My first advertising interview was with Tiffany R. Warren which led to my first internship in New York. The Multicultural Advertising Internship Program (MAIP) was the catapult that started my career. Back then my goal was to get some experience and land a job at a full service agency. I decided early on I didn’t want to be pigeon-holed into a Hispanic advertising role because I thought it would limit my potential.

This past weekend I was lucky enough to attend the ADCOLOR awards in Los Angeles. Hearing and seeing successful multicultural people in the industry and the change they created and inspired was amazing. My goal used to be to fit in, be like the masses and that would mean success. After hearing each person’s story and how attainable their impact was, I’m not doing enough to push change in our field. We are all not doing enough.

What if we all rose up to the challenge of creating a more diverse workforce? It’s not about meeting agency goals but rather stepping out of our comfort zone of sea of sameness and reach out to someone different. I don’t know what my career would have been like without that interview. Why not give someone different the chance to say the same thing. Who knows how it will change their life and yours. I urge everyone to be an agent of change. No one is looking for a handout–just a hand up.

We are two months away from the ACL music festival 10th anniversary. While I’ve lived most of my adult life in Austin I’ve never been to ACL and usually when I tell people, they respond with “What?!” Since it’s my first time, I’m going to make it special…

I’m in account management so naturally I’ll create a spreadsheet of who I want to see and when. This also requires that I start listening to the bands I’ve never heard of and see who I like best. As it gets closer, my coworkers and I are going to duke it out to see who gets to take September 16th off and who has to stay behind. I worked last year and this place was a ghost town. It felt like you were the only kid that didn’t get invited to the cool kid’s party.

Help make this the best time ever and send me your tips for the festival. 

Amazon recently reduced the price of the Kindle 3G with special offers for $164. The $25 price cut was made possible with banner ads that Amazon is touting as sponsored screen savers and money-saving offers. In honor of the money you’ll be saving, I put together a list of ways to spend your cold hard cash.

1. Two tickets to a 3D movie – $22

2. 2 large pizzas from Domino’s – $23

3. Half a tank of gas (at least in my car) – $25

4. $25 towards an Amazon Prime membership (only need $54 more)

Below are the key takeaways for creating a successful branded tutorial however, my thoughts on some of them are after that. Hope you enjoy.

1. Don’t make them boring

2. Quality (get’s appreciated especially the sound)

3. Purpose (satisfy the user)

4. Goal is to educate, entice, entertain and get the user talking)

5. Measurement is important (drop-off is typical but look for atypical drop-off)

6. Think creatively (use humor and good scripts)

Overall, the list above could be applied to any online video and mostly intuitive. The key is curiousity, videos should entice the user to learn more on their own. You can’t force them to watch and while  Joshua Rosenbaum suggests humor for your video I suggest using it only if it’s relevenat for your brand and audience.

Over the past few days I’ve attended panels on a wide range of topics and I’m seeing a trend…

What I’m about to say will not change the world but rather a reminder to keep it simple stupid.
So many times we try to come up with the next big thing and sometimes it fails. This is because we are asking too much of people.

We can be lazy creatures when we consume information and putting in more effort than something is worth probably isn’t going to happen.

Think about that the next time you want to develop the next big thing. Would you spend a few seconds with it? If not, you’re user might not either but don’t forget, you’re probably not the target audience.

Before the internet we found other ways to consume media like magazines or actually talking to one another. This made it simple for media to typecast individuals into groups and for a lack of a better word, would force us to use that outlet for information.

With the internet, we can consume as much or as little media from various outlets as we want. We digitally graze.

In the US, users download 18 songs per month on iTunes but only (up to) 2 songs are from one album. Think back in the day when you had to buy an album just to hear one song.

This ability to connect with what or who we want can either make us more diverse or typecast us into a certain mold. The panel on Digital Diversity was on overview of how alike and different we are on the internet but we can all be grouped in some shape or form.

The key takeaway for me was to not let the internet define who I am by my search habits and continue to seek out new information in different ways that suit me and perhaps connect me to like-minded peers along the way.

If I worked a long day I thought I was being productive, but was I?

According to the energy project, humans can only be productive at full capacity for 90 minutes before needing to rest and renew your energy. I thought I could trick my level of energy with caffeine but really I would probably just crash harder later.

Needless to say, after hearing this speech I’m going to try to run at maximum capacity for 90 minutes and rest and continue. This means if I don’t respond to your email right away I’m resting. I’ll get back to you when I’m ready for my next 90 minutes. Check out www.theenergyproject.com for more information.

We are moving closer and closer to being able to pay for everything on your phone but are we willing to give up our plastic and cash for a faster way to check out?

The idea is if banks, mobile carriers and retailers can influence customers to want a digital wallet, actually use it and have an easy and intuitive experience then a digital wallet can be successful.

In theory I would love to pay for purchases on my phone it would be another tool that makes life easier. However, the thought of all my financial information on a device that I regularly let my nieces play with is downright frightening.

Who knows how long until something like this is possible beyond what Starbucks already does but let’s just say I won’t be a champion for it in the near future.

Would you be willing to trade your wallet for a digital one?