Chairs and Tables Photos

Some great new photos from the Chairs and Tables Breakfast have arrived. It was a great success for us and the rest involved, and we look forward to continuing CBI spread their message throughout Charlotte in the years to come.

                                         Almost three hundred people were in attendance.

                                            Dianne English, the Executive Director of CBI, 
                                                    spoke on the differences in diversity.

Julio Colmenares(Center)  is the chair of the

    Latin American Chamber of Commerce here in Charlotte.

                                      Charlotte's mayor Anthony Foxx gave a great talk on 
                                                 diversity and its importance to our area.

Chairs and Tables Photos

Some great new photos from the Chairs and Tables Breakfast have arrived. It was a great success for us and the all the rest involved and we look forward to continuing CBI spread their message throughout Charlotte in the years to come.

CGR on Fox News

CGR's very own Julio Colmenares was interviewed for Reboot Charlotte on Fox news. It was a piece about leaders in the hispanic community that are making an impact in the Charlotte area. Check it out!

Chairs and Tables

By Embra King

This Friday CGR Creative helped put together and deliver the Community Building Initiative’s annual stakeholders breakfast. The title for this year’s event, Chairs and Tables, is a play on the idea that, despite our differences, we are stronger together than apart. The event was a huge success, drawing in almost 300 people to the Mint Museum on a crisp December morning.

Among the many speakers at the event was Charlotte’s own mayor Anthony Foxx, who spoke on the need for us to move beyond just talking about equality and the importance of connecting within our community. It was a great experience for all who attended and a lot of great stories and perspectives were presented.

We here at CGR are very grateful to be a part of such an important organization. If you want to learn more about CBI, please visit their website listed below. We at CGR look forward to moving forward with CBI in spreading ideas of equality and community across the Charlotte area.

To add to the conversation on the topics discussed during the stakeholders breakfast, simply use the hash tag #CandT to add your opinion on the ideas of equality and community in Charlotte.


Get connected to the Community Building Initiative:
www.communitybuildinginitiative.org
Twitter: @CommBldgInit
Facebook: communitybuildinginitiative

Facebook Swallows Another Company Whole

By Embra King

This week Facebook has announced the purchase of the location-based company Gowalla for an undisclosed amount. This comes right around the time that Foursquare (The largest LBA provider) announced that they have just recently exceeded a user base of fifteen million.

Location-based apps are only a year or so old and are growing thanks to the explosion of smart phone owners. With the purchase of the Texas based company, it appears that Facebook has big plans for what these types of apps can bring to networking, marketing and social reviews.

Facebook's biggest challenge is to increase the usage of these apps. While Foursquare boasted about their fifteen million subscribers, triple that of what they had at this time last year, a recent study has found that only about 2% of the subscribers actually use the product at least once a week.

It will be interesting to see if this most recent purchase is more of an acquisition of Gowalla's talent, or if they have plans for integrating this new app into Facebook’s already large social networking toolbox.

Commercial Art

By Embra King

Call me crazy, but I love commercials.

I love them between shows, on billboards and in magazines. When I was young, I used to go over to my friends' houses and spend hours looking through their magazines, no matter what the subject. Sure I would read the articles sometimes, but mostly I was admiring their layouts and ads that filled up most of their thin pages. When I go to the movies, I always make sure I get to the theater early, as to avoid missing the previews. If it wasn’t for those wonderfully crafted teasers before every show, I could hardly justify spending the twelve-dollar ticket price.

No, you didn’t read any of that wrong, I enjoy something that most Americans seem to openly grumble about. I just think it is because we are looking at things all wrong.

Advertising, when done well, is a wonderful art form that folds creative design, language, and economics into this beautiful, multi-layered piece of work. Companies and organizations of all sizes hire artists and writers to create powerful messages and a visual presence for their cause or product. Advertisers create beauty where there would only be grey. Ad agency’s are taking problems and solving them with art.

Not only do I find commercials and advertising to be an ongoing work of art, but I also enjoy them for chopping up TV shows. To me, most shows need commercials. A killer slowly opens the door to find the hero asleep and helpless in bed when suddenly, a commercial break. We are left on the edge of our seats. We cry, “No not now!” Our bodies tense up in anticipation for what lies at the end of the commercial block. Sure, if you have seen the commercials a hundred times before this time might be better spent using the restroom or grabbing a bowl of ice cream, but for me there is something special about seeing what others created in the spaces that companies have created for them.

Imagine a world without advertising, commercials, or branding. Sure, it is awesome to get out into nature and be surrounded by nothing but mountains and trees, but I can’t imagine a world in which cities aren’t filled with commercials, filled art. I think we all should take a closer look at the next commercial you see and just reflect on how many artists, writers, and salesmen it took to create the piece.

Check out the documentary Art & Copy to get a glimpse into the crazy world of advertising. It can be found on Netflix.

To Attack or Defend?

By Embra King

The common phrase heard in football locker rooms and military camps "the best defense is a good offense” seems to be well respected in their respected fields. But does this ideology work when it comes to advertising, is it really better to attack another's product than to promote your own? Samsung seems to think so and without naming any names challenges the iPhone and its apparent dim, Starbucks drinking, following.

The commercial, which aired last week, depicts long lines of bohemian Apple phone users standing in line waiting for the iPhone 4s. As they grumble about the “sketchy battery” and lack of physical changes to the phone, they catch a glimpse of preppy people not waiting in line using the already released Samsung Galaxy S II.

Near the end, Samsung tries to pitch that they have a bigger screen, and it runs on 4g network. However, the only feeling I come away from my multiple viewings was how silly it is that Samsung has narrowed down the iPhone user into this arty hipster, apparently blind to the fact that other phones are out there.

Attacking the completion is nothing new in the wild world of advertising. Audi and BMW have always taken stabs at each other resulting in things such as this billboard campaign. Apple also ran its own attacking campaign, the famous “I am a Mac, and I am a PC” stint. It is a tactic that politicians utilize many times over: “Vote for me because the other person is awful.”

As a consumer, I am more drawn to seeing why I should buy a product, not why I shouldn’t buy the other guy's. To me, it seems to take away from your product. If what you're selling is worth talking about, than talk about it. Sure, it makes for some fun, witty advertising, but does it really help move your product?

The fact is, Samsung is jealous; no one is waiting hours and hours to buy their phones, a fact that they poke fun of in their commercial. Apple has a huge share in the phone market thanks to their branding power and creation of beautiful easy to use products. With all this being said, I do like that Samsung has tried to take on the giant that Apple has become.

I just wish they had shown a little more backbone and mentioned the phone by name.