The morning after the Academy Awards celebrated everything about movies, the one underappreciated ingredient that every winning film had was a champion that helped that film to get made. Usually that person is the producer, who could easily be described as as a cheerleader with vision. The producer is the one who needs to believe in a film and be willing to put their reputation on the line to help it get made. Peter Guber is one of the most well known producers in Hollywood and the former Head of Sony Pictures. The first time I met Peter Guber was over breakfast in Beverly Hills. The legendary producer of iconic films like Gorillas in the Mist and Rainman shared with me the philosophy that carried him to success during his unusually long career in Hollywood (a place notorious for encouraging short-lived careers). It was one of the most enlightening conversations I've had, and it was not because of filmmaking but rather because of Peter's belief that the power of storytelling is the secret at the heart of his success.
Peter has spent his lifetime actually becoming a master marketer, which is why I am thrilled that his first book called Tell To Win is coming out tomorrow. He was kind enough to share an advance copy, and here are just a few of the marketing lessons that I took from spending a short hour talking with him and having the chance to read his book (which I will review in my Influential Marketing Book List for March):
Arouse Your Listener's Curiosity. One of my favourite science fiction movies is the film Contact with Jodie Foster. It turns out the first moment when Carl Sagan sold the movie rights to that book happened before he even wrote it. At a backyard lunch session, he described the vision for a story where an alien race made contact with humans and sent a message with instructions on how to build something that might enable more direct contact. The story of what would be built, and who would get to take the one seat it contained was the story of Contact - but the way Sagan sold the idea was by planting the seed of the story and asking Peter whether he would want to know what happened next. Of course he would, as we all would - and the movie was sold on the spot and made into an award winning film.
Make Your Customer The Hero. In 2005, entrepreneur Richard Rosenblatt sold his company Intermix Media, the parent of MySpace.com, to Rupert Murdoch and News Corp for $580 million. It was one of the largest deals at the time for an online media company, and speaking to students at UCLA, Rosenblatt shared that he had made the sale in just 20 minutes. How did he do it? When he talked to Murdoch, he had done a masterful job of painting him as the hero of the story. He shared how Murdoch had been forward thinking in every other aspect of media except for the Internet and that he was overdue for making a big statement on the web. Buying Intermix could be that statement, and at the close of the meeting Rosenblatt shared an almost impossible prediction: "One year from today you will be on the cover of WIRED magazine." One year later, Murdoch was indeed on the cover and sent an autographed copy to Rosenblatt.
Know Where The Drama Is. Iconic music legend Michael Jackson may well have been one of the greatest entertainers who ever lived, but in 1991 when Peter described meeting him - he had only one thing on his mind ... getting into movies and television. His philosophy that he shared with Peter that day was all about drama, and he brought it to life by showing Peter the massive glass terrarium in his home where he kept a huge snake. He placed a mouse inside and talked about how he needed to feed "Muscles" live mice because the snake enjoyed the game of catching the mouse. "What will happen next?" Michael asked. The drama was in watching the game unfold and understanding that dramatic tension as much as the power of his music or the fluidity of his dance moves made Michael Jackson the amazing performer that he was.
Visualize Your Data. There was a time back in the 70s where directors and stars for films were chosen based solely on relationships and very unscientific guesswork about who was available at a particular time. When Peter started his career, he created something that he called his "board of directors." It was literally a board that he put on the wall of his office which mapped out every recognized director, what types of films they had made, what their current project was, and when they would be available. It wasn't long before stories of this corkboard covered in pushpins and rope became a legend around Hollywood and movie execs as well as stars like Sidney Portier stopped into Peter's office to take a look. More than any other aspect of his career, Peter credits this board and his dedication to visualizing the hearsay-style data that existed around Hollywood into his "board of directors" with helping him to accelerate his career within Hollywood.
Imagine The World You Want. When Pat Riley, the legendary coach of the LA Lakers in the 1980s was coaching the Miami Heat in the 2006 Championship Game, he gave his players some rather odd instructions. Game six out of seven was at home in Miami, and the Heat had the chance to win the championship outright with a win in that sixth game. Going to seven games meant they would have to travel to Dallas, which historically meant that winning would be much tougher. So Riley told his players to pack for just one day. Not two or three, but only one change and one uniform, because the Heat would be champions after that sixth game - and it worked.
Prove Your Sincerity. David Copperfield is the most recognized magician in modern history, and also one of the most highly paid and frequently seen celebrities in Las Vegas. His mastery of magic is clear - but as Peter shares in Tell To Win, it was his ability to tell stories in a sincere way that really allowed him to connect with his audience. In one particular show, he shared the story of his grandfather and his personal quest to connect with him but inability to do it because his grandfather never understood him or the draw of magic. As he shared this personal frustration with the audience, they connect with him and his story on a human level. It wasn't about the magic alone. After the show, what most audience members talked about apart from floating cars and other amazing tricks, would be the way that Copperfield was able to bring everyone watching into the show with his personal story.
About two weeks ago, Levi's creative team in Australia hatched what seemed like a brilliant campaign stunt idea to promote the Levi's Curve ID jeans for women. They hired two models from New Zealand, equipped them with an "ass cam" that would tape people watching them on the street and sent them out in LA to just walk around. Predictably, they did end up capturing men and women checking out their asses [link to the video below as posted on Creativity Magazine's website, in case the video below gets removed] - the whole thing went viral on YouTube and in less than two weeks it rose to more than 7 million views.
The reviews of the video ranged from early admiration to later criticism when it was revealed that Levi's was behind the video ... a fact that is clearly missing from the video itself. Mary Elizabeth Williams, a staff writer for Salon had a particularly entertaining article about it:
"Levi's may yet pull some genius, sales-inspiring sequel out of its shapely butt here, but right now, the ass cam seems a grand example of how garnering millions of page views does not in and of itself constitute an effective advertising campaign. Instead, it just looks like a sneaky trick, one whose message boils down to "If you wear our pants, ugly guys dressed up like Jesus will stare at your caboose." Got it, Levi's. Message received. You're a bunch of asses."
The story doesn't end there, however. As of right now, the "rear view girls" have been taken off of YouTube ... probably because it features lots of people who are recognizable and were taped without their knowledge looking pretty foolish (especially that lady on the escalator). Ultimately, this will likely end up just a huge missed opportunity for Levi's. The concept of an ass-cam capturing stares to sell a pair of jeans that make your ass look great isn't a bad concept.
In this case, it was the sneaky integration of the brand that ultimately undermined a great creative concept. The fix would have been simple ... for Levi's to take credit for the campaign in the "behind the scenes" video that they also produced.
A great mystery needs to have a great reveal attached to it. When we find out the butler did it in a mystery novel, we are satisfied. Hiding that fact makes us all feel like we've been tricked, and as Williams said, just makes the people behind the whole thing look like asses.
While marketing can do many things for your business such as help you acquire new customers or increase your sales, helping you get paid faster is probably not among the things that you are focusing your marketing efforts on - but perhaps you should be. Here are four ideas for how simple changes in your marketing could help your small business get paid faster.
Segment your customers by potential. This should be obvious, but not every customer of yours will be one who will be ABLE to pay you more quickly. In any business, there are customers who face serious cash flow issues themselves and generally live from month to month. Identifying which of your customers fall into this category will help you to focus on those customers who you have a real chance to change behaviours with, and not on those who you will not be able to motivate for the simple reason that they cannot pay you with money they don't have.
Jump to the front of the queue. It is critical to understand that getting paid is a competitive situation much like selling your products or services. No matter when your invoice reaches your customer, you want to always be at the top of the pile. Getting paid faster often means getting paid FIRST. So how can you do that? One simple method could be to skip the usual month by month approach. Are you sending out invoices on the 1st for the month before? That's what everyone else is doing as well. What if you sent your invoices on the 22nd of the month instead? They might still end up in your client's pile of invoices to get paid that month or the next, and instead of waiting 30 days or 60 days - you just cut 3 weeks off your waiting time.
Use the personal connections. We tend to think of payment and invoices as an automated and financial transaction, but someone needs to click the button or sign the check. Do you know who that is for most of your customers? More importantly, do they know who YOU are? When monthly payment is a faceless transaction, it is less of a priority. If you have a relationship with the person signing the check, they can often be motivated to act faster simply because they know you personally. The best defense against getting put on the bottom of the pile is not to be faceless.
Offer pay promotions. When thinking about marketing for your business, the natural thing to think about is using promotions to incentivize behaviour. Why not use the same technique for getting your invoices paid as well? Invoice discounts for early payment can be a good idea, and could be worth the lost revenue simply for the benefit of getting paid faster. You could even get more creative and send a special promotion with each invoice next month where every customer who pays the invoice before a certain date is entered into a drawing to win an Apple iPad. Their odds would likely be pretty good to win, and you could directly motivate the person who is pulling the trigger for you to get paid by giving them an incentive that motivates them based on their own personal interest.
There was a time when Pixar nearly went out of business. Yes, the studio that has been essentially printing their own money thanks to an unbroken string of hits like the Toy Story trilogy, Monsters Inc and Finding Nemo was not always so invincible. In the early 90s, Pixar was in danger of going bankrupt, and to stay afloat they produced animated commercials for brands like Tropicana, Listerine and LifeSavers. Turning to advertising helped Pixar to survive, and go on to produce some of the most artistic and beloved animated films of all time.
In the world of fine art, Andy Warhol is the most iconic of a long line of artists who have collaborated with the advertising industry to create marketing messages and merge them with art to create lasting images. A few years ago I even had the opportunity to work on a project with an independent artist named Julian Beever who is known to the world as the "Pavement Picasso" for his 3D realistic pavement drawings. All of these are examples of the frequent yet rarely discussed connection that advertising and marketing has had to the world of art. In many cases over and over through the years, it was advertising that provided the funds to allow many creative people to leave out the word "starving" before describing themselves as an artist (at least temporarily).
Looking backward, the first "business model" that art ever had was one where artists were commissioned by wealthy benefactors to create customized artwork. Advertising has been this past century's benefactor, and while new art based communities like deviantART and Art.sy are creating signficant ways to bring art directly to individuals, there are still a huge number of artists, film directors and other creative professionals who rely on advertising gigs to fund at least some part of their creativity.
People are quick to point out the negatives of advertising. It can be manipulative. It has an ulteriour motive. Artists who accept advertising funded projects are often accused of "selling out." But advertising isn't the enemy. There will always be unethical marketers. An unexpected positive side effect of the advertising industry's quest to create new and engaging marketing has been that it has also managed to support the creation of many unspeakably wonderful moments of creative expression and art like Sony's award winning bouncing balls ad. (see video below)
Advertisers are perhaps the only other group in the world besides artists who could support the vision of something like bouncing 250,000 colored balls through San Francisco, and then cleaning them all up. For anyone who loves living in a world filled with creativity and art, we should all hope advertising continues to find the funds and appetite to support art as it has for hundreds of years.
Who has time to read books? We all should, but it's tough to know what is worth reading. As an Author myself, I have a unique point of view on what I look for in great books. This monthly feature will spotlight and review several new books relevant for marketers or people in business with ideas worth learning and sharing. See my review philosophy by scrolling to the bottom of this post. To recommend a book to be featured, send an email pitch to influentialmarketing@gmail.com.
Book Review: Hugh MacLeod is like the ultimate cross between the delightfully cranky uncle and all knowing grandfather that we all probabably have somewhere in our families. While his first book focused on the art of being more creative, Evil Plans takes a more poetic approach to looking at the mixture of life and work. Filled with his trademark unforgivingly brutal advice: "Whining is not an exit strategy" and deeply philosophical observations like "liberation from oneself is the hardest kind," this is a book of nuggets. If I could offer one suggestion, it would be to read this book as if it were a book of poetry where each idea needs a moment to really hit you before you move to the next chapter. Not that this is a slow read, of course, filled with Hugh's cartoon's and short observations about daily life - this is the sort of book where you won't read it from cover to cover or even remember many of the insights the author shares. You will, however, find at least one idea that will change the way you see the world - and that alone should be enough of a reason to buy this book.
Book Review: This book has the title I wish I thought of (not to mention a beautifully designed logo). In nature, the dragonfly is the only insect able to move in any direction when its four wings are working together, and taking this metaphor to heart the entire book is structured into "wings" instead of chapters. Focus, grab attention, engage and take action are the four elements of what the authors share is the "Dragonfly Effect" to create powerful social change.
Unlike many other books on how to leverage social media, this book is not filled with the same old social media war stories. Instead, the authors merge their experiences in teaching and consulting to offer a repeatable model that anyone who has a vision for changing the world but not necessarily all the resources can take and use. The examples in Dragonfly Effect with inspire you, but more importantly the methodology the authors share will actually give you what you need to create a social change of your own.
Originally published with the decidedly more manipulative title of "Flipnosis" in the UK, the US version of this book was slightly adapted. The content, however, remains a brilliant mixture of focus on science and psychology to help anyone reading understand what makes persuasion happen. Citing five key factors - simplicity, perceived self interest, incongruity, confidence, and empathy - Dutton lays out a model that any of us can use to be more persuasive at anything we are trying to do. While he does delve a bit too deeply into the science and research at several points, making the book longer than it probably should be, his point is well made and compelling. In a world where we often assume true persuasion is a more logical process that takes far longer, it is nice to see that "split-second persuasion" is not only possible but that there is a model you can follow to learn how to do it.
The authors of Spousonomics may not have set out to write a marriage book for men, but this is exactly what they ended up with in this book. Taking the principles of economics and applying them to something as unexpected as marriage - they manage to add a layer of logic to something that is often seen as solely an emotional situation. Using economic principles like loss aversion, division of labor and trade-offs, they manage to dig deeply into the situations that often drive couples apart and deliver a startling conclusion: that many marriages may not end because of some deep disconnection or growing out of love, but rather through a steady stream of poor decisions. The scenarios they map out throughout the book are so familiar and predictable that it is easy to forget they are describing relationships that fall apart over ten years in a matter of pages. Of course it looks obvious on paper. As they share the solutions to each of the marriage challenges, you feel a bit like a voyeur looking in on a really good marriage counseling session where everything has been laid out in front of you ... including the solution to just about any marriage related problem. If you are in a great marriage, this book can help you keep it that way. And if you are not, Spousonomics might just help you get there.
Book Review: If any of the hundreds of companies that have been launched with half baked business models could have have a guidebook to fix everything that is wrong with their business, this would be it. Aside from its unique story of actually being co-created and co-written by 470 strategists, the most valuable element of this book is easily the sections that dissect existing businesses and visually break down business models for the reader to learn from. It is like sitting next to a brilliant engineer as they take apart a gadget and show you exactly how it is made (and how you might be able to recreate it). Packed with examples of visual thinking, how to create a prototype, and focusing on customer needs - this is one of those books where getting a highlighter and trying to find just the important parts is going to be a waste of time because you'll end up highlighting almost all of the book. In fact, the only thing that could make this book better is if the pages were perforated so you could tear them out and post them on your wall. Yes, they are that useful.
Review Philosophy (Why These Reviews Matter):
All the books that are reviewed in this series are worth your time. That's why you won't find any negative book reviews on this blog. As a Author myself, I have hundreds of book on my shelf and have researched hundreds more. I get many invitations to preview books and choose between 5 and 7 every month to share here on this blog. Read my other book reviews at http://www.rohitbhargava.com/book-reviews/.
Disclaimer: I have personally purchased many of the books reviewed in this blog, however many others are provided by publishers or an author for review purposes. In each case, the reviews of every book represent my honest and unbiased opinion about the book and are not paid or compensated for in any way apart from recieving a review copy or advance galley copy of a book at no cost.
Now that the big retail season has come and gone, most retailers are looking forward to the next big moment where shopping becomes top of mind - and for many it will be this coming President's Day weekend. Most businesses are wondering how they can most effectively get their piece of the pie in a mini-holiday crowded with mattress and furniture sales. Whether you have a retail business and are wondering how to compete with all the advertising from the big retailers, or have a services business where the link to the holidays isn’t quite as clear – here are a few tips that can help you make the best of a time when almost everyone seems to be in a buying mood.
Focus on word of mouth because customers are influencing more people. The power of your customers telling each other about you is always important, but during the holidays it may be far more likely. This means one very important difference: after you make a sale – your new customer may tell someone else about their experience right away. Not only because people may be more interested to hear it, but also because people are seeing more of their friends and family around the holiday time. Share extra business cards, offer more referral discounts, or just make a point of asking your customers to recommend your business. It could go a long way during this time.
Use more limited time offers. Thanks to all the other retail offers in the market right now, people are more willing to see and respond to offers with a deadline. Deadlines can also help to create urgency for your offers. This doesn’t mean you need to be a dictator about sticking to the timing, but using the idea of limited time promotions may be more likely to work now.
Position your products or services as complimentary. Instead of hoping to change the behaviour of what people will already be doing, think about how you can position what you have to offer as complimentary to what people will already be shopping for. This might mean add on products, or even a service that will be something they need after all the holiday shopping they do.
Offer an anti-frenzy experience. One thing that all online retailers are trying to push hard is the idea that you can shop from the comfort of your own couch and simply choose the products you want online. How can you also offer an anti-frenzy experience with your business? While this might seem like opposite advice to #2 because using a deadline can feel inherently “frenzy-like” – the point is to avoid having that be the thing that makes the experience of buying from your small business seem hurried or rushed.
Take advantage of third party efforts. Thanks to the state of the economy, there are a lot of people who want you to succeed this holiday season. The government wants to see a rebound in retail and consumer confidence. While you might be tired of hearing how you are the “backbone of the economy” – the point is that there are others who want to see you succeed and have efforts that you can take advantage of this holiday season.
Life is good for the traveller who knows where they are going. There are dozens of great and useful sites online where you can see everything from reviews of hotels to side by side comparisons of airfares from one destination to another. Planning a trip to San Francisco was never so easy ... but what if you haven't answered the first and most important question of where you want to go? All of a sudden, life is a lot more difficult. Finding out about destinations is a labrynth of government sponsored tourism sites, linkbaiting sites promising information about a destination but only delivering a long list of pay-per-click links, and individual attractions within a destination.
For a traveler still trying to decide where to go, life isn't so simple ... but curation can help.
A hot topic among those who work in social media is the idea of curation and how individuals can share their knowledge and passion on any subject not only by creating original content about it, but also by scouring the web and curating the best content into a single location. Back in 2009, popular travel writer Rick Steves spotted the potential of this idea early when he wrote a blog post about the "Travel writer as curator" - sharing his view of what the guidebook of the future might offer.
Today content curation is rapidly finding roots in the highly immersive world of travel as more people share their personal experiences as a way to influence others on not only where to stay and what to do ... but also where to go in the first place:
1. Jetsetter
A part of the hugely successful online luxury retailer Gilt Groupe, Jetsetter is a private online community filled with curated deals on what the site calls "the world's greatest vacations." The site features up and coming travel bloggers like "monkey connoisseur" Farryn Weiner and former hospitality industry workers to hand select travel locations and experiences which are then offered to members. You need to be invited into the network, and all deals are only offered for a limited time. (Note: the links in this post include a $25 joining incentive). Popular deal website Living Social is also offering similar curated experiences on a more local (and less costly) level at their Living Social Escapes feature.
2. Trazzler
A community built from submissions by travel writers, Trazzler now presents those experiences with a focus on those which are within driving distance of your home as opposed to exotic locations around the world. The smart model used by the site encourages people to share local experiences that they are passionate about in exchange for the chance to win local trips. You don't need to be a travel writer or prolific blogger to participate, just a person with a great story and recommendation to share. It is a curated content model at its best, because they are encouraging writing and content creation from those who have a passion but don't necessarily have a place to share it ... until they find Trazzler.
3. Offbeat Guides
A site that has been around for a few years, Offbeat Guides specializes in letting you create and print your own guides to destinations on demand. A key unique factor for these guides is that you can enter your dates that you will be travelling to a destination and where you are coming from to customize information such as the weather reports for that time period and currency conversion rates. Bringing together curated content from across the web, the guides offer a collection of information that is updated in real time and generally more reliable than travel guides which can be months or years out of date. If only the site allowed you to include multiple destinations in one travel guide (ie - London & Oslo) so you wouldn't have to carry around two guides if you are hitting two destinations, the idea is being partially duplicated now by a few other sites like Stay.com.
The Bottom Line: Curation is already transforming the way that people answer the all important question of where to go, but so far innovations are coming more from technology based startups rather than destinations themselves. In the near future, we will start to see more local, state and country tourism boards as well as convention and visitor bureaus using curation to better promote their destinations to all kinds of travelers.
The Tower Of London is one of the most popular tourist attractions in London with many sources of tourist information proudly declaring its heritage as a place where hundreds of years of history have taken place, royalty have walked and prisoners have been tortured. It is this last point that awakens the imagination and captures the interest of many of the tourists who visit this place. With its gruesome history including the beheading of Ann Boleyn and usage of torturous devices like the "Rack" and the "Scavenger's Daughter" - it is shamefully entertaining to imagine these times of torture and suffering.
Outside the Tower of London, they certainly take advantage of this more barbaric time in the history of the Tower with imagery and promotional materials - right up until you buy the ticket and actually walk inside. As you walk through the Tower, nearly every sign mentioning this history of torture takes great pains to point out that very few prisoners were ACTUALLY tortured here, despite the number of devices and legends of torture over the 16th and 17th centuries. It seems like a classic case of modern historians trying to rewrite their own history to avoid admitting that perhaps some of the ways of the past were not quite so regal or heroic as they have been written.
Instead, what if the Tower of London admitted its own history ... one that at times was bloody and led to prisoners being tortured, but one that is also now over. Admitting your own failures is a tough thing to do, but sometimes avoiding an obvious truth can be worse. The Tower of London misses the mark and undermines its own credibility in the process. Are you unintentionally doing the same with your business?
Most of us are not so good at admitting and even publicizing our mistakes. If you can do it, however, you can create a much more powerful bond with your customers because they know what you have struggled with in order to get to the point that you are at today.
The Tower of London needs the context of the bloody time in its nearly thousand years of history to put today into context. Most businesses need this context as well. Standing apart for trying to project the perfect image is the obvious thing to do. Instead, if you could let your customers inside to know your biggest mistake and how it helped you to shape your business today, you could not only inspire your customers, but also give them a story to share with family and friends.
The eBook won’t kill publishing, but the traditional book and its indifferent author just might. There was a time when the stereotypical aspiring author with a big idea would go from publisher to publisher in search of a believing partner. Few books would make it through the editorial filter to get published, but those that did felt significant. Not every book succeeded, but having the book published meant something in itself.
Today the popularity of real time media makes it easy to do everything from instantly reviewing a movie, to broadcasting our location and reactions to the world around us. As gratification has become instant, many have lamented the loss of a more considered, private and intellectual lifestyle. When media is instant, reflection becomes the missing link because there is rarely time to nurture and share it.
Books on how to use Twitter or Facebook are bought, written and published in a matter of months. Self publishing has afforded the ability for anyone with any kind of idea to create and publish their own tome without any filter at all. On one level, this democratization of publishing is liberating. Great ideas which may never have made it through the sometimes harsh editorial sphincter can now survive and thrive. The negative, of course, is that the quality can vary widely. Just because anyone can publish a book doesn’t mean they will publish a good one.
Now consider the new role of the author in this world. More than any other time in our past, there has been a rise of what you might term “indifferent authors” — the authors who care less about how many books they sell and more about the ego and reputation boost that having a book can offer. Indifferent authors are changing publishing because their priorities are different from the publishers they partner with.
While a publisher may care solely about book sales, the indifferent author has a much wider success metric. Speaking engagements, consulting work, guest article opportunities … each of these matter more to the indifferent author than the sales themselves. These authors are happy with niche sales, ready to step away from the bestseller list book race, and enjoy the reputation lift of having a book – whether the quality is there or not.
More than eBooks or digital content, the rise of this type of author presents a significant threat to not only the world of publishing, but the value that readers place on books themselves. This is a challenge we all must rise against. It is not about recreating a closed club of the “in crowd” where great ideas from outsiders never see the light of day. This is about respecting the ideal that a book should be significant. It should say something important. And it certainly should say more than an insightful blog post or a pithy 140 character observation.
These are the types of ideas that people will continue to pay to read, whether they are sold as a digital download or a printed hardcover book … and the future of publishing depends on finding and supporting the shrinking pool of authors who create them.
This is not a blog post about the funniest ads. Or the most popular. If you're reading this post, you probably care about the marketing lessons you can take away from the Super Bowl. So, without further ado - here is a roundup of the best and worst of the Super Bowl marketing from last nights game.
Best Marketing Strategy: Volkswagen
From their choice to release their "The Force" ad before the Super Bowl and rack up more than 13 million views before the game even aired, to how they brilliantly managed to promote the 2012 VW Beetle without showing a single image of the car, Volkswagen was the big winner of the big game. Their advertising was focused, strategic, memorable and well distributed. They were even using their Twitter account live during the game to point people online to see the full :60 second version of The Force ad.
Worst Marketing Strategy: Groupon
Groupon is a brilliant site with an amazing team behind it. I have corresponded personally with their team and know for a fact that the organization is filled with dedicated and personable employees ... which makes their Super Bowl effort even more disappointing. The strategy behind their campaign is explained well by founder Andrew Mason on the Groupon Blog ... however without the context of the thinking behind the ad, their 30 second spot in isolation came off as offensive, amateurish and insensitive. These are not qualities which represent Groupon at all, yet the ad has gone virally wrong, which is a reminder that sometimes the same creative developed as part of an online campaign can't simply be translated to another environment and retain its meaning. The Super Bowl needed a different creative execution, and it's a lesson Groupon is learning the hard way.
Best Ongoing Marketing Strategy: Doritos
This year, Doritos continued their leadership in airing consumer generated ads with 3 being shown in the first half. They were funny, on brand and the fact that they all aired during the first half was a repetition that worked for the brand as they stood out in post game reports and shot to the #2 spot in terms of positive sentiment in the "Brand Bowl" tracking of conversation in social media. They have officially established ownership over what was a hot trend a few years ago that multiple brands were flirting with: getting consumers to create ads. Parent company Pepsi, smartly capitalizing on this, also aired several consumer generated ads for Pepsi Max as well.
Best Marketing No-Show: Pizza Hut
A few days before the game, Pizza Hut chose to pull out of the game after having agreed for the first time ever to run a Super Bowl ad. To compliment their universally hated product integration with the sportscasters from Fox artificially getting excited about feeding their crew Pizza Hut pizza - they chose to run extremely boring, but price focused ads. In contrast to Domino's great campaign promoting their substantial transformation, Pizza Hut seems to have abandoned their focus on product quality from last year and went back to gratuitous images of fat laden pepperoni coated breadsticks. You could almost see the actor's spit bucket off stage to make sure they wouldn't have to actually swallow any of that stuff during filming. Unfortunately for the obesity epidemic in America, that is probably exactly what people want ... and ads during pregame likely helped to stimulate sales.
Most Significant Actual Announcement: Best Buy
For anyone who has sat in an advertising pitch meeting, it is easy to picture the discussion that led to the Best Buy spot featuring Justin Beiber alongside Ozzy Osbourne. This kind of "celebrity mashup" can only come from an ad agency brainstorm. The commercial was not bad, but the excessive focus on trying to do something cool creatively obscured the fact that Best Buy was one of the few Super Bowl advertisers with something significant to announce. Their BuyBack program where you can trade in outdated technology is a concept that many consumers will LOVE. In this case, with news this good - it would have been nice if they found a creative execution that let them focus a bit more on the actual announcement instead of all the theater around it. Now they can just hope that in between all the glitz, consumers actually remember that this is a very cool program worth visiting Best Buy to find out more about. Or they could run lots more advertising in the coming months to remind consumers about it.
Best Product Placement: Chevy
Chevy was all over the Super Bowl, and several of their ads were good and worth watching - however the best aspects of their sponsorship were the moments where they used deep product integration to promote their products. Unlike Pizza Hut, their product placements were relevant and memorable. From the beautiful shot of the Chevy Camaro that Aaron Rodgers won for being the Super Bowl MVP to the integrated ad with the cast of Glee (including dialogue from the cast as part of the ad) all worked. You knew Chevy was sponsoring, but it wasn't offputting or intrusive. It worked. Combined with their additional engaging ad featuring voiceovers telling the story of a dream ad, and their partnership with external communities like BzzAgent to help promote their ads - the overall strategy supported Chevy creating big buzz from their huge investment in the games.
Best Smackdown Of A Competitor: Audi
Audi created a great spot following on a theme they have used before of defining their brand as "new luxury" in contrast to competitor brands like BMW and Mercedes which they define as "old luxury." During the Super Bowl, Audi first ran their ad called "Release The Hounds" directly targeted at Mercedes, and then in a piece of good luck, the Mercedes ad later in the game played perfectly into Audi's hands by taking a more historical look at the evolution of the Mercedes brand. The end result was the Mercedes ended up proving the perception that Audi was trying to create that their brand was "old luxury." Great strategy from Audi, helped by a bit of luck, made this strategy stand out.
Most Poetic Ad: Motorola Xoom
While the reference to Apple's groundbreaking 1984 ad may have been a bit too deep for Super Bowl Sunday, I loved the philosophical message behind this ad ... making the point that Apple may be becoming everything they had promised to fight against back when 1984 first came out. The moment in the ad where the girl takes out her signature white ear buds to truly see the guy in front of her was perfectly filmed. Fan boys won't get this ad - but for anyone who has felt they are walking against a sea of people wearing the same white hood and listening to the same white headphones, this ad will strike a strong emotional chord.
Most Compelling Story: Chrysler - Imported From Detroit
As a big believer in the potential of Detroit, it was a thrill to see the city featured in a long form ad for Chrysler. In this case, the longer ad helped to tell a story that many other brands simply couldn't do - and the point was clear. As I tweeted during the game, any of the Big 3 automakers could have done an ad like this - so kudos to Chrysler for actually doing it. Detroit is reawakening and the resurgence of the American automotive industry is a big sign of that. For anyone who has spent time in a city like Detroit - separated from the hubris of the east and west coasts, this story was a powerful reminder that when the economy does rebound, it is cities like Detroit which will be reinvented.
Biggest Waste Of Money: Papa Johns
Papa Johns was the "Official Pizza Of The Super Bowl" which presumably gave them rights to put up posters in the actual venue and some other marketing rights online - but unlike the Olympics where being the Official sponsor is protected and treated with reverence ... the vast majority of people watching the game might have named Pizza Hut as the official sponsor instead of Papa Johns. There may be some hidden elements of the sponsorship that make it worth it, but on the surface this seems like a waste of money for Papa Johns that could have been better spent elsewhere.
Most Unintelligible Ads: Chatter.com
If the point of a SuperBowl ad is awareness, perhaps Chatter.com succeeded as I was curious about what it was. But the creative execution was incomprehensible, offered no details about what the site actually was or why anyone should care, and ultimately the only people who likely visited were the ones who were simply curious about what kind of site was worth spending millions to promote through two indecipherable Super Bowl spots.
Best Ad Remake: House Promo
While many younger viewers may have completely missed the reference, the promo ad for House remaking the iconic 1980 Coke ad featuring Mean Joe Greene was the best flashback to a previous ad.
The brands listed above were apparently so set on blowing their budget on a Super Bowl ad that they left no budget to actually develop an ad to air. Those brands chose to recycle old ads which people had seen before on the world's biggest stage - which is a bit like wearing an old bridesmaid's dress to your own wedding. It might be a nice dress, but when that many people are watching, save up and get something new.
Rohit works at Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, part of WPP - a world leader in advertising and marketing services. The views expressed on this blog are his personal opinion and do not necessarily reflect the views of his employer or its clients.
