Get To The Grapes

That about sums up the Super Bowl ads for 2012! Although there weren’t any groundbreaking ads such as Apple’s 1984, there are a few that did stand out.  But for the most part, many of them tried too hard and simply fell flat.  For example, remember Cadillac’s “Green Hell?” Exactly. Neither do we.  And although Coke’s polar bears are cute, the ads lacked punch, a sound message and anything memorable.  And Jerry Seinfeld didn’t do much for the Microsoft brand a few years ago and didn’t do too much for Acura brand this year.  In fact, I had to do some homework to determine which product and brand the ad  was for – I’d simply forgotten.  And finally, let’s not forget GoDaddy.com.  Really? It’s so tired.  When they first used shock value and sex appeal to promote the brand it was fresh and fun, but now it lacks any level of true creativity.  Although I do have to hand it to them, when you think ‘domain’, you do think “godaddy.”

So, with companies spending up to $3.5 million dollars per spot, who got it right this year? Here are just a few highlights:

M&M’s: Loved the little guys moves! Simply cute and clever!

Sketchers: This ad was scored big because not only was it funny, it was memorable for the creative AND the brand. They did a great job focusing on the feet!

Doritos: They continue to entertain and while putting the brand front and center.

What makes the Super Bowl so unique for advertisers, is that a huge number of the viewers are actually watching for the commercials alone.  Most of the time advertisers simply hope you don’t fast forward through their spots, but during the Super Bowl, they are thrilled because people will actually hush the crowd to hear them.  Therefore, when you’re spending more than $116,000 per second for a commercial, you want to be sure that it is engaging, creative and memorable – both for the creative itself and the brand it’s promoting.  For a  recap of the ads, check out this video montage from ABC News.  Or go to Creativity-Online for a full video recap.

I am not usually one for jumping on the bandwagon of every new social media platform released.  In fact, there are some popular sites such as Foursquare that I personally have no need for.   I can update my friends on things going on in my life just fine on Facebook and for marketing and business updates LinkedIn and Twitter work great.  But Foursquare just plain creeps me out.  There are however, occasions when a new platform comes out that I go crazy over.  A few months back I discovered Spotify and music listening will never be the same for me.  Most recently, I discovered Pinterest which is down-right genius! For those that have not been introduced, Pinterest is a platform for sharing images that inspire you visually with ideas on organization, wedding planning, home décor, cooking, planning your child’s birthday party and the list goes on.  I can and have spent many hours perusing and pinning fabulous things to my personal boards.

So, how does this fabulous new tool apply to businesses? From my vantage point, if your product can be used to inspire women in any way, you have a place on Pinterest.  I can see a place for every type of business to share images from stylish brands to personal trainers, chefs, wedding planners, photographers, restaurants, hotels, authors etc.  So, how do you get started and what are some of the “rules” on Pinterest? I would like to share an article that will give you some tips to get started from Mashable, a fantastic group of social media thought leaders. The article, entitled, Pinterest for Brands: 5 Hot Tips will give you a great start to thinking about Pinterest from the vantage point of socially connecting consumers to your brand.  After reading this post you should have some great ideas on how your business can connect with women on the fabulous platform.

With the mainstream use of social media, it’s not shocking that more and more brands are leveraging this movement by establishing a social media presence through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.  But what is shocking is how some of these brands are going about doing it.  Social media is an incredibly powerful tool that can make or break a brand.  Yet, many companies are underestimating this power and putting the control into the hands of interns.  INTERNS! 

While interns can be a great asset to your company, they are learning. They are not experts. If you had a million dollar advertising budget, would you rely on an intern to make sound recommendations?  If you needed creative for that advertising campaign, would you hire any intern with InDesign software to develop a campaign that reflects your brand and message?  Probably not.  For some reason, because the tools and platforms are free, many companies underestimate the power of social media.  Just like with the other tools in the marketing mix, you need to hire trained professionals to manage and represent your brand. 

Check out this article from PRDaily.com on the four reasons the PR team should handle social media.  Do you agree or disagree?

 http://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/10554.aspx.

What key traits make up a successful social media influencer?   Forbes lists them as the following:

#1. Being active in a large number of channels

#2. Creating and maintaining a high quality network

#3. Frequency of participation

Social media is social after all, which means you need to get intimately involved, engaged and well connected. See entire article here.

So just who are the top social media influencers? According to Forbes, they include:

Name                                    Total Audience (Followers)

Chris Brogan 193,999

Ann Handley 111,619

Gary Vaynerchuk 906,833

Robert Scoble 220,062

Scott Stratten 108,497

Reg Saddler 151,673

Jason Falls 45,859

Scott Monty 63,436

Mari Smith 127,973

Pam Moore 66,618

I’ve included only the total follower numbers, but PeekAnalytics measures not only the size of the consumer audience, but their quality in terms of their network size, social participation and their ability to spread a message further. Thus, the table summarizes pull, total audience, identified consumer count, and consumer ratio.

And one of my favorites, for obvious reasons… Gary Vaynerchuk

Wendy’s has its $0.99 menu! McDonald’s, Taco Bell and almost every other major fast food restaurant has some sort of ‘cheap eats!’ So, what’s so special about Subway’s new $2 Six inch Sub promotion? First, the company talks about “showing a little love” to its customers as a basis for this December promotion, which is brilliant marketing in itself.  During these tough economic times, instead of talking about how they need to boost sales in December since it is typically a very slow month for fast food chains, they instead talk about the benefit to the customer: smart! And, given it’s drastic price reduction, it’s garnering tremendous press coverage.  It’s one thing to offer fries at $0.99, but a sub sandwich has a greater perceived value than your average $2 burger or fries, so the news media is covering it as ‘news!’ In fact, USA Today ran this headline in its “Money” section: “Meal-deal trend: Catch a (6-inch) Subway for only $2″ You can’t ask for better advertising than that!

So the next time you’re preparing to run a promotion, make it not only compelling to your audience (your customers), but to the media as well. Getting a “little love” from the media can go a long way for your promotion and your brand. Read full article here.

Jenny Craig hired Valerie Bertinelli to show off her figure at almost 50 – in a bikini!  Then NutriSystem signed on “Dancing with the Stars” alum, Marie Osmond. Weight Watchers upped the anti with Jennifer Hudson who is now “Feeling Good.”  So, what’s next for Jenny Craig? How do they even compete with Jennifer Hudson and stay relevant as a brand? The answer? Change your name to “Jenny” and sign on…

Yes, it’s Mariah Carey. Check out the new “Jenny” video here.  Click here for full story. 

Featured Friday, October 7, 2011, 3:00am PDT in the Sacramento Business Journal

Customer input, message strength determine campaign effectiveness

Does advertising work? All business owners have asked themselves this question at one point or another. The answer? Yes. And no.

Yes when advertising is done right. No when companies either dabble in it or are not committed to their advertising. For advertising to work, there are a number of important elements that must come into play.

The first is knowing your customer. Have you ever done research to validate the assumptions you have about who your customers are or what they really want? Professional research isn’t cheap, but it’s invaluable to creating a successful marketing program. If budgets are a constraint, you can conduct your own research with easy and cheap online tools such as SurveyMonkey. Your results might not be statistically valid, but at least you can get an idea of where you stand with your clients.

Second, what is it you’re selling? For example, what does Mercedes sell? You might answer “cars.” But, with so many different cars on the market, how could it possibly compete? Beyond its product, it sells a lifestyle choice, service and prestige. Similarly, you must determine the intangibles that set you apart from your competitors. If you don’t know what makes you different from them, then it’s time to carve out a niche of your own.

Third, craft a compelling message. Is it memorable? Does it mean anything? Two great consistent and compelling messages include, “Just Do It” and “The Ultimate Driving Machine.” What makes these so great? I don’t even need to tell you which companies those taglines belong to ­— you already know. Now granted, those companies have spent millions to tell their story, but those messages speak to the brand and resonate with its target audience. Find out what message resonates with your target audience, and then own it!

(more…)

Last week we traveled to visit one of our clients, a national brand in the luxury home products category, for a Social Media Training with the executives.  The half-day training session was designed to share with our client an updated report on the landscape of Social Media.  Although the VP of Sales & Marketing understands clearly the significant power of Social Media, we also needed to share examples of how high-end brands are capitalizing on the new “word of mouth on steroids” and how that is relating to sales.  Part of my responsibility within the training was to share case studies and to talk about measurement.  We shared that the return in Social Media is not just direct sales, which the program should drive, the return may be an increase in brand equity, fidelity and loyalty or increased brand perception, as shown in the chart below provided by w3haus.

However, we did share some impressive stats on how companies have directly tied sales to their Social Media efforts and the data was music to the client’s ears.  As reported by blogger Radha Giri, here are some examples of how major brands are harnessing the power of Social Media to drive sales:

• Southwest Airlines @SouthwestAir: Southwest Airlines attributes more than $1 million in additional ticket sales to its presence on Twitter.
• Marriott: Marriott has made more than $5 million in bookings from people who clicked through to the reservation page from Marriott’s blog.
• Dell @DellOutlet: Dell Outlet made more than $6.5M sale through its Twitter presence..
• Naked Pizza @NakedPizza: 68.60% of total dollar sales for Naked Pizza came from customers who said they are “calling from twitter”.
• Blendtec: Increased sales 5x by running the humorous “Will it Blend” Videos on YouTube.

So, how can you apply what these major brands have done successfully? If your products can’t be purchased online, how can you make your sales cycle more social? If you’re not measuring the success of your Social Media efforts, what reason is there for executives to invest socially? Remember that although making true engagement and connections online is the key to social media, your efforts should move the needle!

McDonald’s is making an interesting move with its brand – shunning bright red roofs and yellow table and chairs for a more muted and sophisticated look and feel. First, they launched McCafe’s to compete with Starbucks and now they want to compete further by designing their chains to keep their customers around awhile.  McDonald’s business model has always been to get as many people in and OUT as possible. However, their new design is meant to keep their customers comfortable and cozy – think Starbuck’s and the Apple store. I know, as odd as it sounds, that is exactly who they are trying to emulate.   It will be interesting to see how this new approach resonates with its customers and its brand.

See article, video and pictures via @USATODAYmoney here.

Rance Crain, writer for Advertising Age wrote a rather lengthy article entitled “Why Many Super Bowl Ads Failed to Score.” His premise?  Marketers keep forgetting that the best ads are simple and direct. And he’s right.

Years ago, Kelly Johnson, lead engineer at the Lockheed Skunk Works coined the acronym KISS; which stands for ‘keep it simple stupid.’  Simple and direct simply works. Remember “Bud-weis-er?” It doesn’t get much simpler than that.

To borrow from Mr. Crain’s article, he noted that The Financial Times ran a story this week on the “infomercial king” of the U.S., British-born Anthony Sullivan. Mr. Sullivan says his job is to pitch products, not to market them, and he likens those who practice the dark art of marketing as “black-suits-wearing namby pambies.”

He continued by stating that ‘the basics of selling, or how to put a crowd “under the ether,” as he says, haven’t changed: The pitch has to be succinct, compelling and direct.’ He notes that far too many ads are quite the opposite in that they are simply too complex, confusing and oblique.

And finally, he summarizes the article this way: Good ads are simple and direct. Bad ads aren’t. It’s all a matter of discipline, a characteristic that advertisers have a woeful lack of these days. No wonder the informercial king calls them namby pambies.

So, who did get it right? Volkswagon. I mean, really? Does it get any simpler than that?

And some who didn’t:

Brisk Tea: I thought he advertising an energy drink or something.  The brand association was simply odd. I don’t see Eminem as a ‘tea-totaller,’ if you will.

Go Daddy
It’s so tired, played and inane and I can’t even get myself to show you…

Snickers?