After a rather tumultuous time for American car makers, Chevy is doing something to engage the buzz makers of our time. And they're doing a rather good job of it. The annual South by Southwest(SXSW) conference is being held this month. It's an conference of innovation in interactive, music and film. It was at this conference that innovations like Twitter and FourSquare have been introduced in the past.
Leading up the interactive portion of the conference, Chevy is sponsoring road trips from eight different parts of the country to SXSW. They are providing the car and having a four[person team from each city's social media scene drive it to the conference. Along the way, they must complete as many of 50 challenges as they can, which were crowd-sourced out to the followings of each team. The Chevy social media team, headed by Chris Barger, then chose the 50 challenges from all those submitted. (They didn't use my "find a ugly bug from each state" suggestion - but then that would be hard here in Michigan). Each team also get points for how much their social media communities interact with them along the way. The prize for the winning team is that Chevy with throw an "epic tweetup" in the winner's city for their social media community. How much good will and online buzz is Chevy creating from this one social media promotion? It's huge. And it's spearheaded by the leaders in each community, the early adopters with lots of followers. I think it's a brilliant way to get your product and brand name out there and generate positive feelings.
I've been following Team Detroit all day today, which is the first day of the road trip. I'm friends with three of the four members of the team, through various local social media functions. They're all great people and are making following them a lot of fun. They've had a steady stream of photos, videos, tweets, Facebook comments, blogs and more as they've gone. The local community has responded with comments, retweets and more on a large scale. Now, maybe it's not like that in all the team's cities (last I looked Team Detroit had a commanding lead), but the buzz is pretty great. You can follow Team Detroit on the Twitter hashtag #DETChevySXSW or on Facebook. It's fun. I'd recommend it. But, in the end, I think it's Chevy who's the real winner.
Mike McClure, Exec Creative Director & Social Media Guy
My dog is as dumb as a stump. But, there's one thing we all can learn from him, whether you're an individual or a company. You see, he understands what will make him warm and happy. On cold winter days, even if there's just a sliver of light coming through a crack in the blinds, he'll find it. And he'll lay there with sunshine falling on his face and have himself a little snooze. No matter how dark the house is, he'll find that little ray of sunshine and bask in it - even when it's just a little strip across his nose.
This concept is something that can work for you, too. What's your ray of sunshine? Is it your family? Your job? A hobby? A good book? Playing a Facebook game? Connecting with your online community? Whatever it is, use it to fend off the darkness whenever you feel it decending on you. The economy looks like it's poised to come back. But, it can't come back soon enough for some people. Maybe you had to take a job you don't like. Or you have bills that add up to more than you make. Don't let the darkness settle on you. Find that thing that makes you feel warm, safe and happy. Then embrace it. Even if you can only find time for a little bit of it, do what makes you happy whenever you can.
This goes for companies and brands, too. What makes your brand shine? What makes your employees feel good about working there? What does your company do that makes consumers feel good about you? Tap into those things and it will not only help your brand or company do well, it'll make all those associated with it feel good. This is why cause marketing, being green or being active in your constituents' online communities are important for companies these days. If you can make yourself and your customers feel good about what you're doing in these hard times, business will bloom when things lighten up.
Find your sunshine and bask in it. It does a body good!
Mike McClure, basking in that all-over Yaffe glow.
The scene is dark and cold as men with lights on their helmets trudge through the snow in the endless night above the Arctic Circle. It's 9 a.m. on the 31st day without sunlight. Then we see the people of Inuvik, a small town in the Northwest Territories, Canada, go about their day. Kids going to school in the dark, people walking down the streets. Then a haunting piano kicks in and "The Great Escape" by Patrick Wilson begins to play as the men from the opening scene begin assembling something in the middle of town. Turns out it's an inflatable fake sun that they float over the city, bringing sunshine to their morning. As the people gather to happily bask in the man-made sun, the men pass out individual bottles of Tropicana.
The whole spot is beautifully shot and has a wonderfully understated message. The feel and message of the spot is uplifting. And the really cool thing is this was something Tropicana actually did - show up in this small town and bring them a little sunshine and OJ for their morning. You can see genuine joy and awe on the faces of the townspeople. The long shots of the orb floating over the frozen city are terrific. The only message from Tropicana in the spot comes at the end in supers that explain why they did it, "because we believe brighter mornings make for brighter days." Then our last long shot of the glowing orb over the city fades to a Tropicana orange and the logo. Very nicely done!
Tropicana "Arctic Sun"
This week's ad was suggested by Nicolas Mejia via Twitter. Thanks Nicolas! If you have a suggestion for Ad of the Week, leave your comment here, send us an email atfans@yaffe.com, send us a tweet or post on our Facebook page.
Mike McClure, Exec Creative Director & Social Media Guy
If you haven't heard about Ignite yet, you probably will soon (well, technically you're hearing about it now). It's a growing global phenomenon and it came to Detroit two nights ago. I had the chance to go to Ignite Detroit and I have to tell you, it was an exhilarating evening. It was both entertaining and enlightening. If one comes to your city, I highly recommend you go. If you live in Detroit, the next one is in 6 months.
What is Ignite? Well, as their slogan "Enlighten us. But make it quick" proclaims, it's an evening of short presentations. Fifteen speakers get up and speak on whatever it is they're passionate about. Each speaker is given five minutes to make their presentation. A PowerPoint slide show put together by the speaker illustrates their points while they talk. The trick is, each speaker submits 20 slides that auto advance every 15 seconds. This keeps each speaker's presentation moving along. Speakers submit topics. Half the speakers are chosen by popular community voting online. The other half are chosen by the team running the event, to make sure they have a well-rounded program.
At Ignite Detroit, we had some amazing presenters and presentations. We had the head of GM's social media, Chris Barger, present on how much he loves 80's hair bands and what businesses can learn from them. We had the co-founder of the Internet sensation site, Texts From Last Night, Ben Bator, talk about how they took a simple idea and turned it into a huge deal, not only with big name advertisers on the site, but a book deal and a TV show deal with Fox. University of Michigan student, Ryan Doyle, who has founded a charity call Live to Give, talked about the future of non-profits and how they need to give back to the individuals who donate to them. Charlie Woolborg gave a very funny, yet thought-provoking bacon-filled rant on how we've become a sound byte society. Presentations went from serious and scientific subjects like Mellisa Hui's presentation on how the food we eat changes our DNA to seriously unscientific subjects like Dave Murray's hilarious presentation on how the world will really end in 2012, with the rise of the cats. Dave's presentation had me laughing so hard, tears were streaming down my cheeks. He was voted the top presentation of the evening, by the way. The evening ended with Hajj Flemings, who helped orchestrate last summer's Brand Camp Detroit, giving an insightful presentation on reeducating the disposable worker, especially interesting for those of us here in Detroit. Once the Ignite Detroit presentation videos are uploaded, I'll link to them here. In the meantime, you can see videos from Ignite globally here. (photo by Jenni Murray)
Tickets for the event were gone in just over six hours after they became available. And this was with no advertising at all, just social media buzz. It helped that main sponsor, GM, made it possible to get the tickets for free, but that's still very fast. And they probably could have given out another 200 - 300 tickets if the Magic Stick in downtown Detroit had the capacity. I took some of my advertising friends who aren't into social media and hadn't heard of Ignite before. And they loved it, too. So, if you get a chance to attend an Ignite event, I suggest you do. You can find out dates of events around the world on the Ignite site. Locally, Ignite Ann Arborand Ignite Lansingare next week as part of global Ignite week.
Brandon Chesnutt and his merry band of organizers did a fabulous job bringing Ignite to Detroit. If you'd like to bring Ignite to your city, here's a page on the Ignite site that tells you how. Or you could probably contact Brandon and ask him about how they did it.
This is just one example of the new kinds of events that are popping up all over, as a result of the connected digital world we all share. Contrary to popular theory, the Internet has not made us all sit in front of our computers alone. It's given us new ways to connect and come together in the real world. I can't keep up with all the events. This week alone, I had Ignite Detroit on Thursday, there's a meetup with social media rock star, Shannon Paultoday, there's a send off tweetup for theChevy SXSW Team Detroitin the Ren Cen on Monday, my regular Tweetup called Tweetea on Tuesday and an LLC launch party on Friday - all with people I consider friends who I didn't know a few years ago, before tapping into the Detroit Social Media scene.
It also has meaning for brands who are looking to gain customers. There are all kinds of new opportunities for companies to get involved and sponsor events like this. Or to have a presence in these strong onlinecommunities. You just need to keep your eyes open for what's going on and what's the next big thing. Or just ask someone like me.
The first time this ad came on the TV, I saw this gorgeous man standing in the shower telling my wife to "look at me. I'm the man your man could smell like." I looked at my wife and said with a grin, "Oh no, look at me." And I promptly changed the channel. The next day, I came into the agency and everyone in the office was talking about the ad. I had to confess, I'd seen part of it but hadn't watched the whole thing. Which prompted my Sr. Art Director to pull it up on YouTube and send it to me.
I have to say, I was wrong to change the channel. The spot with it's macho bravado and silly lines just thrown in randomly (like "I'm on a horse") is freaking hilarious. Especially funny was the fact that he kept telling the ladies to look down then up again to mask video tricks on camera like changing the scenery from the shower to on a boat. Or changing an oyster full of tickets to "that thing you like" into diamonds. Besides being funny, it generated more buzz in the office than any of the Super Bowl spots. For that, Old Spice, you are our ad of the week. Enjoy
Old Spice "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like"
Got a suggestion for Ad of the Week? Leave your comment here, send us an email atfans@yaffe.com, send us a tweet or post on our Facebook page.
Mike McClure, Exec Creative Director & Social Media Guy
As social media explodes in popularity, both on an individual basis and as a marketing/PR/HR/customer service tool for companies, a lot of legal issues are popping up. It's such a relatively new field that there isn't a lot of precedence yet. Should employers monitor and regulate employee use of social media? Do they even have the right to? Last year ESPN told their on-air employees they could only tweet about ESPN related materials on their personal twitter accounts. What about copyright infringement? It seems to run rampant in social media - so is a Napster-like crackdown coming? And what about privacy issues? Google's new social network, Buzz, got hit with a lawsuit from G-mail account holders upset that the new network broadcast personal information without their consent. And these are just a few of the issues.
While many of the legal questions don't have definitive answers yet, I did get some answers at last week's Social Media Club Detroit meeting. Karen Evans, an attorney who also is a professor and program director at Lawrence Technological University, gave a presentation called "Law and the Social Web." While she did say that actual answers would vary depending on specific cases, she gave great general info on what you can and can't do on the social web.
As far as regulating employees, Evans says companies should let their employees talk, but they should monitor what's being said. For instance say there's a twitter conversation between an employee and her friend (or another employee) that reveals that someone in the company made a remark that could be construed as sexual harassment. Even if it's in jest, the company should look into it, so they can't be accused of ignoring a possible infraction. And even worse, if you say you're monitoring your employees and you actually aren't - a situation like this could come back to bite you.
Another problem for employers? If employees inadvertently relay trade secrets over social networks. This gets tricky for the company, because once trade secrets are out there, they're really hard to get back. And you could lose them. For instance, if your process of doing something is what sets you apart, once it's out on the social web, other companies can see it and start doing the same processes. You can't really stop them and your advantage is lost.
Evans told a story about using a company's name that's not your own in social media. She told of one person who took the twitter handle HJ_Heinz, mostly as an experiment to see what happened. He wrote tweets about ketchup and ketchup recipes and the like - nothing derogatory towards the Heinz company. This went on for awhile until one day he came in and found his twitter handle had been changed to NOTHJ_Heinz. Think this is a violation of his free speech rights? No, say Evans, only the government can violate your free speech rights. Corporations aren't held to that same standard. Plus, perhaps you were violating their trademarked name.
These are just few of the tidbits that Evans imparted to the crowd at our SMCD meeting (which are open to anyone, if you're interested). For a full set of notes on what knowledge she imparted, click here to go to the notes page on the SMCD Facebook page. And if you're a Detroit peep, consider becoming a fan. You'll get info on other upcoming speakers - all for free!
So, what social media legal issues have you encountered so far? What did you do? What were the results?
Mike McClure, Exec Creative Director & Yaffe Social Media Guy
"Your brand is all about the stories you tell and the relationships you build." That's what Todd Gentzel said over 10 years ago when he was putting together the foundation for Yaffe's brand consulting and corporate culture business. Today, that practice is thriving in our Houston office, where Todd and his team run it as part of Yaffe/Deutser's main offerings. And those words mean even more today than they did 10 years ago.
With digital, mobile and social media all becoming ways for consumers to connect with the brands they love, building relationships is all the rage today. It's talked about all over the place, in article, blogs, on Twitter, in podcasts, any media you can think of really. But I want to talk about the first part of Todd's statement. Because as you look at the really successful and innovative brands, it still is all about the stories you tell.
Online shoe company, Zapposis probably one of the biggest success stories of the digital era. It's a brand with fierce loyalty from customers and almost cult-like devotion from it's employees. Last year, Inc. Magazine wrote a long piece on Zapposand their CEO Tony Hsieh called The Zappos Way of Managing. It's a worthwhile read if you have a few minutes. Among the many things they discussed in the article was how devoted Hsieh is to happiness, both his customers' happiness and his employees' happiness. Part of that is his employees are empowered to make decisions on their own.
Hsieh tells the story of one employee that received a call from a woman trying to cancel a shoe order for her husband, who had just died. Not only did the employee cancel the order no problem, she sent a bouquet of flowers to the man's funeral, from Zappos. Not only is that woman a fan for life, she has a great story about the Zappos brand she tells often. So, do the 30 or 40 people who attended the funeral.
"Stories like these are being created every day, thousands and thousands of times," says Hsieh in the article. "It's just an example that if you get the culture right, then most of the other stuff follows."
In another article by The Harvard Business Review, A Good Way to Change a Corporate Culture, they also talk about stories. In this case, they're talking about a company that wants to change their corporate culture even though they're very successful and profitable. When asked why the CEO relates their culture of work above all else by telling the story of an employee they told had to come in for a meeting with a client on her wedding day. She was told the meeting was early enough in the day that she would still have plenty of time to get ready for the wedding. The CEO was ashamed of the story, but yet it's one of the stories he tells about his brand. The consultant in the article then told the CEO, if he wanted to change his culture, he needed to change the stories they told. And he gave some pretty good examples.
Every day we work with clients on defining their brand and their corporate culture. There's a lot of research and technical stuff that goes into it. But, in the end, it really still is about all about the stories you tell and the relationships you build. What stories are you telling about your brand? Are they saying the things you want to be said about you? Or is it time to start creating new stories?
If you've ever watched "Inside the Actor's Studio" or even if you've just seen Will Farrell's parody of the show on SNL, you probably know two things about host James Lipton. One, he likes to ask questions that often cause the actors to stop and ponder. The other is that he always has a beard, which he's been known to stroke as he ponders stuff himself. Now imagine that James Lipton could take his beard off and give it to you to wear and stroke as you ponder your own stuff. That's the premise behind cell phone maker LG's "Give it a Ponder" campaign. The whole campaign is aimed at getting people, particularly teens, to stop and think before they send a nasty text message or a photo of something they really shouldn't be sending. The results are pretty weird, in a wonderful way.
The videos they've created have Lipton speaking to the camera as a teen in the scene is texting something they shouldn't. Then Lipton pulls the beard off his own face and places it on the teen. The teen, who now has a beard to stroke while they ponder, thinks better of what they were going to do and does the right thing instead. I'm not sure what's funnier, seeing the teens with the beard or Lipton without it. You can see a couple of the videos below.
But the campaign gets even better. It's multi-media campaign that also goes across several social media platforms, including Facebook and Twitter. All of this can be found at their site, GiveItaPonder.com, where Lipton's floating beard greets you as you navigate each part of the site. The best part is an augmented reality app that will cause Lipton's beard to grow on your face while you're having a video chat online with a friend. Unfortunately, the app is only for Mac computers now, but says a PC version is coming soon. The whole campaign is all pretty funny and has a good message, too.
LG James Lipton beard commercial - Cat Fight
LG James Lipton beard commercial - Locker Room
Got a suggestion for Ad of the Week? Leave your comment here, send us an email atfans@yaffe.com, send us a tweet or post on our Facebook page.
Mike McClure, Exec Creative Director & Social Media Guy
I've talked before in this space about some of the things you can do to create social media success for your company. Here's a can't fail tip: create a community around something people are passionate about. The non-profit organization JoeOnTheMove has had phenomenal success as one of Facebook's quiet giants. In just 5 months, their cause page (Free Phone Calls For Soldiers) membership has grown from around 100,000 to just shy 1.5 million.
How did they do it? JoeOnTheMove is a charity who's sole purpose is to provide free or affordable ways for soldiers deployed overseas to have a few moments on the phone with a loved one back home. There are a lot of people who have a loved one in the services and each of them has a circle of influence in social media. So, when they join, it's not hard to get friends and family to join. Most of us know somebody who has somebody deployed overseas. And even if you don't, you can relate to the true human emotion of wanting to connect to a loved one that you are separated from. Tapping into human emotions is a key to any social media success. Just read some of the stories:"I want
to hear my husband’s voice. It kills me everyday not to hear my best friend's
voice. To hear him laugh, to hear him upset, even just to know that he is right
there listening to me is all I need some days. And there is nothing ruining a
moment like not being able to call. If I could have just five minutes without
worrying about a penny for every second I would cherish it." - Chris Snider
"As I fight to win the war my body is
raging against cancer, my son fights in the war against terrorism and those
who are against the freedoms all people deserve. We draw strength from each other,
knowing that family and their love is the backbone and the core of what is
important in our struggles. A terrorist is like a cancer that is trying to
spread through the body of the world, and as my son fights that I want to be
able to listen, share and support him in his challenging battle." - Debbie Peterson.
Right now, JoeOnTheMove is in the final stages of their Operation Valentines Connection campaign to raise $50,000 to provide free 5-minute phone cards to thousands of soldiers, so they can call their loved ones. It's a good cause and a good lesson in what makes social media work well. If you can tap into human emotions in an honest way and are truly looking to help someone out, you're way ahead in the social media world.
Yesterday was the day, I don't move for 3+ hours. Being a huge football fan and a huge advertising fan, Super Bowl Sunday is one of the most anticipated days of the year. Yesterday lived up to the hype. For the third year in a row, we had a great game. And although we don't see the true wow factor in the commercials as we did in the good old days, it was a pretty good crop of ads this year - with the usual smattering of clunkers. So, let's look at what made my top ten list and what made me ashamed to be an ad man. First the good:
Number 10: Tru TV:"Punxsotawny Polamalu"
This commercial isn't getting the buzz around the agency as some of the others, but I thought it was pretty funny. Set up to look like Ground Hog's Day, the crowd is gathered around as the head guy in tux and top hat is pulling on this rat nest of hair. Finally, he pulls up a little Troy Polamalu by the hair. Polamalu sees his shadow and it's declared we'll have 6 more weeks of football, on Tru Tv's new reality show. Bonus chuckle: Polamalu's flexing at the end.
Number 9: Bud Light: "T-Pain"
Another one that just made me laugh out loud. Some random guy's wife brings home a 6-pack of Bud Light and all the sudden he's talking in the electronic T-Pain voice. He gets 3 buddies on the phone, all in the middle of doing mundane things like brushing their teeth, and they all start talking in that same electronic voice, about how they're gonna party now. At the end the actual T-Pain is at the party speaking electronically and looking for some guacamole.
Number 8: Flo TV "My Generation"
Flo TV did real well, this Super Bowl. I liked a lot of their spots, including some good ones with football announcers Jim Nance and Jim Brown. But the best of the bunch was a montage of highly charged events from the last half a century set to Will-I-am's remix of the Who's "My Generation." The base idea is nothing new, but the execution was done really well.
Number 7: Kia Sorento Toy Fantasy Life
With the Big 3 automakers pretty much out of the Super Bowl this year, we saw a flood of innovative ads from the foreign car companies. My favorite was the Kia Sorento spot featuring a hip gang of toys out for a night on the town in their new Kia. Turns out they belong to a kid who's mom drives a Sorento. Fun, cool spot.
Number 6: Doritos "House Rules"
Doritos was all over the place, producing some of the best and some of the worst ads on the Super Bowl. This one was the best of the best of them. It features his mom's date showing up, checking out the mom as she walks away and then taking a chip from the kid's bowl. The kid is having none of that and lets him know in no uncertain terms.
Number 5: Denny's Chicken campaign
Denny's had three spots featuring chickens screaming in terror in response to free Grand Slam breakfasts and how many eggs that was gonna require. The first, announcement one was only so-so, but the second two "Chickens Across America" and the :15 second "Chicken Birthday Ad" were classic. I knew it was a hit when the chicken in space floated by doing a silent scream and i could hear my son's group of 20-something friends all laughing from the other room.
Number 4: Vizio "Forge"
First of all, it's featuring a pretty cool looking product a flat screen TV enabled to run all kinds of Internet apps. It opens with Beyonce' singing and a huge mechanical arm snatches her mid-song, dumping her into a whole. It continues to grab all kinds of things including the Chocolate Rain guy and the Numah-Numah kid, dumping them all into the whole that apparently is the way into the new TV. Showcases cool product features in a very cool way.
Number 3: Bud Light "House"
The high point of the Bud Light stuff this year. Crazy house where everything, including the house, is made of Bud Light. There's even "Bud Light in this fridge made of Bud Light." Thirsty friends start to destroy everything to get at a can or bottle of the beer.
Number 2: Volkswagen "PunchDub"
Loved this ad. They took a simple, brandcentric game we've all played, Slug Bug, and turned into a great ad about their whole line. The spot features all kinds of people in all kinds of situations slugging someone and say, "there's a red one" or whatever color. From to Amish guys in a buggy to two partied out guys in the back of a limo. The spot has a great kicker at the end featuring Stevie Wonder and Tracy Morgan.
And my number 1 Super Bowl spot: Google "Parisian Love"
Great first effort by Google. It's simple. It's engaging. It's compelling. And it tells a story. All through simple googles a guy does over time in the process of wooing a French girl to become his girlfriend, wife and mother of his child. All done by simple product demonstration that highlights the key benefits without them getting in the way of a good story. Best one of the bunch.
Honorable Mentions:
I did have a hard time cutting this down to just 10 commercials. The ones that just missed the cut are a Snickers ad where Betty White gets drilled in a backyard football game, a touching but funny Simpsons ad for Coke, Monster's Beaver Violinist was a scream, as was their pre-game Boogy Man ad, The Letterman ad with Opera and Jay Leno at his lousy Super Bowl party, the Audi Green Police spot, the new eTrade baby spots and the Doritos "Snack Attack Samuria" spot where a guy who stole a bag of the snacks from Tim's locker finds mild mannered Tim garbed in a Dorito suit of armor.
And the Worst of the Bunch:
There were still those that made me want to make sure nobody knew I worked in Advertising. The worst offenders, in no particular order are: The Charles Barkley ad for Taco Bell. It was a lot of build up for nothing. I had a feeling from watching the teaser ads that it would be bad, but it was way worse than I thought it would be. The Go Daddy spots are now not just sexist and full of empty titillation, they're just plain stupid. The woman tries to outdo Danica Patrick and whips off her outer wear to reveal a skimpy Go Daddy beater shirt. The ad then hits us with instructions to go to the website to see what happens next. There's no real indication as to what might happen next other than to warn it's for mature adults. Why Ms Patrick does these is beyond me. Another clunker was the guy who faked his death to be put in a coffin filled with Doritos. He's inside it watching the game on a mini TV while his funeral is going on, He then gets exited and knocks the casket over spilling out him and his Doritos. And maybe the worst of the worst is the Boost Mobil Chicago Bears spot bringing back these old pros to reenact their Super Bowl shuffle. Problem is half the audience has no idea who these guys are and why they're dancing around. They just know it's awful, and it is.
What are your thoughts? Did I miss your fav or one you hated?
