Book Selection

I decided to purchase Pick Me : Breaking Into Advertising and Staying There by Nancy Vonk.


The book informs you about advertising being a fantastic industry. but actually getting a job (or even your foot in the door) can seem next to impossible. Whether you're a student or a young professional loaded with questions, this one-of-a-kind guide shows you how to land a job and how to thrive once you're in and the pressure is on.

Authors Nancy Vonk and Janet Kestin are seasoned creative directors and longtime creative partners. In Pick Me, these industry leaders answer your toughest ad career questions, like:

• Is advertising right for me?
• How do I build a killer portfolio?
• How do I get an interview with the elusive creative director?
• Should I accept an unpaid internship?
• How do I find the right partner?
• How do I beat creative block?
• How do I avoid burnout?

Fourteen industry superstars share their insights and explain how they broke into the business. You'll hear from Bob Barrie, Rick Boyko, David Droga, Mark Fenske, Neil French, Sally Hogshead, Mike Hughes, Shane Hutton, Brian Millar, Tom Monahan, Chuck Porter, Bob Scarpelli, Chris Staples, and Lorraine Tao.

Nike has become such an established company that it has changed they way their ads are launched and run. This makes a great company to have a career with. Just try to recall the last couple of Nike commercials you saw on television. Don't be surprised when you can't. Nike's spending on TV and print advertising in the U.S. has dropped by 40% in just three years, even as its total marketing budget has steadily climbed upward to hit a record $2.4 billion last year. "There's barely any media advertising these days for Nike," says Brian Collins, a brand consultant and longtime Madison Avenue creative executive.

 Gone is the reliance on top-down campaigns celebrating a single hit -- whether a star like Tiger Woods, a signature shoe like the Air Force 1, or send-ups like Bo Jackson's 'Bo Knows' commercials from the late '80s that sold the entire brand in one fell Swoosh. In their place is a whole new repertoire of interactive elements that let Nike communicate directly with its consumers, whether it's a performance-tracking wristband, a 30-story billboard in Johannesburg that posts fan headlines from Twitter, or a major commercial shot by an Oscar-nominated director that makes its debut not on primetime television but on Facebook.  

The reason for the shift is simple: Nike is going where its customer is. And its core customer, a 17-year-old who spends 20% more on shoes than his adult counterparts, has given up television to skip across myriad online communities. Not only does Nike think it can do without the mega-TV campaigns of old, it says the digital world allows the brand to interact even more closely with its consumers -- maybe as closely as it did in its early days, when founder Phil Knight sold track shoes out of his car in the 1960s. That's a major change, Nike CEO Mark Parker explained toFortune during a recent interview.

Nike explores Europe in more detail

Thanks to Nike, AKQA’s Parisian dream is coming true. Adweek’s 2011 Digital Agency of the Year is opening an office in the Saint Germain quarter of the city, fueled by new business from the sports brand, a client of 12 years, and the shop’s largest.

AKQA will be Nike France’s key digital agency, and will be geared toward helping better tap into the country’s booming e-commerce and smartphone markets. That will include work around the brand’s sponsorship of the national soccer team, announced early last year, and projects for the upcoming European Football Championships that will take place in June. This was a great move made by Nike, the team realized they should help AKQA expand into a market they would like to reach. It seems very efficient to help the company that has help Nike expand in the last 12 years. Tapping into more European Football will help Nike and AKQA on understanding and relating with their targeted 

consumers on a more detailed level.

 AKQA's Tom Bedecarre, Ajaz Ahmed, James Hilton, Nicolai Smith and Peter Lund

Manchester United Nike Football Ad 

Nike MAGs

Nike has announced that they will be auctioning off 1,500 pairs of the Nike MAG self-lacing shoe, the same shoe worn by Marty McFly in Back to the Future II. The shoes will be auctioned off on eBay to support the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's research. They went all out in advertising the charity effort in the detailed ad starring Kevin Durant, Bill Hader, Christopher Lloyd, Tinker Hatfield and Donald Fullilove. Doc utters his trademark "Great Scott" like he must in every commercial that references Back to the Future. Their they should both shoes with its functions, such as its infamous glowing lights. The whole effort is wittily called "Back 4 the Future." Michael J. Fox also appeared on a seperate ad explaining the campaign and details how the bids on these shoes would contribute to the foundation. Fox finishes off with a warm thank you on the behave of the foundation, Nike, eBay, and the 5 million people living with Parkinson's.