I may have come to Route 1a as an old grandma but I'm leaving more like a daughter....  I've learned so much from this talented group and I'm grateful to have been a part of 'the family' for the past five months.  
Boy did time fly.

The laughter, the love-- and, yes, even the sarcasm-- have made it a great training environment.  Although I'm disappointed to leave, I am confident that my experiences here have prepared me for whatever the future holds.  

I'd like to personally thank all of the Route 1a clients whom I had the pleasure of working with.  
And, of course, thank you to Route 1a for making my time here truly unique!  

On Friday evening Route 1a attended the 40^th annual ADDY Awards, sponsored by the NWPA Advertising Federation.  The theme of the night was similar to the show Mad Men, which is based on the trendy New York City advertising community in the 1960s.  Everyone in attendance looked very fashionable (pictures to come!). 

However, while we arrived as mad men and women, we walked away simply ecstatic.  Route 1a won nine awards including a Judge’s choice for our winter self-promotion invitation and Best in Show for our Tenpoint Crossbow Technologies commercial.

Humbly walking away with the most gold awards of any agency was an honor… but we also received it as a challenge; A challenge to continue to creatively go outside, around, above and beyond the norm.  Awards are great but results are greater.  We don't create for the glory.  We create for our clients. 

The tidal wave of reactions to "Cindymomof6" (aka Marc Klasfeld)'s video is undeniable.   

Whether you agree with the video's concept or not though, the sole number of hits since its post-date, March 29th, tells us something about the effectiveness of viral marketing!  Watch out, the wonderful world of advertising might be coming down with something... and it's definitely contagious.

Check out the full scoop from CBS news here. 

5 things that are rattling through my head that I had to put in this blog or my brains would start seeping out of my ears.

1. Well, my two teams, Syracuse (my alma mater) and Pitt (long time fan) were big disappointments in the NCAA tournament. I don't usually get too upset about college sports but having both of my teams take unexpected early exits was a a bit shocking. Pitt is a perennial disappointment, but Syracuse was expected to go pretty deep. My only hope is that Butler wins the tournament so that the Syracuse loss doesn't look so bad. Who am I kidding? Butler could win their next couple of games by a million points and that lost would still sting.

BTW, we had an office bracket pool going. I didn't win. I won't tell you who won but she's our intern and her name is Brittany.

2. It's amazing how many things you can fit into an 860 square foot house. Really, we have two adults, one dog, two cats and a baby on the way and I don't feel like we're too cramped for space. We have a whole room that no one really uses. Anyone want to buy it? We could use some more baby stuff, plus I've always wanted a house with a door that lead to nowhere.

3. I probably should talk about some advertising or design related stuff. I found a new commercial I love. It's for Charles Schwab. They are the same company that, through a rotoscoping technique, have weird animated people in their earlier commercials. I love the fact that they are using animation in their commercials. They definitely stand out, although I prefer the less creepy technique they are using now.

Charles Schwab: Enough is Enough

4. I admit it. I watch a lot of HGTV. My wife doesn't make me watch it. I choose to. I recommend it to anyone. You learn important things like which walls to knock down and that some people have horrible taste. Who tries to sell their house with a pink and purple bedroom?

Wait, where was I going with this? Oh yeah. HGTV changed their logo. I follow a few different design message boards and blogs and there has been little mention of this. People were all over the Tropicana packaging mess and the Pepsi mistake update, but nothing about HGTV. The logo is in the corner of my TV screen. I can tell that it's different. It doesn't even come up in google images when I search for "HGTV logo". So anyway, not a big fan. I mean, I wasn't in love with their old logo, but this is worse. They just typed out HGTV and put a roof on it. BAM! Genius! The way the roof sits on top makes it seem like the V is less important than the HGT. Before, the HG was highlighted, Home & Garden. That made sense. Now it's Home & Garden Tele. That doesn't make sense.


“We wanted to get viewers attention at a time when we have a lot of new original programming ready to debut,” HGTV president Jim Samples said of the work conducted by New York shop Eyeball. “It’s a refreshed look, with bold colors and mnemonics, which will help viewers navigate through different programming.”

Maybe I'm wrong. I'm wrong sometimes. Heck, I'm wrong all the time. I checked out the agency that did the logo. They do good work. I just don't see it here.

5. The Pirates start their season pretty soon. I'll post again in a month to let you know that, even with a hot start, their season is already over.

That's it. My brain is done.

On Monday morning, Route 1a headed out (with coffee in hand, of course) to a studio in Pittsburgh to shoot a commercial for Mills & Levine law firm. 

I was expecting lots of offices and just a few standard film sets but I couldn't have been more I wrong.  The inside of this building looked like a mansion with dozens of rooms, each composed in a distinct style. A cozy, candlelit living room was caddy-corner (or "kitty"-corner depending on what part of PA you're from) to a trendy bar area with silver cocktail tables. An upscale parlor room with greek columns and floor-to-ceiling mirrors was adjacent to a simple family kitchen.  We even passed one room that was completely white.  No furniture.  No decor.  Just snowy white walls and floor.  They called this room the "cove" and it is used for videos that don't have a background.  The floor actually curves up to the wall so that even a long shot of a person standing looks like they are simply floating.  

This adventure was a little different than the last shoot for a number of reasons:  

1)  We had one day to get it right (which didn't prove to be too difficult-- we were so efficient that had time to have lunch downtown at Fat Heads bar and grill!) 

2)  We hired actors/actresses that we hand picked from a talent agency (as opposed to student volunteers)

3)  The actors/actresses were interacting with each other in a scene (unlike individual interviews)

However, I'm beginning to notice a trend as those three lessons from February continue to resurface.  Having a shot list and script are critical.  Communication is key-- everyone from actors to owners needs to understand the concept (or "the big idea") for the ad in order to be on the same page.  And, be free to voice your opinion-- even if your idea isn't pursued, the exchange of ideas allows for growth within the group and most creatives know that is priceless.  

It's a colorful day at Route 1a. If you haven't been in our office in a while we rearranged offices last May. We each have brightly colored walls showcasing our Route 1a Pantone colors. Our lobby now consists of our regular couch/coffee table area as well as the office space of Mike Mursch and I. Mike and I surrounded ourselves with 2 large white square Ikea shelves. The shelves each have 25 square openings. We have been slowing adding random items to the shelves: Glo Bones, awards, an old camera, a wooden airplane... We started brainstorming ways to block off the holes but in a creative way. We wanted it to be colorful, we wanted it to fill the space and we wanted it to be a conversation piece. Our solution was to make a wall of Pantone chips. As you can see in one of the photos we are also working on a second side. This side is still in the works and will be more of a mural. We will blog again when this wall is complete!

As creatives, we know that color plays a key role in effective marketing.  It can catch your attention, convey an emotion, represent a company or just add that extra pizazz.  In fact, it is so important that our good friend Coca-Cola will only use a highly specified hue of red for their branding.  In advertising, color really is a critical part of our everyday decision-making process.  

Week 1: January 18-24 

It only made sense (in that sarcastic, ‘God-is-trying-to-test-me’, kind of way) that I would hit every single red traffic light on W 12^th and State St. on the way to my first day here. 

Regardless! I arrived on time and quickly settled into the office.  My space is a square room with three white walls and one rust-red brick wall with a huge window that makes the office feel like part of an old firehouse.  From the window you can see the intersection of State and E 3^rd St. and just beyond that is a great view of Lake Erie, framed by the Hamot medical buildings.

Overall the office is very chic with vibrant paint on the walls (my door is a bright teal) and bold posters framed and placed neatly around every corner.  The atmosphere is much more laid back than I’m accustomed to so I currently feel like the stuffy old grandma of the group even though I’m at least half of Mike’s age (oops!).

Throughout the week I dabbled in a few projects.  On my first day I evaluated two print advertisements for a new fitness center and beauty salon.  The goal was to condense the two ads, retaining the important information from both. I immediately turned to Adobe Photoshop but was stuck like a tire in mud when I realized I had no clue where to get my images (the good ol’ Fair Use law stopped working as soon as I signed on to work with an actual business).  In film production we use music/sound effects from a buy-out library… was there a print equivalent to that out there?  This question led to…

Lesson #1: Yes, just as in film, there are websites with thousands of stock photos available for purchase and use.  In fact, most often the photos you see in brochures and magazines are not taken by the company but rather purchased from stock by the ad agency or marketing dept.

Phewf!

On Wednesday I observed a storyboard for a :30 TV commercial.  A storyboard pairs together one still photo and one description for each shot in an ad. Personally, I was quite impressed with my coworker’s concept (especially considering the ad was promoting a law firm, which is typically dull content).  However, I was told the clients were not as easily sold. Here’s (most likely) why: The firm is located 10+ hours away from Erie so the storyboard had to be faxed and could not be pitched in person.  No one from Route 1a could be there to act as a buffer; no one could prep the clients beforehand or sell the story afterwards. Consequently, the lack of direct communication put them back to the drawing board. Bringing us to…

Lesson #2: Sometimes the creative must sacrifice his/her best idea to appease the client (a.k.a: “killing your darlings”).

An additional assignment we’ve started is to update a website related to the city of Erie.  Erie may not be the most economically booming town but it does have a reasonable cost-of-living rate and some irresistible local to-dos and must-sees.  My job is to determine the most effective way to communicate that on the web.  What on a webpage would retain graduating college students in the Erie area and regain recent post-grads?  We’ve got some good notions brewing so check back later some clever ideas.

During the occasional downtime in the office I keep up with the latest ad trends via The Denver Egotist or try to observe other on-going projects.  Angela and Mike M. (our graphic designer and illustrator) showed me different types of print work the company does and I’m hoping they can give me some more pointers over the next few months.

Other than that, last week flew by… I’m excited to see what’s in store for the upcoming days!

Oh, and on a side note, the first “tweet” from space occurred last Friday. Exciting?  Strange?