Mrs. Tebow can't act and the no-pants trend on the Superbowl tonight

I thought that everyone seemed to be playing it a little safe in Superbowl Ad-land this year. I found most of the ads to be rather forgettable, but here are my thoughts on the rest.

The Tebow Spot:
Like I said, Mrs. Tebow doesn't have a future in Hollywood. That being said, overall that was a lot of hype for something so lame. And the production of the whole thing...little too much Apple and E-Harmony in there. It seemed to rely very heavily on the URL call to action at the end. However, no search terms about that spot made it into the Google search trends or Bing xRank, which means that either everyone remembered that URL and went straight there, or the spot was pretty ineffective, relative to other spots (more about those below).



The Beer Advertising Monopoly:
Anheuser-Busch is the ONLY beer advertiser in the Superbowl? And honestly have to say that I was a little disappointed in the overall beer ads. Beer ads used to literally run the Superbowl - what is up with them now? I think Budweiser is taking the horses a bit far now, and personally, of the beer ads, I only liked BudLight's T-Pain Spot:



The Car Spots (and lack there of):
I really expected more form the American car makers, but the Dodge spot was good. I found most of the spots pretty lame for Hyundai and Kia, but I think VW did a great job making a classic Superbowl spot. They took an idea so simple that everyone, from age 6 to age 90 can understand, and turned it into a spot. SlugBug. I liked it.





The Google Spot:
A first for the search engine, and it was definitely cute. Once again, points for being a very simple quick-get idea. I think most people can relate to it. But I find it interesting that this was loaded onto YouTube back in November, so obviously not made just for the Superbowl. Last-second media buy discount, or strategic move?



The Internets
Since people kept talking about social media and the Superbowl, I expected stronger calls to action driving to websites, social media, and texting in spots, but really didn't see too much. However, some naturals prevailed in search as usual. Dockers seemed to take the cake for most search terms on Google, and Bud and GoDaddy appeared to win on Bing. Most notable is that there was no mention of the Focus on the Family spot, or those Intel spots that were hell-bent on getting you to go submit a moment to their microsite. That means if there is a load of traffic, it is coming from direct entry of the URL, or it just isn't popular enough to get on those trends lists. Once all the buzz around spots happens over the next few days, I think we'll have some more info to report on.

Overall trend = No Pants
I couldn't really figure out why there were so many spots with guys not wearing pants? Dockers, Coke and Careebuilder.... Did anyone else find it funny that Careerbuilder.com's "Casual Friday" was played back-to-back with the Dockers "Men Without Pants" spot?

Funniest that I didn't talk about above: Snickers

Worst that barely deserve a mention: Sketchers and FloTV.

The Rest:
If you missed them, want a chance to see them all again, or just need some commenting material, check them out in Hulu's sweet little widget, below:

And maybe in life, too.

me: all you have to do to succeed in social media is be nice and be real

Erin: fact



Debate in the comments.

Twitter = New Water Cooler?

Mashable questioned whether Social Media could have been the cause of the spike in Grammy's viewership this Sunday, which I think is a cool idea to think about (as you saw from my last post), but the Bill Nye within me (that's what she said?) cries, "TOO MANY VARIABLES!" I mean, come on... you know half of the people, if not more, were tuning in to catch what insane circus act the Haus of Gaga would spit out. BTW - Elton John... fabulous.

But the most important part of the article, to me, was the idea of Twitter becoming our water cooler. (Of course, I'm not talking solely about Twitter, but any microblogging service or even Facebook's status updates.) Now, I may be somewhat nerdy and we ALL know how nerdy my friends are *cough*ERINandLIBBY*cough*, so I am wondering what you all think. Do you think that these sharing sites are creepin in on the watercooler's mojo among the greater Internet population? Do you think it is making next-day chatter at the office "like, SO 10 hours ago"?

I sometimes find myself not wanting to re-tweet articles when I know they've been out there for a few hours. I think, "Nah... this is old news..." I even considered not writing this post because the Mashable article was "so yesterday." But then I realized, maybe not everyone is as nerdy as Libby and Erin. Whoops... forgot to cover that up with a cough. My bad.

But then again, if you're reading this, it's very likely you're in the nerd boat with us. (And I mean no offense by this! Truly. I mean it in the endearing/smart/sometimes a little awkward sort of way.)

I'm the one on the right. Cuddlin'. Erin & Libby: you can fight over the other two.

I'm a Fan

Grammy's. This Sunday. Me = excited.

I've always liked the Grammy's, but I've never been particularly moved by its advertising before. But that was before....

This is now.

Shit's gone social.

I first noticed the social element of the Grammy's campaign when I saw the Beyoncé television spot with user generated YouTube video clips pieced together, making a visual and audio collage of awesomeness.

Don't get me wrong... the singing itself wasn't Grammy-worthy (in fact, it made me feel like I was back at Blarney listening to a bunch of drunk college girls screeching together into the microphone for karaoke), but the concept was so interesting. So social. So... modern.

We are all fans, we want to feel like we're a part of what's gotten the artists to this milestone in their career. In a way, we've all contributed to their nomination (or, if they're lucky, their award.) Every time I post a song to my Twitter followers, I'm helping spread the fan-dom. And the crazies that are ballsy enough to record themselves singing and post it to YouTube are helping as well... well... some not so much, but whatevs. (Lady GaGa TV spot here... I actually prefer this one because it's a little less shrilly.)

So, I was already excited, right? And then I saw the website.

GAAAA... I'M IN LOVE!

Now, I know I'm a social media nerd. I admit it. However, this site is not only beaUUUUUtiful (props to TBWA\Chiat\Day & Visible Technologies), it's informational, engaging & it drives viewers to create their OWN collage with real-time social media updates for their favorite artists.

Oh yeah. I did it. Check it. (May take a while to load, but SO worth it.)

Overall, well done. Loves it.

Pizza Turnaround; Breadstick Standstill

Jameson and I ordered Domino's tonight at my insistence because I've been totally mesmerized by the Pizza Turnaround campaign. Some will argue that it's an admission that Domino's had shitty pizza. Well, yeah, it is. But it's also the only way they could ever get customers (like me) who had made up our minds that Domino's = failfest to try it again. Also, it's an admission that they are listening to what people are saying, and their social media has gone from crisis management to being reactive and receptive.

Anyway.

The new pizza was pretty, pretty, pretty good. I'd say at least Pizza Hut quality. But I'm not here to talk about pizza. I'm here because online we ordered breadsticks:

Pretty standard, 8 pieces with dipping sauce. Yum. We received:

Perhaps Pizza Turnaround really was just an ad campaign, and not an actual recommitment to quality? Sad face.

Ninja Your Way into the Super Bowl

I'm not sure that I can say he's a hometown hero now that I live in New York, but our buddy Mike Rylander (who also made an appearance on Yaybia in 2008) is co-starring Snack Time Samurai, a finalist in the Doritos Crash the Super Bowl contest!

Now, it's no secret that I love ninjas, but my love for Doritos Nacho Cheesier throwing stars might be greater. Mike & his crew have already snagged $25K for making it into the final six, but if they take top honors (vote here!), Doritos is gonna give them a shit ton of cash.

GAP Employee Cheer

Okay... so I'm not completely sold on the GAP television spots with the cheers. I know, they're festive, they're happy and they fit the brand personality. However, I don't find them particularly creative. (Call me Scrooge...)

I know friends that have sent GAP cheer via cheerfactory.com and quite liked doing so. I think it's great that they're giving the giver and givee 20% off, but I probably won't send any because I has no moneys.

On a completely complimentary note, however, I DO think the campaign has succeeded in internal relations with its Cheer Off competition among stores. GAP stores across the U.S. and Canada (I think... those are the only vids I found) competed with each other to make a festive GAP-themed cheer video. I have no clue what the prize was for the winners of the competition, but I do know what GAP received from this: workers who felt a little more tied to the company. (Insert "Oh how sweet..." sigh here.)

Just take a look at some of these videos. There are terrible ones on YouTube if you search "GAP Cheer," but I've just posted a few of the better ones here.

Here's one, which is a take of the J&K Wedding Entrance Dance video that became so popular on the interwebs:

Then there's "Baby Got GAP." Not my favorite, but the girl at the beginning makes me laugh:

And, of course, "Plaid Romance," my personal favorite. (Okay... I'm biased because I know one of the girls in it. Lauren Sudbrink! WOOT WOOT!)

These little creative exercises can really bring a group of employees together. They may have been only co-workers before, but I bet they feel a little more like friends after spending this time together.

BEWARE: ÜBER CHEESY END REMARK APPROACHING!

Now that's something to cheer about.