Doing Hard Things

Hey there! If you’re reading this, chances are we don’t know each other. I’m Ashley.  I want you to keep reading. If you do, I need your help. What a weird way to start a personal manifesto, right?

Let’s get straight to the point – I don’t believe I am a very talented person. I pursue my education because it’s valuable to me and I enjoy learning and growing. Sometimes it’s almost unhealthy how much I’l stretch myself to do something new and different. I’m going into Project Management if that gives you an idea. However, I’m not a creative. I’m not one who sits down for hours and has sketch after sketch of this graphic or logo or artistic piece that I just envision. I don’t lie awake in the dark wondering how my ideas can be more popular or accepted. I don’t wake up in the middle of the night and write down things I was unconsciously thinking about.  I can’t create something iconic on the first try, and I just plain and simple don’t have great ideas. I don’t have a passion yet, and I still might not in the near future.

It’s taken me basically my whole life to learn the things I now know about myself. And you might be thinking – Hey that’s everyone, so congrats your situation isn’t special at all. That could partially be true but listen here for a hot second. I grew up on the central coast of California where my Dad became a successful business owner and my protected childhood life might’ve seemed near perfect to some. Under unfortunate circumstances, my angel mom suffered nearing 18 months of paralysis due to a brain virus secondary to her Multiple Sclerosis condition. She sadly lost her life at the age of 39, but instilled things in to me that help me pursue things I’m not good at.  One of those things was “We do hard things”. I do things that are challenging to not only my intellect, but my self perception. This puts me in a vulnerable spot emotionally when design requires merciless criticism. I pursue these things because I can – because I’m not lying in a bed unable to control my muscles and staring at the ceiling all day. I do things I’m not good at because I hope to one day find a true passion. I do things that will never get public attention because I am mentally and physically capable of doing that. Did it occur to you that everyone accomplishes things because they can?

I started taking photos when I was required to take the Digital Imaging class here on the BYU-Idaho campus, and learned that I loved taking portraits and I actually wasn’t terrible at it. I took some roommate engagement photos, family photos, infant photos, senior photos and even some studio and model photoshoots. Sure, in comparison to other competition in the Southeastern Idaho area I’m probably pretty amateur; but it’s something I quite enjoy. I’m actually not even a Communications major. When my mom went to college, she majored in Journalism. Which I also quite enjoy, and I’d like to think I’m quite good at. So here it goes.

I’d like to start a photo-journal. I’d mostly like to see how many people I could get interested in this. This would be different than a personal blog of any type. I want to combine my love of photography – notice I didn’t say talent-  with my strong skills in writing. Hardly anyone reads things longer than a few sentences on the internet. Shoot, if you made it this far then maybe I can get your feedback. I want to see if I can change that in a small, yet meaningful way; and not just meaningful to me. I already have an Instagram photography platform where I could gain traction through the visual aspect, and add links to my blog where people can read.

If you made it this far, congratulations! You win my respect. Let’s bake a cake or something.

Here’s some of my past photography work. In the future I hope to impress you in ways you never expected.

 

Good things are worth searching for

For this activity, I chose the Google post about “Searching on”. I promise this is the last Google thing I’ll do.

So a few bits of information on this post. This was a video posted on YouTube, Google’s video platform, on December 12, 2018. They included the following caption: “In a year of ups and downs, the world searched for “good” more than ever before — according to Google Trends. From the epic headlines to the everyday moments, here’s to all the good that people discovered in 2018. Explore more trends from the year at https://google.com/2018”

What is the main purpose of the post?

I think that the main purpose of this post was to get people to interact with their content. This is because of all the brand name surrounding it. They show their familiar search bar several times in the video, and include a link to more content that they’ve created at the end of their caption.

Who is the audience of the post?

Oddly enough, I think that the audience of this post was current Google users. Users who are on the internet, who are familiar with the popular videos and moments over the year whether they were minor or major.  Although that is the target audience, this audience could have also included those who don’t use Google. However, I think those who are familiar with Google would connect with this better than those who aren’t avid users.

How does the post connect with the audience?

This particular video has a lot of emotional  “feel-good” moments from the year in them. The full, yet brief 2 minutes shows people from all kinds of different backgrounds and situations, suggesting the diversity that exists among Google users. There are familiar faces and unfamiliar faces, creating sort of a sense of unity among those watching. They even share familiar faces of those who have passed such as Barbara Bush, John McCain, and Stephen Hawking which somehow suggests that Google is connected with these moments. The ending phrase “Good things are worth searching for” and “Search on.” Meaning that Google will always have good moments. The good can always be found in Google.

What value does the post provide to their audience?

This one I think is a little bit ambiguous, and might take some deeper thought to understand. This post provides its users with something positive on their feed. Something that doesn’t have a devastating headline or a funeral donation link or a never ending strand of political comments.

How does the post’s design connect and communicates with the audience?

The design of this video communicates with their audience because it is a compilation. Compilations help the users not to lose interest because they consist of a boat load of different videos shoved into one. This allows the users to quickly relive moments of these videos that they have previously interacted with.

What metrics (likes, shares, re-tweets, etc.) will be used to determine if the post is successful?

For Google, I think it’s difficult to define what makes posts successful. I think that regardless of the post, it could still be considered successful with the amount of views it gets. However, because the purpose of this post was to encourage current users to continue using Google, maybe it’s the number of users who have made Google their default browser, or maybe an increase in YouTube subscribers.

I think that shares on certain platforms might also be useful to Google. For example, the share button at the bottom of the video gives the option to share on several platforms. Maybe the metrics of those are useful to the producers of this video.

Google Assistant Ad Campaign

The Google Assistant Ad Campaign and the Seascape principles.

I chose to analyze this ad campaign because of it’s prominent nature in my social feed over the Christmas break. Although I don’t have conversion rates or revenue data, I’d like to discuss some of the seascape principles found in this ad.

As mentioned in the reading, the world of technology is  a seascape of constant change, big and small. Some of these changes are minor, and others completely reface the technological world and day-to-day convenience. The Google Assistant is one them. of Some of the principles we see from the Seascape in this Ad campaign are as follows:

Presentation Principle

As we all know, YouTube is an entity of Google, so Google already has an established audience just with the video by itself. The significance of this shot is that it is an iconic shot from a well-known Christmas movie, presented with the same actor (just approximately 30 years later).

Another thing about it’s presentation that’s significant is the time it was posted. It was posted just 6 days before Christmas in 2018. This still gave their audience time to act in time to purchase their product: The Google Assistant.

Principle of Least Resistance

People are inherently lazy and will do the least amount of work to get something that is marketed to them. Another common practice on the web is not to post videos that follow what is known as the TLDW principle – “too long, didn’t watch”. Depending on the social platform, it is usually recommended that video ads are no longer than 1 minute. Google is right on the dot with this one. This way, people don’t feel like they’re watching an ad. They’re just being entertained, and then boom. Product placement + relatable content + slogan is going to drive people to action.

They also wrap up the ad with a nice “Make Google do it”, implying that ‘you don’t have to’, or ‘let us take care of it’. All of these are indicative of the human desire for personal convenience. Suddenly things that are so ‘monotonous’ and ‘routine’ become not our problem. It’s just one less thing to do.

Story Principle

I chose to relate this Ad to the story principle more than the Value Principle because this Ad is directly related to a story from the movie. Each example of the character Kevin using the Google Assistant is an allusion to a certain piece of the original story.

When humans are engaged in a story either by voice or video, almost every part of the brain is active. This kind of Ad is going to engage users to the max. Now we’re back to the principle of least resistance. When you tell a story, people don’t feel like they’re watching an ad. But they are still making associations with your brand based on the story.

Google does a nice job of this. The content is relatable (at least in the United States), and users are watching familiar scenes, just mingled with Google products.

Progress Principle

Because of the previous principle of stories, the audience can now see that everything has changed. It’s been nearly 30 years since the release of the Home Alone movie, but “Kevin” is still experiencing some of the same routine tasks. In this way, we see that the progression portrayed in the ad has everything to do with it’s success. This pushes the audience to follow his example and progress toward the future with a useful product.