Consumer Passion

Super Bowl Ads: Third Quarter (and halftime)

·         Lexus:  (Lexus GS taken for a test drive)  ConsumerPassion Grade:  B+  Love the line “yes, you can.  And no, you shouldn’t”. 

·         NFL:  (NFL Network)  ConsumerPassion Grade: B  Good ad, funny, effective

·         Semi Pro: (Will Ferrel trailer)  ConsumerPassion Grade A Ferrell is hilarious, and so is this movie promo. 

·         Cars.com:  (witch doctor)  ConsumerPassion Grade  B+  Much better than the first Cars.com ad.  The guy from Bones is great, it’s quirky/creative, and sells the advantage of using Cars.com.

·         Salesgenie.com:  (Panda Bear)  ConsumerPassion Grade: C+   the salesgenie ads are goofy, and low budget looking.  But do they work?  When you're targeting sales folks, all that matters is they understand you'll get them leads.  I'm curious how effective these are.   

·         Vitamin Water: (Shaq takes up new vocation as a Jockey)  ConsumerPassion Grade: B   Entertaining.  Shaq on horse.  I just don’t get how Vitamin Water helps.  Did he give it to the horse? 

·         Bud Light:  (Cavemen and wheel) ConsumerPassion Grade:  B++   “wheel suck!” great stuff. 

·         Icebreakers:  (Carmen Electra)  ConsumerPassion Grade:  C  Just didn’t translate

·         Bridgestone:  (driver swerves to miss deer, Alice Cooper and Richard Simmons)  ConsumerPassion Grade: A- The Bridgestone ads work.  I like ‘critters’ better, but this is off the wall in a good way, and ultimately sells the tires.   

·         Hyundai:  (Genesis compares to Mercedes and BMW)  ConsumerPassion Grade:  A Simple, very effective.  Does exactly what it sets out to do.

·         Wall-e: (preview of new Pixar film)  ConsumerPassion Grade:  A   preview has Woody and Buzz Lightyear.  Hilarious new animated figures.  How can you not love this?

·     eTrade:  (baby talks about trading)  ConsumerPassion Grade: B   I don’t normally go for the “baby talks like adult” fare.  This one works better than most.  I get the point.  So easy a baby can do it.  Kind of easy for an ad agency to come up with that too. 

If you're trying to order Pizza during or after the Super Bowl ...

You might want to try Dominos, with its new Pizza Tracker technology, which enables you to follow the progress of your order online from the time you click the "Place Order" button or hang up the telephone until the Domino's delivery person is knocking on the door. 

"There is absolutely nothing like this in the food service industry," said Domino's chief information officer, Chris McGlothlin, of the ability to track telephone orders.  "At Domino's, we're obsessed with great service. We measure performance.  Now we can prove it every step of the way.  Pizza Tracker will allow customers to know when their order is being prepared, when it's out of the oven, and when it's out the door and on its way. It even includes the first name of the person delivering the order."

Pizza Tracker is linked directly to the computers inside the pizza stores using Domino's Pulse and is accurate to within 40 seconds, McGlothlin said. "Once it leaves the store, drive times vary due to distance, weather and traffic conditions, but customers will know that it's on the way." 

Dominos predicted it would sell some 1.2 million pizzas across the U.S. today, a third more than a usual Sunday. 

Super Bowl Ads: Second Quarter

Here are the second quarter ads, with my 'grade' of each.  Again, check out Mahalo.com for links to online videos of commercials. 

·         Budweiser:  (Dalmatian becomes personal trainer for Hank the Clydesdale) ConsumerPassion Grade:  B Love the Bud Clydesdales, majestic beasts.  But not an ad that 'connects' like the holiday ads.

·     Bud Light:  (Carlos Mencia teaches immigrants the language of love)  ConsumerPassion Grade:  B  Funny, typical beer commercial funny.  But why should you drink Bud Light again?

·         Career Builder:  (Follow your heart to a better job)  ConsumerPassion Grade: D  My first and lasting thought was ... gross.  Beating heart jumping out of a woman's chest.  Come on creative people.  There's a way to do this one without the feeling you're in a 'day of the dead' movie. 

·         Doritos:  (mousetrap)  ConsumerPassion Grade: B+   Funny, well done.   

·         Garmin GPS:  (Napoleon uses navigation system to get around) ConsumerPassion Grade: A+   Loved, simply loved this ad.  Top notch from beginning to end.  Music, pace, everything made sense, was quirky and funny, and SOLD the product well.  Bravo!!

·        Leatherheads:  (George Clooney film trailer)  ConsumerPassion Grade:  A   Side splitting promo for this football comedy. 

·         Planters:  (Men find unattractive woman alluring)  ConsumerPassion Grade:  C   I know what they're trying to say here.  I just think you can sell peanuts without having an unattractive person rubbing them on herself like Channel #5.  Yick.  Peanuts and cosmetics don't mix.  It's food. 

·         Iron Man:  (Paramount’s Iron man superhero movie)  ConsumerPassion Grade:  A   Don't know much about this movie, but this trailor made me want to know more. 

·         Sobe Life Water:  (Lizards dance with Naomi Campbell)  ConsumerPassion Grade: F+   Sorry, but this was one lousy ad.  Dancing lizards to sell water?  (the plus is because it was a slick production)

·         T-Mobile:  (Charles Barkley and Dwayne Wade)  ConsumerPassion Grade A-   These two characters work great together.  Barkley is annoying, so perfect.  Nice pace, variety, sells the product well. 

·         Toyota:  (Keeps the noises out) ConsumerPassion Grade:  A   Creative, funny, and tells you one thing ... this car is dead quiet inside.  Well done. 

·         Wh House Office Nat Drug Control Policy:  (drug dealer loses teen business to prescription drugs)  ConsumerPassion Grade: B+   serious topic, pretty effective message

·         Yukon Hybrid:  (gas guzzler gets eco-friendly with hybrid model)  ConsumerPassion Grade:  Not sure.  I think I was watching this ... but was glazed over.  Either it simply does not connect ... or I had a momentary lapse of brain power due to trying to keep up with all of these ads.

Super Bowl Ads: First Quarter

Here are the ads airing in the first quarter of the Super Bowl.  From what I can tell so far, Mahalo seems to have the best set-up, with hyper links to each commercial, many of which you can view pre-game:

·         Audi: (Audi's creative take of iconic scene from The Godfather with motor oil instead of blood)  ConsumerPassion Grade: B+  Creative, does sell the car, just didn't push my buttons.  Did make me think of the You've Got Mail scenes about guys knowing all the Godfather bits ...  

·         Bud Light:  (Men show up at a wine-tasting party with hidden Bud Light bottles)  ConsumerPassion Grade: A   Funny, and why Budweiser is the king of beer commercials.  SELLs the product, not just funny.  Higher grade.

·        Bud Light:  (Fire-breathing man turns romance to mahem).  ConsumerPassion Grade:  B+  for creative hilarity, but does it make you want to drink beer? 

·         Bridgestone:  (animals and bugs scream when one of their own encounters an approaching car) ConsumerPassion Grade:  A+   Hilarious.  Not sure if it was trying to mimic the Budweiser Wassup 'screaming' ads, but it did, with animals and bugs screaming as car approaches a squirell in the street.  The cricket is silent (the kind of little thing that's huge). The driver casually drives around the squirrel, tooting his horn. Tells you what the tires will do for you, in a hilarious way.  Loved it. 

·        Cars.com:  (Car buyer gets extra support from a crazy fighter) ConsumerPassion Grade: B-  It was trying to be creative, and trying to tell you what it will do for you ... just came up a little short. 

·         Dell:  (Ad supports Dell computer products for Red, a brand for Aids fundraising)  ConsumerPassion Grade:  B-   I got it because I knew what it was trying to do.  But it didn't spend enought time in the commercial explaining what 'Red' does.   

·        Diet Pepsi Max:  (Star-studded cast, including Missy Elliott, won’t nod off with Max around). ConsumerPassion Grade:  A+  Fantastic commercial.  Catchy music choice.  Very Funny.  Effective, shows why you NEED this product ... to STAY AWAKE!  Great ending.  Bravo!

·        Doritos: (Contest winner Kina Grannis appears on this user generated ad)  ConsumerPassion Grade: 

·         FedEx:  (Pigeon carriers can’t compete with FedEx)  ConsumerPassion Grade: A   Bound to be at the top of this year's creative heap.  Started a little slow, then got better by the second.  The pigeon helmets with GPS, hilarious.  The mayhem scene at the end, over the top in a good way.  And the casual "nah, let's go with FedEx".  Perfect ending.  Well done. 

·         Gatorade G2:  (Derek Jeter pitch for new Gatorade variety drink)  ConsumerPassion Grade: B-  Just didn't translate very well. 

·         GoDaddy.com:  (Super Bowl party scene entices people to visit GoDaddy.com for Beaver spot, the spot Fox rejected)  ConsumerPassion Grade:  D   Godaddy's a one trick pony, trying to be 'edgy' in a controversial way each year.  They'll likely drive traffic, so the ad might be successful in terms of site visitors today.  Visitors age 18-34, all guys if that's your target. Just not my cup of tea.

·         Pepsi-Cola:  (In Pepsi Stuff promotion, Justin Timberlake overcomes car accidents and a dangerous mailbox as he gets closer to a pretty woman)  ConsumerPassion Grade:  A  Very creative, obvious big budget ad ... Timberlake is great in this.  We'll see if it drives traffic to the Pepsi website.  But it's very creative at selling the product story.   

·         Salesgenie:  (Young Indian salesman thinks he’s about to get fired)  ConsumerPassion Grade: B-  boring ad ... but for the people who need it ... probably gets the right message across. 

·         Under Armour:  (Big “E” and more than 25 athletes help launch brand’s first cross-trainer) ConsumerPassion Grade: C  Didn't really 'sell the shoe' in my opinion.  The lead character was annoying.  And it looked like they were doing a play on the Apple 1984 spot, but not even close.  I wanted to like this one.  But I didn't.  Maybe I'm too "out of the demo".   

Super Bowl Commercial Watchers - Here We Go!

Plenty of tech blogs 'live blog' big events like the annual Jobs keynote at Macworld.  And for those of us who monitor stuff that consumers are passionate about ... well, this is the big day.  So I'll do my best to track and summarize the attention that 37 advertisers will recieve, the ones who've decided to plunk down between $2.5 and $3 million dollars for each 30- seconds of commerical air time during the Super Bowl.  In addition to covering the 'coverage' of adver-mania, I'll be throwing my own opinion of various  ads into the ring.  This is fun.  I'm one of those who enjoys the commercial aspect of the Big Game as much - honestly, more - than the game part.  And it's my 100th post, for whatever that's worth.

USA Today has been a leader in following and celebrating the hoopla created by Super Bowl ads for two decades.  Its Super Bowl Ad Meter offers exclusive, real-time consumer rating of all the big game's ads, relying on focus groups in multiple cities using handheld devices to register second-by-second reactions to commercials.  USA Today will release its Ad Meter results on Monday. 

USA Today is not alone when it comes to Super Bowl ad monitoring.  Using a new social networking platform called MIMIEO, graduate students at Chicago's Northwestern University will poll thousands of fans on their opinions of the ads.  During each quarter of the game,  the student’s website will gather feedback from fans on how much they liked the ads, and whether their future purchasing decisions have been influenced. 

Using MIMEO's technology, users will be able to submit feedback from multiple sources simultaneously, including Facebook (using the PickMe application), Apple iPhones, Internet enabled mobile devices, as well as the website VoteSuperBowlAds.com.  Following the game, a panel of Northwestern University grad students will analyze the results and publish a detailed report on the winners and losers.

MIMIEO is a social networking platform created recently by several Northwestern students to provide open and real-time access to consumer polls.  Using an integrated suite of applications, MIMIEO can poll consumers simultaneously via social networking websites, mobile phones, multi-media websites, and other Internet enabled sources.  Other future events include The Oscars (Feb 24th) and polling of the presidential candidate rankings.

If you want to watch today's ads again and again, after the game's over, you can check out Hulu.com.  The NBC and Fox-owned video site says it'll post all of the Super Bowl ads immediately following the game, in "high quality streaming video".  Another site to check out:  Mahalo.com, the "human powered search engine" founded by Jason Calcanis.  Mahalo Sports will be proving live coverage of the Super Bowl commercials.  Youtube has a special page set up for game ads as well.  Go here to view the ads after the game, and cast votes for your favorites.  Oh, and almost forgot:  Myspace.com/Superbowlads.com.  This site is being promoted during the Fox telecast.  All the ads should be posted there by end of game.