As the entire country sits down to watch the most important game of the year, The Super Bowl, many – like myself - are really only interested in the Super Bowl commercials. I am that one person who does not understand anything about football and will be on my phone during the game and then staring at the TV during the commercials. This year, what caught my attention were the commercials that were quite, well, unpredictable. It was fun to see people in the room trying to guess which brands owned the advertisement and then getting really surprised at the end of the commercial realizing that the brand behind the commercial was not any of the ones they had initially thought of.
The idea is very interesting as it engages viewers and deals with people's rational side of the brain while they are trying to decode the advertisement. This type of advertisement also tends to stick with people for a longer period of time because they had to actually think about the advertisement, therefore having a longer recall of it.
Some examples from this year's Super Bowl that got me trying to figure out the brand behind the advertisement were these three very clever ideas:
Avocados from Mexico:
Michelob Ultra:
Buick - Cascada Convertible:
I was going to let you decipher them but I am sure we have all seen them on TV. I also am sure that every single one of you readers were just as clueless as me of who the brand behind the ad was during these commercials when you first aired on TV. What do you think about these ads?
The day has come, Super Bowl Ads. Grab some wings and friends.
There have been few advertisements in 2016 that have been changing the brand image of certain companies (for example, Kellie Kemper Buick Ad). USA Today posted an article about how the ads of 2016 are becoming more diverse, and has taken a noticeable change since 2015.
Kevin Heart, a well known African-American Comedian has become an icon in upcoming movies and TV shows; and now making appearances in car commercials for Hyundai Genesis.
The Mini Cooper #DefyLabels commercial is a very ground breaking advertisement, it includes Serena Williams, Abby Wombach, and many others. This ad is to choose to break away from the stereotypes that are labeled as a car and a person. By showing that the car does not match the stereotypes of a person, it is a car for everyone; size, sex and age.
In just a few short days, football fans across the country will congregate to celebrate what has become one of the most important (if not, THE most important) games in professional American sports: The Super Bowl. This year's contest will be hosted at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California, and will pit the young gun quarterback Cam Newton and the nearly perfect Carolina Panthers against the Denver Broncos, with their league-topping defense and their legendary quarterback at the helm, Peyton Manning.
While the ordinary prudent person sees the Super Bowl as "The Big Game" or "A Really Good Excuse to Gorge on Wings and Beer" (depending on how much you enjoy football), advertisers see it more like "The Holy Grail". Thanks to tools like Nielsen, companies know exactly how many TVs are tuned into The Super Bowl. If SB 50 will be anything like the Super Bowls of the past, the Big Game will be the most watched event this year by a long shot.
To most companies buying ad space months in advance, it really doesn't matter who's playing in the Big Game. It doesn't matter if America is more #Panthers than #Broncos. It doesn't matter if you're a diehard and you've already resolved to name your first child Peyton, boy or girl, no matter what your husband/wife says. It doesn't even matter if you don't actually know who Peyton Manning is - to you, he's just the Nationwide guy who really loves chicken parm. And why wouldn't he? Chicken parm is the bee's knees. And real talk: that chicken parm sandwich he's got looks a lot better than literally anything he's cooking with in the Papa John's ad.
"Chicken parm, you taste so good." Same, Peyton. Same.
Nah. Stick to quarterbacking and chicken parm.
Now, if you've ever turned on your television for 20 consecutive seconds over the last decade, you'd know that Manning is no stranger to being in commercials; he's all over the place. The guy has appeared in ads for everything from Gatorade and Nerf, to Mastercard and Buick. But that's another blog post assignment topic for another day.
While people are betting, bar fighting, and breaking up over which team is going to call themselves Champions on Sunday night, top companies are passive-aggressivley trying to call themselves Champions, too. Every company that advertises in the Super Bowl wants to be the commercial everyone is talking about around the water cooler on Monday morning.
In the past, there's been commercials that have truly left a lasting impression on viewers. A lot of times, these commercials elicit some kind of emotion, or trigger a memory for the viewer. Like we've discussed in class, invoking these kinds of associations with advertising is what makes them so successful, and what gets the company's message across.
Ask anyone. I'm sure they have a favorite Super Bowl commercial. It's the same as having a favorite color or type of coffee. It's just a fact of life.
Mine happens to involve a few of my favorite things in this world: dogs and beer.
To put it simply and blunty, this commercial has everything you ever could want in life:
Cutest little puppy ever to exist in the past, present, and future history of this earth, as well as unknown existing and non-existing universes.
Factual evidence -
Huge but yet still classy and graceful-looking Clydesdales.
Ridiculously good-looking cowboy.
Unbreakable friendship that withstands the terrible occurrence of being taken away by someone who clearly does not deserve Heaven's Most Perfect Canine Creation (see above picture).
Beer.
While Budweiser is always a fan favorite, they might have some competition this year. Heinz recently jumped on the doggie bandwagon with this year's Super Bowl ad for Heinz's "family"of products.
I know, I know. "I LITERALLLLY CRIEDDD," too. Believe me, I understand. I personally want to hug whoever wanted to use baby dachshunds in hot dog buns as a means to bring awareness to a host of different condiments. Pure creative genius. Give the guy a medal.
Looks like it's your move, @Budweiser. You need to out-cute Heinz. Seeing as they have an army of weiner dogs and a toddler dressed as a ketchup packet, you might actually be considered the underdog (LOL) this year.
So, which team will be crowned winners this weekend? That's a question we'll find out the answer to on Sunday night.
The definitive winner, however? Puppies, man. Regardless of the score, nobody's a loser when man's best friend is involved.
After last years Super Bowl, many people were left wondering
whether or not depressing-informative ads should be placed during the big game. There were quite a few different commercials from 2015 in particular that left people feeling sad.
Here is one example:
Sure this is a good commercial overall, but airing it during such a pumped up event as the Super Bowl left people not only sad but angry. Do you agree that this isn’t the time
or place for such ads, or do you think maybe form a marketing perspective that this
is the PERFECT time for companies to get their important messages across.
Here are some responses to last years depressing ads:
Supposedly this years ads won’t be demonstrating cyber bullying, domestic abuse, sick dogs, etc.
I think we can all expect plenty of celebrity features this
year. There will be at least 33 celebs during the game, not including the half
time show or movie trailers. Let's hope the buzz kill is over.
April 18th -- Tax day. Where's your W-2? Did you correctly file your tax return? Nobody really likes doing their taxes, but fortunately it's 2016 and you have options.
TurboTax, by the developer Intuit Inc, has become an increasingly popular tax program in recent years. Aside from advances and developments within the program, the company's success can be attributed to an effective marketing strategy. Intuit spends a majority of its marketing efforts in the months leading up to tax day and regularly promotes the program's ease of use as well as the credibility of the company. Their most recent TV advertising campaign features several world renowned mathematicians, engineers, and scientists explaining the step-by-step straightforwardness of the TurboTax experience to a dramatized consumer.
Michio Kaku: Absolute Zero
S. James Gates: W-2
Using celebrity endorsements is a great way to reach and persuade new audiences to try their product, and the comical narrative of the advertisements makes them thoroughly entertaining! After all, it doesn't take a genius to do your taxes. Check out the whole campaign here!
While watching television, many of the numerous
advertisements that you come across are promoting colleges and universities.
Whether the consumer recognizes it or not, universities are a business, they
have a product (education) that they are trying to sell to consumers
(students). Although the “product” that colleges and universities are selling
is not tangible, that does not take away the fact that many tactics and
techniques are used to persuade students to enroll. Despite universities and
colleges possibly being overlooked as business organizations, the laws of
advertising still apply to them.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a lawsuit on
Wednesday against DeVry University for deceptive advertising. According to the
lawsuit, the university misled consumers about the employment and earnings of
its graduates in numerous radio, online, and print advertisements. DeVry
University is one of the largest for-profit colleges in the United States and
have claimed since 2008 that 90% of graduates seeking employment land jobs
within six months of graduation. The FTC looked into this claim and realized
the university counted numerous graduates as working in their field, when in
fact they weren’t. For example, graduates of the business school were actually
working as servers at a restaurant and engineers were mail carriers. In
addition, DeVry claimed in their advertisements its graduates had 15% higher
incomes one year after graduation than all other colleges and universities. No
internal data showed meaningful evidence of this statement, leading the FTC to
file the lawsuit.
How important is this case on DeVry? As a college student, I
believe that the outcome will have a major impact on students and universities
throughout the nation. When high school students are searching for colleges to
attend and pursue careers, a main focus is placed on how graduates are
succeeding in the field. Parents and students will undergo significant
financial expense in order to improve employment opportunities; therefore, the
truth of these numbers must be revealed prior to acceptance and enrollment. If
these significant claims were made about a tangible product and the truth was
revealed, consumers would think twice before purchasing it. Currently there are no national standards for colleges
to use in calculating employment statistics or information featuring
post-graduate earnings on the revised College Scorecard (Washington Post). Why
haven’t national standards for these essential facts been established? The risk
level is higher when “purchasing” a university education; this is 4+ years of people’s
lives, not simply buying a laundry detergent that claims to get all your stains
out. So why hasn’t the government paid more attention to university
advertising?
According to the Washington Post, the Department of
Education is requiring DeVry to pull its advertisements containing these claims
under investigation, as well as notify students of the university’s inability
to validate the statements. In addition, DeVry students who feel they were
deceived have the right to file a borrower defense to repayment claim to have
their federal student loans dismissed. If these measures are not taken, the
university will lose access to the federal financial aid programs (WashingtonPost). Is this enough action being taken though? Yes DeVry is being punished and
students receive some of their expenses; however, I don’t know if this is
enough to stop future universities from making deceptive advertisements. DeVry
University ran these ads for nearly 8 years before they were speculated, during
that time the university made a large amount of money, which was partially put
into more advertising efforts. Students of the university still spent their time and effort learning, which may or may not pay off as much as they believed it would. The FTC first has to put national standards into
place in regard to calculating graduate employment and salaries. Once standards
are established, the government then will be able to investigate university
graduate success claims and protect consumers.
The KISS principle states that most systems work best if they are kept simple rather than made complicated; therefore simplicity should be a key goal in design and unnecessary complexity should be avoided. The phrase has been associated with aircraft engineer Kelly Johnson (1910–1990). The term "KISS principle" was in popular use by 1970. Variations on the phrase include "Keep it Simple, Silly", "keep it short and simple", "keep it simple and straightforward" and "keep it small and simple".
Like the Scandinavian design style that is trending these days, the ad uses a minimal approach to it's messaging. Scandinavian design is typically, cool, clean, and minimalist. Chances are, you probably are attracted to it's style without knowing what it is called. It's style is often used in interior decorating, but also in graphic design.
Music videos are definitely not a thing from the past and people do love to watch the music videos to their favorite songs, sometimes more than once. Nowadays with YouTube it is so much easier to access all of our favorite artists music videos and the production for these videos are getting bigger and bigger everyday. Advertisers knew their next step. Why not use product placement in music videos and reshape the balance theory. It is also very common nowadays to even see big music artists rapping about luxury brands, such as Jay-Z in his song "Tom Ford" and Migos who featured Drake on their song "Versace".
Here we see Miley Cyrus on her music video for "We Can't Stop" using an EOS lip balm, which is endorsed by the singer.
In the photo below we can see Lady Gaga in her music video for "Telephone" using Diet Coke cans as hair curlers. The music video not only has Diet Coke feature as a product placement but throughout the video you can find heartbeats earphones, Virgin Mobile, HP, Plenty of Fish, Chevrolet, Polaroid, Wonder Bread and Miracle Whip. Phew... Talk about product placement on this one.
Also below we can see Selena Gomez in her new music video for her new song "Hands to Myself" where you can find as pictured below a product placement for Beats by Dre as well as a BMW motorcycle.
Do you agree with product placement in music videos or do you think it makes it for a "fake" or "polluted" music video? Does an artist endorsement on a music video make you more interested in the brand/product? Also... how much fun do you have trying to pick out all of the brands or products placed on today's music videos? Well.. here is one for you, have fun... Which brands could you spot, comment and let us know!
For those unfamiliar with the hockey equipment industry Bauer Hockey has been leading the charge on the innovation of new forms of technology to be implemented into classic hockey equipment. Whether that is with the infusion of composite eyelets into the boot of their top of the line Vapor and Supreme skates, or the creation of three separate lines of equipment (Nexus, Vapor, Supreme) each designed to cater differently to a players needs. Bauer is a name unanimously associated with the sport of hockey, and generally their new product launches are held in very high regard in the hockey community; the likes of which could be compared to an Apple product launch. With the release of the new Vapor 1X stick being hyped up so vigorously by the company which was promising new technology never before seen in a Bauer product. The big draw was the promise of the implementation of the new QRT technology being infused into the blade and shaft of the new stick. QRT stands for quick release technology, an aspect that Bauer had never used before on any of their previous models. As Bauer began to advertise and promote their "new" product a rival hockey stick manufacturer had a slight problem with their new design and technology.
Relative newcomer to the industry Warrior Hockey quickly took to their Instagram account to point out some facts about Bauers new upcoming release. The main point being that a year previously Warrior had released their new stick the Warrior QR1, the QR standing for quick release. Warrior's brand manager even went as far to suggest that Bauer had simply taken the QR1 idea and technology and simply put their own design and graphics over it.
Warrior was just getting started with their criticism of the upcoming Bauer release. Suggesting that the hockey giant was a little late to the game of implementing QRT technology into their sticks.
I found that Warrior Hockey's aggressive attack on the new Bauer launch to be a smart move to associate their brand with a certain aspect in hockey equipment culture. Until this point Warrior did not truly have an identity as a serious hockey manufacturer. They had recently switched into the hockey industry after having only sold lacrosse equipment since their creation and did not have a true identity as a hockey equipment manufacturer. By making it painfully obvious for Bauer that they were the first ones to begin to implement QRT technology into their sticks, they not only created an identity for themselves as the creator of the QRT, but also take a shot at the biggest hockey equipment supplier in the industry.
In a five-point
memo written by David Ogilvy, the characteristics suggesting potential
promotion in a person are listed. Ambition, enjoys working harder, an
unorthodox or brilliant brain, engaging personality, and respect for the
creative field. This article, “Want to
Produce Craft Beyond the Norm? Hire Confident Oddballs,” proposes that
another characteristic be added to the list; “the person is confidently peculiar.” This trait makes perfect
since in the world of advertising, because what completely “normal” creative
person do you actually know. If your school/work environment is in a creative
field, take a look around and think to yourself if your co-workers are on the
dry, boring side, or if they’re on the eccentric and quirky side of the
spectrum. Being creative is a skill many lack.Many of my friends beat to their own drum, and I think that’s why I’m
friends with them. They aren’t afraid to be unique.
“The people who
are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” I
find this quote by Apple founder Steve Jobs to be extremely inspiring. In
advertising it’s hard to make your campaign or message stand out from the
clutter of all the others being thrown in our faces each day. You have to have
a great deal of confidence in your work. It’s important to look at the world
differently in order to come up with out of the box ideas. These “confident
oddballs” are usually open to breaking the rules, which is when the real work
gets done. Being around interesting people is what forms creativity in the work
place.
