GLOW Crit #3: Nerd or Nah?

A meme featuring my favorite nerds of current pop culture, Stranger Things kids

When you see this photo of the Stranger Things kids who doesn't think hardcore mixtape cover pose?? Who doesn't think mixtape from the 1980s?? Does it change the meaning and the feel with the use of nerd?

The essence of "being a nerd" is loving something passionately. I created a snackable video clip that depicts how being super geeky trickles into all aspects of your life, even home improvement. The joke is delivered through showing, not telling, and doesn't mug for the camera. It speaks for itself without necessarily needing any sort of nerd/geek branding on it. There doesn't need to be a buzzword when there's deep POV on content. Additionally, this concept of "It's the little things" can work as a content theme, showing other daily experiences that being a nerd affects. It can also be a CTA for UGC shared experience/submissions/nostalgia. Even if posted without CTA users would likely take this video as a jumping off point and engage in the post.

The video has been optimized for social. The cutting positions the unusual, attention-grabbing moment within the first 3 seconds (normal time people engage with video before scrolling).

While researching the 'values of being a nerd' I came across that nerds are honest about what they enjoy, and they find things they love and love those things the most they can. When thinking about keywords such as ENJOY and LOVE, passion also comes to mind. Nerds enjoy things to the fullest, love everything about the things they enjoy, and are very passionate people and proud of it! Here is what I created......

This is based on a radio show I heard the other day – the day of Star Trek's 50th anniversary – in which a number of engineers, working for companies like Apple, GE, etc. claimed to have been heavily influenced by Star Trek in their formative years, which led directly to their development of technologies like the flip phone, face time, the driverless car, etc.  I think emphasizing this link, the idea that Syfy's programming can in some way or another lead to the world's next great invention, could endow the network with legitimacy and respect.

So my idea for this Crit was for people to "own" the word Nerd, or just own what they like in general. My idea is to make a site that hooks up to FB so that people can "generate" their kind of Nerd with a series of custom Profile photos. Similar to what the Hillary Campaign did with "Trump Yourself." But ours will be a more personalized experience.

I would hope that if this was ever to be a reality, we could set the site up in ways that people can customize what the copy says and maybe we could add simple BG motion that could be utilized with the FB Profile video function.

However! Here I just have an example of how the homepage could swipe through Teasers of what the photo frames would be and an example of what a Computer Nerd/God's Frame might look like. Utilizing Kendell's photogenic self ,of course.

I think as a content piece, it could be fun to select different "nerds" throughout Sci-fi history and celebrate and even poke fun at what makes them nerdy (in turn poking fun at ourselves) and what we love and revere about them. 

In this case, saying that 'we are superheroes without the spandex' is lightheartedly highlighting how far nerds have come in society and that we don't need the suit to be cool or super anymore. The other quote references his theme song and reminds us that he is a nerd, a brain- superman, and nerds all over should feel a huge sense of pride in that.