Posted By teamdesign on February 8, 2010

Did anyone laugh during this year’s Super Bowl ads? Normally an entertaining sideshow, the 2010 Super Bowl ads were the lamest ads in recent memory. Sure watching Betty White get decked was slightly amusing and I always like to see The Simpson’s but none of the ads stood out as being immensely creative.

I suppose you can blame the economy once again for forcing companies to cut back on their creative budget. However, either way you are still paying professional writers to come up with scripts for these ads. This is all they could come up with? Are the writers holding back because they aren’t getting paid as much or are the managers of the brands steering the writers in a lame direction? Whatever the issue is, I’ll give you free ideas for your Super Bowl ad next year if you are having problems coming up with something entertaining.

My favorite ad was the one with David Letterman, Oprah, and Jay Leno (see below). Maybe it wasn’t hilarious but the shock value made it interesting. For Leno to show up on an ad for Late Night with David Letterman was both shocking and memorable. That’s usually a pretty good combination for an effective ad.

The other ad that I liked was the Doritos ad with the dog and the shock collar. Maybe because I’m a sucker for dogs but I thought it was pretty funny and somewhat memorable.

According to social media measuring tools, Doritos came out on top as far as generating the most tweets and Facebook activity. For me, Doritos, Budweiser, and Coke were the three brands that I remembered the most but that was more for the quantity of commercials rather than the quality of the creative in the ads.

Other Notes:

• Was it coincidence that the year of “Pants on the Ground” delivered two Super Bowl ads back-to-back with people with no pants on?
• Did Google really need to promote it’s search engine? Google is in the dictionary. I was surprised it wasn’t promoting any of it’s other endeavors.
• I think bringing back Jim McMahon and the Super Bowl Shuffle sounded better in the board room than it looked on TV. Nice try I guess.

If you missed this year’s ads and would like to see them, go to http://superbowlads.fanhouse.com/. Now what do we do until next football season? Don’t even think of telling me to watch basketball.

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Tags: branding super bowl, super bowl ads, super bowl commercials

Posted By teamdesign on January 26, 2010

Tight budgets, fewer buyers, tougher competition. These are some of challenges many businesses are facing in 2010. Here are a few tips to help your business get on the right track.

1. Network! Network! Network! Oh and one more thing: Network!
It may not come naturally–particularly for some of us introverts–but making connections will be crucial for 2010 and beyond. Marketing is moving more toward relationships so the more quality connections you can make, the better. If you can’t handle monitoring and promoting your brand online, you need to hire someone to do it.

2. Differentiate your brand: Figure out ways to distinguish yourself from your competitors and tell everyone about that distinction. Don’t just be a realtor, be a realtor that specializes in real estate owned (REO) properties in Jefferson County. Everyone knows a realtor but not everyone knows one that specializes in REO properties in Jefferson County. Determine your unique selling proposition if you don’t already have one and modify your marketing materials to reflect that.

3. Tracking: Improve your marketing campaigns through more effective tracking. Are you in a habit of placing ads in the same publications without knowing their effectiveness? Are you paying for online directories and are unsure if you are getting your money’s worth? If you are like a lot of companies with limited marketing dollars for 2010, you need to be sure you are tracking every marketing campaign. If you are doing print ads or direct mail, put a coupon in your ad that is exclusive to that campaign. For your website and online campaigns, if you don’t have any tracking mechanisms installed and aren’t acting upon the information in those stats, you’re either wasting money or leaving some (or a lot) of it on the table.

4. Get with the times! Make sure your website is in tune with the Web 2.0 world. Does your website still have the same content as the brochure you made two years ago? While we are sticklers for consistency of message, having a stagnant website is way out of style. You need to have a blog, Twitter feed, Facebook link or all of the above on your website to keep your site visitors interested and informed.

5. Leverage your existing customers and clients: Market to your current customer base! You’ve probably heard this many times before, but marketing to people who have already purchased your services is by far the easiest and cheapest way to retain existing customers and even get new ones. If you are not sending emails or online messages to former customers or not collecting email addresses from current ones, you are losing business. Let your customers know what you’re up to and send them some sort of perk once in awhile. Like a coupon or some free, valuable information.

6. Thought leadership: Become a reliable provider of information for your industry. If you have studied internet marketing at all, you’ve heard the phrase, “Content is King.” 2010 will be no different. As people continue to go online for news and information, your industry knowledge will become increasingly valuable. Separate yourself from competitors by offering insight into things where you have specific expertise. And, the higher quality content you produce, the more likely people will “retweet” your article or add it to their Facebook page or email it to colleagues. This will give you more exposure and help increase the value of your website in the eyes of Google and other search engines. Quality content will allow customers to find you rather than you searching for them.

7. Solicit and promote testimonials and reviews. Encourage customers to leave you testimonials or leave a positive review of your product/services on sites like Yelp, Insider Pages, and Yahoo Local. Ask for recommendations on sites like LinkedIn. Building trust is important and will help turn website visitors into customers.

8. Time management, people! Manage your time more effectively. Some of us have jobs where we have to answer every phone call and every email all the time but for the rest of us, you need to set aside time for no-interruption work. You can’t get work done if you are going to allow yourself to be constantly interrupted by Twitter, Facebook, email, and phone calls. Set short term goals and don’t tweet until they’re complete!

Do you need ideas on how to achieve your business goals in 2010? For a free consultation on marketing consulting, fill out our contact form.

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Tags: marketing tips, networking, online marketing, time management

Posted By teamdesign on January 20, 2010

Amy Winehouse - Will she headline at Comfort Dental Amphitheater?

Once again the Denver area’s worst music venue, Fiddler’s Green, has been renamed. First it was Fiddler’s Green, then Coors Amphitheater, then back to Fiddler’s Green, now it’s Comfort Dental.

Nothing says rock concert like Comfort Dental. How do you think Amy Winehouse is going to feel if she plays there?

According to the VP of Comfort Dental, “When people enjoy the music at Comfort Dental Amphitheatre, that positive feeling carries over to our brand and their next dental visit. The partnership with Live Nation underscores our commitment to a positive experience with Comfort Dental.”

So after rocking out to Nine Inch Nails all night you can go home with even a bigger smile knowing that Comfort Dental is there to take take care of you. Personally, I think there are better ways to spend your marketing dollars than renaming venues. Or at least can we name them after something that makes sense? How about the Fender Amphitheater?

Or how about keeping the same name for more than a few years? It’s bad for the amphitheater’s brand to keep renaming it every few years. Besides, everyone calls the place Fiddler’s Green anyway so it’s pointless to pay for  naming rights. There’s no way I’m going to say that I’m seeing the Doobie Brothers at Comfort Dental.  I mean how bad does that sound for the band. They would probably rather say they are playing Six Flags than Comfort Dental.

You can read more about this pointless renaming here.

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Tags: branding, branding faux pas, comfort dental, fiddler's green