Monday, February 7, 2011 at 12:37PM ;)
Another year & another Super Bowl (XLV) with all the hype that surrounds it—and I'm just talking about the Super Bowl XLV TV ads, which, it could be argued, has almost eclipsed the game itself.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010 at 3:43PM 
For all the hype around the Internet and its ubiquitous nature, good old-fashioned TV always reigned supreme when it came to killing time. For years, the average American
Friday, February 12, 2010 at 1:36AM
A few years ago, there were two televised events that were guaranteed to be huge audience draws. One was the Super Bowl and the other was the Academy Awards. While the Super Bowl posted record numbers this year, the Academy Awards is having an identity crisis. In 2008, they saw an all-time ratings low and in 2009 there was only a 13% increase in viewership. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences can feel their social relevancy slipping and the threat of the Oscars becoming the next Tony Awards scares the hell out of them.
In an effort to stay more relevant, the Academy increased the Best Picture category from 5 nominees to 10 so that fan favorites like “Avatar,” “District 9,” “Up” and “The Blind Side” could get a best picture nod. The theory is that if you play to a wider audience, you’ll attract a younger, hipper crowd instead of the current median age of 49.
The Academy launched their Facebook FanPage last week and it’s a good start connecting to the fans. They did a livestream of the Oscar Nominations there, as well as on various news sites. This is the first time they’ve ever allowed the nominations to be broadcast online. There are photos from past events, behind-the-scenes videos from this year’s ceremony and interviews with celebrities. Overall, it’s a good start for the Oscars attempt at using social media.
To see how the Academy really feels about social media, take a look at the YouTube tab in their Facebook page. The tab links videos on YouTube to appear on Facebook, or it would if embedding of the videos was enabled. This is really where we see the chink in the Academy armor when it comes to social media. They want to appear to be social, but at the same time maintain control of everything. They want to keep tight reigns on all of their assets and, for a traditionally conservative organization, having a YouTube channel and a Facebook account must seem like cutting edge participation.
When the big day hits, social media will be lacking in their plans. You won’t see a Twitter page where tweets about the presentation will stream, giving fans a chance to talk to each other. You won’t see a sponsored chat room where fans can gather to talk about the presentation. You won’t see the presentation live on their Facebook page. You won’t see an instant poll where the audience can vote before the award is announced, or a million other ideas that would tie in perfectly with the event.
The Academy does more than just an annual broadcast. They have an education & outreach program, events and exhibitions throughout the year, as well as research and preservation programs. All of these are ripe for social media extensions to increase public outreach.
People love movies – record breaking box office numbers are a testament to that. If the Academy took themselves a little less seriously and embraced the masses they so desperately desire, the Oscars could once again become the mega event it used to be and gain the popular respect it so dearly wants.
Do you think they’ll be able to evolve and survive, or will they stagnate and sink?
Monday, February 8, 2010 at 11:27AM
The Super Bowl is the time of year when many companies show the world their creative "A-game" and set the tone of their marketing efforts for the rest of year. 2010 showed a surprisingly solid batch of commercials during this year's Super Bowl. We wanted to take a moment to show you the best, the average and the worst ads from the 2010 Super Bowl.
The Best
Home Away Griswalds
The classic 80’s movie National Lampoon's Vacation gets an updating thanks to Homeaway.com. I don’t know what they do, but I want to go to the site to see the rest of the movie.
Coca Cola - Hard Times / Simpsons
Coke and The Simpsons, it’s the best match since The Simpsons and Butterfinger.
Volkswagen - PunchDub
Volkswagen plays with the slug bug game and gives a great punch line.
Dr Pepper Cherry - Dr Love / Little Kiss
Kiss and little people. What could be better? Nothing, that's what.
Bud Light - Asteroid
Bud Light’s theme for the Super Bowl this year appears to be avoiding disasters through Bud Light. The world’s worst astronomers discover Bud Light makes it all better.
Google - Parisian Love
This ad does a great job of showing how Google is used in life. Surprisingly effective.
McDonald's - Play You For it
McDonalds revisits familiar territory with a new version of the classic Michael Jordan/Larry Bird commercial from the 90’s.
Snickers - The Game
Abe Vigoda and Betty White in the same commercial! Score one for Snickers.
Godaddy - Movies / Danica Patrick
GoDaddy.com doesn’t shy away from the sexist commercials but for once, they don’t just focus on women with large breasts.
Vizio - Beyonce / HDTV
I don’t know what it will do but I want it.
The Last Airbender
It’s hard to believe that M. Night Shyamalan has a movie that anyone wants to see, but this trailer makes it look very promising.
The Average
Bud Light - Plane Crash
LOST has returned and Bud Light cashes in on the phenomena.
Boost Mobile - Shuffle
Now here is something I never thought I would see. Mobile Boost dusted off the Bears Super Bowl Shuffle (one of the most embarrassing sports events ever) and made it fun.
Cars.com - Timothy Richman
Fans of Wes Anderson should enjoy this little slice of life ad.
Teleflora - Valentines day/ Don Rickles talking tulips
Don Rickles makes everything better.
Denny's - Chicken Warning
Good day to be an American (unless you have cholesterol issues). Bad day to be a chicken.
Doritos - Underdog
Doritors returns with their fan created commercials. Speak boy, speak.
Focus on Family - Pam & Tim Tebow
Anti-abortion group Focus on Family does a surprisingly good ad that isn’t political. It even has a little humor in it.
Shutter Island
Great trailer that reminds us that Scorsese can do horror just as well as gangster films.
Honda Accord Crosstour - Squirrel
I have no idea what this has to do with Honda but it sure is pretty.
EA - Dante's Inferno - Go To hell
Don’t know how the gameplay is, but it looks amazing.
The Worst
Coca Cola - Sleepwalker
A sleepwalker risks his life to get a Coke. It felt neither creative nor inventive. Coke has done so many great ads over the year, this one just felt lazy and uninspired.
Michelob Ultra - Lance
Lance Armstrong hawking beer just feels wrong.
Bud Light - Bridge Out
Bud Light gives us a swing and a miss. There appears to be a small town of highly functioning alcoholics that would risk their lives by forming a human bridge to get beer. Why?
Bridgestone - "Your Tires or Your Life"
What starts as a nice homage to Mad Max style films ends in a bit of misogyny. Fail.
Dockers - Wear the pants
Free pants not withstanding, watching a bunch of pudgy men walk around in their underwear is not good for anyone.
ETrade - Baby Girlfriend
The Etrade babies have over-stayed their welcome. Time to put them down for a nap.
Bud Light - Light House
I was waiting for that moment when the house crashed down around them because they drank out a retaining wall.
Monster.com - Fiddling Beaver
I’m not really sure what they where thinking when they created this idea because a beaver that can play the fiddle certainly doesn't need help getting a job. It's pretty amazing all on its own.
Hyundai - Paint
Calling a Hyundai a beautiful work of art is really stretching the meaning of ”art”.
Dodge Charger - Man's Last Stand
I’m not sure if they are saying men are a bunch of slobs or women are shrews. Regardless, the Dodge Charger is here to straighten it all out.
CBS Late Show - Dave
I don’t know how CBS did it, but having Dave, Oprah and Jay together watching the Super Bowl was comically awkward. For three people that are in front of millions on a daily basis, they couldn’t have looked more uncomfortable in front of the camera.
There you have it. The good, the average and the worst of the 2010 Super Bowl ads. What were your favorites and which did you think were the most ill conceived?
Friday, February 5, 2010 at 3:00PM
This Sunday is the ad world’s Christmas. The Super Bowl stopped being about football for most of us a long time ago (especially for us working in advertising). But it’s not just about catching the funniest ads during the game, now it’s seeing which gets the most hits on YouTube.
So we decided to dig up our favorite Super Bowl TV spots on YouTube and get a bit nostalgic. Here are our favorite ads from each of the last ten years.
2000 – The Cat Herders
EDS shows us what the wild west would have looked like if it had been settled by a crazy cat lady.
2001 – Running of the Squirrels
EDS claims the first two spots with another bizarre animal themed ad.
2002 – Crazy Legs
Apparently, Levis jeans turn your legs into silly putty.
2003 – Office Linebacker
The violence of football invades the office in this hilarious spot from Reebok. So funny we’ve embedded the long version.
2004 – Alien in the Office
Bloodthirsty aliens prefer FedEx. As if that wasn’t obvious already.
2005 – Fantasy Creatures Invade the Living Room
A father lies to his child so he doesn’t have to share his Emerald Nuts. But she has friends in high places.
2006 – The Dragon
A beautifully animated spot from United Airlines about the magic of flight.
2007 –Learning English
A group of immigrants learn the finer points of regional dialects from a Bud Light spokesman.
2008 – Magnetic Attraction
Not many things are more satisfying than watching Justin Timberlake take a beating…except maybe Adam Sandberg randomly appearing in drag.
2009 – The Evil Plot
Alec Bladwin tells us how Hulu is taking cerebral gelatinizing to the next level. We don’t stand a chance.
Let us know if we missed your favorite. Go to The Duffy Agency website for an early peek at this year’s Super Bowl ads. Stay tuned for Monday’s full review of the highs and lows of Sunday's showing.
Jason Ross is a copywriter for The Duffy Agency. He loves working on both traditional and social media projects and speculating on the future of the ad industry.
Thursday, February 5, 2009 at 2:16PM According to Chris Anderson, Editor-in-Chief of Wired Magazine and author of The Long Tail, the future is free, or as Chris calls it “Freeconomics.” It’s no longer about charging for a service but giving the base away and charging for the upgrades and extras. In other words, “giveaway the abundance, sell the scarcity.”
Today’s generation expects everything to be free. From games to music to movies, the expectation is it’s out there for the taking and you shouldn’t have to pay for it. That is in direct contrast to older generations where you expect to pay for everything. The balance falls in-between. You can see this happening with everything from video games to music sites. You give away the base service and then charge for the add-on or unique version. With Second Life, you get the basic online interaction but if you want house, that’s going to cost you. Spotify allows you to listen to free music all day, but if you want to avoid commercials, that’s going to require a credit card.
Chris has taken this model and applied it to his new book. You can get the mp3, pdf or any other online version for free, but it will cost you $24.95 to buy the hardback version. This is a great model for him because it is a quick and easy way to disseminate his ideas. His publisher thinks it is a horrible concept. Since they are in the market to sell books, just giving it away is not what they want to see.
Publishers of content (music, literature, movies, etc) are not prepared to handle the freeconomy. After Chris’ lecture, there was a panel filled with publishers and it was obvious they weren’t thrilled with Chris’ message. As more and more newspapers and magazines fail, it’s hard to compete with free online news and information. The solution is to build a following with free and then convert them to offline clients with good content. It’s not an easy sell to publishers but you either embrace the future or you fall by the side for those who can.
Overall, I would call the Media Evolution a positive experience. The panel at the end was well organized and it was interesting to hear the concerns of the panelists. Chris is a talented speaker and was able to hold the huge crowd’s attention. In the future, I would like to see it expand to a full day’s conference with a keynote speaker at the end. There are enough people in the Nordic region to fill six hours. For the price, hearing two and half hours worth of material seems a little steep. Sure there were other events (live singer and an after party) but they felt more like padding and didn’t add any real value. Also, how do you not have free wi-fi at an event that talks about the value of free?
I hope they have more Media Evolutions. It was a good start and I met some interesting people. If you want to see Chris’s lecture and hear the panel, Media Evolutions has the entire event up to view.
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The Future is Free: http://is.gd/ittw
Stefan Halley is the Digital Project Leader for The Duffy Agency. He love to talk about social media and won't shut up about Twitter.
Monday, February 2, 2009 at 3:01PM This year’s Super Bowl didn’t disappoint. It was an intense showdown between the Cardinals and the Steelers. The other half of the viewing experience is that multimillion dollar ads that companies create. These are the best and worst of this year’s Super Bowl Ads. What are your favorites? What should have been on added?
Cutest – E-Trade – Baby Broken Wings
Well It Starts Good… Sobe – Lizard Swan Lake
Most Unexpected – Cash4Gold.com – McHammer & Ed McMahon
Funniest – Doritos – Crystal Ball/Snow Globe
Weirdest – Cheetos - Spoiled Girl
Best Product Re-Positioning – Pepsi Max – I’m Good
Sentimental Favorite – Gatorade - Talking Heads/Tiger
Evil Aliens Are Taking Over – Hulu.com – Alec Baldwin
Worst – GoDaddy.com – Enhanced Hearing
MVP – Bridgestone – Potatoheads & Hot Item
