Advertising Fuelosophy 101

The Top Ten Most-Liked Ads This Month

The following chart was published by Advertising Age listing the top 10 new ads that people like. It is interesting to see what type of ads are making an impact on people right now. From my perspective, many of these ads don't hit the like-ability scale. But, hey, the Toyota spot pushed a button for me ... well done on the not-so-subliminal messaging ... it makes a point without saying it. Any thoughts from your perspective on this list? That's my thought, what's yours.

NIELSEN IAG TOP 10 MOST-LIKED NEW ADS Sept. 21 to Oct. 18, 2009
TOP MOST-LIKED SPOT Actress and uber-sports-fan Alyssa Milano is also a clothing designer of team-branded sportswear for female fans. The spot for the NFL Touch Women's Fashion Collection starring its designer was the commercial most liked by viewers during the last month.
Rank	Brand	Description	Index
1	NFL	NFL Touch Women's Fashion Collection--Alyssa Milano wears team apparel and is shown flipping hair in slow motion.	181
2	Toyota	Little boy disapproves using basic car wash; father chooses ultimate wash instead; some day, this Camry could be his.	173
3	McDonald's	Every October, real people win real money playing Monopoly; woman shown playing on laptop.	145
4	Wendy's	Bacon Deluxe--Coworkers leap, run, and crash through window to get to a burger an employee just left.	144
5	Wonderful Pistachios	Beauty pageant contestant endorses cracking pistachio shells to help Americans build a better future.	144
6	Samsung	DualView Camera--British Royal Guard takes camera from woman and snaps a photo, before a gorilla takes the camera.	142
7	Disney Parks	Miss Piggy dreams about a date with man at a Disney park; give a day of service and get a one-day ticket.	141
8	Michelin	Michelin Man throws fuel efficient tires at an evil gas pump to save town; save up to 109 gallons of fuel.	140
9	Disney Parks	Muppets help out at a construction site; Miss Piggy bumps her head and another gets an electrical shock.	140
10	MasterCard	Little girl reads books while eating cereal before spilling milk; remembering to take it one day at a time: priceless.	130
Source: Nielsen IAG (NielsenIAG.com) Only new ad executions considered, airing weeks of September 21, 2009 to October 18, 2009. The Likeability Score is the percentage of TV viewers who report to like "a lot" an ad they were exposed to during the normal course of viewing TV (among those recalling the brand of the ad). These scores are then indexed against the mean score for all new ads during the period (Likeability Index). 100 equals average. For example, with a Likeability index of 181 the top ranked NFL spot has proven to be 80% better-liked than the average new commercial during the past four-week period.

iPhone versus Droid ... Does Anyone Really Care?

In my last post, "Do You Love Your iPhone?" a mention was made about the recent advertising campaign for the new Motorola Droid and its direct attack on the iPhone. If you are one of the few who hasn't seen the commercial, here it is...

As you might expect united Apple iPhone users responded in kind. And just in case you haven't seen it, here's their response...

Finally, the aficionado's of iPhone have been busy at work measuring the validity of the Droid advertising. Here's a glimpse of what I found on another site:

What Verizon put together contains blatant inaccuracies:

• iDon’t have a real keyboard: Er, it does. Not to get all Spock, but nothing unreal exists, the iPhone’s keyboard exists, therefore it’s real. Sure, it’s soft/virtual (like the Verizon BlackBerry Storm2’s) rather than hard, but it’s certainly not imaginary.
• iDon’t run simultaneous apps: Again, it does. The iPhone can run iPod, Email, Phone, Messages, App Store/iTunes downloads, Quicktime streams, and other functions in the background with full multitasking. Apple restricts two or more 3rd party apps from running at the same time, but that’s obviously too subtle a difference for Verizon.
• iDon’t take night shots: Well, we guess they mean the camera’s ISO doesn’t produce good results in low light. Fair point. Arguably nothing short of a really good DSLR sensor does, tiny LED flash included. Though 5 megapixels is still nice.
• iDon’t allow open development. Really, Verizon, with your history, you want to play that card? Android is an about face for you, not a two-face. We’ll wait and see on this one.
• iDon’t customize. Okay, fair point. One out of how many so far? UPDATE: Shawn Roberts points out it remains to be seen how customizable the Droid is. If it’s just re-arranging icons, the iPhone can do that too.
• iDon’t run widgets. What’s a widget? Arguably iPhone Stocks and Weather are widgets not far removed from Mac OS X’s Dashboard counter-parts. We’re guessing they mean little, persistent on-screen information snippets. We’ll give them a second point for that.
• iDon’t have a removable battery. Third point. Apple’s driven away from that entire concept towards longer life, built-in batteries and external charging packs. If that’s something you can’t stand, fair enough.

Do you think the Droid will be the first iPhone killer? Verizon is putting all of its muscle behind this phone and to the best of my knowledge they are the largest wireless carrier to support an Android-based phone (Google must be smiling). Any prophets among us? I'm interested in your feedback. That's my thought, what's yours?

Wendy's ... Is It "Real" Enough?

The new Wendy's advertising campaign launched just last week emphatically states, "You Know When Its Real." And as the Wall Street Journal reported this campaign follows five different campaigns in almost as many years. So now the question becomes, is this campaign the real deal? Will it last? Will the company fulfill the promise of being authentic ... being real?

In an interview with Brand Week, Wendy’s CMO Ken Calwell explained their target consumer as more than just young males, but soccer Moms and stated, "they are label readers, they do care where the food comes from, they are smart shoppers, they’re going to places like Whole Foods and they care about where their food is sourced. They attract real, they desire real, they are looking for real in their lives and I think real is a very powerful idea. I say to people, “You’re not just looking for a job. You’re looking for a real job.” “You’re not just looking for a friend in tough times, you’re looking for a real friend.” The same thing goes here. It’s a powerful concept we feel we’ve leveraged off of."

Then Calwell added "Consumers themselves know when it’s real and they know when it’s not.” We wanted to give them that credibility, so [in the advertising] we don’t have to tell them: “We’re Wendy’s. We’re the real ones.” This challenges them to ask questions and look at [the issue deeper] because the more questions you ask, the more you know. So, when they ask questions about where we source our beef, how we cook or serve it, the better we look as brand and the better we look versus our competitors."

Now when it comes to eating a fast food hamburger, I must admit Wendy's is not my first choice and it may not even be my second choice. But every once in a while I will try one.

However, I was intrigued by this newest advertising campaign and actually enjoyed the "real versus fake" vignettes. They were clever and engaging from my perspective. In addition, it did make me stop and think about quality/freshness, which I'm sure is exactly the response Wendy's desired.

But ... and there's a big but ... here's another company climbing onto freshness/quality bandwagon and in the end for me its taste. I want to know if it tastes great or even better because of being real. Quite frankly my last burger at Wendy's left me with no thought of returning anytime soon. Does the Wendy's burger taste better than McDonald's or Burger King? For me, fresh never frozen, didn't titillate my taste buds quite like some of their competitors.

But according to Ken Calwell that's all about to change and I applaud Wendy's for taking the initiative, "So we went back and built a whole new discipline in the process and restructured the entire R&D team, which reports to me, and the marketing team, and we restructured them around innovation—not just any innovation, but innovation that lined up with the “real” positioning. So we’ve been working day and night to restructure and develop new products and build and [help develop] the team, and they’ve responded with an unbelievable pipeline. As of now, between May and November, we will be testing more new products in market than at any other time in Wendy’s history."

My final thought is that the advertising is much better than previous attempts and I'm looking forward to see if Wendy's becomes really real, not fake real. In fact, I may even go try a Wendy's burger instead of one of my favorite hockey pucks. That's my thought, what's yours? 

16 Easy Word-of-Mouth Marketing Tactics

I came across a blog posting that had a list of 16 easy word-of-mouth marketing tactics and it has been tweeted many, many times but I felt it was worth posting here. In our current economic climate and the state of our state (Michigan), these tactics may be able to help a business generate some favorable word-of-mouth.

The tactics come from a book titled, Word-of-Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking and was written by Andy Sernovitz. It was originally published in 2006, but a revised edition has been recently published.

Personally, I have not read either book, so I can't offer comment, but here's the listing for your review:

1. Search the web for people talking about you.
2. Assign someone to join those conversations.
3. Create a blog.
4. Make a new rule: Ask “Is this buzzworthy?” in every meeting.
5. Come up with one buzzworthy topic. Keep it simple.
6. Put something on your front door (if you have one) that reminds people to tell their friends about you.
7. Let your “talkers” sign up for a private newsletter.
8. Pick one easy way to track word of mouth.
9. Put a “tell-a-friend” form on every page of your website.
10. Put a special offer in easily forwardable mail.
11. Add a small gift and a word of mouth tool to every package you sell.
12. Hire a private sale for your talkers.
13. Apologize for mistakes and solve problems fast.
14. Partner with a charity.
15. Do something unexpected.
16. Be nice.

I'm curious are there other tactics you have tried or do on a regular basis? Do you agree with these tactics? Do you have your own list? I would love to know what you think. That's my thought, what's yours?

12 Causes for Advertising Failure

As I like to do from time-to-time, I was reviewing articles, materials and information from the past just to gauge the relevancy of the information in today's advertising world. We all know there are fundamental truths that can't be violated without effecting results.

So in my recent trek down memory lane reading, I came across a presentation that contained an adaptation from Roy Williams' The Wizard of Ads book, circa 1998. The title was Biggest Blunders, 12 Causes of Advertising Failure. I thought it would be interesting to post their list of 12 causes:

1. Desire for instant gratification
2. Attempting to reach more than the budget allows
3. Assuming the client knows best
4. Unsubstantiated claims
5. Improper use of passive media
6. Creating ads instead of campaigns
7. Obedience to unwritten laws
8. Late week schedules
9. Overconfidence in qualitative targeting
10. Event-driven marketing
11. Great production without great copy
12. Confusing response with results

The presentation went on to report that reasons #1, #2 and #10 are abused the most. And the conclusion in the presentation stated, "The lessons are three-fold: take a long-term approach versus the quick fix, focus efforts on fewer media and dominate, and establish brand marketing versus event only marketing."

As I reviewed and contemplated this presentation, one thought would not leave my mind, today's economy puts a tremendous amount of pressure on response that leads to results to meet business objectives. And just thinking out loud, why can't a company desire for instant gratification (#1- results) and establish their brand?

In my opinion, you don't have to exclude one from the other, it is possible to build your brand and build your sales at the same time. The key is combining a brand message with a brand offer. That is retail at its best. You still build consistency of message to influence perception of your brand and offer people the value they need to give it a trial. Once you have accomplished trial, the rest is in the hands of the company and consumer, but the advertising has done its job.

Well, there is definitely more depth to the understanding of a branded message with a branded offer, but I'll leave that for another day. However, I would enjoy getting feedback on your thoughts regarding the 12 Causes of Adverting Failure. Do you agree, disagree or even have your own list? That's my thought, what's yours?

Five Marketing Magazines to Help Keep You Up-To-Date

I know that there is plenty of information regarding marketing, marketing trends, what others are doing on the internet super highway, but I felt it would be interesting to share my top five marketing magazines that are available in print. From time-to-time I enjoy kicking back and reading a good print magazine without scrolling and searching. So here's five magazines worthy of a monthly subscription (not in order of importance) to help keep you in the know of marketing:

1. Target Marketing (they have made a nice transition from covering only direct mail marketing to include digital and social marketing as well).
2. OMMA (magazine of online media, marketing and advertising)
3. Promo (magazine for promotions both online and offline)
4. Advantages (mainly a magazine on advertising specialties, but always a great article or two on incentive marketing)
5. Brand Week (magazine on branding).

Please note that I have given an eclectic list since they cover different aspects of the marketing world. I would be interested in what magazines you think are worthy of the paper they are printed on to help stay on top of the changing environment of marketing. Well, that's my thought, what's yours?

Marketing Promotions: The Horrible Truth

At Fresh Fuel, we read marketing news every day. Most of the time from industry publications, online and off. But I always try to pay extra attention when marketing news makes its way into mainstream media. And this week there was a biggie. Yahoo headlined 10 Promotional Stunts That Horribly Backfired. 

You can certainly take away lessons from the list. Don't transport a giant popsicle mid-June without tons of dry ice. Don't promote a free giveaway on Oprah without enough stuff to giveaway. But I think the real lesson here is that promotional stunts can live on for a long time thanks to the Web.

Traditionally, promotions are treated as temporary efforts to boost traffic and hike sales: promotion launches, lots of excitement, promotion comes down. That just isn't the case anymore. 

Brands can no longer control when their promotions come down. Today promotions get reported on and talked about all over the Web: news, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, on and on. That generated content can stay up indefinitely. In this sense, a promotion can run forever, even if its limited time offers are no longer valid. This week 10 "over-and-done-with" promotions appeared as featured news on one of the biggest and most frequently used sites for search, email and entertainment on a daily basis worldwide. 

Many brands have reacted to the current economic climate by offering limited time promotions. Promotions are great ways to compete and drive more traffic and sales, especially when consumers are extremely selective about where they spend. But more than ever, a promotion must also support a brand's long-term goals. It can't just be a stunt. It needs to be well thought out. And any promotion must also live up to it's brand's position and image. Because who knows when it will show up on Yahoo next? 

Going Bananas for Mad Men Style

When it comes to style, Advertising has its own unique appeal.  We work on flashy macs. We play alternative rock at the office. And it's perfectly acceptable for creative professionals to show up to meetings in jeans, designer tees and a jacket (if we feel like it). But once upon a time, Advertising was oober glamorous. Like AMC's Mad Men glamorous. 

Season 3 of the hit drama starts August 16, and to mark the occasion, Banana Republic has launched a Mad Men guide to style. So its back to old-school shopping if you're so inclined. The 60s silhouettes are smashing, but overall I found the 'only four looks in the guide' a little disappointing. And I wonder, would the prissy sheath assembles wreck my 'creative' image? Maybe I could add a hole or two? 

Besides the denimless wardrobe, you can also enter to win a walk-on role on the show. It's amazing how crazy people get about Mad Men, from the poser Twitter characters to the personal 60s cartoon creations. Oh, gotta run. Don Draper is on my other line.  

Does a Brand have to Cut Through the Clutter by Going in the Gutter -- Part Two

Last week in our post, Does a brand have to cut through the communication clutter by going in the gutter?, one of the largest franchisees of Hardee's emphatically stated that his stores weren't going to use the restaurant chain's controversial biscuit hole ads. Well, Hardee's latest promotion is called "French Me" and continues their marketing theme of raising eyebrows with innuendo and sex to sell their brand.

This newest promotion is featuring its new French Dip Thickburger and the campaign enlists the support of four French Maids. The Maids have a tour schedule visiting stores in 11 markets throughout the South and Midwest during July and August. The campaign is event-based driven by social media. The microsite offers Facebook, You Tube and Twitter posts as well as the appearance schedule and reports on the Maids adventures. Also, guests can have their photos taken with the maids accessed online with a code.

I'm just thinking out loud and I know retailers for years have used sex to sell stuff, but how far is too far and when does the it all become me too? It seems only a few used the racy stuff, but now its not just a few chains, but many that are choosing to grab attention by going to the sexual edge.

I had to laugh out loud by one comment from Ron Ruggless, southwest bureau editor for Nation's Restuarant News, "Hooters has been seeing a growing number of competitors successfully engage them in the lure for the customer. Concepts such as Tilted Kilt, Twin Peaks, Bone Daddy's and Brick House are enjoying success in the 'breast-aurant' category." In addition, he stated "...restaurant chains and the people who market them just have to make sure they don’t over-sell the sex and underestimate their patrons’ sensibilities. The race for the bottom line can only be so racy." Click here to read his editorial.

I'm really curious to know, what consumers think, have the "breast-aurant" wars passed the fine line of sensibilities? Do the frequent diners of Hardee's, Quiznos, Burger King really get turned on for the brand because of sexual innuendo (sorry couldn't help myself on this pun)? I wonder if these tactics turn off just as many customers? I would love some feedback from customers and experts. That's my thought, what's yours?

Does a Brand have to Cut Through the Clutter by Going in the Gutter?

Does a brand have to cut through the communication clutter by going in the gutter? According to the largest franchisee of Hardee's the answer is no way! Boddie-Noell Enterprises in North Carolina has vowed not to use the restaurant chain's controversial biscuit hole ad and also says it will press Hardee's parent CKE to clean up the campaign and eliminate the spots "in all markets."

The franchisee's move came after it received a complaint about the spots -- which uses terms like A-hole, B-hole, sweet balls and "bisticals" as potential names for the new biscuit holes that compete with products such as Dunkin' Donuts' doughnut holes. The complaint was rendered by Parents Television Council. The PTC objected to the "racy" and "brainless" nature of the biscuit hole campaign, which it contends is inappropriate for family viewing.

Boddie-Noell Enterprises chairman Ben Mayo Boddie agreed and said they do not plan to air the spots in any markets they control. The company operates almost 350 Hardee's restaurants in the Carolinas, Virginia and Kentucky.

The response from CKE was classic and said it would not pull the ad: "CKE Restaurants, Inc., owner and franchisor of Carl's Jr. and Hardee's restaurants, adopts a creative approach to our advertising. It is intended to communicate the core message of our premium quality food to our target audience of Young, Hungry Guys. We do not aim to exclude or offend any other group with our efforts, but merely to appeal and amuse a very specific audience." Click here for more of their response and story.

I find CKE's response interesting with two notable phrases: "premium quality food" and "young, hungry guys." And to me I'm struggling to completely understand their strategic intent.

Keep in mind, I'm not the target audience (too old), but had to laugh at the statement of "young, hungry guys" since it conjured up visions of elementary school and junior high where all guys laughed at body parts and body functions. I'm wondering, beginning in high school, then college and on to 20 something workers if body humor starts to wane.

Then what about the terms of A-hole, B-hole, sweet balls and "bisticals" being associated with their  premium quality food. Here's where I really scratched my head. We work with a few restaurant brands and what we have learned over the years is it's about the food ... good food brings diners (fast food or otherwise). So when you make an association for those sophomoric young, hungry guys that your premium quality food is compared tongue-in-cheek with an orifice or reminds you of the male anatomy ... yeah I guess that is appealing ... not!

Last, but not least, I'm sure CKE and their agency feel that the advertising will capture the attention of their very specific audience. In reality, it may because my guess is that they have generalized that all young, hungry guys don't think, they just eat, so let's just get their attention any way we can. But we all know that young, hungry guys think about sex even more, so why didn't the company think about that.

Well, here's a few of the spots for your review and I've given you my thoughts, what's yours?

Punchy Apollo Advertising

It has been an exciting week for outer space. First the 40th Anniversary of the first moon landing. Then the longest solar eclipse this century. All of it fascinates me! But here's something you may have missed in the Apollo 11 retrospective footage.

Apparently the dark side of the moon is a big Coca-Cola logo. This is a fun look back at 1969 advertising and the deep dark carbonated mysteries of space. 

A 1965 spot for Tang is a bit more explanatory. Check out the space walk practice. Yet I think the real take-away from the Gemini missions isn't Tang at all. It's Capri Sun in the take-along pouch! 10% fruit juice and nothing artificial? Now that's one giant leap.

Advertisers and Audiences: How their Views on Advertising Differ

The first survey of an on-going collaboration between LinkedIn and Harris Interactive was released today (July 21, 2009) marking the differences between advertisers and consumers regarding the effectiveness of advertisements. The press release stated, "Advertisers and marketers spend a great deal of
time crafting ads that they think are effective. Consumers who view these ads at times
have different ideas."

Here are some overall highlights from their survey:

• Advertisers and those to whom they advertise tend to see the world differently. For example, the advertiser think sales, the consumer thinks I like watching the ad.
• However, advertisers and their audiences tend to agree on what is most effective and what is least effective.
• The major difference between advertisers and consumers is that the consumer wants messages that talk money (as in saving it), while advertisers prefer messages of empathy (we understand what you are going through) and cheerleading (we've made it through tough times, we'll do it again).

When it comes to the types of ads most effective, these areas show some agreement:

• While over half of advertisers believe ads that make people stop and think (53%)
  and ads that give people new information (51%) are very effective, however, just three in
  ten consumers (30% and 29% respectively) feel the same;
• Consumers and advertisers both like ads that amuse – 34% of consumers and
  41% of advertisers say entertaining ads are very effective and one-third of both
  consumers (33%) and advertisers (32%) say funny ads are very effective.

Where advertisers and consumers show some level of disagreement on ad effectiveness:

• One-quarter of advertisers (26%) think ads that are integrated into the feel of the
  program, that is has the same tone as the program it is based in, are very
  effective compared to just 7% of consumers;
• When it comes to ads that show before/after, 24% of advertisers say they are
  very effective while 13% of consumers say they are very effective;
• One in five advertisers (21%) say ads that reinforce a message already known
  are very effective compared to 10% of consumers;
• 14% of advertisers say ads that don‘t take themselves seriously are very effective. In
  fact, almost one in five consumers (18%) say these ads are not at all effective;
• Over one-quarter of consumers (27%) and 18% of advertisers say ads about a
  serious topic that make people feel slightly guilty are not at all effective.

Here's the link to the Harris Poll press release and it includes charts/tables of major questions for review. I found the press release interesting with some valuable learning to use as we help advertisers advertise. That's my thought, what's yours?

This Newbie's Got Game ... Branding Game That Is!

Fresh Fuel has expanded its expertise by adding the newest Fuelie to the crew. His name is Bill Hadden and he takes on the important role of Account Planning and Management along with a dose of new business development. We've been persuading Bill to come aboard for quite some time and we finally got him to say, "Ok, let's do this."

He was a tough sell, but like any high quality, strategic-minded, consider everything to the nth degree account person, he saw the wisdom and potential of joining our crew of fun-loving, smart-thinking, creative-creators and honest-to-goodness brand builders. Can you believe I got to say everything that is important to us only one long run on sentence.

Well here's a little something something about Bill ...

• He came to us from Big Boy Restaurants International. He was Executive Vice President Marketing and Innovation.
• Actively lead brand development and innovation strategies focused on creating relevance which resulted in winning the following awards: 2003 Nation’s Restaurant News Successful Settings Award for new prototype restaurant design and Nation’s Restaurant News 2007 Hot Again Concept Award.
• Brand steward and lead contact for all advertising agency relations and work. 
• Winner Nation’s Restaurant News MUFSO Excellence in Television Advertising Award 2005 and 2007 for “The Boy I Love” and “Big Boy, It’s a Michigan Thing” campaigns – lead strategy development, creative execution and launch. 
• A highly accomplished marketing and advertising executive with agency and client experience.  

As we continued to pursue Bill, one item on his resume really stood out for us -- he was a key member of executive team responsible for the overall vision, strategy and growth plan that pulled Big Boy Restaurants from bankruptcy in 2001. Bill's role in this turnaround garnered industry recognition and awards for the Big Boy's brand renaissance.

Congratulations Bill and welcome to the Fuelie crew! We look forward to working together and building/enhancing the brand work for our clients current and to come.

What Would Life Be Like Without Advertising?

Here's an interesting little social experiment I ran across today.

It's a very simple site asking a very simple question most of us, even we in the biz, don't actually think about that much. Sure, we constantly sit around analyzing the effects of an economically induced reduction in advertising and marketing expenditures. Let's face it, that means less money in our pockets and the impending dismay of having to trade single malt scotch for blended, or the Beemer for a Kia. Or, as many poor advertising souls already know, the complete elimination of their jobs. Dismal yes, but then again, without advertising none of us would have jobs at all and Alex Bogusky would probably be homeless.

But yes, it made me think. What would life be like without Burger King Square Butts and Budweiser babes (or god forbid, no Clydesdales)? Never again would we hear gems like, "New and improved... with green crystals." Or compelling tag lines like, "We stand behind our counters."

It would be a world devoid of Popeil Pocket Fisherman and that stupid but big-selling blanket with the arms. And never again would we see, "As seen on TV!" What would we do? Worst of all, the Super Bowl would become completely boring... and think about all the out of work chimpanzees! What in the world are they going to do... and their trainers? The whole trained monkey industry goes down the drain without advertising. Not to mention a slew of other talkin, burping and wind-breaking animals who have been dependent on advertising for decades (I'm pretty sure Mr. Ed had some pretty lucrative ad contracts at the height of his popularity).

So you see, imagining life without advertising is not just about us, it's about animals, and hot babes, and green crystals. Things we've come to know and love and could most definitely not do without!
What's your opinion? Oh, and happy Cinco De Mayo!

By the way, if you're interested, here's a link to an article about the guys behind the site and their reasons for doing it.

How to Win an Award Without Entering an Awards Program

Every year advertising agencies, branding firms, graphic design companies, printers and more enter their work into programs in the hopes of winning a Clio, Addy or another award. The competition is fierce with literally thousands of entrants paying fees to be judged by peers. It is big business. And if you are one of the many to win, the awards are proudly displayed, loudly shouted and all over websites.

In the honesty of transparency, Fresh Fuel has done what is expected ... enter our work and hope to win. And when we did, we most certainly shouted loud, displayed proud and let all who would listen know, we are an award-winning firm. Come to our office and you can readily see each and every award we have won (and not to be glib, we are rather proud to be recognized).

However, ever once in a while something special happens totally unexpected. And it recently happened for us -- we won an award without entering our work in an awards program. Instead we won an award where we weren't judged by others in the advertising/marketing/branding world, but instead judged by our client.

You see, our client, bd's Mongolian Grill, holds an annual meeting for company executives, its franchisees, and management employees. It is always something fun, something new and a learning opportunity. And they feature a vendor/partner appreciation night within the meeting. The cool thing is that they honor the vendor partners who serve them ... and in addition there are a select few who get special recognition and shout out for making a major positive impact on their business. This year four (4) companies out of all their vendor partners received such a special reward.

It was fun to watch the special awards being given out to deserving partners, as the company shares what each partner did to deserve such recognition.

As the VP of Marketing began to give out award 3 of 4, she started to tell the audience what one company did for their brand and business and to my complete surprise (really), I whispered to Russ Tate (Fresh Fuel's creative guru) "I think she is talking about us." And then she announced for me and Russ to come forward to accept their award to Fresh Fuel for "outstanding partnership." 

I truly felt humbled and honored for such an award. Quite frankly it means much to us to be so recognized by our client for outstanding work and the award is proudly displayed for all to see. To me this award trumps the other awards where we paid to enter our work into an awards contest, because the judges are not our peers, but our client who measured the value of our work not by how creative it is, instead how on effective it was for their business (and I might add very creative too! (sorry couldn't help myself)).

Finally here's a shout out to all the Fresh Fuelies who work hard every day to make a positive impact on our client's business ... Thank You! And to bd's Mongolian Grill ... thanks for being a wonderful client who cares about your partners.

Last, but not least, here's a shout out to all the other deserving advertising and marketing firms out there who recognize that the best award is the award you get for making it happen for your clients ... whether you get formal recognition or not. That's my thought, what's yours?

Photo Credit: www.diginovations.com/awards/

Burger King and Nickelodeon's Big Blunder?

Wow, how far BK has fallen from the Subservient Chicken and the Whopper Freakout!

In their latest promo, Burger King (BK) has come together with Nickelodeon to promote their SpongeBob Squarepants Kid Meal. This promo features The King (TK) re-doing Sir Mix-a-Lot’s timeless classic “Baby Got Back”. Only in BK’s version, TK loves Square Butts, not Big Butts.

I find it hard to believe that BK could miss the mark for this promotion as bad as they did. They claim that they're promoting the meal to parents, but as a parent of children who happen to LOVE SpongeBob, I found this to be totally off target. Everyone knows that when it comes to Kid’s Meals, it’s the kids who make the decision, NOT the parents! While I personally don’t find the video offensive, I can see how others would. And even though I don’t find it offensive, I would not let my children watch this.

What I find the hardest to believe is that Nick gave the go ahead to BK to do this. This is a blunder on both their parts. 

Personally, I find the parody to be one of the lowest types of humor. While amusing for a moment, I think that if you can't come up with something original, then why put all that time and effort just to copy somebody else while just changing a few words? Crispin-Porter Bogusty, and Weird Al, I'm calling you out! That's my opinion. What do you think?

New Anti-Smoking Ads Designed To Make You Breathless.

Seems like everyone is talking about New York City's new anti-smoking campaign. It features a kid who loses his mother in a crowded space and it's riveting. It's also sparking up some widely divergent reactions, from kudos to cries of child abuse.

I am intimately familiar with how difficult it is to get off nicotine. Most people don't realize that the drug has proved to be more addictive than heroin. So it's little wonder it's a tough habit to kick. And that's why this commercial will hopefully work better than many others I have seen over the years.

It's tougher. It doesn't tell the smoker about all the bad health-related things tobacco will do to them. The fact is, they already know that. Bigger warnings on packages, pictures of diseased lungs, people with half their faces missing because of throat cancer simply don't work. Every smoker knows it could happen to them, but none of them think it will. In exactly the same way a race car driver straps in and hurls him or herself around a race track at 200 miles an hour. They are all well-aware of the possible consequences of disability, disfigurement or death. We humans take risks and sometimes the only way to to change behavior is to appeal to our primal instincts and responsibilities on an emotional level we can't ignore.

"This is how your child feels after losing you for a minute. Image how they would feel if they lost you for life."

It's a heart-rending visual and a powerful message. If you're a smoker, it will stop you in your tracks. It might even work. As former ad guru Donny Deutsch says to Matt Lauer in the video above, it doesn't matter what people think. It doesn't matter if the kid is acting or, as seems more likely given his age, was put in a bad situation on purpose to get a real response. Good or bad, if the ad saves lives and gives kids their parents it was worth it.

And to those who say it's child abuse, I say watch America's Funniest Home Videos every week. You'll see more deliberate child and animal abuse in that show than you will in this commercial. I've yet to hear or see a single complaint.

What do you think? Good or bad?

The End of Advertising as We Know It ... Tell Me Something New Please!

The IBM Institute for Business Value originally published in September 2007 a research study titled, "The end of advertising as we know it." The summary stated "Traditional advertising players - broadcasters, distributors and advertising agencies – will need innovative new approaches to respond to major industry shifts underway." DUH.

The study was updated in March 2009 and here's the concluding statement to the research, "There is no question that the future of advertising will look radically different from its past. The push for control of attention, creativity, measurements and inventory will reshape the advertising value chain and shift the balance of power. For both incumbent and new players, it is imperative to plan for multiple consumer futures, craft agile strategies and build new capabilities before advertising as we know it disappears." DUH 2.

I'm sorry but the title is cliche, the content yesterday's news, and the direction seems like it could be regurgitated by any first year college student studying our industry. We all know the landscape is changing (not disappearing) and every day is a challenge to get a handle on the digital dilemma of consumers in control of brands. And as professionals in this industry this becomes our value ... helping clients navigate the loss of control and then embrace its power by nurturing zealots for the brand.

Hey, IBM if you published research that would help us understand the true nuances of the changing landscape in advertising and brand development versus broad statements from the negative side (of which we already know), I would be among the first to shout you out positively. Sorry, but that's my thought, what's yours?

An Ode to Advertising

April is Poetry Month. So I decided to brush off my odeous poetry skills and compose a little something inspired by the biz. Here it goes.

Seven a.m.

And you're in the shower

Racking your brain

A new ad for Green power

On to the office

Status is dragging

Deadlines are looming

Account people nagging

Call at eleven

Edit at two

Forty rounds of revisions

Before this gets through

Your inbox is bursting

Your computer's defective

Can we find an option

That's more cost-effective?

And what's up with Twitter?

And let's start a blog

The Web is the thing now

Can't be an old dog

Revamp the brand!

Stay in the loop!

As long as it's good

With this one focus group

I love it! Now change it.

You knew it. Go figure.

Don't hold your breath

As the logo gets bigger

Another success

Mark that task complete

But wait

Hold on

Did you do your timesheet?

For Greg, Russ and Ron. How time flies when we're having fun! 

Google Launches Interest-Based Advertising

On Wednesday, Google launched a new program called “interest-based advertising.”  Here’s how it works. Google tracks your online activities and the content you visit (a.k.a. your interests). You are then shown ads based upon these interests. So if you frequently visit soccer sites, you will later see soccer ads whenever and wherever you surf the Net.

Google is able to do this through the integration of DoubleClick, an advertising technology they acquired last year, plus a cookie that is downloaded to your browser. Google claims they are making advertising more interesting (click here).

Google can track interests from 20 categories and almost 600 subcategories. But they will not include sensitive interests such as religion, race, sexual orientation and select health and financial topics. So if you’re interested in gay foreign priests suffering from AIDS filing for bankruptcy, I guess you’ll slip under Google’s massive and (almost) all-knowing RADAR.

All kidding aside, I think this is a great way for marketers to connect with people most likely to respond to their messaging. Google is turning itself into the ultimate marketing matchmaker and we all stand to benefit: marketers get their message to the right people, people stay informed of new products tied to their interest. It’s all good as long as the Search Giant avoids becoming Big Brother.

I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty interested to see what ads come up at home where my wife, kids and I share a single laptop. Oh, when all those interests collide! Anyone ever seen a Star Wars-My Little Pony-Cashmere covered MacBook advertisment before?