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May the farce be with you

I don't know what planet George Lucas is from.

I bought my son a Star Wars action figure the other day. On the box read this promotion: "FREE Boba Fett with purchase of 5 action figures."

Well, if you were a kid in the 80s, you have fond memories of these mail-in toy promotions. Whether it was The Fridge, Seargent Slaughter or even old-man Anakin Skywalker, they were super awesome and "not sold in stores!" And if you were diligent, or nerdy enough, to clip the UPCs, you not only scored a toy, but some much-needed bragging rights with the fellas.

So when I saw a chance to get a FREE Boba Fett, I had to get it. For my son, of course.

I opened the box and read the fine print: "Send 5 UPC codes, along with a check for $6.99 to receive your FREE Boba Fett."

Uh, huh?

I guess George had altered the deal. There was no mention of shipping and handling. Just "hey, send us $6.99." ($8.99 Canadian).

So, $6.99 gets me - sorry - my son, a "FREE" action figure? Hey, I don't mind paying $7 bucks for Boba Fett. Lord Vader knows I've spent a lot more than that over the years.

Just don't call it "FREE." Say "SPECIAL." Or "OFFER USELESS TO RESIST." Or "FREE - FROM A CERTAIN POINT OF VIEW." I'll chuckle, shake my head and whip out the wallet.

Only a fool would call something free, and then charge people $7. But I remember a wise man once said: "Who's the more foolish: The fool, or the fool who follows him?" Of course, that same man also said, "I don't remember ever owning a droid." So perhaps I shouldn't follow his advice.

So then I wondered, maybe they didn't mean "Free Boba Fett," but FREE Boba Fett. As in, set him free! That's one explanation. And one that made me feel better. Like I was helping Boba Fett bust out of the clutches of some horrible warehouse in China. I couldn't be sure. But I was sure of one thing - I was getting that toy.

For my son, I mean.

Refresh everything, except for the logo

Soda's second fiddle is pushing the Pepsi Throwback for the second time in 10 months, leading with the tag 'Made with real sugar.' Of course, this isn't the first time a long-standing brand has gone retro to conjure up some good feelings. But do you remember a brand ever doing so when they just unveiled a new logo - a million-dollar logo?

True, it's not just a design gimmick; there is an honest-to-goodness tip of the hat to the old formula (sugar vs. HFCS). But it's hard to forget how the new logo was much maligned by ad insiders mostly for the gross amount of rationale (below) behind the mark to justify the price tag that put more stock in golden ratios and smiley faces than intelligent insights into the consumer psyche and purchasing decision. But maybe the new logo is also hated by consumers. Our humble opinion for the odd change in course: The new logo made it feel expensive (well, as expensive as soda can feel anyway). Use a throwback logo, and it feels like you're rolling back prices to 1965.

Pepsi Breathtaking Design Strategy

Sure, the new logo is here to stay-ish. But ten years from now when Pepsi goes retro again, we're sure they'll have thrown the new logo behind the woodshed. Heck, it feels like the marketing execs at Pepsi have already gone back through the concepts (as clients are apt to do) and liked what they found on page 10. No wait, 14.

Is your spot hot?

While it's always popular to look for what's next, it behooves most of us to better understand what's already out there. As social media's analytical tools are more finely tuned, old stand-bys prove their worth.

Take YouTube, for example, the Elvis of social media. A true original, perhaps surpassed numerically by Twitter (social media's New Kids on the Block) among others, but still the King. And why? Because of simple insightful tools like Hot Spot.

After your video gets enough views, YouTube can show you how hot your spot is compared to other videos of similar length. Do viewers watch the whole thing? Do they replay certain parts? Do they run from your yawnfest? All can be deduced with this simple tool.


The people have spoken: Peeling out in a Mustang rules. See our hot spot.

It's a great reason to always put your commercial on YouTube (doesn't look like Vimeo has anything like it yet). You can look at what's working, what's not and, budget-willing, make some strategic tweaks to what's online and on-air to make it better the next time. Or at the very least, put that magic in a bottle and the mistakes on the shelf for your next broadcast endeavor.

As Mr. Blutarsky once said, "Don't cost nothin'."

Unraveling the Twitter riddle

Twitter me this, twitter me that: How should brands approach this peculiar app? With the networks and the news media making a mountain out of a bird's nest, it's quite easy to forget that the magic of Twitter is real-time conversation tracking. So rather than regurgitate the rhetoric, we hoped to give you our original take on the mood ring of the new millenium.

Social media is a party. Your job is to bring the ice.

Few brands can pull off being the cool parents who have the house with the pool where the kids like to hang out, let alone the hip online friend. So don't crash the party. Just pop in with snacks, make sure everyone's having a good time and maybe they might let you be in charge of the music after awhile. Don't try to make this social platform about you; make it about your customers' benefiting from you listening.

Unconvinced? OK, imagine you're Joe Tweet. One day, you mention that your furnace is conking out on you. How cool would it be to get a tweet back with a link to say, oh, Carrier's dealer locator and offer of a free system upgrade if you go with a Factory Authorized Dealer? The brand wouldn't have to follow that person. That might be creepy. And unnecessary - all Joe would have to do is mention "carrier" or "furnace" again and like Batman's beacon in the sky, the Big C could swoop in and save the day.

Our personal eureka! The purchase decision doesn't get more transparent than this.

Don't value statistics over psychology.

Statistics seem to be the overwhelming motivation for marketers to care about social media. But in our locust-like lust to insatiably amass followers, friends and traffic hits, the social aspect of social media is lost. Yes, demos and stats and numbers are good, but with Twitter, you really can see what people want/need, love/hate at precise moments, and with the right matches, you can change a perception or even convert a sale on the spot.

If you come at it with the mindset that you are here to solve problems, the ROI data will naturally follow.

It's a micro-blog, so micro-connect.

The one thing that Twitter has reinforced is people don't care about you or your product. They care about themselves and how your product affects them. It's what the whole micro-blog is based on - an individual feels something is so important that they have to pull out their phone and text it to the world. And that's the point. Whether it's mundane, insightful, curious or matter-of-fact, each tweet gives us a glimpse into what a person is thinking right then and there and to some degree what a person values.

Let's say someone tweets about picking their Mom up at the airport. Big friggin' deal, you say. Well, if the flower shop in that airport was paying attention, it could send that person a coupon to pick up some flowers to welcome her Mom home. Proving again that one man's online trash is another one's treasure.

Now how does said airport flower shop discover this tidbit in a sea of a million billion tweets? Tweetbeep - one of the many hidden gems in the world of Tw________ tools. It works like Google alerts except for Twitter, so you don't have to be paying attention to be listening (or is that the other way around?).

Tools like Tweetbeep, Twitturly (tracks URLs people mention) and TweetMeme (tracks the hottest stories), all build off the holy grail behind all this madness - Twitter Search. See, it's one thing to amass a following, but hone your listening skills and see the greatest benefits. By being a fly on the wall, you can find out what people are saying about your product and reward the positive comments with super-exclusive deals and mend the negative experiences with direct responses right as they are happening.

You can also take the pulse of a given metro area. So if you are looking to pick up slumping sales in Wichita, Kansas or Warsaw, Poland, use the advanced search with the city and you'll get just what you're looking for and then some.

Give your followers a reason to follow.

Twitter is useful to brands as a customer service tool, as a way to offer ultra-limited time only deals and pop-up events exclusive to followers and as a keep passionate fans updated on scheduled promotions and events.

Consider creating a separate account for scheduled events, so participants don't have to wade through the clutter to get what they want. Then, dispose of the account (after you capture all of that data, of course).

Give a hoot, don't pollute.

With everyone trying to demonstrate how green they are, let's not forget to conserve and be good stewards of our virtual spaces as well. There's enough Twitter litter already. If you're doing more than dabbling in any social media, make sure you have a clear plan with objectives, so you can earnestly see what's working, what's not and how you can get the most out of your micro-presence.

We recently read somewhere that a pharmaceutical company was automatically sending out a message regarding their pain medicine to anyone mentioning they have a headache. Now this is pollution, plain and simple because ‘headache’ is used so much as an idiom. But what if they took the same approach, except using a more targeted keyword like ‘migraine’ - something whose meaning cannot be misinterpreted and that might result in relieving a real and immediate pain. Although not casting as wide of a net, it would certainly target people who were crying out for help, not just noting their caffeine withdrawal.

Tag your tweets.

As is convention on Twitter, tweets are tagged with keywords so anyone could search for the keyword and read the stream of posts. These hashtags (#tag) are a very easy way to track fans or encourage people to participate in a promotion. For example, #bigmac for a BOGO burger from Mickey D's. And you can do it all without interrupting.

So after all this, what's the answer? Be a part of the conversation. Just don't think you have to lead it. web articles

Surviving consumers' shift to thrift

Belts have tightened, but while it may take a little more to wrest those hard-earned dollars from consumers' hands, it isn't impossible. You just have to know what they're looking for.

1. Image up your retail.

The tents are up and the prices are down, but what makes your BOGO better than the next guy's? We're not suggesting you sacrifice the price points. But consumers won't care about the difference between you and Brand X if you start ignoring the brand you've built. Spice up your messaging by hitting the benefit beyond 'saving you money.' People can save a lot of money by not buying anything.

Let them know how your product/service will help them be a hero to their kids though things are tight, make them smarter than their neighbors, give them an edge over their colleagues or simply provide for a surprise-free summer vacation. Go local with sponsorships or just go all ABA with your promotions and let consumers escape in the fun. After all, the tents are up; you might as well have a (branded) circus.

2. Make it OK to indulge.

Consumers want to consume. And while they are being very good about trying to stay within their means, they need to reward themselves for being so good. Or cheat on their dollar diet. Either way, you need to be there to enable. Whether you have mini versions of your signature offering or that lagniappe to lure people to take a bigger bite, help consumers feel good about being a little bad about their new savings regimen.

3. Tell your best-kept secret.

As consumers become more discerning, they are digging for those services and items that give them more bang for their buck. But what if you've already been providing some bang. Rather than leap headfirst into a bidding war for customers, make sure people know all the reasons they should have been with you in the first place.

Example: A writer here was going to save a lot of money by switching to Geico (ok, Progressive). But by calling his current agent just to be sure, he comes to find that his policy just needed a bit of review via a quick survey. Turns out he saved a lot of money by staying put, more so than if he had switched. Maybe the 'high-end' issuer should tell its customers to call them first before they just up and switch. Or better yet send them the survey to fill out for the reassessment.

4. Publish or perish.

From blogs to tweets to bookmarking to recommending, there is a world of free spaces out there where you can get the word out about your product. And with advances coming rapidly in technologies incorporating consumer goods and online content, you need to start building that web cred now because that will be what the next-generation of technologies will be drawing upon for information.

And it's coming up faster than you think. In fact, simple, cheap and highly measurable technologies like QR are already out there. It's only a matter of (a short) time before these are incorporated into or rely on the info from social media platforms.

5. Don't overshoot yourself in the foot.

While corporate budgets are being slashed, R&D piggy banks have been spared the rod for now. But if your innovation focus is limited to simply improving existing products you run the risk of improving products beyond what most customers really need and are willing to pay for. When you focus on continually tweaking your bread and butter, you end up missing out on the rest of the feast, probably while ultimately tearing the toast in the process.

Innovation consultant Scott Anthony calls this 'overshooting' and it's why your refrigerator could've probably beaten Bobby Fischer in a game of chess. He says, "Too much focus on the corporate equivalent of comfort food — close-in innovation opportunities — will leave companies stuffed with empty calories and out of shape for the battles still to come." Like we said, too much bread and butter. (anyone else hungry?)

If your company was built on innovation, now is not the time to rest on your laurels. Flaunt your new endeavors and let consumers know what you've done for them lately.

Earth Hour and the simplicity skyline

Today is St. Patrick's Day, and we just wanted to give a tip o' the hat to a fine wee ad we saw just the other day. It's for Earth Hour - the global brainchild of the World Wildlife Fund with the aim of having 1 billion people around the world shut off all their lights for one hour on March 28. It will serve as a petition that they will then take to the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.
Conceived in the grand tradition of reversible ads.

Last year, 50 million switched off their lights, including landmarks like the Golden Gate Bridge, Rome’s Colosseum, the Sydney Opera House and even the Coca-Cola billboard in Times Square.

So mark your calendar for March 28, 8:30pm and light some candles, break out the board games and help keep the Blue Planet blue.

(Editor's Note: Happy Birthday, Nancy.)

Who's your George Mason?

It's NCAA tourney time, and as we look over our brackets, we wonder: What underdog (Bulldog) has what it takes to make a run like the George Mason Patriots in 2006? Who has a hidden strength that can take the big names by surprise? Who will capitalize on the lucky breaks that come their way and capture the imagination of fans?

Now replace that bracket with your brand and competitors? What under-the-radar product or service do you have that is ready to go from obscurity to a household name? Are you bold enough to bet on customers like Hyundai's Assurance Program (which helped increase their sales despite the economy), shrewd enough to offer a lower-cost point of entry like KFC's new dollar menu or savvy enough to make yourself the center of the conversation through your creative experimentation like Skittles?

Right now, we're helping a client with ideas to bring their geothermal systems from the fringe to the front of customers' minds. It's green. It's highly efficient. And it doesn't hurt that thanks to the recent economic stimulus bill, homeowners can take a 30% tax deduction on the total value of the installation with no limit. It's a bigger trifecta than the one Bryce Drew hit for Valpo in '98.

So show some poise, dig deep and play to your strengths. Even if that means rediscovering what your strengths are.

Ad Club extends portfolio deadline

Looks like the heavy hitters at AAF Indianapolis (formerly Indianapolis Ad Club) have decided to extend the deadline for agencies to send a portfolio piece or two for the big downtown display.

The question is: Are you going to submit?

The greatest commercial of all time. Ever.

I thought for sure this was a gag. Or some sort of spoof. An infauxmercial. But I now know this is for real.

I don't know who are the ad wizards behind this one, but I demand they show themselves so I can give them a medal. And speaking of medals, did you know that shamwows are used by Olympic divers? I didn't either.

Is the actual shamwow product great? Probably not. I mean it's got the word 'sham' in it. But who cares? It's got Vince Offer (are you kidding?) as your pitchman and that's all you need to know. Vince is the ring-toss carnie who makes fun of you after each throw. Imagine Ty Pennington, but more hyper. Vince doesn't just sells ice to eskimos, he makes them eat yellow snow. He says things like "you following me camera guy" and "the Germans always make good stuff" and my favorite, "hey, we can't do this all day." Vince is annoyed, and apparently quite busy. more >>>

Are there holes in this :60 tour de force? Sure. There's the hilarious voiceover dubbing of '10 years' when he's covering his mouth. Then there's the before-after comparison, where the soda's mysteriously gone outside the carpet swatch when it's time for the shamwow. Or him ever-so-gently damping the towel on the spill, then subsequently rinsing out Niagara Falls into a bowl. But you forget about those things when you realize you've been throwing your money away on paper towels like some idiot.

The shamwow mops the floor with Billy Mays and wipes that crazy look off Tony Little's face.

Thank you, shamwow. I'll never actually buy your product, but I'll never look at German engineering the same way again.

Windows shopping

Even with consumer spending down, online window shopping is up. E-commerce sites from Target to eBay to that random little knick-knack site have all seen more traffic come there way as people search online first for the best deals and the best use of their hard-earned cash.

So now is a great time to update that site to make you a great resource with great reasons to buy from. Now we're not talking about redesign per say. You've got to manage your dollars wisely as well. But what is your site lacking? What would make the user experience better and more, well, useful?

Is there some app that you could add to make it easier for shoppers to get recommendations or just know what's coming so they save their pennies for what you're peddling? more >>>

How about a widget that brings you to your customers every time they turn on their computer instead of having your store sitting there waiting on an exit ramp on the information superhighway?

Google adwords. There's another low-cost, highly measurable route that is just a good thing to test even if you don't stick with it.

Or is there something else on the horizon as video is ready to burst (really burst) onto the mobile scene? At the very least make sure your e-commerce site translates on cell phones (not just iPhones, people). Even if that means creating a mobile URL (mobile.target.com, etc.) -- it could have goodies and deals only found in the mobile world.

With so many possibilities, it can be overwhelming. But it's nice to know you can always search online first for the best deals and the best use of your hard-earned cash.

(Editor's Note: Apologies to the Mac users for the headline, but we do live in a PC world.)

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Shot to the balls heard 'round the world

A pair of brothers from Batesville not only claimed the top prize in Doritos' Super Bowl commercial contest by getting it aired during the big game, they also apparently won the top spot on USA Today's ad meter measuring the impact of the commercials during the game. If you missed it, here it is.



What does this increasing phenomenon of David beating Goliath tell us? Well, first and foremost, any time a man gets popped in the pills by a flying object, it is memorable. (America's Funniest Videos did not thrive on Bob Saget's charm alone.) more >>>

Secondly, concept is king. You can have all the money in the world, but if the campaign isn't rooted in a simple concept, it will fail. On the flip side, sometimes spots are simple to a fault, lacking any unique personality or character development. The Doritos spot definitely scored points for personality.

Also, this is the kind of commercial that would die in committee. Someone high enough up would say, "Why would the other guy throw the snow globe? What could he possibly have hit that would get him the promotion?" Or someone in a focus group would throw out an "I don't get it" while the creative team behind the glass choked on their M&Ms.

Was it the best commercial of the Super Bowl? No. Monster and CareerBuilder can duke it out for that in our humble opinion. But the Batesville boys do reinforce the value of relating to the audience in a lowest-common-denominator kind of way, making a pretty good commercial with one failsafe, albeit cliched and overdone, punchline.

UPDATE: Upon repeated viewing, this commercial is decidedly mediocre. Between the music and the overacting by Judge Reinhold's stunt double, it becomes quickly unwatchable. But hey, they've got their million dollar prize, and I've got my sour grapes.

No bailout for Big 3

Batten down the hatches. The economists told us a few weeks ago what everyone already knew: we're in a recession. Since last December. Thanks for the newsflash. And now the news came this morning that Uncle Sam won't be playing Uncle Pennybags for Chrysler, GM and Ford.

Now what? Well, whether you're in sit-and-wait mode, circling the wagons or running around like your hair's on fire, remember this: it's a recession, not a retreat. more

Use it as a chance to revive your company. Even if it's just a matter of sparking new thoughts, exploring new directions and creating new ways of empowering the people in your organization to take an active role in the company's destiny. Who knows what could emerge: a new profit center, a better reason for customers to choose you other than deep discounts, or just the brave new blueprint to follow so you can hit the ground running when the clouds have lifted.

So where's the now-marketing's-more-critical-than-ever spin? you wonder. Well, that's not really the point of this post. Especially considering the challenges your company is facing probably go deeper than a reallocation of your ad budget or the infusion of brilliant, cost-effective ideas will fix. But here is a suggestion: make the first step you take toward a brighter future a small one. The one that jumps out at the creative cabin here is a smart little book called Unstuck. Check it out (from the library). It's cheaper than a business consultant coming in to tell you what you already probably know. (Maybe they moonlight as economists.) It's even relevant when you're not stuck.

It appears the bailout money has dried up. And now more than ever you need to remember what made your company, your career, your life the success it's been to date: you've always preferred to make your own luck.