Our Favorite Super Bowl Commercials.

The Super Bowl is all about the appetizers and commercials if your team didn’t make it to the big game (go Colts!). Days prior to the Super Bowl there was a lot of hype surrounding specific ads, as a few were released early on YouTube. I will say I had no interest in the game this year so I devoted all of my attention to the commercials and a majority of them did not disappoint. However, there were quite a few commercials that took a different route than the typical Super Bowl ads we’re used to seeing.

In the past, Super Bowl commercials use to be about which brand had the funniest commercial and generated the most laughs/buzz. This year several ads took a different approach and were very heartfelt and emotional. Some people might say they were trying to connect with viewers on a deeper level while critics categorized them as ‘depressing.’ Overall, there was a wide variety of commercials to capture all audiences. Below I have listed three takeaways from the Super Bowl commercials:

1. Featuring a puppy in a commercial is always a winner. For the third year in a row Budweiser used the ‘lost puppy’ commercial and it did not disappoint. This commercial had a lot of buzz prior to the Super Bowl. The ad went up on YouTube a few days before the Super Bowl and racked up 17.8 million views before it aired Sunday night. Budweiser won my vote for favorite commercial.

2. If you want to create a lot of buzz, feature a celebrity in your ad. Celebrities were a popular theme with this year’s commercials. They ranged from Rex Lee and Brett Favre’s Wix commercial to Liam Neeson’s Clash of Clans ad and Kim Kardashian’s T-Mobile performance. I really enjoyed Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel’s BMW commercial which starts off with a flashback to a conversation in 1994 about the new fad called the ‘Internet.’ However, my favorite celebrity commercial has to be the ‘Invisible Mindy Kaling’ Nationwide ad that also featured Matt Damon. This commercial was creative, fun, and very comical – everything I want in a super bowl commercial.

3. Ads that send positive messages regarding peace and love are bound to be a hit. Two ads that I thought shined due to their messaging were McDonald’s and Coca-Cola. McDonald’s slogan ‘I’m Loving It’ took a twist with their current promotion and ad ‘Pay with Lovin.’ In this commercial costumer’s are asked to perform a loving gesture as payment for their food. Where Coca-Cola sends the message ‘The world is what we make it #MakeItHappy’ in regards to bad internet behavior and bullying. Now these were two non-comical commercials that I enjoyed because they weren’t tear jerkers and sent positive messages

What were your favorites?

BizBash Social Media Workshop

On Wednesday we went to BizBash IdeaFest in Chicago and participated in a workshop organized by @IanSohn from Ogilvy & Mather on Social Media for Event Marketing. Ian’s presentation was Event-specific, but his ideas could also be implemented into any marketing plan. We discussed the importance of including social media – not as a tag-a-long after-thought to the overall effort – but having it's own agenda and specific purpose. Social media can be looked at as a way to ignite an entire campaign, promotion or event. It stretches the reach to include a larger audience… including virtual attendees, consumers, etc. through "word of mouth". These were my favorite take-aways:

PRE (Event, Campaign, Promotion)

– Establish a calendar – then tear it up

This point really resonated with me. I think it's great to have a plan but it takes away the essence of the vehicle to know what you're going to say ahead of time. We don't need to tweet just to tweet – it's better to be moved to. It can be what makes your tweet ring true – that something you saw or heard or experienced is something worth sharing. Basically, have a plan but be prepared that you probably won't follow it.

DURING

– 80/20 rule: Don't be boring

I like having rules to follow and this 80/20 breakdown is a great rule of thumb. 80% of your content should be relevant information, what's happening, what's engaging you, what you're interested in (and seeing and doing and hearing). Save the other 20% for self or brand promotion. Also, the best content is serendipitous – not planned!

POST

– Generate an Impact Report: How many tweets, re-tweets, favorites, shares, comments, likes, uploads etc.

To me, one of the best things about social media is the ability to track activity. Simply by including a #hashtag, we can search for content and record the results. How many people are interacting with Eire Direct? Our clients? Our creative??? What are they saying? These answers are so easy to collect – they are right there at your fingertips.

The main thing, you need a plan. It can and should be simple. It should allow people to exercise their own creativity and experience – but with a little added direction and forethought. Social media efforts can be everyone's job, or no one's job – so be clear about your objective and assign responsibilities accordingly.