Super Bowl ads: Three categories say it all (nearly)

By · 2 Comments

Once as a brand manager I was shown the same storyboard twice, a couple of years apart.  The twist?  This “new ad concept” was presented for two entirely different product categories at two different companies.  Detergent and food.  Same agency. (BBDO, if you must know.)  I don’t recall the storyboard, but I’m certain it was the same generic, gratuitous entertainment I’d come to expect.  Nary a distinctive brand truth in sight.

Ditto for Sunday’s Super Bowl ads.  The game was exciting and wasn’t Beyoncé terrific?  But the ads were almost entirely stale, even when outfitted with new effects and cultural references, because they fit into predictable categories.  There were a (very) few notable exceptions, and only one stunner.  I’ll cover these in my next post.

May I present the Three Categories of Super Bowl ads?

1. AnyBrand Entertainment

Like the aforementioned storyboard, these are stand-alone bits that could be tweaked to work for nearly any brand, in nearly any category of product.  A few have requirements like an irresistibility story (Doritos) or Big American Brand (Jeep, Ram Truck), but any number of brands could sub in for the brand featured in these ads.

The biggest category by far, AnyBrand Entertainment came in assorted flavors:

Of course, some of these are fun to watch.  But it’s such a waste, especially when you think of the outlandish production and media expenses.  Not a single one of these ads is likely to have lasting impact on the brand, no matter how entertaining or heartwarming, because the brand funding it all isn’t intrinsic to the show. The show’s the thing.

2. Screeching Stereotypes

This category serves up clichés for yucks.  No need to think, when you can just put a new band on an old hat and recharge those old biases to boot!

The only conceivable value from these bottom-fishers is reminding people of the brand name.  Yet who would honestly want to be associated with such tired and offensive conventionality?

3. What Did You Expect?

This category could also be called There You Go Again.  Another incarnation of the same shtick, this time at stratospheric prices for Super Bowl airtime and, in some cases, the celebrities you’ve added.  We know you, and may even enjoy your ads (what’s the E-Trade talking baby going to say this time?), but you’re not exactly breaking new ground here.

Examples include: GoDaddy, Pepsi, Calvin Klein, E-Trade, and Bud Light.

This category may have signal value, like having a store on Fifth Avenue.   It says: “We’re still here and have money to burn.” So it’s the most sensible investment of the three categories.  And hey, it was fun to see Stevie Wonder.  But still, at nearly $4 million for 30 seconds, is it too much to ask for something a little grander than More of the Same?

Next up: The proud, the few. Notable ads from Super Bowl 2013.

 

Marketing song: They call me a megabrand

By · Add Comment

We’re never far from junior high, it seems, even when we’ve gotten decades away from those squirm-inducing days of yore.

We still yearn for popularity.  And we so want to be cool.  Nowhere does that seem more pronounced than in marketing these days, where the pursuit of acclaim on social media feels both frenzied and, at some level, desperate and silly.

Everyone’s doing it–or trying to.  We’re exhorted to follow and Like brands including those in the deep recesses of our medicine cabinet and kitchen cupboards.  Um, why exactly would we want to do that?  It’s almost as if they’re saying: “Hey, look.  I’m wearing bell-bottoms, too!”

Over a year ago I drafted a marketing song about the pursuit of trendiness, but I had to update it now in light of all the changes in the social media landscape.  Gilbert and Sullivan fans will recognize this from HMS Pinafore.  Let me know what you think and what other topics you’d like to see turned into songs!

They Call Me a Megabrand
(to the tune of “I’m Called Little Buttercup”)

They call me a megabrand, dear little megabrand,
Though I’m so humble and shy.
But still I’m a megabrand, edgy as contraband,
Sweet little megabrand I!

On Twitter I’m trending, on Goggle ascending,
On YouTube I’ve viral acclaim!
I’m stylish and pricey, so cool that I’m icy–
Without me you’re dated and lame.

My ads are ironic, my status iconic,
My margins are plump and divine.
I’m pinned, Liked and tweeted, all metrics exceeded:
My hipness is pure bottom-line.

So get you a megabrand, this moment’s megabrand,
Retailers now standing by!
Before I’m an also-ran, marked down for clearance-land.
Keep me a megabrand–buy!

Reframing First World Problems

Emotional punch from reframing

By · Add Comment

In this short video from WATERisLIFE, tweets from the popular hashtag #FirstWorldProblems are used to brilliant effect.  As impoverished residents of Haiti recite whiny gripes of the privileged (like you and me), we are shown a mirror, and the view isn’t pretty.  Nonetheless, it’s done with gentleness, and its power is real.

Happily, the Twitter feed #FirstWorldProblems is intended to be satirical, but most reading this are probably guilty of thinking comparable thoughts.  After viewing this it’s not enough to admire their marketing savvy.  I just made a donation.  How about you?

Outstanding (fun) video on left- and right-brain

By · Add Comment

I recently came across this marvelous, highly entertaining video about the specializations of the left and right brain.  Well worth the nearly 12 minutes.

If you don’t have 12 minutes, here’s a quick recap of the critical points for business people:

  • The left brain excels at providing a narrow focus on things that are already known to be important.  It offers clarity and power to manipulate things that are known, fixed, static, isolated, general in nature, stripped of context, and lifeless.
  • The right brain excels at sustained, broad attention to the world and is on the lookout for things that might be different from our expectations.  Understanding context and implicit meaning, it deals with what is individual, changing, evolving, interconnected and involves living beings within the context of the lived world.
  • The left brain has become dominant in Western culture for a variety of (largely self-perpetuating) reasons.  Awareness of the gifts of the right brain has declined.

Nature has given us two hemispheres, and clearly we need both.  Whole-brained thinking is the clearest path to ideas that are both compelling and sensible.

In today’s ever more complex, competitive, and fast-changing world, where are the greatest challenges and opportunities likely to come from?  From what we already know and can pin down and manipulate with labels and sophisticated metrics?  Or what may be just taking shape, what may be only felt or dimly perceived, arising from that messy human world out there?

Enjoy the video and let me know what you think!

CEO scandals: Three types that can harm your brand

By · Add Comment

The news has been full of CEO misdeeds lately.  A quick recent harvest:

Best Buy: Company founder Richard Schultze stepped down as chairman because he failed to alert the board of directors about CEO Brian Dunn’s “inappropriate relationship” with a female subordinate.  Dunn had resigned in April.

Yahoo:  CEO Scott Thompson resigned after only four months on the job amid a controversy over whether he fudged his resume.  He’s alleged to have added a bogus computer science degree to his accounting degree from Stonehill College.

Liberty Mutual: Jaw-dropping spending at this insurance firm has been exposed in a recent series by Boston Globe columnist Brian McGrory.  Instances include a $50 million annual pay package for former CEO Ted Kelly, five corporate jets flown primarily to his summer home and resort destinations, and a $4.5 million office remodel by successor CEO David Long.

So what?

Okay, okay.  But who on earth cares—and what does this have to do with my brand?  Maybe nothing.  But here are three circumstances in which a CEO scandal may harm your brand.

1. Icky = sticky

Most personal misbehavior, like a juicy tale of adultery or a sorry one of domestic violence, is likely to be attributed to the individual, not the company.  But if your CEO’s behavior violates a true social taboo, like pedophilia or incest, it’s much more likely to have a wider impact. When the violation touches a raw cultural nerve, it risks spreading to the brand or company, especially if he/she has risen through the ranks.  The aftershock calls everything into question:  How could they hire, much less promote someone that twisted?  In these (happily) rare circumstances, the ick-factor could stick to the brand for a good long while.  (As an adjacent example, I refuse to watch Woody Allen movies.)

Best Buy’s CEO scandal came at a lousy time for the company (as online retailers continue to gain), and it’s unfortunate to see the founder of an innovative company leave on terms not his own.  But brand-wise this incident is a harmless blip.  A garden-variety dalliance wasn’t properly reported.  Borrring!

2. Pervasive idiocy

A corporate brand can suffer if everyone running the company looks like idiots.  When stupidity is widespread, people can legitimately wonder: what’s going on there?  Particularly vulnerable are brands where being smart matters.  Like Yahoo.

By failing to check the CEO’s credentials, Yahoo was asleep at the switch on basic due diligence.  This is a doh! error at all times, but especially troubling for such a high-profile hire.  And especially for a company that already has a stormy leadership history.  (Prior CEO Carol Bartz was controversial—and ousted by phone).  Hello?

As for Thompson: resume padding is always dumb, because it’s so easily caught.  But padding a degree from Stonehill College?  Which didn’t even have a computer science department in 1979?  Stonehill is a worthy little Catholic college in a leafy Boston suburb, but it’s no MIT.  Finally, this all came to light because an activist shareholder, Dan Loeb of Third Point, found it through (you gotta love this) a Google search.  That little tidbit alone speaks volumes about Yahoo.  Ouch!

3. Hitting the brand jugular

Here’s a dirty little secret in marketing: most brands are little more than dressed-up commodities.  Sadly, this is true not just for detergents and packaged foods but also for services like banking and insurance.  Minute differences are played to the hilt to people who mostly don’t care, but we brand folk work hard to get people to buy Our Stuff vs. Competitor Stuff.  If we’re good (and sometimes lucky), we can find a little piece of ownable turf that’s both relevant and believable.  If we’re smart, we develop strong messaging that cuts through the clutter, and we stay with it over time so people can begin to see us as a Little Bit Different and Better.

Liberty Mutual had done just that.  In a long-running campaign that has been, of all things, a pleasure to watch, the company has stressed responsibility as a theme, as illustrated in this commercial.


“Responsibility.  What’s your policy?” Most people probably don’t know Liberty Mutual well but would believe it’s possible that an insurance company somewhere is responsibly run.  And it’s something people would dearly love to believe.

Then along comes a parade of evidence that completely undermines the hard-won brand proposition.  Arrrggh!!

The stories emerging about the company are well documented—and damning.  Not only is Liberty Mutual irresponsible, it is way more so than its peers.  Systemic, entrenched irresponsibility at the top eviscerates the brand’s claim.

At least one letter has appeared in the Globe from a policyholder who dropped Liberty Mutual because of the articles.  Doubtless other folk have switched as well. If the stories gain traction, the company will be cruising for a bruising.

Rot at the top: A core American story

What’s a brand to do when the CEO falters?  Not much, alas.  But it’s worth noting how the three noteworthy misdeeds above came to light.

  • The harmless Best Buy story?  Company policy that worked.
  • The Yahoo story, more damaging?  An activist shareholder.  All it took was a Google search and a phone call to Stonehill.
  • The Liberty Mutual scandal, potentially the most damaging by far?  This caught the attention of an experienced and widely respected journalist—most likely through a local source.

The classic French playwright Moliere once wrote:

“It is a public scandal that offends; to sin in secret is no sin at all.”

But companies can’t–and shouldn’t–count on sins staying secret in these transparent times.  Especially when the tale is one of serious Rot at the Top.

In “An American Morality Tale,” Robert Reich has written about four core American stories, one of which is the notion of Rot at the Top.  The corruption of unscrupulous elites resonates powerfully with the public.  And it can topple mighty brands and companies as well as their leaders.  Anyone remember MCI?