Good, Bad and Strange at the Super Bowl

It's time to once again ignore the game itself and focus on the most important facet of the Super Bowl: the ads. This year presented a few hits, plenty of misses and an abundance of "what was that?" moments.

Return to Greatness
Let's start with the comeback kid of this year's bowl advertising: Doritos. You may remember their awful user generated effort from last year. This year they came out with two spots. The first was another gimmick, introducing Super Bowl viewers to the winner of an emerging artist contest. The reason this gambit succeeded is that the winning artist, Kina Grannis, is pretty good. But it was Dorito's second ad that made me laugh out loud. In it, a man baits a mousetrap with a Dorito and is then attacked by a giant mouse. Solid comedic gold.

Almost There
Two ads almost deserve to be inducted into the Super Bowl advertising hall of fame. In Bridgestone's second spot of the bowl, Bridgestone's tires enable a driver to avoid hitting a deer, Alice Cooper and then, after a moment of indecision on the part of the driver, Richard Simmons. In that moment of indecision, when I thought the driver would smash his car into Mr. Simmons, I was ready to stand up and cheer. But Bridgestone, or perhaps their agency, chickened out and swerved to avoid Richard along with the inevitable controversy that would ensue.

Budweiser's Clydesdale Training ad was an obvious parody of Rocky, and would have been epic if only the Clydesdale in question had ran up the steps of the Philadelphia courthouse. Without that, it was just OK.

What just Happened?
Several spots left me wondering what could have possibly convinced their parent companies that this was a good way to spend several million dollars. CareerBuilder.com's Follow Your Heart ad was definitely the winner in this category. Seeing an animated human heart rip itself out of a woman's chest and schlurp its way out of her office doesn't seem like the best way to build your brand, but it was certainly memorable.

The Funniest
It is a simple fact of life that if you are drinking soda and Will Ferrel comes on screen, you will snort that soda through your nose. Jackie Moon endorsing Bud Light was the funniest moment of the Super Bowl. If Bud Light doesn't put up billboards that say, "Bud Light, Refreshes the Palate and the Loins" and "Bud Light, Suck One" they've missed a golden opportunity. Sadly, the rest of the beermaker's offerings were disappointing.

Very Personal Favorites
There were two ads that I thought were brilliant, but I somehow doubt impacted the greater American audience. The first was Garmin's offering in which a very short Napoleon is able to navigate Paris with the help of his GPS device. The driving, the vehicle, and the conceit of Napoleon being short were brilliant, but how many football fans will be inspired by a short Frenchman to buy a GPS?

The second was Coke's ability to bring together James Carville and Bill Frist. Now, I'm a pretty hardcore political junkie, and it took me about half the commercial to remember who Bill Frist was. I loved the ad, but I'm afraid that the demographic of political junkies who love football might be a bit small for Coke's ad to have the impact they'd hope for. However, they made up for it in their other spot in which a giant Stewie baloon is defeated by Charlie Brown. Another personal favorite. I mean, Charlie Brown finally got something he wanted. And it was a Coke. Absolute brilliance.

The Best
My personal favorite of the game was Audi's introduction of their R8. I doubt there's anybody in the car world that doesn't respect Audi's engineering, but they're often cited for their lack of "soul". By suggesting that the new R8 cut the front off another luxury car and placed it in a wealthy man's bed, a'la The Godfather, Audi's perfectly imbued the model with "awesomeness". When it was over I wanted to stand up and cheer. What person with a beating heart and a spare $100K wouldn't want to buy one?

The Rest
To watch the rest of this year's ads, you can head over to Spike. And don't miss Seth Stevenson's insightful take on the subject.

The Tipping Point and Golden Retrievers

A blog without updates is like a Golden-Retriever without a tail. Still functional, but somehow disheartening. We'll try and rectify that.

Fastcompany has a fairly excellent article up about how the ideas behind The Tipping Point may not be all they're cracked up to be.

The marketing application of The Tipping Point's philosophy is that there are certain consumers who are far more influential than others, and that advertisers should discover and target these consumers. It's an idea that feels correct; we all have people who we regularly emulate and ask for advice.

The Fastcompany article is about someone who took the time to scientifically study the idea of the Uber-Influencer, and found that there is no such thing. Therefore, there's no sense in targeting this mythical consumer. Something, as the article points out, that Madison Avenue is having a difficult time stomaching.

The Peculiar Brilliance of WillItBlend

By Andrew
If you are of a somewhat geeky persuasion you’re likely already familiar with the WillItBlend series of videos. In each video, produced by high-end blender manufacturer BlendTec, something that in normal circumstances would not be blended is reduced to its essential elements in a BlendTec brand blender. The company’s latest piece in which an iPhone is reduced to dust continues a long series that featured iPods, an HD video camera, glow sticks, action figures, magnets, and just about anything else that sounds fun to put in a blender. In each instance the powerful blender performs its task with ease, and each time a huge amount of internet buzz is generated driving tons of traffic to BlendTec’s site.

What makes these videos so brilliant from an advertising standpoint is that each video is essentially a product demonstration of BlendTec’s blenders. While other companies have created internet sites designed to entertain, (for example Burger King’s delightful Subservient Chicken) few of them so directly trumpet the ability of the product they’re supporting. BlendTec’s videos are just a much better and more subtle version of the infomercial. The logic follows that if this blender can blend an iPod, it should have no trouble with strawberries.

With a relatively low production budget and almost no distribution costs BlendTec has managed to introduce millions of viewers to its product. Other companies should take note.

Is Primetime Perishing?

By Andrew
Advertising Age ran an article that furthers our previous discussions on the evolution of television. The premise of Is Crucial Daypart Finally Past Its Prime is that soon, primetime will have no meaning. Tivo, Internet Television and other technologies mean that consumers watch what they want to watch, when they want to watch it.

While this seems like a scary proposition for advertisers, it needn’t be. Audi is already taking advantage of the concept with its ads based on tt-truth.com. The ads run so quickly that they can only be viewed by consumers who slow them down on their DVR, or go to Audi’s website to view a slower version. Kudos to Audi for taking advantage of new technology instead of trying to stop it like other, shall we say, more furtive organizations.

The article’s most hopeful quote comes from David B. Wertheimer. “"There will only be two kinds of television in the future: event television and on-demand television."” Sounds like a great future.

Free Music, Brought to you by...

By Andrew
We7 is a strangely named music download service which promises free, DRM-free, ad-supported mp3 downloads. Cnet.co.uk claims that the service “absolutely, categorically will not succeed.” I agree with this assessment of the We7’s current business model, but with a few adaptations We7 – or at least its business model – could be the next big thing.

The Cnet article addresses the fact that consumers will be annoyed by having to listen to a 10-second commercial at the beginning of every mp3 they download from We7, and they’re absolutely right.

As Hayley’s article about free online TV-show streaming demonstrates, consumers do appreciate advertisers subsidizing products they enjoy, but this system only works when it’s done in a way that doesn’t ruin the product. 10 seconds of advertising at the beginning of every audio track on an album might well ruin the listening experience. I imagine that consumers would feel more animosity than appreciation towards the advertiser whose spot is played over and over again after every song on the mp3 player.

The other problem with We7’s current business model is that it would be quite simple for consumers to strip out the ads from their downloaded songs. It would be difficult to convince advertisers to sponsor songs when they know its likely their ads will never be heard.

A successful widely accepted method of inserting advertisements into music already exists: it’s called radio. Consumers don’t seem to have a problem with listening to ads between every five or ten songs on the radio. To be successful We7 will have to combine the flexibility, selection and portability of mp3 players with the advertising model of radio.

The answer is – as it often seems to be – a new technology. If mp3 players like the successful iPod and the not-quite-yet-so-successful Zune updated their software to allow the insertion of ads after every 5 or so ad-supported songs, We7’s business model would work well.

It’s unlikely that Microsoft or Apple will partner with a small startup like We7, but there’s nothing keeping the two giants from stealing the concept. Being able to advertise free music downloads might be the boost that a struggling mp3 player like the Zune needs.

Underneath It All

By Andrew

In our previous guide to advertising blogs we omitted a great resource; the Ad Report Card column by Seth Stevenson on Slate.com tells the story behind famous and infamous advertisements.

Stevenson’s most recent column on the popular UPS “Whiteboard” campaign covers the history and impetus of the ads. Where else, (besides Wikipedia) could you learn that the “Whiteboard” campaign’s director is also its star? Or that the song used in the UPS ad is performed – ironically – by a band named The Postal Service?

Whether you agree with Stevenson’s assessment of an ads merits, it’s almost impossible to read one of his columns and not come away feeling like you’ve gained some insight into the world of advertising.

My favorite nugget of knowledge from Stevenson’s column? The fact that the copywriter for Bud Light’s “Ted Ferguson, Bud Light Daredevil” campaign is also its star. Ted Ferguson brings hope to copywriters everywhere.

It's been so long....

By Andrew

Things have been busy around the office and the Vertical Blog has suffered. But now we’re back in full force.

We’ll start off with a little tooting of our own horn. This year Vertical did quite well at the Inland Empire ADDY awards. We were awarded two golds, four silver and one bronze award. In addition, one of our projects was forwarded to the regional level of the National ADDY awards and won a silver there - a first for our agency.