Super Bowl XLVI - Automakers brands ads (Honda, Hyundai, Toyota)

Classification: Creativity: 4;  Will to buy: 4;  Empathy for the Brand: 4

Total: 4

Toyota reinvents more than the Camry in this extended version of the blockbuster commercial that started it all. 

Credits

Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi LA,

Client: Toyota USA

Classification: Creativity: 3,8;  Will to buy: 3,6;  Empathy for the Brand: 3,7

Total: 3,7

At 348 horsepower, the Genesis Coupe gives new meaning to the phrase "Heart Pounding Power"

Classification: Creativity: 3,4;  Will to buy: 3,5;  Empathy for the Brand: 3,3

Total: 3,7

To celebrate the launch of the all-new 2012 CR-V, Honda brought Ferris Bueller's Day Off back in a big game commercial. We cast Matthew Broderick as himself, skipping out on a day of acting work and living it up in his all-new CR-V. Relive movie history with Honda's fresh twist and wonderful homage to this '80s classic.

Keep Team GB Pumped

Classification: Creativity: 4,3;  Will to buy(participate): 4;  Empathy for the Brand: 4,2

Total: 4,2

Cadbury's with his campaign "Keep Team GB Pumped" invited fans to hide in "normal" places while the Olympic athletes train. In this video you can watch the team members get surprised by dancing shuttlecocks and singers popping out of ping pong tables .

You can watch the full story of the track, and add your voice to our next track on our website, http://www.keepourteampumped.com.

Credits

Agency: Hypernaked

Client:Cadbury

2012 Social Marketing & New Media Predictions by Awareness, Inc.

"In his book Engage!, BriaN SoliS posits that “New media is a matter of digital  Darwinism affecting any and all forms of marketing and service. In the world  of democratized influence, businesses must endure a perpetual survival of the  fittest. Engage or die!” 


Given the importance of new and social media on every aspect of business,  the leadership team at Awareness Inc. connected with the influencers who are  shaping the new marketing agenda. We contacted business and marketing  experts, marketing leaders and agency visionaries to create a list of top 2012  predictions and trends. 


This white paper contains their collective intelligence  and insights for what is to come next year. We hope you find these expert  predictions informative, educational and actionable so you, the business and  marketing leaders of today, can successfully engage in the evolving ecosystem  that supports the socialization of information, and are in a position to help  businesses adapt to the new era of lasting relationships. 


Awareness contacted over 34 leading marketing strategists, such as David  Meerman Scott, Brian Solis, Erik Qualman, Paul Gillin and Steve Rubel;  strategists at leading companies such as Intel and Constant Contact; and  visionaries at marketing agencies like Mindjumpers, Holland-Mark, Voce  Communications and Raidious to collect their insights along six key areas:


Part 1 Predictions for the biggest (social) marketing developments
Part 2 The role of “big data” in (social) marketing
Part 3 Key technology to impact (social) marketing
Part 4 The role of mobile in (social)
Part 5 The top challenges for (social) marketers
Part 6 The top trusted news resources 




appendix Biography


This 2012 Social Marketing and New Media Predictions white paper follows the  six parts outlined above, with each part containing insights from three separate  groups: 


1) Leading marketing strategists
2) Brand marketers at leading companies 
3) Leading thinkers from marketing consulting firms and social  marketing agencies. "


Download here this paper.


.

BMW Interactive Projection

Classification: Creativity: 4,2;  Will to buy(participate): 4,2;  Empathy for the Brand: 4

Total: 4,1

Advertising the new BMW 1 Series, iLogic allowed consumers to engage with the brand in a new, exciting way. Keeping in mind that unmatched innovation is always part of the BMW driving experience, iLogic developed Interactive Video Projections. Full activation on the ground took place over eight nights in major cities across South Africa. Locations were vibey, high-traffic main streets. Through a high powered, HD projector, iLogic projected an interactive racing game onto buildings and scaffoldings (Screen measuring 108m2). 

Data Is Great, But You Need to Learn When to Ignore It

Who can resist the temptation of real-time marketing performance data? I can't. Whether we've posted a video on YouTube or started to promote a Facebook page, it's hard to stop clicking the refresh button throughout the day to watch the number of "views" and "likes" increase.

I love digging into the analytics on our agency website to see the most popular search engine terms, the page view trends, the top traffic referrers and the amount of time visitors are spending on the site. I'm intrigued by the new suite of metrics that Facebook has introduced, and I enjoy the process of optimizing online ads based on the sites, sizes and creative executions that perform best.

It's not surprising that most people in the marketing business feel the same way: after all, we live in a society that loves to keep score. From the time we're old enough to comprehend the merits of earning a gold star, we're conditioned to want instant, quantified validation of our success. But as marketers, it's possible that our obsession with data has become counterproductive.

Simply put, the fact that one can measure something doesn't mean that one should, and the fact that something is quantifiable doesn't necessarily make it paramount to something that isn't. Yet most marketers seem determined to measure anything and everything, regardless of the utility of the data, and some are so obsessed with KPIs that they unwittingly (or worse, wittingly) compromise the real-world impact of their marketing activities in order to move the needles on their performance dashboards.

I realize I'm not introducing a new perspective; others have voiced similar concerns about the perils of data obsession. Unfortunately, those of us who are proponents of balancing quantitative and qualitative measurement—that is, seeing the trees and the forest—have generally been unsuccessful at converting analytics enthusiasts. So while I may not be suggesting an entirely new paradigm, I hope to frame this point-of-view in a way that inspires the non-believers to reevaluate their position.

To that end, consider the following metaphor: optimizing marketing activities based entirely or even predominantly on quantitative measures is a Ponzi scheme. Expanding on that theme, metrics such as "Likes," "Views," "Shares," "CTR" and "Page views," are "paper wealth" that may or may not be backed by actual currency of tangible value such as increased awareness, affinity, purchase intent or sales. And the more paper wealth one creates, the more "schemes" one must implement to meet inflated prior-year benchmarks. While this approach may enable agencies and marketing managers to create impressive charts and graphs for a few months or even a few years, eventually the "investors" (CMOs, CEOs, and actual investors) are going to come looking for their money. And when that day comes, no Excel document or pie chart will be an acceptable proxy—nor should it be.

Admittedly, this matter isn't black and white. But while there's a broad spectrum of gray area within which "paper value" translates into tangible value at varying exchange rates, I'm making a mutually exclusive distinction between the two in an effort to streamline my argument. And my argument is this: I'd rather have 10,000 views of a branded video that increases purchase intent than a million views of a video that simply makes people laugh; I'd rather have a .02 CTR on a banner ad that drives highly qualified and motivated traffic to my site than a 2.0 CTR on a banner ad that tricks disinterested consumers to my site; I'd rather have 25 thoughtful comments on a Facebook status update that's related to my brand than 250 comments on an update about the various reasons to bemoan Mondays.

To be clear, I understand how EdgeRank and search engines work, and why, consequently, some amount of "gaming the system" may be required to ensure a brand's message is seen; we're all at the mercy of algorithms, and Google and Facebook have inspired many of the manipulations marketers have deployed in their efforts to garner impressions and promote consumer actions.

Furthermore, because I believe brands should behave like humans (not corporations) when using social media, I support efforts to connect with consumers by initiating conversations about current events, pop culture and other topics not directly related to an advertisers product or service. I'm simply suggesting that marketers have to understand the cause of the numbers they hold so dearly. After all, if people are spending less time on a website that's recently been redesigned, it may be because the new architecture has made it easier for them to find what they're looking for.

Of course, there are many reasons and ways to tip the digital scales in a brand's favor. But marketers who get caught up in "gaming the system" end up competing for first prize in a contest that only rewards them with "paper value." In much the same way that Bernie Madoff borrowed money from one investor to pay dividends to another, they end up borrowing equity from one place to represent it in another. And like borrowed money, "borrowed interest" is not a brand's to keep

written by Mike Wolfsohn on AdAge

Stop Pipa and Sopa

Engine Advocacy states the whole foundations of the internet are at risk if Congress signs SOPA and PIPA. Instead of going after individuals the United States is going to limit the internet by blocking and shutting down copyrighted content. If SOPA and PIPA are enacted it will limit new ideas and has the potential to destroy sites with user submitted content including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Reddit and more.

It's Not You, It's Your Website - ClickTale AMA Webinar

"Is your website simply not converting as much as you'd like it to? Are your competitor’s sites performing better than yours? After researching tens of thousands of websites, over a massive range of industries, we'll reveal the top reasons why customers are abandoning your site or are failing to convert, and the five things you can do today to fix it!" - via American Marketing Association

It's Not You, It's Your Website - ClickTale AMA Webinar from ClickTale on Vimeo.

Wiring the open-source enterprise by McKinsey Quarterly

If you are a usual reader of the blog, reading another excerpt of a McKinsey Quarterly is not a novelty. So I could resist to publish some excerpts from the article "Wiring the open-source enterprise". I hope you enjoy it. 

Social technologies lie at the core of a new model that spurs user participation and speeds up product innovation.

Open innovation isn’t a new phenomenon. The first Oxford English Dictionary was an open-source project: editors solicited the participation of hundreds of amateur volunteer readers. Fascinating examples of information sharing and innovative intellectual-property arrangements can also be found in the evolution of Cornish pumping engines in the 18th century and of blast furnaces in northern England during the 19th century. Software itself was distributed free of charge during the 1950s.¹

But open innovation has been gathering force in recent years, thanks to the emergence of the Internet as a global information-sharing network; the increasing importance of digitizable, knowledge-based products and services; and the sheer volume of data being generated, processed, and stored by a wide range of enterprises. From a beachhead in software (see companion article, “Managing the business risks of open innovation”), open innovation has spread to a range of industries that use external insights to boost internal R&D efforts or even rely on outside networks for core product ideas. Our latest research on Web 2.0 technologies reveals that more and more executives are taking advantage of these opportunities and foresee the need for organizational change if their companies are to compete in a more open, networked environment.

Organizational change to catalyze contributions

While the number of open-source projects is growing rapidly, research has shown that about 90 percent of them don’t fully achieve their potential. Leaders will need to know how the innovation landscape is evolving and be ready to respond by following some basic tenets.

Start at the grass roots. Our survey research indicates that nearly half of the early adopters of collaborative technologies promoted their use by mobilizing people on lower levels of the organization. Hierarchal, top-down controls rarely succeed, since most creative interactions are tacit and dynamic.

Develop competencies at the edge. Companies best leverage social and knowledge networks by venturing beyond corporate boundaries, as P&G has done. But opening the gates of the enterprise doesn’t guarantee a robust network—and could compromise valuable intellectual property. Success depends upon the ability to gain the trust of users, transparency, and a deft hand in managing interactions.

Understand what makes participants tick. Users and consumers have different motives for contributing their time and skills. For some, the goal is simply recognition; for others, rewards or revenue sharing may be necessary to induce valuable efforts. Determining what matters for your priority constituencies is crucial.

click here to read the full article

Daffy's Virtual Peep Show in Times Square New York

Classification: Creativity: 4,3;  Will to buy: 4;  Empathy for the Brand: 4,1

Total: 4,1

Daffy's, a high fashion retail store, recently opened up and wanted to inform their customers of their new store location and amazing sales of up to 80% off high end fashion. The challenge was how to break through all the clutter in one of the most advertised cities in the country. In order to do this, they decided to bring back the old peep show and sleaze factor of old Times Square New York.

Devito/Verdi, USA with helpt of Click 3X created an interactive virtual peep show. People passing the street can walk up to the digital display and press their hand to the glass. Instead of using money, this interactive peep show only required a person to put their hand on the window. Upon pressing the "button" the red velvet drapes would open and reveal a young model strutting her stuff. As the model slowly does her thing and removes portions of her clothing, you'll notice a sign above the model that flashes, "Wanna see what 20 percent off looks like?"

As the sign slowly changes to more percent off, more clothing items fly off until it reaches 80%. At that point, the velvet curtain drops and the show ends with "Wanna see more? Come downstairs" flashing across the screen.

Advertising Agency: Devito/Verdi, USA
Production / Post Production: Click 3X
Senior Producer: Ephraim Kehlmann
Producer: Jenny Corbett
Animations: Claudeland Louis
Editor: Erin McCaffrey
Development: Jonathan Schnapp

A rising role for IT: McKinsey Global Survey results

Mckinsey released their global survey results, I'm gonna share with you some excerpts:

The online survey was in the field  from October 4 to October 14,  2011, and generated responses  from 927 executives. Of  these respondents, 488 have  a technology focus, and  the other 439 represent other  functional specialties. The  respondents represent the full  range of industries, regions,  company sizes, and tenures.

Aspirations and current expectations for IT have never been higher. Executives  continue to set exacting demands for IT support of business processes, and they see an even  larger role for IT in a competitive environment increasingly shaken up by technology disruptions. (...) Looking ahead, executives expect  IT to create new platforms to support innovation and growth, help guide strategy with data  and advanced analytics, and stay on top of possible new roles for mobile devices. For IT  leaders, the good news is that along with these higher expectations, most respondents also see  a greater willingness to spend more on IT.

Meeting expectation

Among respondents to this survey, the highest current priorities for IT mirror those of previous surveys:  improving the effectiveness and efficiency of business processes and  reducing IT cost. (...)

Higher budgets, changing priorities

Perhaps due to a combination of rising faith in IT, the realization of competitive challenges  ahead, and a more positive business outlook, more respondents expect their organizations  to increase spending in 2012. (...)

More data to support decisions

Executives say their companies still rely upon a mix of data and experience in decision  making, although they are increasingly looking to analytics tools for support. 

New platforms on the move

Both IT and non-IT executives say their organizations are beginning to take advantage of  new platforms to further innovation: data and analytics, social Internet technologies (those  known as Web 2.0), social media platforms (such as Facebook and Twitter), embedded  computing, and cloud computing (Exhibit 4). Such platforms can be used to meet a variety of  goals, including better customer and partner engagement and the creation of new products  and services. While most respondents indicate that these platforms have yet to be deployed at  scale, significant shares say their companies are using them in selected areas or piloting them. (...)

Mobile technologies—for example, smartphones, tablets, and sensors—are growing in  importance, according to respondents. They say their companies are using mobile  technologies and applications both internally as collaboration and efficiency tools and  externally to create stronger links with customers and business partners. Respondents in  Europe are slightly ahead of the curve in mobile-technology deployment at scale. The  region where these mobile technologies are most often deployed selectively in pockets across  the enterprise is developed Asia: respondents there lead the rest of the world by anywhere  from 10 to 20 percentage points in selective use of mobile for customer and business  partner engagement.

IT in the boardroom

As technology becomes a more important factor in reshaping industries, survey respondents  say their organizations’ boards of directors should play a more active role in deciding  how technology is incorporated into overall strategy. Respondents say that the  most important technology-related discussions at their board meetings revolve around  approval or review of very large IT projects; but ideally, they say, discussions should address forward-looking assessments of technology trends.

Looking ahead

Many executives indicate their companies are struggling with the substantial technical  challenges of increasing their use of data and analytics. In our experience, some of the  toughest challenges are creating a “single source” of truth, consolidating data architectures,  and developing analytic tools and skills. But critical as these challenges are, successful  rollouts often require a softer element—attention to the cultural changes to encourage  increased reliance on data for decision making as well as the training required to help leaders at all levels incorporate analytics into regular practice.

According to respondents, business executives continue to ask IT to create more value by enabling business processes with technology, which is driving a significant amount of  increased investment. In our experience, success in these efforts requires creating solid, welldefined business cases that include clear stage gates and metrics for holding business and  IT leaders accountable.

New technology platforms and capabilities are clearly creating new opportunities at many  different levels within organizations. We often see business executives experimenting  with these platforms outside of IT’s awareness or permission. Given the proliferation and potential importance of these platforms, IT executives must shift from being gatekeepers  to being enablers and service managers—guiding, supporting, and assisting their colleagues in  these experiments to ensure that corporate policies, data security, or risk guidelines are not endangered.

click here, register and download the full article (pdf).

Nubot The Video Chat Doll as if you are there!

By turn freaky, by turn adorable, this robotic avatar, nubot, was created by Japanese planning company Nuuo for use in staff meetings between different places. Created by the same guys who worked on the Tiny Riot App, the robot is a little doll with a screen as a face. Using webcam and Skype, you can manipulate the doll's movements as if you are actually there. Similar to W+K's virtual Christmas Dinner and del Campo Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi's friend recovery, you can be there when your faraway friends, family or colleagues need you. You just can't eat the noodles.

Look-a-liker - Stockholm Globe Arenas

Classification: Creativity: 4,2;  Will to buy(participate): 4,2;  Empathy for the Brand: 4

Total: 4,1

Who do your friends look like?

To arouse interest in upcoming acts, Swedish music venue Stockholm Globe Arenas created a Facebook app where users compete for tickets by working out which of their friends most resembles a rock star.

Users choose three friends who most resembles an upcoming act takes their profile picture and use their eyes, a nose and a mouth to form a portrait presented as a concert poster. The most highly rated poster of the week wins tickets for all three friends included in the poster, together with the author of the artwork themselves. The app was created by Stockholm agency Pool. - via creativity online.

Why Marketer Love for QR Codes Is Not Shared by Consumers

Quick-response codes are everywhere these days, even the soccer field. This fall, a squad of London footballers shaved the back of their heads in the design as a promotional stunt. But consumers are not nearly as excited about QR codes as marketers are.

The codes are a great idea in theory. They let marketers make all sorts of media -- print, billboards, even packaging -- clickable and interactive. When scanned with a special app downloaded to a smartphone, QR codes can call up links, text messages or videos. They can spark e-commerce or generate a lead.

But in practice, while QR codes are affixed to everything from rental cars to Bratz dolls, only 5% of Americans who own mobile phones actually used the 2-D barcodes in the three months ending July 2011, according to Forrester Research. And those 14 million early adopters tended to be young, affluent and male.

Experts cite three reasons that QR codes haven't caught on. First, people are confused about how to scan them. Two, there's little uniformity among the apps required to read them. Last, some who have tried the technology were dissuaded by codes that offer little useful information or simply redirect the user to the company's website.

None of this deters marketers, who seem to be slapping the codes on products for all age groups and demographics.

"QR codes are definitely everywhere," said Kelli Robertson, director-strategy for digital agencyAKQA.

The QR phenomenon is "another instance of shiny-object syndrome," said Melissa Parrish, Forrester's senior analyst-social and mobile marketing. "Something becomes trendy or sexy, and marketers feel they have to jump onboard to position themselves as innovative and make sure they don't fall behind."

Car-rental outfit Enterprise pasted QR codes on the driver-side windows of 1 million of its North American vehicles so passersby can get more information about the automaker.

JC Penney put the codes on holiday tags so that gift-givers could include a recorded greeting on the box -- one of many QR-code programs from the retailer.

QRblaster.com, which generates codes, published a list of the worst campaigns of the year. It included marketers and publishers with unreadable or obscured codes. Some were offered in areas with no internet access, which means a scan cannot load anything to the phone. Red Bull put QR codes on the subway, and United Airlines had them on in-flight magazines read primarily far outside cell-service range.

In a well-meaning misstep, MillerCoors partnered with Seattle bars and restaurants over the holidays so that patrons who had imbibed a bit too much could snap a QR code to get a cab. The effort assumed that revelers still had enough dexterity to aim a phone and get a clear shot.

"Marketers fall in love with tools and forget the reality of how they're used," said Ms. Robertson at AKQA.

The appeal to marketers is clear. Implementing the codes is far less expensive than developing a proprietary app. They offer the ability to measure consumer activity and can provide shoppers with information, freeing up salespeople and increasing productivity.

But what's the risk of the many QR codes that are unhelpful, don't work or are so complicated that it would be easier to enter a URL?

"If you are not paying off [the QR scan] with content that's rewarding or valuable, then the experience falls flat and consumers won't use it again," Ms. Robertson said.

Despite low usage, marketers are staying loyal to QR codes.

Home Depot, for example, put QR codes on plants this spring so that customers could learn more about the items and which go best together.

A spokeswoman for the home-improvement retailer acknowledged that adoption has been slow, but the company continued to test the technology on artificial Christmas trees and lights.

"I haven't found any brands that have totally scrapped the codes," said Ms. Parrish at Forrester.

Education may also be an answer. Last spring, Macy's did national TV ads on its QR codes, and shoppers who scanned them got informational videos from clothing designers. The initiative exceeded expectations and got positive customer feedback, according to a spokeswoman. Use of the codes tripled after Macy's tweaked the content and offered shorter videos in the fall.

written by: Kunur Patel  on AdAge Digital