This past weekend marks another year when companies pay boocoos of money for spots to advertise during the Super Bowl, but it was also the first year the NFL has offered free, live-streaming of the game online or via mobile phone.

Live Streaming

I only watched a small portion of the game, but I did give the live-streaming a go. Although the quality wasn’t up to par with watching the game on a big screen, the live-streaming interface had lots to offer (besides being legal and free). There were multiple camera angles to choose from, a “Twitter Battle” poll that displayed the hype of which team was being rooted for, in-game Q&A via Twitter, sideline tweets, and of course—the ads.

The Ads

In all, there were roughly 60 Super Bowl commercials for products, services, auto dealers, & TV/movie promotions. Although I feel like the Super Bowl commercials are loosing their creativity, some still retain a bit of humor or focus. You can watch all the Super Bowl 46 commercials here.

Other Super Bowl tid-bits:

1. It’s likely only the instant-purchase products notice a direct increase in sales due to Super Bowl advertising—namely Doritos, Coke, Pepsi, & Budweiser (versus auto industry ads, or service-related spots).

2. It seems the Super Bowl will be nixing the custom host stadium logos and going with a standard logo that will only get updated roman numerals. Semi-unrelated—commenters note the awkwardness that Super Bowl 50 would read “Super Bowl L”.

3. The highest Tweets per second #SuperBowl peak came at the end of the game: 12,233. 2nd highest was during Madonna’s performance: 10,245. Via Twitter.

Your Thoughts

So, did you watch the game? Were you happy with the outcome? What do you think of live-streaming being offered? And, what was your favorite Super Bowl commercial this year?

U-Haul moving trucks – fun or pure marketing genius?

We’ve all seen them, they’re hard to miss on any road trip. You probably even look for them, trying to find the one from your hometown. I’ve even seen U-Haul trucks on Roadtrip Bingo games.

Making people look for these fun, iconic trucks is only part of the U-Haul marketing plan. Look at the trucks closer. U-Haul is explaining to you why their trucks are better. On the back of the truck they refer to the low deck and even show you the height of other truck decks. Closer to the front, you see the term “Gentle Ride” and on the truck door it generally says Automatic and A/C. You may have never thought about it, but those are important qualities to most people. Qualities you may assume are on all trucks until now because U-Haul has raised doubt about their competitors. So now you ask before you rent a truck if it has A/C and an automatic transmission.  Another addition to the subtle sale pitch is the space above the cab known as “Mom’s Attic”. The term “Mom’s Attic” is cute, fun, and makes me think of my mom putting her china and other precious cargo up there away from the heavy furniture.

The entire truck differentiates U-Haul from all of the other competitors. Think of other moving trucks – they’re boring, boxy, and honestly not memorable (except for the series of Budget trucks with the stick figures – memorable, but they don’t differentiate).

Some of U-Haul’s new trucks have a scene showing a truck all packed up making you think about moving. It’s neat and organized – giving the appearance that moving can be easy and it has a little something for everyone including a basketball, lamp, and toolbox. They even use U-Haul boxes to cross-sell that service and get their name out there a few more times.

I promise you won’t look at another U-Haul truck the same way next time you see one driving down the road.

Google Street View

Hospital Aleman

DHL Online Tracking

Direct Ski

The Guitar Store

Awesomely terrible yet memorable.

Local advertising is critical for B-to-C companies, but why do so many local companies tend to throw money away with their ads? You can immediately recognize a local commercial by the poor video and sound quality, but here is a list of other giveaways that label commercials as ‘local’ as well:

No Plan – First of all – most local companies advertise because they want new customers. Most companies get this right, but fail by not making a plan of what they want to accomplish, how to measure their success, how they will go about doing it, and who they are trying to attract.

Miss the Mark – Most local companies try to do all aspect of advertising themselves and stretch beyond their knowledge base and end up wasting money because they’re advertising to the wrong people. Many times small business owners advertise on their favorite stations rather than their customers’ favorite stations. Would you rather hear your commercial or have your customer hear your commercial?

Sell Only on Price - Unless you have a streamlined method of manufacturing a product or a better method of providing a service, you should not sell on price alone. Be competitive, but not cheap. People perceive quality by price and if you offer something for $99 and your competitor offers their service for $125, consumers assume their pricier work is better. So you say your product/service has more to offer than your competitors – then tell me!

Don’t Go For the Gold – Local companies usually advertise their entry services and attract transactional customers instead of well-paying, repeat customers that they can build a relationship with over time. For example, Design the Planet does not say, “We design business cards”. Instead, we develop brand identities including logo, icon, stationery, website, brochure, tradeshow displays, advertising campaigns, etc. Can Design the Planet design a business card? Yes, but why lead people to us for a 2 hour project; instead, we look for 50+ hour clients. Look for the “cash cows”.

Being Cheap – I mentioned production value before, but many times local ads are cheap because of their time slot, infrequency of showing, and/or with the channel itself. If you can only afford the late night TV ads on a lesser known channel a few times a night, it’s time to look elsewhere. TV is not for everyone (I’d argue its almost not good for anyone). Use your money wisely and remember people need to see information 3 times to be recalled.

All Your Eggs in One Basket – I am amazed when a company calls and talks to me about taking over their marketing and I’ve never heard of them. They are amazed and when I ask them where they advertise, it’s on a channel I hardly watch or a radio station I never listen to; so how would I know about them? Look for opportunities using different mediums, channels, times, shows, communities, etc. Sometime a small sign at the local park can be just an impactful as the high-dollar TV spot because of it’s placement.

Let 'em have it.

Not Memorable - Have you ever seen a commercial and not remembered it? Yes you have. Commercials should stand out and have a reason to be remembered. This can be hokey or campy too. Do you remember the Special Man? What about 1825 Tulane? If you do, you’re from New Orleans. This ad for the Montgomery Flea Market is a horrible ad, but it’s memorable and we talk about it all the time in the office because it’s humorous.

No Differentiation - This is one of the biggest problems with local advertisers. They do not differentiate themselves from their competitors. Why buy from you and not another company? You should have a list of reasons, but one is all you need to be effective. Differentiation can be location, turnaround, quality, expertise, niche market, custom vs generic, certifications, etc. If you don’t have anything that differentiates your company from your competitors then you shouldn’t be in business.

Advertising & marketing is about education. You must educate your prospective customers how you are different, why you’re worth their time, and why you charge more (or why you’re cheaper). I recently hired a company to install new windows in my house because they told me why they were better than their competitors and trained me how to tell the difference in their products/services. Without this education, I would have only been able to choose based on price. Do you sell price or quality?

If you would like to review any of these suggestions or if you’d like help planning your next campaign, please drop us a line at 504-391-1550 or info@designtheplanet.com.

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As a designer & marketer, I love seeing rebrands. Some are very successful and others are not so much. At least Gap listened to their fans and brand community via social media and public mockery on TV, radio & print. Some advertising experts say this may have been a stunt to get media attention. Just this morning, the Today Show on NBC mentioned the brand going back to the classic logo then immediately asked why that was considered news.

Do you have a favorite brand that did a great rebrand or maybe another brand horror story? Do tell.

Nothing exciting.

Driving around Jefferson Parish this month, I have, however, stumbled upon a different kind of sign, which does capture and maintain my intrigue, visually.

Alas, a mere three elements send a direct message about this piece: “Pay Attention.” This advertisement, like many, puts a face to the name on the ballot, but it also brings a personality to life: suited up, pacing through the frame of his political advertisement in classic black and white. “Take this one more seriously than the others.” Maybe it is because the  imagery displays its candidate in a way that demands attention and respect…or else. Maybe it is because of the intriguing use of antique black and white contrasted against a forest green backdrop. Maybe it’s because the sign is taller, more vertical…unlike those around it. For whatever reason I am psychologically or visually drawn to this artwork, as a designer, I pin my vote of admiration on this creative decision.

To better develop my opinions on the matter, I began researching the design of politics to hone in on what the public is murmuring about it. LocalVictory.com gives astonishingly insightful know-how (to the less-than-inclined politician/artist-on-the-side…) to attain campaigning design success. Articles include “How to Design Great Political Signs,” “The Top 3 Principles of Political Design,” and “Designing a Phenomenal Candidate Walk Piece,” to name a few. Who knew, right? Contributing journalists say, “Think Outside the Box, but don’t go nuts,” “Be Consistent,” and “Be outstanding,” for your color scheme, logo, and font, matter. Identity will make or break you.

Might I mention a congratulations to John Young, Parish President, who has been working with Design the Planet throughout his campaigning via web.

Photo from telegraph.co.uk

Let’s start with bringing the old back to new, or at least now. Some may think releasing a chapter of a book a week at a time is new, but according to the USA Today article, Charles Dickens and Leo Tolstoy used to do this regularly. The author actually states the model of a serialized novel is over 175 years old. Although this model is old hat, the next is something I do not think the Jetsons ever dreamed about in their wildest dreams.

The past couple of years, Google has added Street View to their online map database. If you haven’t seen it yet – because you live under a rock – you can now see the building on the street you are looking at – including your rock. While looking on the street view, you can move up & down the street and turn around. (Google “street view fun” to see the more humorous pictures Google’s cameras have captured.) Google recently announced they have now captured “streets” on all 7 continents. They admit to not having everything done. Brazil is their only country complete for South America and a small island in Antarctica is the lone representative there. Actually, my street in the suburbs of New Orleans is not listed. (Weird, I know.)

Google captured images of narrow roadways and hard to reach areas using tricycles, snowmobiles, and other small vehicles.

I do not think I could have ever imagined a company driving up & down every street in the world taking pictures. This was a mind boggling thought just 5 years ago and only a company like Google would dream up something so far fetched and then foot the bill for it.

Now, how does this work in the world of design, websites, & brand marketing? I know these articles may seem off-topic for our blog, but technology does go hand and hand with our professional and personal worlds nowadays. Also, there is a sense of marketing in here. The serialized novel builds a community of followers all waiting in anticipation for the next piece of the story. This is a much stronger community than the more traditional book release where after the initial rush, every reader is on their own pace. For the Google street view, this shows you how if you build a tool that people need or want, you can sell advertising to be profitable. Also, the past Olympics in Vancouver utilized this technology well. They worked with Google to survey the ski mountains and other event venues so fans could experience the slopes and other attractions like never before from their computers. Many times advertising and cost-effective marketing requires out of the box thinking and using technology for a different purpose.

How do you use technology to market your brand, build your brand community, or reach out to potential customers?

One thing was obvious to me – some companies get branding and others do not. Case in point, the M&M Store is a 3-story behemoth of a store that sells clothing, jewelry, magnets, kitchen wear, custom M&M colors, more clothes, purses made of wrappers, coin banks, etc. (You get the point hopefully.) The entire store was colorful, entertaining, branded, and even smelled a bit like chocolate. One thing that particularly impressed me was how the store carried out the brand consistently throughout the store. Even the freight elevator was marked with a cute M&M character with a witty saying [look right] instead of just a sign. Very clever and it keeps you in the brand experience. The yellow M&M even holds the box upside personifying his dimwitted nature.

Across the street is the Hershey store with an elaborately designed exterior that is even more inviting than the M&Ms store. Walking into the store, my wife & I both had visions of Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory in our minds. We were sadly disappointed. The store is unique for a typical mall store, but for Times Square, the inside fell flat. We walked along the crowded aisles and found our favorite candy and bought a shirt for my brother-in-law (he loves Reeses) and stood in line to check out.

After leaving the Hershey store, something stood out to me. You can not buy a bag of M&Ms at the M&M store. They had M&Ms, but they were all in tins, mugs, creative packaging, and the like. Most of the items in the Hershey store, I could buy at any drugstore or grocery store. Also, I noticed the noise, lines, and chaos at the Hershey store even know the M&M store was much louder, had more people, and had more going on. This is because the Hershey store was an store that sold candy not a place to experience a brand.

This was an eye opening experience for me that showed my money does not make the brand experience. Although, the brand experience makes money. We spent 3 times as much at the M&Ms store and went back numerous times throughout our short vacation.

If you’re in NYC, check out these two stores and the new Pop Tart World. Pop Tart Word just opened the week before we visited Times Square and they’re doing a lot of great things. It is not quite M&Ms yet, but you can make your own Pop Tart t-shirt, create a custom box of the pastries, and enjoy their Pop Tart cuisine. I think was a little too old for Pop Tart World’s impact, but I’m glad we found it (new means not on maps.)