23. University of Oregon's Brand Story Changed

Today I was presented with a list of the 7 Things We Should Know. The 'we' in question, refers to the advertising students in University of Oregon's Creative Strategist class, taught by Deborah Morrison (akin to our God). We spent the majority of our two hour class talking about the first point, not necessarily because it was the best or the most important, but because it is the most relevant to our school's current situation; the firing of our President, Richard Lariviere.


1. Brand thinking is relationships, actions, purpose, living in the world, good business + growing opportunity.
Scott Bedbury, "A brand is a story that is always being told."


The University of Oregon is a brand, as much as some faculty and students may deny it. President Lariviere was selected two and a half years ago to come to the University as a change agent. The school wanted someone who would help break the old pattern of doing things and someone who would help the school grow in all senses. When the President began changing the long standing system of rules by giving raises to some professors and lobbying for independent funding and governing of the University, Oregon's governor, John Kitzhaber, lost confidence in him.

What does this say about our school's brand story? What does this say about our true willingness to change? As our professor expressed her frustration with the decision, she began to cry (and she's not a crier). Deb explained, clearly emotionally exhausted, that it doesn't make sense for Oregon's seven different schools, located in seven separate and very distinct towns, to be operated under the same government. Every university would function better with individual governments. From a branding perspective, this would allow schools to have control of their own brand statement, control of who they want to be, what they want to identify with, and who their target audience is.

A great brand is constantly evolving; adapting to its cultural environment and its consumers' needs. It is impossible to grow seven university brands, located in different environments and targeted at different consumers, using the same strategy for each. 

Until today, I had never cried in a classroom, but listening to Deb talk with such passion and conviction drove me to tears. Deb is herself a change agent and worked hard to build Texas Creative at UT Austin, one of the best university-based portfolio programs in the country. Since then, she has moved to the University of Oregon to help build a similar model around advertising. She has inspired thousands us to be better then we ever thought we could be and to work harder, not for the grade, but for ourselves. Lariviere was one of our only presidents that worked towards that same goal.

11. We Love Anne Heuer. Senior Strategic Planner, W+K Sao Paulo.

Here's what happened: I fell in love. With Anne Heuer. I saw her from across the globe on Skpye and we couldn't take our eyes off of each other (mostly because there aren't many other places to look when you're Skyping). 


Recently, she packed up her bags and flew from her old home at Ogilvy and Mather in NYC to her new home at WK Sao Paulo, Brazil. People asked her why, in her 30's, was she moving across the globe instead of finding a man and making screaming babies and her answer was simple; why not? She wants us to live our lives the way we want to, not taking shit from anyone about who we should be, but rather just doing what we're passionate about.  


Anne has a love/hate relationship with advertising. Her job is all about coming up with methodologies and boiling down insights, which she loves. Agency people joke that "your brief was is showing" because the markets have become so saturated and crowded that some agencies think the only way to sell product is to formulaically highlight its obvious perks, which she hates.


This is Anne:

Why we love Anne: This photo (specifically her shirt), honest, generous, liberated.

More reasons we love Anne: When she feels like she is on top of her game at one agency, she wants to leave, thinks brand's tag lines have become two meaningless adjectives stuck together.

Why we don't: She's in Brazil. Not Oregon. But it's okay, we kind of want to be in Brazil.

Anne Heuer came to advertising without a portfolio or an ad degree (which greatly pleases her), but rather an English lit degree and three years of experience traveling around the world writing for an Asian newspaper. Her first industry job was at Wieden and Kennedy PDX as a planner. She was curious and observant, making her the perfect planner, but she explained that the wine was what called to her. Every night she watched planners gather outside W+K around 6pm drinking wine and knew she wanted to be a part of it.


Anne's Quick Tips for Planning:


Follow something that is bigger and broader than advertising. She wants us to OBSERVE what's around us and who's around us (reiterating Scott Bedbury's point about always being present). This will make us better creatives, planners and thinkers. She hires curious people.


Be impressed with the leadership. Seek agencies with leaders that you respect and want to learn from. It will make our job more fun and we will learn more from someone that we are personally inspired by (something Maria Scileppi touched on during her visit). Anne seeks agencies based on their cleverness.


Advertising will always be there. This one seems to be harder for most of us to grasp, seeing as we're currently spending upwards of $50,000 for an education and would like to see quick results in fun jobs immediately. That attitude generally won't get us a job. If we want to travel the world, run across the country or play with penguins in Argentina, NOW is the time to do it. In fact, it would probably help us get a job later. Her point being; follow your dreams (though she would never say something so corny) and don't only 'be' curious, 'act' curious.

This was one of her Facebook profile photos:

What she loves:
Art&Copy (so does Rob Heppler)
John Steel (so does Deb Morrison)
Mother
People Ideas & Culture
Johannes Leonardo (make sure to check this out when you go there)


Where we can find her:
Facebook

Thanks Anne!

Oregon is Funked Up

Ben Bye, wearing his big round architecture glasses.

I love his pink coat!

Great boots with beautiful tights.

Oregon IS funked up... and I LOVE it.

Musicfest. Powered by Bikes. Campus.

Last Saturday, May 8th, my campus at the University of Oregon held a music festival that was powered by bikes.  Bikes were set up along one side of the stage and audience members took turns peddling to power the music!  The festival was mostly powered by bike power, including the stage, a smoothie blender, and an arts and crafts station.  The festival lasted all day and the food was incredible!  I may or may not have visited the Indian cart one to many times.  

Inspiration: hills and cars.

Last summer I traveled to John Day Fossil Beds National Monument in Oregon to see the Painted Hills and dig for fossils.  We ended up with a relatively large collection of fossilized leaves and insects.  While driving to the Monument we stopped in a small ghost town that was seemingly deserted along the highway.  There were no people on the streets or in the stores.  The motel was shut down and empty.  There were old cars scattered along the road and in the grass fields behind the buildings.  It was eery and beautiful.  It was an accidental paradise.  All pictures taken by me.  (This post is for Ben because he wants to visit the Painted Hills)

Inspiration: art.

Art that inspires me.  I found this artist at the Bend Art Walk in the Old Mill District in Bend, Oregon.  Large paintings on wood by a Seattle based artist, Brian McGuffey (www.squareroom.us)

Guard cow on duty: Central Oregon.

All photos taken by me in Central Oregon.