A Birthday Present for the Small Guys

On Monday YouTube celebrated its 7th birthday. Social media age must be similar to dog years because it seems like the site has been around for much longer than 7 years. It is hard to remember a time living without "Chocolate Rain" or "Evolution of Dance." To celebrate, YouTube announced it will offer small-business video advertising.

YouTube has a rich history that started at a zoo and has only advertised to larger companies in the past. This new program is very appealing to small companies because it presents them with a large, captive audience.

The company launch its first video on April 23, 2005. The clip that started it all, titled "Me at the Zoo," features co-founder Jawed Karim at, you guessed it, a zoo. The video is only 18 seconds long, and features Karim telling the viewer why elephants are cool. The simple video has been viewed over 7.7 million times. Watch it below, whether you think elephants are cool or not, it's a part of social media history!

YouTube starting placing advertisements before videos in March 2006, less than a year after its launch. Prior to this new venture, ads on the site were primarily bought by large corporations like Lionsgate, Coca-Cola and Progressive.

The New York Times reports that many smaller businesses already participate in search advertising on Google, (who owns YouTube) were they are able to bid on certain keywords. The program, AdWords for video, will be similar to the search engine advertising for small companies. They will still bid on keywords, and will only pay if their commercial is watched.

The New York Times article presents a clear example of how the program will work.

"A baker who makes a video ad about his bakery, for example, can buy words like “baking,” “cookies” and “cake,” and his video ad will show up when someone does a search for those terms on YouTube." - Tanzina Vega

Mashable broke down YouTube's most recent statistics for marketers.

• 60 hours of video are uploaded every minute
• More than 4 billion videos are viewed every day.
• More than 3 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube.
• In 2011, YouTube had more than 1 trillion views or almost 140 views for every person on earth.

 As much as these numbers are exciting for large companies, they should make smaller companies salivate even more.

I think that this is a great idea for both YouTube and small businesses. YouTube presents the opportunity for a business to reach an audience that matches a Super Bowl. Also, an audience is more captive if they are going to watch a YouTube video than they are watching broadcast television or from streaming sites like Hulu.

If advertisers needed any more incentive to try out the program, YouTube and Google are giving it to them. They are offering $50 million in free ads to 500,000 companies.

The Sound of Money

Lady Gaga rocking Diet Coke cans for curlers.
Image taken from Vevo.com

Product placement has been in music videos dating back to the 70's when Don Mclean's "American Pie" featured Chevy cars, and even earlier. Unlike the music in "American Pie," the trend of product placement in music videos has yet to see its day of death. In fact, new media have helped propel the industry forward. Some of the world's biggest artists are making large amounts of money for featuring products in their videos. The trend has even led to some artists venturing out to start their own agencies just for that reason.

Many artists plug brands into their song lyrics (try to think of a country song that doesn’t have a brand of truck, tractor or beer in it) but now artists have the option to make a large sum of money from placing the brands in their videos. The death of the music video nearly came when MTV decided to disregard what the “M” in their name stood for and sprung for reality show upon reality show (I’m talking about you Jersey Shore). But social media has come to the rescue for the music industry and artists. They are back to creating cinematic-quality videos.

“The music-video marketplace has heated up in recent years with artists like Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Rihanna re-embracing the medium as an art form and Vevo emerging as the most-viewed channel on YouTube (and No. 3 video property on the web, according to ComScore).” – Andrew Hampp

Speaking of Lady Gaga, she has become one of the latest product placement innovators. Beyond the Spin found that her 2010 video for “Telephone” featuring Beyonce has a total of 9 different brands placed throughout the video. They aren’t subtly placed either, each one gets at least one close-up. Watch the video below to see how many you can spot, or just check out the list along with a rough time of the spot.

1:34- beats earphones.
2:06- Virgin Mobile.
2:17- Diet Coke.
4:15- Virgin Mobile
4:24- HP Envy ‘Beats Limited Edition’ laptop
4:28- Plenty of Fish dating site.
4:44- Chevrolet.
5:37- Polaroid.
6:24- Wonderbread.
6:36- Miracle Whip.
8:31- Polaroid

The most recent statistics pertaining to music video product placement are from 2010, the same year as Gaga’s video. Product Placement News reported that the analytics firm PQ media, brands paid an estimated $20 million on music videos in 2010, up 7% from 2009. The trend is expected to grow in continuing years.

A recent example is Jennifer Lopez’s new video for “Dance again” featuring Pit Bull. It placed several kinds of alcohol and the star’s very own perfume. J-lo isn’t the only star using music video product placement for their own gain, music producer and DJ David Guetta has decided to take a different approach to the new trend.

Guetta sees the opportunities that social media video sites, like YouTube, offer that MTV could not because of placement restrictions in conjunction with the network. Guetta created My Product Placement, an agency that connects brands with artists to promote music and their products all in one. The agency is an off-shoot from My Love Affair, a company that Guetta, his wife and former ad executive Raphael Aflalo formed together.

David Guetta image from davidguetta.com

“With the social-media revolution, we saw artists like David [Guetta] become like media," Aflalo says. "They have a lot of fans on YouTube and a lot of followers on Twitter. So we thought maybe brands could help artists promote their paid music, and use their image and brand of artist to be more effective in their own marketing.”

Guetta already has artists like Katy Perry and Lady Antebellum on board, he also has upwards of 150 brands signed on to his new project as he hopes to pioneer a new industry.

Brand Mascots get a Social Calendar

Mascots have been a successful approach to brands since the 1950's when Leo Burnett created iconic characters like The Marbolo Man and Tony the Tiger. Mascots, including Ronald McDonald, have gone through troubled times in recent years. Marketers have now turned to social media to jump-start a resurgence of brand mascots through Facebook and Twitter.

"(Mascots are) the gift that keeps on giving," said Carol Phillips, president of Brand Amplitude. "They never get in trouble with the law. They don't up their fees. You can use them for a long, long time."

Popular brand mascots get together, possibly celebrating social media.

Still, mascots have seen their troubled times. Ronald McDonald faced criticisms that he should be retired by McDonald's due to child obesity. The issue was first brought up in 2010 by Corporate Accountability International, the same company that rid the advertising world of Joe Camel in the 90's.

The Chicago Sun Times reported on the retirement of The Burger King in August 2011. His royal highness was seen popping up in people's windows and waking up next to them. This "creepy" approach did not increase sales and the King was dethroned. This move looked to be a sign for the end of many brand mascots. Luckily for some there was a saving grace, social media.

This resurgence of brand mascots can best be explained by Wall Street Journal reporter Suzanne Vranica who explains that consumers don't want to talk to a logo, or pr person online. As consumers increasingly move to social media they see advertising thrown in their faces. What they want is to have a conversation. The pairing of social media and mascots accomplishes this task.

One recent social media campaign, focused on in a recent article by brandchannel, has set the stage for future uses of social media with mascots.

The stunt-double for Planters' Mr. Peanut, Peanut Butter Doug, doesn't have his own page. He uses Mr. Peanut's page as his platform. This matches the lack of credit he receives for doing Mr. Peanut's stunts in the video to the right. The commercial is to introduce Planters Peanut Butter.

Mr. Peanut also shines on his Facebook page. There are posts about promotions and product details, but there are also posts that only a peanut mascot could say.

"I found a five-dollar bill on the street today. Some might call that lucky, but when you're this low to the ground it actually happens more often than you'd think."

Twitter has also become a viable network for brand mascots to interact with consumers. One problem with Twitter has been the creation of false accounts. Ad Age reported about the situation in April 2011 but the situation remains relevant as it becomes increasingly popular for brands to use mascots to communicate their social messages.

Although there are many false accounts on Twitter for brand mascots, some companies have verified their brand mascots on Twitter, including:

• Captain Crunch
• The Energizer Bunny
• The Geico Gecko
• Green M&M
• Red M&M

Ads Gettin' all Emotional

A recent article by Michelle Williams of the Minnesota Daily urges voters to be aware of the emotional appeals in the upcoming election.

"We can’t keep letting politicians treat us like horses in blinders, seeing only what they direct us to see. There is much more to a political platform than a religion. There’s more to a voter than their tax bracket." - Williams

She is urging Americans to see past their emotional pleas for votes, but what I took out of the article is that emotional appeals are effective (even if it is taking a sort of 'brain-washing' approach to the topic). So what is it exactly that make emotional appeals effective? I, myself, do not find a lot of joy in discussing politics so instead let's turn the investigation to a more exciting topic- advertising.

Emotional appeals are something that I've learned about in almost every communication course I've taken at NDSU. To save on tuition costs, Ads of the World breaks emotional appeals down nicely as either:

• Personal (Safety, Fear, Love, Humor, Nostalgia, Excitement, Grief, Pride, etc.)
  
• Social (Recognition, Status, Respect, Involvement, Approval, etc.)

As you can see emotional appeals encompass a vast range of feelings- feelings that companies rely on to sell their products and services.


It takes McDonnell Hayes less than three minutes to show why emotional appeals work in this video.

Yes, emotional appeals tug at your heart strings in some way and get you to in turn like the So let's look at a few brands that do emotional appeals best.

Humor

I don't always enjoy laughing. But when I do, I prefer to do it while watching Dos Equis commercials. Ok, so I don't think I have actually ever 'LOLed' at these ads. But I do find their wit humorous.

Nostalgia

The classic example of nostalgia is Campbell's Soup. It may be worn out at this point, but you show me a more popular brand that is able to successfully run a commercial that was shot in the 1980's.

Fear

"That's Allstate's Stand" Yes, stan-D not Stan. I was just as shocked when I first found out. But Allstate used fear appeals in there ads once they signed Dennis Haysbert in 2003. The thought of crashing, or being in a difficult situation sold to some consumers. Lately, Allstate seems to have mixed in a little humor along with the fear.

Status

I'm sure I will never be one of the members of the Bentley community, and by community I mean gated. Some of their ads show their status a little more aggressively than others.

Obviously emotional appeals can be seen in almost every ad in some way- whether or not the brand was trying to convey that emotion to its consumers or not. So next time you buy a product, think about why you are buying it. If you don't know why, well I'm guessing advertisers still got the best of you. The best advertising is when you don't even realize it.

Follow the Tweeter

Twitter has had its number of problems over the its short existence, but "fail whales" aside, the company has recently been at the top of its game. This is due, in large parts, to their new focus on advertising.

"In the past, Twitter’s too-cool-for-revenue attitude enhanced its Silicon Valley mystique. The company still tries to maintain that ethos—its stated mission is 'to instantly connect people everywhere to what is most meaningful to them.' But really it’s jumping headlong into competition for advertisers’ Internet budgets." - Bloomberg Businessweek

Twitter is on pace to earn $260 million in revenue for 2012. Yet, users are not bombarded with ads clogging up their entire sidebars, instead the advertisements are incorporated into an individual's feed. Thus producing a less obtrusive and possibly more effect method for advertisers.


Twitter developed much like Facebook when it comes to advertising, original neglect eventually turned into millions of dollars in revenue. Facebook is now the one following in Twitter's footsteps.

According to an article posted by poynter.com, Facebook started to push marketers towards creating content within Facebook on their brand's page on Feb. 29th. Facebook then charges to promote it on user's home pages.

Twitter.com

Although I have yet to see any promoted ads on my Facebook page yet, it is something to look out for. As for Twitter, they clearly mark their promoted tweets with a orange arrow as shown in the images as you can see in these screen shots from my Twitter account.

To the left, Heartland Chevy has clearly been promoted. Users are able to simply click follow if they wish, or just as easily close out of the brand's promoted page.

Twitter also sells promoted hashtag space to brands. #ShamrockShake was promoted by McDonalds to start and monitor conversations about their St. Patrick Day-themed shake.

I'm fairly new to Twitter, but I actually am a fan of the way Twitter generates ad revenue. Many times if I see a promoted tweet, and am interested in it whatsoever, I will click on it.  This is not true with many websites, or Facebook's previous system.

I believe the reasons I am willing to click are:

• few promoted tweets on a page, generally only one
• it feels more personable because it is directly surrounded by tweets from people I am choosing to follow
• it is easy to close promoted, tweets, hashtags and brands to follow

It will be interesting to see if I feel the same way with Facebook's system of promoted posts in the upcoming weeks. If they flow as nicely as Twitter's I think I will primarily be excited about the potential of user engagement it holds for the advertising industry.

Twitter.com

And the Grammy goes to... Chipotle?

One week after The Superbowl and the ad-related buzz is focused on a Grammy commercial? Call me crazy, but the two-and-a-half-minute Chipotle Mexican Grill ad "Back to the Start" that ran on CBS Sunday upstaged not only all of the Superbowl ads but many of that night's performers. If the ad was to be given a Grammy, it would have to be Best New Artist. Although the ad was released online in August, the Grammy placement marked Chipotle's first national television spot, according to Advertising Age. Haven't seen the ad yet? Watch it below!

Yahoo News claims that the ad is "more than just a commercial -- it was more like a message." The journey of the farmer, featured in the ad, captures the viewer on his path of self discovery. He goes from fattening his stop-motion-animated piggies with chemicals and sending them off to slaughter houses to a revelation that sends him "back to the start."

By no means, is the ad meant to convince customers to become vegetarian- as Chipotle uses a variety of meat in its menu. Rather, the ad is geared toward showing Chipotle's importance of using the finest free-range meat in its burritos and other products.

Although the ad has received a lot of attention from the general public after its Grammy debut, professionals in the advertising industry recognized its greatness while it was still in the dark to most. Ad Week listed the spot as #2 on its list of top ten ads of 2011. The ad was topped only by Volkswagen's "The Force." Ad Week called Chipotle's ad "a marvel of craft, visually and musically."

"The Scientist" cover art
from iTunes.com

The somber tune featured in the ad is a cover of Coldplay's  "The Scientist" sung by country legend, Willie Nelson. Fans of the tune can purchase his cover of the song on iTunes. All proceeds benefit the Chipotle Cultivate Foundation.

Although the majority of feedback from the ad has been positive, it has spawned a few critics. One is Zap2it who finds the commercial somewhat unsettling.

“The problem is the real takeaway- Chipotle's competition takes meat, runs it through a factory and serves it to you. Chipotle, on the hand, uses only the finest free-range beef and pigs before killing them and serving them to you. And those pigs and cows are so darn cute.” - David Eckstein, Zap2it

I tend to prefer Qdoba over Chipotle, but for this debate, sign me up for team Chiptole. I disagree with what Eckstein writes. Yes, what he said is essentially what the commercial is doing, but the overall concept of the ad shows Chiptole just as they had hope it would- cultivating a better world.

$3.5 million commercial spot? Why not.

The Super Bowl is the single most watched sporting event of the year. Last week's Giants-Patriots match-up captured 111.3 million viewers, according to The Nielsen Co., making it the most watched television show in U.S. history. As prices increase for ad placement, companies continue to fight for coveted Super Bowl spots- but are they worth the money?

www.crazywebsite.com

A 30 sec. spot for the big game averages $3.5 million. This is an absurd amount of money for less than a minute of screen time, but in my opinion, Super Bowl commercials are a must for big companies.

Looking past the idea that these commercials are expected for some companies, (Budweiser, Coca-Cola, Chevy) Super Bowl ads are a major draw for many viewers. The rising popularity of social media also gives advertisers another reason to turn to the Super Bowl.

It makes sense that a group of college students, from Queen's University, see how this new trend could impact Super Bowl advertisers.

"The Super Bowl has long been one of the most prestigious TV advertising events of the year, and that’s unlikely to change anytime soon. But as the industry continues to shift towards a more targeted, social media based model, companies and brands of all sizes should be taking notice." - The Queens Journal 

Wired reported that Twitter averaged 12,233 Tweets per second. Last year tweets topped out at 4,064 tweets per second.

Even with this new found buzz of the web, a multimillion dollar ad placement is hard to swallow, especially contrasted to a regular Sunday Night Football ad cost ($512,000 for 30 seconds). One reason that favors Super Bowl ads is the low cost per viewer. The Wall Street Journal reported that the average cost per viewer was $0.03 for a 30 sec. commercial.
There are those who argue that the reach the Super Bowl provides does not transfer to sales. This may be true for some products, but if the product and commercial are right, the Super Bowl can do amazing things for a brand. I think a good example to prove my point is a recent Super Bowl star, little Darth Vader.

The Volkswagen Passat commercial ("The Force"), featured during last year's Super Bowl, was the run away favorite. The video has since: been viewed 50.8 million times on YouTube, Little Vader himself on The Today Show to be "unmasked"  and the ad has even spawned many YouTube spoofs.

All this is nice in getting the Volkswagen name out there, but what about sales?

It turns out those are just fine as well. The Volkswagen Passat NMS began production in 2011 and was introduced with the famous commercial. According to Autoguide.com, Volkswagen has increased production on the Passat. MotorTrend also reports that they made 50,000 2012 Passats in eight months.

It may be hard to find direct evidence relating the sales figures of the Passat to "The Force" commercial, but the amount of buzz that the ad generated is hard to overlook.

Billbored

(Don't worry I know how to spell.) The title is merely my take on what the advertising industry has chosen to do with one of the biggest mediums in terms of blank canvas size- billboards. Or as I like to call them, billboreds. I have seen awesome billboards both in person and online in my life. Still, more often than not billboards are looked at as a weaker form of advertising for multiple reasons, but I believe the real reason is because people aren't using the medium to its full potential.

This month billboards have been getting a lot of negative media coverage.

• Jan. 12- A billboard collapsed due to high winds in Brooklyn, NY.
• Jan. 13- An article ran in the North West Florida Daily News reporting 2,000 trees were illegally cut down in FL for billboard placement.
• Jan. 23- A feature article in the High Country News (Salt Lake City, UT) accused billboard companies of buying out court cases suing against billboards in residential areas.
• Jan. 25- NC approved new laws allowing trees to be cut down in order for billboards to be seen better.

I'm not for companies cutting down 100+ year old trees to make room for more, but I do enjoy billboard advertising.

The medium has been criticized for not being able to clearly calculate the number of impressions made and many drivers admit to not noticing billboards. Additionally there is the dilemma of how to convey a message in 8 words or less.

Four states (AK, HI, ME & VT) prohibit billboards due to high tourism for their scenic beauty. This leads me to believe that my positive opinion of billboards comes from having driven through the barren states of MT, ND, and SD where the sight of a billboard is a happy sign that civilization is finally near.

Billboards do have positive attributes as pointed out by zeromillion.com including:

"People can't 'switch it off' or 'throw it out.' People are exposed to it whether they like it or not. In this sense, outdoor advertising truly has a captured audience."

The audience is there, yet most people claim they don't notice billboards. The problem with billboards is the same as any other medium- capturing attention. The benefit is, if used to their full potential,  there are many different "out of the box" ways to capture that attention, and here are some of them.

 

Okay, so some of these may be a bit extreme, or out of some companies budgets, but it illustrates just how much can be done through the medium of billboards.

Like I said, I'm not for tearing down mother nature to make more room for billboards, but I think that the space available should be used to its best advantage, and that means taking the bored out of billboard.

Not thaaat kind of Legendary...

North Dakota is the least visited of the 50 states. Its number one attraction is hard to pinpoint, and not in a good way. This poses quite the challenge for advertisers trying to sell the “peace garden state” to tourists.

The latest of North Dakota Tourism’s “legendary” ads were released last week. One ad in particular has, as is the goal of advertising, received a lot of buzz- but it may not be the kind of attention the state wants.

Most of the $1.8 million campaign’s legends point to the outdoor adventures North Dakota offers much like the word "legendary" intends. The ad getting all of the attention appears to take what I call the “Barney Stinson approach” to the word legendary.

Image from ibtimes.com

The ad, shown left, captures the nightlife of Fargo with the text “Drinks, dinner, decisions. Arrive a guest. Leave a legend.” A day after being released, it was pulled from Facebook for lacking what people labeled “decency and class” and triggering derogatory comments towards both its concept and models pictured.

Created by Odney, a local agency, the ad was targeted towards Canadian tourists and largely to be placed within Canadian magazines according to an AP news article. Sarah Otte Coleman, the director of North Dakota’s tourism division, explained in an article for the Grand Forks Herald her first reaction to the negative response. “Wow! Some people have too much time on their hands and watch a little too much Jersey Shore,” said Coleman.

Jersey Shore viewers or not, the "legendary" ad has caught the attention of everyone from the Huffington Post and ABC news to small travel blogging sites. While many of these postings carry the same tone of shock and imply failure, it is still up for debate as to if it is a complete failure.

2010 Legendary Campaign takes a subtler approach to ND
nightlife. Image from Travel North Dakota Facebook page.

After living in North Dakota for over 3 years, I think that advertising anything that doesn’t show snow or flooding is a step in the right direction. So I’ll give one point to them there. Another point for getting North Dakota and tourism out there to a national audience in the same sentence.

That is about where my awarding of points ends, so only a 98% failure. Maybe the intentions were good, showcasing the vibrant nightlife of Fargo, ND (something many people still most likely believes does not exist even after this ad) but the truth is no matter what the intentions, the message that read to the majority of viewers was “come to Fargo and hook up.”

Coleman has since apologized to anyone who was offended for the ad and assures that the “Legendary” campaign has overall been successful. The Tourism board says that in 2010 a total of $176.9 million was earned through visitor spending.

The ad will remain in the printed copies of North Dakota's 2012 tourism guide, but has been pulled from electronic versions. There are plans of replacing the ad, which will most likely stir up another round of debates. Let’s hope it’s legen- wait for it –dary.