Message from Michael -- Super Bowl Edition

Message From Michael February 5, 2007
CONSUMERS SCORE SUPER BOWL TOUCHDOWN
THE INTERNET AND THE SUPER BOWL
ADVERTISING MYTH BUSTERS ABOUT THE SUPER BOWL
CONSUMER GENERATED TALENT
NEWSPAPERS GET IN THE GAME


A Special Note – Because so much of this week’s Message From Michael dealt with the Super Bowl, I am sending it out early so you can take advantage of the many interesting websites and resources outlined in the report. Enjoy.

CONSUMERS SCORE SUPERBOWL TOUCHDOWN: And so do the advertisers. The loser in this year’s Super Bowl contest may (and the operative word is ‘may’) be the ad agencies. The reason – the number of ads being produced by ‘amateurs.’ Consumer Generated Media or consumer generated content has created an offspring -- consumer generated commercials. And now they have made it to the big time. Big time as in these spots cost $2.6 Million to air. Several major corporations have turned to so-called amateurs to produce spots for the Super Bowl. General Motors, Pepsico, even the NFL itself. The word amateur should be put in quotes though. For example, the person chosen by the NFL is an MBA graduate student at Syracuse University but he is also the business development director at an ad agency in Portland, Maine; and the ad itself is being directed by a long-time NFL director. General Motors on the other hand created a team competition for its Chevrolet division among college students with Elon University, Savannah School of Art and Design, San Jose State University, Washington University (St. Louis) and the University of Wisconsin (Milwaukee) winning the final five spots. But the big consumer generated commercial comes from Pepsico’s Dorito’s brand which created a contest that resulted in five finalists. The winner will be shown Sunday night during the game. And when I say ad agencies should be worried, take a look at the ads on the website, crashthesuperbowl.com or http://promotions.yahoo.com/doritos/ and you will see why. Plus, as a Washington Post article points out, they’re cheap, with one ad creator saying the ad cost all of $12.79.For those who can’t afford million-dollar ad placements, YouTube has created a ‘channel’ on its website for ‘faux’ Super Bowl ads which will start Super Bowl day. Bud.tv will re-launch itself Sunday and will begin by airing the ads created by the beer maker. MediaWeek has created a special website for Super Bowl ads (superadfreak.com) with a list of heavy weights in the advertising business blogging about their take on the various ads during the game. The best website though for you Super Bowl ad freaks is iFilm.com/superbowl which has all the ads from the past six years as well as some of the classic Super Bowl ads of all time.

THE INTERNET AND THE SUPER BOWL: The other trend that’s evident in this year’s Super Bowl advertising frenzy is the increasing use of the Internet and Interactive advertising. When you’re spending $2.6 Million a spot, (as we noted earlier, and that’s up from last year’s $2.5 Million), you want to get the bang for the buck. So, several advertisers have placed part of their ads online, using it as a sort of tease, by not showing the ending. Mega Super Bowl advertiser Anheuser Busch has put all of its ads on YouTube, but saving the “punch line” for Super Bowl night. Mars Corporation has done the same with a specially created website teasing its ad for Snickers candy bar. Insurance company Nationwide apparently decided to heck with it and has already posted its ad featuring Keven Federline (‘Mr. Britney Spears’) online. And it’s actually pretty funny. Here’s an interesting twist to the whole advertising game. The Wall Street Journal points out that some marketers are buying ads for the ads. In other words, they are buying the pre-roll ads on the websites which are showing Super Bowl ads. Understandable when you consider that last year AOL streamed 42 million copies of the ads in the week after the game.

DON’T FORGET THE POINT: One time marketing guru Jack Trout makes the very valid point in an article in The New York Sun that, “the purpose of advertising is to sell something” and that the commercials should focus on dramatizing what differentiates their product. But then, probably proving he is no longer the visionary he once was, Trout dismisses consumer generated commercials as a “fad (that) will wear itself out.” Jon Swallen, head of research for TNS Media Intelligence, tells the Arizona Republic newspaper that he believes consumer input into commercials is a “one year gimmick.” However, a survey by comScore Networks shows the consumer generated commercials are working, with a third of those surveyed (33%) saying they are looking forward to seeing which Dorito ad makes the Super Bowl and 19% saying they want to see what happens in the Snickers commercial and 16% wanting to see the Chevy ad. At the end of each quarter, CBS is going to post all the ads that aired that quarter. And just as well. That survey by comscore Networks showed that 11% plan to go to the Internet during the game to watch video clips or ads. Another 5% plan to download them, and yet another 5% plan to forward them on to friends. A die-hard 15% say they plan to go to the Internet to catch stats and stories related to the game. Meanwhile, the NFL Network is promising to air everything but the game in a massive does of pre-game coverage that is actually more extensive than CBS. As a side note, some of the major video corporations like Avid maybe should be worried as well. When you visit the Doritos ad website, you will find that most of the spots have been created using a website called jumpcut.com which, rightfully in my view, sub-titles its site as “making amazing movies online.”

ADVERTISING MYTH BUSTERS ABOUT THE SUPER BOWL: How often have you heard that people watch the Super Bowl for the ads? Well, close but not exactly true. Researcher comScore Networks reports that its survey show two thirds (64%) of the men say they enjoy watching the game most. Less than a third of the women (31%) say it’s the game they enjoy most. But more than a third of the women (36%) say yes, indeed, they enjoy the ads the most. One in six of the men (17%) say they enjoy watching the ads the most. To show you just how the Super Bowl has morphed into a social event, one in five of the women (22%) and one in seven of the men (13%) say what they enjoy most about the Super Bowl is spending time with friends and family. And 13% of those surveyed say they plan to go to the Internet to find recipes and party ideas.

CONSUMER GENERATED TALENT: The Gannett-owned station in Washington, D.C., is getting into the consumer generated commercial business as well. It has started a campaign asking people to submit ads to promote the station. The station has issued a series of guidelines, including that the ad must be in good taste. NBC is trying a variation of the American Idol theme, with a campaign aimed at anchor-wannabes. The Today show is running an ad on the MSNBC website calling on people to “tell us why you want to host the show” by sending in an application and a video clip by mail or online.

NEWSPAPERS GET IN THE GAME: An interesting trend in newspaper websites is not just the use of video, but also of slide shows. I was going to mention this anyway in this week’s MfM when I found an interactive slide and video show on the New York Times website dealing with the Super Bowl. It lists out the different categories of ads (from cars to drugs to beverages) shown in the Super Bowl over the last 20 years and what percentage of them relied on humor, or used animals or celebrities. Not only that but you can click on examples of the various commercials on the time line. (Website: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/01/business/media/20070201_SUPERBOWLADS_GRAPHIC.html?_r=1&oref=slogin . Also indicative of the changing environment for newspapers in this new media world, the Los Angeles Times announced that it will convert its LATimes website to a 24/7 news site with breaking news. Newspapers across the country have launched a $74 Million campaign pitching them as “the multi medium.” And the American Press Institute has launched website Newspapernext.org aimed at restoring growth in the newspaper business by researching and testing “viable new business models.” Meanwhile, Apropos of nothing in particular, I found it ‘odd’ that there was an advertisement for the New York Times on the website of the New York Sun.

RELATED STORIES: Even with all the stories about the Super Bowl, I couldn’t ignore some other trends that have been reported over the last week. In actual fact, they’re related trends. Think of this as Cocktail Chatter for this special edition. For example, the Chicago Tribune reports that with the growing competition for consumer generated content, many more websites, including the venerable YouTube, are having to pay for the content. Research firm Informa predicts that the increasing broadband availability will lead to increasing TV and movie downloads and that worldwide, revenue for such downloads will increase ten-fold to $6.3 Billion. Meanwhile marketing research firm eMarketer predicts that the majority of ALL digital content will be distributed over the Internet in the years to come. It notes that the process is already under way with music, mainly because of iTunes. The company also notes that because of the restrictions on the iTunes that illegal downloading has increased. The eMarketer company forecasts U.S. consumer spending on all digital – music, TV and movies – will approach $7.8 Billion in 2010, up from $1.3 Billion in 2005.

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