Archive for February 5th, 2008

Much to the surprise of everyone except some New York die-hards, an actual football game broke out last Sunday while viewers were trying to watch some very expensive commercials.

Budweiser

By now you’ve seen all the write-ups about which TV spots scored and which ones fumbled. Both Nielsen and USA Today’s Ad Meter anointed Budweiser’s “Rocky” takeoff as the game’s most popular ad among live viewers, while E-Trade’s barfing baby and Pepsi’s Timberlake torture scored highest with TiVo’ers.

But another way to look at the ad contest is to see who did the best job of driving viewers from those pricey $2.7 million 30-second spots to a more engaged relationship with their online sites, either. Marketers had the chance to build on the buzz a Super Bowl ad draws by creating a site or Web page that spoke specifically to their ad content, driving viewers to that Web location through their ad creative, or using search marketing to deliver pay-per-click text ads on the terms game watchers would be most likely to search online. more

Everyone can point to disappointing sequels that failed to re-capture the excitement of the original: “Fantasia 2000”. “The Two Jakes”. “Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo”. When you’re creating a product for popular culture, it’s just hard to put that second bottle of lightning up on the shelf.

Apparently Office Max and the agencies behind the “Elf Yourself” viral campaign haven’t heard about the sophomore slump. The team scored a big holiday 2006 viral success with the campaign, in which users get to download their face to a spindly elfin body and then shake their groove thing for e-mail friends. So when the holiday season rolled around again in 2007, OfficeMax, ad agency Toy New York and digital content company EVB decided to up the ante to four elves per e-mail and add some showier dance moves and voice capability but essentially keep the rest of the campaign the same. more

When it comes to interactive tie-ins with live events, there are two schools of thought. You can basically fish where the fish are and link your digital content to Web sites that are already seeing traffic from the event. On the other hand, there’s a lot to be said for building your own fishing hole and controlling both the experience and the visitors.

Last year, Totino’s Pizza Rolls took a fairly sedate approach to its sponsorship of a decidedly non-sedate event: the ESPN Winter X Games for extreme sports fans, held annually in Aspen CO. The General Mills-owned brand created TV spots and print ads that drove viewers—mostly 13-to-17 year old males– to a Totino’s-branded page on the ESPN.com site. There they were able to vote on their favorite moments from the games and to enter a sweepstakes to win a Jeep patriot packed with sports gear. Totino’s also used competing pro snowboarder Danny Kass as a brand ambassador, putting a logo on his board and posting his daily blog entries on the branded page. more

What do you do if your condom company keeps coming up short in testing among the 18-to-24 year old demographic—the ones who are the most frequent users of the product? If you’re LifeStyles, you re-brand with a campaign that uses Web video and in-bar promotions to stir up some buzz and build a hipper, more personal reputation. more