Mark Kolier’s Blog

Archive for February, 2010

Much has been discussed the past few days related to the Doritos ads presented during the Super Bowl telecast this past Sunday.  Like them or not (I liked the Samurai one and the other not so much), there have been articles written on how Ad Agencies should ‘fear’ user generated ads as the beginning of the end for marketing agencies. 

Stuart Elliott in this morning’s NY Times http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/09/business/media/09adco.html?ref=business postulates that ‘modern-day “Mad Men”’ should take pause since the two Doritos spots were among the most-watched among all the spots.

The article went on to note that in two separate surveys among users of Twitter (never thought of Twitter as a focus group myself), Doritos finished first.  It did not mention whether or not the Twitterers were already Doritos aficionados. 

But should we really be surprised that amateur ads performed well enough to be even included in the same conversations with ads produced by giants like Goodby, BBDO, and others?   Not at all in my view.  In particular Doritos is a fairly straightforward value proposition.    The ads are fun, irreverent and aimed at the target audience of chip loving Americans.  The 24 year old creator of the “Underdog” spot won $ 600,000 for his second place finish.   How exactly is that so different from paying a Madison Avenue agency to come up with a strategy and execution? 

The real success of the campaign should not be solely measured by how audiences liked or did not like a Super Bowl ad.  Everyone seems to like to flog the GoDaddy ads but they talk about them constantly and can you remember which company is the former leader in internet domain name registrations and SSL’s?   GoDaddy owns that space now – with their cheesy ads and all (Doritos is a bit cheesier to be sure as am I). 

How many more people will try and enjoy Doritos as a result of the Super Bowl ads?   I hope Frito-Lay will have some metric for figuring that out.  But I don’t hold out much hope. 

And today the chickens truly come home to roost as Denny’s is amidst it’s 8 hour free Grand Slam breakfast offer that was promoted by those chickens during the Super Bowl.   Last year 2 million people went to Denny’s to have their free breakfast.  I bet they will do even more free breakfasts this year. 

More importantly I expect Denny’s to collect email addresses of all free breakfast redeemers.  That offers a real opportunity to both engage and make offers to potential customers (remember they are not customers until they actually spend some $$).  

Wish there was a Denny’s close enough for me to find out for myself. 

Let me know if you went to Denny’s and what you thought.

Just this morning Akio Toyoda the grandson of Toyota’s founder FINALLY spoke his first words regarding the Toyota debacle that has unfolded over the past two weeks.   The world’s largest carmaker took personal responsibility for the problems.  He went on to say “I believe what is happening now is a very big problem.  We are in a crisis”.   Really? 

The Japanese are not noted for their capacity to apologize.  Particularly in contrast to Americans where saying you are sorry is tantamount to getting a second if not 9^th chance to rebuild your reputation. 

In his press conference Mr. Toyoda went on to mention that “ I came out here today because I would not want our customers to spend the weekend wondering whether their cars are safe”    NEWS FLASH Mr. Toyoda – I drove past a Prius driver this morning going about 20 MPH in the right lane and he appeared petrified.   It’s not as if 99.9% of Toyota drivers have a garage full of other cars to drive (wonder if Jay Leno has one?  The U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood earlier this week basically told Toyota drivers to not drive their cars. But what are their alternatives? 

It will not be an easy task for Toyota to market its way out of this situation.   All over the news and internet are photos of horribly destroyed vehicles that accelerated to frightening speeds and crashed into trees and buildings.  Those images may be indelibly etched into the minds of the car-buying American (and international) public.  

Earlier this week Toyota reported that it was going to give Toyota dealers $ 7,500 to $ 75,000 to help them market vehicles as Americans have virtually halted their purchases of Toyotas.  Sales were down 22% week over week last week and that percentage is sure to skyrocket when this week’s figures are released.  

My family is in the market for a used vehicle for our 16 year old daughter.   While I imagine there are some pretty attractive deals on used Toyotas there is zero chance that we will seriously look at one at this point in time and perhaps for a very long time.   Toyota’s reaction to this series of problems was slow if not glacial.   They knew about the problem, ignored the problem and now will pay for the problem for a very long time.   Americans are a very forgiving people but I am not sure if they are willing to forgive and forget. 

Ford had a good week last week in reporting gains in sales and profits – this was before the Toyota news came out.  Ford had a better week this week.  Even GM had a much better week this week.  It’s not always what you do – it’s what you don’t do that can take a giant to its knees.    

Would you consider buying a Toyota if the deal was almost too good to be true?

Already the Tim Tebow anti-abortion ad has gotten the pre-game buzz.   Will it hurt his future prospects as a pitchman?   I highly doubt it.  Go Daddy.com will feature Danica Patrick once again (fully clothed in case you are wondering).   Bridgestone will have an entry as well Volkswagen.  All spots for the game are ‘sold-out’ as of February 1st.    It escapes me how spending $ 2,500,000 for a 30 second spot can possibly have a positive ROI.  Oh that’s right it’s branding so we need to lengthen the curve. 

The game will draw 100,000,000 plus viewers.  In the last 20 years, Anheuser-Busch has spent more than $300 million on Super Bowl commercials, Pepsi $254 million and GM just over $80 million, according to TNS.   What really surprised me is that the Pro Bowl played Sunday night had its best viewership since 2000 drawing 12.3 million viewers.  A game that the players don’t want to play in – you would think people would have something (anything!) better to do.  The Grammy’s drew twice the viewership and was an infinitely better show (I am guessing since I watched the Grammy’s and did not watch a minute of the Pro Bowl).   

And what of the game itself this coming Sunday?  Kickoff at 6:40PM and The Who performing at halftime.  But little is noted about the game itself.  The New Orleans Saints have an opportunity to both win their first Super Bowl and continue to help resurrect a fallen city.  The Indianapolis Colts led by 4-time Most Valuable Player Peyton Manning are hoping to validate a decision to give up the pursuit of a perfect season.  Only a Super Bowl win will accomplish that.  

For me – it’s about the food (chicken wings and chili) and drinks.  Our family and friends spend time together many of whom watch normally no more than half the game, (although in recent years the games have been really good).   

So I like both the ads and the game but as a sports enthusiast I prefer the game.  How about you?