World Cup is Here: YAY YAY YAY YAY!

So I have posted the most epic commercials from the olympics and from the super bowl, and now it is time for my favorite from the world cup.  I seriously love the world cup.  I played soccer my whole life.  I think I want to cry.

Hopefully you cry too.

Best World Cup Commercial Ever:

Sweater-fy Your House.

Perhaps covering everything in my house with sweaters will help curb the biting frost of Rexburg winters.  Perhaps not.

Made Me Laugh Really Hard... Twice

While I am on the subject of commercials, this one made me laugh really hard, like maybe the hardest I have laughed at any commercial.  Then, just before I posted in my site, I watched and laughed again (this time I was in class so I had to do my best to muffle my laughter).

Well done Vonage, maybe someday I will buy cell phones from you... maybe.

My Favorite Olympics Commercial

If I am going to post my favorite Super Bowl commercial, then I think it is only fair to post my favorite commercial from the Olympics.  Kevin Hill gets a shout out for the recommendation.  Thanks Kevin, and you were right, it does go straight up on the blog.

One question I have with this ad is it promotes the P&G brand, which is the brand behind other huge brands like Crest and Braun and dozens of others.  Who buys P&G though?  Does someone who buys Crest also buy Old Spice?  Not sure why they went after P&G, but I bet they had a darn good reason, judging buy the quality of the commercial they produced for the spot.

Prepare yourself... this one's a heart wrencher.

You Need to Do More Networking

"Hey man, watcha up to?"


"Oh, not much, just doing some networking."

"So... wait... what exactly are you doing?"

"Just networking, man"

"But... what's..."

Ever felt like everyone is saying how valuable networking is, but nobody is defining it?

When you hear that you need to "network more" or "network better" what do you do???

Well here is one example of how to network better and more.

Step 1:  Choose a company or profession or organization that you want to know more about, get an opportunity with, or have some other interest in.

Step 2:  Sign up for LinkedIn, and join all the groups you can find that are relevant to your interests.

Step 3:  Search for people, and type in "[company name]" and wait for results.

Step 4:  Anyone that pops up in the results with a little bubble next to their name that says, "group" you can send a personal message to.

Step 5:  Craft a well worded, intelligent sounding personal message that
          a) introduces yourself
          b) Expresses interest
          c) Seeks for further communication through e-mail or phone

Step 6:  Send your message to every person you possibly can that is related to your passion or company

Step 7:  Wait for responses, when they do come, make sure you respond promptly with insightful questions on the company, the experience of the individual, the area of location, etc.

Step 8:  If they offer to help, ask them to help by refining your resume.  Also, if they offer to receive phone calls, make sure you call them (of course, with prepared questions)

Step 9:  If they end up reviewing and making suggestions on your resume, do your best to implement the changes that they gave you and then send it back to them with a message that states how thankful you are and that you wanted to show them the results of their suggestions.

Step 10:  At this point, the magic will happen.  That is not to say that every time you get here people will hire you or give you what you want, but they will have sufficient contact with you to make a far better judgement than with one piece of paper.

Enjoy.

My Favorite 2010 Super Bowl Commercial

Google's new commercial is absolutely amazing.  I also have a personal bias for this particular commercial because it fits well with a heavy research project I have been doing lately.  The research project is to determine how, why, and if Sex (sexuality) actually sells.  What I am finding is beyond fascinating, and a subject for another post (mark my words).  One study suggests that companionate love (that lovey-dovey sweetheart non-explicit sexuality type of love, the old school chivalry type of  love) is actual more effective in advertising on ad recognition, processing, recall, and attitude towards brand.  Google's ad is a perfect example of non-sexual love sells, and I have to admit, I am sold.





Other Honorable mentions:

Slow-mo + classic audio recording= great commercial


Made me laugh.


Made me laugh, harder.

Skittles Is Still Weird, But Smarter.

(From Brandweek)

                Last year, Skittles decided it would jump all over the newest internet craze: social media.  Its site revolved completely around Twitter feeds, Facebook updates, and other forms of social media shoutouts.  Among other problems, funny little punkers begin punkin’ the Skittles brand by posting inappropriate content coupled with the word “skittles”, which would pop up on Skittles’ site.  Although that was a significant problem, it wasn’t the only or biggest problem.  The biggest problem is that people are growing weary of social media.  It is overused, and although it can be a nice supplement, it becomes like that one song on the radio that at first you love, and then you get bored of, and then you can never listen to again.

                Skittles, however, being a clever brand, has felt the wearied waves wafting from their customers, and have aborted mission “overdo the social media thing”.  Instead, they have decided to do what is most likely to build real brand power, and create a site with a whole culture about it at http://www.skittles.com.  The new site still uses social media, but instead of just prostituting the asset, it uses it to help create a culture of total silliness and goofiness, but occasional hilariousness.  Which is really right in line with their whole big idea in marketing, (judging by their commercials).  This makes for an extremely consistent marketing message, whether or not the message makes me want to eat more skittles, I am still undecided.

I Almost Cried Watching This

So, I almost cried watching this clip.  I don't even like wearing my seatbelt.  Click on the link and then wait for it to load, it will take a bit.

And the most amazing thing?  It doesn't show mangled bodies or heartbroken families.  I think this is at least my favorite ad of the week!

http://www.embracethis.co.uk/

P.S.

If you want to see my favorite ad from last week for its ingenuity and out of the boxness, click this link: http://www.youtube.com/user/oceanking97

Denny's Found the Perfect Marketing Mix!

Denny’s is Givin’ Away the Business.

(from AdWeek)

Denny’s came up with a new marketing strategy.  Spend the money it takes to buy 3 30 second spots in the Superbowl, then give junk away.  Give away everything.  That will get people in the door.  And their right, it will!

                Denny’s isn’t really planning on giving away everything, just hundreds of millions of free meals.  In addition to the post Superbowl free day (a repeat from last year’s post bowl free day – this year it’s Feb. 9), they are giving away a free meal for every week of the year each week of the year online.  Also, they are giving away a free meal for every consumer that comes into the place on their B-day.  The logic?  People getting free meals will bring more people, who will bring more people, who will think Denny’s is great because they gave someone they know a free meal on their birthday.  Oh, and they’ll get web traffic too.

                I am not sure how I feel about this campaign.  On the one hand, they are driving tons of “business” (business in quotes because they aren’t paying any money) to their locations.  They are getting tons of exposure, and initially it will be positive exposure (I always feel positive about getting free stuff).  On the other hand, I wonder what Denny’s is driving people to besides a free meal.  I remember when the local Wingers had similar promotions I went to Wingers weekly, and enjoyed it, but then I stopped when the free stuff stopped.  I made Wingers lose money on me.  So what is going to happen to Denny’s if more people come for free junk and that’s it?  Only time will tell… that was cliché.

Laugh and Get Brain Washed

I laughed at these commercials, and then strangely I had an strong urge to buy a skittle sub sandwich... sounds gross I know but it is what it is.


These commercials are really a great example of an integrated marketing campaign (at least the tv commercial implementation of an integrated marketing campaign).


Here is the Jimmy John's campaign.  These were on the weird side of funny, almost didn't get a life, but just funny enough to draw a chuckle.  Livin' on the edge Jimmy, livin' on the edge.










If you thought Jimmy John's was weird, you might want to skip the next commercials. If I had to guess how they came up with this, I would say Skittles had a huge party where everyone involved ingested substances that inhibited the mind's normal processes, and then they made a commercial (of course, in reality Skittles didn't do that, hired an ad agency that did it).






















Forgetting the absolute weirdness of these commercials, it is interesting to note the masterful implementation of an integrated campaign. Now whether or not they chose the right overall message, the conveyed the message masterfully.

Guerilla Marketing Is Out of Control! ...and I like it.

So, I don't need to say much here (except for sorry for the lack of blogging, for I know you wait with baited breath each time I post a blog.  Oops, I got carried away in my parenthetical thoughts (which I tend to have a lot of)) (can I do parenthesis inside of parenthesis?).  Okay enough.  Here it is:  Carnival is guerilla marketing with today's technology.  So cool.