Super Bowl Ads, Beyond Disappointment.

By Cynti Oshin
Director Client Services/Business Development

The annual buildup to the great reveal of some of our biggest brands' television spots during the Super Bowl is almost as important as the build up to the game itself.  As someone said, there are two kinds of Super Bowl party attendees, the shushers during the game and the shushers during the advertisements.  Needless to say, I am a commercial shusher.  Or, at least I WAS.  Yesterday's parade of dum (sic) dum (sic) dum (sic) ads was my biggest disappointment of the year.  However, that should tell you how lucky a girl I am.  

While watching the Go Daddy, Doritos, TaxACT, Teleflora and other spots, I longed for the original E-Trade baby spots, Volkswagen's Empire Strikes Back, and even the MacIntosh spots of yesteryear.  Of the roughly 36 advertisers who ran spots during the game, I can count on one hand how many I found anywhere from mildly amusing to 'spot on' brand strategy execution.


What did you think?  I am completely off base?  Tell me why, I'd love to know.  And only 364 more days until we can have this conversation again.

Source: Adage.com

A Boy. His Cereal Box. QR codes, Marketing, Advertising, Creative Strategies and More.

By Cynti Oshin

Director Client Services/Business Development

Close your eyes and picture this.  A teenage boy shuffles into the kitchen with bedhead and a mission.  Eat cereal while reading the box.  The same box he has been reading since he opened it 2 weeks ago.  With the exact same thing on it - not a single piece of copy, image or offer has changed since the day before.  Yep, the same box.  He places his bowl, spoon, cereal box and milk on the table.  He grumbles something to his mother, rubs his eyes, and plops himself down into his chair. The chair legs create that loud scraping noise as he drags himself up to the table.  He pours his cereal, then milk and plops the cereal box down with only the cereal bowl between them.  The boy leans down within 3 inches of his bowl, almost in a sideways v-shape on the chair, assuming the ideal position to mindlessly shovel cereal into his mouth while reading the cereal box, again.  For the 12th time.

Now imagine the exact same scene, with one difference.  He has his spoon in one hand and his smart phone in the other.  Mindlessly shovels cereal into his mouth while scanning the QR code which has miraculously taken him to....wait for it....new content!  And voila, a whole new universe has opened up.  Could be a microsite, could be a daily offer, could be a tie in with a concert promoter, action sportswear company or whatever.  Point is, could be anything and could change on a daily basis if you wanted it to.

So now picture his dad is at the other end of the table.  Same position, same drill, spooning cereal while reading the box with relevant content for his demo.  Crazy?  Nope.  And it's possible now.  Brilliant, I say.  Just brilliant.

Source:http://usat.ly/ApA8nN