ANA Marketing Maestros

"Everybody Wants to Work in Marketing"

By Will Waugh

My favorite quote (thanks goDaddy.com) from a rather inconspicuous round of creative showcased for the Super Bowl. Everyone will have their Top Ten Lists, good and bad, but I recommend taking a look at a group of experts, pundits, bloggers and creative types over at SuperAdFreak. Seth Godin mentions there is nothing like the good old days when the Apple 1984 ad transformed commercials in to content and advertisers looked to create something that would be talked about versus actually trying to sell something. Here is the Apple story from our recent publication The Super Bowl of Advertising: Are Advertisers Still Winning the Game?

Bob Garfield, of course, has his opinion (on video no less!) over at AdAge.com. If you missed the ads, CBS is hosting them here.

Technorati tags: super bowl advertising word of mouth

What's the Big Deal About the Super Bowl?

By Kaitlin Villanova

Who would have known that the same sports event with 30,000 empty seats in 1967 would eventually become the most watched, most anticipated, most expensive event in the world of television advertising? Today, with more than 750 million viewers around the world, advertisers pay upwards of $2 million for a 30-second spot.

According to TNS Media Intelligence, over the past 20 years Super Bowl advertising totaled 682 minutes, that’s over 11 hours of commercial time. During those 11 hours, over 200 different advertisers bought more than 1,400 spots and spent $1.72 billion in network advertising sales.

The hottest commercial this year? It may be for Bud Light, starring Jay-Z and former Miami Dolphins coach Don Shula. Watch as the two men engage in a chess-like high tech football game that uses holographic imagery. The Bud spot is part of Jay-Z's new partnership with St. Louis-based brewer Anheuser-Busch as co-brand director for Budweiser Select.

My favorite from last year (and Will and Barbara’s as well) is the FedEx Caveman commercial still available on YouTube.

The newest ANA title The Super Bowl of Advertising: Are the Advertisers Still Winning the Game? by Bernice Kanner (who recently passed unexpectedly) takes you through a number of case studies from dozens of advertisers over the years. It includes an ROI analysis of Super Bowl advertising effectiveness, and a historical perspective of the evolution of successful marketing campaigns.

Go Bears!

Branded Entertainment- $7.5 Billion by 2010

"So where is advertising going with all this stuff like Tivo? Is it going to be just a bunch of product placement in our TV shows?"

That is what a friend asked me this weekend. Branded entertainment purists should rejoice, the business is only going to continue to grow regardless of whether the executions are good or not. A hot off the press ANA publication, Best Practices in Branded Entertainment, reviews how to do this right, as well as some of those who have succeeded (IAG contributed tracking and ROI for many of the case studies). Go here for a breakdown on a Ten Point Plan for Better Branded Entertainment which expands on the questions below:

• Is it brand relevant and brand positive?
• Does it build brand awareness?
• Does it break through advertising clutter?
• How long is the integration on-screen? Is it long enough for viewers to notice?
• Is it organic?
• Can the integration build buzz?
• Is there a demonstration of your product or service in the program? Or, can the program highlight key brand attributes?
• Will the program generate positive publicity and media coverage?
• How does the program relate to the rest of your brand marketing? If it’s an event, does it have a beginning, middle, and end?
• The prize is ROI. What’s the return on investment? What results do you plan to measure – and how will you do it?

Technorati tags branded entertainment marketing

New Products: Why they Fail

ANA's latest title, New Products: The Next Big Marketing Revolution written by Robert Schulman is now available. This thorugh examination of new product development lays out the scope of the problems in creating successful new products, and more importantly explains the process you need to follow to avoid these pitfalls.

I have included an excerpt which is a checklist on the Top 10 Reasons New Products Fail. Please take a look and pass it around. Thanks for letting me plug our publications business.

Nice as a Competitive Advantage

Linda Kaplan Thaler follows AG Lafley on Day One of our Annual Conference kicking off next week. Largely regarded as a maven in the creative field, Linda's latest publication The Power of Nice is a light hearted dive that discredits the saying "nice guys finish last." The book is even featured on one of my father's favorite blogs, The Huffington Post with a quiz that asks - Do you know how to harness The Power of Nice into success? It is also discussed on the blog What's Next in Marketing, scribed by an employee of Kaplan Thaler's agency who reinforces that the theme of the book is, in fact, backed up by the author's actions.

I personally enjoyed the book and it is a read that can be polished off in one sitting. I encourage folks to pick up a copy whether you are already nice or not. You might pick up some golden nuggets that help you win millions of dollars in business like Ms. Kaplan Thaler.

Managing Your Media Organization

When we started this blog, I never realized what a great avenue it was to discuss our book publishing efforts -- until I realized everyone is doing it, so why not. Our members tell us what intellectual property they want developed and we do our best to comply. Our newest title, Managing Your Media Organization, is one of these efforts. Client side advertisers, big and small, across every industry are struggling with their media and how to manage it. An interesting excerpt from Marketing Vox on media:

"Marketing accounts for about one trillion dollars of spending in the U.S. annually. If marketers slow their spending, that could hurt traditional media channels and the economy overall."

I have included an excerpt from the book (not an e-book, just a simple excerpt) -- a checklist of watch outs for those dealing with the the transitory stages a lot of media organizations are going through. Feel free to pass it along.

Life After the :30 Coming to the ANA

Congratulations to Joseph Jaffe on being named to Viral Garden's Top 25 Marketing Blogs. Jaffe Juice is a blog full of rich insight on the complex marketing landscape. Coincidentally, Joseph is speaking to a room full of our senior marketers tomorrow on his vision of Life After the 30-Second Spot.