Oreo’s “Whisper Commercial

Both brands had prominent placement during Super Bowl XLVII. Oreo’s “Whisper Fight” which depicts a fight between two men in a library over which part of an Oreo is best, the cookie or the creme. Oreo encouraged consumers to “choose their side on Instagram” by tagging photos with #cookiethis or #cremethis.

Using data provided by Sysomos’ social media monitoring software, the “Whisper Fight” ad didn’t generate a lot of conversation.

• The ad itself was seen just over 1 million views on YouTube since Sunday.
• The #cookiethis and #cremethis hashtags were mentioned 872 times on Twitter.
• And the campaign was mentioned in just one blog entry, but had 88 hits from a variety of news outlets.

Oreo’s Super Bowl Moment

However, the brand really shined later during a 34-minute power outage. There was no shortage of coverage for what 360i did with Oreo when the lights went out.

Power out? No problem. twitter.com/Oreo/status/29…

— Oreo Cookie (@Oreo) February 4, 2013

That single tweet from Oreo has seen over 15,000 retweets, and nearly 6,000 favorites. As a brand it generated 140,777 mentions for “Oreo” on Twitter as well as:

• 419 mentions in blogs.
• 316 mentions in discussion boards and forums.
• and 352 hits from a variety of news outlets.

Audi’s “Prom” Commercial

For the sixth consecutive year, the German auto maker Audi chose to invest in the awareness that can be generated by one of the most-watched TV events of the year.

Audi’s “Prom” commercial features a dateless, and dejected, teenager as he heads to his high school prom. As he is about to leave the house, his father tosses him the keys to the Audi S6. With a new outlook on the evening, the teenager arrives at the prom brimming with confidence. He parks in the principal’s parking space, busts into the dance, and heads straight towards the prom queen to lay a kiss on her.

The ad concludes with the teenager driving home with a big smile on his face, and a black eye courtesy of the prom king. The commercial concludes with “Bravery. It is what defines us” as well as the #BraveryWins hashtag.

The Super Bowl spot saw more views on YouTube than Oreo’s “Whisper” commercial, with more than 9 million views since it was uploaded (early) on January 24th. In the social media space, Audi has seen nearly four times more conversation on Twitter than Oreo initially did with the following mentions for their #BraveryWins hashtag:

• 3,322 mentions on Twitter
• 4 mentions across blogs
• 1 mention in the news

So Who Won?

All these stats are great, but what can we learn from the two brands – and more importantly who really won the Super Bowl marketing battle?

While Oreo clearly had generated more conversation, did that single Tweet sell any more Oreo cookies? Nabisco hasn’t released any sales information, but I find it difficult to believe that one tweet would create a surge in sales. Perhaps a few consumers have found just a bit more affinity for the brand after their clever tweet. On the flip side, has Audi sold more cars?

In a Mashable article, Loren Angelo (GM of Marketing for Audi) said that the car maker has “achieved record levels of awareness and showroom traffic with national consideration numbers showing significant spikes post game.”

And this is why Audi has chosen to invest $4 million in branding spots during the Super Bowl instead of investing that into a digital marketing budget. Although, just last week Jack Marshall demonstrated the value that could be had by investing $4 million in digital marketing alone.

While their usage of the #BraveryWins hashtag shows a lack of true campaign integration, Audi apparently knows their audience well and what a Super Bowl spot can deliver when it comes to new car purchases.

On the flip side, Oreo has clearly demonstrated the value in having an agile and adaptable marketing team. With their real-time marketing and monitoring, the brand has demonstrated the value you can create by identifying opportunities to join, or start, a conversation.

The lights went out and a new era in advertising was born #justintimeadvertising #livecampaign @tide @oreo, #blackout #SuperBowl

— Rolando Ugarte (@RolandoUgarte24) February 4, 2013

Who do you think won the marketing battle? Is Rolando Ugarte right when he said “a new era in advertising was born?” Share your thoughts below, or join the conversation on Twitter.

The post A Tale of Two Super Bowl Ads, and One Digital Champion appeared first on Milwaukee & Chicago Digital Strategist + Speaker - Dennis Jenders.

Richard Neill has been duped. After years of watching Bodyform commercials he was lead to believe that a woman’s period is a wonderful and liberating experience. These women are happy, seen frolicking, and full of joy. In his attempt to call out the feminine hygiene company on their Facebook Wall, the brand didn’t delete the post, nor did they ignore it.

Neil shared that his “lady changed from the loving, gentle, normal skin coloured lady to the little girl from the exorcist with added venom and extra 360 degree head spin.”

The response for Bodyform is a great example of how brands can step outside their comfort zone. The response is full of humor and shows a little moxy.

“We loved Richard’s wicked sense of humour. We are always grateful for input from our users, but his comment was particularly poignant. If Facebook had a “love” button, we’d have clicked it. But it doesn’t. So we’ve made Richard a video instead. Unfortunately Bodyform doesn’t have a CEO. But if it did she’d be called Caroline Williams. And she’d say this.”

The response was well executed in both style and substance, which likely didn’t come at a low cost. But it is probably safe to assume the coverage they received has made up for it.

As of today, there were over 85,000 likes on the Facebook Wall post. And with the coverage in social media channels, there were likely hundreds of thousands of free impressions for the company.

Surprise Richard. Women bleed every month, “like a crimson landslide” as the faux CEO put it. They also fart. Brilliant!

The post Social Media Exposes the Truth About a Woman’s Period appeared first on Milwaukee & Chicago Digital Strategist + Speaker - Dennis Jenders.

Will the new Verismo coffeemaker be Starbucks’ biggest competition? Officially available today in more than 5,000 Starbucks retail stores in the United States and Canada, coffee addicts will now be able to make Starbucks-quality espresso, cappuccino and latte beverages at home.

As one of those addicts, I purchase a Grande Mocha every morning at a cost of $4.34 each. Considering the cost of the basic Verismo unit at $199, and an additional $1.83 for the milk and espresso pods, it would cost me nearly $5.00 a day for one equivalent drink at home. That price would drop after the first year to just about $4.20.

Now if you need to have the $399 big daddy Verismo your daily Grande Mocha will cost $5.84 at home during that first year.

Starbucks could officially launch the system by using the Verismo at local stores. It would be a wonderful way to get consumers to trial the product and see if the at-home pod system is equivalent to the in-store purchase. Like many other consumers, I am curious if the quality will be comparable.

Using such an approach could also make for an interesting story of the barista vs. the machine. Starbucks would need to be careful, so the barista would not look replaceable. But there is some earned media attention here from both the PR and social space with such an event.

Will the Verismo be successful? I imagine it will be. Starbucks has not seen a drop in sales with their VIA packets. And I doubt you’ll see a drop of in-store traffic just because you can brew at home. People will still come into the stores for the atmosphere and to order the drinks they can’t get at home. Pumpkin Spice Latte anyone?

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The introduction of Panda and Penguin updates from Google has focused on the quality of content. With that in mind, will Google penalize a site, or domain, if they add too many pages at once?

In April of 2011, Matt Cutts posted a video that addresses this question (begins at the 2:08 mark). While not specifically saying how many pages are too many, he does state that the answer has changed over time. He also says that if you are adding “millions of pages, you want to be a little more cautious if you can” and that you should launch softly adding “a few thousand pages and then add a few thousand more.”

How many thousand?

Anecdotaly I’ve heard from the SEO community that you should be fine adding 25,000 – 50,000 pages as a time. But with all things Google, it’s hard to say with any specificity what may raise a flag.

While the penalty for adding too many pages may simply be a flag in the system, Cutts has said that Google is working on an over-optimization penalty for sites back in March of this year.

The need for hyper-relevant content introduces an opportunity to develop multiple pages that are both local and useful for the consumer. But for a company trying to add pages to their website that covers multiple locations, with multiple products, and a variety of services there are literally millions of permutations for unique and non-duplicative content.

So whether those are created by a human, or with the help of some technology, would Google penalize a site if you added a million new pages tomorrow?

Have you experienced any drop in rankings by adding too many pages? Have you used technology like pageTorrent? Share your thoughts or experiences below.

The post What are the SEO Implications of Adding Too Many Pages to a Website? appeared first on Milwaukee & Chicago Digital Strategist + Speaker - Dennis Jenders.

Klout for Week 1 of the 2012 NFL Season:

1. Dallas Cowboys – 93
2. Green Bay Packers – 92
3. Pittsburgh Steelers – 92
4. New York Giants – 92
5. New England Patriots – 92
6. San Francisco 49ers – 91
7. Philadelphia Eagles – 91
8. New York Jets – 91
9. Oakland Raiders – 91
10. Miami Dolphins – 91
11. New Orleans Saints 91
12. San Diego Chargers – 90
13. Detroit Lions – 90
14. Chicago Bears – 90
15. Seattle Seahawks – 90
16. Denver Broncos – 90
17. Buffalo Bills – 90
18. Kansas City Chiefs – 89
19. Baltimore Ravens – 89
20. Carolina Panthers – 89
21. Cleveland Browns – 89
22. Houston Texans – 89
23. Tampa Bay Buccaneers – 88
24. Indianapolis Colts – 88
25. Cincinnati Bengals – 88
26. Arizona Cardinals - 88
27. St. Louis Rams - 88
28. Minnesota Vikings - 88
29. Tennessee Titans - 88
30. Washington Redskins – 82
31. Atlanta Falcons – 73
32. Jacksonville Jaguars – 72

For the NFL super fan, you can follow all 32 NFL teams on Twitter.

The post Which NFL Teams Have the Most Klout? appeared first on Milwaukee & Chicago Digital Strategist + Speaker - Dennis Jenders.

In October of 2011, Take This Lollipop teased us with a blue lollipop and the words, “I Dare You.” Once you entered your Facebook information, a personalized film terrorized viewers all over the world. More than 100 million people watched the film and over 13 million people ‘Liked’ the campaign on Facebook, making it the fastest growing Facebook app of all time.

In June of 2012, ‘Take This Lollipop’ received a Daytime Emmy Award for outstanding achievement in the category New Approaches. Being recognized by the National Society of Television Arts and Sciences was one of the highest honors we could have ever imagined.

Take This Lollipop creator Jason Zada launched a project on Kickstarter to raise $150,000 for a sequel to the viral sensation, which he hopes to complete before Halloween.

So what does creator Zada have in mind this year? Not much was revealed, but Zada does share that “the storyline for Lollipop 2 is highly guarded, but we can guarantee that it will be a much more intense experience than the first.”

The original Take This Lollipop reminded you why your parents teach you to never take candy from a stranger. Take This Lollipop was a 21st century re-imagination of that conversation,while  reminding Facebook users why privacy should be a concern. And, perhaps, why you should never trust virtual strangers.

Count me in. I’ve already pledged to support the project and just wish I could afford to give more to such a worthy cause. The experience from 2011 alone is worth $1 for the 13 million people that enjoyed it in 2011.

The post Jason Zada Preparing a Sequel for Viral Sensation Take This Lollipop appeared first on Milwaukee & Chicago Digital Strategist + Speaker - Dennis Jenders.

If you missed the post, I recommend reading it first. Also of interest is NextGen’s response from Connor Toohill and an intriguing response from Augie Ray.

It’s not fair to personally attack Ms. Sloan or even NextGen Journal. I am disappointed in the seasoned marketers who have taken such a route, and still flabbergasted by many of the millennials that support Cathryn’s opinion.

As an adjunct professor at Marquette University and a hiring manager at Laughlin Constable I have to say that the editors of NextGen Journal, Connor, and Cathryn need to weed through the personal attacks and listen to the advice from their peers and marketing veterans.

In the past I’ve talked about ongoing education in the marketing field, and the importance it has for everyone involved. Whether it is a peer, a client, an intern, or a friend – we are all responsible for our integrated success.

For the most part, the social media team I’ve built at Laughlin Constable is made up of millennials and they do indeed manage many of our client’s social media channels. They have many great ideas and a very good understanding of the channel(s).

Cathryn seems to think that just because millennials “spent [their] adolescence growing up with social media” they are better suited to manage the presence of a brand in social media channels. I appreciate that the experience growing up with a technology may make you better suited in understanding and applying it. But that’s like saying because I use my car everyday that I could run Ford, GM, or Hyundai. I’m sure their stockholders would disagree, and so would I.

What I hope Connor and Cathryn come to understand is this, the incredible response you’ve received with the article is because you are wrong. Now this isn’t to say that you are not better suited to understand the technology or tools associated with social media, unfortunately that isn’t the sum of all the parts.

Many marketing veterans have read and responded to the article because we’ve been in your shoes before. And instead of scolding you, we want to offer some advice. Maybe I’ve just lived long enough to become the “old guy” offering that advice, but I hope you read and digest it.

I remember the eagerness and excitement I brought to my first marketing job. The little wins make you feel important and like you are accomplishing everything you set out to do. It’s important for you to have these moments, it will drive your future success.

However, you need to find the veterans in the company you work for. Find the ones willing to talk with you. These people may have gray hair and wrinkles. Do not be afraid. In fact they may have a Twitter account with more followers than you, and their rolodex may even have more contacts than that.

Not everyone seems a new graduate the same way. Perhaps some people only expect you to get them coffee. Others may expect you to do only mundane tasks. But some of us see the potential. We want to help shape your future. Much like your parents, we may also want to protect you and help you avoid the same mistakes we’ve made.

Marketing may start with understanding the channels you work in, but it will never trump knowledge and experience. That may come in may forms; including knowledge about a particular industry, experience with past campaigns, depth of knowledge and experience with a particular brand, or years of working in an agency and creating connections with others – including the consumer.

This isn’t to say new thinking isn’t appreciated. It is. But know when and how to share that and you’ll become a trusted source for your team, your superiors, and the company.

I know you may want to be in client meetings, you want to share all of your great ideas, and you think you are ready for the next step. We are here to help you get there, but also let you know when you aren’t quite ready.

Unfortunately I see a growing trend of entitlement, ignorance, and arrogance from many graduates. Perhaps as I’ve aged I forgot how I was essentially the same. But I can confidently say that your degree, age, or experience with Facebook isn’t enough to have any brand hand over the keys to their brand. It takes time, education, and immersion.

Perhaps we should be more disappointed with the managing editors at NextGen Journal for posting the article. They had the opportunity to prepare Cathryn for the type of response this article may receive. The poor girl hasn’t tweeted since last week and likely has taken much of the response and internalized it.

I urge Cathryn, Connor and everyone at NextGen Journal to find the positive comments and advice. As marketers, and practitioners, it is our responsibility to educate, encourage, and offer opportunity to those eager (and young) hires.

On the flip side, I encourage people like Cathryn to focus on the process, method, and research instead of just the tools or channels. Understanding the intersection of marketing, technology, strategy, and research will help you in your career and with your clients.

If you really want to prove yourself, continue to provide the critical thinking necessary to apply your strengths and skills to the strategies and marketing plans your elders have crafted.

This has been a “controversial” topic because so many experienced practitioners have been in your shoes and see the flaw in your thinking. Accept it and understand that we are all trying to make you better. And that starts with a little bit of openness from all parties, and continued listening and education.

The post Should Every Social Media Manager Be Under 25? appeared first on Milwaukee & Chicago Digital Strategist + Speaker - Dennis Jenders.

I know I can not remember everything, and I also know that maximizing my productivity is essential. To stay organized I’ve found I heavily rely on these two excellent cloud-based services.

Dropbox

While there are many cloud-based storage options, I’m still loyal to Dropbox. The free service essentially gives you the ability to share and sync files across your computer, the Dropbox website, and even your mobile devices.

I use the service exclusively for transferring files between my home and office, not to mention sharing files with my team(s). Dropbox offers up to 2GB of free storage to every user, and you also have the option to purchase additional space at a very low cost.

Because the service lives in the cloud, any file you save to Dropbox will be immediately available to any other device.

Yes, you could consider many of the other cloud-based storage options out there but I’ve found that Dropbox just works. No more USB drives, external hard drives, CD / DVDs, or other tools to transfer my most recent or important work.

And as an Adjunct Professor at Marquette University, it’s a great tool to save all of my lesson plans and presentations. This way I never forget anything or accidentally leave something at home, it’s always available to me.

Dropbox is available for the Mac, PC, Linux and mobile devices.

Evernote

Organization was one of my leading reasons to use Evernote, but I quickly began to use the cloud-based service to archive articles from the web, PDFs of important documents, and even my meeting notes.

The service allows you to simply add notes, but there is a benefit in organizing them into specific notebooks and tagging each entry. This make it much more easy to perform a search against your notes and other items you have synced with the service.

If someone asks me for the most recent stats on mobile device usage I can quickly perform a search and filter my notes based off the tags or other criteria. While that covers the most basic functionality of the service, there are also many other benefits to using Evernote:

• Notebooks can be shared which makes collaboration across an organization extremely easy.
• Text recognition is built into the service, so once your notes are synced to the cloud, you can search for content in images and other file types.
• Evernote provides you with a unique e-mail address so you can send notes directly to the service from your e-mail account or while on the go.
• The Webclipper makes it easy to collect almost anything you see on the Web.
• Because everything lives in the cloud, you also have note history and revisions available to you.
• Although the service lives in the cloud, notebooks are completely available when offline on any of your devices.

Evernote is available for practically every platform and device. I use the premium version of the service, which is priced at $45.00 / year. Still undecided if Evernote is for you? Check out the video below.

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Selena Gomez, Justin Bieber and friends shared their version of the video, as did Katy Perry. Who thought Cookie Monster would be the next “celebrity” to take a shot at spoofing the video?

With 600,000 views in less than a day, the video is a great example of a brand hopping on an existing viral sensation while staying true to your brand, having some fun, and exhibiting great production quality.

Not every brand can take advantage of a trending topic or hashtag on Twitter, but with the right content there is an opportunity to get your fans and others interested. And that is exactly what Sesame Street has done. Kudos to their team that made this happen, and convincing the powers that be that it would be a successful decision.

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Congratulations Brewers fans! In ESPN’s Battle of the Ballparks, Miller Park has been crowned champion. The home of the Brewers collected 58% of the 132,568 votes in the final round to beat AT&T Park.

The bracket-style competition pitted MLB stadiums against one another. The ballpark overcame an initial 24th seed, beating Angel Stadium, Dodger Stadium, PNC Park, Camden Yards, and eventually AT&T Park to become champion.

132,000 votes later, Brewers fans everywhere voiced their opinion. I obviously did in my post explaining why I thought ESPN’s Jim Caple was wrong and what Milwaukee Brewers fans see in Miller Park. It was also pretty exciting to see the rally on Twitter, including Brewers closer John Axford linking to my post. (I need to get a beer with this local hero)

It’s the Championship! We need your help once more! Prove to @jimcaple it’s better than he thinks! #VOTEMILLERPARK! ow.ly/bLpuQ

— John Axford (@JohnAxford) June 22, 2012

Read this and then continue to vote for Miler Park! jenders.com/2012/06/21/why…

— John Axford (@JohnAxford) June 22, 2012

Senior writer Jim Caple may deny it, but it certainly appeared that there was a strong bias against the small-market Milwaukee Brewers. He shared a bit more of his thoughts at the end of the article on ESPN stating “oh, and by the way, to once again set the record straight — I am not from the East Coast. My mother is from Wisconsin, my parents met in Milwaukee, I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, I covered baseball for a decade in the Midwest, I drove to annual tailgate parties with friends at County Stadium, I once ran in the Sausage Race at Miller Park and I now live in the Seattle area. I do not have an East Coast bias nor do I dislike the Brewers. I just happen to think Pittsburgh’s PNC Park is best.”

So Jim, I think you really should find a way to make it to Wisconsin for a Brewers game at Miller Park. It really is a great venue, even if we can not all agree on which ballpark is #1. The pre-game tailgating experience is wonderful, as is the in-stadium amenities.

There is nothing like enjoying a Brewers win on a cool summer evening in Milwaukee. And without Miller Park, our fans may have been facing the reality of a second MLB team leaving this city. The Brewers needed the community and we needed them. And after many rough years since our World Series run in 1982, we are now able to watch a winning tradition being built here in Milwaukee. Without Miller Park, that would not have been possible.

Thank you to all the Milwaukee Brewers fans who got out the vote. ESPN heard us. Jim Caple heard us. All of Major League Baseball heard us. Rightfully so, as Milwaukee has something to be very proud of in our Brewers and Miller Park – champion of ESPN’s Battle of the Ballparks.

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