It's been about a year since Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz penned an internal memo - which went external - bemoaning the fact that the coffeehouse chain had lost its way. Schultz talked about getting "back to the core" and evoking "the passion we all have for the true Starbucks experience." Fastforward to January 7th of this year, when Schultz added CEO responsibilities, and the words "Starbucks experience" came up again, along with a "relentless focus on the customer" (see post Starbucks Announces Return to Roots).
Today's announcement that Starbucks will roll out a more consumer friendly Wi-Fi service is certainly a step in the right direction to create a richer "Starbucks experience". But holy cow, what took so long?? I've often wondered why Starbucks thought its deal with T-Mobile, where you paid $10 for a one day pass, or six bucks for an hour, was in any way a great benefit for consumers. It opened the door for competitors like Panera Bread and local coffee shops to offer free Wi-Fi as a differentiator. And sure enough, if you stroll into a Panera, you'll find a dozen or more people online. Oh, and they're usually purchasing food and drink as well.
Starbucks new deal with AT&T, nicely detailed in a post by Glen Fleishman at WiFiNetNews.com, means some 7,000 U.S. based Starbucks will offer free Wi-Fi to millions of AT&T broadband and Uverse customers ... and here's the part that calmed me down after first steaming when it seemed like an AT&T customer-only benefit ... anyone with a Starbucks Card - those refillable cash cards that you give as gifts or use yourself - can use the new Wi-Fi service for two hours each day, at no charge. And each additional two hour block is four dollars. And for Starbucks employees - all 100,000 of them - add free 'anytime' Wi-Fi to the perk list.
I can hear the cries now of those of you who have to muscle your way through the crowds at high-traffic Starbucks locations. It will only get more crowded. But there are plenty of Starbucks with lighter traffic, like the one within walking distance of my home. I've already planned a daily excercise routine: grab laptop, walk half mile to lightly populated Starbucks, pay two dollars for large coffee, work online for two hours, walk home. Total price? Two dollars.
All in all, especially if AT&T's Wi-Fi has fatter pipes and doesn't drop out as much as T-Mobile's, this is a great move by Starbucks - good ultimately for its bottom line and good for consumers. I predict you'll see a sizeable jump in laptoppers as the new service rolls out (starts in the Spring). And two hours is plenty for most folks. I think this is the most impactful thing Starbucks could've done in the short period of time since Schulz's takeover as CEO. We'll see what he has up his sleeve next.
I haven't located a press release yet, so I'm guessing Chick-fil-a will put one out on Monday announcing the winner of its Biggest Fan video contest. Unless they totally miss the PR boat on this one. The grand prize winner and nine finalists are posted at Chick-fil-a.com/biggestfan, so you can go there and check out the minute long videos. There aren't much in the way of details at this point, aside from the ten videos, and a brief description of each. No names, hometowns, etc. CFanatics!, a video entry featuring twins Rachel and Melanie (no last names), is the big winner. So the bubbly sisters will receive coupons good for one Chick-fil-A combo meal per week for 40 months, a trip to Atlanta to tour Chick-fil-A's corporate headquarters, Chick-fil-A T-shirts, Cow Calendars and 36 inch Chick-fil-A Plush Cows. Congrats!
Chick-fil-a says the entries were judged on a number of factors, including the number of internet votes received (voting ended January 29th), overall quality, appearance, creativity, originality, skill, and content. The nine finalists get food for a year, a T-shirt, calendar and plush cow. And everyone who submitted a video gets a free meal and plush cow.
I watched the ten top videos, and I have to be honest ... I was underwhelmed. Several were below average, even giving slack for user generated content. One of the videos I checked out more than a month ago, a top vote getter at the time, didn't make the final cut, and it was far better than most of the finalists. Perhaps the internet voting was gamed better by some (Ron Paul fans involved?). The grand prize winners' video has audio issues, but they offer a solid 'biggest fan' case by showing how Chick-fil-A has been a huge part of their lives for two decades, since they were four years old. One finalist used a helipcopter, so a tip of the hat to that guy for going all out. I'll post again when I get more info.
Oh, and lest I forget, I'm planning on covering the grand opening of a Chick-fil-A in my hometown (Warrenton, VA) sometime in March. I have a crazy and hopefully brillian idea ... to 'live vlog' the event. I want to stream live video interviews of cow gear wearing people camping out a day in advance. Stay tuned ...
If you polled consumers and asked them what items they consider indespensable to have while watching the Super Bowl, I think you'd find "laptop" ranking right there with nachos and favorite beverages. Advertisers know that an integrated marketing plan is essential when the average cost of a Super Bowl ad is nearly $3 million, and when the average consumer now spends as much or more time online each day than watching television.
So how did the advertisers do, in terms of website performance, on Super Sunday? Competitive Research, the industry analysis group of Keynote Systems, released the results of its Super Bowl XLII 2008 Web site performance challenge, which monitored the performance (responsiveness and reliability) of four leading mobile sports Web sites and 44 of the Super Bowl advertiser’s Web sites. Keynote found that while the four mobile Web sites (ESPN, Yahoo Sports, FOX Sports and CBS) performed extremely well, 12 advertisers encountered significant performance problems.
Keynote found that approximately 25 percent of the Super Bowl advertiser’s Web sites experienced significant to major performance slowdowns and outages, including Budlight/Budweiser, Cars.com, Careerbuilder.com, Hyundai, NFL, Salesgenie.com and Unilever. From Keynote's press release:
Just before the game, between 3:07 and 3:20 pm (PST) and then again from 7:28 to 7:49 pm (PST), both of Anheuser-Busch’s flagship Budlight and Budweiser sites encountered slowdowns and errors. While normal performance for these sites range between 3-5 seconds, during these times, performance slowed to as much as 50 seconds and in many cases reported errors to visitor’s Web browsers. These were also seen on Monday, February 4 between 5:40 to 5:50 am (PST) and 10:10 to 10:20 am (PST).
Cars.com saw performance slowdowns at 4:07 and 4:18 pm (PST). Download speeds were 200-300 percent slower and appeared to be due to the Web servers taking a long time to respond to download requests. The situation worsened between 5:30 and 6:00 pm (PST) where downloads, which normally take 4-5 seconds to complete, were taking as long as 50-60 seconds. Finally, while significant slowdowns or errors have ceased, data has shown an increase in performance variability that began on Monday around 10:00 am (PST).
On Super Bowl Sunday, Careerbuilder.com hummed right along without any hiccups. However, the morning after the game between 10:20 and 10:53 am (PST) Keynote tracked slowdowns in creating an initial connection to their site.
Hyundai took a few online hits between 5:45 and 6:00 pm (PST) and then again from 6:26 to 6:45 pm (PST). Download times took between 20 and 30 seconds, up from around three seconds prior.
The National Football League’s Web site did surprisingly well the week leading up to and throughout the game. Keynote noticed only some minor slowdowns between 4:40 and 4:52 pm (PST). However, the following morning, between 10:46 and 11:30 am (PST), Keynote saw significant performance slowdowns and some minor outages. Previous download times took around 6 seconds while during this time, downloads took as long as 20 to 60 seconds.
Salesgenie.com’s Web site encountered major performance slowdowns — taking as long as 10-18 seconds from 5 seconds — as well as some errors downloading key elements on its Web site. These issues were seen between 1:30 and 2:00 pm (PST), 3:49 and 4:20 pm (PST), 5:35 and 6:24 pm (PST), and 7:21 and 8:35 pm (PST). Additionally, around 5:30 am (PST) on Monday, February 4, Keynote saw major slowdowns; albeit, at a lower scale.
Unilever, the maker of many domestic products, found its main home page slow down by as much as 500%, from 6 seconds to as long as 40 seconds. These issues were isolated between 4:01 and 4:30 pm (PST), 6:43 and 6:51 pm (PST), and 7:51 and 8:04 (PST). Interestingly, beginning around 2:45 am (PST) on Monday, some of these performance and availability issues continued. These performance slowdowns appear to be isolated incidents in making the first initial connection to the company’s Web server(s).
Keynote has an infrastructure of 2,400 measurement computers and mobile devices in over 240 locations around the world. The company also maintains what it calls one of the most representative panels of online users consisting of 160,000 consumers.
-----------------------------
GoDaddy.com is the best example of an advertiser who's main purpose was to drive online traffic. GoDaddy says it tracked some 1.5 million online visits, attributed to it's TV ad, by the time post-game celebrations were being broadcast. GoDaddy invited viewers to see it's Danica Patrick “Exposure” ad online, which was banned by FOX.
I'm still recovering from my attempt at 'live blogging' the Super Bowl commercials. One forgets how fast they fly by, and it's weird to time your bathroom breaks so you go during gametime, and keep TV-focused during commercial breaks. Thankfully, plenty of video sites carried - and still carry - all the ads that aired during the most watched Super Bowl ever. Sunday's big game drew some 97.5 million viewers, eclipsed by just one other TV event in terms of audience - 1983's MASH finale (106 million). So the advertisers got what they wanted ... a HUGE audience. Some big winners, and some big flops. So here's the most comprehenseive coverage of the coverage ... what various surveys revealed about the ads:
USA Today Ad Meter: Budweiser's ad featuring a Clydesdale and a dalmatian came out on top of USA Today's survey, making ten Ad Meter wins in a row for the King of Beers. The top five are as follows:
Anheuser-Busch/Budweiser (Clydesdale and Dalmatian) Rating: 8.73 (out of 10)
FedEx (Carrier Pigeons) Rating: 8.26
Bridgestone (Critters scream as car heads toward squirrel) Rating: 8.11
Doritos (giant rat goes for guy and his Doritos - a consumer generated ad) Rating: 7.94
Anheuser-Busch/Bud Light (fire breather heats up dinner) Rating: 7.84
The bottom five: GMC Yukon, Paramount's Iron Man promo, Under Armour, White House ONDCP drug ad ... and the least favorite: Doritos music video for online song contest winner.
USA TODAY created the Super Bowl Ad Meter in 1989. This year's Ad Meter was held in Chicago, Illinois and McLean, Virginia. 234 volunteers charted their second-by-second reactions to Super Bowl commercials using hand-held meters to register how much they liked or disliked an ad.
HCD Research: A national study tapping 2,400 Super Bowl viewers.
FedEx (Carrier Pigeons) Final score: 80.71
Anheuser-Busch (Clydesdale/dalmatian 'Rocky') Final score: 80.25
Coca-Cola (Balloons) Final Score: 78.51
Diet Pepsi Max (What is Love) Final score: 76.66
Bridgestone (Squirrel, critters) Final score: 75.87
From HCDs MediaCurves website: The two-phase research consisted of an initial qualitative phase in which a panel of experts viewed each ad during the game. They ranked the top 20 ads using various parameters, including breakthrough, emotion, memorability and involvement. Each commercial was assigned a value based on the mean of the responses for each advertisement. The top 20 ads in phase one were inserted into a web survey and sent to a national representative sample (2400 participants). In this phase, responders answered questions regarding perceptions of the ads, and used an automated response system to indicate level of interest in half-second intervals as they watched commercials.
Northwestern University: Graduate students at Northwestern received over 50,000 website hits from Fox viewers during real-time polling of Super Bowl ads. Using a technology called MIMIEO, the students polled viewers from multiple channels simultaneously to include Facebook (PickMe application), mobile devices such as the iPhone, and the website VoteSuperBowlAds.com. From the press release:
The students have released the EnMark Survey(TM) which evaluates advertisements on two key dimensions: entertainment value and marketing value. The entertainment score reflects the degree to which viewers like the advertisement. In contrast, the marketing score reflects the extent to which the ad influences viewers' perceptions of the advertised brand.
The survey also reports the vanity score of each ad - the difference between the entertainment and marketing scores. The vanity score reflects an excessive emphasis on creativity at the expense of building a preference for the advertised brand. An ad with a high vanity score is ranked as very entertaining while doing little to strengthen (and sometimes even hurting) the advertised brand. In contrast, a low vanity score indicates that the commercial is likely to strengthen viewers' preferences for the advertised brand even though the commercial itself is not perceived to be very entertaining.
The top Entertaining Ads:
IRONMAN (Paramount movie promo)
Pepsi (Bob's House)
Pepsi (Justin Timberlake)
Bud Light (Wine and Cheese)
Diet Pepsi Max
The worst entertaining ads: Sales Genie (Panda), Sales Genie (Plane), CareerBuilder.com (Firefly), and GMC (Yukon).
The top marketing ads (based on ability to influence viewers' perceptions of the brand):
Coke (Charlie Brown)
eTrade (Banking Baby)
Hyundai (Compared to Mercedes)
Doritos (Mouse Trap)
Bud Light (Language of Love, X-Ray Vision, Wine & Cheese)
The worst marketing ads: GarminGPS (Napoleon), Sales Genie (Plane), CareerBuilder (Firefly), and Sales Genie (Panda).
Ads which most effectively balanced entertainment and marketing:
IRONMAN
Audi (Godfather)
Diet Pepsi Max
Pepsi (Bob's House)
Bud Light (Breathe Fire)
Least effective ads in terms of balancing entertainment and marketing: GMC Yukon, Sales Genie (Plane), Cars.com (Witch Doctor), and Life Water.
Adbowl: Advertising ranking website for consumers developed by McKee Wallwork Cleveland in partnership with Rassai Interactive. Best ads according to consumers who weighed in at Adbowl.com (on a scale of 1-5):
“It’s no surprise that the Clydesdale ad performed so well for Budweiser,” said Steve McKee, president of McKee Wallwork Cleveland. “It’s as much an American institution as the game itself and people want to like the ad. Budweiser rarely disappoints when the horses are brought out of the stables.”
"What was a surprise this year was how poorly the other Anheuser-Busch spots fared,” said McKee. “They simply got out-played by more imaginative advertisers like FedEx and Bridgestone. Coke’s parade-themed spot, ‘It’s Mine’ was a great return to the big game."
McKee believes that viewership of the game, and therefore the ads, was high due to a lack of competing programming and the opportunity to witness history – either the second undefeated team in history or one of the greatest upsets in history. “This particular game was a touchdown for advertisers,” said McKee. ”The drama, the close score throughout, and the storybook finish all contributed to heightened interest. Second-half advertisers won big.”
Not much in the way of information at the AOL site, like number of consumers who weighed in. They do have a forum taking comments on the ads, and some 1900 comments were posted when I checked.
----------------------------------
So there you have it. I gave the Bud 'Rocky' ad good marks, but I did not think it was the best ad. I'm glad to see others felt the Bridgestone Tires 'Squirrel' ad, the Diet Pepsi Max 'What is Love' ad, the FedEx 'carrie pigeon' ad, and the Coke 'Balloons' ad were top drawyer. I am in agreement. Overall, a great game, and I'd say a pretty good batch of ads.
Here are the ads I watched in the fourth quarter (or watched via video sites later - yes, I did have to watch the end of that great game), with my grade and comments.
Career Builder (Wish Upon a Star): Grade B+ Much better than the gross-out heart ad. Taps into that 'dream of escaping' job misery.
SuperBowl Promo (Chester Pitts story): Grade A A real life story told exceptionally well. Inspirational, and funny.
Sunsilk (Madonna, Marilyn Monroe, Shakira): Grade B Not aimed at me. But seemed effective, and don't the ladies watching the game deserve some ads aimed specifically for them??
Coke (dueling Parade balloons): Grade A This one was exceptional. And you gotta love Charlie Brown coming out on top in the end. Go Chuck!
Coke (Political, Carville and Frist): Grade B- Timely with all the politics in the news. But a better match would've been Ann Coulter, or Karl Rove, to play opposite James Carville. Frist? Didn't work.
eTrade (Baby and clown): Grade A- OK, this baby spot worked. Almost peed my pants when the baby said he used extra 'coin' to rent a clown, but "underestimated the creepiness". Incredibly hip and well written, even if the use-a-talking-baby schtick is worn.
Taco Bell (Hola, Fiesta Platters): Grade B Pretty entertaining. And yes, I wanted to order some Taco Bell after watching the ad. Isn't that what's it all about?
Gatorade (man's best friend): Grade C- Only reason it gets a mid level grade is because it has a great black lab. I LOVE dogs, but what the heck is this ad doing? Confusing. Is the dog slurping Gatorade? Or are we being asked to decide which is man's best friend, dog or Gatorade? Slobbering dog does not make me want to purchase Gatorade.
Semi Pro/Bud Light (Will Ferrell as Jackie Moon for Bud Light): Grade A- Just made me laugh. And creative to have the Semi Pro comedy movie trailor followed by an ad for Bud Light featuring the movie's main character.
Victoria's Secret (In the Mood): Grade B Not a big Vic Secret guy. But great music, and as far as these ads go, almost wholesome. Well, almost.
Pepsi Amp (jumper cables guy): Grade D- Yikes. Fat disgusting tow truck guy attaches jumper cables to his nipples, and drinks Amp to start ladies car. Don't even know where to begin ripping this idea.
·Semi Pro: (Will Ferrel trailer)ConsumerPassion Grade A Ferrell is hilarious, and so is this movie promo.
·Cars.com:(witch doctor)ConsumerPassion GradeB+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.
·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:ASimple, very effective.Does exactly what it sets out to do.
·Wall-e: (preview of new Pixar film)ConsumerPassion Grade:Apreview 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.
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.
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.
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".
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.
Today's announcement that Starbucks will roll out a more consumer friendly Wi-Fi service is certainly a step in the right direction to create a richer "Starbucks experience". But holy cow, what took so long?? I've often wondered why Starbucks thought its deal with T-Mobile, where you paid $10 for a one day pass, or six bucks for an hour, was in any way a great benefit for consumers. It opened the door for competitors like Panera Bread and local coffee shops to offer free Wi-Fi as a differentiator. And sure enough, if you stroll into a Panera, you'll find a dozen or more people online. Oh, and they're usually purchasing food and drink as well. 
