Benefits to Working Late

By: Matt Bielewicz

The other night I stayed late to finish up a project and caught this scene awaiting me in the parking lot when I came outside to leave. I’m not quite sure what caused the reddish glow in the sky, but the scene was pretty eerie and unusual. It just goes to show, staying late can really pay off—you know, aside from appeasing the AE, delivering on time to the client, attention to detail in your work… all those silly things.

Photo geek notes: Canon Digital Rebel XT, f/3.5, 18mm focal length, 1600 ISO, 2 second exposure time

March 9th, 2010 by Matt Bielewicz
Posted in Art, Inspiration
Tags: , , ,
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Everyone Doodles

By: Matt Bielewicz

As long as I can remember, I’ve been a doodler. There’s scarcely a page of my school notes from middle school through college that doesn’t have some sort of text ornamentation, swirly lines, song lyrics, cartoon characters or other marginalia. Even now, in the real world with real responsibilities and things I need to pay attention to, I often doodle during meetings or while waiting for slow progress bars on huge files.

Doodling may carry the outside perception that I’m not listening or not soaking in the big picture, but on the contrary, it seems to help me remember what was said and what I need to glean from the meeting at hand. That client’s major competitors? They’re right here, next to this swarthy pirate guy. The soft and live launch dates for that website? Oh yeah, I wrote those down right here in the middle of this alien robot space battle.

A study performed at Plymouth University last year found that people who doodled while being fed names and places recalled 29% more information than a control group of non-doodlers. Perhaps it has something to do with people’s learning preferences, correlating the visual stimulus with the more dry or unexciting information. I tend to be in that visual learner category (as opposed to auditory or kinesthetic), so maybe that’s why it helps me out. According to Wikipedia, John Keats and Ralph Waldo Emerson were doodlers. Leonardo Da Vinci was a rampant doodler. Many US presidents were known to doodle, according to this (disappointingly photo-free) article from CBS News and this article from The Atlantic (which rectifies the situation). Other world leaders doodle as well, as shown in this recent photo of Vladimir Putin, showing him scribbling during a meeting.

So is doodling a sign of genius? A handy learning tool? Or simply an offshoot of being bored? I suppose it could be some combination of all three.

Now, if I’ve learned anything from researching doodles, I have to show some examples. So here you are, a bunch of the more significant doodles I’ve done since being hired. Yes, I have a tendency for lasers, robots, creepy skulls and blunt weapons. No, there’s nothing (seriously) wrong with me. You might notice I tried to create an ambigram logo for the company band, Job Order (as we were named before we had an identity crisis).


















Do you like to doodle? Does it help you in any cognitive sense? Would you like to share some of your doodles with me? I’m going to collect a whole bunch of doodles from people around here as well. If I get enough of them, I’ll make another blogpost and show ‘em off!

March 3rd, 2010 by Matt Bielewicz
Posted in Art, Inspiration, Logos, Research
Tags: ,
5 Comments

Vancouver 2010 – A Gold Medal Research Opportunity

By: Dixon Schwabl Guest Blogger

The 2010 Winter Olympics are in full swing and what a truly great event the Olympics are. Top athletes from around the world are giving everything they have competing for medals, but more importantly the pride of their home country and some international bragging rights.

If I could, I’d be in Vancouver dressed as Uncle Sam, chanting “U-S-A” the whole time, but I have lacrosse practice and a few classes so I’ll have to settle for a 42” flat screen. Either way I’ll be rooting for our men and women as they hopefully dominate the rest of the world’s athletes.

Now there are a lot of things that Americans are good at but the two that I’m thinking of are sports and…research. Yep, research. This year it is unlikely that NBC will make any money from its broadcast of the Winter Olympics but what they will get is valuable research from the event’s massive audience that might generate additional ad revenue in the time shortly after the last of the medals are handed out.

NBC’s goal is to see how the same person uses both TV and the internet during the Olympics as well as what kinds of video they watch online. This research is building off of a similar project they started during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. In one study during that project, NBC gave 41 Olympics enthusiasts a mobile-phone-based monitoring system that allowed them to track how each person was exposed to the Olympics and for how long. During the winter Olympics, NBC plans to examine how each person uses the internet and TV and what kinds of videos they are watching online. They even plan to track if the video is something being viewed for the first time or if it was a repeat view of an event already seen on TV. NBC hopes to be able to use this information to persuade advertisers to spend more money.

The Olympics provides NBC with millions of potential subjects to analyze because it attracts such a huge and diverse audience. The 2010 Winter Olympics could bring in as many as 200 million viewers, an increase from the 2006 Winter Olympics which recorded 184 million viewers. According to Alan Wurtzel, President of Research at NBC Universal, “Big events such as the Olympics often get viewers to test out new viewing behaviors, simply because the event has such a high water-cooler quotient.” The tricky part will be figuring out why people are watching what they are watching and why they are viewing it on TV, a PC or a mobile device.

NBC will also work with Google and TiVo to track additional data. So while we are all enjoying the greatness of the events that comprise the Winter Olympics, NBC will be hard at work trying to track and turn audience behavior into advertising Dollars. Let’s not lose sight of what’s really important though, and that is American gold medals! So let’s grab a beer and cheer on our fellow Americans, eh?

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About Author: Dave O’Neill is a senior at St. John Fisher College and a Research Intern at Dixon Schwabl. “I love hockey, lacrosse (it’s my senior season at SJFC), hunting and fishing. I can’t imagine there is a better place to work than Dixon Schwabl and I absolutely love being a part of such a great company.”

February 25th, 2010 by Dixon Schwabl Guest Blogger
Posted in Research, Sports, Television
Tags: , , , , ,
1 Comment

I want my MTV

By: ddenberg

Music Television, that is. Not the unpalatable programming that’s taken over the once-revolutionary video channel like a cancer and rendered it virtually unrecognizable to Generation X. But I guess it’s a pipe dream of mine now that the network has officially dropped “Music Television” from the logo.

the new MTV logo and the original 1981 design

Seriously, people. “Jersey Shore” is more riveting than watching artists’ visual interpretations of songs, good and bad? Sure, there’s You Tube for all that now, but it lacks the personalization that Martha Quinn and the other veejays possessed. Yes, I may be living in the past, but it rocked the Casbah.

So what exactly does the “M” represent now? Mystery meat, school cafeteria style. Hand me a barf bag, like totally.

Read about the MTV logo story here. And let’s keep hope alive that maybe someday music videos will find their way back into pop culture.

February 24th, 2010 by ddenberg
Posted in Art, Brand Experience, Logos, Music, Pop Culture, Pop Culture Throw-Back, Television
Tags: ,
4 Comments

Blake & TOMS

By: Dixon Schwabl Guest Blogger

Who is Blake Mycoskie? Some may identify him as a former participant and almost champion of CBS’, The Amazing Race. Others might know him as the creator and CSG, or Chief Shoe Giver, of TOMS Shoes, Inc. If you’ve never heard of TOMS shoes, it is company founded in 2006 that uses a one-for-one business model and gives a pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair bought. In theory, this is a great idea; however, you need more than just a good idea and a big heart to start changing the world. How can a for-profit company survive while giving away a pair of shoes with each pair bought?

The answer is with a great marketing plan. With young adults, ages 17-28, as the target market, Mycoskie has been able to use social media to expand his business. On a limited budget, he was able to get his message out and spread his vision to millions through use of YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and word-of-mouth marketing. If you watch his story of how and why he created TOMS shoes, you can not help but be won over by his vision. The videos are done so well that not only will you be won over by what you saw and want to buy a pair of shoes, you will also feel compelled to tell all of your friends about the company.

Through casting the vision behind the business, Mycoskie has been able to promote his shoes while deflecting attention from the premium price charged for these canvas loafers. This is because people know that buying a pair of TOMS shoes is more than just buying shoes, it’s making a difference. All in all it can be stated that Blake Mycoskie is not only a former competitor on The Amazing Race and the founder of a socially responsible for-profit company, he is also a marketing genius.

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About Author: Liz Thrush is currently a Spring Public Relations Intern at Dixon Schwabl. “I am a senior Marketing and Spanish major at Roberts Wesleyan College. In addition to being an RA and the Vice President of our SIFE (Students in Free Enterprise) team, I love to travel, snowboard, and help others. After graduation I hope to be able to spend a year in a Spanish speaking country working in marketing or public relations.”

February 23rd, 2010 by Dixon Schwabl Guest Blogger
Posted in Social Media, marketing
Tags: , ,
1 Comment

Polamalu-tising

By: PJGalgay

Star athlete endorsements. Typically, they’re forced, poorly acted and nothing to write home—or on Twitter—about. Thankfully, one athlete is breaking this trend and actually producing entertaining TV spots—Mr. Troy Polamalu of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Here’s a quick chronicle of his best TV commercials:
Nike, 2008
Dramatic, cool, and wonderfully produced, Troy and LaDainian Tomlinson star in this spot for Nike called “Fate”:

Coke, 2009

Here, Troy stars in a Super Bowl spot for Coke Zero that is a remake of the classic “Mean Joe” Greene Coke spot from 1979:

Original Spot

The Remake

Head & Shoulders, 2009

Having seen his ability to act a little, Head & Shoulders smartly designs a campaign around Troy’s most memorable asset—his signature, Samoan hairstyle:

30 Second


15 Second


truTV, 2010

Troy burst back onto the Super Bowl ad scene this year with this funny spot for truTV’s new behind the scenes, NFL show:

So thank you, Troy Polamalu. If it weren’t for you, we’d be stuck with more ads like Charles Barkley “rapping” for Taco Bell.

February 21st, 2010 by PJGalgay
Posted in Advertising, Current Events, Sports, Uncategorized
Tags:
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Take Me Out to the Backyard

By: MeganSperber

I recently heard a story on National Public Radio about a new partnership between Scott’s Miracle-Gro and Major League Baseball. Scott’s will soon be offering the same grass seed used on America’s favorite baseball fields to anyone who wants a piece of their favorite field at home. This raised a few questions for me.

The first question reveals my sentimental side – why isn’t the grass on major league ball fields the same as the grass found everywhere else? For me, baseball conjures up images of rag-tag teams in makeshift uniforms gathering in an unused lot or a rural field for a game and it seems like a far cry from history to have developed specialty grass for a sport with such humble beginnings.

Here’s my second question – who is buying this grass seed? While it’s not a priority for me personally, I can understand wanting a perfect lawn. Considering that the quality of the turf has a lot (if not everything) to do with the dedication of the people who maintain it, does it make sense to pay a premium for fancy branded grass seed if you’re still going to have to battle dandelions, moles, and all those other lawn-ruining nuisances? Will paying that premium make you more dedicated to maintaining your patch of green?

Then there’s the issue of practicality. Let’s say you’re a Boston native and you’ve grown up going to Fenway park. You have many great memories of afternoons spent watching games unfold over the perfect Fenway turf. Now let’s say that your job requires you to leave Massachusetts – you’ve been relocated to Tempe, Arizona.  How can you take your beloved ball field with you? It might be tempting to buy that premium Fenway grass seed, but the reality is, you’ll never succeed in recreating that space in such a vastly different climate.

So what about you? Are you dedicated enough to your lawn and your sport to give up a few extra bucks and commit yourself to a summer of ongoing maintenance to have your own piece of perfect Major League-branded turf? Or would you rather spend your summer going to ball games or putting an impromptu neighborhood game together in whatever free yard you can find? Personally, I’d rather be running the bases and kicking up dust in an empty lot, like our grandparents did before we had to buy back even our most innocent of pastimes

February 19th, 2010 by MeganSperber
Posted in Brand Experience, Radio, Sports
Tags: , , ,
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Lucky for Lucky

By: Rachael Anderson

Gourmet Magazine. Modern Bride. Nickelodeon Magazine. CosmoGirl. With the rapid shift from print to online, these discontinued magazines are accompanied by dozens of others– and the list isn’t getting any shorter. An avid magazine reader, I fear for my Elle, Lucky, Cosmo and Vogue subscriptions, just waiting to be cut short by the next new Kindle or iPad.

Yesterday, I received my much-anticipated March issue of Lucky, filled with the beautiful colors and patterns of upcoming spring trends. There’s something so gratifying about curling up with a magazine (a relief to my eyes after staring at a computer screen all day) on a cold winter day. And at a bitter 20 degrees, yesterday was no exception.

But this experience was different. My March Lucky had a pleasant surprise hidden in its pages—not a perfume or make-up sample, but a tiny little barcode. The instructions next to it said to download a free application on your smartphone to scan the code. Naturally, curiosity took over and seconds later I was waiting impatiently for the app to finish downloading. When it was complete, I took a photo of the barcode and soon found myself watching a video on how to pick out the perfect pair of jeans. AWESOME!

This feature is great for so many reasons—the first being that (hopefully!) it will prevent many fabulous magazines from becoming extinct. Now that it’s interactive, Lucky’s shelf life has extended tremendously. Rather than flipping through the pages and discarding the publication in an hour, readers can now interact with tips and advice, or watch a video on how to get the perfect side-braid or smoky eye. These videos are stored in your phone until you delete them, which serve as a great reminder of the brand even months after reading the article.

I would love to see other magazines keep up with this technology—watching the latest John Mayer video after reading his Rolling Stone article, or pulling up a clip of Lebron James’ big game after reading an article featuring him in Sports Illustrated. The possibilities are endless!

February 18th, 2010 by Rachael Anderson
Posted in Advertising, Innovation, Interactive, packaging
Tags: ,
2 Comments

Did you watch the Super Bowl? More importantly, did you watch the commercials?

By: Dixon Schwabl Guest Blogger

It’s official. This year’s Super Bowl was the most-watched television event in history. More than 106 million people tuned in on February 7 to watch the New Orleans Saints defeat the Indianapolis Colts. I’m not a football fan but I was one of those 106 million people tuned in to CBS Sunday night. So why do I watch the Super Bowl if I don’t like football? I watch it because I love the commercials.

My favorite Super Bowl commercial from this year was from Google. This was composed entirely of a man searching for things on Google. Sounds boring, right? So what makes it so great to make me stop mid-conversation to watch it? It is so fascinating because his searches tell a story. A love story.

It starts with the man searching for study abroad in Paris, and it continues with searches including how to “impress a French girl” and “long distance relationship advice.” The viewer is taken on a journey as this man woos his French love. My favorite search of his? “Churches in Paris.” I’m sure that most women got the message that he was planning to marry his French love and said “aw” when the bells started playing in the background.

So what makes this commercial so amazing for me other than the fact that I love to hear a great love story? Google was able to make the impersonal search engine something personal. Google gave itself an identity, a search engine to help with your personal (and practical) needs. This branding technique helps to distance Google from its “top dog,” Fortune 500 status and make the audience feel like Google is its own personal help guide.

Another great commercial was Audi’s “green police.” If you didn’t see it, the commercial shows all sorts of people being arrested by the “green police” for making choices that are bad for the environment. (My favorite- the man who did not replace his incandescent light bulb!). The commercial ends with the Audi A3 TDI, newly crowned as Green Car Journal’s 2010 Green Car of the Year, driving off after passing a “green inspection.”

This commercial does a great job of playing off America’s new “green” trend. Audi’s idea for the “green police” stuck well with audiences and I found myself laughing pretty hard at their advertisement. Does it make me want to go out and buy an Audi A3 TDI? Not so much, but it did catch my attention!

Here are a couple other of my noteworthy commercials from the Super Bowl:

Dodge’s “Mans last stand”

Doritos’ “Keep your hands off my mama and my Doritos”

Doritos’ “funeral”

What was your favorite?

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About Author: Kelley Longyear is a Spring 2010 Front Desk Intern at Dixon Schwabl. “I am currently a junior at St. John Fisher College. I’m majoring in communication/journalism and my minor is history. I smile all the time and laugh at even the worst jokes. For the future, I hope to work at Dixon Schwabl and travel the world!”

February 17th, 2010 by Dixon Schwabl Guest Blogger
Posted in Advertising, Sports, Television
Tags: , , , ,
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The House That Women Built

By: DeannaVarble

Supporting the Rochester community has always been important to us at Dixon Schwabl. Tracy, Courtney and I are lucky enough to serve on the Advancement Committee for Flower City Habitat for Humanity.

Our committee has been tasked this year with the Women Build 2010. Our goal is to build a house for a Rochester family using a construction team of all women and a lovely crew manager. (Our crew manager is not a woman but is patient enough to guide those females whose hammering skills are a bit lacking.)

We’re supporting the Women Build 2010 by providing services to help market the event itself, as well as helping to raise money for the cost of building the house. It takes Flower City Habitat for Humanity $79,000 (even with volunteers) to build each house! If you’d like to support the Dixon Schwabl team of women, click the widget above.

We’ve just begun fund-raising and promoting, but we’ll keep you updated on our status (and share pictures) as we build. This is going to be an awesomely fun event for a really great organization!

February 15th, 2010 by DeannaVarble
Posted in Dixon Schwabl, Events Around Town, Marketing to Women, Volunteer
Tags: , ,
1 Comment
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