Pre-game Super Bowl XLV Ads and Brand Strategy

I’m looking forward to the Super Bowl advertising spots this year – we should see a true blend of old and new advertising / marketing strategies at play with traditional video and TV spots leveraging brand presence on Facebook, Twitter, and most importantly …  YouTube.  Major kudos to Volkswagen with their efforts thus far – a “pre-release” or sneak peak at their spot has generated more than 12 Millions views on YouTube, 50,000 Tweets, and over 140,000 Facebook shares … and get this … over 5,000 mentions on Google Buzz (I didn’t think they had that many users?!).  YouTube may be the hands down winner in all of this as consumers hit the site to re-play not only scenes from the game but their favorite advertising spots as well.  If a brand positions these marketing assets properly, there is a significant opportunity to build brand equity and drive revenue growth.  In my opinion,  the spots should direct consumers to YouTube to re-play the ads (maybe via a promotional enticement upon viewing?!) with an opportunity for customers to engage with the brand further via social media (think Facebook likes and follows) with the ultimate goal of driving a desired behavior (e-mail subscribe, purchase, etc.) by re-directing new Facebook and Twitter followers to the brand’s consumer web site.

Volkswagen Super Bowl XLV Ad:  The Force

Related Articles

• Top 10 Super Bowl Ads With the Most Twitter Pre-Buzz [Infographic] (mashable.com)
• Super Bowl XLV Advertisers: Who Will Get the Best Bang for their Buck? (great-ads.blogspot.com)

Holiday Marketing Perfection via Coca-Cola

You didn’t think I was going to let the Holidays pass without a marketing spin, did you?  : )

Coca-Cola has once again mastered the art of Holiday marketing with its latest commercial featuring the band Train’s new single “Shake Up Christmas”.  The commercial is titled “Snow Globes” and has been played in traditional and digital channels since Thanksgiving.  Holiday marketing can be a tricky strategy for many companies that try to be everything to everyone.  Rather than focusing on a single message (that would ultimately offend someone somewhere), Coca-Cola adapts current branding and messaging to local markets at a cultural level – whether you’re in Africa or North America.

Fun Fact:  Did you know that Coca-Cola’s marketing engine is responsible for the North American depiction of Santa Clause?  Read all about it on the Coca-Cola site:  http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/heritage/cokelore_santa.html  or simply enjoy the North American version of their Holiday campaign below …

Happy Holidays!

Cebu Pacific Airlines Does The Safety Dance

Cebu Pacific Airlines is getting a lot of attention via viral videos featuring their pre-flight safety presentations from crew members dancing along to Lady GaGa, Katy Perry and Men Without Hats.

The amount of marketing exposure as news channels, blogs, Facebook friends liking, and Twitter users retweeting is immeasurable.  Out of nowhere, a relatively unknown air carrier from SE Asia has gained brand awareness in markets (like the U.S.) that it doesn’t currently service.  They have instantly gained attention in an overcrowded advertising space that is too often full of “me too” spots focused on price points.

I don’t know about you – but an advertiser that focuses on an interesting and unique value proposition (like setting the tone for a fun flight experience via Cebu Pacific’s ads) instantly garners not only my attention – but the attention of an audience that is willing to try a new product or service based solely on differentiation of the experience associated with the brand. Cebu Pacific could expand into routes outside of the Philippines, China, etc. based solely on social media viral ads like this and be successful. Seriously!

Bonus Point #1: The fact that this attention is coming ahead of an IPO?  You can see the dollar signs getting ready to add up.

Bonus Point #2: The passengers are engaged for the entire safety presentation.  That doesn’t happen in the U.S. – ever.

If a U.S. airline embraced something DIFFERENT like this system wide it would be a game changer in the industry.  I’d love to see Delta Airlines or United Airlines or Southwest Airlines start having some fun again.  Check out the video:

Related Articles

• Cebu Pacific’s Male Flight Attendants Dance To ‘Safety Dance’ (VIDEO) (huffingtonpost.com)
• Lady Gaga and Katy Perry take over Cebu Pacific in-flight safety demo (gadling.com)
• You: Cebu Pacific eyes $620m from IPO (menafn.com)