Before i go into this week’s commercial of the week, I wanted to call attention to the unbelievable amount of ad spending by brokerage houses during this NCAA tourney. It’s so excessive that their frequency almost warrants its own drinking game.
I guess it makes sense as the audience skews to college grads who are more likely to be doing some financial planning in addition to the recent market voliality. However it seems to be a little overkill with numerous ads by AG Edwards, Etrade, Charles Schwab, Fidelity, Hartford, Pacific Life, Principal Financial Group, ING, AIG, Wachovia, Edward Jones, T Rowe Price, and UBS.
Although I was a little turned off by the abundance of financial ads, I did like below New Balance advertisement.
New Balance is not a sexy brand, but makes high quality durable shoes. They have a high level of customer satisfaction and brand loyalty, but tend to avoid glitzy ad campaigns and celebrity endorsers.
The below ad resonates with runners and is engaging enough to keep you watching despite its length.
Update: I have attached a couple more of these smart ads that extend the concept that running is a tumultuous relationship. Glad to see New Balance executing on a well though out ad campaign that embraces the sentiments of so many runners.
Lots of cool commercial have been debuting this week, but I got to show love for this nostalgic Pontiac ad.
Spy hunter was a very popular arcade and Nintendo game in the 80’s. If you are a guy between the ages of 25-40, chances are you probably are at least semi familiar with it.
Looking to hit that same age market, Pontiac has crafted the below commercial. It’s a great concept capitlizing on 80’s nostalgia that is executed really well. My first inclination was to play Spy Hunter and not buy a Pontiac, but in this day and age any commercial that makes a positive impression and is memorable is affective compared to the rest of the advertising riff raff out there.
I always keep an eye out for solid commercials as I hate scrambling to pick one, when its time to select a Commercial of the Week. This week I found myself impressed by a pair of new Nike commercials.
I have always enjoyed the vast majority of Nike’s commercials and found the below ads to be up to par. Both mix exciting imagery and action with intense and suspenseful music.
The timing of these commercials is also important, as lots of Americans will be tuning in to watch March Madness, the start of baseball, and the home stretch of the NHL and NBA seasons. With winter turning into Spring, its very plausible that sports fans tuning into their favorite team may decide upon watching these commercials that its time to buy a new work out outfit or pair of shoes.
I have two great friends in town this week, hence my blogging has been down. Its been an awesome past couple of days, taking advantage of all the fun stuff in and around the Bay Area and of course the weather (I am told a bad blizzard hit Ohio yesterday while we were at the beach in shorts and sandals).
The California Tourism board has done a pretty good job promoting the state. With my friends reveling in the glory that is California, I thought I would give credit to newest of these great ads. The showcase a diverse amount of activities and locations in California (wine country, golf, hollywood, beach, slopes, golden gate) have a lot of star power, and are visually captivating (especially in HD). The tagline of “Find yourself here” is also very affective and perpetuates the state’s image.
I’ll go with the new Audi A5 commercial by a hair over the Propel commercial. Audi is having a lot of traction with 20 and 30 year old business professionals who are finding value over this luxury brand compared to that of Lexus, BMW, and Mercedes. Apple’s Iphone commercials have taken note of the trend and utilized Audi’s appeal Audi in their new “Cars” Iphone commercial. The Audi commercial resonates with young buyers who are open to thinking outside of their box for luxury. Audi is identified as an unconventional choice and one that can be considered bolder and more economical than other luxury options.
Second place goes to Propel. If you know me personally, you know that have a ridiculous dependency and addiction to Lemon Propel. I drink about 4 a day and depending on excercising or drinking sometimes upwards of 6-8. They taste great and are low in calories. Vitamin Water and Life Water have had a lot of success in the sports drink market as well, so this advertisement is a well timed ad looking to take over some of the Vitamin Water market share.
Haven’t seen to many new ads I like this week. Chevron has some cool advertisements about clean energy that I like, but I know its just a lot of fluff and marketing spin. I think most viewers are probably skeptical of if as well.
One company that seems to be legitimately committed to improving fuel stands is Toyota who owns Lexus as well Scion. Below is a new Lexus ad promoting their three hybrids, that they bill as the only luxury hybrids on the market. Lexus has been pushing their hybrid fleet of late knowing that most auto companies plan on rolling out more luxury hybrids over the next couple of years. But until those cars hit the market, Lexus is in good position in attracting buyers who want luxury and efficiency.
[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=fzuwrHSX4mI]
With blu ray vs hd dvd being a dead topic, I am starting to grow my interest the automobile industry as fuel standards and non conventional gas engines become more prevalent. Tesla Motors is a cool company right down the road who is beginning to make a lot of noise on this front, who has caught my eye. Do a google news search on them or check out their wikipedia page. With all the stagnation in the US auto industry, it would be great to see some Silicon Valley innovation really spearhead a movement to decrease dependency on foriegn oil.
This week I am going with this catchy satirical jingle ad by Dunkin Donuts. Its pretty obvious who they are mocking in this commercial. Starbucks is beginning to feel pressure from cheaper more basic offerings from Mcdonalds, Dunkin Donuts, and 7 Eleven.
Although I already recognized a Jackie Moon commercial, I wanted to give some love for these Old Spice Commercial as well.
This commercial aired about a month ago and I have to label it a complete success. Mike Huckabee is the one of 2 republicans left in the race and has picked up a handful of primary wins over the past month. The below advertisement caught a lot of people’s eye and attracted a lot of PR and internet attention. By creating such a stir with the goofy ad, a larger slice of the American voting public became more familiar with Huckabee, who is thought of as a very reserved and conservative candidate.
I will be most likely out of commision the next couple of days but wanted to get some thoughts down on yesterday’s fantastic Super Bowl.
The entire week when asked at work who I thought would win I responded with Patriots in a close one. Something told me that although the Giants were a lesser talented team, they were playing their best football all year unlike the Patriots.
The Patriots has seemed to plateau off after Thanksgiving, with close calls against the Ravens and Eagles and less than impressive wins to close out the regular season. Offensively and defensively they were no long immortal but potentially vulnerable.
But in the end I didn’t think the Giants would have enough, and I was pleasently surprised to be wrong.
Sunday’s game in my opinion was the great Super Bowl of all time. People throw out that label often forgetting the many great games in year’s past. However yesterday’s game surpassed all of my top 5.
5) Titans vs Rams 2000
4) Giants vs Bills 1991?
3) Patriots vs Rams 2002
2) Packers vs Broncos 1999
1) 49ers vs Bengals 1989
Some quick thoughts:
- The Eli Manning to David Tyree might be the best play in any Super Bowl. A drop there and its fourth down with the game on the line. I keep watching that replay and marvel that Eli escaped the pocket and then have my jaw drop watching Tyree make that catch.
- Its been quite an argument in whether or not Brady deserved to be held in the same regard as Montana, Unitis, and Elway in addition to Belichick being in the same class as Walsh, Knoll, and Lombardi. This loss only puts more speculation into the debate. Belichick and Brady in my opinion need 2-4 more year of consistent greatness (top 4 in the league) to even be considered the greatest ever. Those other guys either changed how the game was played or endeared long careers of consistent success. A win yesterday might have got them into the club early, but the loss will probably keep them on the greatest qb and coach waiting list for awhile.
- In an earlier post I guessed that the Super Bowl would be the most watched of all time and would bring in 100 million US viewers. I was 1/2 right with it being the most watched ever but only reaching 97.5 million viewers.
- Just food for thought. The Super Bowl is more of an American holiday than lets say about 1/2 the American holidays. Why not just make the day after a real holiday? Move presidents day up? Sure would be nice.
- People are complaining about Bellichick walking off the field and post game demeanor. Well Belichick’s an ass, no new news there. I was more dismayed that he actually went for it 4th and 13 rather than kick a 48 yard field goal. Pretty arrogant move from a pretty arrogant guy.
As for the Commercials….
Very dismayed at this year’s batch of commercial. Of course some were good, but overall it was pretty lackluster.
These 4 to me stood out as being worthy of recognition
With the Super Bowl coming up I am planning to do something special for Commercial of the Week next week. For now this one goes to a pretty risque Domino’s pizza commercial. Not a fan of Domino’s at all, but definitely love the adult humor in this ad.
