Ah, Super Bowl Sunday. The day every football player aspires to. How do players get their start? The NFL Draft. The last player picked, after more than 200-250 people have been selected, has been given the name “Mr. Irrelevant.” Don’t laugh — Marty Moore was picked by the Patriots dead last in 1994, and went on to play in the 1996 Super Bowl.
Ah, Super Bowl Sunday commercials. The day every marketing person aspires to. To have their ads seen by millions. And there should only be one goal. To make your ad relevant.
But when it came to relevance, how did so many spots miss the point?
Here are 10 Super Bowl commercials that were completely irrelevant (and 6 that weren’t).
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1. Hyundai
You’re comparing the paint quality vs. a Mercedes??? When thinking about buying a car, people think about comfort, safety, horsepower, styling, resale value, cost, fuel economy… should I keep going? Where on the list is paint quality? I think this selling point is pretty irrelevant.
2. Doritos
Some funny commercials in there, but where does the URL at the end of the spot send people? www.SnackStrongProductions.com
What do a new car purchase, choosing a career, and marketing have in common?
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When I was 22, I was fresh out of college and the country was mired in the worst recession since… well, since the one we’re in right now. Jobs were so scarce that I took an hourly retail job at Staples. While I was there, I worked with a guy that made 2 lasting impressions on me about cars and careers.
When the work schedule came out and I realized that I was stuck working another Friday night until closing, but he had the night off, I asked him how that always happened. He said it’s easy, “I just told them when I was hired that I played in a band, and that we practice on Friday nights, so I couldn’t work them.”
It was so simple a concept that I could only shake my head and laugh at how right he was. I didn’t even play an instrument at the time, but years later I picked up the drums and found myself in a bona fide group. While I don’t think I used it quite so blatantly to avoid work, for three years I never worked past 5:30 on a Monday night (practice), and a few times a month I took off early — and rolled in late the next day — because of gigs.
Hey, it’s the 1 year anniversary of The Hopkinson Report! So what’s my secret? Either delve into a topic that you’re really really into, or meet and interview people doing very cool things. As a car geek, I spent 4 hours at the New York Auto Show. So in a testament to my very first episode, the Porsche vs. the iPhone, I’m going to talk about cars, and marketing.
First let’s set the scene… The New York Auto Show is a massive production, a popular trade show that takes place at the Javits Center in Manhattan for up to 12 hours a day over the course of 10 days. Saturday April 11 brought pouring rain to New York City, making it the perfect day to be inside but do something fun. After sufficient food and caffeination, I descended into the belly of the beast.
The crowd was extremely diverse. There were plenty of 30-something white guys like me ogling the latest Porsches, families of 5 climbing in and out of minivans, and gangly teenagers with newly-minted driver’s licenses in the Fast and Furious demo talking tiptronic transmissions.
I also spotted a few secretly giddy Dads that probably implied to their wives that it would be a big chore to lug the boy to the show. Later on, he would ruin his 8-year-old son for the next 50 years by sitting him in the driver’s seat of a $100,000 Mercedes convertible, not realizing he had planted a seed in the kids brain and that he wouldn’t actually get to OWN that car until he was nearing retirement.
But with a fun, free-for-all atmosphere where everyone there patiently followed the car show etiquette of taking turns getting to sit in most any car they wanted, and without the normal stress of a used car salesman in a bad suit hovering over you, it was bliss for a car geek.
At the SXSW Interactive festival in mid-March, I interviewed several fantastic, interesting individuals and small companies that are on the leading edge of using social media and marketing on the web.
This podcast interviews entrepreneurJoshua Baer from Other Inbox, and he has the key for curing email overload, and for a Tesla Roadster.
Download the podcast on iTunes, or play it below:
Play Episode as a Podcast:
Here are some of the topics we covered:
What is Other Inbox and what does it do?
Take a look at your inbox. How many items in there? 10? 40? 100? Over 500?
Face it, everyone has a problem with too much email, so it’s going to be up to innovators in the space to help us manage it. Josh talks about his company and the widespread problem of e-mail overload.
Other Inbox not only makes it faster to isolate and focus on the important items in your inbox, but it can help you clear through the less important mails quicker as well.
How he got involved
Josh reveals that his background was actually on the opposite end of the spectrum. As an young entrepreneur running a “dorm room dot-com,” he founded a company that helps corporations SEND billions of e-mails per month.
But like a CEO at Krispy Kreme taking a job at Weight Watchers, he appreciated both sides of the email coin, from the consumer and the marketing perspective. And that’s how Other Inbox came to life.
Are the new breed of netbooks the real deal or marketing hype?
In last week’s podcast and blog post, I laid out a dilemma for the gadget-obsessed. The Amazon Kindle 2 and a slew of mini notebook computers - or netbooks - have entered the market in the last year or so at a price point of $350.
Is either, or both of them, worth the tech investment?
Play Episode as a Podcast (recommended):
The price point of $350 is very interesting, especially in these times. For a lot of people, if there’s a gadget you need for $40 or less, such as a thumb drive, a new set of earbuds, or a case for your iPhone, most likely you’ll grab it as an impulse buy because it will make you happy or more efficient.
If there’s something over $400, like a new TV, a new Macbook, or a video console system and a few games, then it becomes more discretionary and something you put off until you have the budget for it. Or at least that’s how it you SHOULD look at it.
Do I? In looking back at my major geek purchases over the last 18 months, it turns out I’ve been remarkably consistent in my upgrade pattern. Let’s take a look:
Frankly, this analysis is rather stunning. I’m almost ashamed. Three to four years???
You thought I was kidding when I said I would do an entire podcast about toilets, but you were wrong. Here’s what Japanese toilets taught me about the auto industry.
Play Episode (recommended for maximum loud, funny, ranting):
But another thing that really struck me was the Japanese bathrooms. Don’t worry, I’m going to keep the language, um, out of the gutter, but when I started thinking about how to broach this topic, somehow the US auto industry came to mind, which of course, is going down the toilet.
But along the way, think about how the topics I discuss apply to ANY business.
From cars to cameras, who are the people that make you buy what you buy? They are hyper-influencers, word-of-mouth marketing mavens using social media to influence sales.
Play Episode (recommended):
Or read as a blog post:
Picture the scene. It was the fall of 1992 and with a year of post-graduation “real work” under my belt, it was time to get my first real car. I was a nervous 23-year-old sitting behind the wheel of a 1990 Mitsubishi Eclipse Turbo. Sitting equally as nervous next to me was the car’s owner, as we went on a test drive. I was pulling out into heavy traffic, and the vortex of wind from tractor trailers speeding by the tiny two door sports car made it rock. As a clearing appeared, the owner said the following seven words to me.
“You know you’re in third gear, right?”
I said “Um, oh yeah.” And nervously put it into first.
His next question was, “You DO know how to drive a stick, right?”
I replied, “Yeah, I kinda learned a bit over the summer on my boss’ truck.”
His final fearful question was, “So … what are you driving right now?”
I responded without hesitation, “A 1975 baby blue Dodge Dart.”
So how did I get here? How did I end up in this situation, with this car, jumping an entire decade, going from a rusted sedan that my Dad bought for $1500 and somehow got me through college, to a 5-speed, 195-hp mini rocket?
The Hopkinson Report: Wired.com’s marketing guy compares the iPhone to a Porsche, and asks, “Has the iPhone reached ‘no substitute’ status?”
A lot of people would choose to spend $20,000 on an all-new Chevy Malibu described as “almost dynamic,” and that makes sense if you want a brand-new, traditional sedan. In fact, Joe Brown, the editor of Wired’s Cars 2.0 Blog, Autopia, tells me to go easy on the American car maker. Not just because they’re a big Wired advertiser, but because they did really impress him with this model.
But not me. After owning a fantastic 1990 Mitsubishi Eclipse Turbo in my early 20s, I’ve had the itch for the next level of sports car, a Porsche. No, not an ego-fueled $90,000 911 (though I wouldn’t turn it down), I’m talking about the 100s of Porsche Boxsters available for under $20,000.
Meanwhile, it’s time to upgrade life’s most important gadget, the cell phone. Which model will I go for? As you’ll hear, there is no substitute.
Play Episode:
Thank you to Daniel Odio of PointAbout.com, who had the podcast transcribed for me on 7-17-09. See the full transcript below:
Hi! This is Jim Hopkinson, Wired’s Marketing Guy, and yes, they’ve given me my own Podcast. Welcome. Every week, I’m going to take a fresh, funny, and sometimes, frantic look at marketing trends in the Digital World.
Today I’m going to talk about whether the iPhone is reached of what I call ‘no-substitute status’. Are they at a point where it’s a matter of if you buy an iPhone, but when?
But first, let me you a quick story and talk a little bit about branding. When I was 24 years old, I had a 1990 Mitsubishi Eclipse Turbo. Man, that car was some kind of fun to drive. It was reliable; it was quick, sporty. It even fit my mountain bike in the back with the seat put down. But most importantly, it was a blast to drive. You’re hitting that on-ramp, shifting from second to third, the turbo kicks in, you feel your body pressed back against the seats. It was truly a rush.
But now for the past six years, I’ve been without a car, living in New York City, which is really tough for a guy that likes to drive cars, not simply ride in a car, but enjoy driving a car. There’s a difference; and it doesn’t come from renting a Chevy Malibu 4-door that I can get at Avis.
So I have a dream, I want to own a Porsche.
Now, I’m going to start and end this argument that it doesn’t make a lick of sense to own a Porsche. Forget that a car payment would be $500.00 a month, and insurance and gas would be $500.00 a month, the average cost of a parking space in my neighborhood would be $500.00 a month. Forget all that.
Not to mention, that it’s going to get stolen in New York; it’s going to get dinged up in New York, that it snows all the time in New York; and that if I have to go to Boston, it’s $15.00 to take the bus, but forget about all that. Don’t quash my dream.
But let’s say I magically come up with $20,000. What could I do with that? Take for example, that 2008 Chevy Malibu that Avis always hands me when I go in to rent. What is the marketing behind that vehicle? Now that car was just named the ‘2008 North American Car of the Year’. That’s a pretty compelling reason to get this car…right, the Car of the Year?
What does the Chevy brand telling me? Well I pull up their website, and there’s a quote on the front on their page from John Davis at Motor Week that says; and I quote, “The Malibu was stylish, almost dynamic.” Are you kidding me? Almost dynamic, that’s the best you can come up with for the front of your Web page? Almost dynamic??? It’s almost dynamic?!?
So then I zip over to cars.com, and I find a black 5-speed 1999 Porsche Boxster Convertible with less than 25,000 miles. Now, what does their brand tell me? Porsche: There is no substitute.
So of course, if you’re married with two kids, you make lots of trips to Costco, you want a brand new car that won’t break the bank; of course the Chevy makes a much more logical choice. But for the market that Porsche is going after, their branding statement is very, very strong.
And how’s that working out for them? Well, according to Mobile Magazine, Porsche is the most profitable auto maker. It makes more than $28,000.00 per car sold. Compare that to BMW, which clears $3,200.00. And for an American company like Chrysler, take a guess: $900.00. Now people tell me, just buy an old beat-up car or why not get a Honda S2000 Convertible; those are nice. Or what about one of those Mini Coopers … that will be easy to park and drive around town.
But they’re all missing the point.
I’m not buying something just to have a car. I want a different experience–”there is no substitute”. They’ve been able to plant a seed in my mind that none of these other things matter. For me right now, it’s not a choice between five different cars.
It’s a choice between the experience I have now and the dramatically different, albeit, dramatically more expensive, second option.
So through years of carefully crafting their brand, they’ve been able to set up a situation where users will pay a premium to get a better experience while discounting their competitors.
There is no substitute, which brings me to Apple.
OK, let’s start with the iPod.
Now I can speak from experience here because, like a lot of people out there, I actually own several MP3 players in the 90’s before the iPod even came out in 2001. But, then came the iPod boom. All my friends were raving about the iPod. So if anyone, I could talk about alternatives.
But once I bought one, and I saw all the things that went into it: the continual update of iTunes and how much easier their user interface was, the additional of video iPods, new models that are rolling out every eight months or so.
And then the killer app, for me as a runner, the integration with the Nike iPod chip. So when I was ready for the new model, am I gonna to consider the Zune? No. Not when with Apple controlling 70% of the MP3 market. It was either keep the old iPod or choose a new one. There was no substitute.
Apple had set it up so there was no substitute.
Then came my computer.
I have a Computer Science degree. I learned how to program on a Commodore 64. I once bonded with an IT guy because I was the only marketing person he’d met that knew what a SCSI hard drive was; and basically, I’ve spent every day of my working life in front of a PC. So I’m really, really a difficult person to switch from a PC to a MAC platform.
What got me to switch? Well, first of all I admit it. There was a cool factor. Mac’s seemed a lot cooler than PCs. And I started spending time in a Apple retail store, and you can’t help but be impressed with that experience. Then they told me anything I could do on Windows could also be done on a Mac. So basically, over the through the years, Apple slowly addressed and then removed all the objections I have.
But the killer app for me on the computer was a combination of two things.
1) Moving to a smaller apartment, I wanted to go from a desktop to a laptop
2) Something with the competition.
Microsoft released Vista, and the bad reviews that accompanied that. So Apple had played up their strengths with their marketing and exposed the weaknesses of the competition that I might have considered.
So now on to the iPhone.
And I find myself in the same situation as the car, as the iPod, and the computer. Everything I have is now is fine. But what is that killer app out there that’s going to make me pull out my wallet and buy that iPhone. Has the iPhone yet positioned itself to ‘there is no substitute status’? But here is some things that Apple has done well with their marketing.
1) The coolness factor. Again, like any Apple product, the design it has differentiates it from the rest of the competition.
2) Surfing the Web. No doubt, the ability to find a movie, get directions, check a score, use Google on the fly is a huge selling point. Recent TV spots for marketing they’ve had show users bringing up ski maps, checking car prices, going to Facebook, checking the weather, stock on the fly. They’re doing this very well. But is it enough?
I remember some of the earlier commercials they ran for their visual voice mail. Do you remember that? They made a huge to-do about that. Can you believe it? You can listen the second voicemail you received before the first voicemail you got. Really!?!? That’s a breakthrough idea-worthy of an entire TV commercial??? You know how I get from the first voicemail to the second voicemail on my current phone? I press the number nine! It skips you right from number one to number two. How can that be the most compelling thing on the iPhone?
But to wrap things up, the question I pose originally was–has the iPhone reached ‘there is no substitute status’?
When it does come time to upgrade my phone, will I look at my competitors from Samsung, Nokia, Motorola, and others. I was recently at a sales conference in New Orleans, and I came across three things in one day that leads me to say at least for now, “yes.”
First, from a marketing angle.
I wake up in my hotel room; and there’s this full color, full page advertisement from Sprint in my USA Today. It touted their simply everything plan. Let me grab it here. Alright, for $99.99 you get: unlimited talking, unlimited Web surfing, unlimited emailing, unlimited texting, unlimited video messaging, picture sharing, unlimited GPS Navigation, unlimited push to talk, unlimited Sprint TV, unlimited Sprint music, unlimited NFL Mobile, and unlimited Nascar Sprint Cup Mobile. So if I’m a happy Sprint user, which I am, shouldn’t I be the ideal customer for this? The answer is yes, but not on the current phone that I have. I’m going to need a new phone.
Next, from a business angle.
Wired’s (former) Technology Director, Scott Laine, made the point in the presentation that the Apple software developer’s kit cost only $99.00 to publish an application, but the ifund that is set to reward developers for great applications is, insert your Dr. Evil voice here, $100,000,000. So in other words, you just have to spend $99.00 to build an application that could net you millions. Don’t you think that there’s going to be thousands of people making unbelievable applications that are going to be the killer app for you in there? I think so.
And lastly, to bring the point home.
We did a team building activity, with an amazing race-style event around the French Quarter of New Orleans. We had to visit various points around the city, answer trivia, collect certain items, and so on. Part of the thinking when they set up various teams… each team had to have at least one member that owned an iPhone.
Now the reason for this is that even to have a single team not have one, would be a tremendous disadvantage. And by using the iPhone in a real world scenario, my team came in first place. Yeah!!!
Now, would I say the iPhone was much more valuable in helping quickly navigate the city than if we had a brand new Porsche?
[Editor's note... I bought the iPhone 3G in July of 2008]
