Jake Szymanski

My friends and I are working on KENDA Bike Tires a spec. ad campaign for our Future of Advertising class with Tim Brunelle.

Part of our campaign includes some strategically placed guerilla marketing targeted at mountain bikers. Today we tested a formula for moss graffiti. 

Check out the pictures!! —>

More images here.

My group and I are progressing along well with our campaign for our Integrated Advertising class for TRU2U - a yet-to-be-launched underwear brand. Here is a .pdf of our presentation from last Wednesday when Greenteam was in town to visit and brainstorm with us! 

Nick Dahl, Chris Havranek, & Jake Szymanski 

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25 Most Relevant Keywords plus Sites

outdoors, trails, wheels, traction, mtn biking, maps, four wheel drive, family, sun, activities, sms, mp3, dvd, dirt bike gear, fox racing, bike parts, dirt bike parts, nokia 6600, buy motorcycle online, cheng shin bike tires, camel back, cameras

Other sites/////////

teamkenda.com

google.com

kendaperez.com

americanairlines.com

kenda.com

maxim.com

kendanorth.com

Surprises///

Terms like “sms,” “mp3,” “dvd,” and “nokia 6600” were surprising. We didn’t expect our perceived “outdoorsy family” personality to be as into technology and devices as much as they seem to be. However, we see this as an opportunity to push on the digital front with this audience. They are engaged online across a number of different mediums, but particularly on forum communities and product news and review sites.

The other part about keywords and related sites was the consistency in photography. “cameras” was returned as a search keyword while camera bodies and lenses were purchased alongside Kenda products on Amazon.com.

We have identified a huge center of online mountain bike community-ism at www.mtbr.com. MTBR is an online mountain bike forum with over 230,000 registered members.  

One of our current ideas as derived from the tech-family-race-photo insight of our online profiling and metrics research is that Kenda could donate web and community development services to enrich the experience of MTBR’s “Passion” forum where cycling enthusiasts share photos that have to with their passion for mountain biking to the tune of 100+ visitors at any given time during the day.

The Passion forum is one of the more popular parts of the larger MTBR forum community. By creating greater value through the interest of Kenda customers and mountain bikers alike in photography, we could generate increased brand perception and buzz around non-traditional methods of advertising mountain bike products that are both relevant, value-adding and green.  

Ideally, all of this relevant value-adding could be leveraged to direct traffic to online sales of Kenda tires. A feature could also be integrated to direct people to their nearest local bike shop that stocks Kenda tires as many riders prefer to buy their gear in brick and mortar. 

MAPS///

When you search “Kenda” in google maps, you don’t get a whole lot. No retail locations, but there are paid ads for motorcycle tires followed by one for www.jensonusa.com advertising bicycle tires.

Its tricky to incorporate selling bike tires while using a service such as Google Maps. Since Kenda is a manufacturer and doesn’t actually own stores, showing up in Google Maps is hit or miss. One strategy we’d like to see implemented is having the Kenda distributor’s reps advocate including Kenda keywords in the bike shop’s Google Maps registration. This will allow stores that supply Kenda tires to come up in the Google Map search results if “Kenda” is searched. As of now if you search for a bike brand in Google Maps a majority of the results are due to reviews rather than actual store profiles.

EVENTS///

Kenda does not put on events themselves, but they do sponsor a number of mountain bike races within different race series across the world including more local events like the Wisconsin Off-road Racing Series (WORS) which is the country’s mountain bike race series. The individual races take place in a series of local mountain bike trails around the state of Wisconsin that are usually out in the woods somewhere on or near a state park.

PAID SEARCH/// 

What would we want to Kenda customer to do when clicking on a Paid Search item. At least at first, it would be best to bring new members into a sponsored community environment like MTBR that Kenda could support connecting more cyclists with each other. 

Paid Search in Google Maps could be more transaction oriented because if someone is querying Google for a location of where to buy Kenda tires, they are on some level already sold on the product and just want to purchase. Making online and local dealers more available through paid search on a hyper-local level could increase the ease and volume of sales.

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The following in bold are the major points that I took from Faris’ presentation may or may not be direct quotes.

+ Fail. Learn. Iterate. Repeat.

The way Faris stressed Iterative Development was my favourite part of his presentation. It is so key to the success and speed of our future development. Our world is flying by us faster and faster these days. The only way we will be able to keep up is by failing more often.

I can only help but think that if we sent more spaceships up into space, our astronautical prowess would far eclipse what it currently is today. We take forever to make space ships because we seem to think only on a grand scale. Big space shuttles are much like multi-million dollar 30-second spots, but what if we just launched a whole ton of smaller shuttles or probes. Our increased frequency would allow us to fail faster and learn more quickly.

Advertising agencies and clients alike must learn the virtues of iterative development and become more willing to experiment. In that sense, we must all become better scientists of our craft.

IDEO is an excellent example of this. One of their most recent projects with Ford is very intriguing.

+ Do stuff that gives people a role. Digital is participatory.

In light of higher frequency of iteration, we must also adapt to push the boundaries of evolving technological capabilities. We must stretch the possibilities of every channel to it’s fullest. Inherently, the most direct form of understanding you can form with someone is one which spawns from direct interactie participation. Give people a role that is relevant to their interest and they will come out to play.

Faris’ example of the Nikon Photo Contest International does a really good job with this.

+ Technology only becomes socially interesting when it gets econically cheap.

In order to push the boundaries of new technology and gain a considerable amount of participation from your audience, the technology must be cheap enough for the masses. When it’s in everyone’s hands, the barrier to use and participation is lowered and sometimes just second nature. Google for example, has become second nature. When we want to know something, we just jump to Google without thinking about it. Google is also free, which makes it accessible and arguably socially interesting. Facebook is current. Mobile is next.

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Now, I’m not a huge proponent of American cars, but Ford has been doing a lot of good lately. I’m slightly proud of them for it. Makes me retain hope for our good ole America yet.

You can read in the article, but essentially they did a lot of observation, iterative development, and prototyped in some pretty crazy ways. They hacked a Grand Tourismo III and hooked it up to the gas and brake pedals in a prototype car which was fitted with a blank ford dashboard that was then made magnetic so that magnetic buttons could be actively arranged to the users liking as a tool for testing usability. Genius.

It sounds like the first fruit of these designs will be released later in 2010. You know I’ll be going to a Ford dealership to test drive a few cars when this comes out!

Part 1. Children Are the Future//

“Prospection, the act of looking forward in time, is a quintessentially humanendeavour. In fact, some consider it the quintessential human endeavour:”

“The human being is the only animal that thinks about the future.” - Daniel Gilbert

The future sets us apart. Children are inherently our future, but Faris writes extensively in his IPA Thesis - “I believe the children are our future” about how humanities way of thinking evolves because of how children perceive the world differently.

The first level of my understanding of the the links between Faris’ thinking across various online contributions culminates in the connection between his IPA Thesis and the visualization above. The three stages of the yin yang could not only represent three eras of marketing thought process, but also three generations of consumer perception of brands and our interactions with them.

The new full-yin-yang consumer is my generation and the generations who will follow us that grow up with companies who focus more on real customer service, allow consumers to see inside their brand, and actively adapt to the feedback and insights of consumers. Brands that embrace the dark side will succeed in the future and new brands that grow out of our generation will more commonly behave this way inherently.

Part 2. Technology//

Gestures

Are referenced repeatedly by Faris as the way of the future. Whether it’s a touch screen or gesture-reading camera technology, eventually all our of devices and digital interactions will move in this direction eventually cumulating in a seemless ubiquity of information integrated into our lives. Faris references FluidTunes, a piece of software that allows you to browse your iTunes library with gestures as one existing innovator. His comments remind me of Xbox’s Project Natal.

Banners

Faris’ view on banners is much similar to what Chris Wexler presented in class the other week about how little thought and credit is given to banners these days. People usually overlook them as a form of spam in a, “My campaign is above that sort of trash.” kind of way, but like Wexler, Faris acknowledges their usefulness and potential for quality engagement as a part of the future.

Socialization of Mainstream Media

While some are touting Social Media and Interactive as the end-all-be-all of new advertising with a never use traditional media again attitude, Faris is one of a number of people now recognizing that they truly must coexist, that new media must support traiditional and vice versa.

Content

In the age of quick bite-size content, writers, contentcreators and strategists will become more and more important in being about to weave together a fabric of bite-sized engements with the consumer in such a way that draws in sustained interest and value for the consumer. Content can no longer be here and gone within the realm of a 30-second spot or even a 30-minute television show, it must transcend the boudaries of it’s media to interact across multiple channels in different ways.

Part 3. Transmedia Planning//

This transcendence of content is illustrated in the concept of Transmedia Planning. I’m not sure if this model is the sole creation of Mr. Yakob, but it does appear to be so. Either way it is a nice way to visualize the idea that has been talked about in other forms as The Brand Molecule or fragmentation of brand engagement.

Faris points out that fragmentation of content with a unifying purpose across multiple channels and disciplines is what contributes to the creation ofBrand Communities which are key to generating a real culture around a brand, which truly is the future.

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Then, to sum is all up, Faris Yakob may think somewhere along the line of:

Upcoming generations are, and will define the future of new forms of advertising throughout the bounds of new technologies including gesture based interaction, banners, socialization of mainstream media, and new forms of content. These fragmented interactions will consist of a cohesiveness that will bond experiences together in a way that creates Brand Communities through Transmedia Planning.

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