Ten GY&K team members weighed in on this year’s Super Bowl marketing.

In our office there’s more speculation about Super Bowl advertising than about who will win the actual game. That’s partially because we have a lot of confident Patriots fans, but mostly because we’re marketing geeks and there’s no better night to watch brands flex their marketing muscles.

With that in mind, we gathered Super Bowl advertising insights and predictions from a few GY&K team members:

Looking forward to the big “Ferris Bueller” tease with Matthew Broderick! Great pre-air buzz, gone viral and created tons of pressure for a sequel to one of the seminal coming-of-age comedies of all time! There’s a big secret here and lots of speculation about the advertiser. Any one else think this is a cool idea? Anyone..Bueller?

Pat Griffin
Chairman

I love how a few years ago Google cleverly told a story through the eyes of someone actually using their service (“Parisian Love”). I’ll be anxious to see if more brands use this tactic, which I think is a more effective method to actually encourage product usage, as opposed to the typical off-the-wall attention grabbing spots.

Travis York
President

There’s no doubt that social media integration within branded Super Bowl ad campaigns has been growing rapidly over the past several years. But this year, analysts are dubbing Super Bowl XLVI as ‘The Year Social Media Changed the Game.’  USA Today and Facebook are co-branding an app that features all the national ads that will appear during the game, along with a five-star rating button that let’s Facebook users judge, share, comment, and spread the ads — and their reactions — as they watch. Even the Super Bowl itself has received a social media facelift with their very own social media command center manned with a team of social media strategists analyzing, optimizing and responding to digital fan chatter across Facebook, Twitter and other social media channels.

Liz Steinhardt Pollock
Public Relations Manager

I thought last year’s Doritos Crash the Super Bowl spots were hysterical and these user generated gems have ranked #1 on the USA TODAY Ad Meter for two of the last three years. Based on that, I’m excited to see what spot wins this year. I love the social media aspect of this promo requiring very few marketing dollars. The stats are awesome – almost 500,000 votes for 5 videos, 2.7MM+ likes, 200K+ conversations. Plus, this year’s winner gets to work with Andy Samberg’s Lonely Island on a future Doritos project. Mmm Cheesy!!!

Shana Malik
Director of Media Relations

Chevy is trying to take advantage of the fact that Americans no longer simply ‘watch’ TV. Instead, they interact with it, experience it, vote on it, comment on it, tweet about it, etc. So understanding this, Chevy created its very own app helping consumers interact with the Super Bowl like never before. Users of the app receive a special license plate code, and during the Super Bowl Chevy will air commercials with the winning code. The app also allows members to login and post everything to Facebook or Twitter, encouraging them to share the app with their friends and followers. Chevy didn’t just decide to advertise to America’s largest television audience; they made a strategic decision to start a dialogue with them. I believe this is truly a winning approach.

Mike Stevens
Senior Marketing Planner

Looking forward to seeing if Bud-Light pushes their new product “Bud-Light Platinum.” It’s advertised as the same light beer but with a higher ABV at 6.0%. Bud Light is a favorite for getting some laughs during the big game, so I’ll be curious if they extend the Bud Light brand and theme to Bud-Light Platinum, or if they give it a new and distinct feel from the core BL brand. Anheuser Busch is always a player when it comes to humorous Super Bowl advertising, but I expect them to remain true to their roots and feature the more emotional Clydesdale spots in some fashion too.

Mike Giovinelli
Account Supervisor

This week I finally pulled the trigger on canceling my cable TV service. Fortunately, the Super Bowl will be streamed live online for just the second time this year. I’m anxious to see how advertising will be handled in the online realm and if it differs from the standard TV broadcast.

Ben Peirce
Multimedia Producer

Psyched to see that some of my favorite concepts will be back, especially the “office monkeys” from careerbuilder.com. Love that one! But the biggest shift to watch is how brands will further integrate across all mediums and dive deeper into the social well. To quote a great article from Harvard Business Review, “The TV spot has become the trailer for something bigger, broader and more interactive.”

Sophia Cigliano
SVP Client Services and Account Planning

I will be looking for how brands embrace the “second screen” phenomenon. Will advertisers be able to convince football fans to take their eyes off the game to watch more ads on their phones? More importantly, will the additional content be worth it?

Andrew Harris
Associate Creative Director

One of the most amusing games to play at Super Bowl parties is to guess what brand/product is being advertised before it is mentioned by name or a logo is shown.  Are companies trying to create memorable connections between the :30 spots and their brand, or are they trying to make the most over-the-top and most talked-about commercial? Also, I look forward to NOT logging on to GoDaddy.com afterwards to see more of Danica Patrick.

Nathaniel Grimes
Business Development Coordinator

Today Xconomy has a fascinating piece on Eliza, a software company with a unique approach to the business of healthcare.  For more than 10 years, Eliza has been optimizing a sophisticated toolset that combines speech-recognition with computer deployed messages to provide timely information that encourages healthy living.

Insurers, providers and employers use Eliza’s software to learn more about their respective constituents through various interactions and build personal profiles that make future outreach even more relevant.  The program also takes into account language, age, location and more to further segment audiences, customize communications and inspire action.  In addition to phone calls, the program can deploy email and text messages to create a multi-touch campaign, reaching people based on their personal preferences. 

There are numerous implications from a healthcare, technology and marketing standpoint, but it’s the tone and style of their brand that further differentiates Eliza.  The topic of healthcare can be confusing and intimidating, but they make it fun and engaging. 

A quick visit to their Web site demonstrates this approach.  A link in the footer says “don’t click here” (which is impossible after reading that) and a compelling case study ends with, “Eliza outreach also results in the occasional case of goosebumps.”  A recent blog post shows off new Eliza business cards that feature a red mohawked chocolate rabbit.  You can bet those start conversations every time they are handed out. 

Some companies are afraid to deviate from the traditional tone and style that is commonly used in their industries.  37 Signals’ Jason Fried wrote about this in a recent column for Inc. Magazine and further demonstrated how using the same language as everyone else can make a company boring and forgettable.

As technology continues to evolve, there’s no shortage of advice on how to engage with consumers through the use of social media.  However, your company may suffer from multiple personality disorder if you spend all your efforts injecting life into these new channels, and leave your traditional communications set on default corporate jargon. 

Is your company’s personality and communications style consistent throughout all forms of media?  What other companies are differentiating themselves by establishing an authentic voice like Eliza?

As we outlined in an earlier post, marketers are looking at Chatroulette and trying to determine if there is a smart way to take advantage of the phenomenon.  With the exception of a few bands that have released new material through the platform, I haven’t seen anyone develop a viable approach.  Today however, in true Chatroulette fashion, I stumbled upon a clever parody of the site.

Initially I was looking for some creative inspiration related to the number nine because this year is the ninth anniversary of an event my friends organize each year.  I decided to search Bing and check out the logo for Magic Hat #9 beer.  The first link was the Magic Hat corporate site, but when I clicked through I found MagiChatroulette.

For a second I thought this was actually their new Web site (similar to the way Modernista decided to ditch their traditional home page in favor a “siteless site”), but when I looked at the URL (http://www.magichat.net/fool/) I soon realized this was an April Fools’ Day stunt.

It’s easy to find links to the “real” Magic Hat site, but if you stick around for a few minutes there are some fairly entertaining videos in the chat window (these are taped, not live).  My favorite is the Magic Hat employee singing along to the Fresh Prince of Bel Air theme song.

The Google/Topeka April Fools’ Day campaign is getting a lot of attention, but have you found any others?  Do you think these campaigns are worth the investment from a marketing perspective?

From Google Earth and Gmail to GOOG-411 and Nexus One it is clear that its wide range of products and service offerings have molded Google into one of the most dominant companies on the Web.  As if Google wasn’t already a huge threat, it developed Google Buzz.  As you’ve probably heard, or experienced, Google’s new development aims to combine the best features of different social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Picasa and YouTube, sending many of those sites scrambling to re-examine their features to make sure Google Buzz does not become a monopoly in the social media space next.

So, what supposedly makes Google Buzz more appealing than Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites? Well, according to an article in Channelweb, the top reasons are that Google Buzz:

1. Integrates with Gmail
2. Drowns out the noise
3. Cuts out the hunting and pecking
4. Works well with cell phones

Ok, so do you want to know what this really means?  To start, Gmail users will now have access to all of their status updates, photos, new comments and other content mixed in with their email.  Cool?  Not so much.  Do we social networking fanatics really want ALL of our updates mixed in with email?  I think this will make emailing and social networking more of a hassle.

Google claims Buzz will “drown out the noise,” by using algorithms and history to sift through unwanted status updates or photo uploads based on a user’s previous activity.  Yes, I do not want to know what Friend A is doing every second of the day, but that doesn’t mean that I never want to know what he’s up to.  Google Buzz also has an “auto-follow” feature where all of your previous Gmail contacts can automatically connect with you.  Imagine all of the people that you email:  your parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, coworkers and children.  Is this option really preferable?  Well, if you are a fan of Google Buzz so far, AND if you are an Apple or Android user—don’t worry.  Google has developed mobile applications for the iPhone and Google Android.  Google is also developing an enterprise plan for Buzz.

Yes, Google Buzz compiles email and social networking content all into one program, but should this really make Facebook and Twitter that worried?  I would rather keep social networking separate from emailing.  It is quite clear that Google can do it all, but is Buzz really going to attract current Facebook and Twitter users?

Jenaleigh Landers is an intern with Griffin York & Krause.  She is currently a full-time Business Major at Saint Anselm College.

The Aughts are behind us and the Theater of Public Influence is sending them off in style.  In this episode, we take a look back at the decade that was and see just how far we’ve come in the past ten years.  Then its off to the red carpet for our 2nd annual year-end awards show.  We’ve surveyed the internet to determine 2009’s best and buzz-worthiest in a number of categories including movies, music, TV, gadgets, news stories, print and TV ads, online presence and Marketer of the Year.  Listen to find out who this year’s winners were and let us know if you agree.

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The art of music marketing these days is a fascinating one, isn’t it? From how people sell music to how the performers generate new revenue to everything in between, the past five years and the next five years have been a revolutionary period in how to package, sell and perform the tunes that get in our heads on a daily basis.

Amidst it all, there were two techniques that caught my eyes and ears recently – one that I didn’t particularly care for and the other being a concept so simple, it’s a shame others didn’t catch on years ago to start trying.

(Side note: this would be a great time to check out the two latest editions of the GYK podcast, one which centered on pop music in advertising and another which looked at the music and life of Michael Jackson.)

First, the bad.

I got an email a few weeks ago that featured an ad/contest revolving around the reunion of alt-ska-pop rock band No Doubt. While it was the usual ‘enter to win’ contest fare, what threw me was the sponsor of their latest tour, State Farm insurance, and the tag-line ‘Proudly Sponsored By…’

At first blush, State Farm and rock music don’t go hand-in-hand. Granted they are a company that offers a service – insurance – that everyone needs at some point, but I’m having a hard time connecting the two. Ideally, the sponsor would have booths and some sort of influence throughout the various tour stops, but if you’re going to a concert, do you really want to be thinking about the real world and insurance?

Companies sponsoring tours is certainly not anything new, but some of the most effective team-ups are those in which the brand involved makes obvious sense when connected with the music.

The one that comes to mind first is the Honda Civic Tour which features traditionally younger alternative bands that are favorites of the core age group Honda targets with the Civic: young adults just graduating college or a few years removed.

Another tie-in that makes sense is Corona and new country heartthrob Kenny Chesney. Chesney appears in Corona TV spots, fitting in with the subtle, relaxing beach theme that they’ve cornered the marketplace on. While it can be assumed country fans aren’t big Corona drinkers, a large percentage of Chesney lovers are women and what beer do you see most often drank by females during the summer? Corona! What a fit.

Also, the ‘Proudly Sponsored By’ threw me because it seemed so disingenuous. If I asked 10 executives there what they thought about No Doubt, I’m guessing I’d get blank stares and people asking me what I was talking about. Again, if the brand made sense, maybe this wouldn’t have thrown me so much but an alternative band and an insurance company aren’t a match and in this case, very awkward.

Now to something I really liked, getting free music that actually doesn’t suck.

In the July issue of Spin, Jack White’s new band The Dead Weather were featured on the cover. On that same cover and prominently placed along the top in black and white, “Free Song Download From The Dead Weather” – perfect symmetry and an enticement to immediately sample something from the band.

While the download was free for anyone (a simple Google search would have led you to the download page, so there was no extra incentive for buying the issue), giving away a free song from the featured band is such a simple and effective marketing tool that I’m surprised more magazines and bands don’t do this more often and didn’t start this years ago.

You could even take it a step further with other forms of entertainment. Say a new movie is coming out and the star is on the cover of Entertainment Weekly. How about an exclusive 5-minute clip of the movie that’s available to subscribers by entering in a unique code? Or maybe for a bridal magazine, you get a free download/access to some exclusive video content specific to that month’s main subject? The possibilities are endless.

Another band who is looking to get attention with some free music is the reformed Alice In Chains. The mega-popular 90s grunge rockers are back with a new frontman and to help push the release of their new album in September, they gave fans the opportunity to get the download of the first single with no strings attached. All you had to do was go to their site, enter in your email and zip code and you got a link.

Both methods are completely counter-intuitive to what the industry has pushed for years which is to make the audience pay for everything. By both groups giving away a free song and not making you go through hell and high water to get it, they open themselves up to people liking what they hear and then, buying more of their product.

The music industry doesn’t have to be greedy to make more money. Rather, they just need to be smarter.

Josh Nason works for the interactive department at Griffin York & Krause, a marketing innovation company in Manchester, NH. He can be reached at josh [at] griffinyorkkrause [dot-com].