ipod

Marco

Whamo! Text is off, ah well.

Picture Man

Product - Image - Virtual Image

Naomi Klein writes that with the expansion of the brand companies moved their focus from a product based economy to an image based economy. The article below discusses how virtual worlds like Second Life, which are receding from the media's coverage, are not shrinking, but they are instead taking a step back to refocus their business strategies in an effort to find a beneficial use of the virtual environment.

http://www.silicon.com/silicon/networks/webwatch/0,39024667,39285821,00.htm

Furthermore, in the video below, the speaker argues that within the next 16 months (the video was posted in Nov, 2006) a brand was going to emerge from the virtual environment of Second Life.

I think this goes beyond the meaning of what Baudrillard called hyperreal

(Part 1- Page 1) See Salt.

(Part 2 - On Page 2) Sea Salt.

Here's a couple ads.

Marco

Hollywood Halk Uses Jim Dunlop Picks

Take Advantage of Vintage

Keegan's Kickstart Rough Draft

These are the Rough drafts for my Kickstart assignment. I stuck with the Sharpie for my object to advertise because I thought we had to Kickstart Sharpies.

Another comment

Another comment has appeared under Marco's article. Confused discourse is better than no discourse.

Post-it

The post it distributions have continued strong. While I can't take pictures of the post-it placements in busy areas, here's one in the empty PAS lab. The post-its have directed individuals to Palin, Harper, Miley and Laurier extensions but the focus has primarily been on the main site www.managefreedom.com as it is easy to remember.

Final Stats

Freedom Management is Recruiting Prospective Students!

More Posters

Keep an eye out on campus for these gems of mine. With a little luck, they won't be torn down too quickly, as they're hand painted and each is a one-of-a-kind. Again, credit for the design must be given to the posters of the May, 1968 revolution in France.


Marco

Communication is key

Why are we so successful with our advertising campaign? Communication. Our group has averaged just under two emails and email chats per day since we have started. On top of these emails and email chats, are frequent Facebook messages and phone calls. We are a well oiled machine.

Bamboozled!

Freedom Management to Recruit Prospective Students?

UW's Marketing and Undergraduate Recruitment may potentially post a link on www.findoutmore.uwaterloo.ca regarding www.managefreedom.com. Robin Ashton, Project Manager, Integrated and Interactive Media says that it will likley be posted early next week. An update is soon to come.

The proposed blurb is:

www.findoutmore.uwaterloo.ca In the What’s up at Waterloo? section

RPW students have launched www.managefreedom.com in a bold effort to promote the Grand River Film Festival

Do your future plans include entering into the sensational advertising and marketing industry? If so, UW’s unique RPW program teaches students the fundamentals of English along with courses in information design, persuasion, advertising, and much more. For example, this year’s 4th year Discourse of Advertising students are working to create a viral marketing campaign for Kitchener/Waterloo’s Grand River Film Festival. Check out www.managefreedom.com to get a glimpse at one groups attempt to get the most hits on their site leading to the Grand River Film Festival.

Blogs, Blogs, and More Blogs

My roommate's cats are named Chloe and Lily. Today Chloe and Lily decided to create an e-mail account, lilianchloe@gmail.com, and make several posts on various blogs. The pictures above are a small selection of blog posts made on behalf of http://www.managefreedom.com/.

Manage Freedom Assults Facebook

We decided to take the honest approach when using Facebook as a medium. I invited roughly 100 friends of mine to join a Facebook event entitled "Please Help Brooke Get Good Grades." I think it helped quite a bit. The website went down the day I sent out the invitation...but it still looks like we got quite a few hits.

I also have been messaging people on MSN and Facebook chat asking them to check out the site.

I also managed to message several people on the

So Government Officials Do Check Their Email

Thanks to G.R. Festive for the assistance!

Manage Freedom invades St. Mary's Highschool

Perpetuate the problem! Saturate the world with advertisements! Commodify your dissent!

Thanks to my younger and more impressionable brother, managefreedom.com has achieved access to the inner corridors of our largest local highschool, Saint Mary's High, and has used this opportunity to launch a full-fledged poster campaign.



Marco

blk pen: "Did you read about the Sarah Palin Scandal?" blu pen: "No what'd she do?" blk pen: "Man, check it out on Managefreedom.com/Palin"

black pen: "Fuck Managefreedom.com" blue pen: "dude don't worry about it" black pen: you be pissed if it happened to you"

Post-it examples

These are some of the post-it notes I've been scattering across campus. They are written in two different coloured pens to emulate a conversation. I'm putting them in high traffic yet personal areas, like DP and DC study places. This one reads: black pen "did you see that vid of Laura drunk on managefreedom.com?" blue pen "Fucking hilarious man!" black pen "she's going to be pissed though"

Finally, a reader response

When I wrote the Imprint article, I think that I underestimated the complacency of our student body. I have a nagging feeling that it failed at generating the clicks that we had hoped for. In an ideal world, the article was to generate interest in the website, which would in turn lead readers to post angrily about the bogus link/group, which would in turn generate more publicity and again in turn, more clicks. That is all of course in an ideal world.
Still, I was pleased to come across this post this evening. Better late than never, as they say.



It was a good shot.

Best,

Marco Baldasaro

Posters, and Imprint article

Well, it was a busy week.
These posts are long overdue.

For your viewing pleasure, here are the posters I created that went up locally. They are all hand-painted. They are all based off of the May 1968 protest posters in France.


The Imprint article that I created can be found at:

http://imprint.uwaterloo.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2943&Itemid=57&issuedate=2008-10-10


I'll throw up the pics of the post it notes tomorrow. This should get you through the night.

Best,

Marco Baldasaro

Edge of the Universe

Website Redux

The following websites have been revisited and edited.

• http://www.managefreedom.com
• http://www.managefreedom.com/miley
• http://www.managefreedom.com/palin
• http://www.managefreedom.com/laurier
• http://www.managefreedom.com/harper

Missed Connection

Missed connection printed in Imprint

"AFM is a real downer but I'm really glad we're in the same group, working on Mike's Bike's. I don't mind giving you tips on our marketing pitch. But maybe if you check out my profile on Managefreedom.com, you'll find more than just marketing tips! Let's talk about it - Sara 1A"

E-mail Workspace

Dear Government Representative;

My name is Ken Freeman, the communications director for Manage Freedom - a popular online Canadian political advocacy group with 20'000 national subscriptions based in University campus across the country. A couple days ago we were forwarded a copy of an e-mail originating from the office of Peter McKay with CC lines directed towards several top Conservative politicians - including Stephen Harper. The contents of the memo are rather inconsistent with the platform released by the Conservative party. We were wondering if you could offer us any comments on this situation. The e-mail in question can be seen at the following link: http://www.managefreedom.com/harper

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me at any of the mediums below.

Sincerely,

G.R. Festive
Manage Freedom
Communications Director
Office: 416.889.5755
Cell: 416.570.4400
Fax: 416.889.5760

This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual(s) or entity named above. If you have received this email in error you must not use, copy, distribute, disseminate or disclose the information contained in it. Please notify us immediately, delete the email from your computer system, and destroy any hard copies you may have created. The recipient should check this email and any attachments for the presence of viruses

Click picture for larger image.

Campus Clicks

Although they were not featured in the paper, we attempted to advertised our site through campus clicks as part of our Imprint attack. The following pictures were in our pitch.

New Releases

Release Date: Oct. 13th, 2008

The Laurier Lifestyle by Manage Freedom

Set in the year 2069, The Laurier Lifestyle follows the plight of a young student named T-Bone. Battered by economic hardships, T-Bone never relinquishes his "Do or Die" attitude in a romantic journey that takes viewers to the edge of the metaphysical plane.

Brendan Behan

Brendan Behan once wrote: "There is no such thing as bad publicity except your own obituary." Now, the topic of a future life under a mortician's scalpel is not what I am here to discuss, but instead, my fingers drift across the keyboard to communicate what many online marketers already know.

Go negative.

A couple months ago, my brother asked me to do some research on Google Adwords and affiliate marketing programs. After a couple hours of reading PDF documents that talked about how you need to add "bonus" and "value" to your affiliate marketing page, I realized that this was a BS approach to making money. But, I did learn one very important concept.

Many affiliate marketers capitalize on Google algorithms and Google Adwords to make money. They do this by associating their product with the product they are competing with, so that a search brings the products within close range of each other in the results. Then, in an invention of pure genius, the new marketer changes their ad and product name to be a criticism of the other product. They go negative. They go negative because nobody wants to be duped, so everybody will want to get the upper informational hand.

In the world of affiliate marketing this therefore becomes a reflexive scam community. Each person is selling their own bullshit PDF that reveals how to make a wheelbarrow full of money through affiliate marketing. How do you do it? You sell your own bullshit PDF that reveals how to make a wheelbarrow full of money, except this PDF is the real deal. Don't believe me?

Exhibit A: http://www.affiliateprojectx.com/

Exhibit B: http://www.affiliateprojectx-posed.com/

With that in mind. What do you think would spread virally better: A positive video? or a negative video?

Cookie monster is dead.

Next Gen

Everybody Needs a Tiger

Mascots are fantastic social constructions. Who doesn't get psyched when the see a life sized stuffed animal wearing a team jersey? Mascots are genius. These giant toys bring a sense of excitement and comradery. But the genius isn't limited to athletics. Advertising got in on the idea long ago and it doesn't get old.
Tony the Tiger is 56 years of age. That should be one crusty tiger, but people love that Bengal. A recent poll showed that 40% of the time I buy Frosted Flakes is because I'm loyal to Tony, not because I want to eat his cereal. This takes him far beyond your average Company Icon. Could it be because Tigers are voted the most favorite animal in the world, edgeing dogs out by 1% and beating dolphins by a whoping 8%? Could it be becuase Tony's sounds like the uncle I never had? Maybe.
But the real question is, how can we young advertisers add a Tiger to our campaign? Well friends, the answer is inside you. If Rocky Balboa taught us anything, it's that everyone, scientifically, has an eye of the Tiger inside of them. If you can touch that Tiger than your set.
And the best way to doing this quickly may not be having one set Icon but several different quazi-icons. Paint a wack of different coloured stripes in different places and let the people pick the one that appeals to their eye.