Saying "Adiós" to a Legend

Dos Equis announced in March that they will be ending "The Most Interesting Man in the World" campaign. The advertisements have been going on in the U.S. since 2006, so I am sure that everyone is as sad as I am to see such a well known advertising campaign leave us after ten short years.

Who could forget when the most interesting man graced our TV screens for the first time? In this commercial, not only does he free a wild bear and become friends with it but he also apparently has the most amazing beard in the world.

His iconic slogan, "Stay Thirsty My Friends", I'm sure, will last for generations to come. This campaign was clearly effective, with a grow in case sales by 34.8% between 2007 and 2015.

How does one go about ending the career of the most interesting man in the world? That's simple, send him where no man has gone before, Mars.

If you pause the video right at 28 seconds, you will notice that his friend, the bear, is there to send him off along with hundreds of other people from around the world. It's hard to say goodbye to a great amigó, but I could not imagine him leaving in a better fashion.

Gatorade - From The Pee Wees to The Pros

Growing up, Gatorade flowed like water at my house. I grew up in a very sports-oriented household, where weekdays consisted of long practices, hard games and pep talks from Dad. Weekends were for football games, Mom's homemade dinners, and lots and lots of rest and ice. I'm the oldest of 3, with two younger brothers who are currently finishing out their high school athletic careers. The sibling rivalry is real, and games at any and all levels are still, and probably always will be, a family affair. No matter what season it was or which one of us was playing (sometimes all 3 - sorry Mom and Dad), Gatorade was always present.

Q: So how did Gatorade become so synonymous with sports, trusted by athletes from little league to the majors? 

Players from every discipline have embraced the brand. The company is a sports giant, and has monopolized the market, outscoring their closest competitor Powerade on every front. Since it's early days in 1965, Gatorade has expanded, now selling quality workout gear, towels, water bottles and all kinds of other apparel.

A: Gatorade, who's parent company is Pepsi Co, is genius. The advertising and marketing plans have been second to none in the industry. 

Utilizing a variety of strategies, Gatorade has created a nearly perfect image to represent athletes everywhere.

First and foremost, the company loves using celebrity athletes.

 

(If players like Serena Williams, Jimmie Johnson, Brice Harper, Dwayne Wade, and Payton Manning drink Gatorade...I should drink Gatorade! I want to play like them!)

While maintaing this idea, Gatorade has embraced being associated with smaller scale athletics programs. The brand of course sponsors professional teams, but Gatorade also sponsors high school and college teams. In doing so, the company has earned a reputation around the sports world as a quality product for players of any level.

This awesome relationship has worked well for both the players and the brand. Gatorade sponsors individual athletes, gives scholarships, and donates money to various organizations and teams. In turn, athletes stay loyal to their favorite brand and their favorite flavor color of Gatorade. 

Genius Idea or Disaster Waiting to Happen?

Domino's launched a brand new app this week that takes truly takes the hassle out of ordering a pizza. While in the past, Dominos has created many other quick and easy solutions for customers to order their pizza, such as texting and tweeting emojis, using Amazon Echo, Apple Watch, and Xbox One, the new "Zero Click" app further streamlines the process. Customers simply have to open the new Zero Click app and after a 10 second countdown, their Easy Order account will automatically be placed. Once Domino's customers set up an accounts with the correct billing and delivery details, and pizza preference within the app, this becomes the default order. To the ultimate lazy pizza fanatic, this is the ultimate dream come true, but could this be a public relations disaster waiting to happen?

The public has taken to the Internet to express their concerns about the Zero Click app. Many of the concerns are related to the ease of ordering with the app, the whole purpose of creating it. What happens to customers with phones famous for butt dialing? Or those parents who give their phone to their child to play a game on? Domino's responded to concerns generally stating that if the app is accidentally opened, the 10 second countdown allows customers to cancel the order. Anyone with a child or has at least babysat once knows that it is nearly impossible to get your phone back from a small child once you've given it up, as well as how curious children can be and explore everything on a device. As for the pocket dialers, they only become aware of what has happened once they hear a voice shouting form their pants pocket. Honestly, is 10 seconds enough? Personally, I don't think it is and Domino's is also aware of this factor. On the Domino's AnyWare website the description of the app includes, "It's easy. Maybe too easy. You've been warned." Is this their way of acknowledging that they know people are probably going to accidentally order pizza? Is this warning basically saying they won't do anything about it because customers have created an account and agreed to the terms and conditions? If this is the case, then Domino's is creating its own ticking time bomb. While the app is convenient and provides a service desired by their target audience, it also may not be the best way to do customer service. Orders will be accidentally made and if there is nothing done by Domino's then the customer relationship will be tarnished, even ruined. This is a public relations crisis in the making. Personally, I'm going to stick to ordering pizza the old fashion way.

The Swedish Number + 46 771 793 336

I'm serious, give it a call.

This is maybe the best thing since sliced bread. Kudos to you, Sweden.

The press alone is enough to constitute this as a successful campaign. Sweden's tourism association launched, "The Swedish Number," a project that connects anyone in the world with a phone to a random (volunteered) Swede.

I'm very intrigued and plan to call the number. I will follow up in the comments how my interaction goes, but I also encourage everyone to give it a try.

To me, not only is this genius marketing, it also is a success on a humanitarian level. We can all benefit from learning about different cultures and what life is like in Sweden.

Via AdWeek:

The campaign was dreamed up by Ingo Stockholm, a WPP agency, for the Swedish Tourist Association—a different group than VisitSweden. The point is to offer a completely unfiltered view of Swedish life—regardless of the obvious risks of doing so. (The campaign also marks the 250th anniversary of the abolishment of censorship in Sweden.) 

"In troubled times, many countries try to limit communication between people, but we want to do just the opposite," Magnus Ling, general secretary and CEO of the Swedish Tourist Association, said in a statement. "We are making Sweden the first country in the world with its own phone number and giving our fellow Swedes the opportunity to answer the calls, express themselves and share their views, whatever they might be."

The point, Ling added, is "to show the real Sweden—a unique country worth visiting with the right of public access, sustainable tourism and a rich cultural heritage. With 'The Swedish Number,' our goal is to create more pride and knowledge about Sweden, both nationally and internationally."

Go Home Instagram, You're Drunk

What are you doing Instagram? You had a good thing going and you're starting to blow it. First you allow advertising, then you want to change the algorithms for how people's feeds are curated and then you increase video clips from 15 to 60 seconds... Let's slow it down, Instagram, you're going to scare everyone away.

Although there is not a solution or social media network comparable to sharing images like you do, this is how you create the downfall of a product, too much at once.

The algorithm switch was nauseating to say the least. If I have to read, "Turn on your notifications in the top right..." one more time...ugh!

On the upside, while this is trying to curb the amount of advertising, it will also have negative results for feeds that your truly do enjoy.

According to TechCrunch, this is the Death of Instagram for Brands.

Also,

Instagram's big bet on video doesn't stop at 60 seconds

Though I do think that Instagram means well and that the developers want to keep Instagram popular and resourceful. The whole algorithm thing is really to curb how many advertisements we are exposed to as users, but the way they went about the release freaked everyone out. People don't like change when a product works well.

According to AdWeek, "Before the API launch, Instagram ads for brands like Taco Bell and Capital One yielded strong brand recall, while those marketers saw clickthrough rates that outperformed Facebook. But consumers, it is feared, could react less favorably as more Instagram ads flood their smartphones."... Read More

Ad News breaks it down the best, so don't worry, everything's going to be okay, just don't act like that, Instagram.

Keep calm and trust influencers 

 

NHL After Dark

The NHL has been faced with the same problem for many years now, lack of exposure. Think of ESPN, very rarely does the network feature hockey as one of their leading stories, or one of their stories at all, for that matter. Lebron changing his headband is clearly more important than the incredible run the Pittsburgh Penguins have been on recently, or Patrick Kane being the first American born player since Dough Weight in 1996 to score 100 points in a season. With that travesty aside the NHL seems to have found themselves a match made in heaven in their recent partnership with GoPro and the creation of NHL After Dark. NHL After Dark is an 11-part series designed to shed more light on star players personalities and incredible skill on the ice.

The intriguing part of this series is the unique viewpoints that the use of GoPro offers the viewers, as the video progresses the fan is offered a chance to see the ice as these elite players do and the moves they can make with the puck are truly incredible. The speed and precision that these stars move the puck is truly incredible and mesmerizing, and provides a different kind of exposure to the sport that has yet to be utilized by any of the other major sports in the United States. With the sport of hockey being one of the more unique sports the use of GoPro is able to capture that unique quality that should enable the sport to garner more public attention.

In-Game Advertising

With March Madness officially over and football still a very long way off, sports fans are turning their attention to the start of the MLB season, and what the playoff pictures look like for the NBA and the NHL. 

Unless you're ESPN, in which case, basketball is the only professional sport that starts playoffs in April. Apparently there isn't enough "national interest" for The World Wide Leader In Sports to cover hockey, even though some of the country's biggest hockey towns (St. Paul, New York, Chicago, Washington, and of course, Pittsburgh) are going dancin' with Lord Stanley. But that's another rant for another day. 

That being said, no one loves playoffs more than advertisers. In-game advertising has become a norm for contests across leagues. It's now customary to see brands, logos, and slogans plastered on the jumbotrons or embedded into the fields. Sponsorship and branding is so prominent in sports that most arenas and stadiums are named for them. Playoffs usually means more nationally televised games, which means more eyeballs glued to the screen. If there's more people watching the game, there's more people who are going to be exposed to the advertisements. 

Yeah, ads can be kind of annoying, but I have to say, I've seen some very clever in-game advertisements.

There is a way to do in-game advertisements right. Take the "Boston Brewin'" Dunkin Donuts ad for example, posted along the boards in the TD Garden in Boston during Bruins' games:

I seriously love this advertisement. What a treasure. It's glorious. It's got iced coffee, it's got puns, it's got a well placed reference from a local, beloved coffee giant to a traditional hockey organization...these are a few of my favorite things.

What works for in-game advertising? What does not?

Hamburger Helper Drops Mixtape

This is not a drill. Hamburger Helper dropped an entire album on April fools though not entirely meant as a joke; it got more listens than a Taylor Swift single. 'Watch the Stove' has been listened to over 4 million times. The album dropped on Friday, and by monday morning 432,660,000 social impressions were made with 4,086,000 plays on SoundCloud. Liana Miller, the marketing communications planner and creative director for Helper said in an interview:

"This hit us by surprise, we did not expect this kind of reaction. We're a small and mighty team, we are six people who just have an interest in hip hop. We did not think this was going to blow up in the way that it would."

Even the album cover was amazing.

Everyone was surprised by Helper's marketing effort. People went crazy on social media making this ad a viral success. Hamburger Helper has a divided target audience of mothers and millennials, specifically young men and women who make the product in their dorms.

The album is available on soundcloud, which I encourage you all to listen to right away. And General Mills brand has created music videos for its hit mixtape.

Listen Here!

General Mills brand has even begun created music videos for its hit mixtape.

or listen on soundcloud:

to read the article published by Adweek click here

Zapping: A Problem or Not?

It’s 2016, and it seems that every little problem can be solved with a touch of a button.

Craving some Chinese food? There’s an app for that. Want to shop? There’s an app for that. What’s the score? There’s an app for that. Just really bored? There’s a ton of apps for that. 

The apps are so plentiful, Apple’s ad campaign featuring the slogan practically wrote itself. This advertisement, although almost 10 years old (!!!) is still relevant today.

(Vintage IPhone advertisement, circa 2007)

Our smart phones, even though they have the worst reputation, are not the only electronics that have made us as a society exceedingly lazy…TV has been doing it for decades.

For years, television has been the greatest source of day-to-day entertainment. In order to compete with phones and computers abilities to bring immediate, uninterrupted entertainment to consumers, TV evolved. 

Thus, the idea of "On Demand" came into being, and products like TiVo were born. 

With the creation of DVR, advertisers who had dominated regular TV broadcasting now faced a major dilemma: people were skipping right over commercials. Consumers, while watching a previously recorded program, zapped through the recorded commercial breaks, and companies paying  for those commercials started losing a lot of money. 

In the mid to late 2000's, advertisers found themselves grappling with Darwin's famous natural selection theory in terms of zapping. Companies advertising were in a sink or swim situation - either evolve and survive with the changing technology, or keep the same practices and become increasingly ineffective.

Most advertisers have found some ways around zapping. Streaming sites like Spotify, Hulu, Neflix, YouTube, and Pandora all require advertisements to fund their services. Consumers can opt out by purchasing a membership, but ads are still present (and still pretty annoying). 

As technology continues to advance, it will be interesting to see how advertising will change as well. Zapping has become somewhat of the norm, and a bullet that advertisers dodged. The next challenge may be more complex.

Do you zap? How would you combat customers practicing zap?

Olympic Ad Sales Top $1B

NBC announced last week that national advertisement sales for the Rio Olympics have topped $1 billion. This is ahead of the record pace set by the 2012 London Games, which reached the $1 billion mark only 2 days before the opening ceremony. The opening ceremony for the Rio Olympics isn't until August 5th, standing as evidence for how healthy and bullish the Olympics market is. Advertisers know that integrating their brands through the Olympic platform is a great way to reach large target audiences; therefore, it is expected that national ad sales will only continue to increase and set records.

While the Olympics is the biggest stage for companies to advertise on, it is also one of the most difficult to be effective. Such a wide range of consumers watch the Olympics, it is one of the few events that brings together various countries and demographics. Advertisers must have the ability to appeal to this wide range audience and send a message that many different people can connect with and be persuaded to take action. The value of live, big-event programming is more important than ever to advertisers. Due to the shift toward watching shows on demand, Netflix, and other online platforms, less consumers are exposed to advertisements during live airing of episodes and programs. Despite this trend, sports and live events have continued to draw large audiences and remain essential areas for advertising.Big ticket events like the Super Bowl and March Madness have been drawing record revenues the past couple of years. Consumers want to watch these types of programs live; they want to be part of the conversation on social media and join in on the excitement of a live event, where anything can happen. The Olympics is no exception. People all around the world are excited to watch their country compete. The Olympics' ability to dominate primetime for 17 consecutive nights is unmatched. If brands want to reach viewers and their customers in the third quarter of the year, they have to be in the Olympics. But also,not just being a part of the Olympics advertising, but have a compelling ad that appeals to the diverse audience. 

Below is an advertisement from the 2012 London Olympics that successfully connected with consumers all over the world. Click here to watch more ads that aired during the Olympics.