February 9, 2010 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

PORTLAND--It's only 5:30 but already Jimmy Mak's, the Pearl District jazz club, is full of people eager to hear from the silver fox.

Before Dan Wieden ever takes the stage, it's a standing room only affair. So much for the idea that people don't like advertising, or the men and women who dedicate their lives to the practice.

Tonight's event is hosted by Portland City Club and Portland Monthly magazine. Portland Monthly's editor-in-chief, Randy Gragg, with mic in hand welcomes Wieden and starts into his round of prepared questions about his relationship with David Kennedy, his work at Caldera, his work at the agency and how to brand Oregon.

Wieden says Kennedy was wearing a three-piece suit when he met him at McCann in 1979. He also says Kennedy was the only one who knew anything about advertising when the agency started. "Back then we thought maybe we'd have 12 people, we'd do our jobs and that would be cool," says Wieden. "But we had Nike and ESPN and did good work for them," which led to many more opportunities, he adds.

At this point, Gragg halts his questions to show W+K's Super Bowl spots, one for Coke and one for Dodge. There is muted applause after Coke's Simpsons spot, but the Dodge spot receives hearty approval. Wieden says he's "really proud of this one. It's hard to do a good car spot." Later he reveals that he has a big hand in new business and he's "staying close to Dodge" at the moment.

Wieden says the best client relationships become deeply personal. "You go to games, you eat and drink. You have a social relationship and a business relationship." It's easy to imagine how clients warm up to this man. He's comfortable in his own skin, confident without being cocky, and unassuming in his Levi's and a black Nike jacket. And with a head full of ideas and stories to recount, he's entertaining.

One of his management ideas is independence. "We encourage people to be completely themselves. We deeply believe in the individual voice. And we believe in the voices coming together to make something damn magical."

When Gragg turns his questions to Caldera, the camp for at risk youth that Wieden built and funds, the man gets fiesty. "The racial issue drives me crazy about our business," he says. Wieden says he's working with experts at the camp to determine how best to release the creativity in at risk kids. Clearly his heart is in this one. "I'd take a bullet for that fucking camp," he emphasizes.

Gragg follows up with questions about how W+K's work with the state of Oregon. "Tourism is really important to the state right now," he declares. A question comes from an environmentalist in the audience about ancient forests being logged and the agency's greenwashing on behalf of the state. Wieden doesn't like it. He curtly offers, "I'm in marketing. The focus (of that old campaign) was to get people here."

Another question, this one from a city official, also draws a withered response from Wieden. Asked how the city can help support W+K and other creative businesses, Wieden only says, "That would be a good idea." After a deliberate pause, Wieden mentions that Mayor Sam Adams asked him a similar question recently and he told him the best thing to do is nothing. Wieden believes the creative class' fascination with Portland is based on the fact that there's no creative establishment here. "It's explosive and unpredictable," he says. "You could fail or succeed."

Wieden is certainly responsible for bringing hundreds, maybe thousands of so-called creative class workers to the city. His most recent catch is Iain Tate from Poke. Wieden calls him "one of the most brilliant minds in social media," and says he will assume a leadership role at the agency, working closely with John Jay, Dave Luhr and himself on the global team.

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February 9, 2010 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Pepsi's decision to avoid running Gatorade, Pepsi, Diet Pepsi or Mountain Dew spots during the Super Bowl and to instead concentrate on a social media campaign with charitable giving at its center, seems to be working wonders.

Atlanta Constitution Journal reports:

According to Nielsen Co., PepsiCo is getting more attention on the Web than any other advertiser except Focus on the Family.

PepsiCo got 21.6 percent of the online chatter about Super Bowl advertisers over the last two months, Nielsen said -- about 10 times more than Coca-Cola.

"I've been doing digital for a long time," said Bonin Bough, PepsiCo's global director of digital and social media. "I haven't seen a program in my life with this kind of momentum."

Better yet, Pepsi's campaign is sustainable, whereas after the second or third viewing of a Super Bowl spot, that's it, game over.

February 8, 2010 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 0 Comments

I once had a client that knew her brand was going to be the subject of a negative TV news story on a local station she advertised on. Her first instinct was to buy even more spots to counterbalance the story. I'm not sure whether it would've helped or hurted, but I do remember my Account Director tried to talk her out of buying more spots, to let some time pass.

In Georgia, Florida and a few other states, an organization called the Southeast Toyota Dealers pool their money to buy time. They're not happy with the coverage they've been getting from ABC, and are taking it out on local ABC affiliates. ABC News has more:

Toyota dealers in five southeast states have pulled their commercials off ABC TV local affiliates, complaining about the coverage of Toyota safety problems by ABC News and its chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross.

The ad agency representing the 173 dealers told ABC affiliates last week that the shift was due to "excessive stories on the Toyota issues." The dealers shifted their commercial time buys to non-ABC stations in the same markets, "as punishment for the reporting," according to an ABC station manager.

This story, as well as some discussion on the most recent episode of The BeanCast, reminded me that it's not going to be Toyota in Japan or the brand's American headquarters that has the most sway over customer perception--it's the dealers.

Dealers will be the ones seeing the panic in customers' eyes. The onus will be on them to fix the problem and deal with an influx of car owners who often go out of their way to drive to the dealership for service. How the Toyota dealers handle every aspect of that service experience will be crucial. The Southeast Toyota Dealers have every right to reshuffle their media mix, but they have to do the right thing by their customers, or the problem won't go away.

(DISCLOSURE: I don't own one now, but my family's owned 3 Toyotas and got 105,000, 180,000 miles and 120,000 miles out of them, respectively.)

February 8, 2010 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Did you notice the hen-pecked male theme last night? If not, take a second look.

February 8, 2010 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

This is one of my favorite spots from last night. It's the perfect product combo to advertise during the Munchie Bowl, and it's hard to turn away from humans pretending to be Sea World dolphins.

February 8, 2010 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

How do you get men to use Dove? Naturally, you must convince them it's okay to do so. It's no easy task, of course, so I'm not surprised to see this spot fall short.

The spot asks, "Now that you're comfortable with who you are, isn't it time for comfortable skin?" Even if I answer yes to that rhetorical question, I don't know that Dove's new line extension is the answer I didn't know I was seeking. Product launches need product details woven in somewhere.

Another issue I have with this spot is the set up. I can think of better ways to get where this spot is going. Instead of a tour through one's personal development as a man, Dove could portray manly men doing otherwise "girly" things like reading poetry or slaving away over a soufflé.

Finally, there's the question, "Isn't it time for comfortable skin?" That's not the right question. The question is "Are you man enough for Dove?"

One thing Dove did get right is having a ready-made video of Drew Brees singing in the shower on their Web site.

February 8, 2010 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Appearing this morning on the Today show to talk about Super Bowl commercials, The Donny says he doesn't understand the need for all the buffoonery. He wants to see smarter work than he saw last night, which is likely a popular opinion within the industry, but one that does not concern the typical viewer.

What does USA TODAY's Ad Meter, which tracks the second-by-second responses of a panel of viewers say? It says Snickers. And it says people like physical comedy. The second and third best spots (from Doritos and Bud Light) on the Ad Meter's list also make use physical comedy.

Interestingly, the Google spot which is being praised by The Donny and other industry insiders, ranks a lowly #43 in the USA Today panel. Personally, I like the Google spot, but I question the media buy. The spot relies totally on our willingness to read, and that's not something nacho-eating, beer drinking football fans are ready to do deep in the third quarter of a tight game. Of course, the media buy can act as the launching point for an extended campaign. From that angle it's working wonders, for Google's getting a ton of mostly positive attention right now.

February 8, 2010 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 0 Comments

The Google spot that captured lots of attention last night has apparently been on YouTube for a while. And so has this parody from Slate:

February 8, 2010 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Dr. Pepper really places an accent on "little kiss" with this Super Bowl spot.

Little Kiss, it turns out is a real cover band. Check 'em out.

February 7, 2010 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Additionally, Intel wants to know what is your core moment?

February 7, 2010 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

February 7, 2010 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

February 7, 2010 by david burn | Permalink | 3 Comments

Four minutes into the video above GoDaddy.com CEO Bob Parsons says, "Most advertising is not interesting. It's like a fat guy, it's not offensive, everybody likes him but he doesn't get much action. Our ads, maybe they're a little offensive, a little in your face, but they work and they work in spades."

February 7, 2010 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

You have to sit through this entire video of ad analysis before Barbara Lippert of Adweek encourages us to "have a big American dumb fun day." She also thinks talking babies are funny. Barbara.