This is a few days later than planned but I am happy to say that I achieved my 1000 pageviews in a month!
In fact, I achieved 1,067 pageviews in total!!!
The key objectives set out in my first Blogtober post were:
To prove my written and digital skills to employers
To engage readers in topics related to advertising
To motivate myself while applying for jobs
I'd proudly say I am confident that I have achieved all of these. A colleague even said to me today, "We've all been reading your blog" which was great to hear. Although they were all hard to achieve, perhaps the hardest was engaging readers in advertising content. Most people who read this blog are my friends and family, and what they're looking for is entertainment value. I know in the past I have engaged lots of readers on this topic, last year's 'Whose is Your Favourite Christmas Advertisement 2013?' is one of my most popular posts to date with 212 direct views. But as I've said before, with today's saturated advertising climate only truly unique and engaging work gets noticed. I think this is the same with my content. Some of my posts were not as popular as I expected and some were more. Over the next 6 months I am going to continue to work hard to come up with interesting and unusual posts which my readers can relate to, and which they can't read elsewhere.
I've included a couple of little stats graphs in case anyone is interested in a behind the scenes break-down of my pageviews for Blogtober. Unfortunately because of the 4 day delay, the date range for these graphs is 6th October-4th November (Blogger doesn't let you alter it) so the totals don't add up to the full count for October but hopefully it's still interesting to see.
These charts and maps show where my views come from and what devices they're using:
This shows me what sites people are on before they come to mine and where they found me. This bit confuses me a bit so don't worry if your not sure what the difference is between a URL and Site.
Future plans:
If you haven't seen my last post then you might not know that I have just started a new position as a digital communications intern at Grey EMEA (stands for Europe, Middle East and Africa for anyone who hasn't been able to work it out). So I'll be pretty busy from now on but this doesn't mean I'm going to stop writing, just that I'll be writing less frequently. I have really enjoyed my first few days at Grey and I feel like I've learnt loads to improve my blog already.
From now on I am going to post at least once a month and hopefully fortnightly. I'm planning an article about my first month living in London working at a top advertising agency for the end of November so keep a look out!
Hopefully you've liked Blogtober and who knows I might do it again next year!
Nowadays there are so many different types of advertising and we are coming up with just as many ways to ignore each one. A lot of people record TV programmes they want to watch, like The X Factor, and then fast-forward through the ad breaks. In magazines people often skip the first couple of pages because they know they're normally 'just the advertisements'. Billboards and poster boards (especially the small ones on escalator walls in London tube stations) are so commonplace that most of us don't even need to ignore them - their constant visual bombardment creates a blur. But advertising is all about consumerism and obstructs our daily lives, so it's right to ignore it, yes?
No. That's my simple answer but if I stop with just that this will be a very short post. Advertising is important in many different ways and it can add a lot more to your life than you think. You might be thinking, she's just saying this because she wants to be in advertising or maybe she just weird. But hopefully after reading this you will start to consider the uses of advertising and will have a more positive view of the industry.
Firstly, not all advertising aims to drive sales. There are actually lots of different motivations behind different advertisements. For example, public services commonly use advertising to instruct others or create changes in behaviour. In November 2012, Metro Trains in Melbourne, Australia commissioned the campaign 'Dumb Ways to Die' to promote rail safety. They wanted to remind people how important it is to be careful around trains. They were not trying to sell more train tickets. This campaign reports to have contributed to a 30% reduction in "near-miss" accidents which is clearly a positive outcome and a great use of advertising.
Similarly, at the end of 2011 the British Heart Foundation launched a TV advertisement staring Vinnie Jones showing viewers how to perform hands-only CPR. This has saved at least 40 lives and has a really worthwhile purpose. Advertisements like this prove that there is more to advertising than people realise.
However, lot advertising is about sales. But, so what? If it's a great product or service that could improve your life or someone else's, does it really matter if you were persuaded to buy it? Without advertising there is no way you would know about all of your possessions or would have bought them. A lot of advertising can be really awful and annoying. With so many different TV channels and YouTube, advertising space is certainly becoming more widely available. But just because there are are some rubbish ones out there doesn't mean you should ignore the rest. If you went shopping for trainers, there might be loads if styles or colours you don't like, but that doesn't mean you'd stop looking for them and never buy a pair again.
Some advertisements are truly inspiring and amazing. Even if you decide you're not interested in the product or brand, the advertisement can still have an impact on you. Nike's branding is an example of this. Their tagline, 'Just Do It' resonates with many consumers. They believe in seizing the moment, going for something big, doing more than you ever have before. They aim to motivate people and being motivated is always a positive thing. Their ' Just Do It - Possibilities' (2013) advertisement inspires you to take things to the next level. After watching this advertisement you feel positive and empowered. The marketing is unobtrusive which allows you to enjoy the advertisement without feeling like you have to love Nike as a brand.
The 'GoPro HERO4: The Adventure of life in 4K' advertisement takes this idea of ads that inspire to a whole new level. Visually there is so much going on in the 4 minutes of this video (clearly it's meant for YouTube not TV). It is perhaps one of the best advertisements for a product that I have seen in ages. It shows you things you have never seen before, from a behind the scenes angle. The footage is simply breathtaking and gives you so much more than the idea that you should go and buy this camera. This is a fantastic example of why you should not ignore advertising. If you ignored this one, you'd be missing something great. It really give you a chance to be a part of their adventure.
Good advertisements aren't thought-up in a 5 minute brainstorming session. They can take weeks to reach their final concept and this is before they even start to be made. There are people in creative departments worldwide who dedicate substantial amounts of time to making their ideas great. There are loads of really good advertisements out there, it's just that they are swamped by the irritating, unoriginal ones. But the truly creative advertisements deserve to be taken notice of, especially the ones which make you laugh. Evian's 'Baby&Me' (2013) is really cute and funny.
Watching these babies dance like their adult counterpart is a unique idea and the costumes really make this advertisement. If you let it, this advertisement can really brighten your day and change your mood. It's not forcing you to buy Evian water right this second. It just trying to make you happy, so why are you trying so hard to ignore it?
Likewise, O2's 'Be more dog', although is clearly promoting is brand, attempts to make you laugh while doing so. It's inventive and quirky, and like Nike's advertisements, motivates you to try something different. It's especially entertaining if you have a cat because you know it's so unlikely for a them to do these things.
Basically what I've been trying to say is, not all advertising is bad, annoying, forcing you to buy its product or love its brand. There are different purpose for different advertisements. They can teach you something new, inspire you, show you things you've never seen before and above all they can entertain you. I'm not suggesting we should love all advertisements and never fast-forward through ad breaks ever again. All I'm saying is we should give advertisers a break, because some of their work deserves our attention.
Today is the 1st October and the start of Blogtober. Most people nowadays have heard of Stoptober (to help quit smoking) or Movember (to raise awareness of men's cancer), so I thought I would do something similar. But no, I'm not going to grow a moustache.
Since my last nostalgic post about university life, Freshers' has started and everywhere I see students living the life I used to live (on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat). At the end of that post I said that next I would write something positive about graduate life and what I am doing to get my career going. This is what I came up with.
Blogtober is going to be a special month of blogging with aims and targets. I will have new posts every 5 days - 8 posts in total throughout the month. Most of you know I want to pursue a career in advertising, so for this month will be writing about, media, marketing, advertising and graduate life. It won't be like reading a textbook or a boring news article though I promise. I will be expressing my opinions and hopefully you will in your comments as well.
You might wander why I am doing this. There are quite a few reasons. Firstly, it will build upon by existing experience and prove to employers that I can write in a creative and precise way. Secondly, I know that a lot of people, especially those who are my age, are turned-off by advertisements. People are fast-forwarding through them, skipping past them in magazines or just plain ignoring them. But there are some fantastic advertisements out there and I want them to receive the appreciation they deserve.
Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, I am doing this Blogtober to motivate myself. It's hard work applying for jobs, waiting to hear back and taking rejection. At the moment I have two part-time jobs and another casual one, none of which are what I really want to be doing. With this Blogtober I have a target to achieve 1000 pageviews this October. Last November I started writing this blog serious and made it to 825 pageviews in a month. I want to beat that. In writing this blog I will stay focused on the career path I want to take and I will stay motivated.
At the moment I have some ideas about what I am planning to write about for the remaining 7 posts but I am also opening this Blogtober up to suggestions. Is there something you would like me to write about? Let me know in any form you like, Facebook, the comments section of this blog, Twitter or face-to-face (see my new contact page for details). I want to engage as many people as possible in Blogtober and show that blogging isn't just for experts, it's for everyone. You have to take control of your own life and make your own opportunities.
