Yaffe Tidbits

The Best and Worst Super Bowl Ads

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?

Mike McClure, Executive Creative Director

Ad of the Week: Walmart Clown

Wow, who knew that Walmart had a sense of humor. Sure, they've done all kinds of ads that are light and family friendly, but this one is actually laugh out loud funny. I loved it when I saw it. But what really clinched it's ad of the week status for me was that I actually heard people around the office talking about it. When was the last time you heard people "around the water cooler" talking about a Walmart ad? Maybe when they changed their long running logo? Not the same. I heard several other people say, "I love that ad" and ones who hadn't seen it vowing to go online and look it up.

Of course, it's hard to go wrong when you're making fun of clowns in pain, while at the same time scaring a room full of little kids. What's not to like. Clowns are everybody's punching bag these days. In fact, another ad I really like right now is from another unlikely source of creativity, the U.S. Postal Service. They have the ad where the family desperately wants to ship back a creepy little clown doll that seems to move of it's own volition. It's not quite good enough for Ad of the Week status, but I'll add it in here for your viewing pleasure.

Walmart Clown commercial

USPS Creepy Clown commercial

Got a suggestion for Ad of the Week? Leave your comment here, send us an email at fans@yaffe.com, send us a tweet or post on our Facebook page.

Mike McClure, Exec Creative Director

Ad of the Week: MasterCard "Pickle Jar"

It's one of the most successful, longest-running, most-parodied ad campaigns of our time: MasterCard's Priceless campaign. In recent offerings it's been kind of hit or miss. Sometimes they try and put too much into the ad or make it do something that takes away from the simplicity of the premise. But in their latest ad, "Pickle Jar" MasterCard has come back to the true roots of the campaign.

The commercial a very simple premise with a simple visual, a man trying to open a jar of pickles. The announcer keeps talking about different month's gym membership fees while he tries in vain to open it.And then the kicker comes that is not only "priceless" but hearkens back to the simple humor of the best spots in the campaign. It takes a great twist on what you think is going on to what the real message is. I'm sure most of you have seen it by now, but in case you haven't I won't spoil it.

I couldn't find the spot in an insertable format yet, but here's the link to watch it. Nice job, MasterCard. Enjoy.

Got a suggestion for Ad of the Week? Leave your comment here, send us an email at fans@yaffe.com, send us a tweet or post on our Facebook page.

Mike McClure, Exec Creative Director

Ad of the Week: Jack In The Box - Mini Sirlion Burgers

Okay, we admit it. This ad is just ridiculous, silly and makes us grin. It could be the chipmunks-like background singers or the tiny cow staring a prairie dog in the eye, but this ad from Jack In The Box just but smile. Good production values and the kind of quirky humor Jack In The Box is known for.

Jack In The Box "Mini Sirlion Burgers"

They did a follow up one with mini buffalo ranch chicken sandwich that wasn't nearly as good, although still good fun. Enjoy.

Jack In The Box "Mini Buffalo Ranch Chicken Sandwich"

Got a suggestion for Ad of the Week? Leave your comment here, send us an email at fans@yaffe.com, send us a tweet or post on our Facebook page.

Mike McClure, Exec Creative Director

5 Ways to Improve Your Business on a Micro-budget

If you’re an entrepreneur or smaller business looking to get more business on a small to miniscule budget, there’s good news and bad news. The good news is that with all the free and low cost tools available in the digital and social media world, you can be quite effective without spending a lot of money. The bad news? To make it work, you do need to invest a lot of time sprinkled with inspiration and innovation. Having a personality helps, too.

More good news: many individuals and companies are finding a lot of productive leads and connections through these channels. More bad news: it’s not a quick fix. It’s something you need to commit to and keep at. That doesn’t mean it will take you a year or two to see any results. But, it does mean you can’t just post a brilliant blog or open a Twitter account and expect the new business to start flooding through your doors.

Here’s 5 ways you can start improving your business without seriously hurting your bottom line:

1. Connect, connect, connect.

Use all the social networking tools available to you. Social networking is a great way to connect with people who may need your product or services. Just make sure you don’t start by broadcasting how great you are or trying to sell something. It’s like a cocktail party. Start with small talk; find out where you have common interests and where you can help them with their needs. It’s a good way to get to know someone you’ve never met before. Once they like and know you, they’ll be much more likely to want to do business with you.

I would suggest starting with LinkedIn if you haven’t gotten into any network. It’s the most business oriented site. Here’s a good post on how one business owner used LinkedIn to get a board of directors seat. From there, it’s a matter of preference and what type of business you’re in. You may want to start a Facebook fan page or personal page next. Or you may find the immediacy of Twitter is more to your liking. Here’s a good post by Lara Galloway on how she uses Twitter as one of her main new business tools.

2. Answer Questions on LinkedIn

One the best features on LinkedIn is the Q&A section. Why? It gives you a chance to meet people out of your network, help them with a problem they have and display your expertise. Just go to the sections where questions are being asked on subjects that fit your business offerings and your area of expertise.

Here’s just one example of how that’s worked for me. I saw a question from a guy writing a book on social media. He was looking for examples of social media success stories. I told him about a campaign we’d done for one of our clients that had worked well. He liked it, we linked together and over the next 6 months had several conversations through LinkedIn messaging. This fall he was looking for judges for a big Blog Off competition his company was having. I volunteered and became part of an international "Dream Team" panel. Besides the publicity of the contest itself, I will be listed in an upcoming book as one of the world’s top social media people, will be talked about on a Blog Talk Radio show that reaches millions and in video shows by one of Europe’s top providers of online content. Not bad for a small business owner in Detroit.

3. Use Blog Talk Radio

This is a free, easy way to create podcasts for your own enterprise. There are two ways you can use Blog Talk Radio to help your business. One is to sign up at blogtalkradio.com and host your own show. This way you can have your own radio talk show. You can invite guests who will speak on subject matters relevant to your audience or you can invite guests who represent companies you want to do business with. Or you can sometimes just speak on subjects you’re knowledgeable about and make those podcasts available to your potential clients. For an example of doing your own show, you can look at the Mom Biz Coach show.

The second, and easier, way to use Blog Talk Radio is to volunteer your expertise to someone who has a show. Our head of Yaffe Direct, Michael Morin, went on the Chuck Talks Business show and had an hour long interview. It went well and, with Chuck’s permission, we downloaded the podcast and posted it on our Yaffe Tidbits site. We then edited a 2-minute teaser of some of the best parts of the interview. We emailed the two minute version to a list of prospects along with a link to the full podcast. Within a few weeks we got several inquiries from potential clients who we never would have gotten to talk to otherwise.

4. Buy a Flip Camcorder

You can get a really nice Flip Camcorder for around $125; I’d also pop for the small tripod that’s about $20-25. The Flip is an extremely easy way to shoot, edit and post videos to your site, blog, Facebook fan page, YouTube channel or wherever you can add video to your online presence. Video is a way to really put a face on your business. You can simply set it up on the tripod, point it at yourself and record a video blog. You can also record and post client testimonials. It’s also small and portable that you can carry it with you when you go to a conference, meeting, seminar, tweetup or wherever. At these events you can ask people’s opinions on whatever issues you’d like to cover for your clients/potential clients. It takes nothing to plug the Flip into your computer and use the included edit system to string together the comments you like and post that video to one of your sites. All this adds to both your content and your credibility.

5. Blog about potential clients

If you have a blog for your business (if you don’t, start one now), you can meet potential clients simply by asking them if you can interview them for an upcoming blog post. It’s a great way to meet and get to know someone in a non-sales environment (important note: don’t try and sell yourself or company during the interview). Who doesn’t like the idea of someone wanting to interview them for their expert opinion? More often than not, you’ll be able to find someone willing to talk about their business for the free publicity for both their company and themselves.

Even if you don’t get an interview, do research on the company and write a blog post about what they’re doing right as a company. Here’s an example of a post I wrote about Biggby Coffee. After creating it, send the post to them. Even if it doesn’t peak their interest in you, they may link the post to their own site or blog. We still get traffic to our blog from companies that have linked to a post about them from many months ago.

There you have it. Five ideas that should get your business some attention without spending an arm and a leg. I’d say good luck, but it really is just a matter of good hard work.

Originally posted on the Mom Biz Coach Blog as a guest post by Mike McClure, Partner, ECD

Ad of the Week: Smirnoff "Gong"

Alcohol advertising in the U.S. is an interesting category. It's the one product you can't show your customer using it in your ads. No guy chugging down a cold beer or woman sipping her martini, So, many advertisers settle for creating metaphors for refreshment and settle for an icy looking bottle in someone's hand.

This week's ad of the week creates that same metaphor but in a very, well... refreshing way. It does the whole refreshment thing. It even uses the overdone snow out of context on a hot day concept. And a party on a rooftop. Yet it still seems fresh. In the ad for Smirnoff Ice called "Gong" the imagery is hip and not your typical fare. Could be the African landscape. Could be the great effects. It's just a cool ad. Take a look and see for yourself.

Smirnoff "Gong" ad

Got a suggestion for Ad of the Week? Leave your comment here, send us an email at fans@yaffe.com, send us a tweet or post on our Facebook page.

Mike McClure, Exec Creative Director

Ad of the Week: Domino's Pizza listens to consumers

Welcome to advertising in the consumer conversation age. This ad isn't Ad of the Week because it's stellar creative. It's featured because of what it represents in this new digital world where consumers have a say in your brand's story. I saw the :30 TV spot, titled The Pizza Turnaround, over the weekend and immediately said to myself, "you wouldn't have seen an ad like that a few years ago."

These days, brands have to pay attention to what consumers are saying online, in chats, in comment boards, on social networks, in blogs and so on and so on. And you need to be able to add to the conversation and adapt to whatever feedback you're getting. Domino's has long had a reputation as a "cheap, fast" pizza. We've all heard someone say bad things about their pizza. Well, Domino's did too. And they did something about it. They changed their product and then they put all the bad feedback right out there for everyone to see. You might think that's a bold move for a brand. It is in the old way of thinking. But, as we've already noted, the criticism's not something we didn't already know about.

Posted below is the long web format version. It opens up by showing comments on a computer screen from consumers that read things like "mass produced, boring, bland pizza," "wet and flavorless" and "microwave pizza is far superior." Bravo to Domino's for listening, participating, doing something about it and being transparent in the process. To take their brand to the next level, they really didn't have any other choice. But, that still doesn't make it an easy thing to do. Check it out for yourself below or visit their website dedicated to the process www.pizzaturnaround.com

Domino's Pizza "The Pizza Turnaround"

Got a suggestion for Ad of the Week? Leave your comment here, send us an email at fans@yaffe.com, send us a tweet or post on our Facebook page.

Mike McClure, Exec Creative Director

"How Do I Monetize My Blogs & Podcasts?"

It's a question asked more and more. Businesses and individuals are putting more time into blogs, podcasts and other digital media. And they want to know how this is going to make them money. You know it's something you should be doing in this digital age, but you wonder just how are you going to monetize it.

The short answer: you don't. At least not in the traditional media/marketing model. Sure you can add Google Ad Words to your blog and when you get big enough, have sponsors and paid ads on your digital material. But that's not going to get you the value you put into your company's blog or podcasts. The real value is in increasing your company's and your personal standing as an expert - the kind of people that other companies want to do business with.

In his book, Six Pixels of Separation, Mitch Joel says, "Anyone who creates content is creating media. That is the advertising. Everyone keeps searching for the ad model in blogs and podcasts, not realizing that the content and the individual producing it are the media. People see you as an expert and want to work with that expert."

That's the point. How you monetized your digital content is through the business that results from people knowing you, your expertise and wanting to work with you as a result. There are countless examples of companies getting business through this method. We ourselves had two potential clients call us wanting to know more after listening to a recent podcast by the head of Yaffe Direct, Michael Morin.

You don't ignore ROI. To the contrary, you need to think about it - a lot. You just need to look at it differently. In her blog post "10 Crucial Roles of a Social Media Director" Liz Strauss puts "be about ROI" fourth on her list. She goes on to say, "ROI is so important. If we don’t sell things, no one has a job. For years, we’ve known the value of conferences and trade shows, yet no one knows exactly how to measure their return. I’m thinking a certain similarity applies."

The long and short of it is this: you need to be out there in the digital space building your expertise. You just need to look at the value of doing it differently. What do you think? Have a success story of your own? I'd love to hear it.

Mike McClure, Yaffe ECD & Social Media Guy

Ad of the Week: Evian "Roller Babies"

AdFreak came out with their 30 Freakiest Ads of the Year and there's some pretty bizarre stuff on there. Including some mildly disturbing ads and some down-right creepy ones. You can see all of them by going to the link above. One of our particular favorites was the "Roller Babies" ad by Evian. It has a whole bunch of CG going on, with babies doing all kinds of roller skating tricks on the playground. I know, we already had the eTrade baby spots as an Ad of the Week (we like eTrade's babies better) - so I guess we must have a thing for freaky babies. Enjoy.

Evian "Roller Babies" - No. 14 on AdFreak's freakiest ads of the year.

Submit your Nominees for ad of the week by commenting here, emailing us at fans@yaffe.comby sending a tweet to @TheYaffeGroup or a comment on our Facebook fan page.

Ad of the Week: Garmin Holiday Squirrel

This is my favorite holiday ad this year! Not schmaltzy like so many of them, doesn't fall back on old cliches. In fact, it's a completely bizarre grouping of non-related things, not really tied into a holiday theme except, the rewriting of the words to a classic Christmas song. They did a great job with the same basic premise for last year's spot - only this one is waaaay out there.

Would love to have been in the room when they pitched this one. "We open up on a knight in full armor and pull out to reveal he's in a beat up old station wagon with his knight gear strapped to the roof going in city highway traffic. Then we cut to a leprechaun running in the rain, he's in a triathlon. Which of course segues into a Yeti creeping through the woods holding a big teddy bear, stalking a camper. But, wait it gets better... we cut to grizzled, fat Scottish golfer in full kilt. As we follow the golf ball to the whole, it goes by a tiny squirrel playing a tiny mandolin. See how we did that, came full circle back to the era of the knight? What do you think, JB?"

And yet, it all ties into the product benefits. These guys are my heroes. Here's the spot:

Garmin 2009 Holiday Ad: Squirrel

If you'd like to submit an ad or web video for ad of the week, leave a comment here, send us an email at fans@yaffe.com, post it on our Facebook page or send us a tweet.