Leave it to the advertising world’s most entertaining historians to twist the latest internet fad into an ingenious advertisement. I’m going to step out on a limb and say this is one of the best social media marketing plans yet. It’s simple to be a part of (to interact), it’s fun to check, the content is constantly fresh, and it is specific to the show itself. It is #Draping (a spin off of Planking). Check out Mad Men’s Draping Tumblr.
After watching the festivities this weekend, I decided I better write about the magnificence that was NBA All Star Weekend. I kind of wanted to blog about it when I found out viewers would be judging the slam dunk contest through Twitter (and other web outlets). But at that point, I couldn’t come up with much to say other than the NBA will be the next NFL if it keeps up its presence in social media. Now, after watching everything, I’ve got plenty of great things to say about how the NBA handled All Star Weekend.
First of all, it was loaded with entertainment: Kevin Hart (comedian) and Arne Duncan (US Secretary of Defense) kicking butt in the celebrity game, Shaq smack talking Blake Griffin in the rising stars challenge, flashy musical performances by Flo Rida, Nicki Minaj, Pitbull and a handful of others, Jeremy Evans’ two-ball dunk in the #SpriteSlam contest, and top notch hustling by both teams in the all star game.
Built into all the entertainment was fantastic marketing. Super Bowl commercials are good, but NBA All Star Weekend is scores ahead of the SuperBowl as far as advertising goes.
I’m not sure if it was planned this way (it may have been), but the celebrity game turned out to be a great advertisement for the new basketball movie Kevin Hart is in, Think Like a Man. Hart stole the spotlight several times during the game; mostly with his crazy antics that seemed an awful lot like those of his character in the film. The movie trailer was shown during the game, and Hart won the award for MVP. The whole thing worked out as a big advertisement for the movie.
After receiving the award, Hart shared it with his teammate, Arne Duncan. That’s funny because he’s the Secretary of Education, and one of the charitable causes of All Star Weekend was keeping high schoolers from dropping out. The All Star game shot clock rule was changed, from the usual 24 seconds, to 26 seconds because every 26 seconds a student drops out of high school.
The NBA even integrated their advertising into Twitter. As I mentioned earlier, they did away with judges for the slam dunk contest, and allowed viewers to vote via Twitter. On top of that, they made the voting hashtag “#SpriteSlam.” This not only advertised the NBA by making it a trending topic on Twitter, it advertised Sprite at the same time.
As you can see, the NBA was really on the ball for All Star Weekend 2012. And, of course, they had several awesome advertisements in the form of traditional TV commercials too. I’ll leave you with my favorite one which is a Sprint commercial featuring Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant. It’s the best celebrity endorsement commercial I’ve seen in a while.
I want to give a shout out to Robitussin for advertising new product packaging without using the “new look, same great product” cliche.
In their recent Overwhelmed commercial (click here to check it out), Robitussin lets consumers know they’ve got a new look, but they don’t just say so. They show consumers that they’ve made it easier to navigate the confusing cold medicine isle by switching to simpler packaging.
Blog Buffet is a part of Medium Joe where I list a few of my favorite blog posts. I only select posts of the highest quality so all can enjoy! Click the title to read the article, and click the author’s name for his/her website.
Recently, I’ve noticed two different commercials on TV selling products that run on batteries (check them out below); more specifically, using extended battery life as a selling point. One commercial is for a hybrid car, and the other is for a smart phone. What’s interesting about the commercials is that each uses a different technique to sell the same solution.
First of all, we’ll look at the commercial for Motorola‘s DROID RAZR MAXX. It’s basically a montage of yuppies talking about the importance of their phone and phone battery: “if my phone’s dead, my business is dead.”
Everybody has had their cell phone battery die at an inconvenient moment. This is a common problem; especially for smart phones. Battery life is very important. The DROID RAZR MAXX has the longest lasting battery of any smart phone. It’s an easy sell.
The creatives who made this commercial were wise not to make a commercial like Hyundai’s because everybody already understands the importance of cell phone battery life. Instead of drawing negativity to batteries, they used good looking, professional looking people to send the positive message that the problem has been solved, and to make it look like successful yuppies are using the DROID RAZR MAXX.
Most Americans have not experienced an inconvenience caused by a dead hybrid car battery. That’s why Hyundai needed to do what they did; draw negativity to batteries. They used the negative experiences consumers have most likely had with other batteries. Then, they sold on the slogan, “you’ll have one less battery to worry about.”
I’m not sure I would have used battery life in a hybrid commercial this early in the game. Especially since it requires bringing up negative occurrences. This creates the risk that consumers become turned off from hybrid cars all together. Hyundai brings attention to all the negativity of batteries, and then sells a car that runs on a battery.
I’ll, just as well, have one less battery to worry about if I don’t buy a hybrid car at all.
Then, maybe battery life is the only thing that makes Hyundai Sonata Hybrids stand out from the rest of the hybrids. If that is the case – if they’re not trying to sell to new car buyers, but to hybrid car buyers – they’ve got a solid commercial. In a humorous way, it shows the consumer that hybrid battery life could be a problem, and that it won’t be a problem with the Sonata.
I think the Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX commercial will sell more products even though the Hyundai Sonata Hybrid commercial is more creative in approach. Watch them both down below. Then, let me know what you think.
Congratulations to the New York Giants on winning Super Bowl XLVI! It was an impressive game for both teams. And I think Madonna may have shown up Lady Gaga in the “Bridgestone” halftime show.
Now, for what really matters: the commercials.
There were a few that I really liked. I think my favorite was the Clint Eastwood/Dodge one:
I also liked the Matthew Broderick/Honda one:
Which Super Bowl XLVI commercials did you like best?
Bing needs to stop trying to be a search giant in their commercials. They should try to be a search giant in reality, but in their commercials, they need to be specific. “Bing is for Doing” doesn’t really tell the audience anything. It doesn’t explain anything. It doesn’t make me want to use Bing instead of my default search engine, Google. It doesn’t make me want to use Bing at all.
“Bing is for Doing” is a fine slogan, but the commercials that accompany it need, then, to explain HOW. They need to show the consumer how Bing is for doing. Consumers aren’t going to trust the slogan and start using Bing for no reason.
The people at Bing need to be more specific with their advertising. They should focus on how they’re different from Google. They should bring attention to the specific things that are better about Bing. They do have a different image on their homepage each day. If they built hype up around that, they might gain some users. It’s also easier to just stumble or surf on Bing if you don’t really know what you want to look up. If they drew attention to that, they’d have a good chance at getting all of the bored teenagers online.
As a side note, I think it would be a bad idea for Bing to attack Google’s current incorporation of Google+ into its search results (a.k.a. Google, Plus Your World). First of all, Bing did something like this with Facebook long before Google did it. That aside, directly attacking the competition is distasteful and puts the brand in line with all the other losing companies that attack their competition.
The commercial below does have one solid element. That is, the “BING” sound when the Bing logo fills the screen toward the end of the spot. That sound probably won’t become well-loved like a jingle, but it really fits the search engine. It’s just a quick, soft “BING” that could become an integral part of the brand.
The Bing commercial (above) is cool because it tells the story of a snowboarder, but that’s all it really does. And what does a professional snowboarder have to do with searching the internet? According to this commercial, you can search his name, and he enjoys watching videos of himself online.
The company could turn this guy into a spokesperson, and produce a series of commercials in which he demonstrates how he uses Bing to enhance his snowboarding. In that case, the commercial would make sense as a way of introducing the man.
Right now, it’s a commercial that isn’t doing Bing much good. The good it is doing is spreading and maintaining awareness of the search engine. It is important for consumers to be aware, but that awareness happened a couple years ago. I am of the opinion that this commercial was a waste of resources.
I’m a young guy. I understand that my opinions may be incorrect. That’s why I want this to be a discussion. Let me know what you think of the commercial!
Blog Buffet is a part in which I list a few of my favorite blog posts. I only select posts of the highest quality so all can enjoy! Click the title to read the article, and click the author’s name for his/her website.
