Thanks to a Facebook ad. Yes, targeted advertising does work! I discovered Speedo’s Unforgettable Swims campaign.

If you know me, then you know I love swimming, even though I don’t jump in the water as often as I should these days :/ Needless to say, I love the video and campaign, even if it is a little hokey.

It’s that time of year again… Super Bowl XLV. The more things change, the more they stay the same. After seeing the commercials, I have to wonder, has advertising gone downhill or as consumers (and marketers) are we expecting too much from Super Bowl ads? The interesting piece? It seems like we’ve turned back time. This year, there were no crazy specials (remember Dockers free pants), no reason to visit a YouTube page to see the long version of a commercial and very few strong calls to action to visit a website. Sure, this year, some companies had paid search running – kudos to Coke, Chevy and a handful of others. And, you have to love that the Google ad from last year’s Super Bowl popped up as the #1 video search. Coincidence? I think not

All around best. Honestly, I wouldn’t expect anything less from Weiden+Kennedy

The one that pulled on your heart strings. Kudos to VW for clearly putting some additional pre mainstream advertising around this commercial. With 16.4MM views, it’s outpaced even the best (i.e. Chrysler only has 7,783 views)

Telefora’s ad cracked me up. Sadly, Telefora didn’t even upload it to their YouTube channel. Luckily, someone else uploaded it to theirs and are reaping the rewards.

There are a few things you always have to believe in – love, impossible things and the underdog. Here’s to the underdog in all of us, here’s to the results not adding up and here’s to passion trumping logic.

The theory of evolution claims that only the strong shall survive. Maybe so…maybe so…But the theory of competition says just because their the strong doesn’t mean they cant get their ass’s kicked. Thats right. See what every long shot, come from behind underdog will tell you is this. The other guy may in fact be the favorite, the odds maybe stacked against you, fair enough. But what the odds don’t know is this isn’t a math test. This is a completely different kind of test. One where PASSION has a funny way of trumping logic. So before you step up to the starting line, before the whistle blows, and the clock starts ticking. Just remember out here the results don’t always add up. No matter what the stats may say, and the experts may think, and the commentators may have predicted, when the race is on all bets are off. Don’t be surprised if someone decides to flip the script and take a pass on yelling uncle. And then suddenly as the old saying goes, WE GOT OURSELVES A GAME!

Post #500. Wow. Ok, now that that’s out of the way, onto talk of Superbowl commercials and my three favorites.

The thing I found strange and interesting? Where was the paid search? The mobile calls to action? The url? The “become a fan on facebook” and “follow us on twitter”? Almost non-existent. Maybe the years of mobile and social still aren’t ready for the masses. Maybe last year’s social campaigns proved to be too much work for not enough positive return. So, yes, in a year, nothing about Superbowl commercials has changed. In fact, I look back at last year’s Superbowl post and I can basically repost and call it Superbowl XILV.

But enough lamenting, onto the fun. You can view all the others here.

This kid is so freaking cute. Extra points for Doritos for adding commenting to their YouTube video.

And everyone’s favorite… Granted, I enjoyed it too, but these debuted online back in November on one of Google’s YouTube Channels. All the ones featured are fun.

I’m not the biggest fan of Michael Phelps. Never have been. But, still a great, funny video:

Growing up, swimming shaped my whole life. When you spend 40+ hours per week at the pool, how can it not?

I don’t regret the long hours nor the wrinkled fingers nor swimming til I puked blood. And, I certainly don’t regret the lessons I learned and have carried with me into everything I do.

My wish is that one day, my kids’ get a swim coach just as amazing (and scary) who will impart similar lessons unto them:

Never walk when you can swim.
Never take the easy way out. Never miss an opportunity to practice.

Not racing is like practicing for a spelling test and then not taking it.
It’s not enough to show up to practice. Take the risk and race. Otherwise, all your work is for nothing.

Practice doesn’t start until the lactic acid kicks in.
If you’re not pushing yourself out of comfort zones, you’ll never get better.

There’s no reason not to show up to practice.
Take your commitments seriously. Don’t make silly excuses. Play like a champion.

Coach never explained his lessons. He repeated them until they were second nature and let us figure out what each one truly meant. Twenty years later? I still say to myself, “Never walk when you can swim,” any time I’m about to get out of the water.

Mark my words, Michael Phelps will not compete in the 2012 Olympics. With his fiasco this week, I’ve been thinking a lot about this. I’m still struggling with the decision but, from one swimmer to another here’s why:

1. He’s out of college. Swimming after college is hard. Period. During college, you have a daily schedule, you have friends who do the same thing and you don’t have much else to do. Even though you don’t have much to do, you’re kept busy with classes, study hours and swim practice. Enough to fill a day and keep anyone out of trouble or from getting bored.
2. What has Phelps done since finishing the Olympics? Partied. He’s in Vegas constantly. When he’s not in Vegas, he’s partying somewhere else. Classic burnout modus operandi. Will he stop? Probably. Most swimmers go through the same cycles and always end up back in the water.
3. He’s unmotivated. Just look at all the social media accounts he set up and has now abandoned. Did you also notice he started using them this week after being caught? He’s already won eight gold medals. What’s his goal in 2012? Win nine? Winning eight again would just be boring. In fact, when asked, he says his greatest swimming moment is a swim from Athens NOT the recent Olympics.
4. He’s bored. Phelps is a classic case of ADD. He already won eight gold medals. He’s already number one. Unless some superstar appears out of the blue, he’s already beat all the opponents he’s dreamed of beating. He’s moving on to bigger and better things. In a young adult’s life, four years is a hell of a long time. Think about it. How long have you held a job before getting “the itch”? One year? Maybe two?
5. It won’t be worth the effort. The Olympic committee and USA Swimming Organization are unforgiving. They’ll remember this one bong hit and put him through so many drug tests and other hoops it just won’t be worth it. Also, the news will bring this incident up repeatedly. I’m sure he’d rather brush it under a rug and forget about it. These three entities won’t let him.

Why do I think he might participate? Six months before the Olympics he’ll get motivated. He’ll hop back in the water, practice hard and once again dominate. But, if he starts practicing or honestly considering 2012 before then, I’ll be shocked.

The quote, “The more things change, the more they stay the same,” seems to describe Superbowl XLII vs. XLIII perfectly.

What stayed the same?

1. The majority of ads contained NO URL.
2. Once again, sites weren’t ready for the traffic. You’d think they’d learn from last year. You think someone would warn them. But, NOOOOO. I wonder if it had more to do with a communication breakdown between departments? Did anyone bother to tell their IT team they were running a Super Bowl commercial? Probably not.
3. NO paid search. Why hasn’t any marketer implemented this into their Super Bowl plan!?!?! Seriously, how hard and how much time does it take to add additional keywords and ad copy? Hell, you can set up your own AdWords account in under fifteen minutes.
4. To top it off, NO ad contained a text call to action. This shocks me. Can you imagine how much phone number acquisition could have taken place? I’m getting wet and sick at the same time just thinking about it.
5. Sobe had a semi-weird commercial that no one understood. Seriously, how many people picked up 3-D glasses? Even if you did, did you really put them on for a thirty second commercial?

What changed?

1. OMG. The noise on twitter was deafening. I couldn’t take it, but others seemed to love it. Broadcasting your thoughts on the commercials to a few hundred people just as geeky as you? Yeah, I totally see the appeal.
2. With social media playing a more prominent role, I think brands who bought commercial spots actually got more bang for their buck. Facebook Fan Pages, Twitter, one stop shop for viewing the ads online? Yes, much better integration.
3. Commercials were “leaked” early to the web. This was my favorite part. It goes back to users being in control. I could watch when and how I wanted. I could share with friends and coworkers. I could watch over and over again. I didn’t have to wait until Sunday, hoping that I wouldn’t miss the “cool” ad. Just one more reason why I love the Miller High Life 1-Second Spots.
4. All the ads were immediately up on Hulu. AND it was promoted throughout the Superbowl. Remember last year having to search AND not finding some of the ads? Or, to the cringe of Brand Managers everywhere, finding a shitty copy of it on YouTube from some guy named JizzSaver?
5. Usually, I love the Budweiser Super Bowl ads. At least one always makes my favorite list. This year? I couldn’t even add one to my Runner Up list. Bummer.

So you can get a cool widget and make it move! Because I don’t sync my runs with Nike+, mine just sits on its lazy ass and stretches  

Since Nike is apparently oh so smart for coming up with Nike+, you would think they’d make better sharing features. You know, like a Mini Me widget to add to my blog vs. just a screenshot. Oh well. I guess you can’t think of everything. But, I’m sure many others find this annoying. And, if Nike was monitoring the chatter, they would have probably picked up on this a long time ago.

Oftentimes, search gets a bad rap. It can do no right. However, it’s important to remember that SEM is a “pull” form of marketing. Unless a person actively goes to their search tool of choice (Google, Yahoo, Live, whatever), types in (a) your brand name or (b) the generic category that your brand falls into, you’ll never be found.

So, now the question becomes, how often do you want to be found? Do you want to be found every time someone types in your brand name (i.e. Speedo)? How about when someone types in the generic category (i.e. swimming)? What about obscure terms that relate to your brand (i.e. Michael Phelps)? Is it necessary to show up for the broad terms (i.e. sports)? If you answer, “yes” to all of the above, a cautionary, second question begs an answer. If a brand moves all their money to search, how will consumers know what to search for? Without buzz elsewhere, there’s going to be no “pull” to drive customers to search for a product. Nonetheless, wouldn’t you continue to move budget to SEM as long as the ROI was there? In this case, give the masses what they want… your brand.

Let’s take a look… the graph from Google Insights shows major growth for Speedo and Nike occurring around the Olympic Trials and Olympic Games.

As Nike or Speedo, would you have capitalized on this additional buzz? Were those searching for additional news a qualified audience (i.e. athletes, sports fanatics) or bored housewives that had nothing to do but watch the Olympics? If you need to move quickly and inexpensively, search is one of the easiest things to put into motion. However, is it worth it? Do the spikes lead to increased revenue or does the increased CTR backfire and ruin your ROI?

If the increased CTR kills your campaign, is it really the unqualified audience or an inability to make a sale? If…

1. Your website sucks / your conversion funnel is difficult
2. Your website sucks / doesn’t evoke enough interest for someone to physically go to a store
3. Your front line people can’t close the deal

…then, no amount of push or pull marketing will increase sales. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink.