A director friend of mine sent this to me and I think it's the best ad I've seen in a long time - better than any of the Super Bowl ads. It's a very clever, very multimedia ad for a "dying" old traditional medium - a newspaper. You see a lot of the age old technique of showing us newspaper headlines to help tell the story - but you never see them on an actual newspaper, it's all on electronic device screens.
The spot follows a well-known story to all of us, the big bad wolf and the 3 little pigs. But puts a decidedly modern take on it with several unseen twists. It's very entertaining, yet quite poignant. And it really gets the brand message across. If you're thinking of old school newspaper journalism, this spot show that the Guardian is definitely not that. We see all of the various social and digital formats that they deliver the news on. We see how journalists and news in general now rely on social media to get public sentiment and news leads. And in the end we see the power of social media to cause global uprisings and the power of the proper journalistic touch to keep on top of all this in our crazy, uber-connected world.
Thanks to Shev Goldstien for passing this ad on to me. If you have a suggestion for Ad of the Week, leave it here in the comment section or connect to us on Twitter or Facebook and leave your suggestion.
It seems every week now someone is sending me a good example of how not to do something. Last week, it was how not to use LinkedIn to get business. This week, it was how not to use email to connect with potential buyers of your company's services. I got an email from a music production company rep. It's pretty standard for sales reps to try and reach out to potential customers and get together when they are traveling to another city. This is not how you do it though.
To start off with, I live in Detroit. The music rep was traveling to L.A. I got an email with the subject line: "Gonna be in L.A. Tues-Thurs this week." Normally, I probably would have just disregarded it, since it didn't pertain to me. But, I have the preview pane set on my office email so I can see the first few lines of copy in an email. The first line of copy got me to open the email. For the wrong reasons.
His opening line in the email said "(Disregard if you're not in L.A.)" Really? Being an Executive Creative Director, I get a lot of junk email from a lot of production companies clogging up my email. And you're going to flat out tell me "I'm too lazy or inept to go through my list and cull the companies that are in L.A. to deliver this message to."
The tone of the rest of the email was nice. Friendly, casual, no pressure. I'm going to be in town, would love to grab a cup of coffee and chat while I'm there type of messaging. That is the right way to approach it. But he negated all that by simply not taking a few minutes to segment his list. He's basically telling all of us, including the ones in L.A. "I really don't know you and I'm not going to take the time to get to know you and your individual needs. I'm going to treat you and your business like a mass production project."
One little thing wrong. But it can destroy your chances with a potential customer. We live in a hyper-connected, transparent world. It's a world where products need to be more and more personalized. This one little thing in a sales email flies in the face of all that. And while it may not lose him any business, it surely won't gain him any either.
What do you think? Am I being to hard on the guy or did he really blow it?
Mike McClure, Not in L.A. & Not Buying Music Services Soon
There's one thing that increases fan/customer/community engagement with your brand's Facebook page. I've heard and read about it in many places and instances. I've seen it happen. But, recently with one of our client's Facebook pages we saw it very clearly illustrated. Nothing engages your Facebook community like pictures.
Here's proof. One of our social media clients, PHI Air Medical, is a top notch helicopter air rescue service with bases all across the country. Their Facebook page is fairly new, so it has less than 500 "likes" so far. Many of them are part of PHI's employee base around the country and people who's lives have been touched by being a client in one of PHI's helicopters or planes.
This all means that, for the most part, PHI's fans are people who's lives are touched one way or another by being in flight. One of our social media team found a great quote about the feeling this community has about flying, "When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return." PHI posted it on their Facebook page and we saw results pretty quickly. It obviously connected with our community in the amount of likes and comments we got out of it.
PHI Original Facebook post
We don't normally post quotes. But, as you can see it got some decent engagement, including one who had the quote put on nice paper and hung in her home. So, we thought we would take this quote that was getting good feedback and positive vibes and make something more of it. We took a great shot we had of one of PHI's helicopters in flight, added the quote, logo and brand line to it. When we posted that, engagement was more than five times greater the original post without the picture.
The PHI Facebook Post with Photo
So, you may have always heard that photos create the best engagement, but here's an example of just how much. The two posts were essentially the same, except one had a photo. And the one with the photo came after the text content had already been out there.
What have you seen in your experiences? Has this held true for you, too?
This week, I'm anointing another ad I saw for the first time during the Grammys, Chipotle's "Back to the start" with simple animation set to a Willie Nelson version of Coldplay's "the scientist." I love the simplicity of the message - both in what is said and how it is said. The music has a haunting feeling that really draws you in. And the combination with the animation tell a very complex story in a very simple fashion.
Basically, it shows a farmer raising pigs, cows and chickens. In one long pan across a time line the farm gets bigger, chemicals and DNA enhancements make the animals bigger. They are suddenly being raised more in a factory line fashion. they are processed and shipped. But eventually the farmer is bothered by all this and goes, as the lyrics say, "back to the start." The farm flips back to the old way of doing things and the animals are free to graze and look like the normal ones from the beginning of the story.
The time line finally ends with a signpost that touts "Cultivate a better world" and the chipotle.com web address. Using Willie Nelson, who has ties to smaller farmers going back to the beginning of Farm Aid is a brilliant choice. His version sounds good and it's not just a random celebrity tie-in, it actually makes sense for the message. I never thought of the food chain as being one to use organic ingredients or be about healthy choices for both our bodies and our environment. And maybe they aren't. But the ad sure makes me feel like they are. And any downloads of the song off iTunes goes to benefit Chipotle's charity, "The Chipotle Cultivate Foundation."
So, what did you think? Like it or feel it's too preachy for a brand? Let me know what ads you think should be Ad of the Week in future weeks and maybe you'll see them here.
Sometimes you can follow the basic tenets of social media and still be doing it wrong. To help yourself or your business, you want to reach out to the community, build connections, start conversations and offer to help others. Using LinkedIn is especially a good way to do that if you're trying to build your business. But, if you don't do it right, your efforts can have the opposite effect that you intended. Such was the case with a recent message I got from one of my LinkedIn connections.
Now, one thing you should know about me is that I'm a pretty open connector on LinkedIn. If someone sends me a request to connect, I pretty much accept it. I figure we're all there to do business and you never know what connection may turn into the perfect one somewhere down the road. Therefore, I have 1900 LinkedIn connections. All this is to say, that I don't personally know everyone I'm connected to.
Last week I got a LinkedIn message from someone asking me if I would endorse them on LinkedIn. They said that in return for my endorsement they would create a free QR code for my company's url or any other internet property I might want it to connect to. There is nothing wrong with asking your connections to give you a recommendation. Except, in this case, I didn't recognize the person's name.
However, since I've been in the business a long time and probably have killed off a key brain cell or two during that time, I gave the guy the benefit of the doubt. So, I replied asking him if we'd ever done any work together. His response was "Not sure if we have." - which, to me, confirmed that we hadn't. He went on to say, "But we seem be on a similar network" and he offered me that free QR code anyway. And then he said, once I got a QR code from him, you could say we worked together.
To be fair, he did say not to worry about the recommendation. But it was too late. I may have been able to use his services (not for QR codes) but I was already turned off by his approach. By this point I was curious to see what my bribed endorsement was worth. I sent him back a note asking him if this was some kind of special custom QR code or one I could easily have made myself. It turned out, it wasn't anything special.
Where did he go wrong? First off, never ask someone to write an endorsement who hasn't worked with you and doesn't know you. It comes off as disingenuous in the least and dishonest at most. And to offer something as incentive to make that recommendation feels like bribery. If that's how you portray yourself doing business, I don't want to do business with you - especially in this new transparent business world we live in.
Secondly, if you're going to offer to do something for someone, make sure it's something they will perceive as having value. In this socially connected world, you make friends first before doing business. Helping others out is a good way to do that. I think offering a free QR code to a business that doesn't understand how to create one is actually a good idea (as long as it's not a bribe, but given freely). However, you need to do your research. It wouldn't have taken much checking to figure out that we create QR codes for clients. We've written about it in this blog. Just reading my LinkedIn profile would have given him a pretty good idea that it was something I knew how to do.
So, not only did I feel negatively about the company due to how I was approached, I felt insulted that the offer to do something I felt was shady was to give me something I could easily do myself in less than a minute. Yes, you should reach out to others. You should make connections. You should offer to do helpful things for people. Just make sure you're doing it in a way that gets the results you want.
We all make mistakes. I've certainly made my share. But, a little research and common sense can help you avoid situations like this. What about you? What have you seen someone doing that just makes you shake your head? Or conversely, what lessons have you learned the hard way?
While you were being mildly amused byClint (Not-From-Detroit) Eastwood, I’ve been compiling examples for that Mobile Campaignyou’ve been kicking around for a month now. Ranging in complexity, one truth holds for each campaign: you must engage customers on-the-go by taking advantage of technology trends, social habits and reward systems.
Dominos Pizza App Dominos designed a functionally-outstanding Mobile Application that satisfies our most important need – the need for delicious food. The slick design cuts out the unnecessary fat, and leaves the meat (on your pizza). Dominos app finds stores near you and allows you to place the order through a specific mobile device. I was specifically impressed with the iPad version: large screen and faster connection speeds are utilized for luscious graphics and an intuitive interface. You can almost smell the food as your trembling fingers select pizza size, toppings and crust. The app offers latest deals and does an excellent job of upselling closer to the check out.
Highlights: Dominos built a stand-alone app which makes it easy and fun to order pizza.
Diesel Taps into Facebook Diesel came up with a clever campaign that taps into the mighty power of Facebook and QR Codes. Picture this: Your girlfriend/wife drags you to go “pick up a few things Downtown” with her. After hours of stumbling around from store to store, you smell like pink unicorns and glitter. She asks ‘Hey hun! Is there, like, anywhere you want to go?’ You skillfully navigate to your favorite Diesel store thanks to your handy smartphone. There’s a TON of cool clothes, but they’re a little expensive. Luckily you run into a QR Code Promotion which will let you 1) LIKE these cool trendy clothes on Facebook for all of your 400 friends to see, and 2) get a discount for doing so. Wait! What’s that sound? It’s the sound of tech-savvy-smart shopper, living unicorn and glitter free in his new Diesel clothes.
Highlights: Excellent use of a reward system in trending technologies. Advertising the item and brand to all of customers Facebook friends. Diesel upsells by making suggestions on items that would go together through your phone.
Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) IHG took advantage of social habits with some heavy-duty technology. The staple of this campaign was Search. While travelling in a new city, short for time, consumers would search and book local hotels on their smartphones, and guess who would come up? IHG used Google Ad Words, which targets consumers based on what search terms they use and appropriately displays an ad for IHG hotels.
The target market was strategically divided into customers new to the brand and loyalist. A clean, clutter-free website was created for people new to the brand. The features included finding a hotel near you, viewing reservations and booking the hotel. Loyalists, on the other hand, would download a free app, which would grant them quicker access to all of the regular features and let them collect loyalty points as an incentive and reward for checking into IHG hotels.
Highlights: Combined with Google Adwords campaign the traffic increased 20% month-to-month. Increase in revenue over 90% . Downloads increased 400% in August
Throughout the three part mobile series I’ve illustrated concepts and examples of how and why you should have a firm understanding of your consumer. Like all advertising, mobile is a reflection of your brand. Your product should help a customer satisfy a need or a want, solve a problem, it should delight them. Mobile is what your customers are using now. Meet them there.
Target is at it again - creating another stylishly fun spot that I just love. I saw it for the first time when the minute long version aired the Grammys last Sunday. Twitter immediately blew up with praise for the commercial. And for good reason!
The spot touts color for the new spring fashions and features a hot air balloon landing in a downtown area. Immediately, in clown car fashion, way more people start flipping out of the balloon's basket than ever could have fit in there. Each guy is outfitted in colorful suits befitting of recent productions of Guys and Dolls. The women are outfitted in the same colors, only in dresses. We follow these colorful people as they gymnastic their way through the city and homes, magically transforming everything with colorful products you can get at Target.
The only audio is a very playful version of the French song we learned as kids, "Alouette." It's perfect for the dreary days of mid-winter to think of fun and adding color. At the end they all flip back into the basket and we see the super: "Color changes everything." Even adding in the Target logo is fun, with an overhead shot of the balloon, showing the logo on top of it.
Target - Color Changes Everything
I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. If you have a suggestion for Ad of the Week let us know, here in the comments, via twitter, Facebook or email us atfans@yaffe.com
Direct mail? Telethons? Emails?!?! Who deals with that stuff anymore? The answer is, well, some people. Social media is often lauded as the silver bullet for supporter engagement and cultivation for non-profits today. More-so than a new phenomenon, social media marketing has become the new standard. While the rise of digital has drastically changed the way nonprofits connect with their constituents, old-fashioned techniques still hold sway in this brave new world we are all entering.
Nonprofits such as charity: waterare blazing the trail towards a new online-only donation structure. In its five years of operation, charity: water hasn’t sent out a single piece of direct mail, instead directing donors towards flashy landing pages and custom videos, afterwards following up with an emailed tax receipt. While this digital version of donor cultivation/stewardship is most certainly a vision of the future, a handcrafted postcard, a memorable photograph, or a hand-signed signature from an executive director provide tangible alternatives that are becoming all the more precious in our technology-fueled world. They are also great ways to help donors remember to support your cause in the future.
While there are arguments on both sides of the digital divide, the reality is that a multichannel approach to communicating with your supporters will be the way forward. Integrating digital approaches, such as crowdfunding or mobile optimization, help to make your mission as visible and accessible as possible – while more traditional approaches help to make your cause memorable. When it comes down to it, the old way of doing things is really the new way – provide relevant, heartfelt content that makes your constituents want to support you: with their dollars, their hands or their voices.
Guest Post by nonprofit professional, Chelsea Liddy. Chelsea spends her days staying afloat of the best in social media, technology, and communications for nonprofits, and runs a philanthropy blog here.
The 2012 Super Bowl and accompanying Brand Bowl has come and gone. There were some good ads and some really bad ads, but none stood out to me as truly great ads. In the last few years, picking a number one ad was either easy because it was a standout or hard because, like last year, there were two standouts (VW Vader spot and Chrysler's Imported from Detroit spot). This year it was hard because I really didn't have strong feelings about any one spot. But be that as it may, here's my top 10 spots and my worst of the year pick.
10. Honda - "Matthew's Day Off"
So many people loved this ad, that I had to make it a top 10. But truthfully, I'm not a big fan. I think part of it was that Honda used VW's Vader kid "leak the spot online" strategy and it backfired. Instead of endearing the spot to me with all the coverage it got before the Super Bowl, I was already tired of it. I think if I saw it and it was a surprise, I might have felt - oh wow, look what they did. Instead, I felt, meh... they took an iconic movie character and reinacted some movie stuff and it didn't tie in to the car at all. If I hadn't looked up the spot, I wouldn't have been able to tell you which car it was.
9. Oikos Greek Yogurt - "The Tease"
This one made the list simply because it's got a woman head butting John Stamos to the floor. And who doesn't want to see that again?
8. The Voice - "Vocal Kombat"
Props to NBC's The Voice for creating something far more engaging than a montage of clips for a show promo. This was entertaining, had high action, cool graphics and still got across the premise of the show, which is the judges fighting to get the best voice to choose them. Love the "Kill Bill" sequences and graphics, down to Cee-Lo's outfit. And the twist at the end made me laugh.
7. Doritos - "Man's Best Friend"
What's the Super Bowl without dog spots. Here's the first one to make my list. One of the winners of Doritos annual Super Bowl ad contest. Clever concept, the dog gives his master Doritos as "hush money" after "offing" the cat. Nice.
6. Sex Sells for H&M and Teleflora
We always see examples of good and bad use of the time honored tradition of sex sells. Here's two good examples - one for the men and one for the ladies. First, there was Teleflora. I would actually call this a great product benefit spot. Guys may think giving flowers is stupid. But, with Valentine's Day coming up, Teleflora reminds us dumb guys the real product benefit of buying flowers, mixing metaphors with Christmas, using the line, "give, and you shall receive."
On the other hand, we have David Beckham for men's underwear for H&M. Now, you may think they're targeting the wrong market - getting the ladies attention for a men's underwear product. But, I'm sure their research shows that most of the men's underwear is actually bought by the women in their lives. Let's face it, most of us guys will keep wearing shabby, holey underwear rather than go buy new stuff. Also, judging by a lot of the tweets I read, a lot of women are buying this stuff just because they're buying whatever he's selling.
5. Chrysler - "Halftime in America"
I have mixed feelings about this one. For one thing, it must have run during the one time I got up and left the set - so I didn't see it in context, just later on the web. It suffers by comparison. Last year's imported from Detroit spot featuring Eminem was so powerful and poignant. Trying to recapture the magic of a special spot is very hard to do. I think they did a valiant job here, but it pales in comparison. For one thing, as someone living in Detroit, I don't remember that "we almost lost it all" - sure time have been tough and we were hit harder than most, but I don't remember ever thinking we were going to lose everything. It's a well written, well produced spot with an icon to lead the charge. But, it's not last year's spot. Not even close.
4. Budweiser - Eternal Optimism
Don't love the beer, but I love this ad. And I wish my clients had this kind of budgets! It's a lot of fun, with a great soundtrack featuring a mash-up The Cult's "She Sells Sanctuary" and Flo Rida's "Good Feelin'." It basically shows that over time, people have always gathered together with their buds for a good time gathering - and often it's involved their favorite beer. It's a spot that works well with Budweiser's tagline "Grab some Buds."
3. Volkswagen - "The Dog Strikes Back"
This is really two spots in one. One spot about a dog that sees the new VW Beetle and really wants to chase it, but needs to get in shape to do so. And another that takes place in a galaxy far, far away. I think VW did a much better job of trying to top last year's special ad, than Chrysler. They didn't succeed either, but I like what they did better. Instead of the new and improved version, they went with a new spot that gives a nod to the old classic. I didn't see the twist at the end coming and I loved it. I know some think they should have just ended it with the dog's story. Personally, I think it could have come off as schmaltzy by itself. With the commercial shifting to the Star Wars bar and a blatant reference to last year's spot - I thought it was great. I also like that the pre-Super Bowl spot released on the web (dogs barking out the Darth Vader theme) was a nice hint to the eventual spot without actually being the spot.
2. Accura - "Transactions"
I originally had this as my number one ad, but upon further review, it turns out I like the Chevy ad better. I did really like this one though. Of all the ads, this one got the biggest laughs from me. Sure, it was a bit over the top. But, Leno in a flying squirrel jet back to steal the deal just as Jerry Seinfeld was about to seal it? Loved it. What can I say, you make me laugh, you're gonna get high marks from me. It's just how I roll.
1. Chevy Silverado - "2012 Mayan Calendar"
I love this ad. Talk about a brand promise - buy our product and survive the apocalypse. Sure, it's not realistic, but it's fun. And I don't mind at all that they took a poke at the competition. I come from a rural area where guys drive trucks and if you're a Chevy guy, you look at the Ford and Dodge guys with disdain and vise versa. It just taps into the target market mindset.
I like that they took something topical like the predicted end of the world and had fun with it. They didn't just stick with one reason either - you see alien spacecraft, volcanoes, meteors and even the more biblical rain of frogs. Loved the burning Big Boy statue and a play on the old joke (and recent Zombie movie) idea that one of the things that will last forever is twinkies. Nice co-branding opportunity, too, I'm sure. Added bonus for the counter intuitive Barry Manalow track.
And 1 Ugly One.
That's my take on the best spots. There were plenty of disappointments, too. I think the eTrade baby spots have lost their luster. Career Builder brought back the chimps and it wasn't bad, but it was just a rehash of previous spots. I thought the Cars.com one with the extra head singing was just creepy. But one advertiser was just ugly. I bet you know who it was. Go Daddy once again stunk up the place with horrible ads that just ticked off at least half of the possible customers right off the bat. As one woman tweeted, "what? Women don't buy domain names?" Where H&M and Teleflora (and even Fiat) used sex to sell in a good way, these people use it all wrong. Their spots are sexist. They play the bait and switch game - Oooo, come to our website and maybe you'll see these women naked (you won't). And to make matters worse, it's just bad, reheated creative. They've basically run the same idea for I don't know how many Super Bowls now. Time to banish them from the event, if you ask me.
So, what were your favorites? Did I miss some? Do you think I'm a moron for including one of these? I'd love to hear your take on the best and worst of 2012 Super Bowl ads.
I don't think I've ever had an outdoor board as my Ad of the Week before, but this one really grabbed me. It's brilliant in it's message, it's positioning and size. This is a nod to the media people as much as the creative team. And to whoever was keeping aware of the local landscape.
Apparently there was an Audi outdoor board that showed their new answer to luxury cars and had the words "Your Move, BMW." Well, the local BMW dealer made their move and it was a good one. They bought a bigger board right across the street and put their answer on it. And their message was "Checkmate" - game over. I don't know if it was actually the local dealership or the brand made the move and tagged it with the local dealer. Either way, nicely played, BMW, nicely played.
Santa Monica BMW - "Checkmate"
Reminds us all to be careful when poking the giant with a stick. Sometimes they wake up and poke back. What good rebuttle ads have you seen?
