In 2009 it was time to leave Colle+McVoy and Minneapolis, all together. After looking over several options, I had things down to 2 choices:

1. MARC USA: The agency I ultimately ended up joining

and

2. Factory Design Labs: A great shop, based on Colorado, that had recently been awarded digital agency of record status for Audi USA.

Both, were great fits. I had made it all the way to the “final round” of the Factory Design Labs process. The final round was a visit to Audi North America’s headquarters in Virginia to meet the team, including CMO Scott Keogh. I would have been working on site at Audi’s headquarters, alongside Scott.

When you talk with Scott, you can’t help but be impressed. He’s the type of leader that attracts great talent, if only because people hope they can work hand-in-hand with Scott. In our interview we talked about a great number things. But, one specific topic of interest dominated a good 30 minutes of a 45 minute interview: BMW vs. Audi.

Scott and the Factory Design Labs team knew I was a BMW guy through and through. My love affair with BMW started when I was 9. It grew stronger every year and hit an all-time high when I started working for BMW USA’s agency of record Fallon McElligott, in Minneapolis, MN. Talk about a dream come true, I was given the opportunity to work on 2 of the brands that I had the biggest emotional connections to: Nikon and BMW.

The work done with BMW, pre-Publicis’ acquisition (still the biggest mistake IMHO, that Pat Fallon ever made), is some of the most beloved, honored, admired and revered work in the industry, ever. People in the industry often reference BMW FIlms as the type of work they want to do. Why? Because, it was bold, daring and changed the industry forever. It also helped me open many doors in the future, including the opportunity at Factory Design Labs.

It was clear to Scott, that I was a BMW guy. In the interview, we eventually got to a moment, where Scott, justifiably said, he wanted raving fans of the brand working on the brand. As a client, I want the same thing. He wanted people, for whom, Audi wasn’t a choice, but a lifestyle. He very pointedly said to me, it’s clear you have a tremendous amount of love and respect for the BMW brand; are you really willing to trade that in Audi. And by trade it in, he meant figuratively and literally; Audi/Factor Design Labs had a program that made owning an Audi very attainable and the idea you would drive a competitor’s car on to campus, was unheard of. So when Scott said “trade” he was also asking me, would I trade my BMW in for an Audi.

The answer was no. BMW was a brand for whom my emotional connection was so great, you couldn’t simply swap it out for another brand. Think about that? I essentially talked a CMO out of giving me a job. I could have lied. I could have talked about Audi’s racing heritage and philosophy of All Wheel Drive as the best way to have a great “ride.” But, that’s not me. Scott said to me, the type of love you have for BMW is the type of love we want from the people working on our brands and the type of love we want our owners to have. We parted ways and I ended up joining MARC USA.

Every creative brief, every business assessment, every analysis of a “category” eventually leads to a discussion about how to create an emotional connection. Why? Because emotional connections are generally very difficult to break. It’s very tough to break someone’s emotional connection with a brand and switch them to a competitor. It’s the emotional connection that drives consumers to make irrational decisions. Those irrational decisions generate consumer loyalty.

In the car buying business, the average consumer purchases 10 cars over their life time. That data point is based on the fact, we as car buyers purchase new cars every 5 years. I’m 33. I plan on driving til I’m 80. That means I’ll be in the market for 9 cars. That’s some serious cash, in the way of not only the car, but in services, maintenance, accessories, etc. In the luxury segment, driving this brand loyalty is even more important and much more fiercely competitive. Why? In the luxury category, there are less options and owners generally purchase a manufacturer for several years. Switching, simply, isn’t as prevalent. It’s also why there’s such a heavy emphasis on services. The services are designed to bolster retention.

That last paragraph could easily be summed up as, net-net, gaining new customers/owners is tough and people who own cars are worth a lot of money to companies. Think about it, besides a house, a car is the 2nd most expensive thing you’ll ever buy. Well, in 2007 I purchased my first BMW, a 530i. In 2009, I purchased my second, a 328i. Loved both cars. To go from admiring a brand, to working on a brand to finally owning something from that brand is a hell of an emotional experience.

Recently BMW and I had an exchange…an experience, that honestly left such a bad taste in my mouth, I ended up buying a new Audi. Yes, you read that right. To sum up the situation, last month, I sent BMW a tweet, that offered to trade a pallet of soup (that I would have purchased out of pocket) for a new 135. Now, to be clear, I didn’t expect a response. I was being cheeky. But, when BMW responded with a foursquare check-in at my office, with a picture of a 135 and the words “Yep. Now where’s the soup?” I was blown away. I was amazed. I know how difficult it is to be amazing in social. Knowing the automotive industry, like I do, I was amazed how quickly BMW was able to pull it off. I tweeted them back; no response. I direct messaged them; no response. I contacted their agency; no response.

Eventually a few weeks later a 135 model (yes a model) showed up at my office with a note thanking me for being a fan. Talk about a let down. To go from being teased with a real car to receiving a model replica was a pretty big emotional roller coaster. I was bummed. Not bummed that they didn’t fulfill on a trade. I was bummed because my expectations for the brand are high. I was bummed because there were so many other positive ways to handle the situation. I was bummed, because their team acted like they were playing in the bush leagues, not the majors.

Anyhow, a few weeks late I stumbled on to a program Audi was running called #wantanr8. It was a program birthed via a tweet from a passionate Audi fan. The link included in the last sentence gives the full overview, but to summarize, Audi grants people the ability to get behind an R8 for a day. Pretty cool. I tweeted how impressed I was with the program; especially given my first hand experience with how hard it is to scale to social. Andy White, the lead in social at Audi, reached out to me personally, to offer a thanks. From there a dialogue between the two of us started. He had read about my BMW experience and was bummed for me; it was also clear that Audi would never have played it out the way BMW did.

Candidly, I was going to be in the market for a new car next Summer. My 2007 328i was going to be out of extended warranty. The situation with BMW and the white glove treatment Andy was providing, had me considering a new car, even sooner. Once Andy knew I was in the market for a new car, he sent me a direct message asking me to sit tight and that he was working on something. I had no idea what “something” meant, but Andy had proven his credibility with me, so I knew it had to be something great. Roughly 2 weeks from receiving that tweet, I received a follow-up saying he’d been in touch with a specific dealership and a specific sales person and they were ready to provide me a VIP treatment. I had no idea what “VIP treatment” meant, but I was intrigued. Two days later I visited the Audi dealership in Cherry Hill, NJ, met with Kathleen and was blown away by the experience.

Let me cut to the chase, there was no free R8 there was no free car. But, there was a sales person and a dealership that understood my love for BMW, skepticism for any other manufacturer and realized I felt a bit burned. Inside of 30 minutes I knew the car I wanted (an A4) and the features I wanted. Unfortunately, they didn’t have the right combination of model and features at the dealership. But, they believed they could procure one from another dealer. 72 hours later, Kathleen followed up with me on her day off to tell me they found the car, secured it and if I wanted to go through with the sale, we could be ready in 48 hours. Wow. Well, I was sold. The trade-in value on my 328i was better than expected. The price they offered me for the A4 was more than fair. The incentives and bonus discounts were exceptional. It was a no-brainer.

So, last Friday, I drove my 328i for the last time. We took a drive up to the Cherry  Hill Audi dealership, where I filled out a bunch of paperwork and left the proud owner of a 2013 Audi A4. Would I have thought about purchasing an Audi next Spring/Summer when I was going to be in the market for a new car, had the situation with BMW’s social/digital team not happened? No! Would I have thought Audi, had it not been for Andy White and his tireless communication? No!

As a brand, what you say and do matters. Every touch point matters. When you connect with a consumer, you have the ability to delight and amaze or underwhelm. Audi’s understanding of this concept and BMW’s lack of understanding, have me sitting behind an A4, instead of a new 135i. If the lifetime value models are true and I’m set to buy another 9 cars between now and when I’m done driving. How much $$$ did BMW give up by simply ignoring one of their most passionate fans? Perhaps a better question, how much future $$$ did Audi earn, buy Andy simply taking a few hours to connect with me? Today, more than ever, as a brand, what you say and do matters.

So Super Bowl XLIII has come and gone. Congratulations Steelers on winning. As much as I enjoyed the game, let’s be honest, I was watching it for the ads. I tried something new this year. I actually didn’t want the game in real time. Instead I opted to TIVO the game, but watch and read the stream of tweets from the people I follow on Twitter. The experience was amazing. By the time the game was over and I started watching the game on delay I could nearly contain my excitement.

I’m not going to dissect every commercial. People like Steve Hall at Adrants do a much better job than I ever could at doing that.  You can see every one of the commercials here,here or here.  I though NBC did a great job of continually reminding viewers they could see the ads and vote on them at Hulu.

A few notes I want to make before I get into the ads:

1. Once again advertisers missed the point.  Most (not all) did not leave enough time in their commercials for viewers to see what they should do next.  Some didn’t even include a URL.  That would have been passable if advertisers had invested in paid search.  Nearly every single advertiser elected not to invest in paid search.  That’s a complete oversight and massive mistake in today’s Google dominated world.  Major exceptions to this were Cheetos, Hyundai, and GoDaddy.
2. 3D is big.  Well, people are trying to make it big.  From NBC house ads promoting that the next episode of Chuck would be broadcast in 3D to Sobe running a 3D commercial, it seems like 3D is the next big thing of the day.  Makes me really happy that the team at Colle+McVoy was ahead of the curve when we launched Snowdin last year.
3. I’m amazed the no one took advantage of owning the official Super Bowl web site.  It just seemed like a no brainer to me.  Cadillac had some presence as did a few other advertisers, but on the whole no one decided to make a splash.
4. Brands/companies clearly were not prepared for the surge of traffic to their web sites.  Several sites were down or slow to load.  Hyundai and Denny’s were the worst for me.
5. We are still feeling the effects of the Janet Jackson Super Bowl situation 5 years ago.  Last year we had a safe choice in Tom Petty.  Before that it was Prince, The Rolling Stones, and Paul McCartney.  I love The Boss, but it would be nice to see a more ahem youthful and progressive act.  Give me Coldplay or The Killers.

With that out of the way, let’s cover some of the ads:

Teleflora

This was the ad that made me rewind and watch it again about 6 times.  To call the copywriting edgy would be an understatement.  Just watch and enjoy.

Hyundai

Wow, I’m impressed. This brand has come a long way. When the Hyundai Genesis first came on the scene I took some notice. I even considered it as a new car, but I never test drove it. After seeing the ads for the Genesis Coupe I’m ready to test drive. That’s an ad that worked. There presence throughout the game was great. Hyundai ran a few different ads, with my favorite one being this one:

Go Daddy

Of all the advertisers they had the best connection to web. Just watch how long they hold the final frame. They give you more than enough time to read the URL and place it into memory. The call to action is fantastic and fits perfectly into their brand identity.

Bridgestone

This is probably my favorite ad of the entire Super Bowl. I have Bridgestone tires and love the brand. In full disclosure I also have several Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head characters at my desk. So it’s possible I’m biased. However, I just happen to think Bridgestone does a great job of delivering the product benefit (eg stopping power) in a manner that sticks out and is memorable.

E*Trade

While the ads themselves were ok, what really caught my eye is how well E*Trade integrated the web. For starters the main message on their home page was a call to action to view their Super Bowl ads. Thank you for not making me hunt the web to find it. They also launched a Facebook Fan Page for the E*Trade Baby just before the Super Bowl. On the page you could watch the baby ads in HD quality. Very cool.

Coke

The Avatar commercial was funny especially when you consider how many people have them on their plethora of social networking and community sites; like Twitter. I checked out 2nd Life because it seemed like such a logical tie in for the ad, but alas nothing there. Kinda bummed me out.

Doritos

Doritos had a few ads in the Super Bowl. The first one that ran was very Bud Light feeling. The toilet humor just didn’t seem true to the Doritos brand.

On the other hand, the 2nd spot called the Power of Crunch was very cool and very Doritos.

Bud Light

Yes, the ad is very Bud Light, but I just feel like it’s in poor taste given the current economic climate. Something about throwing a guy out the window for offering up a way to cut costs just seems wrong.

Audi
I’m split. This commercial is much better than last year’s Godfather rip off. I love the integration of Jason Statham. He’s a perfectly casted fit for the ad. But, just like last year it takes too long for the payoff. Also, there was NO URL insertion of call to action. Just strange.

Pepsi

Sigh. Where to start. Well, the first thing to say is, Pepsi, please stop glomming on to Obama. From the logo to the ad campaign for Refresh Everything has been Obama-centric. This ad could have been awesome. But, the payoff takes too long. It’s not till you get to the final few seconds that you realize it’s a Pepsi commercial. That’s a lot of money to spend for such little branding. Maybe they thought the inclusion of Will I. Am (the huge Obama supporter) was helping build the brand by conjuring up memories of Obama’s campaign. I love the remix of the Dylan song and wish they made it available for purchase/download.

The Brand Formally Known As Gatorade

What are they doing with this brand? You are killing years and years of brand awareness and equity. Seriously, you are calling the brand “G.” I’m not making this up. The change is so dramatic they are running Super Bowl ads that help explain what “G” is. I’ve watched the ads and I still don’t know “G” is.

Denny’s

Question: What happens when a poor creative concept meets a great message? Answer: You get a mediocre ad. For a good portion of this ad I thought it was for Reddi-Wip. The message though is awesome. They are giving EVERYONE a free Grand Slam. That’s gonna drive a lot of foot traffic to the store. If the breakfast experience delivers it’s a huge win. If it underwhelms this ad was like throwing gas on a fire.

Love this new spot from Audi.  It started running at the beginning of the Olympics and has continued to run.  I love how they continue to present themselves as the alternative to Mercedes, BMW, and Lexus.  Keep in mind, that’s coming form a BMW owner.  The commercial was so good it got me to check out an Audi A4 today.  And they say TV isn’t working

Normally I agree with Steve Hall at AdRants, but there are rare times when he’s wrong Steve likes Venables Bell & Partners’ new work for Audi. You can see his write up here and the actual Audi spot here

So it’s easy to throw stones at a glass house, but difficult to actually want to fix things. With that in mind, here’s why I don’t like the ad:

1. It’s lazy. When agencies borrow from movies or other pop culture it’s just lazy. How much did Audi pay them to concept the idea? I bet a lot and when the “creative” idea is something that’s already been done before is it really creative?

2. It doesn’t make me want to buy an Audi. I own a BMW and my wife a Jaguar. We also love the Godfather series. Essentially we’re the target; yet I have ZERO desire to buy an Audi. After all why shoud I? The ad doesn’t tell me anything about the “new” Audi or why I should want to consider them.

3. They spent nearly the entire ad selling the Godfather effect and only a tiny portion (maybe 7 seconds) selling the car. Assume I’m watching the Super Bowl when this ad comes on (which I will be); why would I keep watching after the first 25 seconds? I already know whats coming…

Net-net…it’s a beautifully shot cinematic work of art that doesn’t get me considering Audi at all. A more importantly as someone in the the industry…it just smells of lazy creative development.

Congrats Audi, you just spent 3 million for Super Bowl air time and probably 200K in concepting for something my 9 month old could have given you for $5.00.