This Week in Marketing: January 23rd

This week's highlights (with applicable teaching topics):

• Crash the Super Bowl – Advertising, Online, Social Media
• Chevy Happy Grad – Target Marketing, Product Positioning
• Coke Bear Back – Social Media, Campaigns, Packaging, Product Positioning
• John Stamos Does Dannon  - Advertising, Campaigns, Target Marketing 

Crash the Super Bowl

• The Website: Doritos ‘Crash the Super Bowl’ Hollywood Edition
• The facts: Doritos is offering web visitors a chance to win prizes, and to vote (daily) on which of their commercials will air on the Super Bowl. For every 100,000 votes they are giving away $10,000. In addition, winners will work on a future Doritos project.
• Classroom uses: Pick out your favorite videos and play a few in class. Divide the class into groups and have each group present their favorite, and explain why.

Chevy Happy Grad

• The Website: Chevrolet’s Channel
• The facts: Chevrolet has posted an ad on their online ‘channel’ which they are calling their Super Bowl Ad. This ad shows a graduate being brought outside by his parents to see his graduation present, which happens to be a small refrigerator (see the red bow) – however, behind it parked at the curb is a beautiful, new, bright yellow, convertible Camaro. The grad goes bananas – and spends the next minute yelling, texting, calling, sharing his good fortune with his friends – until the neighbor drives his new car away….
• Classroom uses: This is very cute and should be played in class. A discussion about target markets, and positioning products, can easily follow.

Coke Bear Back

• The Website: Coke bears back in Super Bowl ads, social media campaign is from USA Today.
• The facts: This article explains that during the Super Bowl, Coke’s computer-animated bears will appear in a video running throughout the game at CokePolarBowl.com. This is a site hosted within Facebook. The bears will appear to watch the game, will respond in real time to the real game's action, such as touchdowns, turnovers, bad calls and even commercials for other brands. For instance, if a sexy ad airs, an adult bear would cover the eyes of a baby bear. This article also has links to photos of the most memorable Super Bowl ads with animals, and even links to a video with behind-the-scenes look at the filming of the new GoDaddy Super Bowl ad. To maximize results, Coke plans many integrated marketing activities on Facebook, Youtube and other social media, after all, NBC's sticker price for 30 seconds of in-game TV time is $3.5 million!!
• Classroom uses: Have fun with this – show some of the photos, play the video, show previous Coke’s polar bear ads, then discuss the value of 30 seconds – how does a company afford this?

John Stamos Does Dannon

• The article: Super Bowl ads 2012: John Stamos does Dannon. from The Washington Post.
• The facts: ‘Food and Love will collide on Super Bowl Sunday’, says the Post, when actor John Stamos returns to television in a newly produced commercial for Dannon Yogurt’s Oikos. This article provides a link to a 3 minute behind the scenes video showing how the Super Bowl ad was produced. In addition the article links to other interesting information about the upcoming Super Bowl XLVI, details of the rematch, last year’s best ads, and discussion about whose ad will be the best.
• Classroom uses: Play the ‘making of the ad’ in class, and discuss how this ad plans to target the audience of the Super Bowl.