Top 5 Most Impactful Advertisements of the 2014 Super Bowl

Super Bowl XLVIII has come and gone, and so too has millions of dollars in advertising. Fox charged a whopping $4 million for each thirty-second ad. What companies made the best impression on the Super Bowl’s record high 111.5 million viewers?

There seems to be a strong sentiment that this was an off year for Super Bowl commercials (not to mention the actual game). Many folks can’t even point to a favorite. Perhaps this year, the offerings weren’t as funny as previous years, but what brands ultimately care about is impact. To say the least, many companies successfully established a whole new way of viewing their brand. That’s why we’ve ranked the Top 5 Impactful Advertisements of the 2014 Super Bowl. These are the ads that forced us to reconsider their company’s image. This is just our list, so if you think we missed something, make sure you comment below.

With that said, let’s start our list:

#5 “Make Love, Not War” - Axe

This advertisement was rated the best Super Bowl ad of 2014 by superbowl-commercials.org. While we don’t believe this ad had the most impact, it certainly was one that kept our attention. It opens with visual references to many fear-invoking US policy issues, including Vietnam, North Korea, and Iran.  Our expectations are quickly changed as the scenes turn from priming fear to showing love. A tank opens so a woman can hug her dear husband. 

So, why then does this advertisement fall so far down on our list? It might have overshadowed Axe's actual product. After all, "make love, not war" is a complete thought in itself. What we believe Axe was going for is a sort of historical revisionist take, as if Axe's product would have increased attraction between men and their wives, which would have stopped many of the world's conflicts. The implication is that the smell of Axe brings people together enough so that they forget about war. Yet, we don't believe most got this takeaway. We don't see the male actors actually apply the product. Moreover, the advertisement could be seen as a charity message, if you take out the small part at the end that actually reminds the audience that there is a product launch happening. 

 #4 "The Phone Call" - Radio Shack

We’re not ranking this ad due to its humor. The ad is attempting to be funny, but it just seems to fall flat in this regard.

With that said, we do get a clear sense of Radio Shack’s message. The use of many classic 80’s movie characters and old technology was a good way to help transition the image of Radio Shack being outdated to a newer reveal at the end of the ad. Many people were probably surprised the company still exists, let alone has hip products that they might actually care about.

While we still aren’t sure why Radio Shack should be preferable to Best Buy, Target or an online retailer, we at least know that it will have the latest products, should we happen to be looking for something when we pass one.

#3 “The Truth” - Kia

There could have been no better pick to dispel the marketing image of competitors than Morpheus. We instantly understood that Kia was trying to portray itself as a quality product lost due to insufficient marketing.

With that said, this ad definitely could have been improved. We didn’t think the qualities of the car were actually emphasized enough. What did Morpheus mean by talking about the feeling or the sound of the car? Are the seats of higher quality material? Are the speakers’ extra high-quality? The execution also felt a little bit off, and while it seemed like the goal was to be funny, it didn’t really stand out comically. Also, the humorous approach doesn’t really synergize with the Matrix atmosphere. That’s what kept this ad from making it higher on our list.

#2 “America’s Import” - Chrysler

What could be more impactful than Bob Dylan asking you to let him make your car? That’s quite a line coming from the musical legend, and certainly made us wonder why Bob Dylan was willing to go so far for this brand.

But there’s one level deeper that needs to be addressed here. Many people don’t realize this, but music is a large export from the United States. You can travel all over the world and hear American music on the radio. Equating the two is important, because most Americans only listen to music that is made in the USA. ‘Listen to American music in American cars’ is the sentiment here.

The other impactful element is the idea that products have an optimal origin. Where do quality watches come from? Obviously Switzerland. How about quality cars? Obviously America, the place where they were originally created.

#1 "America The Beautiful” - Coca Cola

 This is any easy pick for the most impactful spot. There’s already been a lot said about this advertisement and for some reason it’s coming off as controversial. Is it really that shocking to hear Spanish in an advertisement when there are 38 million native Spanish speakers in the U.S?

Whether or not the ad is controversial, it is certainly accomplishing the goal of embedding Coca Cola deeper into U.S culture. For those who don’t know, Coke is actually trailing in market shares to Pepsi in the United States. How has Coke decided to rebrand itself? It wants to be the embodiment of the American melting pot. The image of Coke being a tolerant and liberal-minded company will also appeal greatly to the younger generations, and just might get them to put down the Pepsi in the grocery store, in order to help a company with progressive values. 

Polar Vortex Reveals Higher than Expected Profits in First Quarter of 2014

January 27^th, 2014 – Chicago, IL – Newcomer Polar Vortex announced today in a press conference that he is proud of the work he has done so far in North America. The Winter Wonderland that Vortex has established across much of the Midwest and Eastern United States has been successfully implemented since the start of the new year, and its effects are quickly spreading.

Mr. Vortex was quick to apologize to those whose lives were made especially more difficult by the weather, particularly garbage, postal, and emergency workers.  These associates, he maintained, are an integral part of life in the current weather system, and should be respected for their hard work.

Vortex is the first successful businessman trading in cold weather to hit the scene since Arctic Outbreak’s four-day business venture in 1996.  Mr. Outbreak retired early, leaving very large shoes to fill; Polar Vortex has stepped up to the challenge, and exceeded all expectations, particularly in light of recent global warming concerns.

Mr. Vortex foresees huge profit margins for his Winter Wonderland debut.  These profit margins, he assured, are beneficial to everyone affected.  Mr. Vortex outlined the benefits of the cold weather, including cancelled school classes, extended work deadlines, and, of course, the aesthetically pleasing ice that has formed on every imaginable surface.  He noted that the inimitable Heat Wave, an increasingly frequent figure in the global marketplace, is not his business rival so much as his mentor, and he hopes their individual projects will bring about a greater national appreciation for the other’s work. 

At the close of his statement, Mr. Vortex revealed that he had even received a personal letter from Disney CEO Bob Iger, thanking him for the marketing potential he has created for their hit animated feature, Frozen.  Vortex hopes that he will continue to receive such positive feedback as his current endeavor continues.

Freedom Industries Public Relation Disaster

       Charles Ryan Associates dropped Freedom Industries as a client last weekend after what looks to be the start of one of the largest Public Relations disasters of the year. It will likely never be known what Charles Ryan Associates attempted to do for Freedom Industries. What is certain is that the company could have handled this event better, and it’s a bit confusing why they didn’t do things that most people would view to be intuitive. Ken Carper, an attorney and president of the Kanawha County Commission, says Freedom's handling of the leak and its lack of follow up since Friday is ‘bizarre’ (Strauss).”

      

       There were two main issues with Freedom Industries response. First, they didn’t execute the few press releases they did have. Second and perhaps more importantly, Freedom Industries didn’t seem to care about the mistake they made.Gary Southern, CEO of Freedom Industries gave a short press release on Friday that was at best unprepared. The Southern failed to apologize properly or even seem to acknowledge that this was a major event effecting thousands of Virginians. Worse, there was no mention of an investigation of how the event happened, how future events will be prevented and how they planned to amend for the mistake (Botelho). But the worst part is that the information that Southern gave about internal awareness of the spill was false. Southern claimed that the spill was noticed internally at 10:30 am and which point staff began to fix the leak. However, the Environmental Protection Department reached the spill at 11:10 am and saw no evidence of a cleanup (Trip).

So how could they have greatly improved their public image?

They should have acknowledged the mistake truthfully and provide details of the 3 steps below being worked on internally

1.      Investigate how the spill happened and how they can use that information to prevent future spills

2.     Demonstrate commitment to cleaning the water

3.     Demonstrate commitment to pay medical bills of people affected, and distribute clean water to as many people as possible

       If necessary a third party public speaker could have been hired for the press conference. If pressed on why the CEOs were not making statements it could have been completely acceptable to say that they were busy working to rectify the mistake. Also it would have been nice to see some indication of the spill on their website, even just a short blurb about their internal process for rectifying the problem (assuming they are attempting to do so).

       Even at this late stage the CEOs could still salvage their image if they could focus on distributing clean water and demonstrating a commitment to pay hospital bills of those effected. One can only why any human being wouldn’t do everything humanly possible to make up for a mistake that poised the water supply of hundreds of thousands of Virginians.

Strauss, Gary, Marisol Bello, and Wendy Koch. "W.Va. Company under Scrutiny for Chemical Spill." USA Today. Gannett, 13 Jan. 2014. Web. 15 Jan. 2014.

Botelho, Greg, AnneClaire Stapleton, Mike Ahlers, Paul Caron, Ashley Fantz, Ed Payne, Marlena Baldacci, Kevin Conlon, Susan Candiotti, and Dave Alsup. "Chemical Levels in West Virginia Water Drop, but Still No End in Sight to Ban." CNN. Cable News Network, 11 Jan. 2014. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.

Trip, Gabriel. "Thousands Without Water After Spill in West Virginia."Thenewyorktimes.com. The New York Times, 10 Jan. 2014. Web. 15 Jan. 2014

Additionally, we wanted to post some interesting things we found about job boards in general and its users (Source):

Some last minute tips:

3.       Be subtle: don’t post that you’re actively searching for a job, but rather make your prime focus connecting with others. This will help eliminate the frustration of not finding a job immediately, and it will make you look more graceful.

4.       When you reach out, take time to build a full profile and add a personalized message. Don’t just use the default “I’d like to add you to my network.” It suggests you’re uninterested and don’t want to talk to the person. You don’t want it sound like you've sent the same message to hundreds of people. Treat contacts like you would potential clients, personalize.

5.       Don’t post too much! This isn't Twitter. There are a lot of things to look at on LinkedIn, and status updates are not the whole focus of the site. It’s a professional network. Keep it clean and purposeful. People don’t want you cluttering up their news feeds.

Finally, here is a list of Do's and Don'ts of LinkedIn:

Ethics of LinkedIn

In the late summer and early fall, many articles were generated about the ethics of LinkedIn, especially around a hot debate in the legal community. The think-pieces centered in on the ethics of endorsements, and the +1-style feature that other users could give other users. It was thought to be a way of providing a recommendation, but of course, there were some interesting ethical implications. Here are a couple of articles to explain that topic further, before we get on to our area of interest:

Legal Ethics and Social Media

LinkedIn Endorsements: The Ethics

The rest of this post is going to focus on differing ideas about LinkedIn and its ethics from the controversial and possibly-guilt inducing “Job Seeker Premium” membership, to contacting employers ahead of an interview.

One claim leveraged against the site is that it “double-dips” because it charges employers money to post job ads and then additionally those who elect to pay monthly for the premium membership. It’s not that anyone needs to buy the membership, but rather, it places the resumes of users who elect to pay for LinkedIn’s services on top.(Note: You can only pay to move your application to the top of the recruiter’s list when you’re applying for jobs that employers pay to advertise.)

However, LinkedIn didn't’t start this way. It was initially entirely free to job seekers, but over a certain period of time, it transitioned into more of a job board than a networking site to generate higher profits. The particularly distressing part, according to Nancy Collamer, is that job boards have proven incredibly ineffective at matching applicants to openings.

That’s not to completely dismiss the social networking site. Employment Office suggests LinkedIn can be effective in “targeting passive candidates.” It’s a specialized method of direct candidate search and selection. The hiring manager approaches a targeted candidate who is already employed with an opportunity for an alternative position. It requires knowledge of the candidate and their networks. LinkedIn allows you to search user skills and to connect with people through others. It can help to know a mutual contact to get you in the door with that targeted candidate.  But, as always, the ethical lines are not always clear. Many LinkedIn users offer their profiles publicly so as to connect hiring managers with knowledge about their skills quickly. In countries like Australia with strict legislation regarding the protection of personal data, you must access people’s information in a way that is both legal and considerate. As well, you should never misrepresent yourself or your company. It’s a very high risk operation with its own ethical quandaries, but LinkedIn, in this case, can provide a more ethical approach to targeting passive candidates. 

It’s 2014. Is Your Website Updated?

As we here at Unimar prepare the launch of our new website, we thought we’d share why it’s important to keep your website updated.

Everyone wants a website that people visit daily. Think about where people usually bookmark their homepages. Their email, daily news websites, and so on. Why? Because these websites constantly have new information available to its audiences. The web in 2014 is all about fresh content. Very few businesses will be able to compete with the New York Times or Gmail, but the point still stands. Internet users expect websites to remain up to date and, in addition to that, user friendly, too. You want to give your online audience a reason to return. Clumsy web design, outdated graphics, and stale content won’t be a reason for return-visits to your site.

Here are some reasons why regular web maintenance is important:

It keeps visitors interested. Fresh material added regularly means that there is an incentive for users to keep coming back to your website. Whether visitors buy or not on the first visit isn’t your focus. It should be on repeat visits. New content, text, graphics and images help build traffic of repeat visitors and grows the potential for lifelong patrons.

Focusing on customer feedback. L.L. Bean has a great lifetime warranty on their products, and it encourages repeat patronage. Just because it’s the web, doesn’t mean you should shirk customer service. Find feedback on your website and respond to it. Don’t frustrate your users by ignoring what they need in a functioning website. You need them more than they need you. Remember that.

Maintain your Google rankings. Google pique your interest? The search engine gives higher rankings to websites that are updated regularly because they want to present the best quality content in their searches to their own users.

You want your website to operate at its peak performance. This requires an active involvement in its maintenance. Here are some things to keep in mind:

Is your website responsive? In the last couple of years, there have been more and more mobile users. If your website can’t accommodate a smart phone, then chances are you’re aggravating your consumers and spoiling a relationship with them. Technology is changing, design trends are coming and going. Be up to date on them as a way of being in touch with your existing and possible clients.

(A quick guide on being response: http://alistapart.com/article/responsive-web-design)

Are you reaching your goals? Our businesses change and their goals do, too. A website should reflect those goals. A change in company image, in services, prices—all should be reflected. Your website is a way of crafting and showing possible clients your identity as a company. Show them you thrive off active and engaged consumers and that you meticulously take care of your appearance. You care about yourself and by extension, you care about your users.

Is it hard to keep updated? If your website is hard to update, explore why. By making a website more easily maintained, you’ll be able to update on the fly and not have to do large overhaul of coding just to update small details. And as a side note, some experts recommend that you completely revamp the look of your site every three years.

Don’t get caught with a year past. It’s 2014 now. Your website shouldn’t be associated with 2012, so update your website and copyright statement in the footer. Websites that don’t appear modern signal to your clients that the information and the website itself isn’t as fresh as it could be. It suggests a lack of work ethic and might promote disinterest in your brand and product as a result.  But more importantly, by not keeping up to date, you could be missing out on a great layout and newly developed tools to help build your business, increase sales, and elevate your web presence.

And some last minutes considerations!

Craft your website to reflect your audience’s tendencies and behaviors. Readers on the web scan over information, so keep it simple and scan-able. To craft a website that reflects your audience, you’ll have to do some research. You need to know what they want and how to deliver it.

Does your company talk like its clients? If not, find a happy medium where the two styles overlap.

Remember in this modern web world, content is king and users want to feel active and engaged. You have to understand your clients and tailor your websites in a way that anticipates what they want so as to ensure repeat visitors and long term relationships.

Just get in the routine of updating your website. Schedule a time, whether it’s daily, weekly, or monthly. It could be as simple as changing the wording or updating an image, but these small things can mean big rewards.