El Gaffney

Do Day: Become Legendary

Here’s our W+K NY’s most recent spot for Jordan brand. I would not be posting if it did not include some tight Hoyas footage of JTIII. Also, I’m trying to get over the fact that I’m missing tomorrow’s game at MSG because I’ll be out of town. Thanks to George for reminding me by passing on images of these Georgetown kicks.

Tags: gtown, jordan, nike

Music, Sports, and Advertising Collide!

Maybe it’s because I still get pumped up from the Nike Football commercial with the Last of the Mohican’s track on it a few months later. I actually seek it out to watch it every once in a while. Maybe it’s because when I went to get some empanadas for lunch today, Phil Collin’s “In the Air Tonight” came on and then I thought of the Cadbury ad with the gorilla drumming, which made me think of the Phoenix Suns mascot. Or maybe it’s because I just briefed for a Sheraton spot promoting their NCAA sponsorship and, if possible, incorporating the song they have used in the past, for which we recently just renegotiated the rights.

Whatever the case, sometimes when these three things—advertising, music, and sports—come together something special happens. When watching some uploaded amateur videos from (my alma mater) Georgetown’s Midnight Madness, I came across this one below (introducing our center, Roy Hibbert). I couldn’t help but thank advertising for making it possible.

No, not for making Roy’s return to G-town possible (he came back for his final year even though he could have possibly been a lottery pick in the NBA this summer - you can see in the jumping around in the stands how much he loves being in college). Rather for giving students and all our fans the ammo/inspiration to show their appreciation, enthusiasm, and love together, chanting, “Roy, Roy, Roy, Roy…” Because without advertising, bringing Roy out to the Eye of the Tiger would not have never happened.

The video does also seem to make a compelling case for regular-people-made-ads. I mean, you put a swoosh at that end of this footage, and I’m sold - on my way out to cop some new Nike kicks.

Tags: gtown, movies, nike

How To Review An Ad

Here is the presentation I gave to Georgetown MBA’s tonight. I think it went over well. I thought it would upload the PowerPoint notes automatically but it seems that it didn’t so I’m going to work on getting the speaking points/details on there. Either way, it was a great experience and hopefully the attendees learned something new. Writing this thing from scratch over the last couple weeks was really enjoyable, and I know it could be better so any feedback you all have is more than welcome. Good luck to all the grad students going to Houston this weekend, and once again please let me know if you have any questions, thoughts, or requests.

Tags: gtown, mba, presentations, teaching

Me in D.C.

So I’m going back to my alma mater next Tuesday to present to the Georgetown Graduate Marketing Association. The theme of my talk, as requested by the co-President of the GMA, is How To Review An Ad. It seems that when brand management (brand marketing) companies like P&G, J&J, Unilever, and others come to campus to recruit a question they all ask is: What advertising do you think is good and why? And Georgetown’s b-school students feel unprepared to answer (especially first-year’s and and career switchers). As I understand it, the MBA program has a great global perspective and strong finance track, but lacks a diverse offering of marketing-focused classes. In particular for these future brand managers, their marketing concentration rarely gets advertising-specific - and these are the people who will be assesssing our creative.

Thus, I’m going back to school to give them some tools and language that will help them feel more comfortable speaking about advertising. So they can get the summer internship that leads to the full-time job next year over those Wharton snobs. In all seriousness, I’m excited about the opportunity and just sad I’m missing homecoming this weekend.

I plan on sharing the presentation soon. If anyone’s in DC Wednesday morning and wants to meet up for breakfast, I’m free so shoot me a note.

Tags: gtown, jobs, mba, teaching

Final Four Fashion

Tags: bball, gtown, polls