“Men in tighty whities are disgusting.” – Mary Ann Mele, R&R Partners President and Chief Strategic Officer
Google won by simply being themselves. The eTrade babies’ “milkaholic” ad was a winner. Punxsutawney Polamalu is not only difficult to spell – it was also fairly creepy, but effective. Coke, while easy to spell, was painfully irrelevant. The GoDaddy ads should just go away.
That’s the general consensus from a solid hour of R&R Partners’ Monday morning quarterbacking of the advertising blitz surrounding that roman numeral-suffixed game played the day before. Our panel of critics included people from all disciplines within the agency.
In case you used commercial breaks for something other than awaiting the unveiling of new advertisements, every spot is easily viewable online. Check out YouTube’s channel, where you can vote for your favorite, or Fox/MSN’s site, which organizes them by quarter.
Overall, our panel thought the 2010 ads were mediocre, with a few bright spots. Absent were the emotional tearjerkers and ads with brand engagement through the Internet. Plentiful were ads bashing white, out-of-shape men – and other concepts we felt like we’d seen many times before.
“I just don’t like the tired formulas,” Associate Creative Director Tony Marin said. “People getting hit, underwear jokes – all of that just makes me cringe.”
“It’s a reflection of the times, but everybody is very, very afraid of doing anything that isn’t pretty safe,” Executive Vice President/Creative Director Randy Snow added. “Even the stuff that was ‘edgy’ was pretty safe. As much as I loved the Google ad, it was just a product demo. There was really no risk in that ad. … It’s because of the economy. Nobody wants to take a shot with $3 million. They’d rather animate animals or pull Troy Polamalu out of a hole.”
That fear kept some normally ad-friendly brands, such as Fed Ex, out of the game entirely.
“They said it was because of cost and because of scrutiny. They laid off employees,” Executive Vice President Rob Dondero said. “And the official NFL beer, Coors, wasn’t even in it.”
Public Relations Group Account Director Clinton Pope asked about the propensity of allowing people to preview the ads prior to the game through YouTube, etc.
Executive Creative Director Arnie DiGeorge had firsthand knowledge. “I did that; I went on the night before and watched all the ones that I could actually see before the game and they all seemed to be bad ones, for the most part. I think those are the ones people are previewing – the ones that really don’t have confidence,” he said. “Your best choice is to have a teaser for the ad that isn’t the ad. But it still has to be great.”
That’s what it boils down to, of course – having a great ad. Some brands, like Doritos and Bud Light, chose quantity over quality, each using a bunch of completely unrelated spots hoping for one or two that “stuck.” Some chose to stick to one message.
“If you’ve got a good campaign and you’ve got multiple pieces of the same thing telling the story, that’s cool, and if you’ve got a brim of broad audiences and you’ve got one against different passion points, that’s cool, too,” Associate Media Director Jeremy Thompson said.
“I thought the Budweiser ads fell short. You go into it with people really expecting a lot from them, and I don’t think they got there,” LVCVA Group Account Director Kim Downing said. “I really liked the (Volkswagen) ‘slugbug’ ad. It was nostalgic; it showed the product. I just thought it was really good.”
Corporate Director of Digital Marketing Sean Corbett was enamored with the reaction from perhaps the world’s largest focus group – the instantaneous opinions offered up on Twitter.
“The minute a spot ran, you’d start seeing the opinions flow through the Twitter stream. It was really cool to watch. A lot of ad folks, obviously, every agency in the country, seemed to be online last night – and then general people catching on and talking about the ads was really cool,” he said.
WINNERS
Google’s spot, essentially a product demo, was lauded by the entire group. “It did everything it needed to do. It showed you how much Google is part of our life, it told a story. It was simple. It used their user interface. … It was a great spot,” DiGeorge said.
“It reminded me of why I choose to use it every day over Bing. They are about simplicity; they are about ease-of-use. It was a really great change-up from everything we had seen,” Corbett added.
“I think they accomplished in one ad what Bing has been trying to accomplish with tons of ads,” Marin said.
The T-Pain ad, even though it was basically a different vision of the “Wassup” ads of a few years so, still worked.
The eTrade babies, specifically the “milkaholic” spot, was solid.
“I liked the eTrade babies but I’d like to see them go in a different direction now. This should be the end of that type of campaign,” Pope said.
LOSERS
Coke’s efforts, which included a certainly-not-cheap use of “The Simpsons” and a few even less memorable spots, completely missed the mark. Nobody really cared for the sleepwalking guy, either.
“The fact that a bunch of people from an ad agency sat in a room just to talk about the commercials, and for an hour Coke never entered the discussion – for a brand that big to go that unnoticed says a lot,” said yours truly, Web Content Developer Sal DeFilippo.
The Who, and more so, the people who were stuck watching them.
“The Twitter backlash on The Who was vicious. One of the better comments was, “can somebody please hurry up and wrap up The Who show because they have to get home and watch Matlock.”
GoDaddy.com – most disappointing “by far,” according to Pope.
Taco Bell – the commercials that aired in advance leading up to a very dull “Green Eggs and Ham” spot featuring Charles Barkley. (Note: In fairness, not too many words rhyme with “gordita.”)
You’ve all seen the commercial. It runs over and over again. It’s the only LG television commercial that’s running right now as far as I know. And the idea is really cool. I wanted to see this thing. So Tony and I head to the LG booth. We ask one of the people there to show us the Projector Phone. She says, “I’m not sure if we have that here or not. If it is here, it would be over there with the phones.” Tony and I go over there only to find that they have them connected to a wall with security wires. There is no way to get far enough from the wall to see how they work and no area to display the image on. A film crew was there for some German show and they wanted to see how it worked too. None of the LG people could find a projector phone that wasn’t connected to the wall. I can’t imagine the millions that were spent making and running that commercial. They should have had a whole room devoted to showing movies on the projector phone. This is a no-brainer. So LG, this was bad and an incredible missed opportunity.
Pump Speakers I don’t like the color and I have absolutely nothing to wear with them. And, oh, they’re speakers. Now I’ve seen speakers that look like a bust of Beethoven, speakers that look like a dog and speakers that look like shoes. I have seen it all. Please remove my eyes. These shoes would be ugly on a woman.
Pump Batteries This is the Yogen, www.yogenstore.com. It charges your iPhone by pulling the string over and over again. They call it the charger for life. They say it’s 100 percent green. It’s also great exercise. There’s only one problem. The minute you stop pulling the string there’s no more charge. Make these things so they can store a charge please. How hard is it to figure out that people don’t want to spend 30 minutes at a time pulling on this thing? Yogen, this is a good idea gone bad.
Wah Yung makes audio equipment. The booth pictured here was showing headphones. I use the word “showing” because that’s what they were doing. They weren’t connected to anything. And it didn’t look like anyone was interested in connecting any of them for me to listen to. Wah Yung makes a ton of equipment. But as a brand, they’re nonexistent especially at CES. And they had that same kind of bland look going as most of the booths from China. I don’t know why they keep going to CES. In the end, their efforts are both bad and ugly.
The Emperor
This is a chair for guys who think they’re Captain Kirk but in a gaming or business sense. It’s a true command center where the screens come down and surround you at the push of a button like the Cone of Silence in Get Smart. What kind of guy are you if you sit in this chair all day long? When will your laser beam destroy the White House? Will you shoot James Bond immediately or strap him to a table, put some special Wah Yung headphones on him and turn up the volume slowly until his head blows up or he escapes and kills you? Either way it’s bad although slightly cool.
iPhone TV
This one really made me angry. It’s an attachment that’s supposed to turn your iPhone into a TV. I immediately wanted to know what stations I could get. So I asked someone. She said, “You can pick up the local stations.” I said, “Like analog stations?” I said this knowing full well that there are no more analog stations. We live in an exciting digital world. She said, “No, they are digital.” To which I became even more confused. Was I going to have to carry a satellite dish around or connect to a cable box? So I asked, “Can I see it work?” She said, “No, it hasn’t quite been totally figured out yet.” This is bad and a tease from the folks at https://www.cydle.com/
Cydle M7 Mobile Internet Device
It was frozen and no one could unfreeze it. They teased me yet again after the iPhone TV thing. That’s cold and bad.
The Cue
The Cue had a great set up and looked like a really interesting reader. It’s connected to its own digital magazine and bookshop and also features stuff like e-mail, weather report, calendar, news, etc., within the device. However, the device was so slow that I immediately asked about the processor. The Cue guy said, “This isn’t the processor it will ship with in March. That processor will be faster than this one.” Then I asked how much. He said something like $700. Hmmmmmmmmmmm. This is where my thoughts started to go all over the place. Can I trust him about the processor? Do I even have $700. I might have to buy a new bike. That sounds like a lot of money. Where are Tony and I going to eat after this? Will I be paying for Tony and me to eat? And when I eventually came back to the moment, The Cue had finally downloaded the first page. Bad.
China
If China is taking over the world, it will be a very bland world. A world of washed-out pastels. And all the fonts will be the same. I don’t think I’m going to like it. I’m a colorful character.
Real-Time Recorder
This was actually a pretty nifty device. For idiots like me who can’t figure out how to digitize a DVD on their computer, you can get this thing. It makes a digital copy directly to your iPhone or computer from the DVD player. There is one catch. It does this in real time. That’s kind of bad. But this actually works and you can buy it now.
Casio People
Here’s just a taste of the world of CES. There are numerous beautiful people telling you about the new and exciting world of consumer electronics. I’m not going to say they’re bad. You have to judge for yourself.
The Organizer
I really don’t understand this one. It’s a pack for kids or kid-like adults so that your toothpaste and brush and stuff all have a pocket. And it hangs around your neck like it does around this future boy or whatever he
Arnie is unsure about the TV Hat ... does he have tunnel vision?
is. This did catch my attention. And I did spend time with it. But my final conclusion was pretty simple. I don’t want there to be a nuclear war where we come out of the shelters as small ugly green people even if we do have nice organizer packs hanging around our necks.
Porn Debate
This sign is sitting toward the back of the show almost as if it was accidentally transferred from the Adult Video Convention, which was going on down the street. There was no porn debate going on at CES. I couldn’t figure out what it meant. There was no petition to sign. Ron Jeremy was nowhere to be found. Most porn is pretty ugly and so is Ron. So I’m going with ugly.
TV Hat
This is me wearing a hat with an iPhone tucked in the front and a magnifying glass inside. It’s so you can watch movies on your iPhone. It’s a TV hat. It’s an interesting idea but I wouldn’t go anywhere with this person and neither should you.
Mink Man
Again, you be the judge. At least it’s not full-length.
3DTV – Well, they could have just called this year’s Consumer Electronic Show, 3DTV World. That is essentially what it was. There were 3D televisions of all shapes and sizes and pretty much all the manufacturers had one. It was hard to tell them apart. Even the 3DTV girls were similar.
I seem to remember it talking longer for HDTV to spread to every manufacturer. There is definitely not a 3DTV gap. And they look fantastic as long as you’re looking directly at the set and paying really close attention. Once you turn away, everything gets foggy and the effect is gone. Plus, you’ll have to wear glasses. Without glasses, 3DTV is 3-image TV. Not good.
CES was crowded so I was unable to recreate my home viewing experience. Also, I didn’t have my chair/command center with me. I sit around 10 feet or so from my 50” Sony. My command center is the chair’s footrest.
It’s where I look at my computer, work, look at the television, look at the computer, etc. I really couldn’t figure out whether it was going to be difficult or easy to add refocusing back to my 3D experience in the sequence.
Samsung Tick Tock – This was one of the really simple and colorful things at the show. It’s an MP3 player with a motion sensor that has only one button. What that one button does depends on how you are holding the device. It’s very innovative and cute. Why it’s called Tick Tock, I have no idea. But who cares?
This Crosley display was just cool.
Crosley – Sometimes when I like something, I just really like the booth or I enjoy the display. I love this retro TV display that sits in the middle of the Crosley booth.
Crosley used to make radios. Now they make these retro-looking devices with a modern purpose – like USB turntables that look like museum relics. I don’t think that LPs are ever going to make a comeback, but there is something wonderfully charming about the mix of old and new in their products.
Panasonic’s 152-inch Plasma HDTV – Wow, bigger really is better, except when it comes to stomachs. This thing is clear and beautiful. I wish they would’ve put something fun to watch on it. It was mostly a film showing all the different aspect ratios it could show of a drag race and then one spectacular shot of a mountain. You’ll have to rip out a wall for this thing but it’ll be well worth it. I’ve included a head for you to use as a size reference.
Copia – Copia is basically a reader that encourages sharing and community. I don’t think it’s going to work because the Apple tablet will be a reader and more. However, I did like the display and the idea behind it. Conceptually it was fun. All that talking about literature with your friends is intellectual. Plus, I really liked the big stack of books.
I’m hoping that isn’t all the titles they have available digitally. Also, if you watch the video on their page you can hear their song. It’s peppy.
Thin TV – They have become remarkably thin. So thin, in fact, that there’s no reason to take a picture of them. If you try to take a picture from the side, you won’t be able to see anything. That’s how thin. Not cut-your-finger thin, but easily decapitating thin. I hope that makes any sense. I also hope you are never decapitated by a TV.
The one pictured here also has almost no border. It’s mostly edge-to-edge screen. I’m like you. I hate it when they’re calling it 50 inches and using valuable screen space for speakers and buttons and stuff. Unacceptable.
Robuddi – All you have to do is attach him to your kid and you’ll always be able to find said kid with the GPS in Robuddi’s belly. That’s right. Robuddi is a cute, rubbery spy. Now you can track your little dude’s or dudette’s movements. You’ll have to hope your little one doesn’t manage to lose Robuddi for it to work. Nothing would be worse than looking for your kid and only finding Robuddi. Someday we’ll all have Intel chip implants and Robuddi will be obsolete. Oh well.
Intel Core Chip – Speaking of Intel, check out their unbelievable display. It’s really something.
Intel is making a crazy new chip that holds three times what will fit in your brain. They didn’t say that, but they should. Could anyone really prove them wrong?
Panasonic Power Maker – That isn’t what they call this thing, but that’s what I am calling it. Panasonic is not good at naming things. What does Lumix mean? Anyway, Panasonic wants folks like you and me to make our own power using methane gas, solar energy, residential battery cells and the MAKER you see here.
It looks really complicated doesn’t it? You have no idea. In the end, I just wanted to know if I would make enough electricity to power my home. She said, “The Japanese are more conservative with their electricity than Americans. It depends on the size of your home and your usage.” In other words, NO. So, I’m figuring three hours of 3DTV at most. I like the concept though. Maybe someday.
Samsung's wall display was awesome.
Samsung’s Giant TV Leaves and Laptop Wall – Yes that’s right. They had a really spectacular display at Samsung that included a leafy looking wall of screens and a wall of laptops. Samsung spent some serious money to prove they were ahead of the curve.
Casio’s Digital Art Frame – This is a simple digital photo frame that makes your photos look like seven different kinds of paintings. Seems pretty cheesy but it will give people something to talk about when they’re bored at your party. In other words, it’s worth its weight in gold.
Giant Steps for Mankind – Maybe there were some, but I didn’t see them. It’s hard to know where to start or where to finish at CES. I was there for about 3.5 hours. It seems like a lot, but I missed plenty. Were there some fun things? Yes. Was there anything that completely blew my mind? No. And, where are all the villains with the mind-control devices and tiny killer toys? I never saw them either. And I was looking for them.
I didn’t see this at CES but I heard about it. I looked up a few times to see if it was hovering over me. It never did. It was probably hovering over Lady Gaga. And who can blame it?
The Bad and The Ugly are next. Watch for them later this week.
I seem to always go with the same resolution as most Americans have – lose weight and exercise — which are really two resolutions that work together as one. But this year I wanted to do better. Being bigger than I’d like to be seems pretty small compared to my other issues. I could choose that and a couple of others, but that’s not fair either. Plus, I can only handle one resolution. Then I start to think about resolutions in the first place. They are really forcing something I obviously can’t handle or they wouldn’t be resolutions. Do companies and advertisers have the same problem?
Here are some of the New Year’s resolutions I think might be coming from marketing folks this year.
1. I will not be lured into the overpriced Super Bowl this year. Or I will at least make sure I’m in the first half or just before halftime. And I’ll use an animal or two. And they will be cute. … Strike that, I will not be lured into the overpriced Super Bowl this year.
2. I will concentrate on Social Media and make it a serious part of my marketing mix. By serious I mean more money, but not a lot of money since it’s free. I’ll at least do more than Twitter but maybe not the stuff that might cost as much as some other things cost. But I will take it seriously and pretend to understand it.
3. I will not do spec creative (for advertising professionals) and give ideas away for free to clients fishing for free ideas. I want clients that take us on our merit and work with us. I want partners. So no more spec without respec – t. That sounded silly. Maybe we could give them some starter ideas instead, or have a brainstorming? Does that count as spec?
4. I will embrace new technology; heck, we’ll do an iPhone app. And it will be one of the best iPhone apps of the 2,000,000 or more iPhone apps there will be by the time we do an iPhone app.
5. Brandegery. More Brandegery.
6. I will not spend money like a drunken sailor on television ads, micro-sites, merchandising, travel, travel expenses (except for me), nontraditional experiments, the stuff that wild man at the agency always wants me to spend money on, bonuses, logo golf balls, office furniture, office paintings (not applicable for Steve Wynn), exotic rugs, logo refresh, or basically anything that seems expensive.
7. I will utilize public relations more.
8. I will become newsworthy so I can utilize public relations more.
9. I will reach the consumer in at least one new way this year, even if it means screaming from my office window. I haven’t done that before.
10. I will get a new tag line. I’m sick of the old one.
So what is my personal New Year’s resolution? I will do something about those rats in the ceiling. They are gnawing at my speaker wires.
My agency has spent the last year trying to figure out how people are going to handle the new year. Will they hunker down? Will they believe in the resurgence and start spending, traveling, “being” again? Are they going to keep putting off buying cars, boats, clothes or trips? Or are they going to just buy smaller cars, boats, clothes and trips? Are they going to watch more television, less television or get in touch with nature? Will that mean more tent sales? You can see how frustrating it can be.
You have probably read plenty in the press that says the American way of life is changing. There is a ton of research out there of the two different quas (qualitative and quantitative). It tells you that Americans are prioritizing. It will tell you Americans are scared. They are looking at stuff longer before they buy it. They are searching for the best deals. They are less likely to act impulsively. That’s all well and good and probably true.
But I did some research the day after Christmas. I went to the mall. And you know what I found? Every single person in the world was there. There was nowhere to park. It was good old-fashioned American chaos. I had to park at the Wynn.
So many people. There were big ones, small ones, Eastern European ones, bimbos, manbos, Asian shopping junkets, families with nothing better to do and loners like myself. And there were bags. They were carrying bags. That means they bought stuff. I even bought something. It was on sale and had great stitching and I had to wait in line to buy it.
OK, so maybe this isn’t quality research. Maybe I was just witnessing a spike. A small glimmer of hope in a world destined to re-evaluation. But even spikes show us something. They show us what is underneath. They show us what is trying to escape but just can’t quite get there. A spike is where we want to be. It’s a measurement of hope.
We all have a place we want to be. It’s why the Target ads don’t really work for me. They are well acted and funny but they only talk about where we are – some horrible place where everyone argues about how much presents cost.
The holidays are all about where we want to be. We want the perfect week with family and friends. We want that week to be pretty much the same every year…tradition. It can be more, but it certainly shouldn’t be less. This is a time to celebrate and bring it all together. This isn’t the time to think about the bad stuff even when it is really bad.
I feel like the folks who put together the Target work never watched Charlie Brown’s Christmas – the little tree that could. I know they sell this tree at select stores. I’m not sure if Target is one of them or not.
I think we need more Hope Marketing. It’s a concept that shouldn’t be ignored. It has a lot going for it. It doesn’t prey on fears. It reminds us of the good times. It gives us something to shoot for. And the one thing we always have is hope. Hope is always waiting underneath it all, ready to spike at any moment.
We are not a nation of hunker-downers. At least I’ve never heard us described that way. I’ve never heard any nation described that way. Please let me know the next time someone says, “I come from a long line of hunker downers.” Although, research would have you believe we can be such a people, we are not.
I would like to see a Super Bowl ad where there is a battle between the hunker-downers and the pull-yourself-up-from-the-bootstrappers. And I want the pull-yourself-up-from-the-bootstrappers to win. And I will cheer and wait for a spike.
R&R Partners' Rachelle Houle-Maisner accepts the 2009 Creative Media Award from Shawn Rorick of LVIMA
The Las Vegas Interactive Marketing Association named R&R Partners’ “Chinchilli Day” interactive ad unit the best interactive ad unit for the year 2009 at the annual LVIMA Creative Media Awards show which was held on December 17, 2009. The work produced on behalf of our Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) client was part of an integrated effort to launch the “Excuses” campaign and drive viewers on YouTube to the Las Vegas brand channel. The integrated R&R and LVCVA team is way too big to list here. But, to all those who helped bring the Chinchillis to the Internet we say congratulations. Excellent work team!
This was the fourth year LVIMA has held the Creative Media Awards and I am proud to say the interactive work in Las Vegas has improved every year. 2009 was by far the most competitive awards show. My favorite winning entry was the MGM Grand “Sins” viral campaign. The work is just so brand appropriate and takes full advantage of social media to engage visitors and generate tons of really cool content. R&R would like to express our gratitude to Shawn Rorick and LVIMA for an excellent year of events. We look forward to another year of fun and kick ass interactive work in 2010. Click the links below to view a sampling of the digital work R&R Vegas is most proud of from 2009:
Kyle Curtis, SLC creative director, compares Avatar's Oscar loss to the advertising awards show world in this blog: http://bit.ly/an0qFe
about 19 hours ago
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