Why the 2011 ‘Social’ Super Bowl Will Break Digital Records

• Here’s one of the first and potentially most important predictions for 2011: The mother of all TV-anchored events, the Super Bowl, will break all records for digital and social innovation. Go ahead, write that down and hold me accountable.
• I know, this sounds counter-intuitive — almost gravity-defying — but bear with me for a moment. I’ve been tracking Super Bowl ads for nearly 10 years now — starting with my first online-feedback startup and more recently with Nielsen — and the march of digital and social innovation around the ads gets bolder and better every year.
• We shouldn’t really be surprised. Big money is on the line (as are careers), a point hardly lost on today’s crop of CMOs who are looking to optimize all aspects of the marketing mix.
• Evidence of integration is everywhere, this year most notably in what my colleagues at Nielsen referred to as the Engagement Trifecta — the Super Bowl, the Winter Olympics and the World Cup. This eight-month window saw the biggest single concentration of media investment in ad history. (www.adage.com)

Why LeBron’s ‘Rise’ Lowers the Value of Athlete Endorsement

• Admittedly, I’m late in writing about LeBron James’ much-talked about new Wieden & Kennedy-created Nike commercial. The spot, portentously (or perhaps pretentiously) called “Rise,” has already been the subject of much public discussion and critical dissection. But I must also confess I didn’t truly understand what James was trying to accomplish with the commercial, in which he enigmatically asks, “What should I do?”
• Sure, Nike’s motivation is clear enough. It is the beginning of a new basketball season and they have a warehouse full of LeBron James signature shoes and apparel to move. And Wieden must be ecstatic that the spot has generated so much buzz. But now that “Rise” has become the subject of all manner of parody, including a “South Park” takedown with ousted BP CEO Tony Hayward in the brooding role of LeBron, his motivation no longer interests me. Instead, the repercussions of what he has done give me pause.
• Advertisers have turned to athletes as endorsers for more than a century. They seek out athletes for their fame and their following. But advertisers also desire athletes for their charisma, dignity and courage — the courage to risk everything on a last shot, swing or fingertip catch where the outcome is truly unscripted and always in doubt. It is the singular power of sport and what keeps athletes relevant. (www.adage.com)

Hulu to Double Online Ad Revenue

• Hulu will more than double its online ad revenue in 2010, pulling in more than $240 million, according to CEO Jason Kilar, who delivered a keynote address today at GigaOM’s NewTeeVee Live conference. Last year, Hulu generated $108 million.
• The video site, which is a joint venture among News Corp., NBC Universal and Disney, executed campaigns for 352 different brands during the third quarter of this year, Kilar said. In October alone, Hulu reached 30 million users who consumed 260 million content streams (full episodes or clips) as well as 800 million ad streams, per GigaOm. (www.adweek.com)

The Golden Age of TV Shopping

• TV shopping is thriving at a time when, by many accounts, it should have died under a crush of new online competition. High-end fashion designers are flocking to sell their first mass collections on the air, entering a space once dominated by obscure exercise equipment and dowdy tchotchkes.
• HSN’s larger rival channel, QVC, has in the past two years sold its first pieces from celebrity stylist Rachel Zoe and “Mad Men” costume designer Janie Bryant. HSN has an exclusive collection from Ms. Acra, as well as similar deals with her luxury peers Badgley Mischka and Naeem Khan. (www.wsj.com)

 Campaigning for Friends as Much as for Sales

• DURING the economic downturn, many brands turned to nostalgia marketing to strike a reassuring chord, like General Mills selling Trix and other varieties in retro boxes, Nationwide Insurance resurrecting its “Nationwide is on your side” slogan and Bumble Bee Tuna reviving its “Yum, yum, Bumble Bee” jingle.
• Little Debbie, the 50-year-old snack cake brand, is also evoking happier times, but it is tapping consumers to do the reminiscing. On its Facebook page on Nov. 2, for example, the brand asked its nearly 600,000 followers for “Little Debbie traditions,” and nearly 200 posted responses, most that day.
• “This might sound a little ‘different,’ but if we ever had trouble getting my Grandaddy to eat, all we had to give him was a Little Debbie Oatmeal cake — that he would ALWAYS eat,” wrote Kim Bracey Dayvault on Facebook. “So when he passed, we put one in his coat pocket to take to heaven with him!”
• It is difficult to measure whether such anecdotes result in more sales of Oatmeal Creme Pies, the concoction with oatmeal cookies and white filling, but that is beside the point, said Barry Anthony, director of marketing for McKee Foods. (www.nytimes.com)

Kumho Tire swells its sponsorship portfolio

• South Korean tyre manufacturer Kumho Tire USA has signed sponsorship agreements with National Basketball Association (NBA) franchises the Miami Heat and current NBA champions the Los Angeles Lakers.
• Kumho’s sponsorship of the LA Lakers includes courtside scorer’s table signage, bottom ring and corner board positions on the Lakers’ HD scoreboard, a full-page colour advertisement in the Lakers’ official game programme and LED ribbon signage at the Lakers’ home arena, Staples Centre.
• Additionally, Kumho will have 30-second video spots on the main scoreboard, radio ads in ESPN Desportes, the Lakers’ official Spanish radio partner, and web elements on the Lakers’ official website. The sponsorship also sees Kumho acquire lobby booth nights to interact with fans, player appearances at Kumho’s dealer partner locations and suite nights for Kumho dealers.  
• Kumho’s sponsorship of the Miami Heat will include scorer’s table signage in the Heat’s new LED electronic system, 360-degree LED fascia that encompasses LED ribbons as well as the centre scoreboard, video branding on the main scoreboard for key replays, and 30-second spots on in-arena video boards. In addition, the company will also have a dedicated Kumho fan zone area at American Airlines Arena with 100 per cent Kumho branding and other elements such as an interactive photo booth, interactive games and video screens to watch Heat games and Kumho advertisements. Suite nights for Kumho’s dealers and multiple player appearances are also part of the deal. (www.sportspromedia.com)

Ford Hauls Out F-150 Fuel Economy Message

• When it comes to pickup trucks, it’s really not about the sheet metal — it’s really about the motor, the strength of the frame underneath and the transmission. Ford, which for the first time in over 60 years has changed its entire pickup truck engine lineup, might at first blush appear to have a big towing job on its hands: hauling consumers away from the idea that a pickup truck has to have a V8 under the hood.
• A new campaign for the 2011 F-150 is focused on that task. The TV, Internet and print push spotlights the truck’s new series of EcoBoost 6-cylinder engines with the idea, in so many words, that you can save gas and haul ass.
• The efforts also feature the voice of the frenetic comedian Denis Leary, whose voice has, for two years, been central to Ford’s TV ads for the F-150. In addition to touting truck capability, the ads also spend a considerable amount of time discussing fuel economy, which is fairly atypical for the segment. In one, Leary says: “Hey, here’s a little good news. If you want decent mileage in a pickup, you don’t have to order your engine off the kiddie menu anymore.”
• The campaign also has an online video series that shows guys taking one of the new engines off the assembly line at Ford’s Cleveland Engine Plant, getting overheated, frozen, and variously tortured and abused before being thrown into a truck that drives across the Rockies to the Pacific Northwest. There, the truck hauls felled trees. Then it tows an 11,000-pound trailer at top speed at the Homestead-Miami Speedway and competes against the competition, towing 9,000 pounds at Davis Dam, Nev. (www.mediapost.com)

FiOS Mobile: Users Watch TV/Movies Without Internet

• Verizon will now allow its FiOS TV customers to download content to non-TV portable devices.
• The IPTV video service has started up Flex View, which lets its FiOS customers take TV/movies to their smartphones, tablets and laptops. Verizon says the difference with Flex View versus other video services is that viewers can download entertainment content to devices and view them without Internet access.
• Verizon says there are more than 1,400 movie titles available now, and this will grow to 2,000 movies by year’s-end. Some 6,000 will be ready by the end of 2011. Next year, Verizon will add more functions to Flex View, allowing customers to access photos, videos and music. There is no additional subscription fee required to use Flex View for FiOS customers.
• FiOS consumers can use Flex View on up to five devices per account — where they can, for example, rent or buy a movie. Once a FiOS customer rents a title, they have up to 30 days to play the movie, and will have 24-48 hours to watch it once it has started. (www.mediapost.com)

U.S. Army Puts Marketing Guns Into Social Media

• The U.S. Army is social. The armed service has shifted a big portion of its marketing budget away from traditional broad-reaching media to an “Army Strong” social media site, ArmyStrongStories.com, that turns service men and women into bloggers. Bruce Jasurda, CMO of the Army, discussed the program at the New York Conference Board gathering this week.
• He explained the effort comprises over a thousand Army stories written by Army bloggers talking about their lives. “We have been around 235 years, one year longer than the country. So we are always asked, ‘Why advertise? You have 100% awareness.’ It’s true. We’ve been in all the big wars,” he joked, saying the idea actually came because people ask very basic questions that show that while awareness is universal, understanding is not. (www.mediapost.com)

Honest Tea Grows Branches, Brews The Leaves

• Niche bottled-beverage player Honest Tea got major manufacturing and distribution leverage when Coca-Cola acquired a stake in the company two years ago. But the Atlanta-based beverage giant has, until now, left Honest Tea pretty much in tact, and that includes the way the tea is made: from real tea leaves, rather than a witch’s brew of powders.
• Seth Goldman, CEO (or TeaEO, as he prefers) of the Bethesda, Md.-based company, says the company still eschews advertising, preferring the kind of guerilla marketing tactics it has been using from day one. Speaking this week at the Conference Board in New York, Goldman recounted how 13 years ago, as he was making the tea in his kitchen, his first and still biggest single retail point, Whole Foods Market, expressed interest. “They placed an order for 15,000 bottles, which was awkward because we hadn’t made the tea in anything like that quantity. Whole Foods is still our best account.”
• While the company was the first to make organic tea, and first to market lower-calorie tea, it now competes in a crowded market. But Goldman says the key challenge has always been distribution, a real estate war among truckers when it comes down to shelf space. “We have an original business plan; it’s nicely written with lots of brand visioning. But it doesn’t acknowledge that to build a beverage you need distribution.”
• Honest Tea’s first delivery company was a cheese distributor, followed by a corned beef distributor, then a charcoal distribution service, with Honest Tea bottles piggy backing. “It was an unusual mix but, as a result, we started to get a presence on shelves.” The company had expanded slowly in a patchwork fashion into California, Arizona, Washington and Boston when Goldman got the call from Coca-Cola. (www.mediapost.com)

ING CEO On Customers: More Dating, Less Marriage

• Arkadi Kuhlmann is on a mission to bring saving money back in style. As CEO of ING Direct, he has done that by making “saving” enticing: his stores — and he is outspoken on this point: they aren’t banks, they are stores — make people want to visit, with cafes, lounges, and the occasional Harley. What does that have to do with banking? “Nothing,” he said. The bottom line: great customer experience is everything. “At the end of the day, it’s not what we do at ING Direct, it’s what we stand for.”
• Speaking Wednesday at the Conference Board in New York, Kuhlmann gave a wide-ranging speech about the company and how it has, from the start, made it part of its skin and bones to avoid complexity, arcana, tier systems that reward wealthier customers, credit cards, awards, points, etc. It appears to work, as the company now has $90 billion in assets and is the No. 1 savings bank in America.
• The vision of the company is to lead Americans back to savings. “We want to make savings cool, and in a lot of categories, saving is not cool. Generally, what we do in our category is the direct opposite of what everyone else is doing.” (www.mediapost.com)

Southwest Airlines Salutes Military Members

• Southwest Airlines has dubbed November its “Military Heroes Month” and is kicking off a host of activities, including several for Veterans Day.
• The Dallas-based airline has more than 750 employees who currently serve in the National Guard and Reserves, along with thousands of customers who served or are serving in the armed forces.
• Southwest is working with select nonprofit organizations across the country throughout November to thank and give back to the military service members and their families.
• Southwest does not consider the events to be “marketing,” according to spokesperson Ashley Dillon. “This is not a marketing promotion or driven by the marketing group,” Dillon tells Marketing Daily. “It stemmed from our Community Relations and Charitable Giving group as a way to honor our heroes. This is one of many tributes we’ve done for the military over the 40 years we’ve been in operation.” (www.mediapost.com)

Kahlua Campaign Returns Brand To Its Heritage

• Kahlua wants to be clear about a few things: It’s not a creamy liquor, and it hails from Mexico.
• “There’s a lot of consumers who believe it’s a cream-based product, but it really isn’t,” Andrew Nash, brand director for Kahlua, tells Marketing Daily. “Also, about one-third of them thought it was from Hawaii.”
• The Pernod-Ricard brand is stressing its Mexican heritage and coffee and sugar cane roots in a new advertising campaign highlighting the brand as “muy delicioso.” The effort from TBWA/Chiat/Day, moves away from the Mayan and Incan element of previous campaigns to one with a lighter touch that emphasizes the product’s Veracruz origins and drinks that don’t require a cream-based mixer. (www.mediapost.com)

Wendy’s sprinkles trendy sea salt on its new french fries

• A nation swimming in new products with sea salt is about to get the clincher: sea salt fries.
• On Thursday, Wendy’s will unveil Natural-Cut Sea Salt Fries — revamped french fries of 100% russet potatoes, cut with the skin on, sprinkled with sea salt.
• The move comes as sea salt has set consumer hearts aflutter and invaded American pantries. In 2010, 1,350 new products with sea salt as an ingredient have been introduced, research giant Mintel says. The percentage of all foods and beverages with sea salt jumped from 5% in 2006 to more than 8% in 2010, Mintel says.
• “Sea salt has the potential to grow as fast as low-carb did,” says Lynn Dornblaser, new products guru at Mintel. “Hopefully, it won’t decline as fast.” (www.usatoday.com)

 smart Is “against Dumb”

• Just in time for the Christmas season, smart USA asks shoppers to make conscious decisions when buying things. The team behind the initiative believes that nowadays people tend to spend money on more things they actually do not need, and now is the time to stop it. The brand teamed up with StrawberryFrog agency to kick off an initiative “against dumb” focused on promoting the principles of mind-driven consumption in hard economical times. smart encourages Facebookers to join the rally against overconsumption and promote the idea among their friends on the social media network.
• “We are not calling it a campaign. We’re calling it a social media initiative. Smart still remains the epitome of efficiency—whether it’s fuel, materials or space—but as we looked at a number of things about the brand, [consumers’ perceptions of it had changed.] When the brand first launched in the U.S. and fuel prices were $4 a gallon, everyone got it. But now that fuel prices have gone down, America is back to what we like to do, which is “bigger and better” [when it comes to buying] and all that. And people are saying, “I don’t know if I really need a car like this anymore.” And so, we wanted to [address that] in the context of a humorous [movement.],” said Kim McGill, smart’s vp-marketing, advertising in its interview to Forbes. (www.popsop.com)

Red Bull: New Year. No Limits. Who Needs Snow When You’ve Got Air?

• History will be made by Levi LaVallee on New Year’s Eve at Red Bull: New Year. No Limits., airing live on December 31 on ESPN. The seven-time Winter X Games medalist and champion snocross racer will attempt to jump his Polaris snowmobile longer than ever before and eclipse the current record of 301 feet.
• The event will take place at the Embarcadero Marina Park in the Port of San Diego. Embarcadero is Spanish for “landing place,” making it an appropriate location for LaVallee’s jump. “I can’t even explain how excited I am to be part of this year’s Red Bull: New Year. No Limits.,” said LaVallee. “With the jump gap itself being longer than the existing distance record, it is going to be one heck of a ride!” (www.popsop.com)