Category: Advertising & Marketing

Super Bowl ads 2014: staff opinions

Posted on by Brian Lee

BRIAN:

Anyone who knows me personally knows I’m love the 80s. So, it should come as no surprise that my favorite commercial was from Radio Shack. The first line set the tone: “The ’80s called … they want their store back.” I loved seeing Mary Lou Retton, Hulk Hogan, Alf, Kid N Play, Teen Wolf, the DeLorean, Chuckie and other icons from the best decade ever. If you search on YouTube, you’ll find a series of these ads with the characters, another avenue for the company to engage with its customers. And good for Radio Shack for finally revamping its admittedly boring store layout.

AMY:

What has stuck out to me is all the controversy online over the Coke ad. Yes, they chose the song “America the Beautiful” but I viewed the ad as the song being played in countries around the world not just different cultures here in America. Coke is an iconic American brand. And the happiness Coke brings to us is spread all around the world. Consumers get too worked up about little things that don’t matter. If they only had Caucasian Americans in the spot, people would have been just as outraged. And I am sure they missed a prominent culture to represent that somebody else is mad about. Does drinking Coke make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside? Then drink it and enjoy.

KATIE:

I had high expectations each time the Super Bowl commercials came on, but it always seemed by the time the game resumed I was disappointed. None of them impressed me too much. That is, until the Esurance commercial right after the Super Bowl ended. The fact that John Krasinski blatantly pointed out how much money Esurance saved and then proceeded to engage people all over to country to win that money was extremely clever. Of course no one flips off the TV right after the game ends – at that point, people are celebrating or complaining about their team with their phones in hand, texting their friends. Esurance saw that opportunity and grabbed it, making for a memorable and successful after-Super Bowl ad.

DAVID:

I look forward to the Super Bowl every year and to say the least, Super Bowl XLVIII didn’t meet my expectations. Complementing a Super Bowl blowout was the reserved Super Bowl ads. Of the select few good ads this year, I’d have to say my favorite was Budweiser’s “Puppy Love.” I enjoyed how Budweiser played sort of a sequel to last year’s Clydesdales slot and thought it demonstrated a great narrative arc. How the Clydesdale and the puppy generate this friendship really hits home on Budweiser’s slogan, “Best Buds.” In general, you really have to appreciate what Budweiser had to do to make this ad. It took a lot of effort from a wide range of people to create this to get the horse and puppy to interact as they did.

Retargeting: Helpful or Annoying to Consumers?

Posted on by Natalie Hurley

Ever wonder why after visiting a site just once, ads for the site suddenly seem to be showing up on every other site you visit?

The answer to your question lies in a marketing strategy called retargeting, which focuses on bringing potential customers back to a site after they have already visited it. A javascript tag embedded in the website generates a list of people by placing anonymous retargeting “cookies” in their browser.

Then retargeting companies are further able to segment visitors by tracking what they viewed while on the site. For example, if you looked at shoes, then it would be in best practice to show ads for shoes.

One retargeting company, Adroll, states that retargeting works by “converting window-shoppers into buyers.” While I am all for finding more shoes similar to the ones I have been coveting while online-shopping, I also think there are potential problems with retargeting.

For one, retargeting calls into question the never-ending discussion of privacy limits on the web. While retargeting offers a great way to keep track of potential consumers, it also may be seen as an invasion of privacy by visitors. It is possible that the average shopper will get annoyed that every time they visit a site, they will start seeing numerous ads.

According to retargeter.com, “for most websites, only two percent of web traffic converts on the first visit. Retargeting is a tool designed to help companies reach the 98 percent of users who don’t convert right away.”

While the goal to increase effectiveness of advertising by targeting only those who have already shown some interest in the products or company makes sense, I think the new strategy should be used with some caution. For example, companies should take ad placement and frequency into consideration and avoid annoying potential customers too much.

A restaurant’s last words

Posted on by Brian Lee

What a restaurant owner says “the food will speak for itself” or “we rely on word-of-mouth,” it’s their death sentence. On top of having good operations (pricing, staffing, quality, etc.), you have to do marketing. I know from my experience in restaurant consulting that a very, very small percentage of restaurants can survive on word-of-mouth alone.

Have you ever noticed that the most trendy or successful restaurants in any city still do a ton of marketing and advertising? And that the least successful restaurants continue to do nothing?