With the birth of the Internet, our world changed forever. One element that was profoundly impacted by the evolution of the World Wide Web was graphic design and art in general. Now with so much software there seems to be endless possibilities for designers.
When watching Scott McCloud's presentation I was blown away by the way the internet has really taken a hold of cartoons and graphic novels. What use to be a very two dimensional medium, now has transformed itself into something incredibly dynamic. While print comics still serve a purpose, the possibilities for webcomics seem to really take the artistry to a whole new level. Looking at McCloud's website I began to understand the impressiveness and challenge of translating the uniqueness of print comics to the web.
Found on classroom20.com
People still want the comic feel but expect that visual and auditory impressiveness that the internet can provide. Finding the proper balance between the two takes a skill that Scott McCloud possesses.
On a different note, I am constantly amazed at the possibilities that software nowadays is capable of. With Photoshop and Dreamweaver designing websites is no longer limited to the professionals but is now available for everyone to take a part in.
As technology continues to evolve and advanced, I look forward to seeing what is in store for graphic designers. I wonder what medium they will be dealing with in the years to come?
I began monitoring Old Spice's online media presence back in February and ever since then I have noticed a consistent influx in popularity. As mentioned in my last blog, Old Spice took the internet by storm last February with their campaign “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like.” Ever since then Old Spice has maintained a strong online presence. This past June, Old Spice and spokesperson Isaiah Mustafa took over social media again with their personal YouTube commercials that were addressed to individual Twitter followers and Facebook fans. After this marketing stunt, Old Spice gained even more fans. However, since June Old Spice and Isaiah Mustafa lied low. It was not until this past month that they released a new series of commercials for their new Fresh Collection. Since the release of their latest commercial “Scent Vacation,” buzz is growing once again for Old Spice. This being said, “Scent Vacation” has not yet transformed into the viral sensation that Old Spice’s original commercials were.
Changes In Online Presence When I first reported Old Spice’s internet presence the commercial had only been online for about a month, it was not very prominent on television so anyone that knew about it had probably searched for or was already friends with Old Spice or Isaiah Mustafa. Throughout the social media project I checked Social Mention five different times between February 15th and March 23rd. The image below shows all five snapshots. The online buzz surrounding Old Spice has been slowly, yet steadily increasing since the start of the new Fresh Collection campaign. In the last two weeks, the Old Spice reach has drastically increased alongside the passion.
Information found on SocialMention.com
After watching the new commercials for the Fresh Collection, I personally still believe that Old Spice are still hilarious and incredibly effective. I believe one of the reasons why this campaign has not taken off as quickly is due to the lack of engagement Old Spice had with their fans between campaigns. Since the personalized YouTube videos back in July, Old Spice and Isaiah Mustafa have not done much, thus decreasing any buzz that they originally had cultivated. This is apparent in the graph from Google Insights.
Graph found on www.google.com/insights/search/#
As the graph shows, their online campaign this past summer was incredibly effective, however rather than riding that hype Old Spice let the buzz promptly die. I believe that the goal for Old Spice is to continue their campaign as well as to try and get back the popularity that they had in 2010.
Goals for Twitter and Facebook
There are a number of routes that Old Spice could take since they already have a strong fan base on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. The first thing I noticed about their Facebook and Twitter page is that other than the personal YouTube messages, they do not comment or tweet their fans and followers back. However, Isaiah Mustafa does tweet back occasionally. Although Old Spice’s tweets are hilarious, they need to do more than just tweet random hilarities. If they consistently tweet people back that will definitely increase their notoriety. This will also increase their online fan base since it will get out that Old Spice responds to as many of their fans as possible.
Furthermore, in regards to the periodic personalized messages on YouTube, while well received, the number one complaint is that the majority of responses were to celebrities and other well known persons. While targeting celebrities helps get the Old Spice message out since celebrities have thousands of followers, they also are simultaneously sending out a message to all their non-celebrity fans that their voice and opinion does not matter. If they included more videos to their “average” fans this would help reassure the public that Old Spice and Isaiah Mustafa care about them just as much as their celebrity counterparts.
Another thing I noticed when looking at some of the negative comments is that people still refer to the smell of Old Spice as smelling like old man. Although the commercials they currently have address how good their products smell, if they addressed the old man smell that would be a highly effective way to beat the negative press to the punch. The writers are highly talented at random, witty humor and I think that if done in the right way, having Isaiah Mustafa make a joke about the old man smell could not only help put an end to this criticism as well as maintain the viral popularity of their commercials.
One last recommendation I would have is to offer competitions for the “manliest man.” This could entail people tweeting or posting the most epic thing that they have done in the style of the Old Spice Guy. The winner could receive their own personalized YouTube video and Old Spice products.
Old Spice has started an internet campaign that is unlike any others. Now that they have so many people following them, it is time for them to keep the momentum going and really begin talking with their customers not just at them.
On that note, I will leave you all with one of the newest commercials for the Old Spice Fresh Collection.
Web design has always been something that is way beyond me. I've had classes where we touch upon it, learn very basic HTML or 30minute overview of Dreamweaver, but I've never really had the opportunity to design my own website. After reading Information Architecture and watching the video about slicing in Photoshop, things are starting to become a little more clear. However, I now am realizing that there is no one way to create and design a website. The possibilities are endless. This being said, the concept of building my own website is even more mind boggling. I think things will become clearer once I just delve in and begin playing around with various tools such as Photoshop, InDesign, and other web builders.
In reading the last two chapters of Li and Bernoff's book Groundswell what resonated with me was the case study of BestBuy and Blue Shirt Nation in chapter 11.
While the concept of Blue Shirt Nation stated many positives that coincide with companies speaking with the groundswell within their own company, it failed to mention one huge negative. The company my mother works for* has a very similar website to Best Buy's Blue Shirt Nation. It is a forum where the President and executive board engages in conversation with their fellow employees.When the founders of Blue Shirt Nation were in the process of establishing the site "[t]hey took store teams bowling, getting feedback on what worked on the community and encouraging employees to participate" (Li, 217). This sag-ways into one of the issues of Company X's intranet forum. While the intention of the forum was to establish a direct line of communication between the employees of Company X and the higher-ups to improve the quality of the company it has not exactly panned out that way. Similar to Best Buy taking their employees out bowling, many of the questions that Company X pose are questions that are used to make the company seem more personable such as "What is your favorite band?" or "What are you looking forward to doing this weekend?" Groundswell has mentioned other companies occasionally posting questions like this on their message boards or blogs. Although this can help make a company more human, when more and more posts become like this and less about the company the groundswell is not being used in an appropriate way. For my mother, she and some of her fellow employees have grown frustrated with the companies forum. While the forum was created to increase company moral and improvement, it has not exactly done its job. My mother becomes increasingly frustrated when she is working so much that she does not have time to look at the forum and when she finally does all she sees are multiple postings taking about the weather, their favorite band, and what their dream vacation is. What is even more frustrating is that while she is at work actually doing the job she is paid to do, many of her coworkers and bosses are on the company forum posting non work related things on the companies dime.
After reading about Blue Shirt Nation I decided to check out the forum. It turns out that since the book was published, Blue Shirt Nation no longer exists. After thinking about Company X's forum and the way it has been abused, I have to wonder if Blue Shirt Nation was really all it was cracked up to be or if in fact it proved to be more of a work hindrance after all.
*For the sake of privacy I will call the company Company X
I have decided to monitor Old Spice for the media monitoring project. This idea came to me an hour into watching spokesman Isaiah Mustafa's hilarious Old Spice commercials. If a company that sells deodorant could keep me entertained and engaged for hours, they had to be doing something right! In order to monitor Old Spice, I used a number of sources thus far. My primary source has been Addict-O-Matic, followed by Ice Rocket , Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.
Old Spice
In case you are unaware, Old Spice is a company focusing on male hygiene. They sell a variety of antiperspirant, deodorant, body wash, body spray and men's fragrances. While Old Spice has been around since 1938, the brand really started to become a household name when Proctor & Gamble bought it 1990. However, up until recently, Old Spice was associated with older men. Personally, I know my Grandpa always used Old Spice, and my father uses Old Spice as well. While this demographic is important, Old Spice's competitor Axe which was established in 1983 has been focusing on young men between the ages of 16-30. In a (successful) attempt to capture this target market while maintaining their older market as well, Old Spice introduced new commercials featuring Isaiah Mustafa. These commercials were and still are a hit, they also went viral, propelling Old Spice into the groundswell.
Commercials
The following is the first commercial featuring Isaiah Mustafa. It was released on television about a year ago.
Not only was it a hit with television viewers, it also exploded on the internet. As of Tuesday, March 15 the video already has 30,533, 560 views on YouTube. This is incredible for a television commercial, especially one advertising something as mundane and necessary as deodorant. With this commercial, Old Spice and spokesperson Isaiah Mustafa launched themselves into the groundswell, with people wanting to communicate with the Old Spice Man, and demanding more commercials.
These commercials focused on women, but in a way unlike that of Axe. Old Spice presents itself as both a woman's man and a man's man product. It shows that by using Old Spice not only will women be attracted to you but that men will envy you as well. Furthermore, it does not portray women in a demeaning, sexist way.
Old Spice's newest commercials focus on their new line of products for their Fresh Collection. Here is there latest commercial:
This commercial was released February 1st, 2011 and it already has 3, 977, 641 views as of Tuesday, March 15th.
Since the release of these commercials, fans have been wondering how they are filmed. Rather than tweeting and Facebook commenting each question, Old Spice created a short behind the scenes YouTube video in response.
Twitter and YouTube
Twitter has been a valuable asset to the Old Spice campaign. As of the first week of March, Old Spice had over 120,000 followers on Twitter whereas AXE had little over 1,500 followers. Furthermore, the Old Spice Man Isaiah Mustafa is a huge force on twitter as well, having over 52,000 followers.
Since the Old Spice commercials were such a hit, Old Spice created a Twitter campaign where Isaiah Mustafa would address fans' tweets through a YouTube video. This was better than a reply. Not only was Old Spice listening and talking with their fans, they were making personalized commercials for them as well.
Here are a few examples:
Summary
What I've found so far in my research is that people are talking about Old Spice. They are on Twitter and Facebook talking directly with Old Spice and Isaiah Mustafa, but even more impressively they are talking about Old Spice on their own. There are countless tweets and Facebook comments as well as blog entries that mention feeling manlier now that they use Old Spice or women saying that they wish they could buy Old Spice but since they can't they buy it for their boyfriends and husbands instead. By harnessing humor, creativity and the internet, Old Spice has created an unstoppable media presence that can only go up from here!
I love music. I can't imagine a world without it. However, while I enjoy a lot of music on the radio, it tends to be over played and eventually all the songs begin to sound the same. If I have to hear Rihanna's "Only Girl In The World," one more time I'm going to go crazy! Frustrated with the radio, I decided to turn to the internet for help. I found two social media sites that I am now obsessed with--Hype Machine and SoundCloud.
Hype Machine is a site that searches music blogs. Anytime someone posts a blog promoting a song, that song is then loaded onto Hype Machine. What makes Hype Machine cool is that you can find music that is not on the radio. Some of the songs are produced by mega producers while other songs are independently created. The home page has a list of the songs that have just recently been blogged about.
The hearts by the play button you can click and will be added to your very own play list. There is another tab for the top 50 most popular songs. These are the most liked or "hearted" songs at the moment.
If I grow tired of the music on my playlist I can search for other members of Hype Machine and listen to their playlist. Like Twitter, You can follow other people's accounts or gain followers. Furthermore, you can "like" the songs using the Facebook button. These songs then appear on your Facebook wall and on your friend's news feed.
With so many features on Hype Machine the one thing you can't do is download these songs. That is where SoundCloud comes in. SoundCloud is a site where independent artists can upload their music for download. These artists have not made it big yet so giving their music out for free is a way for them to garner followers and fans rather than worrying about the money aspect.
SoundCloud is a site where artists and music lovers can come together to share music. It is different from other illegal downloading sites because the music on SoundCloud has been put there by the artists in an effort to promote themselves through free music downloads.
Finally there is a way for independent artists to reach the masses and now there is away for us to listen to the music we want to, commercial free rather than what the radio pushes on us.
If you love music, I'd definitely check out these two sites.
Design is often considered to be used primarily for art, however I tend to take for granted the practicable uses that design posses as well. In reading chapters 13 and 14 of Digital Foundations I was not only informed, but also reminded of the very prominence design has. The major example that the book uses is news paper layouts.
Through the use of design tools such as InDesign and Photoshop, newspapers are able to create perfect columns such as the ones found in The Washington Post. When we read the newspaper, nine times out of ten we do not even realize the design behind what we are reading. In actuality, design is in everything.
In reading the chapters from Graphic Design, I loved looking at the visuals that provided a more creative paradigm for common and typical concepts such as patterns and texture. One thing that really resonated with me with texture. Not only do physical designs have texture but through certain elements online, designs can posses various textures in the digital world as well.
The following are examples of this digital texture:
