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Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Monday, December 20, 2010
Creative Brand Strategy Project
References
Abrams, R. (2101)Successful Business Plan. The Planing Shop
Guigar, B., Kellett, D., Kurtz, S., & & Straub, K. (2008). How to Make Webcomics. Berkeley, California: Image Comics, Inc.
Kawasaki, G (2007, Nov 16) Creating Mantra not Mission from the (2004) Art of Start retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT7xlFTinIw
Images
Anime Wasabi http://www.animewasabi.com/
Fablevison http://www.fablevision.com/
Half Pixel http://www.haldpixel.com/
Mickey Mouse http://blog.buycostumes.com/halloween-costumes/happy-birthday-mickey-mouse/
Nan Desu Kan http://ndkdenver.org/
Penny Arcade http://www.penny-arcade.com/
Joe Camel http://childrenofthenineties.blogspot.com/2009/07/joe-camel.html
Ronald McDonalds http://www.ifood.tv/blog/saving-kids-from-mcdonald-s-junk-food-marketing-0
Webcomics.com as a Trade Association
Professional Blog 2 BSB
For Business Storytelling and Brand Development at Full Sail University
From Prompt
“For this blog assignment, it will be necessary for you to research, review and select one professional association that you are interested in that relates to your specific industry. You will analyze the industry and discuss one or more of their major programs that influence your industry. In your analysis, you could comment on the association’s programs/services, marketing, legislative policy, research and task force or committee objectives.”
My Response:
Webcomics.com can be considered a trade association by definition, but not in a traditional sense. It does not try to call itself a trade association and avoids the extra legal steps in doing so. It does not attempt to raise funds for political reasons or hire extra staff to tackle key industry objectives. It seems run by one man, Brad Guigar, who is connected to various working web cartoonists.
Around the beginning of 2010, Brad Guigar made a case to turn the site into a paid annual subscription model with a free portal for the public: the case being wife, kids, and the ability to provide a better service. The service at $30 a year extends the conversations and tips from Half Pixel’s “How to Make Webcomics”. It also creates a social hub where creators can collaborate on individual projects. It is the closest thing to a web-comics trade association.
Guigar manages a bridge between experts like Robert Khoo of Penny Arcade to give a direct connection to novice, mid-range, and expert web cartoonists. The discourse around marketing and productivity is invaluable.
How to use the site for extending your network?
Easy answer, just post on the forums. Don’t post BS attempts to get attention. Either answer someone’s question or respond to someone’s comment. Try and reach out to other creators working on similar projects and see if they want to team up to finish a project. Networking with other creators is so easy if a person is polite and are going through the same creative endeavors with artists at conferences and at webcomics.com.
However, finding fans and making a living purely on creative endeavors is still the tuff part. Webcomics.com just gives you all the tools to make web-comics. Recently, the tech questions and development of new media has been the focus of web-cartoonist and can cause the medium to change.
Webcomics.com is Part of an Industry Change Agent
With other related Half Pixel Projects such as Webcomics Weekly and the success of each member in the content driven industry, webcomics.com creates industry trends and standards. For example, “Project Wonderful”, a similar service to Google AdSense, is a industry staple for web-comics because it was mentioned many times on web-comics weekly and on Webcomics.com. Currently, the service is shaping the conversation about how tech affects the content driven markets related to web-comics.
This service could lead to a trade association because I believe it has the ability to create committees, awards, and political movements related to protecting the freedom for independent creators to post their content on the web. However, that would mean a completely different service and headache for Guigar to deal with. If something like “Net Neutrality” started to affect the webcomics.com community, I believe it would become a political trade association overnight.
Anyone up for the challenge?
For Business Storytelling and Brand Development at Full Sail University
From Prompt
“For this blog assignment, it will be necessary for you to research, review and select one professional association that you are interested in that relates to your specific industry. You will analyze the industry and discuss one or more of their major programs that influence your industry. In your analysis, you could comment on the association’s programs/services, marketing, legislative policy, research and task force or committee objectives.”
My Response:
Webcomics.com can be considered a trade association by definition, but not in a traditional sense. It does not try to call itself a trade association and avoids the extra legal steps in doing so. It does not attempt to raise funds for political reasons or hire extra staff to tackle key industry objectives. It seems run by one man, Brad Guigar, who is connected to various working web cartoonists.
Around the beginning of 2010, Brad Guigar made a case to turn the site into a paid annual subscription model with a free portal for the public: the case being wife, kids, and the ability to provide a better service. The service at $30 a year extends the conversations and tips from Half Pixel’s “How to Make Webcomics”. It also creates a social hub where creators can collaborate on individual projects. It is the closest thing to a web-comics trade association.
Guigar manages a bridge between experts like Robert Khoo of Penny Arcade to give a direct connection to novice, mid-range, and expert web cartoonists. The discourse around marketing and productivity is invaluable.
How to use the site for extending your network?
Easy answer, just post on the forums. Don’t post BS attempts to get attention. Either answer someone’s question or respond to someone’s comment. Try and reach out to other creators working on similar projects and see if they want to team up to finish a project. Networking with other creators is so easy if a person is polite and are going through the same creative endeavors with artists at conferences and at webcomics.com.
However, finding fans and making a living purely on creative endeavors is still the tuff part. Webcomics.com just gives you all the tools to make web-comics. Recently, the tech questions and development of new media has been the focus of web-cartoonist and can cause the medium to change.
Webcomics.com is Part of an Industry Change Agent
With other related Half Pixel Projects such as Webcomics Weekly and the success of each member in the content driven industry, webcomics.com creates industry trends and standards. For example, “Project Wonderful”, a similar service to Google AdSense, is a industry staple for web-comics because it was mentioned many times on web-comics weekly and on Webcomics.com. Currently, the service is shaping the conversation about how tech affects the content driven markets related to web-comics.
This service could lead to a trade association because I believe it has the ability to create committees, awards, and political movements related to protecting the freedom for independent creators to post their content on the web. However, that would mean a completely different service and headache for Guigar to deal with. If something like “Net Neutrality” started to affect the webcomics.com community, I believe it would become a political trade association overnight.
Anyone up for the challenge?
Kids and Diet Choice
Professional Blog 1 BSB
For Business Storytelling and Brand Development at Full Sail University
“Sadly, in the next 18 minutes when I do our chat, four Americans that are alive will be dead from the food that they eat.” _Jamie Oliver_TED2010 Prize Winner
For my Full Sail Blog Assignment
I choose the TED presentation “Teach every child about food” because I loved reading Fast Food Nation and watching the documentary Super Size Me. As I was eating my McRib, Chicken McNuggets, and drinking filtered water, I watched his TED presentation three times. I love when Oliver tells the mom from his video that she is killing her kids. I mean the rhetoric strategy he uses with the phrase “Killing you Kids” is brilliant, shocking, and very satiric.
Nonetheless, the seriousness of the diet and exercise issues in the USA are interesting and financially fascinating. Oliver's message is clear: The problem when it comes to diet and exercises is that the message has been geared to adults and not kids. For example, Veggie Tales is more focused on different moral messages from the Christen Bible, then the dietary practices from the Bible (Veggie Tales and Bible Diet).
Taking in consideration Kawasaki (2007) advice that a company must have a purpose before it can make profit, Oliver is making a career out of informing us we are killing ourselves and our children with dietary ignorance. His mission is noble and profitable. Of course, when considering edutainment video games and Oliver’s message, the opportunity to develop games that are edutainment and bring dietary awareness to kids also seems like a noble and profitable endeavor.
The problem in regards to Video Games…
Trying to figure out children’s edutainment in general begs to categorical questions: Do children find it fun? Do children learn something? The first question is something that has been answered by franchises such as Organ Trial and Where in The World is Carmen San-Diego. These titles for years have been repackaged and placed on video game shelves. The content of these games is static and limits the range of current topics that may need to be explored (Owens 2009).
One current topic I’ve been interested in exploring is health and food. Saporito (2009) did an intresting review where he looked at many games that involved food. In this interesting case study, he finds that few games actually teach kids how to eat healthy or prepare food. Cooking Mama a very successful franchise on Nintendo DS and on the internet does nothing to truly teach about health, food, or even cooking. Cooking Mama arguably is the most enthralling food game by it’s success, but can not be considered Edutainment because it does not attempt to teach anything about food.
The Solution…
If Oliver has stirred his healthy ideas for people with his show, video games are another medium that can push his message. If games can teach kids to be dietary healthy, then the game should borrow elements from Japanese gaming. Involve a crazy plot, insert real food choices, and feed the children real information about eating and cooking. Imagine instead of trying to find the next “poke’mon”, it’s regional plant to help a chief achieve the next level of culinary mastery. The big mistake based on Saporito observation is either the game takes itself to seriously or not seriously at all.
References
Kawasaki, G (2007, Nov 16) Creating Mantra not Mission from the (2004) Art of Start retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT7xlFTinIw
Owens, T (2009) A Walk Down Edutainment Lane: Or, What Target Taught Me About Serious Gameshttp://www.classroom20.com/profiles/blogs/a-walk-down-edutainment-lane
http://www.testfreaks.com/blog/information/cooking-games-edutainment-vs-entertainment/
Saporito, J. (2009, April, 08) Cooking Games: Edutainment Vs. Entertainment
Retrieved from http://www.testfreaks.com/blog/information/cooking-games-edutainment-vs-entertainment/
“Bible Diet” http://www.planetpace.com/
“Veggie Tale” https://bigidea.com/index.aspx
For Business Storytelling and Brand Development at Full Sail University
“Sadly, in the next 18 minutes when I do our chat, four Americans that are alive will be dead from the food that they eat.” _Jamie Oliver_TED2010 Prize Winner
For my Full Sail Blog Assignment
I choose the TED presentation “Teach every child about food” because I loved reading Fast Food Nation and watching the documentary Super Size Me. As I was eating my McRib, Chicken McNuggets, and drinking filtered water, I watched his TED presentation three times. I love when Oliver tells the mom from his video that she is killing her kids. I mean the rhetoric strategy he uses with the phrase “Killing you Kids” is brilliant, shocking, and very satiric.
Nonetheless, the seriousness of the diet and exercise issues in the USA are interesting and financially fascinating. Oliver's message is clear: The problem when it comes to diet and exercises is that the message has been geared to adults and not kids. For example, Veggie Tales is more focused on different moral messages from the Christen Bible, then the dietary practices from the Bible (Veggie Tales and Bible Diet).
Taking in consideration Kawasaki (2007) advice that a company must have a purpose before it can make profit, Oliver is making a career out of informing us we are killing ourselves and our children with dietary ignorance. His mission is noble and profitable. Of course, when considering edutainment video games and Oliver’s message, the opportunity to develop games that are edutainment and bring dietary awareness to kids also seems like a noble and profitable endeavor.
The problem in regards to Video Games…
Trying to figure out children’s edutainment in general begs to categorical questions: Do children find it fun? Do children learn something? The first question is something that has been answered by franchises such as Organ Trial and Where in The World is Carmen San-Diego. These titles for years have been repackaged and placed on video game shelves. The content of these games is static and limits the range of current topics that may need to be explored (Owens 2009).
One current topic I’ve been interested in exploring is health and food. Saporito (2009) did an intresting review where he looked at many games that involved food. In this interesting case study, he finds that few games actually teach kids how to eat healthy or prepare food. Cooking Mama a very successful franchise on Nintendo DS and on the internet does nothing to truly teach about health, food, or even cooking. Cooking Mama arguably is the most enthralling food game by it’s success, but can not be considered Edutainment because it does not attempt to teach anything about food.
The Solution…
If Oliver has stirred his healthy ideas for people with his show, video games are another medium that can push his message. If games can teach kids to be dietary healthy, then the game should borrow elements from Japanese gaming. Involve a crazy plot, insert real food choices, and feed the children real information about eating and cooking. Imagine instead of trying to find the next “poke’mon”, it’s regional plant to help a chief achieve the next level of culinary mastery. The big mistake based on Saporito observation is either the game takes itself to seriously or not seriously at all.
References
Kawasaki, G (2007, Nov 16) Creating Mantra not Mission from the (2004) Art of Start retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT7xlFTinIw
Owens, T (2009) A Walk Down Edutainment Lane: Or, What Target Taught Me About Serious Gameshttp://www.classroom20.com/profiles/blogs/a-walk-down-edutainment-lane
http://www.testfreaks.com/blog/information/cooking-games-edutainment-vs-entertainment/
Saporito, J. (2009, April, 08) Cooking Games: Edutainment Vs. Entertainment
Retrieved from http://www.testfreaks.com/blog/information/cooking-games-edutainment-vs-entertainment/
“Bible Diet” http://www.planetpace.com/
“Veggie Tale” https://bigidea.com/index.aspx
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
My Full Sail Discussion Board for 12082010
The blog I decided to cover from Ries is “How Left-Brain Management got us into this Recession”. The article is interesting because it explains five concepts that businesses did not adhered to that caused issues with their branding and led to poor sales.
1. Management is focused on reality, when the real problem is perception.
2. Management is focused on expansion when the real opportunity is contraction.
3. Management demands "better" products when the real opportunity is "different" products.
4. Management expects rapid growth when the real opportunity lies in the opposite direction.
5. Management values "creativity" when the real opportunity lies in "credentials."
After reading the blog, I wanted to take a look at Mascots and how they adhere to these five concepts in relation to Law 8 The law of the category . We should also consider the mascot as part of our branding. A Mascot can be anything related to a cartoon or a rapper. Mascots, but logos silently speak for our brand. For example, GEICO’s Gecko speaks on behalf of the company better than their logo itself.
Law 8 The law of the category a leading brand should promote the product or service category, not the brand
Disney helped create the category Family Entertainment with the lunched of cartoons such as Mickey Mouse. As the Reis (2002) suggests McDonalds entering this category was beneficial commercially for McDonalds at the same time helped developed the category as part of US and eventual Global culture (Schlosser,2002).
However, Disney comparatively started to lose its ability to make smart decisions because it’s leaders didn’t know wither to pursue new types of products and service or develop products and services that reflected it’s past successes. Mickey Mouse for example represents the times that founder Walt Disney took his brand to a new national level (History of Disney). Walt designed a mascot to represent his company that took elements from the current culture and market trends. The animated shorts that Mickey Mouse stared in
Although Mickey’s character design had changed throughout the years to reflect popular trends, Mickey started to loose it’s simple lovable roots. New forms of Family Entertainment from companies such as Pixar, developed new modern characters that represented a new category of family film, Digital Animation. A new question now faced Mickey could he contend in the category of modern digital entertainment?
1. Management is focused on reality, when the real problem is perception.
It seems that Disney’s leader’s considered that Mickey by himself was not sellable because the reality is the Mickey Mouse Franchise may not be something that the general public would buy. If this was the case, the problem was not the public but the public perception. This would mean that Mickey had to be repackaged; in turn, Disney would have to rebrand itself because Mickey represented so much of the Disney’s brand.
3. Management demands "better" products when the real opportunity is "different" products.
Mickey Mouse would venture into Japanese Video games with Square Enix called Kingdom Hearts. The game did more for Disney because it showed that Disney’s worlds and History could be made interesting for Video gamers. Of course Mickey Mouse had been in video game before, but with the imposed corporate ideas on developers, no one real had the creative freedom to rebrand Mickey for Digital Entrainment.
Rebranding Mickey Mouse to be Epic. Epic Mickey is now attempt to make a new Disney product that represents their ability to adapt the old for today’s markets. It’s based on the success of Kingdom Heart observably because it has element from Kingdom Hearts, so it’s safe to assume they want to keep that market from Kingdom Hearts.
Disney is attempting to rebrand again. Epic Mickey represents the Disney Brand trying to sell Mickey Mouse in today’s market. However, Mickey Mouse may not be more than a mascot. Because when Christmas comes, the sales of Epic Mickey will demonstrate if Disney can successfully rebrand itself in the market place.
What we can learn from this is how a brand represents the time it comes from?
How mascots represent the company’s brand, and its history?
How issues in effective decision making affect a company’s ability to effectively represent its brand and products?
Ries, Luara (2009, March 6) How Left-Brain Management got us into this Recession
Retrieved from http://ries.typepad.com/ries_blog/2009/03/how-leftbrain-management-got-us-into-this-recession.html
Ries, Al., and Laura Ries. The 22 immutable laws of branding: how to build a product or service into a world-class brand. 1. ed. New York: Harperbusiness, 2002. Print.
1. Management is focused on reality, when the real problem is perception.
2. Management is focused on expansion when the real opportunity is contraction.
3. Management demands "better" products when the real opportunity is "different" products.
4. Management expects rapid growth when the real opportunity lies in the opposite direction.
5. Management values "creativity" when the real opportunity lies in "credentials."
After reading the blog, I wanted to take a look at Mascots and how they adhere to these five concepts in relation to Law 8 The law of the category . We should also consider the mascot as part of our branding. A Mascot can be anything related to a cartoon or a rapper. Mascots, but logos silently speak for our brand. For example, GEICO’s Gecko speaks on behalf of the company better than their logo itself.
Law 8 The law of the category a leading brand should promote the product or service category, not the brand
Disney helped create the category Family Entertainment with the lunched of cartoons such as Mickey Mouse. As the Reis (2002) suggests McDonalds entering this category was beneficial commercially for McDonalds at the same time helped developed the category as part of US and eventual Global culture (Schlosser,2002).
However, Disney comparatively started to lose its ability to make smart decisions because it’s leaders didn’t know wither to pursue new types of products and service or develop products and services that reflected it’s past successes. Mickey Mouse for example represents the times that founder Walt Disney took his brand to a new national level (History of Disney). Walt designed a mascot to represent his company that took elements from the current culture and market trends. The animated shorts that Mickey Mouse stared in
Although Mickey’s character design had changed throughout the years to reflect popular trends, Mickey started to loose it’s simple lovable roots. New forms of Family Entertainment from companies such as Pixar, developed new modern characters that represented a new category of family film, Digital Animation. A new question now faced Mickey could he contend in the category of modern digital entertainment?
1. Management is focused on reality, when the real problem is perception.
It seems that Disney’s leader’s considered that Mickey by himself was not sellable because the reality is the Mickey Mouse Franchise may not be something that the general public would buy. If this was the case, the problem was not the public but the public perception. This would mean that Mickey had to be repackaged; in turn, Disney would have to rebrand itself because Mickey represented so much of the Disney’s brand.
3. Management demands "better" products when the real opportunity is "different" products.
Mickey Mouse would venture into Japanese Video games with Square Enix called Kingdom Hearts. The game did more for Disney because it showed that Disney’s worlds and History could be made interesting for Video gamers. Of course Mickey Mouse had been in video game before, but with the imposed corporate ideas on developers, no one real had the creative freedom to rebrand Mickey for Digital Entrainment.
Rebranding Mickey Mouse to be Epic. Epic Mickey is now attempt to make a new Disney product that represents their ability to adapt the old for today’s markets. It’s based on the success of Kingdom Heart observably because it has element from Kingdom Hearts, so it’s safe to assume they want to keep that market from Kingdom Hearts.
Disney is attempting to rebrand again. Epic Mickey represents the Disney Brand trying to sell Mickey Mouse in today’s market. However, Mickey Mouse may not be more than a mascot. Because when Christmas comes, the sales of Epic Mickey will demonstrate if Disney can successfully rebrand itself in the market place.
What we can learn from this is how a brand represents the time it comes from?
How mascots represent the company’s brand, and its history?
How issues in effective decision making affect a company’s ability to effectively represent its brand and products?
Ries, Luara (2009, March 6) How Left-Brain Management got us into this Recession
Retrieved from http://ries.typepad.com/ries_blog/2009/03/how-leftbrain-management-got-us-into-this-recession.html
Ries, Al., and Laura Ries. The 22 immutable laws of branding: how to build a product or service into a world-class brand. 1. ed. New York: Harperbusiness, 2002. Print.
Monday, December 6, 2010
The Story of NeoGlow in Five Minutes
References:
Rhonda, A (2010) Successful Business Plan: Secretes and Strategies. The Planningshop
Educational Consultants (2010, Nov 2010) Retrieved from http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/job-JDC2N64JZOF-l-Denver-CO-c-Education_Training?source=CP&rmpixel=
Guigar, B., Kellett, D., Kurtz, S., & & Straub, K. (2008). How to make webcomics. Berkeley, California: Image Comics, Inc.
Guigar, B., Kellett, D., Kurtz, S., & & Straub, K. (2010, Apr. 20). Webcomics Weekly 68 - It Was In The Paper Retived from: http://209.197.7.108:80/g4a2v5g3/cds/ww/Webcomics_Weekly_68_-_It_Was_In_The_Paper.mp3?dopvhost=legacy-content.libsyn.com&doppl=1886a501547344665423446685e643b0&dopsig=dfd02594a085f1a6de60c041c8d2a8dc
Another round of Kris, Brad, Dave and Scott! Web comics Weekly Podcast
Goodman, B and Dretzin, R (Dirs) (2003) The Persuaders PBS Films Retrieved From http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/persuaders/
Khoo, R. (2010, January 14). Robert Khoo: Webcomics, the model. Retrieved June 19, 2010, from webcomics.com (private log-in): http://www.webcomics.com/home/2010/1/14/robert-khoo-webcomics-the-model.html
McEntegart , J. (2010, Jan 20) One Third of 11-Year-Olds Have Cell Phones Tom's Guide U Retrieved From http://www.tomsguide.com/us/U.S.-Cell-Phones-Children-Kids,news-5603.html
Pew (2009, Aug 19) Teen and Mobile Phones Data Memo Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2009/14--Teens-and-Mobile-Phones-Data-Memo.aspx
McCloud, S (2000) Reinventing Comics Harper Paperbacks
Stacey, E. Blachford. L, and Cengage, L. (2010, 29 Nov) Action Figure How Products are Made eNotes.com. Retrived from
Reynolds P.H., (2010, May 2 ) NETA 2010 Stories That Matter, Stories That Move-Reynolds Podcast retrieved from http://www.netasite.org/podcast/wp-content/uploads/2010/NETA2010-03-PREYNKEY-042910.mp3
Image Cites from 1st Parties
http://www.nick.com/
http://disney.go.com/index
http://pbskids.org/
http://www.fablevision.com/
http://www.comic-con.org/
Image Cites from 3rd Parties
Campfire_
http://www.stocksensation.com/Camp-Fire-0001045.php
Con Crowd
http://www.dvdtalk.com/cineschlock/archives/2005/07/schlockcast_com.html
Ipod Image
http://trekmovie.com/2010/01/27/steve-jobs-uses-star-trek-to-intro-padd-ipad/
Magic School Bus
http://ochemonline.wordpress.com/2010/08/04/take-chances-make-mistakes-get-messy/
Star Trek Image
http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/7/14/204145/261/travel/It%27s+Not+Too+Late+To+Get+Tickets+To+Next+Week%27s+Comic-Con
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