24. Things We Learned

The finish line is quickly approaching for us, Deb Morrison's Creative Strategist students. Projects, blogs, papers, and tests are throwing us into a triple-shot-coffee-instead-of-sleep zombie like state. Anyone would be hard pressed to walk through the University of Oregon's campus and find even one pair of eyes without luggage under them (I say luggage because bags don't cut it, I'm talkin' your headed to Paris for Fashion Week and bring any fashionable item you've ever owned luggage).


So lets take a moment to recap the learning and generosity moments. Here we go, in no particular order:


1. Brands are the metaphysical construct, while products are tangible things.


2. An example of building brands to do better: Haagen Dazs - Save the Honeybees.


3. Scott Bedbury rocks our world and tells us about how he rebranded Starbucks and Nike, among others, and for this he deserves a small sub folder.
     a. "When it is as good as it gets when it can't get any better, what does it look like?"
     b. Any function in a business is a mix of art and science.
     c. The dangers of pre-testing ads, can lead to the perfectly unremarkable. Instead, ask people you trust and find out their problem with it.
     d. When we are genuinely interested and curious, we don't miss much, so be present.


4. Watching Jon Steel tell the world that we must bring out the best in other people, be useful, create simple solutions, feel comfortable with ourselves and our ideas, and constantly work to build our real world broad frame of reference.


5. Maria Scileppi tells us to add 5 interesting things/facts about ourselves at the bottom of our résumé that will provoke a story or question. Best advice. Thank you.


6. "I want to dig your chili."


7. Make sure to have an 'other life' outside of advertising (or at least 'other' hobbies) if you want to be interesting. Being interesting = job.


8. Tracy Wong visits (at 12:06. Oh ma Gohd.) wearing a baller watch and fuckin' hot shoes and lays out a 6 point plan for success. The first point being; 'your big fat fucking ego can hijack your career,' followed by DON'T BE AN ASSHOLE. The sixth point being, 'love your client like you love your dog.'


9. Kathy Hepinstall visits. Deb gets verklempt. Kathy tells us that creativity is an exchange of energy. If we can understand this, it will help us be better creatives, husbands, wives, mothers, and fathers. Also, kindness is an artistic medium. Be somebody good news in a creative way. Tells a funny story about setting up a tent at WK NY, which awarded her a tentwarming gift. I want to set up tents in random places.


10. Dave Allen visits. I take two pages of notes and draw a picture of his shoes and pants that says "everything from here up s grey, from pants to hair" (I think it's funny). He was the first person to talk with us about profits and the business side of advertising. The account people were happy. So was I. Explains that there has to be more than brand engagement to get the sale, besides, engagement is a fluffy word. Instead, strive for participation. The new 3P's: pique, provoke, participation. 

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.

22. Patagonia Owns Transparency

(This post was also published on Scott Goodson's (CEO of StrawberryFrog), Uprising Movements blog) 


Brand reputations are built or lost on social media platforms, where people are empowered to express their opinion about a product. This process encourages an honesty moment, for a brand to acknowledge that they could do better and then start moving toward their promise. During a visit to our class, Scott Bedbury asked our generation to "bring honesty back to corporations," and I think we can. We are a generation that has learned to value transparency through the mistakes we've witnessed with brands like big banks and the Government. More valuable, we've learned how transparency can positively affect a brand's ability to gain consumer trust, build company culture, and improve social responsibility.

In a real honesty moment, Patagonia has developed an incredible tool, The Footprint Chronicles, that has allowed total transparency into their entire process. Simon Mainwaring, CEO of We First social branding consultancy and ex creative for Nike and W+K, spoke with Rick Ridgeway, the VP of environmental initiatives at Patagonia, about the brand’s new tool. The Footprint Chronicles was developed to help show customers the company’s sustainability efforts. By entering a code from their apparel, consumers can see exactly how and where the product was made, including how the designers develop clothes in California, to the factory workers in China. 

Ridgeway explained how the consumers “can see slideshows, videos and interviews of the people behind the product. But more importantly, these slides, videos and interviews discuss what is good about the product and what sucks.” Customers are wholeheartedly invited into the conversation about how to make the product better and ‘less traveled’ before it reaches the consumers’ hands. The brand thinking here, similar to the thinking behind the famous one-time-only Apple ad from 1984, is “Hey, look! We have an experience we want you to be a part of.” 

The genius lies in the brand’s complete honesty with the consumer about their product and the industry they are in. Patagonia states that the production process is harmful to the environment but the brand will alway push to do better. Ridgeway is frank about what’s great and what ‘sucks,’ “We’ll be able to tell you that when it’s all worn out you can bring it back for us to recycle. We’ll tell you how it suck to make this thing in China and ship it clear across the ocean. That’s not so cool.” Patagonia is building its brand to do better for the environment by constantly reinventing their products to be more eco-friendly. This in turn, will help the brand gain customers while winning trust points. Good job.