Altyrian View

Remember in the olden days (10 years ago), if you missed a Super Bowl ad, you really missed it. Scores of people watched the Super Bowl just for the advertising. Today, the ads live on MySpace, MSNBC, AOL, YouTube and Spike. As a matter of fact, this article from Bulldog Reporter talks about companies that bank not only on the eyes during the Super Bowl but also on the eyes the next morning.

While I agree that this is true, not just any ad will make it into overtime (couldn’t resist). At the very least, the ad has to be creative, unique and (in most cases) very funny.

Personally, I thought this year was an off year for Super Bowl advertising. I didn’t see any ads that I have wanted to watch over and over again (ok, maybe this one). Don’t get me wrong, there were some good ads, but just nothing amazing. It looks like I’m not the only one. On Wednesday morning, only a few ads have been viewed on YouTube more than 500,000. Most ads have been viewed about 250,000. That’s not bad for a “free” placement, but I doubt marketers are excited such a low-scoring after party.

Who says you have to advertise during the Super Bowl to score a big audience. Great ad. As of 3p EST on Monday afternoon, it has about 2,500 views. It’ll be interesting to see how many views it has this time tomorrow.

Hat tip to Joseph Jaffe for this one.

It’s amazing to me that large corporations decide not to participate in new media. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t expect every company to run a blog and a podcast, but I do expect them to be aware of online conversations - especially those that deal with their brands.

Amy Jussel, founder and executive director of Shaping Youth, contacted Target about a new ad campaign. Here is the response that she got:

Good Morning Amy,

Thank you for contacting Target; unfortunately we are unable to respond to your inquiry because Target does not participate with non-traditional media outlets. This practice is in place to allow us to focus on publications that reach our core guest.

Once again thank you for your interest, and have a nice day.

I read blogs. I maintain a blog (not as well as I should). I also have 3 kids, and my wife and I practically have a second home at Target (it’s between the videos and the toy department). I AM YOUR CORE MARKET. If you look at statistics about blogs, you’ll find that most readers / contributors are.

Target, you are missing an opportunity. Speak with your customers, not just at them. If you ignore them, they might someday ignore you. Once again, thank you for your interest and have a nice day.

Hat tip to Joseph Jaffe.

For eleven glorious days, I didn’t keep up with my blogs. I have all of my blog subscriptions on my work computer which kept vigil at the office while I was enjoying some R&R. Today, I pay the price: A little more than 100 entries to read.

It’s days like these that I would like to remind myself and my fellow bloggers, “Hey, headlines are damned important.” Obviously, I won’t be reading every single blog posting from the last 11 days so I’ll be skimming lots of headlines.

Unfortunately, some people can’t write headlines. Some people don’t take the time to write them. Let’s all make a New Year’s resolution to change that…

Perhaps one of the reasons that CompUSA didn’t make it was because of their customer service. Luckily, the store near me was pretty nice, and I always thought that I was getting good service. Based on posting on the ‘Net, however, good customer service was not part of their corporate culture. Engadget posted the layoff letter that the CompUSA employees got for their holiday gifts (it’s below - click for a bigger version).

Disgusting. First, one would hope that a letter like this would come from the president of the company. Second (and more importantly), the letter should have been written by someone in public relations! If they’ve all been fired, at least someone with a heart. Hey CompUSA, here’s a freebee:

Dear Team Member:

It is with great sorrow that I inform you that CompUSA will be closing its store at … We value your contributions as well as the contributions of your fellow employees in making this location a great store to work and to purchase electronics. Thank you.

We expect your last day of employment to be between February 8, 2008, and February 22, 2008. Your team leader will be able to give you an exact date sometime in January. Unfortunately, our CompUSA stores across the country are being closed so we will not be able to transfer your job to another location.

I understand that this news might come as surprise and that the coming weeks will be difficult. If you would like any additional information about the closing or how this closing might affect you, please call me at … Good luck in your future endeavors!

Sincerely…

Put the legal stuff in small letters in the footer of the page. I’d send an invoice, but …

Imagine a day where the Whopper was no longer sold at Burger King. What would customers say? What would they say if they got a Big Mac instead of a Whopper? Burger King’s new viral campaign asks those questions with some fantastically quotable results. I think this is a great campaign that will get some great coverage. Here’s the full video taken from WhopperFreakout for your enjoyment:

If you live in a state that doesn’t have an early primary vote for party presidential candidate, you haven’t seen any of the ads yet. No HIllary or Obama ads. No Huckabee or Rudy. Indeed nearly every opinion we have of the candidates is based on word of mouth or media reports. For us, the media is playing a much more important role in your decision for president.

And what’s getting press these days? Unless you haven’t turned on a TV or opened a newspaper, you’ve heard about Oprah’s speech for Obama. Nearly 30,000 people came out to hear Oprah. Obama was there too. This morning I heard a commentary questioning whether Oprah would translate into votes. Ummm yeah.

Everyone reading these words has heard a speech delivered by someone with whom they have disagreed. Regardless of how strongly you disagree, if the speaker is strong enough, you are impressed, and in some cases, you begin to see his or her point of view. I think that simply getting people to listen is a big step for any of the politicians running. Today, Obama has Oprah to help facilitate that listening.

At the end of the day, advertisements will shape your opinion of the presidential candidates, but isn’t it exciting that PR is playing such a vital role at this point in the game?

Google has put its foot down. According to the Bad Pitch Blog, Google has advised Business Wire that media release headlines that are longer than 22 words will be ignored by the search engine’s spiders.

Here’s a tip: Headlines longer than 22 words will be ignored by editors too.

Back in the day, I would write what I like to call “management headlines.” These are headlines that management wants, and they are the exact opposite of what the editors want. Mark Mathis’s book Feeding the Media Beast has some great ideas about headlines. In a nutshell, headlines are never published so they should be used to get the editor to read the first sentence of your release. Of course, they must pertain to the subject, but they can be off-beat, funny, thought-provoking – anything to get the editor to read your lead. Be creative!

I’ve found that using more creative headlines than a regurgitation of my lead has gotten my clients more coverage. Sure some of those headlines were hard to sell to management, but at the end of the day, it’s the coverage that they want.

If you’re like me, nothing could get you into the shopping crowds on the Friday after Thanksgiving. I did that exactly one time about 10 years ago. Never again.

Today is the day that people return to work, but instead of getting back into the grind, they do some online shopping. In theory, this is the biggest online shopping day of the year.

While that might have been true in 1997 when the phrase was coined by Jerry Shereshewsky, I think that so many people have access at home that most of the online shopping is done over the weekend.

Nope, today is about catching up on YouTube videos. All the same, Black Monday has a better ring to it than Black Weekend.

A new report finds that teens are using instant messaging to avoid awkward moments. They are texting instead of having face-to-face confrontations. According to a story on Fox News, 43 percent of teens use IM to say things that they wouldn’t say in person, 22 percent use IMs to ask people out on dates or to accept, and 13 percent use them to break up.

So instead of the “Dear John” letters, now we have DJ IMs.