Where Everybody Knows Your Name
What will surprise EXACTLY NO ONE who knows me - is that I managed to find an adorably charming French cafe about a week after moving into my Upper East Side neighborhood. Like Brooklyn's Smith Canteen, which I had the pleasure of frequenting during my brief, but lovely stay in Carroll Gardens, Le Moulin a Cafe is also directly across the street from a French school. I often arrive just in time to stand behind a gaggle of parents who've just dropped their children off at Lycee Francais, energetically speaking to one another in French and somehow eating their daily croissants despite remaining thin. For exactly ten minutes a few times a week, I can pretend I'm living in Paris. Furthering this pleasant illusion - I've convinced one of the baristas to speak to me only in French - which seems like the exact opposite of what one should do before having their coffee. There is much stuttering on my part.The baristo, on the other hand, while not knowing French, knows something even better - my order. With a kind smile, he ceremoniously pours my side of soy milk into an espresso shot glass along with my coffee, a seemingly small luxury to arm me with an inevitably crowded subway ride and long day. The other day, I surprised him by switching up my order - a switch up made in an attempt to save money in 2014. How could he have known?
I'm working on an essay contest around how brands should behave in the digital age. Sunday night, I had one of those moments that artists strategists dream of - or maybe dread. It involved waking up in the middle of the night unable to sleep with ideas running through my head. I finally had to write them out in the dark on a scrap piece of paper - which were fortunately legible the next morning.
I digress.
In 2012, JWT predicted that a top ten trend in 2013 would be predictive personalization - the idea that brands would be able to predict what you're interested in buying based off of the data they have on you. But what if this is not a new concept at all? What if digital is simply a stand in for those everyday client / customer experiences? Instead of a charming baristo with a vague British accent to know your order, recommendations for products based on our preferences can easily be served up through digital. In fact, if this interaction took place in a small village a century ago, a store clerk might have even heard through the grapevine that I declared to save money in 2014 and might have offered a less expensive product. Back to our digital age - what if brands could link in with Mint or a finance-management APi, offering you products within your budget and even encouraging you to stick to the budget.
We've finally entered a future where brands can build relationships with their customers using the data collected through daily digital and in-person interactions, arming their employees to treat us like friends and serving us appropriate products. Ironically, this revolutionary new digital capability is feat that has been second nature to humans through their existence.
Cheers!
Remembering Warmer Days - NYC Street Photos
[flickr photo="http://www.flickr.com/photos/missmoll/9657891751/" w=311 h=500]
Give People Something They Need
The always innovative and clever Coca-Cola gives people something they need without asking for anything in return. But even more clever is that what they're giving - wrapping paper - is actually "happiness" as gifts often are for both the giver and receiver. Finally, making this a triple play in smart marketing, Coca-Cola's free gift turns into a walking billboard for the brand as people carry around their wrapped gifts featuring Coca-Cola's branding on the paper.Coca-Cola knows that the key to building a relationship with their customers is to give first and ask for nothing in return.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDTYlIkwexs]
Spreading Holiday Cheer.. In the Advertising World
Brilliant inversion of an existing digital behavior that makes sense strategically given the time of year / audience. Nicely done Mullen.[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcsfiN4Y3uE]
Breaking Point
Have you noticed that we've reached the height of information and acceptance in the truth regarding socio-economic disparity? We've reached the height of frustration with the knowledge that the poor are getting poorer, the middle class is disappearing and the rich is getting richer? Throughout history this always seems to be the moment where a revolution leads to change. It's the natural progression when the pressure builds and moments later, there is a burst of anger, of momentum followed by change. It happened with the French Revolution, the American, the Civil Rights movement, the period of unrest in the 1960's thanks to the Vietnam War. And it's about to happen now. So take a moment and witness what is happening.The foundation of America is on shaky ground. The balance will need to be restored. And who knows how this will happen. What will change and what will remain the same? Will New York City become a playground for the rich or will De Blasio divert the flow of money so that we can all enjoy its bounty? Will universal healthcare finally pull people out of poverty? Will the yearly cost of college continue to soar or will a generation finally put an end to a nonsensical system meant to keep the unwanted out of their ivy gates? Will there be a pivotal event that signals or forces change or will the change be more gradual? Will it get worse before it gets better?
David Simon, creator of the Wire shares his take on the stunning divide that our capitalist society has led to - a system, he argues, that is not the answer to universal happiness. As much as capitalism creates wealth and prosperity, the market does not nudge people into caring for the needy, making financial sacrifices to protect the environment or generally compel them to do the right thing.
Andrea Elliott of the New York Times spends a year profiling the life of a girl who is an innocent victim of a system that has failed her through Invisible Child. Entirely blameless, Dasani is trapped in a system that does not do what it is supposed to do. In fact, her family is literally treated like animals, being housed in a poorly kept shelter without even the freedom to heat up their own food. This is most evident at the end of the article when the family is given the opportunity to leave their home of several years. The catch is that they only have a few hours to pack up their belongings with no knowledge of where they'll end up. The system assumes they have no emotional ties to their surroundings, their belongings or their fellow neighbors. So like animals who are adopted to new owners, they must appreciate the new opportunity while ignoring any emotions that come from leaving - a feat that anyone would struggle with.
So when will our world change for the better?
Patterns in the Chaos
After three years of living in eight places, I finally signed a lease two weeks ago on 78th and York. Actually, that's a lie. It's really between York and East End but I like to tell myself I'm near York. I can't tell you how amazing it feels to have a little piece of New York that's all my own - even if that piece is little (400 square feet?). The apartment search process was very stressful. There's nothing like spending two outings with a near-stranger who helps you determine where you will live for the next year or so. And then if that wasn't hard enough, having to fork over about $5,000+ in one afternoon.But as I sit here in my apartment, surrounded by my things, and more importantly, complete quiet other than my typing, I realize it was all worth it. I never made the effort to buy nice furniture or make my room my own because it always felt temporary - the illegal sublet on St. Mark's that I assumed I'd be kicked out of at a moment's notice, the 5th floor walkup with a crazy man living above us who let his tub overflow into our bathroom.. and then of course, countless furnished sublets. For the first time in my life, there is a place for all my stuff - no desperate need to buy a set of drawers or determine how much I can fit under my bed.. It all fits.
So what I really want to talk about is coincidences. And the idea that even though our world seems chaotic, there are patterns and details that draw similar people to similar things. Like that online test that tells you where you should live based on personality traits. Mine said New Jersey.
OR... the fact that the guy who lived in my apartment before me went to Carlton College (you can learn a lot by what mail people get), which happens to be in the same small town as St. Olaf, where my dad and my sister went to school. Was he also drawn to the personality of an older building - or its built in bookshelves? Or even more coincidental, the person who lived in the apartment before him was a Norwegian girl. I know all this thanks to remnant mail and a quick Google search - something I would have never been able to know a decade ago.
So is it all just one weird coincidence, or is there a common background, set of values or visual language that we all share? Me, the girl from New Jersey with a Jewish, Eastern European mother (who happened to grow up a block away from my current apartment). With a father who is predominantly Norwegian from Minnesota. The guy who went to school in Minnesota - possibly from the midwest. And the girl who is actually Norwegian. Or is it all just one big, fat coincidence? 
Life in Photos: Jazz Age Lawn Party Part Two
And there was dancing! P.S. My friend Jeffrey Donenfeld gave me some helpful advice about my photos. I never really color correct them beyond a quick pass via Photoshop (a VERY OLD version). He told me to try Lightroom and sent me some links via Lifehacker that showed me how to edit photos in Photoshop - so I adopted them to Lightroom. It's rare that we get to see the befores and afters and really hard to determine how much has been done to a photo or how much should be ... but hopefully I'll figure that out.Funny - most photography courses teach you how to take a photo with the idea that if you have the right lighting, composition, etc. that's all you need. But even when photos were printed in darkrooms, photographers did extensive editing from darkening spots to increasing the exposure or contrast of an entire image. In fact, most professional photographers do a preliminary editing pass of selecting photos, then sometimes photo editors choose the final images. Then after the images are chosen, another person may retouch them which includes the correct coloring, and then finally, someone else may print the images. So the actual taking of a photograph is only one small piece of what goes into creating an image.
Life in Photos: Jazz Age Lawn Party Part One
I'm a bit behind in my blogging / photo posting thanks to a full time freelance job (whoop!) and perpetually moving into different sublets. More on that later. In August, I was fortunate enough to attend the Jazz Age Lawn Party on Governor's Island with a few friends. Photographically, it was like shooting fish in a barrel and I was in heaven. They've held it for many years but each year, I was either busy or it was about 90 degrees and I didn't want to spend the day outside. But this time, the weather was perfect.Hints: bring your own food and booze. The lines for the food, and annoyingly enough, "food tickets" were about a half hour each. While the food was good, it probably wasn't worth $20 and an hour of waiting in lines. Also bring your own toilet paper. Enough said.
The Art of Pulling at Your Heart Strings
Via Adweek[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7s22HX18wDY]
Life in Photos: Seattle
Before I started my new "permalance" job, I was lucky enough to visit my sister in Seattle. Mostly because I got to see her but the weather lived up to its name. I wanted to sleep and drink coffee, then repeat. But I suppose it was an official vacation of sorts. It's always interesting to see the subtle nuances or not so subtle differences between people from city to city.
Life in Photos: Colorado
I'd like to interrupt my regular writing for some photos I've taken over the last month or so. As I'm sure many others have done, I've used Instagram to quench my hunger for street photography. But recently, I've started carrying around my Canon 40D, using my fixed 50mm 1.4 lens around - because it's currently the only working lens I own.So.. here it goes. I've been fortunate enough to have gone to Colorado every summer for three years in a row. My second cousins on both sides of my father's side have all converged in Colorado. Even more coincidentally, every year for the past three, one of them has gotten married. I'm absolutely in love with the state and am lucky to have such an awesome extended family.
Faith In Humanity Restored: Cheerios
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VifdBFp5pnw]As a stark contrast to my last post, I thought I'd end the week with something a bit more positive. I'm sure you've all seen this by now. It's an interview with kids - about 6 to 13 years old, regarding their thoughts on the controversial Cheerios commercial that was aired with a mixed race couple. Spoiler: the kids had absolutely no idea that people could be against mixed race couples. Once they were made aware of the negative comments via the YouTube video, they were completely outraged and thought anyone who would spend their time spewing racial hate, was a loser and should be banned from YouTube.
I love when interviews of a random sampling brings more color to a quantitative study that's already been done. Back in April 2012, JWT published a report, Gen Z: Digital In Their DNA. While the report focused on the digital habits of Gen Z, it's findings show that their digital habits might explain their worldview. I've always found fault with separating digital strategy with account planning. As planners, we have an obligation to understand how digital technology effects our very being and we should use digital tools to gain these insights. Thanks to the ubiquity of experiencing life through Instagram, we now all have constant FOMO - a term coined in the mid-80's but only now coming into common use. Parents are cautioned against giving their children too much iPad screen time for fear it will effect their cognitive abilities and make them more prone to ADD. And on the more positive side, children can now use digital to gain a more personal view of their counterparts from around the world through social media - way more revealing than the hand written pen-pal letters of the past. Without barriers such as geography or even social exclusion, children have learned that the kid on the other side of the world might have a different reality, but at their core, they are dealing with some of the same set of problems. They can no longer be taught to fear "the other." In fact, JWT found that:
"One consequence of this hyper-connectedness will be Gen Z’s multicultural and globally oriented mindset—much like Millennials but further amplified. Kids are Skyping with peers on the other side of the globe, and they’re taking part in initiatives like the Face to Faith program (part of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation), which uses technology to connect students of different religions and cultures. Expect even more linguistic and cultural borrowings and consistencies across distant nations and regions."
So as us New Yorkers deal with the extreme heat, still reeling from some of the sadder and maddening news that started off the week, we can find comfort in the knowledge that there's reason to be optimistic about our global future.
SYSTEM FAIL
I just got off the phone with my sister who called my family in tears. It's been a while since I ranted against the system and I suppose it doesn't fit anywhere under advertising or career advice but I thought it was important to share. Her friend was just shot and killed by a member of a squat team in Seattle. He had a gun and was engaged in a long standoff with police from the balcony of his apartment. A life lost, is a tragedy indeed but the circumstances go way beyond that simple truth.My sister called me a few months ago to tell me about her friend. He had been diagnosed with leukemia and started exhibiting signs of mental illness. Despite the urging of his friends, he chose to ignore his illness, and to the chagrin of his friends and family, went on an uncontrolled rant, even running to Canada. According to my sister, his group of friends and family did everything in their power to get him involuntarily committed, adement that he was a harm to himself or others. But based on the laws that govern our mental healthcare system, he could not be admitted unless their was undeniable proof that their suspicions were correct. Realizing this, his friends even went as far as warning the police and trying to prevent him from obtaining a gun. But their months of effort only led to exactly what everyone had predicted. He became such a threat to society that the police deemed it necessary to take him down. And the threat came from him owning a gun.
There have been countless tragedies related to gun violence and mental illness. Each time, the country mourns, thinking this is the worse thing that could have happened, only to be outdone by a far greater tragedy. So what did we lose in this? We lost a life. The squat team shooter has blood on his/her hands and the knowledge that they killed someone who didn't need to die. The victim's friends will have an image that may haunt them for the rest of their lives. Parents have lost a son. We lost a potential productive member of society who could have been rehabilitated to be the person that so many people loved him to be. But instead, those around him have paid the emotional toll of the system's failure.
On the flip side, what would it have taken if this had gone the way it should have? A few thousands of dollars in medical bills. The paperwork required by the hospital to admit him. The support of his friends and family to help him on his journey back to health. A lifetime of medication or coping mechanisms to prevent future breakout that he would have paid for if he became a productive member of society once again. The loss of a gun maker's profit.
There are many issues in our society that are too complicated to simplify. This is not one of them.
Tectonic Shift In Advertising
We've finally reached that point in advertising where we've gone through a tectonic shift in what defines advertising and who is producing it. Actually - one could extend this to the entire media industry. When I first started in advertising, working at a CRM agency back in 2007, direct was considered second class to above the line, brand agencies. PR was its own separate entity that advertising folks thought were relegated to a bunch of fashionistas with lots of magazine connections. And mobile didn't even exist. Blogging was owned by individuals or small publishers who didn't have much credibility as journalists but were fun reads.But then - the iPhone was introduced, influencing a major shift in consumer behavior. With the internet at our fingertips, we all started developing a relentless appetite for content. We became hyper-connected through Twitter and Facebook. Our online personas went from anonymous avatars to cleverly written, full-name-revealing Twitter profiles. And we learned that we are what we share. Sharing became a form of social currency among our social networks. What we shared mattered from network to network - could we stir up a political debate among our high school friends via Facebook or Tweet a link to a cool ad before anyone else in our feed? Fueling this growth was an increasing ability to consume content - wifi and 3G gained speed, websites became mobile-friendly and companies stopped blocking various website access.
Finally, brands started taking note. They realized that preaching from an unreachable pulpit was losing its efficacy. And if they wanted to stir conversations about their brand, they actually needed to create them. But like a preacher educating his congregation on the tenants of Jesus, they learned to talk about the happenings and interests in that person's own life - connecting the brands with that consumers day to day.
And thus, advertising was shifted on its head. Try looking for strategy jobs right now and you'll only see jobs for content marketing or social media strategy. Try looking for traditional editorial jobs and you'll be directed to online websites and blogs. We've reached a fundamental shift in how brands approach consumers. It's no longer simply a "two way street" with consumers having the ability to connect with brands. Consumers have demanded a deeper relationship with brands - seeking inspiration, advice, entertainment, support and accurate information just as we'd seek from our actual friends.
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Robin Thicke's Banned Video & Thoughts On Sexism
Taking a momentary digression from career advice and swinging back towards cultural observations. Just came across this video of Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines (NSFW) via New York Magazine's always entertaining newsletter, The Vulture. It's worth the watch ... probably from your phone, during your lunch break. The gist is that it features three fully clothed men (the singers) and a plethora of mostly naked models dancing around the set, being playfully chased by the men. The video is moderately entertaining and the women have beautiful bodies. Quite honestly, my first impression was that I wasn't overly offended, a bit confused and mostly wondering why they couldn't find models who were better dancers. The models reminded me of the very young, Eastern European women that come to NYC in order to make it in the industry - barely speaking English and at the mercy of their agents.
But what I really found interesting was their explanation for the song and choices in the video. Robin Thicke explained that he and Pharrell came up with the lyrics and song in a half hour and wrote it as a criticism of misogynistic lyrics we so often hear. He explained that the men in the video looked like idiots whereas the women were directed to act confident and in power by looking directly at the camera. He's referencing a concept from art history 101 - the "gaze" whereas a woman looking directly at the viewer is challenging him / her and asserting her power, most famously depicted in Manet's Olympia.
In a recent GQ article Robin explains:
"Women and their bodies are beautiful. Men are always gonna want to follow them around."
Even Thicke's wife points out in response to the outcry that "Violence is ugly. Nudity is beautiful."
A recent TEDTalk by Jackson Katz, an anti-sexism educator, echoes this thinking - showing that the conversation of violence against women needs to change to better understand why men are the perpetrators.
So where am I going with all of this talk about nudity, violence, power struggles and sexism, early on a Thursday morning? The video, Manet's Olympia and Jackson's TEDTalk all flip cultural norms on their head. Each make controversial statements because we view their statements through the eyes of a cultural norm so that their artistry become taboo. Both Thicke and Manet challenge the notion that women are not empowered by their own bodies. They show that women do recognize their bodies are beautiful and have the power to turn on both men, other women and even themselves. Jackson champions the empowerment of women when he proves that the discussion of violence against women is really not a "woman's issue" but rather, a problem men need to tackle as they ask themselves why they are the perpetrators.
So I for one am hopeful that the conversation is changing and I look forward to a time when a woman is no longer seen as a victim, but sees her whole being as the great source of power that it is.
Staying In The Black: Budgeting Tips For Freelancers
One of the benefits of having worked for a media agency is that the concept of measurable ROI has now become engrained into my thinking. In fact, we can potentially apply this to all areas of our life - from what we eat and how we exercise to the types of relationships we build and keep. But a more obvious application would be how we apply this concept to our personal finances.
A few weeks ago, I decided it was time to take control of my finances and recognize that the only thing I could change in the immediate future were my spending habits. Like any strategist, I delved into research, conducting my own personal behavioral study. The internet told me that Toshl Finance was the best spending tracker and budgeting app.
So I downloaded the app and inputted a weekly, optimistic budget of $150. Despite having Mint for the last few years, I found the act of inputting my expenditures curbed my spending habits immensely. Instead of having black holes of "cash & ATM" littering my Mint account, I had a detailed history of where my money went. I initially decided to leave off the one off's - a prescription, new frames, etc. because I couldn't handle the truth. Finally, I took the plunge and upped my budget to $200 a week, vowing to input every last penny. In the process of discovering my spending habits, I changed my behavior. Suddenly, one drink I didn't need in the first place didn't seem as appealing if it threatened to tip my weekly budget into the red. I even bought an espresso maker with my credit card points. I finally convinced myself that the experience of standing in line at the cutest café, surrounded by French people, was not worth a potential $20 a week, $80 a month or if I really wanted to make a point - $800 a year. And not contributing to a landfill with my cup usage was an added motivator.
But more importantly, now that I'm freelancing, I can develop a road map for what I need to achieve to stay in the black instead of the less organized approach of living job to job. Plus, this time around, I can be realistic and base my budget on my actual spending habits instead of making up an imaginary number as to what I hope to spend per month. By adding up my fixed costs; rent, health insurance, gym, mobile phone, etc. with my newly discovered monthly spending number, I can get a very solid idea of what I need to stay in the black. I took that number and divided it by my hourly rate and day rate. I now know that I need to work 100 hours a month or 22 hours a week, or 10 days at my day rate in order to achieve my desired income. And obviously this is a best case scenario but it still gives me a good idea as to how I'm doing with gaining clients. As a freelancer, you are your own biz dev, which means I'll need to spend at least 40% of my time developing my own business to attract clients, and the other 60% working on actual client work. I'm looking forward to the challenge!