With such massive price tags, these commercials better deliver.

On February 5 NBC will broadcast the epic rematch between the Giants and Patriots. But maybe your team didn’t make it to the big game. Will you still watch Super Bowl XLVI? Of course you will. You’ll watch for the same reason about 54% of viewers do — the commercials.

On one night each year the titans of marketing and advertising attempt to wow us with about 50 minutes of the most expensive commercials on television. NBC has sold out all commercial airtime for the big game, reporting that the average cost this year for a 30-second spot is $3.5 million, with some time slots costing as much as $4 million. That’s a 16 to 25% hike from the $3 million average cost last year. With such massive price tags, these commercials better deliver.

Companies know that a Super Bowl spot can make you or break you. In 2005, Go Daddy’s provocative spoof of the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction launched the fledgling company from single digits to nearly 50% share of the domain-name registry market, once again proving that you rarely go wrong throwing a bunch of hot, half-naked women at the screen. Go Daddy reportedly saw a 136% boost in site traffic, and went on to become the largest web hosting firm in the world.

But simply spending millions on a commercial doesn’t guarantee success. Groupon caught flak after last year’s Super Bowl commercial, with its seemingly disrespectful take on the unrest in Tibet. CEO Andrew Mason began Groupon as a way to raise money for various philanthropic organizations. Groupon eventually changed its focus to saving consumers money and grew into the $1.35 billion company it is today. Capitalistic sellout? Sure — but the company does retain a philanthropic side. In the 2011 commercial Groupon attempted to poke fun at itself, but instead presented a confusing message and offended millions of potential consumers.

Groupon will recover from last year’s blunder but other companies have not been so lucky. One of the Super Bowl’s worst-received commercials of all time was Just For Feet’s “Kenya Mission” commercial — which, let’s face it, was a bit racist — during Super Bowl XXXIII in 1999. Just For Feet sued its advertising agency, Saatchi and Saatchi, saying it had relied on the agency’s expertise against its judgment. The suit was later dropped, and Just For Feet filed for bankruptcy. Now it’s Just Forgotten.

Some companies spend a surprising percentage of their entire annual marketing budget on a 30-second Super Bowl spot. With that kind of money on the line, they have to get it right. This year NBC has raised the stakes through the roof with prices for precious airtime at an all-time high. So, even though I’d be happy to see the Giants and the Patriots fall flat, I’ll tune in like the rest of America to see what can go memorably right — or painfully wrong — with a little creativity, a bit of daring and millions of dollars.

Paul Pomeroy weighs in on a couple of car ads.

As a guy who works in advertising I often get asked by family, friends, acquaintances and perfect strangers to offer my opinion on current ads in the marketplace. I find this funny because, unlike most people, when I meet doctors, lawyers and auto mechanics, I don’t find a way to wedge questions related to lumps on my back, clauses in my will or an incessant knocking noise coming from under the hood of my car into the course of casual conversation. But whatever. Most advertising people are raving narcissistic know-it-alls who are more than happy to share their opinions on just about anything — especially good ads vs. sucky ads.

OK, that really just describes me. And that brings me to the point of this post.

Good ads can’t be everything to all people. Nor should they be. When digesting marketing material, we make constant use of our eyelids and earlids; we focus like a laser on material that is relevant to us and filter out everything else. Ever notice how when you’re looking for a car all you see or hear are car ads? But when you’re not — white noise.

Therein lies the value — and the importance — of knowing your target market and effectively positioning your value proposition in a smart, concise and memorable way.

So what’s a good example of this? Let’s stick with cars. You may remember the most recent (and final) Mercury car campaign built on the theme line: “You gotta put Mercury on your list.”

You gotta put Mercury on your list? That’s like a high school junior (let’s call him Paul P.) going up to a senior girl and saying, “Hey, when you’re thinking about guys that you’d like to spend some time with over the weekend, I hope you’ll consider giving me a call.” Two words: dead end. I know.

So with apologies to the delightful Jill Wagner — who did all she could to salvage that campaign — a weak value proposition, bad execution and fuzzy definition of the target audience sank this campaign. Sucky ad.

And in case you haven’t noticed, Mercury cars are no longer being manufactured.

Now let’s look at an example of an effective ad populating the auto space:

To be clear, if you’re an urban hipster or a midlife crisis baby boomer looking for a car, this ad wasn’t intended for you. If, however, you’ve recently been to a grade school open house, signed someone up for karate lessons or loaded your DVR with reruns of the Wizards of Waverly Place, you may be a little choked up right now. Good ad.

Have an ad you’re wondering about? Contact AB&C and maybe I’ll check it out and offer an opinion. Who am I kidding? I’ll definitely offer an opinion.

Disclaimer: The opinions in this post are solely those of the author and not of any of his co-workers or other industry colleagues who may cringe while reading this post. Please be sure to formulate your own opinion on all products and product advertising featured here — which is, of course, the entire point of advertising in the first place.

Hospitals are using Social Media

Some hospitals are early adopters; others are still waiting on the sidelines. Some are high-tech, while others are high-touch. I’m not talking about whether or not a hospital has the latest robot or a brand personality, I’m talking about a social media presence.

At AB&C, our healthcare clients range all across the social media spectrum. Some have jumped in with both feet and have been posting and tweeting for more than a year. Others are just about ready to make the leap, while others still are trying to convince their senior leadership that they need a social media presence.

Research shows that 906 hospitals in the U.S. are active in social media, with Facebook and Twitter being the most popular vehicles. With these numbers growing and marketing budgets shrinking, it’s becoming more and more clear to healthcare marketers that social media is here to stay and can be an effective and cost-efficient part of any marketing plan.

Regardless of where you are on the social media spectrum, here are a couple of my favorite sites:

Children's Hospital Boston

Regions Hospital

California Pacific Medical Center

MINI introduces new technology

Clear concise data visualization can truly be a game-changer. The difficulty comes in finding the best way to present your KPIs in a way that is quickly and easily digested.

To celebrate 50 years of motoring mayhem, MINI has introduced Mission Control as part of its limited-edition Camden package. In their words: “By bringing the engine, HVAC and central systems to life via three distinct personalities, Mission Control sets the stage for the future of motoring.” Yes, they have moved the dashboard from eye-level to ear-level, letting you keep your eyes on the road and your hands on the wheel.

Mission Control is MINI’s first stab at a useful (while still somewhat cute and quirky) voice-based presentation of car functions by either providing new information or duplicating operating information from the physical dashboard via three unique voices within the car; one personality for the engine, one for the HVAC and one for the central systems. And just like in real life, the three do interact with each other.

This is approach is almost like a mash-up of the Corvette HUD and a standard voice-based GPS system:  audio-only, but represents operating data in a way that lets you keep your eyes on the road in front of you.

The future of Mission Control? MINI has stated that this is only round one of the technology, with voices and personalities easily updated. So can we expect Mike Rowe telling you that you’re nuts for attempting that grade in your F-150 Raptor? Only time will tell.

A lesson in bad advertising.

Another car brand is on the chopping block. Ford has announced that it intends to discontinue the venerable Mercury brand.  Mercury’s recent ad campaign—a bad one—didn't help the cause.  My apologies to Jill Wagner...it really wasn’t your fault.  Instead, a weak value proposition and bad execution did in the campaign.

You gotta put Mercury on your list? Their entire campaign was built around the premise of asking (almost begging) you to just consider their product in your selection set. Hardly instills confidence. That’s like a high school junior (let’s call him Paul P.) going up to a senior girl that he likes and saying, “Hey, this Friday when you’re thinking about guys that you’d like to spend some time with over the weekend, I hope you’ll consider giving me a call.” Two words: dead end. Trust me, I know.

Too bad, because Mercury has done it right before. Here Farrah shows the right way to do it. Better ad = better results. This Cougar XR-7 model went on to set sales records.

Environmentally friendly & really loud!

You may have seen the latest campaign promoting the new compostable bag from Sun Chips. I myself started a compost bin last year, which literally cut our landfill contributions in half — not to mention the effect it had on my new garden. As an avid tree hugger I applaud this effort by our Frito-Lay friends, but their new package needs a warning label.

The problem lies in the bag itself. It produces by far the highest level of ear-piercing decibels in the history of chip bags. Quite frankly this crinkly cacophony has to be completely screwing with Frito-Lay’s main target audience — the late-night snacker. And yeah, I’m one of ’em. And there’s a technique to late-night snacking — a very challenging technique. I mean, you’re already dealing with a chip — come on, even the word “chip” sounds loud and crunchy. And you’ve always had to deal with the crinkle of the bag. Some bags are worse than others, am I right? And when you’re down to just crumbs, you wind up cutting the top half off with a scissors, ’cause that’s a lot of bag to work through. Really, it’s a losing battle that’s just going to drive your wife crazy.

OK, back to this new compostable bag. My advice? Forget it. Just pour some of these tasty chips into a bowl and get on with the snacking. And forget about sneaking into the cupboard while the missus is upstairs. Believe me, she can hear this bag crumple from three blocks away. It’s really quite impressive. You must go out and get a bag for yourself. Maybe on New Year’s Eve. Now that’s a time when you’re supposed to make some noise. That is a holiday they should be marketing toward. You read it here first.

And, oh yeah, I can’t wait to see how long this bag takes to decompose. I’ve got a quarter-bag left from the new Peppercorn Ranch flavor I just bought — it’s goin’ in the bin soon. I’ll get back to ya.

A paid search campaign for Southern Delaware Tourism

Below is the first in a series of case studies that we wanted to share with those of you who read our blog. We think it's a great opportunity to share examples of our work and capabilities. The case study below, for our client Southern Delaware Tourism, showcases our online media capabilities, specifically paid search campaigns.

An Introduction of the Southern Delaware Culinary Coast

Client: Southern Delaware Tourism (SDT)

Situation
From July 15 through August 31, 2009, SDT asked AB&C to promote its Culinary Coast concept, touting its collection of restaurants and tourism destinations. Of the total media budget, 30% was earmarked for web media.

Strategy
Our first concern was awareness. Faced with limited resources and a sharp decline in recreational travel, we developed a targeted audience-focused solution. The audiences selected were foodies, the LGBT community, beer and wine fans and the staycation set. Our second concern was buy-in from local businesses, with the intention of co-branding the advertising for the 2010 summer season.

Execution
AB&C managed a paid search campaign utilizing keywords focused around the travel concerns of our specific target audiences, layering on direct buys with The Washington Blade (LGBT), Food Network (foodies & beer and wine fans) and The Washington Post travel section (staycation). We also targeted the ads to appear only to an audience within 150 miles of southern Delaware, close enough to make a weekend out of their trip.Concerning future co-branding, we constructed the plan with enough flexibility to easily incorporate a larger media buy and additional audience segments.

Results
Using these targeting methods allowed us to stretch our limited resources to have a bigger splash with our select audiences. During the campaign, 88% of all visits came courtesy of the web media campaign. 30% of the media resulted in 88% of the traffic.

Celebrating the holidays with silver and golds!

AB&C was honored with four gold awards and one silver in the 35th Annual JASPER Awards competition. Sponsored by the Jersey Shore Public Relations and Advertising Association (JSPRAA), the competition drew more than 265 entries.

Our work with St. Joseph’s Healthcare System Children’s Hospital in Paterson, NJ, won gold for outdoor billboard advertising, print poster material and print brochure, and silver for magazine advertising. We also received a gold award for newspaper advertising created for Underwood Memorial Hospital, Woodbury, NJ, highlighting maternity care.

It’s always great to be recognized with our clients for our combined creative efforts. We’re happy to share this good news with you.

Twitter updates...brought to you by Saks Fifth Avenue and Microsoft.

As part of its legendary holiday display, Saks Fifth Avenue has partnered with Microsoft to put video screens, hooked up to computers, in its windows. The screens will display real-time tweets. When people use the #holidaywindows hash-tag on Twitter, their beaming tweets about Windows 7 (and their holiday wishes) will pop up in the Saks display. Hard-core Apple fans reportedly have tried to hijack the Twitter feed by writing anti-Microsoft tweets. But they aren’t getting through to the public. According to Microsoft, most negative tweets are being filtered out automatically. Plus, the company says, there’s a human backup.

Tweet now and see if you can reach New York’s holiday shoppers!

Getting creative with billboard design.

Yeah, yeah — we know all about Facebook, Twitter and all the other types of social media. But where does that leave traditional media? Where does that leave the billboard?

It’s hard not to feel bad for traditional media trying to keep up with all of the new technology. But you don’t have to worry about the billboard — some very creative people (not as creative as us) came up with some very clever ways to breathe new life into these oft-maligned road signs. In fact, they may be too eye-catching — it’s easy to imagine drivers so distracted by these works of marketing art that they sail off the overpass.

Check out 50 mind-bending billboards from 10Steps.SG for yourself — but keep your eyes on the road if you drive by them.

Website design requires a balance.

No matter what you design — from blue jeans to loveseats to SUVs — you have to strike a balance between form and function. Thanks to the patient counsel of my interactive colleagues over the years, I’ve learned that I can’t approach web design the same way I approach print and other media. The scales tip toward functionality, which is determined by the target audience and its needs.

User experience is the number-one priority. Of course a successful website should look good, but, more important, it has to answer the needs of the audience and bring value to the user. Complicated navigation and over-designed pages only distract and confuse the audience, driving them away from the site.

When it comes to web design, balancing form and function is critical. Your design has to be engaging, interesting and compelling, but you can’t overwhelm the user with superfluous bells and whistles. Know your audience; know their needs. Let that knowledge guide you.

Give yourself a Mad Men makeover!

Didn’t work at a Madison Ave agency in the early ’60s? Tired of dirty looks for drinking in the office at 11 a.m.? Now at least your Facebook icon can live the life, thanks to AMC’s MadMenYourself.

Suit or skirt? Martini or whiskey on the rocks? Cigar or cigarette?

Too much fun. Unlike ElfYourself, SimpsonizeMe and FaceYourManga, you don’t actually upload an image — one less hurdle, which is good. Oh, and (somewhat) easily Facebooked, Tweeted, Dugged and StumbleUponed.

PS - We couldn't help but get in on the action. Try it for yourself.

Get ready for the new "Alice in Wonderland."

Johnny Depp is the Mad Hatter. Anne Hathaway and Helena Bonham Carter are the White and Red Queens, respectively. It’s Tim Burton’s take on "Alice in Wonderland," and it promises to be over the top. Set for release in March of next year, the movie is already being very cleverly promoted using social media.

On Facebook, you can sign up to be a “loyal subject” of the Red Queen or the White Queen or a “disloyal subject” of the Mad Hatter. And the benefit for becoming a fan? The group that is the largest by 7 p.m. on July 24 will win the chance to see an exclusive new trailer from the movie before anyone else.Check out the Facebook character profiles:

Loyal Subjects of the Red Queen
Over 1,200 fans
Personal Information: How dare you ask! Off with your head!
Personal Interests: Playing croquet; eating tarts, tadpoles on toast points, and caviar; and studying Dominion Over Living Things

Loyal Subjects of the White Queen
Over 1,300 fans so far
Personal Information: I enjoy spending time with members of my court — White Rabbit, March Hare, and Cheshire Cat.
Personal Interests: Perfecting medicinal cures and transformational potions and overthrowing my sister, the Red Queen

Disloyal Subjects of the Mad Hatter
Over 6,000 fans so far
Personal Information: Some may think I’m mad.
Personal Interests: Throwing tea parties; celebrating un-birthdays

This is a smart use of social media. Consumers can connect with the movie months before its release. This builds momentum — which translates into building audiences. Fans may also go a step further and spread the word about the Facebook fan pages — and the movie — to friends and family.

Ready to go down the rabbit hole?

The bi-plane cake for St. Joseph's Children's Hospital

A recent episode of TLC’s The Cake Boss (“Bi-Plane, Bridezilla & Busting Buddy”) featured our client, St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital. The reality show follows Buddy Valastro, the master baker of Carlo’s City Hall Bake Shop in Hoboken, NJ, as he and his team create amazing cakes and pastries.

During this episode, Buddy created a completely edible version of the St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital bi-plane logo and unveiled the cake at the hospital’s annual Cooking for Kids event. Although we were fortunate enough to be in attendance at the event, it was great to see how Buddy and his team created the cake and debated how to bring the logo to life. But what was most rewarding was watching the work that the AB&C team did come to life on TV. Our team updated the Children’s Hospital logo last year and also designed the posters that were visible at the end of the episode when the cake was brought to the event. But the real highlight of the show was when “bridezilla” destroyed her wedding cake and insisted on a new one for the next day!

New app from Dunkin Donuts

Dunkin Donuts has just launched a new app called DunkinRun for computers and mobile devices (including an iPhone application). Using DunkinRun.com, you can make a run to Dunkin for your friends and yourself, using the site.

1. Invite friends by providing their email addresses or mobile phone numbers.
2. Order from the online menu.
3. Dunkin will compile the order for you, and you can print it out or have it sent to your mobile device.
4. Pick up the order and enjoy!

This is a great example of a company that is combining useful technology with marketing/branding for Dunkin. And they have infused the tone of voice and messaging that is a major part of their brand throughout the application — e.g., you’ll enjoy hero worship from friends and coworkers once you have made a DunkinRun. Check it out for yourself!

Good ads = good sushi

While walking back to the agency after a really nice sushi lunch today with my coworkers, I was struck by the parallels between creating ads and the tasty Japanese delicacy.

Sink your teeth into this: A really good ad should hit you in the same way good sushi does. It should have an attention-grabbing, almost explosive impact, just as the tastes and textures of the fish, rice, wasabi and soy sauce simultaneously slam into your palate.

Like sushi, good ads:

• Are fresh
• Are tasty
• Are potent. It’s been said sushi should provide “the universe in two or three bites.” A good ad should make its point at a glance. Or two.
• Leave you wanting more. Hey, unless you’re spending $30 on sushi, you’re still hungry. So, too, a good ad should make you want the product — and more good ads.

What else is good advertising like? Hmm, I sense a whole series of blogs...

Using sex to sell Hardee's

Sex. Duh.

And it was proven yet again with the latest ad from the fast food chain Hardee’s. If you haven’t seen it yet, you should definitely check it out. It features Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi...umm...enjoying one of Hardee’s new hamburgers.

I’m sure this phenomenon is not news to any of you. If it is, I’m sorry. Either way, Karlene Lukovitz, a writer for MediaPost Publications, wrote a good article about the new commercial and it’s worth a quick read.

Now, how can we make tobacco cessation and highway safety sexy? Think, people!

The reality of cruises

Think of any Caribbean cruise TV commercial you’ve ever seen. Most likely you’d envision endless “beautiful people” cavorting in sky-deck swimming pools, working out in floating fitness centers and toasting each other in seagoing gourmet restaurants. After spending a vacation day aboard a well-advertised cruise line ship, I’m here to tell you: Nothing could be further from reality. During the last week of February, I attended a wedding aboard a colossal pleasure craft that sat docked in the Port of Tampa, which gave me a few fleeting hours to drink in the surroundings. The ship was about to set sail and wedding guests were granted temporary access to witness the ceremony.

This gave me the opportunity to spy on the hordes of excited passengers boarding the ship—and each was more than ready to cannonball headfirst into the party atmosphere that awaited them on this week-long trip for the budget-minded. Some groups arrived draped in Mardi Gras beads. Most of the male passengers I saw wore T-shirts proudly promoting every sports franchise from the Milwaukee Bucks to the Knoxville Ice Bears. And instead of nonstop beautiful people, I saw dozens of folks in wheelchairs, on oxygen and strapped to what appeared to be hand trucks. (I’m guessing there may have been a few machines free in the fitness center during this cruise.)

I learned that each cruise ship has its own unique theme. My ship was created to honor the “legends” of Hollywood’s cinematic past. The boat’s interior design can only be described as Studio 54 disco meets Graceland, with a heaping side order of RuPaul thrown in. The soaring main lobby featured four glass-enclosed elevators that were every bit as ornate as one of Loretta Lynn’s engagement ring settings. Everything on the ship – from the piped-in dance music to the air conditioning to the beer taps – was already pumping full blast.

The universal currency of this entire enterprise was the English language. Talk about a floating United Nations. One thousand crew members of almost every nationality scurried about in an effort to serve the 2,000 newly arrived passengers. And every worker had a specialty. The more menial the task, the less likely the crew member was to speak English. For example, the instant a tropical drink accidentally hit the deck, along came a young foreign kid with a wet mop, followed by a damp mopper, followed by a dry mopper. Just don’t ask these moppers where the sky deck is.

I figured most of the guests had probably never been near a body of water as vast as the Gulf of Mexico, nor been waited on by such an army of eager-to-please cocktail servers. The actual cruise experience may be worlds away from its upscale TV depiction, but this crowd didn’t seem to mind. You could readily tell that the majority of these partying passengers bought the cruise ship’s sales pitch hook, line and sinker.

The E*Trade Baby

During the month of March, most of America’s sports-minded souls have found themselves “on the road to The Final Four.” I heard that CBS-TV broadcast 96 hours of college basketball action in one weekend alone.

And, if you’re part of an NCAA office pool, you’ve probably spent a lot of those 96 hours glued to your TV. That’s because gambling helps the sports world go ‘round.Which brings me to the ubiquitous E*TRADE TV spots starring the wisecracking “trading baby.” Love him or hate him, you can’t go a TV sports half-hour without seeing this computer-enhanced, smart-mouthed toddler. Are you like me? Do you wait for a new E*TRADE spot to debut so you can see what nutty high jinks the kid is up to next?

Catch some baby outtakes at etrade.com/baby.

But the whole thing leaves me wondering, how many consumers know who the baby is but not the brand he’s pushing? So the big question is, do the continuing adventures of this kid really move the sales needle for E*TRADE? Does this sort of approach engender trust in a financial services company? Or are the E*TRADE folks simply the biggest gamblers of all?

Marketing for non-profits

I know, I know, I know...everybody's got something to worry about or stress over with the economy plummeting down the tubes of Americans' own greed and poor planning. It only makes sense that companies are looking to their marketing departments to start cutting corners wherever possible.

However, in our beloved advertising industry, we cannot let that stand in the way of our creative teams continuously expressing their imaginations and keeping their ideas fresh. In scouring the AAAA SmartBrief that many of us receive on a daily basis, I stumbled upon an article that suggests ad agencies look to noble causes or non-profits to allow their creative teams to stay on top of their game.

Check out the article here.

The idea of working with non-profits is not a new one for AB&C, as you can see by looking through our work, but maybe we can all take it a step further.

Rob Walker, the writer of the article, suggests starting a campaign against drinking bottled water and opting for tap water. In doing so, try some sort of crazy and off-the-wall creative that none of our clients would think to go with. In the next new business pitch, do you think any of our competitors will be able to say they played a part in saving the planet? I doubt it.

An example of viral marketing.

Ken Block’s spirited gymkhana video finally made AdGabber today. For those of you not familiar with Subaru beyond taking your Labrador and 2.5 kids for an off-road picnic, the company has an amazing history of hooliganism thanks to the spirited Impreza line and the tunability of its turbo four and chuckability of AWD.The amazing performance in this video, brought to you by DC Shoes, Subaru, 0-60 Magazine and the masterminds at Crawford Performance, has been viewed over 14 million times since first posted back on November 11, 2008. Even with half of those views coming from Brad, those stats are still staggering, especially for a project that doesn’t reek of ROI-focused marketing.

But what is the key metric? Impressions? Brand retention? Image-shifting? This timely video was launched right after the launch of the recently softened (and subsequently spiced-up) new-bodied Impreza line, which was seen by the market as a total departure from what traditional buyers enjoyed most about the model.

But, while this video is directly responsible for at least one direct sale, viral marketing still seems out of the realm of a client who is narrowly focused on immediate, trackable ROI figures. Which is something of a shame, really, since the art form can accomplish so much more.

Thinking outside the box

So much is made of “thinking out-of-the-box” that it is beginning to sound trite. And where is the line that differentiates out-of-the-box thinking from way-out-there thinking or out-in-left-field thinking? Does that really matter?

Sometimes the solution you end up with is perfect—maybe not for the problem you began with, but for something else. I guess what matters is the process by which you arrived at that particular solution. It’s what happens when we try to reach beyond ourselves. Sometimes it works out perfectly; most often it doesn’t or hasn’t gone far enough.
The great part about this is what you find along the way. It’s about the journey and how all those granules of bits of information have a way of congealing into something else. Maybe that’s what they mean by thinking outside what would be considered the norm. And how pedestrian ideas become new and fresh when they begin with disparate elements and are somehow given a twist that transforms them into something surprising and attention-getting.

I came across this video on the website of an interactive visionary named Brendan Dawes:

http://www.brendandawes.com/sketches/snowglobe/

...who reaches outside his already exceptional knowledge base to find innovative ways to push interface design to a different level.

By fusing two disparate things, Flash and a snow globe, he came up with an entirely new interface to communicate with the medium. Although he hasn’t yet found a practical use for this new interface, his exploration of this concept could lead to one. It clearly demonstrates how something new can result from thinking outside … well, you know what I mean.

Check out the website and start shaking things up in your world.

Copywriting

I sometimes wonder whether some agencies even read the copy aloud before it's approved.

Two examples come to mind: A prominent lizard has been the spokes-reptile for an auto insurance giant that frequently tells viewers that they can save "... hundreds of dollars or more on car insurance." Moron car insurance? I don't want that! Or how about the pharmaceutical hair remedy whose ads claimed that in clinical studies, "most grew some hair." Most gruesome hair? I want none of that either.

My point? Just remember that you need to look at the creative product from all angles before it leaves the agency. You never know who may look at the work the wrong way.

Creativing and Advertising

Here are five observations on getting the most out of the people you depend on for breakthrough marketing communications, or what 10 years on the client side and almost 30 years on the agency side have taught me. Among other things.

1. Creativity isn't a commodity. And you won't get it out of your agency team by saying, "This project is really important," as if you expect someone will hit F8 on his or her keyboard and good things will happen. Creativity is an art, and great art takes time.
2. Out of fast, cheap and good, you can only have two.
3. Rate your agency on value - not cost. Over the long run, you get what you pay for. One great campaign can more than make up the cost difference between a good agency and the boss's nephew who's "darned creative and a whiz on the computer."
4. Give your agency a stake in your success. This can happen two ways. In exchange for lower media commission or account management fees, figure out a revenue-sharing incentive arrangement. For example, if an ad campaign is a big hit and increases sales, share some of the profits with the agency. This is happening more and more in media price negotiations. Another way is to give your agency a regular "seat at the table." Not just across from you, but with your boss and the president or the EVP. The honchos. The wheels. When the agency pitched you, all those big shots were there. The agency was at the top of its game and there was electricity in the air. Nobody wants to underwhelm the president.
5. Treat your agency as a partner. Never think of your agency as a vendor. Nothing is more relationship-harming than this seemingly innocuous reference. See No. 1 above, one more time.

Radio

What do people hate most about radio? The commercials! The steady growth of listenership to commercial-free satellite radio music formats offers compelling proof. A growing number of listeners are more than willing to pony up $12.95 a month to be spared the relentless onslaught of irritating, irrelevant radio spots.

Now, think of some recent memorable (and successful) radio campaigns. The Motel 6 chain built an empire on the voice of folksy humorist Tom Bodett. For more than a decade, Bodett’s quirky, whimsical radio spots helped put millions of heads in Motel 6 beds. And Anheuser-Busch tapped the humor vein for all it was worth with their award-winning “Real Men of Genius” radio campaign for Bud Light beer. Instead of reaching to change the station, listeners sat intently while they drank in the hilarity of hundreds of these inventive commercials. So the truth is, if you reward a radio listener in some way, be it with humor or just a simple homespun story, you’ve made a positive impression and, quite possibly, a sale. It’s building a brand, one chuckle — or memorable moment — at a time.

For some reason, many advertisers are willing to spend a fortune on media, yet they invest next to nothing on creating the message. Since the invention of the medium, radio stations have offered free spot production as part of their “value-added services.” And inevitably, many local advertisers take the bait. More often than not, they get exactly what they pay for. Often it’s a poorly written (and acted) script performed by radio station personnel that does next to nothing to make a brand stand out. And sometimes the client takes a crack at it.

Local advertisers tend to make this mistake over and over again. Their thinking must be, “This message is so important, we’re asking our boss to tell you about it!” The talent selection process probably goes something like this:
“Do you have an acting background?”
“No.”
“Do you possess a compelling on-air personality?”
“No.”
“Have you ever done anything like this before?”
“No.”
“Well, then, you’re the perfect spokesperson to represent our precious product!”

And the biggest problem with having some sales manager — or worse yet, the owner’s wife — reading the script is that no one is there to tell them this strategy is a lousy idea! Radio salespeople want their client’s media dollars, so why would they offer any criticism? And that sales manager’s staff wouldn’t think of putting down the boss, no matter how mediocre the performance might be. So you’re left with an amateur spokesperson droning on for 60 insufferable seconds.

So is it any wonder the tune-out factor is so high when it comes to radio spots? Local advertisers would be far better served to consult the experts. Seek out a firm that has experience in creating memorable audio messages. Ask to hear a firm’s radio reel. Then compare it to what you may have planned. A little front-end investment in crafting breakthrough creative has a much better chance of paying major long-term dividends.