Yaffe Tidbits

Ad of the Week: Nextel - Dance

Usually our Ad of the Week feature tries to showcase something that's new and fresh. But, sometimes they're just because they make me smile. In looking across the Internets for something to feature, came across this from Nextel. It's at least a year or two old, but it still makes me smile. Which shows the humor holds up well. And it still gets the brand message across. Double bonus! Plus, there's the other creepy blood guy from Dexter as one of the slacker workers. Triple Bonus! Enjoy.

 Nextel - "Dance"

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

Mike McClure, Exec Creative Director & Social Media Guy

Ad of the Week: Your Funniest Ads Ever

This week, on our Facebook page, we asked what was the funniest ad you ever saw - from any era, any medium. We got some interesting answers. So, for this week's Ad of the Week, we thought we'd post some of those ads.

Kim Fujiwara said the funniest ad he saw was the FedEx caveman commercial from the 2006 Super Bowl. He also sited the spots for Zazoo condoms with the kid throwing a temper tantrum in the grocery store.

FedEx - Caveman

Zazoo condoms - kids

Jim Buckley fondly remembered the Cracker Jack campaign from the 60's featuring Jack Guilford.

Cracker Jacks - Jack Guilford Elevator

Birgit Keil went with something more contemporary by going with the Meijer's Spinach spot with the little girl who thinks the Meijer's brand tastes just as bad as the national brand.

Meijer - Spinach

Laura Parker Shaw went with the classic Detroit Zoo spot from the early 80's with all the animals getting ready for the opening of the park.

Detroit Zoo - Zoo Stars

And Kim Proctor, via twitter, went with EDS's Super Bowl commercial called "cat herders" as her favorite LOL commercial.

EDS - Cat Herders

Thank you to everyone who told us what ads have tickled their funny bone over the years. Did we miss your favorite? What ad made you laugh the most?

Mike McClure, Yaffe Group Exec Creative Director & Social Media Guy

Ignite Detroit - A Real World Event For The Digital Age

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 Arbor and Ignite Lansing are 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 Paul today, there's a send off tweetup for the Chevy SXSW Team Detroit in 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 online communities. 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.

Mike McClure, still soaking in the Ignite Info.

Ad of the Week: Old Spice "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like"

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 at fans@yaffe.com, send us a tweet or post on our Facebook page.

Mike McClure, Exec Creative Director & Social Media Guy

Hey, Technorati! Here I am!

Ever wonder how you can claim your blog on Technorati? It's pretty easy. You go to their site and register yourself. Once you have done that go back to the site and click on your profile name to pull up your account info. You can then add stuff about yourself, upload your photo, create your byline and claim your blog. Make sure you update the personal spaces you filled in before clicking the claim your blog button or you'll have to enter it all over again.

Once you've clicked on the blog claim button, there are fields to fill out for your blog, it's name, url, keywords, a brief description of the blog, etc... Then you submit it and they send you an email The email has a code in it and a link to your appropriate account page. The code is some random letter and number sequence like SG426NCDTDQC or something very similar. They will tell you to post that code into a new blog post like, say... this one. After that you click the button on the account page that says you're ready to be verified and then the magic happens. This involves mostly waiting around for them to get back to you and let you know you're an okay Joe (or Jane).

It's worth it though, because then your blog posts can be found in the Technorati system, where they are discovered, move up in authority, become the basis for your vast new empire and you have the (slight) chance to become a mega digital celeb/guru, make millions and take over the world. Or at least make it easier for your aunt in New Jersey (hi, Aunt Ginny) to find your post about some obscure thing she never really could understand anyway.

Mike McClure, ECD, SMD & New Technorati member

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.

Ad of the week: eTrade babies still make us giggle

As promised, on Wednesdays we'll present our ad of the week. Last week we kicked it off with one of our favorite classics, Carlton's Big Ad spot. Today, we're highlighting a series that still makes us laugh even though we've all seen it a hundred times. I don't know what eTrade will do once these tykes grow up. Especially if they age as poorly as that kid from the old "Gentle Ben" TV series or even Ron Howard. Not pretty adults. Anyway, here's a couple of our recent favs, along with some bloopers.

And here's some baby spot "bloopers & outtakes"

Hope you enjoyed them. If you have a suggestion for Yaffe Tidbits ad of the week, leave it in the comment section, tweet us @TheYaffeGroup on twitter or hit us up on our Facebook page. See you next week!

Ad of the week: Carlton Draught's "Big Ad"

Starting today, we will post a weekly favorite ad, web video, viral video, print ad, outdoor ad or any other creative marketing that catches our eyes and tickles our fancy. It's only fitting that the first ad of the week is titled "Big Ad." It's an ad that's been around a few years, but is one of our favorites for just outright, well... bigness. It's over-the-top parady of other big production budget ads is both hilarious and right on target. Hope you enjoy it!

See you next Wednesday with another favorite. If you'd like to submit your favorite, you can post it in a comment here or tweet it to us on Twitter: @TheYaffeGroup or @BarrelhouseCrtv

Bad Ad Placements Funny, If Not Yours.

It’s pretty safe to say that the advent of Google has transformed our lives. It has made it easy to access anything and everything. "Just Google it," has become a colloquial phase that we all know too well. The combination of today’s high speed technology and our "I needed it yesterday" mentality has made Google the search engine of the 21st century.

When it comes to advertising, Google has allowed more consumers to connect with the products and services they want in a matter of a few clicks, thanks to Google’s AdSense. AdSense’s contextualizing targeting capabilities has helped make it easier to place ads that tie directly into a users keyword search. This allows for easy ad placement in front of people who may be searching for your product or a similar product. What could be a daunting task for a media buyers, Google has made simple.

But that’s not without saying that it works perfectly. In his article, "The Best Examples of Google’s Worst Ads: When Contextual Advertising Goes Very Wrong," Nicholas Carlson, a writer for Business Insider, highlighting some of the worst (although horribly funny) contextual targeting. For example, Reuters.com posted the story "Over 250 sick after eating at Indiana Olive Garden." Right below the headline was a coupon for a Free Dinner for Two at Olive Garden.

 

As these examples show, AdSense doesn’t necessarily understand the concept of "the right place at the right time" and sometimes works against the purpose of the advertising. But you have to admit, they sure are funny.

Carolyn Klein, laughing in the art department.

EDITORS NOTE: Since the reference article now requires an Ad Age password to read. Here's a similar article with humorous contextual ad examples, in case you don't have an Ad Age account or if you just want to see more examples.

Now that's how you do viral video!

You can't create a viral video, because no one knows for sure what will grab the public's fancy. You can, however, create a great web videos that go viral, though. We've done a lot of talk around here about creating content for the web and web videos. It's a skill set we have that flows out of our history of broadcast. It's exciting for the creative staff, because it's something we can sink our teeth into. It's not just a matter of taking the TV idea and putting it online, there is a knack to doing web video well.

Such is the case with Office Max's latest web video campaign for back to school. They have all the right elements. Quirky characters. Interesting storylines. Pranks on unsuspecting people via hidden camera. It's well cast, well executed and most importantly, actually makes a point they're about the promotion they're pitching. Basically they have an odd duck improv actor with a couple sidekicks bring in sellers of high priced collectors items and then offer to pay cash. The twist is the cash offer is all in pennies. It all ties into Office Max's penny promotion, where certain school supplies are only a penny. Here's my favorite. Be sure to check the rest of their videos, too.

Mike McClure, Exec Creative Director and video freak