Tis the week of the day of the bowl that is truly superior!

Super bowl time again.

I devoted an inordinate portion of my life trying to come up with beer ads for this thing.

I collected my thoughts in an article that ran in Adweek a few years back.

All still true i think.

Who Will Win the Super Bowl of Ads?

By Vinny Warren

January 30 2009

This Sunday, will Budweiser win the Super Bowl for the eleventh consecutive year? It’s probable. Why? Because Bud (and its agencies) try really, really hard to win. And they understand how it works.

The Super Bowl is special because everyone watches it. You, your grandma, your youngest cousin. We all tune in. Last year, 97.5 million people watched the Giants beat the then-undefeated Patriots.

Knowing your work will be seen by millions of eager eyeballs is intimidating for all concerned at the client and the agency. Intimidation can cause overanalysis and paralysis. And that can be fatal.

What those showcasing work this year have hopefully kept in mind is that they’re not trying to wow 97.5 million people. They’re trying to entertain (and sell) lots of little groups of friends and family members who have gathered to snack and drink and talk and watch football. And they want to like the ads. They’re all in a great mood and they’re paying attention. In other words, it’s optimal viewing conditions.

Obviously, there are no rules for creativity. But, I’ve picked up some tips over the years creating ads for “The Big Game.” Here are my guesses for what type of ads will hit and miss:

1. The Super Bowl is lowest common denominator of time. That’s not an opinion — it’s a statistical fact. So, broad comedy tends to be the most successful. The spots that make it big this year, as in other years, will have universal appeal.

2. Spots that hinge on a reveal or “rug pull” will be dangerous. They bank everything on one aspect. Plus, they essentially ask viewers to decide if what they saw was funny — and that’s inviting potential failure. (I’ll take this back if the spot involves a T-shirt wearing chimp dancing on a garbage can. See what I mean about no rules?)

3. Animals, as always, will work, per the E*Trade chimp example above. Animal spots are not my personal preference creatively, but spots featuring animals historically score higher on the annual USA Today Super Bowl commercial poll.

4. Ads that create a ripple effect will also be successful. In other words, agencies that use the unique viewing environment to their advantage have a good chance of standing out. People gather in crowds to watch the game and commercials, so why not go for the big crowd pleasers? Ideally, they’ll start out funny and get funnier, confidently “overwhelming” the audience until the entire room is laughing.

5. Simple will work, too. It’s fair to assume a large portion of the viewing audience will have consumed a few libations, so their ability to process information or follow plotlines may be impaired. Thus, ads that avoid having too many gear changes — commercials with a single concept — will be easier to process. My highest-scoring Super Bowl effort featured a talking dog, ranking No. 4 on USA Today’s Super Bowl Ad Meter. A more “sophisticated” Budweiser Wassup! spot (and a personal favorite) ranked a dismal No. 26 in the same game. So, there you are.

6. Spots that go with the flow will capture viewers’ attention. Agencies that ignored the little voice telling them that “everyone else is being funny, let’s be different,” will be happy they did. People watch the Super Bowl to have a good time, not to be bummed out or forced to think too hard.

7. There’s a lot at stake and most advertising creatives are lucky if they get to create one Super Bowl spot in their career. Those who were able to set aside pressures to focus on making the most entertaining ad possible have a good chance of conveying that sense of fun across millions of TV screens. One of my more memorable Super Bowl ads was created in a fairly casual way (mostly because I didn’t think it would make it). The spot had a relaxed vibe, which separated it from the pack on game night. It didn’t try too hard and that made it attractive.

8. Good writing will always win the day. A lot of Super Bowl spots are so desperate to entertain that they forget to sell what they’re advertising. Consumers also judge an ad by relevance to the brand. Chances are the brand being advertised already has a place in people’s minds and lives, so many will recognize if the ad is good or not. Master Lock built its brand with the “Shot Lock” ad, which aired in successive Super Bowls. It wasn’t funny, but it sure was entertaining and dramatic. And they wrote a great ad. Bang! An entire media budget gone in 30 seconds. But it created a brand.

Good luck to everyone fortunate enough to have an ad in this year’s game. And remember, it’s not the end of the world if your commercial doesn’t crack the top 10 most-popular ads in USA Today’s poll. You can always get a sex change and move to Iceland.

Vinny Warren is cd and founder of The Escape Pod. He can be reached at vinnywarren@theescapepodagency.com

ADVERTISING MAN ACTUALLY RETIRES OF OWN CHOICE SHOCKER!!!

I was at Bob Scarpelli’s retirement party last night.

Bob Scarpelli was chief creative officer at DDB Chicago and subsequently worldwide creative director of DDB.

Bob hired me twice. And both times my wife got pregnant, instantly.

So clearly, being hired by Bob Scarpelli will cure infertility.

Bob invited a bunch of former DDB colleagues including myself to his farewell party at a Steak house in Chicago last night.

It was a great night.

Bob has decided that now is a good time to bow out of the ad game.

I should point out that Bob drives an Aston Martin. It used to be a Maserati. Bob is Italian and, big surprise, likes nice cars.

It was a great night.

Lots of reminiscing about the days when DDB Chicago was the hottest agency in the world under his supervision.

But at his request, there were no slickly edited emotional videos. No big advertising hoopla. Just friends, food and booze.

There was a lot of booze.

The legendary but never-aired “UNCLE JULIUS” Budweiser spot was discussed.

And now my head hurts.

Thanks for everything Bob!

EXECUTION IS EVERYTHING PART XVIIIIIIIIIII

My idea for Mitt Romney.

I have become fascinated by the Republican party presidential race.

What started out as potential reality TV show has turned into an actual reality TV show.

We know too much about these guys already.

And we all know what familiarity leads to.

We kind of all realize that Mitt Romney is the only electable one of the them.

But he persists in attending debates where he is repeatedly flayed by his opponents and loses because nobody warms to him.

Nobody instinctively likes Mitt Romney.

Nobody.

Big problem.

And it’s compounded by the fact that bombs keep bombing all around his campaign. He is being criticized by his GOP opponents for being too successful an entrepreneur. What?

Nobody could have predicted this. His campaign has turned into a media circus that doesn’t favor him at all.

So my idea is: stop doing it Mitt.

Do something that favors you. And something that flows in your favor media wise.

You’ve already got some experience in reality TV, why not create your own reality TV show. NOW!!!

If i was an advisor to Mitt Romney, i would strongly urge him to do this.

Drop out.

Pick a struggling large employer in a small town in the south and spend the next year reviving it. maybe invest ten million dollars in it.

Create the Mitt Romney Creating Jobs reality TV show. Bring the media to you on your terms.

And show up for the debates fresh from creating jobs in Tennessee. shirt sleeves rolled up. out of breath from creatin’ all them jobs that you’re actually creatin’.

instantly he would diminish Newt et al by doing something only he can do.

And it would feel modern and real and effortlessly yield all his campaign ads.

MITT GETS THE JOB DONE!

(Finally,a Big Daddy Kane reference on my blog)

Check this monster out

It’s the Heaven’s Gate of pop culture reference.

A colossus of rights clearance conundrums.

It’s for the new NIKE Fuelband.

Wow.

Disclosure: i know one of the creators of this, Mike Warzin. And he told me it was better when they had Andy Kauffman in it.

Ye olde targette markette

I hate it when marketers talk about their “target market”, or “target” if you’re in a hurry.

It just feels like the wrong term.

It’s too militaristic for my liking.

Aren’t we trying to be friends?

And creatively speaking it’s of little use.

Personally speaking, I always create everything i create for everyone. All the time.

You can’t parse humanity, as my old boss use to say.

That’s why i loved working on the super bowl.

Everyone and their dog and their grandma, watched the super bowl.

Everybody had to love your ad or you were sunk. The “target” was America.

And the brands that everybody loved, Pepsi and Bud Light etc, were the ones that scored highest year in and year out.

Because they already had a lot of practice at being loved by everybody all the time.

This blog post in protest at SOPA/PIPA

Looks like the old US government is finding out the power of the internet to inform and organize.

Personally i have to admit i don’t know a whole lot about this proposed legislation.

But what I do know sounds terrible.

One of the great things about the internet is its statelessness and the way it polices itself. and the fact that if the power goes out, there is no internet. good to remember too.

Any attempt to control it, much less at the behest of large media companies, just seems ill advised to say the least.

So a hearty BOO! to SOPA and PIPA.

But of course SOAP and PIPPA are still cool.

You’ve come a long way Ricky!

Love how far Ricky Gervais has come in the USA culture.

Not sure his countrymen realize how big he is over here.

Americans looove them some Ricky Gervais.

That’s why he hosts the Golden Globes. The yanks love Ricky.

It just about blew my mind when he put this on the first episode of The Office years ago.

I loved how his character was the perfect example of what killed the popularity of the Budweiser Wassup! campaign. The annoying guy in the office does it. It’s over.

You live by the sword you die by the sword etc.

But I thought this little tidbit of association might someday entitle me to go to THE OFFICE fan conventions of 2020 and sell autographed WASSUP! tongues in the lobby.

Advertising’s, ahem, process.

As long as I’ve been in advertising and in every agency i worked at as a creative, this has been the “process”

PERSON 1: We need some advertising ideas about this in two weeks time.

ME: Cool!

And then we would go away and think about it and come back with some ideas in less than two weeks.

That’s all there is folks!

There isn’t any more.

And it’s the same thing at every advertising agency in the world, no matter how much they try to convince you otherwise.

I used to laugh at ad agencies that pretended they had a unique “process”. Like Ogilvy’s famous 360 degree thing. What does that mean, you say. Well, that’s Ogilvy’s hook. “Let’s talk about it!” says the Ogilvy new biz person.

It’s basically an attempt by bigger ad agencies to pretend that it’s not all voodoo when you hire this agency.

Oh no, here they have successfully harnessed the voodoo to work for you! No more guesswork, no more intuition, no more mystery. These guys have solved it for you!

I guess it’s an effort to soothe nervous/impressionable clients willing/wishing to believe that “process” alone will yield great advertising.

And if you examine this “processed” advertising you’ll find it to be a rather bland and unsatisfying dish.

The truth is creativity and creative execution is voodoo and always has been and always will be. Look at Hollywood.

So be sure you hire the best voodoo practitioner you can find.

Because all those smiling advertising people selling you on their surefire “process” are lying to you.

A word of advice for my foreign reader Gustav in Serbia

I live in America and have had the great good luck to have had my pick of directors over the years at various points.

And because i live in America i get to shoot my video with Hollywood’s best. It’s a real advantage

I was reminded of how lucky i am when i met with some UK creatives recently who had never shot outside the UK. The very idea of that made me shudder.

I told them to take full advantage of Hollywood.

Hollywood is a well oiled machine. Anything you can dream of they can make real.

It’s amazing.

If i was from Europe and looking to differentiate myself I would dive into Hollywood.

but the great thing about working in America is the breadth of directorial talent you can hire.
Because Hollywood is an industry town, the film talent flocks there. And even they need to pay the bills.

So we are kind of spoiled for choice.

The ad guy turned director. Lots of them now. can be great if they’re real artists.

The currently hot director. usually has an identifiable flavor. use him! use her! use them!

The famous movie director. you pretend you aren’t intimidated but you really are. so you don’t tell them to f**k off. and regret it later.

The random choice director. you found them and you’re taking a chance. you feel maternal about these guys.

I would like to add a new category to this list.

The guy who’s shot multiple HBO shows. Sopranos, Rome, Game of Thrones. And you’re worried if he can shoot your embarrassingly paltry story?

I was watching Game of Thrones and saw i’d worked with the director of one of my favorite episodes. He also did episodes of the Sopranos.

And the great thing about this tribe of HBO sanctioned directors is that they are pros of the first order. No ego. And they work fast.

And your ad will look like HBO!