This guest article is written by James Stewart who is a director at Geneva Film Co. in Toronto. When not directing "flatties" he's knee deep in the next dimension of advertising.
To 3D or not to 3D? That is the question. Agencies and brands alike continue to second-guess this ever-growing technology as though it was the new Betamax of the digital age. Is it really worth the production complexity and added expense? Will a large enough audience stand in awe of your creation's visual splendor to make it worth your while? The answer is quickly becoming a resounding 'YES'.
Let's face it, 3D is no longer an experience reserved solely for the latest state of the art cinemas. Digital 3D is everywhere. Flat-screen TV's, laptops, tablets, even smartphones like HTC's Evo 3D and LG's 3D Thrill are taking the 3D experience out of the theatre and putting it in the palm of your hand. And, with the advent of autostereoscopic technology (read: glasses-free), gone are the clunky Orbison-like lenses allowing instead for beautiful, full-color, hyper-crisp 3D to be viewed with the naked eye.
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Actress Minka Kelly and fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg have teamed up with Diet Coke and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute for the organization's The Heart Truth campaign. The campaign aims to increase awareness of heart health education programs for women.
An event on February 8, the Red Dress Collection Fashion Show, will, along with Kelly in a Diane von Furstenberg dress, feature five Diet Coke fans who were selected from those posting pictures of themselves in red dresses on Twitter, Tumlr and Instagram using the hashtag #ShowYourHeart. One grand prize winner, chosen by Kelly, will get a shopping spree with a style expert.
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Oh the honesty of children. Here we have eight year old Arturo giving his take on this year's Super Bowl commercials on behalf of Salt Lake City-based Crowell Advertising. Arturo didin't like too many of the commercials calling most of them stupid. Bob Parsons will love the fact Arturo thought his .CO ad was an ad for paint. He thinks there should be more monkeys in commercial and he had no idea what was going on in the Dannon commercial. Give it a watch.
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Email marketing. It makes you yawn, right? Creating and watching Super Bowl commercial is way more fun, right? But just how much trackable business can you expect from a Super Bowl commercial? Especially since most of you don't have $3.5 million to blow on a Super Bowl commercial.
Are you still yawning? You shouldn't be. Email marketing might be boring but it's cheap (ok, inexpensive) and it works. And you know when it works. And you know how it works. And you know why it worked. Can you say that about a Super Bowl commercial?
But it's just more fun to make a TV ad, right? It might be. But ask yourself this; are you in this business to have fun or to make money? Yea, yea, yea, it should be both but the bottom line is that you're doing it to make money for your company, your client's company and for yourself.
So if you hate email marketing and think it's boring that's OK. You're just going to be left behind by others that realize how well it works. But don't worry. Our white paper series is here to help. Check out Aprimo's Ten Steps to Effective Email Marketing. Ok? We good?
Many are wont to attribute a political agenda to the Clint Eastwood Chrysler Super Bowl message. I didn't see it as political at all. As Americans, it seems, we are all ever so eager to attribute everything to a political agenda that we sometimes forget to appreciate the plain old honest, hard working efforts most Americans put forth every day.
Not everything has to be about politics. Not everything has to have an agenda. Why can't we see this as a simple message about America getting its act together again. It's motivational. It's aspirational. Two qualities of key importance to any good ad.
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Altimeter analyzed this year's Super Bowl ads and uncovered five cross channel integration trends among brands in this year's game. The trends include:
1) Brands Heavily Invested in Promoting Traditional Websites
2) Surprisingly, Many Did Not Promote a Call-To-Action
3) Only a Sixth of Ads Explicitly Promoted Social Media
4) Hashtag Marketing Emerged to Stimulate Continual Engagement
5) Cutting Edge Marketers Teased with New Marketing Tactics, including Shazam
Altimeter found 57% (charts below) of Super Bowl ads linked to a website or a microsite but only 16% included social media links such as hashtags, Facebook or Twitter links. Eleven percent employed "emerging media technology" links such as Shazam, text messaging, mobile apps and QR codes. Conversely, 32% did not link to any online resource at all.
Just 1/6th of the ads explicitly promoted social media links. Six ads employed hashtags and just two brands promoted their Twitter accounts.
Eleven percent of ads used newer marketing tactics. Three ads promoted applications, three promoted SMS integration and GoDaddy used a QR code.
You can read Altimeter's full analysis here.
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M&M'S earned the top spot for its Ms. Brown ad, winning the eighth annual Kellogg School Super Bowl Advertising Review. Other top-ranked advertisers for 2012 include Skechers and Dannon, while Go Daddy, Cadillac and Hulu ranked at the bottom of the review.
"M&M'S commercial introduced Ms. Brown, a new character, and kept in line with the brand's equity," said Clinical Professor of Marketing Tim Calkins , who leads the event with a panel of students from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. "At Kellogg, our Review evaluates the ads based on strategic execution and the potential to build brands, and M&M'S did this well."
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And the results keep rolling in. In yet another metric that, let's be honest, amounts to a popularity contest, Volkswagen's Dog Strikes Back landed the top spot in this year's AdBowl, a Super Bowl commercial ranking system launched in 2001 by McKee Wallwork. Rounding out the top five were Doritos Man's Best Friend, Bud Light Rescue Dog, M&M's Ms Brown and Skechers Mr. Quiggly.
During and after the game, viewers who wanted to vote went to the AdBowl website or app and rated the commercials on a scale between one and five, with one being a "fumble" and five being a "touchdown." The scores were averaged in real time and a winner declared at midnight Eastern.
Because of a partnership with Facebook that extends the voting period, the USA Today Ad Meter results won't be final until 6PM EST Tuesday but the rankings can be viewed right now. Currently, the Doritos Sling Baby is in the top spot. The ad also landed in the top spot of the Mullen/Boston.com BrandBowl.
The Sling Baby spot is followed by Doritos Man's Best Friend (which was ranked number one by the physical Ad Meter group), Bud Light Weego, M$M's Just My Shell and Skechers Go Run (Mr. Quigly). Full results can be viewed here.
So here we are bright and early Monday morning reviewing all the ads from last night's Super Bowl and, wait, what? Chrysler's Clint Eastwood ad has been removed from YouTube because of a copyright claim by the NFL? We're guessing it has something to do with the reference to the game (halftime in America) that irked the NFL.
Oddly, Chrysler doesn't seem to be hosting their own ad on their website. They just have YouTube embed code which, of course, just delivers the copyright notice. What gives, NFL? Angry the company took U.S. tax dollars? Miffed Chrysler gave your big game publicity? Hmm.
It appears the NFL hasn't asked Hulu to remove the ad which you can view below.
UPDATE: The ad is back up but no explanation has been given by Google, the NFL or Chrysler for its mysterious disappearance.
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