Author: colinashby

Social Media Marketing with Movies

- colinashby Leave a comment

Ramping up exposure of movie character Ron Burgundy, everyone from movie insiders to general audiences are seeing how Anchorman 2’s elaborate social media marketing plan is panning out.

2013 Paramount Pictures Inc.
Image by Paramount Pictures via imdb.com

“It’s something that has never been done before for movies.” This is the usual phrase chimed over and over when glancing through the several articles pertaining to Anchorman 2’s social media marketing plan. It’s something that’s been done before, just never at a massively large scale like it was with Anchorman 2.

On December 4, Emerson College temporarily named their journalism department the Ron Burgundy School of Communication. On November 30, Ron Burgundy co-anchored Bismarck’s KXMB-TV evening news.

Rare for a mainstream big budget movie, the marketing team behind the movie has seemed to embrace the idea of user generated content. The content created by fans has been used to further the brand of Ron Burgundy.

Many people are quick to analyze what success is coming out of the movie’s marketing plan. GIFs are starting to be looked at as an effective tool in selling what a movie is about. Things like fan constructed GIFs are able to provide small tidbits and one-liners that give a sample of what the movie has to offer. Others point to the several cross-promotional things as the reason the movie will be successful (Ben & Jerry’s Ron Burgundy ice cream flavor, Ron Burgundy Dodge Durango ads).

Taking a step back, it can be noticed there is no one thing that drove people to go see Anchorman 2. It was a combination of factors. Not many expensive (and often skipped over with DVR) TV ads and talk show visits were needed. User-generated content like GIFs and fan submitted photos were encouraged by the movie’s marketing team. Free or low-cost tools like Tumblr, Twitter, and YouTube videos and contests were used to ramp up the brand of Ron Burgundy.

Director Adam McKay mentioned in an Entertainment Weekly piece that the super stacked Burgundy appearances were worth around $20 million in free publicity.

Whether the cross promotion, appearances, and various events paid off is up for debate. Anchorman 2 went on to make 40 million over its five days at the box office (Weds. through Sunday). Over the actual three-day weekend however, it made 26.8 million. The original Anchorman opened up in July 2004 to 28 million.

Despite any negative predictions, Anchorman 2 is expected to fare well and more than double its production budget of $50 million.

#FDOM: Final Evaluation

- colinashby Leave a comment

This semester I spent blogging has been an overall positive experience. I was able to learn about different ways, both with different methods and media platforms, to tell a story. One of the major things I am proud of is that for the most part I was able to upkeep with one post a week. I made sure all of the posts had a good visual aid and a link to an article for further reading.

The thing that stuck with me the most during this blogging assignment was during Mass Communication Week at Texas State. The main speaker to start off the week was Evan Smith, CEO of the Texas Tribune. He said something that really stuck with me. He mentioned during his speaking event that despite common perceptions, now was actually the best time to go into journalism. New innovations are being done to effectively tell a story. His words hold true to what this fundamentals of online media class is all about: figuring out ways to effectively tell a story thorough the use of digital and online platforms.

Editing my Austin Film Society Internship Application Video

If you happened to read my about.me page (it’s a widget on the sidebar of this blog) you would read that I like to study the idiosyncrasies of things, the deep down meetings. So in order to fully realize how I have benefited from this blog, I would take down short notes and tidbits in class whenever my professor mentioned something important. Below is a list of the things I have learned in this digital media class from the notes I gathered and from this blogging assignment.

  • Visuals are important in a blog. Photos that could tell a story if they stood alone.
  • Blogging is a lot more enriching if you are 100% part of the process. Learn to code.
  • Don’t just put your own thoughts in a post, email people, get quotes.
  • Coding and graphic design are just as important as writing and communication skills. LEARN TO CODE.
  • Be genuine and leave comments on other blogs to get traffic to yours

All in all, my blogging experience has been positive. I learned a lot about building a solid base of content.  I know in the near future (January 2014) I will set up an entertainment blog (Movies, TV, Analyzing) to help become the career that I want which is to work at Entertainment Weekly magazine. Look out for me when I come to mass communication week 2015 as a speaker. Save the date! October 19, 2015.

[Update: 1/9/14: Found this cool article on The Daily Muse on how to upkeep and write good content for a blog]

TXST PRSSA (Public Relations Student Society)

- colinashby Leave a comment

When I first started at Texas State, I felt kind of lost in terms of what to do. I hadn’t really started on any classes in my major yet. So looking to get involved I joined a bunch of student organizations. I ended up not being able to do most of them (the dues were expensive) and so PRSSA was the one that stuck.

PRSSA stands for Public Relations Student Society of America. The chapter at Texas State is part of a national group that aims to advance the profession of public relations. The Texas State chapter at Texas State consists of a variety of officers: President, VP, Treasury, Special Events, Secretary, and Membership. I am the Director of Treasury for PRSSA at Texas State. I make sure people are pay their national and local dues.

A lot of the planning that goes into running our PRSSA chapter happens at the officer meetings every other Wednesday. The meetings are hectic but fun natured and usually consist of the officers trying to organize speakers for the upcoming meetings. The photo slideshow shows off a few of the happenings at a PRSSA officers meeting.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

MOOC’s: Open Learning

- colinashby 1 Comment

Open Learning

“You blew 150k on an education you could have gotten in $1.50 in late fees from the library.”

-from Good Will Hunting (1997)

Photo Courtesy of Colin AshbyScribbles in a library study room

I’m a believer in self-taught education. I like being around people who are considered autodidacts (people who self-teach themselves). There is something great about watching a person demonstrate or talk about something they care about. They talk with so much passion and knowledge yet they never went the traditional classroom route to learn it. I’m sure most people have come across at least a few people like this (have you seen the vast amount of 12-year-olds teaching things on YouTube?)

MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) have given people, regardless of location or experience, the opportunity to learn. Moocs have been covered a lot lately in the news. Embracing the thought of people wanting to learn outside the traditional classroom, I put compiled a list of some great sources to find free courses available to people (offered even from high-end universities).

UCLA

UCLA offers many open and free extension courses on writing. Some of the topics include: Working on a Personal Brand, Screenwriting, Writing a 1-Hour Drama Pilot. There is basically a course for almost anything a person can think of. You may notice there are courses that cost money, but plenty that are available for free.

Stanford

Stanford University has a program called S.E.E. (Stanford Engineering Everywhere) that offers ten open courses for anyone to take. The courses use the same lecture videos and assignments that regular Stanford students use (and the courses are free!). Some of the courses they have include Artificial Intelligence and Introduction to Computer Science.

Carnegie Mellon

Carnegie Mellon University has a program called the Open Learning Initiative. The program is just that, open learning available to anyone. They have courses on biology, math, psychology, and more. There motto is “No instructors, no credit, no charge.”

iTunesU Store

iTunes offers the free app that can let a person took for and take free courses with no additional materials like textbooks needed.

Udemy

Udemy is the ultimate in free online learning. Their goal is to “democratize education by enabling anyone to learn from the worlds experts.” The website allows anyone to take or teach courses.

The point of this post is that students often feel restricted by many things. They feel trapped by their major, unable to take interesting free electives. They think that their degree may limit them, and so on. This does not have to be the case. Working towards your college degree is worth it. In my experience, through taking some free open online courses, I was able to build upon what I was learning in the classroom. I was able to explore more into my major than ever before.  Through the exercises and assignments, I was able to refine my thinking about how to use my degree to my best advantage.

So next time that winter/spring/summer break rolls around, consider using the resources above to take some free courses.

MAIP Summer 2014

- colinashby Leave a comment

In this blog I frequently talk about how to utilize a college degree to the max.  Speak with professors, attend events related your major, get experience in your major, and so forth. One of the great ways to expand upon what you learn in the classroom is through internships. Internships let you test the waters for a certain career sector and let you gain real-world experience.  When I heard about the MAIP summer 2014 program and how they give students the opportunity to work at real advertising agencies, I knew I had to apply.

MAIP stands for Multicultural Advertising Intern Program. I had send a video component along with my application. After 6 hours of restless planning and filming I was finally able to come to a finished product. The video footage originally ran 12 minutes long but I was able to successfully cut it down to the stated three minutes.

Here is the video of me addressing MAIP, telling them how I am unique and what makes me a good fit for the program.

Your Career Starts Now

- colinashby Leave a comment

The time spent in college is the training wheels towards building a career. I say this because mass communication week ended last week at Texas State. The five day-long event brought media professionals to Texas State to talk about the changing world of digital media and how to prepare for a career in it. One encompassing theme was clear from all of the speakers: start doing our career now, don’t wait till you graduate.

During my fundamentals of digital and online media class (the class that required me to make this blog) my professor mentioned a reason behind why he requires the class to keep a blog:

“There are different ways to provide content, to get you out there doing what you want to do. Start doing now what you want to do for your career, don’t wait” –J.Z. (The FDOM professor that gave this blog assignment)

Want a career in advertising? Start making advertising campaigns. Want to work for a creative media agency? Start creating your own content. Create. That is the point. Do the things that your dream career requires, right now, don’t wait until after college.

Editing my Austin Film Society Internship Application Video
Editing my Austin Film Society Internship Application Video

“I don’t need to tell you what I know. At this stage, it’s important for you to tell me what you know.” –Newling (My Statistics Professor)

The way the theme of this blog (Why a College Degree is Worth It) ties into this is that college provides an experimental group for a person to build a career. There is a plethora of resources around a student in college that can help them build the career they want. Resources that will probably never be within arm’s reach ever again once they are in the real world. So go out now and start doing the career you want to do. Start experimenting to see how digital tools like Pinterest, Storify, WordPress, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and so forth can help develop your personal brand.

Become your own creator, make your own content, and become who you want to be.

“The great thing about education is that everything you have experienced in life will feel different once you have an education. Whether you get a job or you are on the street, you perceive things differently” -Roger Priebe (My Computer Science Professor)

This blog post was inspired by the speakers I learned about at mass comm week at Texas State.

Lost in Translation: Movie Lessons

- colinashby 2 Comments

Lost in Translation is one of my favorite movies of all time. Sofia Coppola is one of my favorite directors of all time. In honor of the film’s recent 10 year anniversary, I decided to do a post on it and it’s relatable themes to college.

Sweaty hands, ketchup stained clothes, and a mind full of thoughts. This runs through a lot of college students’ minds as they have to keep deciding what to do. Things have to be decided on. Homework has to be done. Job/Internship applications have to be filled out. All of this combined is enough to overwhelm anyone.

So here comes the 2003 Sophia Coppola film Lost in Translation. It is a film about an American actor  Bob Harris (Bill Murray) who goes to Japan to film a whiskey advertisement. While in Japan, he feels disillusioned and out of place due to not understanding the language. He has problems in his 25 year marriage and is going through a mid-life crisis when he meets a young college graduate named Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson). The film explores a number of themes that can be relatable to many undergraduates.

Photo Credit: Creative Commons
Photo Credit: Creative Commons

Feeling of Being Lost, Not Knowing What to Do

            Many undergraduates are lost in the academia and events of college. They don’t know where to go. They have a series of commands endlessly told to them: focus on school, get an internship, apply to jobs, form good relationships with professors, eat healthy, manage your money.  It can all be a little (or a lot) overwhelming. This is how Bob and Charlotte feel while in Japan. They are put in a sea of things and are unable to make sense of it. Bob and Charlotte are unsure of the things going on in their lives and what to do about it.

Looking to be Found

Everyone wants to find their place in the world. They want to find their niche in society. Having to decide on a college major, what things to join, what jobs/internships to apply to can be daunting. Bob and Charlotte both feel the same way. Charlotte is unsure of what jobs she should take since she is now out of college. Bob is unsure of his next action/decision in life. Through several events the two characters are finally able to connect and understand each other. To translate into how this connects to college: there is no one action that will get you to where you want to be. It is completely normal to have to go through several events/jobs/clubs to find out what you really want.

All in all, Lost in Translation lets a person see that others feel overwhelmed and out of place too. Although if a person keeps at something (ex: working towards a college degree) it will pay off in some way. They will have a better understanding of themselves because of their past experiences.

Movie Review by famed movie critic Robert Ebert.

Mass Communication Week at Texas State (Storify)

- colinashby Leave a comment

Mass Communication week started today. The five day event focuses on connecting Texas State students to mass comm professionals.  A series of events with different speakers from different media disciplines. Through the events the professionals are able to talk about the trends and issues concerning today’s media. Advice and insight is given to students nearing the entry into this evolving and competitive world.

Tumblr Comes to Texas State

mass comm week: day one

Events were held in Old Main
Photo Credit: Colin Ashby

Things To Take From Woman’s “I Quit” YouTube Video

- colinashby 1 Comment

It’s 4:30 a.m. While most are soundly asleep, Marina Shifrin is at work. She works at a Next Media Animation as a video producer. She hates her job. She has had to sacrifice her family, relationships, and free time in order to get work assignments done. Her boss was focused on quantity and wanted as many videos with as many views as possible.

The day finally comes when she doesn’t want to do the job anymore. She makes a video, puts it on YouTube, and it goes viral just days after. Less than five days after the video, titled “An Interpretive Dance For My Boss Set To Kanye West’s Gone” is posted, she appears on The Queen Latifah Show. Towards the end of the video, Queen Latifah speaks up and offers her a job. “With your experience, I could create a position,” Latifah said. The job she creates for Shifrin is a digital content producer position. Shifrin is meeting with the shows representatives and still considering the option.

This story brings about something very familiar to what I witness a lot while in college. These people are ones that are constantly trying to choose your path for you. They tell you to major in this. They tell you to not major in that. They tell you to join this, do that, take up this, and so forth. It can cause a person’s brain to go into overload. What “correct” thing should the person do?

Navigating college is tricky path. You have to focus on balancing schoolwork, working a job, paying bills, and at the same time trying to gain experience in their field.  The important thing to remember is that you can build your own way of life. You have the power. It’s time to experiment and college especially, is a great place to do this. There are so many resources available to students. There are a variety of majors in college to choose from. Find a niche. Utilize all the things available to you. Take advantage of them. You shouldn’t let others decide what you will do. You are in control of your own self. Go out and make your highest goals come true.

“Sometimes I think that you need to forcefully close one door in order for another one to open a little easier,” Marina Shifrin [to Queen Latifah].

What I found while studying in the library
What I found while studying in the library
Photo Credit: Colin Ashby

App Idea for Job-Hunting Process

- colinashby 3 Comments

I imagined a mobile app that would ease the job-hunting process for student/rising-professionals. This app would help job candidates in keeping their materials organized. It would feature options available to use all during the job search process, from finding out about the opportunity all the way to helping with the job interview

Photo Credit: Colin Ashby
Photo Credit: Colin Ashby

Things the app will feature:

Applications/Materials Tab:

This tab will show the job candidate all current, open, unfinished applications that he/she has. The materials tab will detail what each position opening is requiring. A “needed materials” tab will send reminders to the person’s phone telling them what professional clothing options they still need to obtain.

Question of the Day:

This section will make sure the job candidate stays on top of all that goes on with the company they are applying too. The Question of the Day will ask questions like “What is the purpose of the company?” “What clients do they work with?” “What type of stuff does the company cover?” The Question of the Day will serve as a sort of quiz for the job candidate to make sure he/she is familiar with the company before the interview.

Reminders

The app will send out email and text message reminders telling the job candidate when they need to pick up a recommendation letter by (from a professor, work supervisor, etc).

Social Media

In order to stay in tip top shape and have a good online presence, the app will tell the job candidates what social networks he/she is lacking and need to sign up for.

 

Since this post deals with preparing for the job hunt, read on with this USA Today College article about more ways to prepare for the big interview.