Barnes and Noble Creative Credits for Read Forever.

This is one of the most coveted awards in our industry as Ad Age recognizes just 10 agencies among the thousands in our business for this distinction. In the special report just published tonight, Ad Age notes:

Marketers Like JetBlue, Zappos Find Agency’s Bundling of Creative and Media the Perfect Fit for Their Needs.

…judging by the increasing number of clients who want media and creative services housed under a single roof, Mullen’s decision to make its bundled model well-known is a smart way to go.

When Mullen last year scored JetBlue’s creative and media account after a highly competitive pitch, it was a confirmation that its late 2009 win of customer-favorite Zappos account wasn’t a fluke. Mullen had successfully evolved its reputation from a safe choice for marketers into a contemporary, forward-thinking shop valued by challenger brands.

We want to thank all of our outstanding clients, new and long-established, our 500+ colleagues in our four U.S. offices and all of our business partners for helping to make this happen. Agencies make the A-List by distinguishing themselves in business development, creative breakthroughs, media innovation and, most importantly, through driving positive business results for clients. 2010 was a terrific year at Mullen on all of these counts and we’re extremely appreciative of the recognition from Ad Age, but committed not to rest on our laurels. The agency is in a state of constant re-invention, evolution, whatever you want to call it, that has been greatly accelerated by changes in the marketplace around us.

It’s a thrill to be on the  Ad Age A-List and hopefully we’ll continue to produce work and results that will earn this kind of distinction in the future.

Congratulations also to all of our fellow Ad Age A-Listers.

Let’s start with Microsoft, already under siege from cloud computing, they are also in imminent danger of becoming irrelevant in the mobile space and have seen their smartphone share slip from 13.1% to 10.7%. Concurrently, Apple has surged to a 25% U.S. share and Android has surged to above 5%. Yes, this was an important venue and announcement for Microsoft as they unveiled their new Windows 7 operating system.  Let’s start with the good news – Microsoft threw out everything they had done in the past and started from scratch. A hard thing to do, but it showed the kind of intrepidness and humility they had historically lacked and was sorely needed. The overall design starts with tiles instead of just offering a plethora of apps; they have variety hubs that are organized in themes like “people hubs” and “game hubs.” The former will organize your pictures and email from friends and the latter will organize your games and connect to Xbox live. The other element that was really smart is that they have finally recognized that Zune is a much more valuable asset as part of their smartphone software vs. a standalone unit. So yes, I am giving Microsoft a big thumbs up on Windows 7 and I believe they have finally gotten it right. The question everybody is pondering is if it’s too late? More good news for Microsoft, most mobile pundits believe the smartphone market is still sorting itself out and they still have a chance to be a player. The software will be on a surfeit of phones including HP, Dell and HTC, and the software should roll out around holiday 2010.

The other big news was made by Nokia, still the world leader in phones, but which has slipped badly over the past 24 months amid steadily negative PR. Nokia and Intel teamed up to announce “MeeGo.” The goal of MeeGo is to create an entity that will go beyond smartphones and expand to cars, home phones and computers. Intel also has a lot riding on this new partnership as, although they dominate PCs along with Microsoft (sometimes referred to as Wintel), they have not made a dent in smartphones. Both companies hope this new entity will attract the developer community.

So there you have it – for once Apple and Google’s Android (or RIM) did not suck up all the oxygen from a mobile event. No this time it was two well known companies fighting for survival in the growing and all important smartphone wars.

BrandBowl2010 Winners

According to the 63,000+ Twitter users whose comments were captured in BrandBowl2010, Doritos was the most effective brand to advertise on the Super Bowl telecast on CBS this year. Budweiser Select55 was the least effective brand.

Mullen, and Radian6, a leader in social media measurement, created BrandBowl2010, a Twitter/Super Bowl experience that combined tweeting, ad reviews and a host of metrics to let viewers generate and view real time ratings of the TV commercials that ran on the big game.

The results were determined from a total of 98,656 Tweets collected at BrandBowl2010. The site provided an overall ranking of the brands advertising on the game based on a composite score that takes into consideration both volume of tweets and sentiment (positive or negative).

TOP SCORERS
When all was said and done, the top three brands were Doritos, Google and Focus on the Family. Doritos won the title by virtue of dominating the sheer volume of tweets. That was enough to keep them ahead of Google, which had a higher percentage of positive tweets.

MOST POPULAR
The most popular brands at the BrandBowl were McDonald’s and Dr. Pepper. Interestingly, neither of these brands had the sheer number of tweets to break into BrandBowl’s top ten—but the tweets about these brands were overwhelmingly positive.

MOST VOLUME
Again, the top three brands were Doritos, Google and Focus on the Family. These brands gapped the rest of the field in terms of volume of tweets, which dropped off sharply after the top three.

Free creative for Budweiser Select55

Mullen is offering Budweiser Select55, the last place finisher in BrandBowl2010, free creative services to make a better Super Bowl commercial next year. Mullen has produced four Super Bowl commercials in the past, including the Monster.com spot When I Grow Up, which many ad critics consider among the best Super Bowl spots of all time.

“Clearly no one wants to come in last place,” said Edward Boches, chief creative officer at Mullen. “So to ease the pain, we’ve made a commitment to recommend, for free, to the losing brand, creative ideas for next year. Perhaps we’ll even crowdsource those ideas, asking the entire social media community to join us in offering up free recommendations.”

The Top Ten Most Effective Brands on BrandBowl2010

1. Doritos
2. Google
3. Focus On Family
4. Snickers:
5. Budweiser
6. Bud Light
7. Hyundai
8. Kia
9. GoDaddy
10. Coca-Cola

The Five Least Effective Brands on BrandBowl2010

1. Budweiser Select55
2. Michelob Ultra
3. Teleflora
4. Honda
5. Diamond Foods’ – Pop Secret

The success of Brandbowl is due not only to all the people at Mullen and Radian6 who built it, but to many people in the social media community who helped promote it: @bbhlabs, @bigspaceship, @rga, @erproulx, @benkunz, @schwartzie14, @stevehall,  @kenwheaton, @lvanderpool and dozens of others.  That alone is a reminder of the worth of having a social network and a community.

One API to rule them all.

Consumers, especially PC–bred Gen Y-ers and younger, no longer draw a distinction between the real and virtual. The world is one big data stream and you are only as cool, as powerful, as smart as the gadgets you have that allow you to capture and use that data. The less effort you have to expend to draw content from the cloud, the more social capital you have.

This new reality of CES has two major components.

Connectivity is King

If there were any nooks and crannies of your life that you relished as being Internet-free, you can almost guarantee that this year’s slate of new electronics will quell that. For the roughly 8,500 miles the average American spends in their car each year, there are multiple offerings that will add not only streaming audio and video to your ride, but provide you voice-command access to social media, and warn you (and allow you to warn others) of traffic or weather conditions on the highway.

The formerly quiet living room is now home to internet connected TVs and Blu-Ray players that will allow you to chat via Skype or AIM about the movie you’re watching (along with others watching at the same time), and access video from around the world, on-demand.

The respite of the coffee shop is now interrupted by data streaming to the increasing slate of physically accessible smart phones and netbooks that put the world’s data in our pockets. In our 24/7/365 economy, being off the grid can be death to your career and/or social life. This trend in hardware is ensuring, no, demanding, that you never have to be.

Consumers crave immersion

The data is not enough, we want to control it, mold it, and bring it into our world. Features being built into 2010 electronics are allowing exactly that, creating new interactions with data that virtually eliminate the distinction between the real and digital.

3D television seems to be the most pervasive technology at CES with forecasts from the Consumer Electronics Association suggesting that 25% of televisions produced in 2011 will have 3D capability and four major television networks announcing 3D channels in the next couple of years. The glasses are gone; this new experience will replicate the Star Trek Holideck in your living room, putting you the viewer in the center of the content.

Already popularized touch sensitive technologies on phones and tablet computers are getting less expensive and finding their way to more devices on the CES floor, allowing you to pinch, swipe, toss and bump digital data as if it were created with something other than electricity and light.

What’s Next? Awesome.

The outcome of this newly converged world is, without a doubt, allowing us all to get a little more Steve Austin – faster, stronger, and more powerful than before. Though we will certainly, as a society, need to navigate through some murky ground on our way there – addressing issues like over-connectivity and the need to escape the grid, increased anxiety over having real-time information constantly in hand, and a massive pipeline of distractions always within arm’s reach. The 2010 CES show is demonstrating the urgency with which we have to prepare for total convergence.

Photo credit: loritingey

By contrast to the free-spending days of old, the post-apocalyptic consumer will be more savvy, responsible and prudent – although interestingly, as the year progresses, they’ll be increasingly more likely to splurge on “justifiable indulgences.”

Their spending mindset: cents and sensibility
In the wake of “The Great Recession” consumers have realized that unwieldy debt burdens and little to no savings makes them vulnerable to economic ruin. As a result they’re looking to regain control of their own financial destiny and seek out new ways to afford what they need. Their New Year’s resolution is “buy smart, or not at all.”

Shopping is a full contact sport
Consumers have upped their game when it comes to shopping strategies. They’re shopping around more – 75% of consumers state they use five or more channels just to get their grocery shopping done. Even when they are not shopping around they’re working every angle to their advantage – from trawling blogs, online search, deal aggregator websites, joining communities and seeking out e-coupons.

Culturally, looking back to the future
Consumers are regressing back to behaviors from days of old, but with new reasoning. For example, more consumers are line drying their laundry, with an eye towards saving money and justifying the environmental benefits. The victory garden has returned as a way to teach kids about healthy eating. And knitting is also back, as a way to save money and provide emotional therapy.

The oxymoron of naughty but nice
Consumers have a renewed desire for life’s little pleasures – but their resultant behavior is likely to be tempered by “devil vs. angel” psychology. They want to occasionally indulge, but need to feel guilt free in doing so. Many will happily treat themselves to a pint of Haagen Daaz (Five) knowing that it tastes great – and has reduced fat, and is also additive-free. But ostentatious indulgence is still likely to be out of bounds.

What are the implications for brands?
• Make consumers feel smart. Give them good reason.
• Create a multi-channel brand experience and make comparison shopping easier. The results might surprise you.
• Being traditional can be innovative. How can you make brand heritage feel contemporary?
• Strike up the emotional benefits of the brand and the consumer will play along.
• Indulgence is a permissible sin again – but be careful how you talk about it.