Bring new people into the fold but their real learning will be by doing. Always ask Why, Why Not, Who Cares, What Now. Tell people what to do. Try to see the bigger picture. Remember that nobody has figured it out, that we are writing the rules together, and/but while nobody has figured it out rules are meant to be broken.

With this in mind, and a new agenda for 2012, the new year sounds quite exciting.

Thinking of Experience & Engagement Planning

noreply@blogger.com (bea) — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 15:15:00 +0000

Not that you can plan for every reaction, but the idea of direction, action, reaction. The dynamic flow of information.

Planning detour

noreply@blogger.com (bea) — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 12:26:00 +0000

I often wonder how I got here. Planning was a detour within advertising, one I never even thought of pursuing. When I took advertising in college talked mostly about Accounts and Creatives. Planning was never really discussed, and if it was it didn't make an impact on me.

I was assigned to a big project with working our head of Planning during my first month in advertising. During a cab rides back from a client's office, he told me he thought I had a "planning brain" and asked if I'd ever considered working in that group. The honest answer was no.

I was strictly on the digital path and nothing was going to derail me, certainly not a group called "Strategic Planning" that wasn't on my radar. I wonder what would have happened if I'd known what he was talking about and/or if I'd taken him seriously. That was almost five years ago. And now I'm here. How do things happen?

ADVERTISING + EXPERIENCE

noreply@blogger.com (bea) — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 03:22:00 +0000

why Brands need to SAY + DO

HEINEKEN LIGHT STRATEGY: “Rather than settling for constantly mediocre instances and routines, the campaign celebrates consumers and their 'occasionally perfect' experiences. While every occasion is not right for Heineken Light, the beer is a perfect fit for those situations that call for something a little more unique, special and upscale.” (via)

ADVERTISING

EXPERIENCE

Getting people to experience what we want our brands to stand for is most meaningful in the real world. But because of digital media we can now share activations and real-world goodness the whole world over.

noreply@blogger.com (bea) — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 02:37:00 +0000

Just realized that this image could well be mistaken for the Digital Sh*t.
But this conference was quite the opposite!

Two days of intense information overload. Still absorbing and thinking through all that was said and tweeted. But will post something soon!

TADD GADDUANG for Brand Ambassador! (slash endorser)

noreply@blogger.com (bea) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 16:29:00 +0000

(Not exactly digital except in the channel I'm using to campaign :P)

Tadd Gadduang, who I follow and tweet regularly at @D8Tadd, is one of the top four finalists on So You Think You Can Dance (in case you aren't so familiar, here's my quick intro ). And he's Filipino!

He is awesome! On a show that gets dancers to stay fabulous even outside their comfort zones, he has somehow conquered almost every style thrown at him. Even if he is a B-boy (breaker), he is able to do so many styles brilliantly.

Similar to what I wrote for also-awesome-Pinoy Marko (yes the top two guys in the SYTYCD finale are Filipino!), I believe that it is only a matter of time before some brand brings this guy over as an endorser and I will be damned if it is not the agency I work for because I want to meet him! So people at that collaborative place were I work, please listen up.

See him in action & why he's awesome:

Tadd's Broadway by Spencer Liff
(with Melanie)

Tadd's Contepmorary by Travis Wall
(with Jordan)

Tadd's Hip-Hop by Nappytabs
(with Jordan)

Tadd's Contemporaryby Sonya Tayeh
(with Ellenore, who is also part Pinoy!)

Tadd's Viennese Waltzby Jean-Marc Genereux
(with Ellenore, who is also part Pinoy!)

Also, there's a forum dedicated to his abs ("The Official Keep Your Shirt Off, Tadd Fanclub"). Yes, he can dance, he's super cute and he's cut to death. He also loves the Philippines - at every elimination episode, Tadd has worn a Filipino shirt :)

Yes? Come on! He's cute, he's an awesome & passionate dancer and he's so genuine! TADD FOR BRAND AMBASSADOR!

(In case anybody from outside my agency reads this and brings him over, PLEASE Twitter me and let me meet him!!!!)

MARKO GERMAR for Brand Ambassador!

noreply@blogger.com (bea) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 16:01:00 +0000

(Not digital except in the channel I'm using to campaign :P)

Anyone who follows me on Twitter will likely have seen my messages to @D8Marko. That is Marko Germar - a pure Pinoy who is vying for the top spot on reality show So You Think You Can Dance (in case you aren't so familiar, here's my quick intro).

Marko has been a frontrunner from the beginning. He and partner Melanie started the season with a Travis Wall contemporary routine. The judges gave the pair a standing ovation and the rest was history!

As much as I love this show, I usually save SYTYCD posts for my non-digital personal blog on Tumblr. But now I have a marketing-related issue so I'm only too happy to have an excuse to post something Marko- or SYTYCD-related on this blog!
I believe that it is only a matter of time before some brand brings this guy over as an endorser and I will be damned if it is not the agency I work for because I want to meet him! So people at that collaborative place were I work, please listen up.

See why he's awesome:

Marko's HipHop by Nappytabs
(with Melanie)
MY FAVORITE!

Marko's Jazz by Sonya Tayeh
(with Caitlynn)

Marko's Contemporary by Sonya Tayeh
(with Allison)
Not my favorite but his mom is so cute! And he made Gaga cry!

Marko's Samba by Jason Gilkison
(with Chelsie)

Marko's Contemporary by Travis Wall
(with Melanie)
Their first routine. The judges gave them a standing ovation!

Marko's Jazz by Ray Lapatan
(with Melanie)

Marko's Contemporary by Dee Caspary
(with Melanie)
My second favorite routine :)

Yes? Come on! He's cute, he's an awesome & passionate dancer and he's so genuine! And guess what - he couldn't afford to take dance classes all the time so he found videos on YouTube and learned off the internet! MARKO GERMAR FOR BRAND AMBASSADOR!

(In case anybody from outside my agency reads this and brings him over, PLEASE Twitter me and let me meet him!!!!)

Notes on So You Think You Can Dance

noreply@blogger.com (bea) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 13:22:00 +0000

(This isn't digital but I love this show and need to write this as a reference for my next two pieces.)

So You Think You Can Dance is one of my favorite shows. Even if I have zero dance background (not counting my ballet classes as a kid), I love this show. Every (U.S.) summer, I rush home every Thursday night to watch the latest episode. I avoid Twitter on Friday mornings so that I won't see who was eliminated. I LOVE THIS SHOW.

For those of you who haven't had the immense pleasure yet of watching the show, So You Think You Can Dance, it is a reality show on the Fox network, sister to much more popular reality competition American Idol. While AI has infinitely more viewers and fans, SYTYCD is a far better show. The contestants train for years (whether in formal classes or hmm... on the streets? like if you're a hip-hop dancer?) and by the time they get on the show they are experts at their own style - contemporary, jazz, ballroom, Latin, Broadway, etc. The challenge every week is to be able to master a range of styles outside of their own. Contemporary dancers are asked to do hip-hop, hip-hop dancers are asked to do ballroom, and they all get weird styles like African jazz or Bollywood, and the point is to shine no matter what style.

The season starts with auditions all over the U.S. where dancers who make the cut get a ticket to Vegas. The judges have to feel that dancers are (a) awesome at their own style, and (b) have enough talent to possibly be awesome at other styles as well. The dancers all get flown to Vegas where they are tested in all the main styles (usually hip-hop, ballroom, Broadway and contemporary). The judges cut after each round and sometimes dancers are asked to "dance for your life" - when they've done badly at a certain style the judges are allowed to ask them to dance a solo in their own style to remind the judges of their potential and why they're still being considered. It's brutal!

The judges choose a Top 20 - ten boys and ten girls who are all partnered up. Partnership is key on the show - they always compete in pairs. The show has played with a lot of formulas regarding how people get mixed and matched but here's what usually happens: guys and girls get paired up and stick with their partners for the first five rounds. The remaining Top 10 are all switched around after that randomly with each other. SYTYCD tried one season (7) where they only got ten dancers at the start and they were randomly paired up with an "All-Star", a contestant from a previous season (who I'm assuming has done well enough commercially to be called an All-Star). This season partners stay together for the first five weeks, then get switched around with All-Stars and each other after they make the Top 10.

There are two mainstay judges: the usually awesome Nigel Lythgoe (who is also the executive producer), who is also executive producer of AI and the fabulously loud Mary Murphy. Nigel used to do ballroom and tap, Mary is a ballroom vet. They usually get one or two choreographers to judge as guests but this year they've done away with choreographers-as-guests and have started inviting actors and directors instead who have a dance background or who love the show.

Choreographers play a key role on the show, as they engineer all of the dance numbers. It seems like Nigel gives them free range to do whatever they want, which can end up a good or bad thing. But the show has a set of mainstay choreographers - Napoleon & Tabitha for hip-hop, Mia Michaels, Stacey Tookey & (former contestant!) Travis Wall for contemporary, Sonya Tayeh for jazz, etc. They add to the range of personalities on the show and long-time viewers have gotten to know the choreographers through their work across the seasons. (Nappytabs remains my favorite!)

At the end of the season, America votes and the show crowns the winner as "America's favorite dancer". I've been watching the show since Season 4 (when I spent a summer with my tita and cousins in LA who love the show, we're now on Season 8), and the technically best dancers rarely win. Season 4 - I think that contemporary dancer Katee was the best but hip-hop guys Twitch and Joshua made the Top 2, with Joshua as the winner. Season 5 - Brandon was certainly better but America chose Jeanine (both contemporary). Season 6 - contemporary dancer Jakob was insanely amazing but krumper Russell won. In earlier seasons Nigel seemed to be proud that America voted for their favorite, or the dancers with the most personality. But in more recent seasons he seems to have gotten very unhappy about the technically best dancers not winning and sometimes getting eliminated way before the finale.

This season has been amazing. My favorite dancers, Tadd and Marko, have made it to the finale! I've been upset about Nigel pimping out his favorites this season (ugh RYAN) and seeming to favor the female dancers, but I am still hoping that Marko or Tadd will come through. Probably Marko.

But why did I write this lengthy piece? I have a hidden (or not-so-hidden?) agenda.

TV Hashtags, Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (bea) — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 00:16:00 +0000

TV shows use hastags to organize real-time word-of-mouth about new shows and new seasons.

(Click for TV Hashtags, Part 1)

Suits, a brilliant new legal show on the USA network, leads viewers to Twitter with a question + hashtag. In an episode where junior associate Mike decides to keep something from boss Harvey, the show asks "Have you ever lied to your boss?" and indicates #suits as the hashtag.

Project Runway, back for its ninth season, is inviting viewers to vote for their favorite contestants using hashtags. At the end of the season the show will award a Fan Favorite based on Twitter hashtag votes.

Hashtags can be pretty messy - I'm certainly guilty of making up my own hashtags even if I don't know (or care) if anyone else is using them. But mainstream media is one way to provide the common keyword that consolidates and unites conversastion on Twitter.

clueless in advertising?

noreply@blogger.com (bea) — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 16:09:00 +0000

I was an ad agency intern in 2004. Back when I thought I wanted to be a designer. Before I had a stint in PR, an affair with account management, a brush with digital. When advertising meant TV+Radio+Print and the last stop on the project checklist was signing FA off or sending tapes to the stations. When I thought agencies were made up of Suits and Creatives (no concept of planning). When, as I would leave at 5 pm, creatives would tell me the day was just beginning. When advertising seemed like the ultimate playground.

Some things will never be the same. Some things will never change.

When I was a very impressionable intern, a very kind art director lent me a book that someone else had given him when he was thinking of getting into advertising.

It excited me because it was well designed, and because he was my intern crush. Cut to today and I've been at the same agency, pretty much, for almost five years. So even if this book only rates with two stars on Amazon, I think it was pretty effective.

I'm working with an intern now and I think I will pass it on to her. I wonder what she'll take out of it, if she will be as excited as I was when I first felt the agency buzz.

MMDA Traffic Navigator

noreply@blogger.com (bea) — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 05:36:00 +0000

MMDA & TV5 launch Philippines' first digital traffic map

I love transit maps! I get extremely excited when I see a well-designed information graphic, and transit maps are at the top of my list because of their crazy utility. It can't be easy to design just one image that effectively communicates so much inter-related information at the same time - where each train goes, what routes are available to get somewhere, how near each station is to where you're going, where you can get on or off, whether or not each line runs all day.

As a blueprint for how people navigate through a city, a transit map also says something about that city's identity. When I travel to a new place, a well-designed transit map tells me whether or not the local government cares enough about its commuters to give structure to this crucial daily activity. This of course assumes that transportation systems work at all and were strategized properly so that they can now be communicated in an efficient way that allows even new users can easily get on board.

My favorite transit map is of New York, because it is New York's! But I like this map especially because it anchors the different transit points or subway stations over the actual city map so you know where each stop is, in relation to the whole city.

Then you can immediately tell things like how near or far each station is from the another. What options you have in terms of subway lines if you want to go to, say Midtown East or the Upper West Side.

Other maps like London's, Beijing's and I think even Tokyo's, are cleaner in terms of design. But because but elements are not anchored on an actual map you'd have to look at another (actual map) to figure out where you are once you leave the station.

I've never seen a map for Metro Manila that would really be useful to commuters or drivers but last week the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) launched the Philippines' first digital transit map. The Traffic Navigator helps citizens easily get traffic readings from key points all over the city.

THIS IS AWESOME.
I love that a government unit in the Philippines is using digital as a platform to make services and utilities! MMDA started off with a very helpful Twitter account that consolidates traffic updates. Now they've taken it a step further.

How it works. The site maps five "Lines" - EDSA, Quezon Ave., Espana, C5, Roxas Blvd and SLEX. These main roads are broken up into the areas that each road hits. The icon for each area indicates the level of traffic going Northbound or Southbound. Red for heavy, Yellow for moderate and Green for light. At a glance, users can tell the state of traffic at a specific place or all over the Metro.

Navigation. The site offers different ways to filter the information. Users can select to see just Northbound or Southbound traffic icons. Besides the main veiw (screenshot above), users can opt to see the list of areas covered in each line or an overlay of the traffic updates on Google Maps.

Design. Clean, clear and easy to understand. Very pretty!

Beta. When they get to the site, users are immediately alerted that this service is still on beta and not yet updated 24/7. (Content is only updated between 10am and 6pm.) But to inform the MMDA of any suggestions or bugs, users are invited to e-mail mmdatrafficnavigator@interaksyon.com.

Learning Opportunity. I would love to find out who came up with this, who designed it and the kind of content management strategy they're putting in effect to make sure updates are done regularly and accurately. I also wonder what kind of analytics they have in place and how they are going to optimize performance based on those numbers.

When I showed it to a friend in the office, he remarked that Pinoys aren't ready for stuff like this yet. Maybe he's right. But as we see leading government institutions thinking critically about using digital to find ways to be of service, the more we ourselves may learn to include utility-based thinking in our everyday lives. Thanks, @MMDA!

to the backchannel!

noreply@blogger.com (bea) — Sat, 28 May 2011 03:14:00 +0000

(Or, TV Hashtags, Part 1)

TV shows use hashtags to organize real-time word-of-mouth about finale episodes.

On Vampire Diaries, fans were invited to talk about the show on Twitter with a designated hashtag. (No, I am not ashamed of my keen interest in shows that feature high school / college students like Vampire or now-defunct Greek.) In this case #Klaus, the villain of the season. It makes me wonder if the writers were asked to select a name for the character that would be unique to and associated with the show. (Past villains like Katherine or Elijah don't really have unique names.)

The (pretty awesome) Fringe finale invited fans to tag their tweets with the show title.

As viewers start to shift behavior to watching TV at their preferred time (TiVo) and in their preferred format (online), one of the biggest challenges facing TV networks in the US is adding value to the broadcast experience. Is Twitter the fix?

Watching live TV in the US has become a two-screen activity for some, where the show airs on television and the user follows or participates in the real-time commentary on Twitter. It gives an interesting perspective into other veiwers' and fans' reactions at the same time you are all watching.

I don't think this will be a problem for a long time in the Philippines but it would be interesting to take some of the experiments in real-time commentary to our own viewing experiences: Should the UAAP flash a hashtag on screen as the series unfolds? Should controversial print or TV ads invite reactions by including a hashtag in the material? Maybe concert tickets should invite users to tweet under the same #justinbieberph to document reactions to the show.

Hashtags are commonly used in the Philippines, but seemingly spur-of-the-moment. During Ondoy people all seemed to come up with their own tags. Can't wait to see which brand or event dictates the tag to unite commenters under one Twitter thread.

(Click for TV Hashtags, Part 2)

ways of seeing: wristwatches

noreply@blogger.com (bea) — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 06:17:00 +0000

a curated digital post

I've always had a wristwatch, more for style than for function; the face of my watch is a long rectangle so spacing is weird between the X and Y axis. Sometimes I can't be certain whether my watch is telling me it is 10 or 11. To be sure, I check my phone.

With the onslaught of handheld digital devices that hold the time, what happens to the wristwatch?
THREE PERSPECTIVES:

says THE ATLANTIC

Such displays of time on mobile devices [and apps] go beyond the ticktock of the grandfather clock and the insistent pulse of the wristwatch, no longer pointing at one moment but indicating all the hours at once.

says THE CLASS OF 2014

...They’ve never recognized that pointing to their wrists was a request for the time of day.

says LUNCHBREATH

a digital learning adventure

noreply@blogger.com (bea) — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 15:00:00 +0000

On my birthday last year I had just flown into the US to start studies in digital marketing.

New York is a crazy beautiful city and was an awesome backdrop to the learning adventure I started in 2010. The city felt like a long-lost home and was home indeed for the first three-or-so months of my 27th year.

I had hit a stumbling block in digital and had decided that I wanted to learn the rules from someone else (experts?) before trying to figure out how to break them at work. I headed to New York University to learn from "the best" with a sideline at MRM Worldwide, New York.

Silly me - there are no real rules. Funny that I had to go all the way to the first, very mature-marketed, world to learn that? But it confirmed that I wasn't the only clueless person in digital marketing. What then?

I got a happy illumination on a seemingly unconnected trip to the Museum of Natural History. I saw a caption beside their gigantic blue whale that said that, to this day, only 5% of the ocean has ever been explored. It made me happy to imagine that if such a small part of a bounded space has been discovered by man, how much more there is for us to express coming from the limitless space of ideas and creativity.

Coming back after months of art, music, theater, avenues, blocks, burgers, food trucks, footseps, free Wi-Fi, subways, trains, classes, work days and learning that I couldn't even process, I was grounded in the thought that ideas, especially digital ideas, can still break new ground.

I hit reset on this blog, in how I thought it could help me keep processing this crazy space, and headed home.

No sooner had I gotten back to work when I shifted gears and ended up in Planning. How, who knew? I hadn't even realized as a student that this discipline existed. What a blessing, the learning adventure of my 27th year continued.

A new building, new team, new boss, new discipline. Hello one-pagers. Hello mental blocks. Hello duh moments (and people haha). Hello feeling like a lost strategist with no semblance of a plan. Many, many self deprecating moments. Overwhelmed-ness, yesterday, corrected by.

But fast forward nine months, a gazillion pitches, new friends, new creative buddies, a handful of pretty decks and four shiny new digital AOR's. There is no good way to summarize the insane learning that I've been so lucky to experience in this last year.

But a happy thought - a note received from the Post Office on the day I turned 28. Warning me of a possible customs inspection but calling me to pick up a package.

Almost one year to the day after I started my year of digital learning, a symbol for a milestone of a year that I will never forget.

- Bea Atienza,
*professionally certified digital media marketer*

are we listening?: brands & trust online

noreply@blogger.com (bea) — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 14:03:00 +0000

A think piece I worked on over the weekend on brands and trust online. Are we listening?

Brands & Trust Online

View more presentations from Bea Atienza.

How about an offering for Pancake Extremists?

noreply@blogger.com (bea) — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 15:04:00 +0000


photo by Roslyn in Starfish Island	via PhotoRee

At Pancake House one morning recently I ordered two chocolate chip pancakes. (In case you're interested, I usually order three except in this case the pancakes were preceded by tapa and rice and therefore as my breakfast dessert I only needed two pieces.)

My dish arrived and I proceeded to set aside the peanut butter and slather the entire serving of butter on the top and bottom (both) pieces.

And then it occurred to me that Pancake House serves the same amount of butter regardless of whether you order two pieces, three pieces or a waffle.

This was disturbing to me because, if you are serious about your pancakes then you must also have some long-standing belief as to the proper butter-to-pancake ratio. In the case of Panacke House, spreading all, or half on X number of pieces. And the maximum amount of butter you would put on two would definitely not be the same as the maximum amount you would put on three, or on a waffle.

And then it occurred to me that if I were Panacke House, I would delegate my next branch to Pancake Extremists. Instead of yet-another generic branch like all the dozens of branches I already have, an entire restaurant for people who have serious respect and belief for how to serve, eat and enjoy their pancakes.

Nothing but pancakes.
No rib-eye, lemon chicken, yogurt.
No omelette.
Sorry, no pan fried chicken or tacos.
Maybe country sausage and bacon.

And serious, extreme Pancakes.
Serious Stacks.
Serious Syrup.
Serious Butter, serious pancake-to-butter ratios.
A Pancake Enjoyment Manifesto.

The Classics.
Chocolate Chip,
Walnut Banana,
Peach,
Etc.

+ Experiments.
Green tea pancake?
Olive oil pancake?
Queso de bola bibingka pancake?
Crepe pancake?

Something new, only for serious Pancake Extremists.

Sort of like the Icecreamists.

Wouldn't it be cool if more established brands had an extreme, hard-core, serious variant, branch or offering?

This is where my thinking gets sort of fuzzy. But this isn't about creating advocates. This would be about finding people who take consuming our brand to the next level, who consider it a science (see afore mentioned panacke-to-butter ratio). Not that we would dictate rules, maybe everybody would get to share their own. As I said the idea gets fuzzy at this point.

But wouldn't it be cool if you could participate in stores for -

Fully Booked Nerds,
Charles & Keith Heels,
Muji Minimalists,
Royce Purists,
Red Ribbon Radicals,
Chippy Connoisseurs,
National School Supply Addicts???

judge a book by its cover

noreply@blogger.com (bea) — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 00:34:00 +0000

I am guilty. Maybe metaphorically and definitely book-store-ically.

Yes I would (and did) buy this over...

*Insert moral-of-the-story here: when Branding & Design are inspired by contexts and points-in-time*