Super Bowl ad fumbles and themes

+ Last nights Super Bowl was a blow out, at least in terms of the game. The ads? Not so much. Some shared themes and tactics by brands came through.

Bears

A good 'ol Super Bowl creative standby...bears. Nearly as expected as dogs these days.

• Chobani
• Beats Music
• CarMax

Borrowed Interest

Rather than focusing on their own unique points, brands have piggybacked on other things. Not like it's new this year though.

• Bank of America with U2 and RED
• Chrysler and Bob Dylan
• T-Mobile - Tim Tebow - the only upside on this one is that it was at least connected to the celebrity in some way. But the thought of him as an OBGyn increases the creepy factor.
• SodaStream and Scarlett Johansson
• Toyota and Muppets
• Kia and The Matrix
• Okios and Full House
• Microsoft
• Honda and Bruce Willis

America & Patriotism

Nothing's more American than football and the Super Bowl so these brands felt it was the perfect place to tout their ties to the American spirit. Strategy was showing through a bit much on some of these.

• WeatherTech made in America
• Coca-Cola America The Beautiful
• Chrysler and Bob Dylan with the opening line "Is there anything more American than America?" Sounds like it came straight out of the brief.

Attempts at Epic Copywriting

Anthemic spots are nothing new to the Super Bowl. In fact there have been some decent ones in years past.

• Jeep - Restless

Are you among the restless many? Each tick of the old clock a reminder, that stillness is what actually kills us. When the walls close in, do you climb out? When the road ends, do you go on? Restlessness starts with an itch. And ends in progress. It is your ambition refusing to be bottled up. Begging for a little blue sky time. Genetics have a voice that you can only deny so long. They scream GO. RUN. ACT. FIND. DARE. Where you go when you have the itch is free will. How you get there, is why we made the new Cherokee.

• Chrysler - Bob Dylan

Is there anything more American than America? 'Cause you can't import original. You can't fake true cool. You can't duplicate legacy. Because what Detroit created was the first and became the inspiration to the rest of the world. Yeah, Detroit made cars and cars made America. Making the best, making the finest takes conviction. And you can't import the heart and soul of every man and woman working on the line. You can search the world over for the finer things. But you won't find a match for the American road and the creatures that live on it. Because we believe in the zoom and the roar and the thrust. And when it's made here, it's made with the one thing you can't import from anywhere else. American Pride. So let Germany brew your beer. Let Switzerland make your watch. Let Asia make your phone. We will build your car.

• Maserati

The world is full of giants. We have always been here. Lumbering in the school yards. Limping through the alleys. We had to learn how to deal with them. How to overcome them. We were small, but fast. Remember? We were like a wind, appearing out of nowhere. We knew that being clever was more important than being the biggest kid in the neighborhood. As long as we keep our heads down, as long as we work hard, trust what we feel in our guts, our hearts. Then we're ready! We wait until they get sleepy, wait until they get so big they can barely move. Then we walk out of the shadows. Quietly walk of the dark. And strike.

• Microsoft - Empowering

What is technology? What can it do? How far can we go? Technology has the power to unite us. It inspires us. Technology has taken us places we've only dreamed. It gives hope to the hopeless. And it has given voice to the voiceless.

Most uncomfortable ads of the evening

Title says it all.

• Butterfinger encouraging threesomes
• Okios with Bob Saget getting familiar with John Stamos

Brands that could have spent money better

It seems a lot of brands decided on the PR strategy of having an ad in the Super Bowl vs. actually doing a Super Bowl-worthy spot. Which is a pity because it's really a waste of dollars that could have been spent more wisely and creatively.

• Budweiser new bottle spot
• WeatherTech
• Squarespace
• Sonos
• Beats Music

This And That 12.29.13

I'm the kind of person who tends to have over 10 tabs open in my browser at one time (usually it's more like 30+). This morning I caught up on some of these things and below are the ones worth sharing or checking out.

+ Watch for a few good things. 1) Make interesting things that people want to share. 2) Logos are not brands, brands are the sum of the things that they do and experiences you've had or heard about them.
QR Codes Kill Kittens, A Cautionary Tale for Creatives talk by Scott Stratten.
QR Codes Kill Kittens: A Cautionary Tale for Creatives from The 3 Percent Conference on FORA.tv

+ Creativity, Disruption, Storytelling in the Digital Age from The Guardian featuring Allison Arden of Ad Age and Chuck Porter of CB+P.
Creativity, Distruption, Storytelling in the Digital Age from The Guardian on FORA.tv

+ Cadence and Slang is a series of evergreen guidelines that advocate simplicity, consistency, and humanity in technology. You can get a free chapter to check out. Tempted to get the book (maybe I will).

+ "Predatory Thinking for Copywriters", a talk by Dave Trott at the 2013 Professional Copywriters' Network Conference.


+ Peter Thompson on Strategic Questions shares 8 tough questions to ask clients to get them going in the right direction with their strategy.

+ The Many Faces of Adaptive Design is a great read on the different uses people associate with the term "adaptive design".

+ Here's a handy toolkit from Hack Design for best tools online for design, UX, and more.

+ I came across this post, Job Stories Are Great But Personas Aren't Dead, which was a nice read but introduced "job stories" to me as a new term. That lead me to this blog post, Designing Features Using Job Stories, which basically introduced to me the idea that personas aren't as helpful as job stories. I'm not sure I really see the difference all that much besides tweaking the questions asked.

+ Content Marketing Predictions for 2014.

50 Content Marketing Predictions for 2014 from Content Marketing Institute

+ What Content Marketing Needs to Rule in the Post-Advertising Age.

+ 4 Reasons Apple's iBeacon Is About to Disrupt Interaction Design.

+ After the Digital Agency: The Three New Archetypes for Winning Agencies, which states that digital expertise isn't enough anymore--you must be customer-obsessed.

+ Notes from LukeW of An Event Apart event in 2012 by Kristina Halvorson's Content Strategy Roadmap presentation in which she talked about how to integrate content strategy into a typical Web design workflow. In my experience, this is a key thing. As well as understanding that content is not just copy. But that's another post. ;)

+ And here's an oldie from A List Apart, Reviving Anorexic Web Writing which is still very relevant, maybe more so with the content marketing buzz.

Is it time we differentiate copywriters like we do art directors and designers?

+ I've had this conversation with a few people recently. Why do we separate out designers and art directors, and not copywriters?

I suppose we should start with defining the difference between a designer and art director.

In the Mad Men era of advertising, art directors would direct designers that put art boards together (mechanical assembly artists), illustrators,type houses, photographers/photo shoots and stock photography selects, in addition to commercials shoots, etc.

Typically, art directors concept based on strategy, they bring ideas through and connect the art with emotion. Designers are technical executors of the designs--from colors to typography. A List Apart has a nice article on it, and I recommend you read it. The chart below is from that ALA article.

But, copywriters really only have one lump name for the most part. They come up with concepts, use words to help bring an emotional or rational connection to the audience you're trying to reach.

Some of you might say, but what about technical copywriters? Well, they really aren't copywriters. They are writers who are write long form, detailed information such as instruction manuals, internally-circulated industry documents, assembly instructions, legal forms. I've also seen digital copywriter roles, which I'm not quite sure what that means (expect maybe that you understand digital or the role is at a digital agency). 

And with digital, I've noticed that a lot of the way copywriter roles are treated is more akin to a designer role--execution only, whereas in traditional agencies, copywriter are much more used for their conceptual abilities, as well as crafting the words.

Now, I've seen many job listings for copywriters where it's more of an execution type of role, with little conceptual thinking involved. But, it's interesting that there is no distinction between the types of roles as there is for designers and art directors. Question is, should there be? 

This and That: 02.25.12

+ With all the hub-bub around Pinterest in the last month, it's no surprise someone pulled out PinClout. Yup. PinClout.


+ Need to work on your presentation skills? Even if you don't, you'll find some good refreshers here. Key takeaway? Practice.


+ One of the folks I follow on Twitter pointed me to this list of 85+ Copywriting Resources post. I haven't had a chance to go through them all, but looks like there are at least a few goodies in the mix there worth checking out.


+ Now that the web seems to be going more to a visual format with the likes of Pinterest, Flickr, Tumblr, etc, there's also a newish site called Cowbird that I am thinking of checking out. They are invite only right now and describe themselves as:

Cowbird is a small community of storytellers, focused on a deeper, longer-lasting, more personal kind of storytelling than you’re likely to find anywhere else on the Web. Cowbird allows you to keep a beautiful audio-visual diary of your life, and to collaborate with others in documenting the overarching “sagas” that shape our world today. Sagas are themes and events that touch millions of lives and shape the human story. Our short-term goal is to pioneer a new form of participatory journalism, grounded in the simple human stories behind major news events. Our long-term goal is to build a public library of human experience, so the knowledge and wisdom we accumulate as individuals may live on as part of the the commons, available for this and future generations to look to for guidance.

A look back at posts from 2011

Everyone does it. I know. But this was less for you and more for me to take a trip back through my activity on the blog here over the past year. Below are some of my favorite posts or ones that I feel had some meaning or value.
+ John Cleese on Creativity
+ Why a Good Brief Leads to Good Creative
+ Why Social Should Drop the Media
+ Creativity in the Digital Space: Part 2 & Part 3
+ QR Codes: Hot or Not?
+ 6 Tips for Ad Peeps, Old and New
+ Why Copywriters Need to Care About Typography
+ Your Ideas Are Your Value
+ Using Websites to Tell Stories
+ 10 Things That Scare Creatives
+ Branding and Digital: Part 1 and Part 2

Why Copywriters need to care about typography

+ If you're a copywriter, you might think something like typography is a thing that is only in the realm of designers and art directors. But, you should think again. Typography is the design of your words. It's what visually communicates or reinforces what your words are getting across. It's what makes your words legible and adds extra impact and meaning to them.

Now, I'm not saying copywriters should be typography experts. But there should be an understanding when looking at the layout of your words if it's working or not. Should the font be more bubbly and fun? Serif and serious? Is that grunge font affecting the ability to read what the words are actually saying? Here is an example of bad font choices.

Are letters being touched or hit by the characters from the lines above or below? Is just one word left on a line (called a "widow")? Are words breaking and requiring hyphenation?

When it comes to web design, typography overall has less love than it does in print or broadcast. It's rather sad, but perhaps a remnant of the fact that many early web designers were more technologists than designers. This is changing--thanks to the mighty Design Gods.

But, dear Copywriters, it is also your job to stand up for your work and make sure that intent and creativity doesn't die by the hands of bad typography.

You can find thousands of articles on the web about the topic of typography with a simple search. Here are a few links to read and check out:

Web Typography Sucks - A good selection of links and slides and audio of the presentation from SXSW 2007.

Smashing Magazine has a plethora of resources on typography.

8 Rules for Creating Effective Typography - I think it's missing a couple things but, has a good list of basics.

Bad typography kills good web content. Yes.

Here's an introduction to web typography.

Some fun with Crimes Against Typography.

Groupon Proves People DO Read Copy

+ Am article on Groupon in the NYTimes today.

Groupon has nothing so special. It offers discounts on products and services, something that Internet start-up companies have tried to develop as a business model many times before, with minimal success. Groupon’s breakthrough sprang not just from the deals but from an ingredient that was both unlikely and ephemeral: words.

Words are not much valued on the Internet, perhaps because it features so many of them. Newspapers and magazines might have gained vast new audiences online but still can’t recoup the costs from their Web operations of producing the material.

Groupon borrowed some tools and terms from journalism, softened the traditional heavy hand of advertising, added some banter and attitude and married the result to a discounted deal. It has managed, at least for the moment, to make words pay.

Personally, I got sick of the blathery style of Groupon and their punny, "look how weird we can be" type of writing, but to the point of this piece...it's working. It's one of the reasons why Groupon succeeds over LivingSocial or any of the many other group deal sites. It's the same thing for the success of Daily Candy, who also received many props for its writing style years prior. Allowing for the personality of your brand to come through is important, and something most branded emails are missing. They want to scream about offers, but both these examples are proof you don't have to do it in a dull and boring way.

How can you take the learnings from this and apply it to your brand?

Dead Radio Script Contest for Copywriters

+Oink Ink Radio announces their 14th annual Dead Radio Contest.

The Dead Radio Contest is a competition for advertising copywriters who have written radio scripts that for whatever reason (too provocative, too silly, or simply overlooked) were never selected by the client. The contest gives them an opportunity to bring their best script back to life, hence "Dead Radio."

The contest is international, so anyone around the world can enter. The Grand Prize Winner gets flown out to NY or LA and have their spot produced. Scripts submitted for competition must not have been previously produced by a client or its agency, and should be no longer than 60 seconds in length.

What began as a humble platform to shine light on overlooked–but great–radio ads has become an arena for writers to gain recognition for stellar work that isn’t always embraced by clients. However, the occasional reigning Dead spot has caused some clients to think twice about their initial rejection—and some ads have made it to the air after all.

“In fact,” according to Oink president, Dan Price, “since the contest began, about 7 or 8 winning spots went on to eventually win national awards.” Among them Radio Mercuries, Cannes Lions and several others. Since 1998 spots written for IKEA, Southwest Airlines, Durex, Miller Lite, Verizon and even M.A.D.D. have earned recognition as the best of the Dead.

Last year’s Grand Prize Winner Tommy Troncoso of BBDO/NY wrote a radio script for client Amp Energy Drink titled “Wright Brothers.” The spot features a comical dispute between the famous siblings before they went down in history as the fathers of flight. Amp originally passed on the script, but it got a second chance and a production courtesy of Oink Ink’s L.A. facility.

Find out more and enter at the Dead Radio Contest website.

Creativity in the Digital Space - Part 3

+"For this project, there's no creative. Just copy."

If you've ever heard that phrase, or a similar variation on it, you probably work in a digital agency. And you're probably a copywriter. And it probably is like hearing fingernails on a chalkboard.

It's funny how in some cases, the digital world still doesn't understand the value of copy vs. design. In comparison to a traditional agency, copywriters in digital agencies tend to be seen as less important. Many places have crazy art to copy ratios, bringing in freelancers and contractors when necessary.

Some of this is baggage carried over from the early formation of the web when it was driven more by designers and coders. Copy was secondary to knowing how to create a gif and putting the code together for the design. But, the funny thing is, unlike traditional TV or print...it's a lot harder to have anything digital without copy and strong calls to action. So, to me, this makes little sense. And especially when calling out creative but not including copy in that statement...it's all creative.

Beyond the words, copywriters are idea-birthers. They should be involved from the beginning of the process. There's no reason you would have a designer go work in a corner and a copywriter in the other and then have them bring their work together like some twisted death match. The best work (and this is something many digital agencies can learn from the traditional shops) comes from collaboration. From teamwork. Why concept disappeared as advertising moved to the digital side of things, I'm not quite sure. But it's time to bring it back. And look at the new creative team overall.

Agencies that use this model with their creative teams will be doing work that is better and smarter.

A Copy Lesson: Put an end to "this x day" headlines

+ Every holiday we see it. Ads that tout stuff like "This St. Patrick's Day" or "This Mother's Day" in headlines all over the place. Is there a reason we need to use "this"? How about "for" instead?

Are you afraid I might see your ad and think it's for next mother's day? Or, perhaps you might mean last Mother's Day. Honestly, it peeves me to no end.

It's not necessary and just makes your copy longer, without good reason. So let's please just cut it out.

Screw Words That Sell, Embrace Words That Feel

+ Recently I was poking around on Amazon for good copywriting books. I was a bit disgusted by the amount of books that came up around "Words that Sell". What about words that make you feel?

Unless you're communicating a sale or promotion, the words (and ideas) shouldn't just shout at the viewer/reader. They should make them feel something. Excited, intelligent, jealous, concern, and yes, even paranoid.

Making someone feel connects them closer to the brand, the message and taps into a greater, deeper connection with the individual (especially on a psychological level, conscious or not).

And, as an added bonus, more often than not, it also gives people more of a reason to share the message as well. Why? Because it resonated with them on some level.

This is not brain surgery, or a ground-breaking idea. But, it's one that I think many have forgotten about over time (for one reason or another). As advertising people, our job is to take the marketing speak of our clients and translate it into words and messages that make sense to who we are talking to. It's a conversation one on one with a human being. Let your words bring out the emotion you would have in any conversation with a friend, co-worker, or family member...heck even a stranger.

My task to you is to bring more to your writing in the coming year to make people feel something. You can always go back to "New and Improved" if it doesn't work. But, it just might, and better than you might think.

KFC's 'So Good' Tagline, So Bad

+ I've been trying to get this post written for over a week now, ever since KFC announced their new and first global tagline, "So Good."

So Good, so what? In the world of branding and taglines this one is pretty shite. It's not ownable by KFC - it's not 100% tied to their offerings or related to something exclusive of theirs. Sure, KFC might taste "so good" to some, but they also might think blueberries are "so good".

There is a HUGE difference between a campaign line and a tagline. It's acceptable and usually appropriate to change up the campaign line early every year. But, not a tagline. It just doesn't make sense. It's like changing your logo...it's something that is supposed to sum up your brand, your service, your offering, your mantra. It should be meaningful, tie to a benefit, and be interesting. The only thing this line has going for it is that it's positive and short. It falls flat in every other aspect that goes into developing a great tagline.

For KFC, it's the next step in an epidemic plaguing that company where they change their tagline every couple years, without giving it a chance to work. Sure, sometimes the impact of a tagline can be immediate, but in most cases, it takes years for it to be come the rally cry behind a company.

Just days before the announcement of this new tagline (which I have to say annoys me even more when they spell it out in the ads), that their "Unthink" tagline was a flop and slow to catch on.

New research indicates that the “Unthink” marketing campaign hasn’t broken through with consumers yet, most of whom still associate the brand with its longtime tagline “Finger lickin’ good.” Respondents to a survey conducted by E-Poll Market Research, when asked to identify the slogan of KFC and other quick-service brands, identified “Unthink” only 2 percent of the time, while 45 percent of respondents came up with the old tagline.

“Everyone in the KFC family is very happy that customers still associate our brand with ‘Finger lickin’ good,’” company spokesman Rick Maynard said. “That slogan was born before 1960, so it has about a 50-year head start on ‘Unthink.’ It’s as much a part of our heritage as buckets of chicken and the Colonel’s white suit.”

But also in the article, Gerry Philpott, president and chief executive of Encino, Calif.-based E-Poll, said ““In most cases, time does help. If KFC sticks with ‘Unthink’ for another year, those levels definitely will improve.”

Say what? Stick with a tagline? Oh dearie me, no. No, that just won't do. Over the span of the last 10 years, there have been 6 different taglines.

Here are some of KFC's taglines in the past 50+ years:
1952: Finger-lickin’ good! (Ogilvy & Mather)
1981-1987, 1992: We do Chicken Right. (Original: Mingo Jones Advertising, NY/ Revived: Young & Rubicam New York)
2001: There's fast food, then there's KFC (BBDO New York)
2003: You gotta KFC what's cookin'. (Foote Cone & Belding)
2004: Chicken Capital USA (Foote Cone & Belding)
2004: We do Chicken Right (DraftFCB)
2008: Life Tastes Better with KFC. (DraftFCB)
2009: Unthink (DraftFCB)
2010: So Good (Ogilvy, Sydney; Bartle Bogle Hegarty, London; and DraftFCB, Chicago)

Who ever said the jingle was dead?

+ Local advertisers haven't stopped the use of jingles, although in the past 10 years or so, many traditional advertisers have removed the jingle from their arsenal. But now and again we see a jingle pop up, like the FreeCreditReport.com spots by the Martin Agency, and the now popular singing fish for McDonald's Fillet-o-Fish done by folks at Arnold in Boston.

I've heard many say the Fillet-o-Fish spot is hilarious. I really don't see what's so funny about the ad. It's really the jingle they are finding catchy. There isn't much to the spot visually - a man sitting on a couch in a garage eating a sandwich, a singing fish on a wall and the arrival of his friend. My honest opinion is that it's the jingle that's capturing & captivating folks.



I will say that the ad and jingle drives me nuts. Although I do give props for its success, I do wish that the media buyers went with reach, not frequency when doing their planning. When the campaign broke, I think there was one night where I saw the ad 6-8 times in an hour and a half. Seriously.

Funny Cards

+ Hilarious and timely card and any other goodies like this Mad Men reference one.

Taglines and then some

+ Sometimes I see a tagline and I just have to wonder...WTF? In the last 15 years or so, if you compare taglines to those that came before, you'll see there is a bit of a difference. It used to be that taglines (or straplines or endlines or what have you), were something that summed up the entire brand or product benefit in an easy to digest and remember bit of copy. But now it's become more like the ones below. As I find more that fit this argument, I'll be posting them here.

Live banner ads

+ Darryl at Brandflakesforbreakfast pointed out this neat idea from Mediafront in Norway. Copywriters monitor the websites where media placement is live and create live commentary ads through sketches and words on the changing content of the website. Crazy. It's a fantastic idea, but I don't know that I'd want to be one of the writers...And they must have had a very trusting client to let them produce ads that they didn't approve. ;)
Don't see this happening with any of my current clients for that reason. It's definitely an innovative way to be relevant. :)

Copy Shots

+ Nick Padmore wrote a nice piece, "Greatest Copy Shot Ever Written" for A List Apart. It's definitely worth a read, even though it's a bit long.

A "post"

+ the "blog" of "unnecessary" quotation marks...go, laugh, learn.

Overheard on the Train - Tuesday morn.

+ On my way into work this morning, I had the privilage of sitting next to two fellas who were having a very "intellectual" conversation on the environment and studies done - I was rather impressed until I heard one of them say, "Until we can find our comfortability..." I nearly laughed outloud. Has anyone heard that word used in that way? I found a definition on wiki but that's it.

What's the strangest bastardization of language you've overheard lately?

It's barely there

+ Go watch the viral video for Barely There. Great animation and a fun little ditty. By Loose Moose and The Martin Agency.