If you’ve got an extra few million lying around there still may be time you get your Super Bowl ad on TV in your local market. So, here’s some advice on how to create one:
Use a baby, or an animal. Babies work especially well if they: a) Talk. b) Sing. c) Dance.
Regarding animals, dogs are preferred. However, chimps, baboons, guerrillas, lizards, mice, frogs, pigs, cats, chickens, rabbits, squirrels, raccoons, goldfish, ostriches, any kind of bear, and elephants are all acceptable. Avoid snakes and insects. And, as with babies, talking, singing or dancing is highly recommended. Good luck!
I created this Coke ad (via Coke’s agency, McCann-Erickson) several years ago. While they might need to slightly modify the flags every four years, I doubt they’d have to modify the concept.
Never before have there been so many cool, low cost ways to get the word out. And, never before has it been more confusing. With the dizzying array of traditional and non-traditional options and a Social Media landscape that seems to change monthly, it’s hard not to be confused. Yet, you’ve got two choices: figure it out, or be beaten by the competition who has.
John’s recent NY Business XPO talk at the Javits Center provides an overview of the key things that everyone needs to know to market effectively today, and tomorrow. Right click to download.
For info on John’s Marketing Therapy program to help small businesses market themselves with maximum effectiveness, click here.
On Superbowl Sunday I watched talking babies and silly dogs during the commercial breaks. Mostly, I watched the game which was far, far better. On Monday, as I digested the tedious ad reviews from ad pundits, I stumbled upon one from someone who isn’t: Jim Cramer.
His essay, which appeared on TheStreet.com, nailed it:
“There was one ad that struck me as the most honest, most riveting and most compelling of all. You see, the game had just ended, and Colts great Raymond Berry ran the Giant gantlet with the Lombardi Trophy. Suddenly it seemed like every other Giant pulled out an Apple iPhone to snap pictures of the moment. One after another after another. And I said to myself, there it is, not some pet dangling a bag of chips or some headlights killing vampires or King Elton getting trapdoored. Nope, there was an ad worthy of Steve Jobs and the company he built.”
Our viral video was just kindly described by ADWEEK/AOL’s Fuel the Future as … “clever and brilliant in its simplicity. It accomplishes for practically no dollars what many agencies can’t accomplish with many millions of special-effects-laden bucks.”
Marketing experts claim it’s easier than ever to market your business. So, why is it so confusing? I address that question and discuss the best marketing solutions to grow your business now and in the months to come.
Back in November, our own personal Aleister Crowley of Cult of Mac, Leander, sat down and interviewed Ken Segall, the originator of the iMac name. According to Segall, Steve Jobs recognized he was “betting the company on the machine and so it needed a great name.” The only problem: the name Jobs had his heart set on was so bad it would “curdle your blood.” The original product name? MacMan, says Gizmodo.
Luckily, at the end of the day, iMac won out… but it wasn’t because Jobs let himself be swayed, according to Gizmodo’s sources, but rather because the name was already trademarked by a company called MidiMan, who had released a serial-to-MIDI adapter under that brand name. Apple made an offer; Midiman declined; Steve Jobs fumed and Segall got his way.
MacMan is, indeed, a blood-curdling name for a computer, but you can see the method in Jobs’ madness: bulbous and colorful, there is something about the original iMac’s design that channels the bouncing fruits of the famous 8-bit ghost gobbler… but it’s a name that would need to be abandoned as soon as the design was changed.
It’s interesting how different the entire Mac brand could be now if not for the serendipity of Jobs’ initial whim being thwarted. The lower case ‘i’ has transcendeded its initial meaning — Internet — and become a brand in its own right: an elegant prefix synonymous with iconic Apple product design.
If you’ve got an extra few million lying around there still may be time you get your Super Bowl ad on TV in your local market. So, here’s some advice on how to create one:
