A picture is woth 1,000 words (or a Big Mac)

It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words, and we now know that a picture is apparently also worth a Bic Mac.

During the Super Bowl, McDonald's will air a commercial about their new "Pay With Lovin'" campaign (see "source" for a clip of the commercial). McDonald's employees will ask customers to take a selfie in McDonald's, or do something nice like call their mom to wish her a nice day. Doing so will earn the customer a free meal, and McDonald's hopefully some viral buzz and goodwill.

As seen in the commercial, this is a "feel-good" campaign about bringing people together, similar to the Coca-Cola Happiness Machine (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqT_dPApj9U) or Thai Life Insurance (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R39_RVmNg8E) campaigns.

Campaigns like these are designed to develop goodwill towards a brand, reinvent their image, and develop emotional attachments with the brand. This is exactly what McDonald's needs, given its image as an unhealthy, cheap, fast-food restaurant that hasn't overhauled its brand ethos much since days of Grimace, Mayor McCheese, The Hamburglar, et al.

I believe that this campaign will be a success- at least based on the initial advertisement- injecting some fun and new life into a company that is struggling to compete against the new normal of healthier, higher quality, "fast casual" restaurants.

The fact that McDonald's is integrating mobile technology (taking and uploading selfies) shows that they are in touch with how digital branding works today. The success of this campaign will rely on in-store execution (are minimum wage employees going to be pysched up and energetic about this campaign?);  virality of the selfies on social media; and minimal negative backlash (there are a lot of ways that this could backfire). Stay tuned, and make sure you have your cell phone on you next time you pop in to grab a McFlurry.

Source: http://www.dailydot.com/technology/mcdonalds-accepts-selfies-as-payment/

The Million Dollar Dump

The Super Bowl is here! And so is the golden season for advertisements. As one of the most celebrated sports events in United States, Super Bowl attracts the biggest buyers for advertisements. In 2014 we saw a record average of 112.2 million viewers for the game (MarketingCharts), arguably putting Super Bowl as the best place to reach out to American households.  With that it is then not hard to justify the $4.5 million price tag for a mere 30 sec ad during Super Bowl.  But is it truly worth it?

If it were in the previous era, judging the effectiveness of a TV ad would solely rely on impressions. In this digital marketing era however, a lot of the impressions and even conversions could finally be measured. A glimpse at the number shocked me: 2.4 million Twitter users posted 4.9 million tweets about the ads; conversation about the Super Bowl (including the game, halftime show, and brands) reached 25.3 million tweets by 5.6 million authors, equating to 1.8 billion impressions and a unique audience of 15.3 million accounts; advertisers enjoyed social mentions that were 7 times higher than on their typical day. (MarketingCharts) Who wouldn’t give it a try if their target audience is all US residents?

Traditionally, the automobile industry would take the major share in the Super Bowl season, and this year is no exception. The interesting thing is, some of the major car manufacturers are backing out this year while many new companies have joined the race. Is that a sign of ad ineffectiveness? Perhaps only the companies know. Nevertheless we do see many companies took full advantage of the opportunity in expanding their influence. For example, T-Mobile had several awesome ads that were pushed out and went absolutely viral. This year they are back with Kim Kardashian, well, I guess a video is worth a thousand words:

It is also interesting to look at different companies’ strategy in releasing their Super Bowl ads. Some companies chose to release their ads in entirety weeks before the actual event, whereas some other companies such as Nissan, chose to release just part of their ads. (Movie Trailers? Really?) Interestingly, data have shown that companies who released pre-game content saw 175% higher viewership compared to content released only during the game. Looks like some companies should reconsider their strategy now.

In addition, there is an increasing trend of multi-screen consumers who would not be engaged with the Super Bowl TV ads that well. Data show that 83% Super Bowl viewers use a second screen (Lab42), and mobile sharing was up by 67% compared to last year. Given that, many digital marketing companies have developed new solutions for their clients: cross-platform targeted advertisements, so that no matter what device you are using, you would most likely see the same ad appearing on your phone as on your TV. (God, where can we hide now?)

All in all, it seems that the true value of super bowl ads lies way beyond the 30 seconds on screen. With the help of Youtube, Facebook, etc., many well produced super bowl ads were shared and promoted basically at no additional cost to the producer. Serving as the best seeding point for companies, Super Bowl ads have created a resonating synergy between traditional and innovative media platforms. 

Super Bowl Ad Tracker & Complementary Campaigns

Sports and consumerism, what the USA does best!  Adweek is keeping track of the brands and agencies that are participating in what's still the biggest advertising event of the year - the Super Bowl.  For $4.5MM per 30 second spot, you too can reach one of the largest live audiences on TV - but which of these brands / agencies are also planning to complement their TV ads with online campaigns ready to take advantage of the hopefully spiked interest from the ads?  As of 1/25/15, of the 28 brands listed in the article, 9 explicitly mention their plans for complementary digital ads or are enlisting internet celebrities (e.g. Youtube stars Dude Perfect and Roman Atwood).  While the rest may be planning digital ads as well (lost opportunity if they're not), it's interesting to see the increased importance and need to explicitly explain not just the TV ad, but what the plans are to capture increased consumer engagement.

Several of the brands are planning "social media war rooms" (dramatic?) or have leaked teasers on Youtube or pre-launched in the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl (e.g. College bowl championship game, late night TV).  One of the more interesting plans is from Newcastle Brown Ale, which technically isn't even advertising during the Super Bowl, but made the list anyway.  They're planning a fake online ad that takes aim at Dorito's "Crash the Super Bowl" campaign, which builds on last year's surprisingly successful campaign with Anna Kendrick that ultimately was named the #1 campaign of 2014 by Adweek.  Here's to nachos, wings, beers, and deflated footballs!