Because my entire career has been on the side of the “growing,” the “booming,” the “emerging” of digital advertising, I really haven’t ever had to face the worries and wonder of the future of traditional advertising or publishing. I often catch myself thinking about what my thoughts on the future of my career might be, if I was on the mass or traditional side. That said, I often wonder about the future of my “digital” career all the time anyway. I guess I’m just a wonderer.

But as Marketing Mag’s Blog framed this, “This popped up recently as a little flicker of light for publishers and those toiling in embattled traditional media outlets.” And I think they’re right. This is a lovely outlook.

Adorable. People liked it; they felt sorry for poor ol’ Salty. It conveyed the message well (thanks to Knorr, you won’t need Salty around anymore) but kept it lighthearted. And Salty was so cute!

But it seems the ad idea is now bigger than the product it is trying to sell. Let’s take a look at an ad I found today:

The product isn’t even mentioned. Heck, you don’t even see it until a minute in, in the final lockup. And the copy doesn’t even speak to the brand benefits. Is this an issue? Well, no, I don’t think so. Because what it does speak to is the ability to get your own FREE salt & pepper shakers by visiting their website (sidekicks.ca) I can’t lie, I’m now checking this out to see how I can get them. I’m sorry, they’re just so cute!

So… clearly the high value task here has shifted between the first ad (buy our product) to this ad (visit our website). Upon looking at the site though, the user has two options: buy the s&p shaker now for $14.99 plus shipping (an additional $7.29) or buy 3 packages of Knorr Sidekicks plus shipping.

Hm. Pay more monies ORRRR get tasty foods and pay less monies. Gee, wonder which one most people will go with. Just another indirect way to sell Knorr Sidekicks. But with the added bonus of a unique hit to their website. It’s win-win. Also win for consumers who will get a cute Salty’s in their daily lives. I’m seriously considering buying these. I wish I was joking.

Some other cute Salty’s ads can be found here and here.

In any case, you can check out Salty’s Twitter, Facebook fan page or his YouTube channel. Few items I need to off shoot and rant here about regarding these properties:

1. Most of the Twitter stuff pushes to product pages, which is fine – IF labeled as such. Instead, they’re just teaser copy and links, without disclosure of what the link is. Kind of annoying, clicking on a link thinking you might see something funny or of value to you only to find yourself on a Knorr Sidekicks product page.

2. The Facebook fan page wall is linked to the Twitter account, so all status updates on the wall are the same content as on the Twitter account. This basically says to me, “Why bother following Salty on Twitter? You can get the same content and more (ooohh, a photo album with 8 photos, if you could call that more, so impressive) on Facebook.” Don’t duplicate content. Doesn’t work in SEO, doesn’t work in SMO. Give users a reason to follow each individual account if you’re going to be on these properties – an incentive, if you will: exclusive content, funny tidbits, etc – that you can’t get already on another property. It’s fine to link out to the other social media properties, totally fine, but offer more than what is basically a RSS feed. And if that’s the case: Don’t bother signing up to that property.

2. No sharing of YouTube videos? Are you kidding me? What’s the point of putting it on YouTube then? You might as well just embedded a Quicktime video onto your site and called it a day. Lot of good non-embeddable content on YouTube does me, or anyone other fan out there. I don’t want to link in my blog posts, I want to SHOW.

Ok, rant over. I’m done now.

So what do you think? Think this ad idea has enough legs to stand on its own and support a product it barely talks about anymore? Let me know in the comments.

But I know what you’re really here for. Oh, boy, do I! You loaded up this page in the hopes of seeing a majestic, nay! a magical! top ten list from yours truly. And I shall not disappoint my readers, no! I shall fulfill their every wish, their every whim, because that is how wonderful I am. How good. How kind. How… blah, blah, blah, amirite?

I could go on and on about myself. I do it a lot. I have already done it a lot in two paragraph. Have I ever! So I’ll stop. I’ll stop so you’ll keep reading this. Instead, I will present to you:

Emma’s Top Ten Favourite Blog Finds of 2009! Da-da-da-da!

1. Clients from Hell

The latest fad in the advertising/marketing blogroll. Clients from Hell is “a collection of anonymously contributed client horror stories from designers.” Funny and frustrating all at once!

A recent post which is definitely LOL-worthy:
Last night I was sleeping and Jesus came to me in my dream and had this image in his hand. He said that he has blessed this image and this image only for the book. If I use any other image I am going against the will of our lord.

2. Behind the Seams

One of my favourite new fashion blogs, BtS is a blog created and updated by Trang, a truly beautiful and fashionable girl. She lives in Florida and sporadically posts what she’s wearing, DIY projects or reviews on collections. She recently won Stylelist & Bluefly “America’s Most Stylish Blogger” contest, beating out several other contestants.

Unfortunately, she does not allowed downloading or reproducing images so I will respect that and not post a picture here. But if you want to see the winning outfits for this contest, check out this entry. Congrats, Trang!

3. AdJoke.ca

AdJoke.ca is an advertising blog that was created by Tyler Turnbull and Paul Crowe in 2007. I have had the pleasure of working with both Paul and Tyler at Publicis Modem here in Toronto and I can say that I’ve seen first-hand how brilliant these boys are. Don’t let my bias distract you though, this is a great blog, filled with hidden gems, strong opinions and good commentary.

Tyler even wrote a great article, The Top 10 Badass Brands of 2009, upon my suggestion. Thanks Ty!

4. Generation Y Comics

Where would we be without a little friendly plugging? Generation Y Comics is a comic strip created by my good friends Matt and Bryan and it is kinda? autobiographical. I can’t tell. I mean, they do have a mutant, giant turtle as a friend… Either way, it is good times, trufax!

Local Torontonians will recognize such gems as TD Bank in the background or the Alice Fazooli Stella specials on Thursdays. And what comic is complete without a little Farmville joke?

5. He Loves Me Not

As many of my friends will attest, I like talking about relationships. So naturally, I really like Sarah’s blog “He Loves Me Not” which details her trials and tribulations with personal relationships. This girl has been through a lot in the last year, including finally breaking free of an emotional and physically abusive relationship with an alcoholic and drug user. As a reader who has been following her for a long time, I am so proud that’s she’s moved on and is healthier and happier for it.

It’s definitely not the cheeriest blog around but it’s real and my heart goes out to her for all she’s been through. Keep moving forward Sarah, and don’t look back!

6. The Uniform Project

If you haven’t heard of The Uniform Project yet, let me introduce it to you!

In May 2009, The Uniform Project pledged to wear one dress for one year as an exercise in sustainable fashion. There are 7 identical dresses, one for each day of the week and every day, the outfit will be reinvented, with the help of layers, accessories and all kinds of accouterments, the majority of which will be vintage, hand-made, or hand-me-down goodies.

The Uniform Project is also a year-long fundraiser for the Akanksha Foundation, a grassroots movement that is revolutionizing education in India. At the end of the year, all contributions will go toward Akanksha’s School Project to fund uniforms and other educational expenses for children living in Indian slums. So far, $50, 943 has been raised which translates to 141 kids in school.

Not only is this a great cause, but the fashion is awesome. It’s so interesting to see the same thing worn every day but how many different looks can be pulled off with it. Please go check it out!

7. Things Marketing People Love

So this blog has been dead for a while now but while it was hot, it was hot! Buzz words that marketers love to use were posted to this Tumblr over the period of a few months. Funny to see things you may have (and I am guilty here) used in conversations with coworkers or clients.

8. Digital Buzz Blog

A great resources for the latest and greatest in the digital world. Digital Buzz Blog features “the latest digital ad campaigns, hot new websites, interactive marketing ideas, virals, industry news, social media, insights, and other great digital trends from all over the world.”

Contributors range from Australia, Turkey, and the US and cover a wide variety of topics. Want to impress someone on your knowledge of the latest in the industry? Head over there and take your pick of posts. You’ll look better for it. Just remember to source. ;)

9. Starting Over at 24

This blog has been a little bit quiet for a while, but I’ve got it in here because even if it’s not being updated, going through the archives is definitely worth it.

As the about section describes this blog: After 6 years of dating only one girl, I found myself single at 24 (now 26) and tackling the dating scene for my first time. These are my adventures, my mishaps, and stories of triumph… Lordy it’s rough.

There are some pretty hilarious posts here, including my favourite: To Don Quixote Pt 2 of 2 aka one of the worst dating stories I’ve read probably ever.

10. The Renegade Agency Confessional

Last but not least! we have The Renegade Agency Confessional. An ad agency in Baltimore, they definitely have some great posts and are a good resource for any wee ad agency wannabe. I’ve talked about them before and you’d do yourself a favour to ad them to your blogroll.

Two recent posts of theirs I really enjoyed: It’s beginning to look a lot like McChristmas (a great picture of the number of McDonald’s in the US) and Nothing like an A-hole with B-roll (a great find – a YouTube video all about B-rolls). Check them out!

And there we have it! My Top Ten Favourite Blog Finds of 2009! I hope you find some blogs in here that pique your interest. If you have any you’d like to share, leave them in the comments! I’ll be more than happy to check them out!

Happy holidays everyone! Here’s to a brilliant 2010!

So I want to warn you.

What you are about to see? May change the way you look at the world. It may shake you to your little advertising core. It may cause simultaneous weeping, laughing and jaw-dropping.

I am warning you because I care. About you. About this industry. About being upfront and honest. About being the best I can be. About only showcasing what matters, what really matters, to this world.

I can’t be any more – or any less – than that.

So, please, sit back and be prepared to change your life. Because of me. Because of how awesome and super-cool I am. Because I… am Emma Brooks: Digital Media Enthusiast.

Okay, so maybe I just haven’t updated in a while and I’m exhausted. And when I’m exhausted I think I’m funny. But really, you gotta admire the mad Paint skillz I possess. No, sir, as I told you before: I am not for hire. $10,000/hour? No sir, the world is not ready for my skillz. Not yet. Call me in 2 years. We’ll talk.

We’re almost at the end of The Great Write Off of 2009! Tomorrow is the official end date and I’ll be posting then as well. Until now, onto today’s topic: Unsolicited Spam.

Was I ever angry when I logged into my gmail account today to see an unsolicited e-mail from a real estate agent. I rarely hand out my gmail e-mail as a preventative so I am angry and sad that I’ve been blasted. My question is really, “How did she get it?” I wish I could know.

The e-mail in question:

Ha! She left her Twitter account at the bottom – GREAT! I quickly Tweeted at her with this:

Well, I can’t undo the fact that she has my email address now but damn, if I don’t feel better about yelling at her. And who knows, maybe she’ll respond to me and I can figure out how she got it. One can dream…

So I was looking up lyrics today and came across some great Scientology ads on a song lyrics website, Sing365. Just thought I’d capture these for my lovely readers and share them with you! Really not sure why a song lyrics website is the best place to capture potential Scientologists: anyone have any ideas? What’s the demographic of these sites?

In order to answer my own question, I turned to the internets to find out. And according to Google Ad Planner, 60% of the visitors are female, 41% don’t have a high school diploma, 37% are 0-17 years in age and 67% make between $25,000 – $75,000 a year. So basically they’re targeting young, rich kids? Sounds about right. Way to go Scientology!

And here are the great ads for you!

Square Banner Ads

Vertical Banner Ads

How great are these? “Love! Hate! What is the answer?”

Hmm. Tough one. I’ll let you guys decide! Feel free to comment with your ideas on what the answer should be? Love? Or hate?

As some as you may know, I recently returned to Toronto after a 6 month trip to Australia, working and traveling. I arrived back in town mid-April and immediately was on the job hunt. While my job in Australia had been good for my minimal time working there, it wasn’t wasn’t a job I particularly enjoyed. In fact, I found myself stressed out and my soul dying a little bit everyday I walked into that office. Now, don’t get me wrong, it was a good position for the time being and the people I worked with were absolutely lovely but it made me realized how important it is for me to have a permanent job I love.

And so with that, I made myself a promise that when I returned to Canada, I would find a job I really loved. My brilliant plan to do so? Harness the power of social media!

We’ve all heard those stories: The ones of the people who got laid off, only to find a job through Twitter within hours. Or the blogger who became so respected, so popular that they got offered the corner office at some high-tech firm. This was what I was going to do!

I was going to build a great website that attracted attention. I was going to blog thought-provoking entries that got discussions going. I was going to appeal to my Twitter friends to get them to ReTweet my skills, abilities and strengths wherein the perfect ad agency with the perfect job needed someone – gasp! – exactly like me! It was going to work out wonderfully. We’d all hold hand in Social Media Land, skip through YouTube Ville, streak past Facebook Corner and end up at the Great Opportunity For Emma Pub.

FINDINGS

So how did my brilliant plan work out, you may ask? Well, glad you asked! (Not really, who likes admitting defeat?) Here’s what I found as I warbled my way through trying to make my less-than-planned plan work:

1. People actually aren’t as willing to help you as you think they will be. Which was really a let-down, to be honest. I expected users I had chatted with on-and-off for months over Twitter or on blogs or heck! even on Facebook, to be a little more willing to go out of their way to help spread my plight.
2. While having a website makes you seem like a little more legit to the online advertising crowd, it really didn’t have as much of an impact as I expected. It’s been live for maybe a month now? And I’m juuuust about to reach 100 visits. Not exactly the explosion of loyal visitors my starry eyes dreamed!
3. The areas I did find it helpful to use to its full extent were the Workopolis.com and Monster.ca resume uploaders. While not exactly “social media” in the definition we think of it as, I did get quite a few calls or contacts from recruiters who had stumbled across my resume and wanted to chat. Some even left comments on my website, having found it through Workopolis.
   1. And just as a side note? While I love the Monster.ca interface a heck of a lot more than the Workopolis.com one, the quality of jobs and leads from Monster.ca very much paled in comparison to Workopolis.com. I guess we know who is still king in that realm.
4. There really aren’t that many jobs out there, to be honest. The number of really good opportunities I’ve seen cross my path as a result of trolling job sites, job blogs, job twitter feeds, etc? Maybe two? At most? This is easy to blame on the recession and while I do think it is playing a big role in this, I think what this really means is that informal websites, people that don’t know you, aren’t going to deliver up the job of your dreams.

FINAL THOUGHTS

So what did I get out of all of this? What did my naive and innocent self learn in this process?

1. Don’t rely on other people to lend a helping hand. Now, to be fair, a good friend of mine ReTweeted my “Sales Pitch” on Twitter, which resulted in a co-worker of his seeing it and telling him he’d get me in contact with the founder of an ad agency here in Toronto he knew. Since then, I’ve been chatting with the CEO and he has my resume. Nothing yet, but it’s a good contact to have. This was definitely a positive of the whole experience.
2. Thanks to sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, and WordPress, it’s becoming easier and easier to make contacts in the industry you want to work in. It’s definitely easier to find like-minded people who share the same passions you do. This is a huge plus to social media. I think it’s important to use social media the best way you can to get your name, your passions, your skill set out there, regardless of whether you’re looking for a job now or not. You never know when you’re going to need to call upon the contacts you’ve made.
3. However, in order for people to be willing to help you, they have to know more than just your online persona. You have to become a real person to them. Which means going out and getting involved in your community. Head to TweetUps. Organize an event or Camp or something. Do what you can to get your face in front of people and your personality well-known to anyone and everyone who could potentially be in a position to help you in your job search. It’s one thing to be smart online. It’s a completely different thing to be smart in-person. And unless you plan on getting a job working out of your basement, these interpersonal skills are crucial. These people need to “see to believe.” As it has been for decades in the job industry, it’s all about who you know. IRL. Real world contacts are your best weapon in the job search.

I think I learned some valuable lessons here. Learnings I will continue to use going forward, as I try to figure out what I want out of my career path and how I am going to get there. To those who are in Toronto and in the online/advertising/tech industry, hopefully you will be seeing a lot more of me.

So what do you think? How have you been finding the job market lately? Any success stories you’d like to share?

Recently I was on the MTV.ca site enjoying some free TV programming thanks to The Hills Aftershow Show (I never claimed to have good taste in TV!) when I noticed this banner ad above me. And not for the right reasons:

Something is wrong!

Can you see it? Just me? It says: Missed an episode? Click Here to Watch NOW.

If you’re going to go for leading caps, why isn’t episode capitalized?! And just for the record, I hate leading caps. They look ugly and unnatural. If you’re going to talk to a consumer, talk to them with regular punctuation, as if you’re talking at the same level. Leading caps makes me feel like this advertiser is talking down to me. Let’s have a regular conversation, with regular punctuation, shall we?

It’s small, yes, but I disliked it enough to blog about it! Take that, CTV.