Brand Bowl 2012 Game Day Site

OK football and TV advertising fans, the game day edition of Brand Bowl 2012 is live. Mullen and Boston.com together have launched Brand Bowl 2012, a social media event using Salesforce Radian6 to analyze the Twitter commentary and rate the most popular and disastrous Super Bowl TV commercials.

Realizing how social media has changed the way fans enjoy the game, Mullen launched the original Brand Bowl four years ago when Twitter was just a niche platform. Boston.com, one of the nation’s largest regional news portals, began hosting the information on their site last year. The virtual event at BrandBowl2012.com features an up-to-the-minute stream of Tweets about Super Bowl commercials to determine which brands are the most and least effective. Last year, over 300,000 Tweets were counted to determine the winner of Brand Bowl 2011. Chrysler finished number one and Cars.com finished at the bottom in last year’s rankings. The brands are ranked based on volume (who has the most/least chatter) and sentiment (who has the most/least positive and negative comments).

“Advertising is social, and given that Twitter’s active user base continues to grow and that armchair advertising critics are an expanding population in social media, we expect to get some outstanding data this year,” said Edward Boches, chief innovation officer at Mullen. “The most savvy brands are recognizing the power of social media and have released their commercials before the Super Bowl to build the buzz online, and have been orchestrating elaborate social media campaigns to maximize the impact of their multi-million dollar investments.”

“We’re excited to host Brand Bowl again this year with Mullen, and it gives us yet another opportunity to provide our readers with the interactive experience that they’ve come to expect from Boston.com,” said Ron Agrella, editor of Boston.com. “We aim to not just provide content, but to engage our readers in the public conversation, especially surrounding a significant event like the Super Bowl.”

New features this year include:

• “Head-to-head” statistical breakdowns between brands
• A “featured tweet” section that highlights funny and insightful tweets from participants
• A streamlined Brand Bowl mobile experience so users can more easily see the live rankings and Tweet their votes

Participation in Brand Bowl is easy. During the game, users can reference a specific commercial or simply include the hashtag #brandbowl in their Tweets to voice their opinions. The Tweets will be streamed live on Boston.com and a new mobile-friendly version of the Brand Bowl site during the game.

The single page feature also includes videos of the commercials and lets readers share Tweets, post images, follow conversations and see what other Super Bowl commercial fans are saying – good or bad – about their favorite ads. Post-game, the winners and losers are ranked in these categories: top scores (a combination of volume and popularity), most popular, most volume, and least effective.

Enjoy the game and the commercials everybody and please check back throughout the game to see who’s winning Brand Bowl 2012.

But in Las Vegas, Nevada, another primary of sorts will be taking place on January 10. That’s the start of the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), when more than 2,700 exhibitors from 140 countries will attract nearly 150,000 attendees to experience more than 20,000 product launches. For the tech companies that participate, CES is the key time to make stump speeches, roll out their 9-9-9 plans and dazzle media, retailers and the public with their amazingly innovative solutions.

Like Vegas itself, CES is a gaudy, inflated, all-you-can eat buffet of delights. Anyone who has attended the tradeshow can attest: it’s exhausting. Not just because walking the enormous space wears out your soles, but because the information overloads your system.

That’s why Mullen banded together with JetBlue Airways and leading social media analytics provider Pointslocal to develop CE Pulse. It’s a real-time, interactive gauge of online public opinion that helps consumers and marketers filter through the overwhelming hype to understand how consumers actually feel about brands and products. CE Pulse tracks and ranks social sentiment so you can see what’s important to the masses. Which brands and products are leading the pack? What gear do I want to blow my paycheck on in 2012?

CE Pulse is the latest in a series of social media monitoring and analysis projects from Mullen. For the past three years, we’ve held BrandBowl to gauge consumer sentiment surrounding Super Bowl TV commercials. Working with Pointslocal, we’ve also measured consumer sentiment related to major sports teams with The Pulse/Boston Red Sox and The Pulse/New England Patriots.

We think that brands that listen to how consumers talk about them are in a better position to engage in a dialogue with those consumers. Social media monitoring tools like CE Pulse enable consumers and brands to truly understand how the public perceives new products and to filter through the noise to uncover valuable information. As the candidates would say, and brands should learn to say, “It’s not about me—it’s about you!”

For a play-by-play report from our own Wolf in the field, follow @CE_Pulse on Twitter and visit the site.

Hey, speaking of beatbox videos, did you see this one we did for Google?

Our digital holiday project was called Snowify.me, an experimental HTML5 holiday card creator made with Google Maps v3. As you’ll see when you go on the site, you simply type in the location you want to snowify, decorate, and share your panoramic card with the world. And the gallery of decorations includes all kinds of fun icons from 2011, including the lovely newlywed Royal Couple and your friendly “Occupiers.”

A stealth creative and technical team at Mullen put Snowify together and, as you can read on Creativity_Unbound, this kind of was the “Accidental Holiday Card.”

Happy Holidays All!  Let it snowify!

How do you hire for excellence today in a space that seems to change overnight? As agencies and brands alike continue their mad rush to hire social media savvy talent it can be difficult just to get the right people on both sides of an interview.

To add some clarity to the hiring process, here are five qualities I strongly believe you should look for in a candidate whether they’re entry-level or a manager. You won’t see much discussion as to the number of friends, fans, or followers a candidate should have. This is intentional.

1. Superior Writing

Traditional readers won’t put a book down because of a bad sentence or delete an email because of a typo. The same can’t be said for readers on the social web. If you want your message to be read and inspiring enough to be shared, demand crisp sentences with simple words, bright verbs, and witty turns.

How you assess a candidate’s writing talent is up to you. But if it doesn’t include samples of published web writing, some on-the-spot editing, and a few real-time responses, you’re taking on a big risk.

2. Emotional Intelligence

Given the regularity with which trolls stir up trouble and web-rustic brand managers freak out in response, you should only pursue candidates who can clearly think through the panic around them.

If you’re not good at getting candidates to ramble on about themselves, you can take a quick temperature check by digging into their social media presence. Do they use sarcasm and stir things up in their public-facing commentary? Capture those remarks and ask about them.

3. A Sense of Humor

Apart from being more fun to work with, a candidate with a sense of humor is vital for success on the social web. Make the time to develop a few examples of dry brand messaging and ask the candidate to rework them to be more fun. It’s not foolproof, but this will give you a quick look at how the candidate thinks and what it might be like to work together.

Yes, this will require effort on your part. But getting it out of the way now is a lot easier than spending the next few months telling your poorly-vetted hire to skip the potty jokes in Facebook updates.

4. Content Marketing Savvy

If you want people to see the messages you’re creating, it’s important to have a marketing plan in place that everyone on the team supports. Be wary of candidates who may have content marketing chops but consider themselves “creative writers” such that they’ll balk when asked to write around key phrases or with a certain tone.

If a candidate has succeeded on some level in marketing personal content online, perhaps through an active blog or other writing project, you can safely expect some baseline understanding of how to make a larger presence thrive.

5. An Appetite for Success

The effort needed to successfully launch a social web presence or even just revamp an existing one is mind-blowing to anybody who has never been in the thick of something similar. If a candidate isn’t obsessed with staying in front of the pack and putting in the work to achieve success, you’ll end up with somebody who may do a decent job during the 9–5 hours but who won’t bring anything else to the table.

Find out how the candidate approached workflow on previous projects. Were weekend check-ins a normal part of work? Were hours flexible enough to allow for a few late nights without resentment?

N.B. Make sure whatever salary you offer takes into account the extent of your expectations then demand the best. It’s worth it.

Custom illustration: Mark Dudlik.

Mauro Cavalletti and Perry Fair

As Mullen’s Chief Creative Officer Mark Wenneker tells the story, it was an “awkward Skype call” that led to the hiring of Co-Chief Digital Officers Perry Fair and Mauro Cavalletti. “Originally I was looking for one person for this job. I liked them both so much I put together the Skype meeting with both to see If they had chemistry. Turned out they did. In fact, they knew each other and had been considered as a team not once, but twice. We all figured that the third time was a charm. There is so much talent between them. It’s going to be fun reinventing our digital landscape and building things together.”

Fair, who is the author of the iconic line “Don’t just watch TV, DirecTV,” has created highly acclaimed digital, social, mobile, video game and broadcast creative for DirecTV, as well as for Nissan, Gatorade, E-Trade and The NFL. At Grey NYC, he was the top digital creative executive and was responsible for helping the agency win digital agency-of-record assignments from Ketel One and Hess. Fair’s previous agency credits include TBWA\Chiat\Day, where he was creative director; The True Agency; and Element79 in Chicago. At Chiat\Day, he launched the Nissan Z with original content created for EA Sports’ Need for Speed Undercover.

Cavalletti launched R/GA San Francisco in 2008 with a small group of people and grew this office of the “Digital Agency of the Decade” into a thriving, full-scale operation. Cavalletti has more than 15 years’ experience in digital media and concept development at R/GA, as well as at two other highly renowned digital shops – AKQA and Organic.  His client credits include decorated work for Target, IBM, HP, Nike, DirecTV and Mitsubishi. In addition to his digital creative portfolio, Cavalletti has a background in video & film production, product design and architecture.

“It’s a great time at Mullen: exciting clients hungry for inventive ideas, a talented team growing at a very fast pace, and a strong drive to innovation,” said Cavalletti. “There is momentum, and I am glad to be part of it. Perry and I have a desirable mission for any creative – take a team that is doing great work and help in moving it further. This will be a lot fun.”

“Why Mullen?” asked Fair. “Mullen is a great story of agency re-invention and integration. It has a great roster of clients and we’re going to have fun working together to continue their story and take it to new and interesting places.”

The recession in 2009 drove a heightened focus on efficiency and increased digital display and paid search budgets at the expense of other channels. Yesterday content portals dominated consumer time online and ad revenue. Today, clearly, social media has completely changed the world – brands are targeting consumers demographically, behaviorally and with dynamic messaging and offers that pertain to their preferences. Hyper targeting through the fray of content directly to audiences via large ad impression aggregators called ad networks has increased considerably. But wait, publishers suddenly realized that this practice of selling their impressions was de-valuing their content and thus eventually going to be a no-revenue model.

Now, Time Inc, CondeNast and other premium publishers are selling their content exclusively across multiple devices – smartphones, iPads, PC, Print, Web TV – forcing content to remain just as important as audience targeting in the digital realm. Digital content consumption will continue to fragment as Web-enabled TV’s explode in the next couple years. Eventually, we will see more of what Turner and Sports Illustrated are already pioneering, and that is securing a certain content alignment across multiple devices with one transaction, one sales rep. Impressions will simply be divided across the delivery devices as appropriate based on demand.

Other trends to watch are:

• In-game advertising due to the explosion and high consumer penetration of Xbox and PS3 systems that can dynamically serve ads
• Agency trading desks to answer impression demand for direct marketers
• Mobile, as consumption increases and adoption of daily usage grows for all age groups
• How Web on TV and the iPad are going to change the print world and content distribution forever

Get ready!

Nearly 1 in 4 U.S consumers use mobile LBS – even more impressive, 63% of iPhone owners use it at least once a week. This surge in mobile location services has led brands like Domino’s and American Eagle Outfitters to stand up and take notice.

Domino’s has partnered with Izea’s WeReward (available at more than 15MM businesses) in order to propel discovery of specific locations, to build a deeper relationship with loyal customers, and to make the brand viral. Users find a location or business and check-in via the WeReward app. Upon check-in they are sent directions on how to earn points. All points are worth .01₵ and can be turned into cash via PayPal. In Domino’s case, users earn points by taking a picture of their Domino’s pizza box, making sure the receipt is visible. The app is also integrated into Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Yelp, Google and Citysearch, so users can also unlock badges and share their experiences. The goal is to provide an incentive that’s fun and profitable for the user, but it benefits all parties because the advertiser can set their own price, giving them flexibility while decreasing risk.

Shopkick is equally as compelling for retailers – users open the Shopkick app and simply walk into a store! Their unique technology ‘communicates’ with consumer’s phones recognizing their presence, so there’s no ‘fake check-ins.’ Users immediately get ‘kickbucks’ just for walking in the store, but they can earn more for taking further in-store actions such as trying on clothes or scanning the barcodes on specific articles of clothing. The app, in conjunction with the retailer, also offers special discounts and deals. ‘Kickbucks’ can be turned in for Facebook credits, gift certificates or users can even donate the money they’ve earned to their favorite causes.

We will see more and more retailers jumping on the mobile LBS bandwagon, but it seems as though applications like WeReward and Shopkick have developed win-win programs for consumers and brands alike. They drive in-store traffic and sales conversations while creating a ‘coolness’ factor for users who are ‘in the know’!

Edward Boches @ BDW

Boulder Digital Works this week named Mullen’s Edward Boches to its board of directors. Boches joins the likes of Mike Geiger of Goodby Silverstein and Partners, Ben Malbon of BBH Labs,  Scott Witt of Apple, and Chuck Porter of Crispin Porter + Bogusky helping to guide the program in its effort to train the next generation of digital talent.

In the last couple of years, Boulder Digital Works has emerged as one of the more highly regarded educational institutions dedicated to training students and professionals alike in the new digital skills that will power the future of advertising and marketing.

“One of our essential roles is to provide opportunities for people to interact and network with some of the most original minds in digital,” said Executive Director David Slayden.  “Edward brings tremendous insight to questions about how we can adapt to and thrive in the digital space, both personally and professionally.  He understands that involvement from industry leaders in BDW is critical to the success of our mission.”

“We clearly need more digital talent across all disciplines, from design to user experience to production. It only makes sense that as an industry we contribute to the very programs upon which we all depend,” added Boches.

In addition to serving on the board, Boches lectures at Boulder Digital Works in its Executive Workshops and is helping the program expand its geographic reach beyond Boulder.

It’s that time of year again. When we start thinking about Austin and ribs and digital friends and panel nerd badges. But first, we have to take care of business and do our job influencing, or at least commenting on, the submitted panels and talks.

Granted there is no shortage of great panels up at SxSW this voting season. In fact there are more than I’ve had the time to plow through. So, just in case you’re in the same over extended situation, I thought I’d share a few that Mullen colleagues and I have either submitted or been invited to join in hopes that they meet with your approval and ultimate vote. Of course, in the spirit of honest engagement, don’t vote for anything you wouldn’t actually want to attend. I’m not a big fan of the popularity contest approach to anything.

Ad Agencies Need A New Mindset To Survive

Submitted by Edward Boches:  read more and vote

If the advertising agency is to survive in an era when the reigns of media have been transferred from a few professionals to 2 billion individuals, it will have to revamp its entire way of thinking. The mindset will have to shift from thinking about target audiences to communities. Strategy will require more insight about a consumer’s relationship to media and technology rather than just how she feels about the brand. The team will change entirely to include production, mobile, and experience design in addition to art and copy. And the consumer will play an active, rather than passive role, in the creation and sharing of everything. What does an ad agency have to do to survive? What are the practices it must unlearn? What new skills will it require? This panel, comprised of agency leaders, each in a different stage of evolution, will explore the challenges and offer ideas.

Radian6 and Mullen Hijack the Superbowl

Submitted by Christian Madden: read more and vote

In 2010 (and again in 2011) Mullen and Radian 6 turned the Superbowl, an old media event, into a new media event. With a simple website, a hashtag, and real time sentiment analysis, Brandbowl2010.com analyzed Twitter conversation to rate the game’s commercials in real time.  Find out how sentiment analysis can fuel a creative idea and how an analog event can be converted into a digital experience. It’s a model that anyone can replicate.

Augmented Reality and the Launch of the Olympus Pen

Submitted by Michael Bourne: read more and vote

Augmented reality usually sucks. But this example is pretty good, (note it was done by Mullen). The agency, Total Immersion and Wired collaborated to create and run the first ever augmented reality camera demo.

What were the challenges in creating a fully functional “digital” digital camera that shot videos and still images using a computer webcam and what did WIRED learn in the process of activating the creative in its first iPad edition? Interested?  Give this panel a vote.

To see the rest of this post and some other panels we all agree are noteworthy, click here.

So, what is this privacy hullabaloo about? First you need to understand what cookies are and how they work. They record things like sites you visit, and things you purchase. At no time do they collect and divulge personally identifiable information. And, anyone can delete them and remove themselves completely from being tracked at all.  Consumer focus group of one over here, but I would much rather get relevant advertising delivered to me than just any random message. I have been served-up free shipping after abandoning online carts, and other offers and messages that have enhanced my online experience as opposed to threatening me in any personal way.

If you want to know more about the proposed privacy reforms being pushed by consumer watchdog groups, take a look at the Legislative Recommendations Primer and read all about it.

The ad industry is trying to stave off this unnecessary legislation by creating a symbol that would be placed on all online ads to let consumers know their habits are being tracked. Last fall this was supposed to be adopted by most advertisers, but this is not happening at all. Nice try, but I don’t foresee this as a viable solution. The IAB is also trying to demystify all this by buying relevant search keywords and serving up a site with clear information rather than media propaganda.

Bottom line, anyone can delete their cookies, but currently only 15 percent of web users choose to do so on a regular basis.  I find it annoying since not only does your history get erased, but all your re-called passwords and favorites. It is very inconvenient for a regular web user to do this.  The government has much better things to do than spend time on the so called dangerous threats of behavioral targeting. The implications of this legislation could not only affect getting great offers, but literally stifle the digital media industry from both a buying and creative perspective. So, do what you can to save the cookies!