John Axford - Future Filmmaker?

For those Brewers fans who don't know, John Axford is a HUGE film buff. He took to Twitter on Sunday to talk about the Oscars and his predictions, as he correctly picked 11 out of 13 winners. But his love for film goes beyond watching movies, as he has lots of stories in his head and has ambitions to take a shot at film in the future after his baseball career comes to an end (which hopefully won't be anytime soon).

To my and many Brewer fans' surprise, it looks like John has already begun preparations for a potential film career after baseball. A spec script that John has been working on during the offseason has surfaced, and while I can't 100% confirm the scripts validity, I can say it sounds like it'd be an epic flick.

To read the few pages of the surfaced script, click here.

Go Brewers!

Super Bowl > Ad Bowl

Over the past decade or so, millions of households tune into the Super Bowl, the NFL's biggest game. While many viewers tune into the game for the joy of football and seeing who wins, just as many tune into the game just for the commercials....and I am one of those people (unless my Chicago Bears can get their act together and make it back to NFL's promised land). To us viewers, we call it the Ad Bowl.

Coming into Super Bowl 46, I can't remember an Ad Bowl being so hyped up. Year after year, the momentum and hype surrounding the commercials escalates to an unprecedented level. And for the most part, the ads have lived up to the level of generated excitement. Unfortunately, Super Bowl 46 might be remembered more for the game itself than the Ad Bowl.

There were some good ads, and there were some bad ads. There were some fantastic ads, and there were some terrible ads. There were some "WOW! They nailed it!" ads, and there were some "I can't believe they just wasted 3 million dollars on this" ads.

The majority of the commercials didn't explore any new creative limits and they simply were repeats of ads seen in Super Bowl past. The creative departments/agencies that worked on these commercials became to complacent with ideas that worked in the past and assumed they would work again. Examples include...GoDaddy, ETrade (although it was funny, he's running out of things to say), and car ads that are becoming more and more ridiculous each year (see Kia Optima, Audi, and Acura NSX). Below is the Go Daddy ad that, while sticking to it's sexual appeal, is NEVER going to get me to visit their site. Give up already!



But in reality, it's not just the creative team's fault for the surplus of terrible ads this year. Part of the reason is the public's fault as well. We've begun to demands ads BEFORE the Super Bowl even begins and in a sense, we are opening the presents much too early. The fun in watching the Super Bowl ads is to be surprised, shocked, WOW'ed, and mesmorized by ads that we have never seen before. All that is taken out the window when a company leaks its ad out a week before the big game, whether it be by their own decision or the public's high interest.

Maybe this will be the Ad Bowl where companies learn from their mistakes, and I have a few tidbits of advice for success:

1) While many successful ads are humorous, don't simply re-cast humorous situations from previous ads in the past. Unless the humor is iconic with your brand (i.e, the E*Trade baby), it's better to continuously come up with more creative and funnier ideas (I'm talking to you Miller Lite and your "man card" ads).

2) Grasp the power and potential of crowdsourcing. Look at how successful Dorito's ads have become in recent Super Bowl memory. Why are they so successful? Because they leave the creativity up to the viewers themselves. Nobody knows what's funnier than your audience, so see what they have to say and you might just find your next successful campaign.



3) No matter what anybody says, it's best to reveal your ad DURING the Super Bowl. Leaking it (or even displaying teaser ads) is uneventful and causes the ad to lose its appeal/spark when it actually is seen by millions during the game. The ad that's most talked about after the Super Bowl is usually (if not always) one that viewers are seeing for the 1st time. So PLEASE don't reveal your ads until the big game itself.

Later on in the week, I'll post videos of the ads that I thought were the best and those that I thought were the worst....and I'd love to hear what you have to think about my choices as well as what your favorite & least favorite ads were.

Thanks, and until next time, Go Bucks!

Let the Super Bowl Ads begin!

As I was surfing the Internet today, I came across the first full-length commercial that will air during Super Bowl XLVI next Sunday. The commercial was for the 2013 Audi SL7. Check out the ad for yourself below...

While my feelings regarding this particular ad are mixed, the real reason for this post is to express my excitement for the kick-off to what I call Super Bowl Ad Extravaganza, the one day where companies and businesses around the country put all their eggs into one basket and pray that their creative and marketing teams have come up with the ad that everyone will remember days, weeks and even months after football's main event. I remember the commercial that captured everyone's attention last year....The Force: Volkswagen.

With the cost of a 30-second ad continuing to increase, it's becoming more and more important for businesses to make sure their ads are the ones that stick out. And with most of the Super Bowl's audience not caring about the outcome of the game (like me), their attention is solely focused on the commercials. It's to the point where the Super Bowl Sunday is becoming more hyped up for the commercials than the game itself. Therefore, the pressure is on! Who will step up to the plate this year and hit a home-run? Well, we will just have to tune in and find out.

Ted Davis: Bucks Announcer on Social Media

With Twitter (and the rest of the social networking world) becoming so prevalent all around the world, it has become a major component of success for businesses. The same holds true for professional sports teams. Many organizations simply hand the team's social media controls over to the marketing department (or create a social media department) whose sole job is to develop effective social media strategies to engage with fans and increase revenue in creative ways. But a lot of times, it's the people within a sports organization who "aren't" expected to be tweeting that are the ones who are effectively engaging with fans. One such man is Ted Davis, the radio announcer for the Milwaukee Bucks.

A recent newcomer to Twitter, Ted has made it clear that fan interaction is a major reason for his decision to join the major social networking platform. "What is it that he does?" you may ask. It's simple. Before every game, Ted reminds Bucks fans on Twitter that they can tweet him a question and he will look to answer it during the game on the air. It's not a "big" idea that people are going to say WOW! at, but it's an effective idea that Bucks fans are flocking to. Hundreds of fans tweet a question at Ted during the game, and he does his best to answer as many as he can.

This is the type of interaction that fans are looking for. Not just tweets or Facebook posts that highlight deals and leave no room for communication between a team and its fans. But instead, interaction where fans and a team are actually conversing with one another.

The reason I wanted to highlight Ted Davis is to show that it's not just the marketing/Social Media department that can be effective on social media for a team....it's other people within the organization that can as well. Ted Davis is just one of those people, and as a Bucks fan, I can tell you he's doing great.

You can follow Ted Davis on Twitter at the handle @nbated

The Comeback

As many of you may have noticed, I haven't taken to my blog in a while. Between graduating last May and beginning work in the real world, I kind of lost sight of what I had created here. And after a great conversation with a friend of mine and after seeing my brother begin his blog for his year-long journey in Germany, I've come to realize how effective having a blog can be. It's not just for personal reasons of letting out emotion, detailing experiences, or simply sharing any bit of information I feel people should know. It's also effective for career reasons. Blogs are a great way for you to reach a wide audience of potential employers and a great way for people to see what you are all about.

While I began this blog for a class project back in college, I plan on utilizing it as a means to express many of my interests as I move forward in my career. What interests you may ask? My biggest passions in life are sports and social media, but I also enjoy movies, music, and entertainment.

So if you are interested in joining me along for the ride, please follow this blog. I'm looking to put my name out there in the sports and social media world, and every connection helps.

Thus completes my first entry of the new year, and I hope to provide many more along the way.

Take care everyone.

Baby Boomers are Embracing Digital Media

In the U.S., 80 million baby boomers have turned 65 and are officially senior citizens...and many of them are turning to digital media. You don't believe me? Well, check out some of these statistics (from an article on Mashable):

• Social network use among Internet users 50+ years old has nearly doubled to 42% over the past year.
• In the U.S. alone, there are nearly 16 million people 55+ years old using Facebook.
• According to Nielsen data, 15% of people 55+ years of age are using smartphones
• A study found that around 13% of people aged 55-64 and 5% of people aged 65+ play games using a smartphone or standard cellphone
• 16% of people aged 50-64 have searched online for information on long-term care for an elderly or disabled person

One of the main reasons that an increasing number of senior citizens have started using social media is to connect with friends and loved ones, and also to shar

e experiences with strangers and new friends over the Internet.

In fact, more often then not, the reason that older people don't use social media ISN'T because of lack of interest, but instead because social media platforms have not been developed with these older people in mind.

With this in mind, there are a few key takeaways that every company should consider if they want to reach the "older" people through social media:

1. A growing number of old adults are taking advantage of the web right now...don't ignore them
2. As society and the web mature, companies and individuals need to make sure they are building the web to empower everyone, not just the young and tech-savvy
3. New technologies and new social media platforms will need to be intuitive and easy to use
4. When these new technologies and social media platforms are ready for use by the public, education is key to ensure senior citizens don't fall behind and become victims of the "digital divide"

In the end, senior citizens may be "old," but if companies want to maintain (and even increase) their success, they will need to develop social media strategies that allow senior citizens to easily use the platforms and technologies available to them.

Thank You Marquette...For Everything

It's late Sunday night as I sit here on my couch watching sports. And then it suddenly hit me...I'm going to be graduating in less than two months. I know it's an overly-used cliche, but it's amazing how time flies by when you're having fun. It feels like just yesterday I was stepping into my freshman dorm room at McCormick hall on Marquette University's campus, anxiously waiting to meet my freshman roommate for the first time while trying to console my mother who was on the verge of tears. Hanging up on a bulletin board in my room is a picture of my twin brother Ben and I with our mom, standing right outside my dorm room. It's amazing to look at that picture and see the long way that I have come in the past 4 years...

I have had the pleasure to meet many new people, make many new friends, and create many fond memories that I will carry with me forever. Who knew that I could have so much fun on such a small campus in such a wonderful city.

In the end of May, Ben and I will be the last of our siblings to graduate from Marquette University. Our other 5 siblings, which includes 2 other sets of twins, all had the pleasure of graduating from this fine establishment. However, Ben and I will be the only set of twins to graduate at the same time, which is such a wonderful way for our family's presence at this University to come to an end....at least until our own children reach college.

I guess what I wanted to share with you in this blog is my appreciation towards Marquette University. People say that college is the best 4 years of your life. As I approach the last couple months of my 4-year stay here at Marquette, I couldn't agree more with that statement. So thank you Marquette for everything that you have helped me to experience these past 4 years, I will never forget it. Now, on to the hectic job search.....