Why I want to be a Mad Man

It's the first question in every interview I've ever had:

"So, why do you want to work in advertising?"

I can see how people stumble over this if they've never heard it before. It could easily be one of those "Uhh...wow I never thought about it before" situations. I do know the answer, however.

I want to work in advertising because I believe in advertising.

That's the silly, long-story-short answer. What I mean by that:

You don't have to know me for more than 5 minutes to know I'm nuts about sports. A professor once told me, "I don't know how you have room in your brain for all that extra information," referring to my sports knowledge. I'm a rabid and oft disappointed fan of Buffalo and Syracuse sports.

Celebrating mediocrity at the Pro Football Hall of Fame

What you may not know is that my first love was basketball. Strange because I didn't grow up with a team - Buffalo hasn't had one since 1978. I adopted the Chicago Bulls partially because they were really, really good, but also because the only player I knew anything about was His Airness, Michael Jordan.

I first learned who MJ was through a certain commercial you may remember:



Sorry if it's stuck in your head now.

I was mesmerized. I wanted to be like Mike. And so I drank Gatorade, I asked mom for Nike sneakers and Hanes underwear, and yes, I watched Space Jam about 126 times.

It wasn't until later that I realized that this thing that I cared so deeply about was all because of advertising. Sure, I was affected in a very specific way, but it dawned on me that advertising can have a profound effect on anyone. When done correctly (and honestly), it really works.

The industry is absolutely fascinating. It's not because it's paid communication to convince consumers of blah blah blah, or whatever the textbook definition is. It's because advertising at its core is the perfect blend of art and science which can show any person a slightly better way of life. It manages to solve the problems of consumers and of companies and brands at the same time, often in a captivating way.

And it's the only thing I can imagine myself doing for a living.

And for the record: I got into advertising long before I got into watching Mad Men - that isn't the case for everyone. But since you asked, I see myself more as a Ken Cosgrove than a Pete Campbell.

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A day later: abbreviated thoughts on the Super Bowl ads

I wanted to wait a while to write my review of last night's ads. Last year I did a diatribe on the ten commandments of Super Bowl ads - this year I figured I'd try to boil it down a little bit. I only have one commandment this time around, actually. Following will be my personal list of winners and losers and the ad agencies responsible, based on a variety of factors but mostly on:


11. Thou shalt get thine money's worth.

These spots cost about $100,000 per second (considering there were some 15 seconds and some 60). Great creative is a must. The ads don't just cost so much because you get 111,000,000 sets of eyeballs (a CPM of just $27!) - you have the only audience of the entire year that is captivated by commercials and is waiting eagerly for each one.

That means that you can't screw it up. Do something people will remember beyond the water cooler the next day. A chuckle from a slapstick joke is great until you get one-upped by Pepsi Max in the same commercial break. Then, all you've done is helped the ad guys at your agency pay their mortgages (or student loans) off.

Memorable doesn't always mean funny. A lot of times it does for the 1 or 2 funniest spots, but it doesn't work for everyone. Do something culturally relevant, cute, or God forbid controversial.

My winners and losers are based on this new addition to my commandments:
(Instead of linking to all the videos, here's one link to all of them.)



WINNERS:
 
Chrysler (Wieden + Kennedy)
Questioned it when it happened, but looking back it was extremely memorable and managed to "turn Detroit into a product benefit," according to Ed Russell. And it made Eminem look kinda classy. Love to see the American automakers put their game faces on.

Volkswagen (Deutsch)
Also one I questioned. Releasing the spots before the game was very bold. What it did was make the 12 million people who say it before the game say "EVERYONE SHUT UP THIS IS THE CUTE ONE!" Great move, also didn't require slapstick comedy. I actually thought the Beetle spot was better than Vader since it had something to do with the product. And they didn't have to pay George Lucas piles of money for that one.

Bridgestone (The Richards Group)
Anyone that didn't think "Reply All" was the funniest ad of the night has never sent an email. Limited product relevance loses some points, but the funniest spot has to make this list.

NFL (GREY)

They had the best possible value the could have gotten. They are guaranteed a certain number of ads during every broadcast, meaning aside from being a huge cash cow the spot they ran with the television characters more than likely didn't cost them a penny. In my circle (one that enjoys TV and football both very much) the NFL's spot was the best of the night. Cartman running in the final scene is gold.


Groupon (Crispin Porter + Bogusky)

WHAT?!? BUT THEY MADE FUN OF TIBET! I'M SO ANGRY I'LL NEVER GO ON THEIR WEBSITE...THINGY. Offensive or not, you're not going to forget Groupon's ads. They're extremely tongue-in-cheek as is (see my post here for more thoughts), so it wasn't out of character creative. And immediately after, half of Twitter was running around screaming with their heads cut off. One of the least known companies is now the most talked about. I'd call that pretty good value.


The creative advertising industry
The most heavily crowdsourced Super Bowl ever produced some stinkers. Pepsi Max and Doritos were mostly slapstick and predictable. Consider that thousands of entries were sifted through to get to these and all of a sudden it looks like crowdsourcing isn't worth the trouble. Crash the Super Bowl failed to crash the party for ad execs and creatives alike.


LOSERS:
 
Motorola
I love the ad. An obvious jab at Apple's 1984 (the "clones" are totally different now. very clever). Except it wasn't obvious to most people. A scant percentage of those watching know advertising history and recognize Apple stereotypes. Based on empirical evidence, may people "just didn't get it"

Salesforce.com (no agency - CEO Marc Benioff talks about it here)
Filed under "why are you advertising here?"

Stella Artois (Mother)
Filed under "managed to be bizarre and yet also totally boring"

Go Daddy (no agency - thank God)
Yes, more people want to create websites now, so it makes more sense than them advertising 5 years ago. But we're also smart enough to know that there's isn't any sultry unrated content online. And if there was, Joan Rivers wouldn't make me want to check it out.


Living Social (The Martin Agency)
Groupon's primary rival. Did you remember they had a spot? It wasn't controversial, so that's why you don't. That flushing sound you hear is the first $3,000,000 Living Social ever made.

A Word on Student Advertising Agencies

“Journalism kids have a newspaper, broadcast kids have a TV station. Why don’t advertising kids have an agency?”

This was the vision that resulted in the formation of The NewHouse, Syracuse’s student-run ad agency, in 2007.

I now find myself the president of TNH, as it has been affectionately known by members. I feel it necessary to share some of the wisdom I’ve developed after my first semester in the position.

Two years ago, we spearheaded a project to research what other student ad agencies existed, what their branding and business models were, and how we could be better. We believe that we’re in the predominant advertising program in the country, it was only fair to aim to create the strongest college agency.

This, it turned out, would not be as easy as claiming we were the best. Sure, our egos were inflated after our 2009 national championship in the AAF’s National Student Advertising Competition.

Much like the real ad industry, you can’t get complacent in the student ad world. Other schools have risen up and they really shined at NSAC nationals last year with a bevy of interesting creative ideas and stellar presentations. Yeah, I mean you, Chapman.

I think I felt the need to write this for anyone that might be looking to start an agency at their school, that wants to make their college agency better, or any high school kids crazy enough to plan on majoring in advertising.

Following is my advice for developing a successful student agency, many of which is based on experience (good or bad) with our own agency.

1) Don’t be the XYZ University Advertising Club
You aren’t trying to be the “advertising club.” As a member of our agency put it in our recent promotions, you aren’t in high school anymore. Over are the days of padding the resume with meaningless “clubs.” In interviews you’ll be asked what your agency is/does and how you’re contributing to the agency and your education.

2) Come up with a solvent business model
This doesn’t mean you need to profit – your art directors aren’t relying on their work to feed themselves (yet). This means you should try to secure funding from your student fee or department if possible, come up with a fee structure that clients might be willing to pay, and fill in the gaps with member dues. You aren’t going into this business (presumedly) to do charity for non-for-profits and local pizza shacks, so why do that as practice? Charge your clients for services that cost you money. Outsource jobs that your members can’t do the best possible work at – your copywriters won’t be producing promotional videos professionally, they shouldn’t be forced to now.

3) Have named positions
Working in advertising is awkward in that people not in the industry don’t understand our job titles. “What does your daddy do?” “He…uh…is an advertising…guy” That’s why we have terms like account executive, media planner, art director, etc. Use these titles – it gives meaning and substance to what members put on their resumes and defines their role in the organization. This makes it easier to distribute tasks.

4) Enter competitions (besides NSAC)
Competition deadlines are easy to work with for students – they’re much more like academic projects and are easier to follow through on than projects for real clients. Honestly, you need a healthy mix of both. Competition wins will bring the glory and name recognition you’ll need to grow as a student org (and can bring in some cash if you’re good at them). I may be including this because I’m currently on a plane to LA to present for the finals of a competition from Honda – it has been one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had as a student to this point.

5) For God’s sake, have a web presence
We are Generation Y, we need to prove our prowess in reaching Gen Y. We live online as consumers, you should prove you can reach them by having a web presence. This has been an ongoing struggle for my agency (I assure you the website project is under construction…as it has been for 3 years), but we know we’ll be taken much more seriously once it exists.

I’ll leave you with a list of (what I’ve found to be) some really good student agencies (Besides TNH at Syracuse) and where they are housed:

AdLab - BYU
Mojo Ad - Missouri
AdLab - Boston U
HSBT - Georgia
Diamond Edge Communications - Temple


Is your agency not listed? Email me and we’ll talk – I always want to know what other schools are doing.

The time has come

I've decided I'm going to leverage this blog to talk about case studies from my experience running The NewHouse Student Ad Agency this year. Leverage is my new favorite word, by the way.

Anytime we accomplish something, I want to tell the world about it and get the word out there a little more. I'm still going to comment on ad world happenings when I can, too. Sorry to my (10 or so) dedicated followers who I've left in the dark since June or so. I promise it won't happen again!

Is Smirnoff behind Bros Icing Bros?

You just got ICED!

That's what "bros" across the land are hearing upon being forced to drink a Smirnoff Ice in one of the most bizarre real-life Internet meme strikes since Rick Astley Rick-Rolled the Thanksgiving Day Parade.

The premise is simple. Basically, a bro can present a Smirnoff Ice to one of his bros at any time in any setting, and the recipient must get on one knee and chug the beverage. According to the official web authority on the matter, brosicingbros.com, "you cannot refuse an Ice. If you refuse to drink the Ice, you are instantly excommunicated and shunned..."

The social game, according to Fortune (yes, they actually did a story on this) started on college campuses in South Carolina and has since spread throughout the country to tech corporations, hedge funds, and investment banks. It certainly seems that you ain't cool unless you ice your bros.

The key to "winning" the game, although nobody actually can win because the game never ends, you can only Ice or be Iced, is hiding Ices in places a bro would never think to come prepared. If you have an Ice on you, you may block an attack and force the Icer to drink themselves. If the Ice is left in an obscure place, the recipient bro almost certainly will be caught off guard and be forced to drink it.

The obvious assumption to make is that this started as some guerilla marketing campaign by Smirnoff and or Diageo, the UK company that owns the brand. After all, it is every product's dream to have some grassroots movement started by a target that has traditionally ignored or avoided your product.

Alas, according to the company, this in not the case. A company spokeswoman claims:
"The icing phenomenon is consumer generated ... Some people think it's fun. Diageo never wants underage icing."

The casual use of the term "icing" is very humorous to me, it says that either she's lying (almost certainly not the case) or that they've received countless inquiries as to their role in the fad (most likely).

Bros Stoning Bros?

Here, I have to digress for a moment. I've always had trouble believing that alcohol companies do not support underage drinking (or "icing" in this case). It's comparable, in my mind, to saying that tobacco companies have never (subliminally or otherwise) targeted children. We know that these companies aren't ALLOWED to target underage consumers (or else Lesley Fair and the FTC will behead them), that doesn't mean that they don't do so, even unintentionally.

My favorite example (and I've ranted about this before) is Keystone Light. Anyone that's ever set foot on an American college campus has probably had an encounter with Stones. Known more so for it's dirt-cheap price than its purported "Always Smooth" taste, Keystone is a staple amongst collegiate (read: underage) binge drinkers.

I have a hard time believing that MillerCoors, the parent company of the Keystone brand, is unaware that a majority of their business is directly related to underage consumers. If consumers were truly concerned with the "smooth" taste of their brew, chances are they wouldn't head to the back of the convenience store cooler for a 30 rack of Stones. Despite this, Saatchi and Saatchi is renewing the "smooth" USP with a series of commercials featuring the Always Smooth Keith Stone:



Cleverness of the spot notwithstanding, I think the brand would be much better served promoting its' low price than it's (dare I say) smooth taste. Advertising, especially creative advertising, can cure a lot of ills, but you need to get the USP right. Is it wrong to advertise to a target which can not legally purchase your product? Probably. But is it bad for business? Usually not.

Back to my original thought: do I believe that Smirnoff is not behind the Bros Icing Bros phenomenon? Yes, I suppose I do. While it will certainly help boost sales in the short term (despite some evidence to the contrary), it's just too silly (read: genius) of an idea to have been conceived by marketing execs. At least Smirnoff isn't advertising the wrong message or to the wrong people, like Keystone (or my other alcoholic bugaboo, Mike's Hard) does.

RIP: "Get a Mac" ads

According to Mashable, everyone's favorite Mac campaign (and the campaign of the decade, according to Adweek) is no more.



Justin Long (Mac) himself broke the news last month in an interview with A.V. Club, saying "I think they might be done. In fact, I heard from John (Hodgman, AKA PC) I think they're going to move on."

It's always a shame when great campaigns die. What made these spots so great (and this coming from a PC user) is that they created the PC brand. What I mean is that there is no company called "PC," it's a category made up of every personal computer manufacturer: HP, Toshiba, Dell, etc. By making "PC" the bad-guy brand, it changed the question from "What kind of computer do you have?" to "Do you have a Mac or a PC?" Props to TBWA Worldwide (the agency behind the campaign) for an excellent strategy and execution. It helps that Long and Hodgman were impeccable in their respective roles.

Little did I know that my Halloween costume would be inspired by the very last spots in this campaign:


Very few campaigns get the chance to transcend the realm of advertising and join the world of pop culture. Get a Mac was one of those campaigns. Cheers to Apple, TBWA, Justin Long, and John Hodgman for that.

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Best ad on TV 5/10: Weber Grills

Saw this spot, "Have Fun With It," a handful of times watching the History channel tonight.



I really think they captured the core fascination with grilling. It actually has very little to do with the quality of the meat, provided no one gets salmonella or mad cow. It's about the grilling culture.

It's relatively easy to grill food, and it's also a social activity. No longer restricted to tailgaters and to dads on Memorial day; this ad seems to remind us that grilling is for everyone to have fun with.

I wish they would have included a little more grill-related activity. Maybe throw in a burger flip or two, or perhaps the artful squirting/spraying/dowsing of BBQ sauce. Regardless of this little lack of content, the spot is still very well done.

From what I can find, the folks behind it are Denver, CO based rabble+rouser, and the song is actually an original song made for the spot, called You Light Me Up by Open Sky.