My New York Giants are in the Super Bowl. They’ll be playing Sunday against the New England Patriots; the team I loathe the most. I’ll be in Florida at the iMedia Marketers Summit. And yes, while I’ll be tuning in to watch the game…to root for my Giants, I’ll be tuning in as much, if not more for the ads.  The stage that is the Super Bowl is a marketer’s dream. Your idea, your creative, your hard work is on display for all the world to see.  Creative Directors get geeked out on the idea of having a Super Bowl ad to include in their “reel.” That’s how this business works. We’re all about ego. Me included. Over the years, I’ve had the chance to work on two spots that made it to the Super Bowl. They were proud moments.

As a marketer, it’s been interesting to watch Super Bowl ads evolve into Super Bowl campaigns. Campaign, you might ask? Sure. We have seen the Super Bowl “ad” morph into an ad that has a web site dedicated to the campaign, paid search (if you’re a smart company) to help people find your ad, pre-launching/seeding of the ad ahead of the Super Bow, the solicitation of customer feedback, the gaming of the USA Today Ad Meter and oh so much more. As technology has evolved and user behavior changed (eg 3 screens) advertisers have swung, hit and missed. Last year, I wrote a post titled, “10 Mistakes 2011 Super Bowl Advertisers Will Make” and in looking at it this morning, I think advertisers are destined to make at least 5 of them. Which 5? Glad you asked:

1. The call to action (URL, SMS, etc.) will be too small and come at the end of the ad
2. Paid search to drive people, interested in the ad or who remember the ad, won’t be bought
3. There will be too much emphasis on Facebook
4. Mobile optimized sites will be forgotten…instead Flash heavy experiences will be used
5. Proper load balancing for their hosting environment won’t be implemented – this will mean someone’s site will go down and people wanting to get an offer won’t be able to

Our consumers have gotten smarter, but have the advertisers?  This year should be an interesting test for marketers. We’ll have a combination of elements converging to make for one heck of a cocktail. Real time social media monitoring will be used to gauge consumer feedback, mobile will become a big player, monetizing across 3 screens will be critical, and oh so much more.  The Super Bowl places your work under a microscope.  Consumers, analysts, pundits, your own employees and more provide their often unsolicited thoughts, opinions and feedback.  When you spend $3M for just the air time, it’s too be expected.

The question I often ask is why do marketers use the Super Bowl as a lab? Sure, you could have done consumer concept testing beforehand, but when you invest nearly 5M (airtime and production) for 1 day, that work better be top notch and deliver.  In 2010, I think Google really hit the nail on the head and showed how to rethink the concept of Super Bowl Advertising.  They ran a spot called “Parisian Love.”

That spot wasn’t a new spot. In fact it had been out in the wild on the web for several months. Google created several of these videos and ran the best performing one on the biggest stage. Now, that’s smart…use data and insights to determine which commercial to run.  Why aren’t we using more data driven insights?  Why are we still saving our “best” for the Super Bowl instead of giving our “best” throughout the year? It’s a fair question when you consider how much data is readily available for us, as marketers, to leverage.

I’m hoping this is the year Super Bowl advertising evolves…grows up…and becomes something more than than a stage for ego driven Creative Directors and Chief Marketing Officers to demonstrate they know how to spend lots of money really fast.

Saw this the other night at Caribou after iceskating at Millenium park  What a great sign and what an awesome sentiment.

The Super Bowl is nearly upon us.  Ok, it’s 3 months away and that can seem far.  But, in the world of advertising agencies and marketers, it’s right around the corner.  Ads are in production, marketing plans are in place, media buys are being finalized and pundits like myself are getting ready to analyze the work.  We’re going to see a lot of ads.  We’re going to see a lot of brands spending $3 million for those precious 30 seconds of time.  At $100,000 per second you’d think all the i’s would be dotted and the t’s crossed, but Super Bowl advertising often lacks hubris.  It’s the time for the agency to make a push for their awards and a time for marketers/brands to “stick out.”  We are seduced by the sexiness of the Super Bowl spot.  That seduction often blinds us…and year after year, advertisers make the same mistakes even though those mistakes are covered in Super Bowl ad coverage recaps the day after.

With that said, here’s 10 mistakes I guarantee you will be made:

1. The call to action (URL, SMS, etc.) will be too small and come at the end of the ad
2. Paid search to drive people, interested in the ad or who remember the ad, won’t be bought
3. The ads won’t be uploaded to youTube or be made easily shareable
4. There will be too much emphasis on Facebook
5. Mobile optimized sites will be forgotten…instead Flash heavy experiences will be used
6. For new products, proper blog seeding won’t be executed – creating a sea of emptiness for organic search results
7. Proper load balancing for their hosting environment won’t be implemented – this will mean someone’s site will go down and people wanting to get an offer won’t be able to
8. A celebrity will be used in the ad and that celebrity will end up getting into “trouble” shortly thereafter – causing the brand/marketer to apologize and/or pull the ad
9. Social media listening platforms and strategies won’t be in place to provide real time sentiment analysis or a starting point for relationship building with “fans”
10. The same ad will be used for pre-roll and online advertising, despite the fact, data exists to prove that doing this is not as successful as using video content developed specifically for the web

Remember this post.  Bookmark it.  File it away.  Then, after the Super Bowl revisit it and let’s see if I was right.

In case you haven’t heard, Pepsi is going to forego their traditional massive spending during the Super Bowl.  Since 1987 Pepsi has pumped more than $140 million dollars into Super Bowl advertising…and yet still remains the #2 player, behind Coke.  This year, instead they’re going to shift their strategy to a year long marketing platform that’s centered around the Pepsi Refresh Everything site.  Per the WSJ, Pepsi says it will spend 60% more on online ads in 2010 than it did this year. It will be relying largely on Web ads and public relations to market its Pepsi brand because, it says, that’s the best way to reach younger audiences— Pepsi’s primary target—and to keep consumers involved with its brand.”

Wait a second.  So Pepsi is going to invest their money in channels that are better aligned with their target audience?  It really makes me wonder, why this wasn’t being done previously.  But, that’s another story for another day.

Teresa Lindeman of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette does a great job of covering the situation here.  My high level point of view is covered in the article.  In this post, I want to dig a little deeper.   This is huge.  This is game changing.  If you’re in the marketing and advertising business you should be paying serious attention to what Pepsi is doing.  And if you’re in the interactive space (eg digital agency, digital strategist, interactive media planning/buying, etc.) you need to be not only paying attention, you NEED to believe in what Pepsi is doing.  You NEED to root for Pepsi.  Even if you drink Coke or your client is RC Cola, you need to root for Pepsi to succeed.

Why?  Because, what Pepsi is doing has never been done before.  They’ve traded TV (the old, the traditional, the standard) for the web (social, interactive media, social, etc.).  They didn’t augment.  No, this is a straight up trade.  With a straight up trade, we’ll literally be able to look back on this decision and determine if it was a great idea or a bad idea.  If you’re one of those traditional, stodgy, old media supporters you should be concerned.  If you’re a new media, social preaching, the web is where it’s at person, you should be concerned.

If Pepsi succeeds, the infusion of capital and support for interactive will skyrocket.  The wheels will be greased.  The room will be warm.  Brand managers and marketers will be leaning forward and very receptive to all the things they’ve ignored or challenged for years.  Pepsi’s success would prove that interactive can scale, move the needle, be measurable, and drive business objectives.  We won’t be on the outside looking in anymore.  We won’t be struggling to “sell” clients and decision makers on the value of interactive.  People who have for years roadblocked the investment into interactive will come under scrutiny, be replaced, or need to change their tune pretty damn quickly.

But, if Pepsi fails.  If Pepsi misses. If they lose share.  If Pepsi leadership acknowledges this was a mistake.  If any of those things happen, the old guard will have won.  They will be able to point to Pepsi as the case study that proves interactive is a supporting player, not a lead horse.  Budgets will be re-re-allocated back to traditional media.  The traction made by marketers like me with clients will be undone and it will be like starting from ground zero.  CMOs will have no reason to invest in interactive.

This is a pivotal point in the evolution of interactive.  Pepsi’s success or failure will be a measuring stick for years to come.  If you’re tired of churning out FSIs, cutting 30s, and producing seemingly mindless unemotional “hard working” ads you have to believe in Pepsi and be rooting for them to win.

I’ll be watching the game, but I’ll be watching Pepsi even more closely.

With apologies to my friends, colleagues, and competitors in the advertising and marketing industry, have we lost our mind? Lately, it seems there’s no rhyme or reason for the decisions being made. It’s as if we’re simply doing things for the same of doing things. Do you really need an APP or are you doing it because it’s cool and everyone else SEEMS to have one. Does it really make sense to place your car in a shopping cart for a publicity stunt?  Should Jeff Goodby really be rapping for a holiday card?  Do we really need a company that’s based on a crowd sourcing model?  Sure, “social” and consumer generated content are huge trends right now, but an entire company built on that mode?  WTF?

CP+B for years has cornered the market on this attitude. Remember they’re the company who believes that the goal of all marketing/advertising is for the work to be talked about. Conceptually, I get that. But, when that approach leads to work like Orville Deadenbacher….well, you get my point.

I’m hoping that in 2010 we see a renewed focus to doing work that’s on strategy and meaningful marketing.  If you will, I hope 2010 is rife smart decisions being made by both clients and agencies.  I’m not preaching risk avoidance, but I am preaching that we stop doing things just because they seem cool.  Folks, cool is not a marketing or a business strategy.  However, it can be a result of smart, strategic, marketing decisions.

Let’s get back to the basics and stop chasing cool.  Cool?

I’m out on blogger vacation this week. The keys to TheKmiecs.com have been turned over to a few, select, awesome guest writers. The following has not been edited by me and is the work and effort of the original author. I appreciate the time and thinking that went into this post and hope you will too. Enjoy!

At first it started as a joke, but then it became a regular occurrence…

Monday:
My neighbor: “Sell any billboards today???”
Me: Chuckle. “You know I don’t sell billboards – I work in advertising.”

Tuesday:
My neighbor: “Sell any billboards today???”
Me: Chuckle. Sigh. “You know I don’t sell billboards – I work in advertising. I’m on the account side. I develop brand strategy….”

Wednesday:
My neighbor: “Sell any billboards today???”
Me: Chuckle. Sigh. Groan. “You know I don’t sell billboards – I work in advertising. I’m on the account side. I develop brand strategy and messaging and work with our designers to produce print, interactive and….”

My parents always said first impressions were everything – so what do you really want to communicate about your job (or yourself) in the first 15 seconds? Whether it’s your neighbor, your grandmother, your current or potential employer – what’s your elevator pitch?

In the agency world, we spend hours each week helping our clients understand, and convey the value of their brand. We strive to develop consistent and concise messaging. We are constantly pulling out one good nugget here, and searching for one great tidbit from there. But sometimes we forget about our personal brand – and how to express it consistently and concisely.

After experiencing what felt like the movie “Groundhog Day” with my neighbor, here are my takeaways -

• Be concise – Cover a lot in a few words. But know your audience and be careful not to use industry jargon if it will only confuse them.
• Be consistent – We tell our clients to stay on message, so why not follow our own advice?
• Be intriguing – If you interest your audience, they’ll want to learn more, and maybe you will get to add another 15 seconds to your pitch.

I don’t sell billboards. I never have sold a billboard. But I have revisited my elevator pitch – “I build brands. And that doesn’t mean I sell billboards.”

Follow me @acraKA

I love this new campaign from Verizon. It started with this set of ads that focused on Verizon’s superior coverage and AT&T’s abysmal coverage. As a former Verizon customer and a current iPhone owner I can definitely attest to the accuracy of those ads.

Following the launch of the “There’s A Map For That” spots, they then launched this one called “iDon’t.” It’s fun when you’re the challenger brand and trying to take on the brand leader. When you’re the challenger brand you can take bigger risks and be a bit more spunky. This ad does exactly that:

I’m on the fence about what to do with my cell phone situation. I love the iPhone, but I loathe Apple and I hate AT&T’s horrible coverage. The Palm Pre looks damn tasty and as soon as it launches on Verizon next year, I may have to switch. Interesting times ahead and as with all competitive situations, the consumer will ultimately win.

After posting my thoughts about the very male-negative ad by Clorox, I contacted Clorox directly and pointed them to my site to see what I had written. These was the response I received today:

“Dear Mr. Kmiec,
Thank you for contacting us.

As you can imagine, advertising is an integral part of our company’s operation, and we devote a great deal of time and research to it. The objective of any Clorox Company advertisement is to provide the consumer with accurate, useful information about a product in a manner that makes the message memorable. On those rare occasions when there is disagreement about an advertisement’s content or impact, we appreciate the feedback we may receive from our loyal consumers. Such feedback is always kept in mind when reviewing future advertising. I have forwarded your comments to our Marketing Department for further review.
Again, thank you for contacting us.

Sincerely,

Vicky Bullock
Consumer Response Representative
Consumer Services

Did you know: According to Dr. Abel Wolman, former president of the American Public Health Association, sodium hypochlorite, the basic ingredient in Clorox Regular-Bleach, has saved more lives than any other substance made by man, due to its ability to reduce waterborne disease.

To let us know what you think about your experience emailing our company, please click on the following link to complete an online satisfaction survey.

http://surveys.affina.com/metasurveyExternal/cgi-bin/qwebcorporate.cgi?idx=WU72GH

If you have additional questions or comments, please click here to respond to this email.”

I love Hulu.  I think the folks behind the platform really get “it.”  My latest amazing encounter with them was last night.  I logged on and then logged in. After logging in, I was presented with the following message.

I took the survey; it took me less than 5 minutes.  And after taking the survey I got designate which charity would benefit from free advertising space on Hulu.  The charity aspect aside, here’s what I really liked about this approach.

It shows Hulu wants to provide a superior product.  It proves that they understand the concept of mutual exchange; that you get something for giving something.  In this case, we’re talking about getting better advertising (yes there is such a thing) for 5 minutes of your time.  We’re talking about Hulu figuring out the right balance between advertising and content.  They are looking for a way to make sure that the end user is happy.

I love it and think more brands should follow suit.  Which reminds me, where’s the twitter survey from the folks @ev or @biz?

The person who buys and places BMW’s regional ads should win a medal for tracking down all the Audi billboards and quickly getting up this BMW ad in response.  As usual it shows that everyone is playing catchup to BMW.

More examples of the media buy can be found here.