The Ads of Super Bowl XLVI: Adweek’s Preview
AdWeek

The Super Bowl is fast becoming an auto show. And last year's record number of car-related spots have led to an even bigger haul this year. Expect close to 20 separate auto (or auto-related) commercials in the game—that's almost one-third of the total number of spots—from brands including Acura, Audi, Bridgestone, Cars. com, Chrysler, General Motors (Chevrolet and Cadillac), Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Lexus, Toyota and Volkswagen.

Acura and Lexus are first-time Bowl advertisers, and they'll be joined by a larger number of newbies than usual. Among them: tax-prep software 2nd Story, real-estate giant Century 21, yogurt-maker Dannon and retail clothing chain H&M.

Of course, the game will have familiar faces, from Coca-Cola and Pepsi to Anheuser-Busch, CareerBuilder, E*Trade, Go Daddy and Mars, this time pitching M&M's rather than Snickers. Volkswagen has the heaviest burden of having to live up to last year's intergalactic success of "The Force." And at first glance, Coke has the most interesting plans, with the plot of its second-quarter spot dependent on what's happening on the field.

The Big Bang: Super Bowl XLVI Kicks Off the Marketing Crazed World of Pro Sports
AdWeek

This Sunday, it’s extremely likely that the largest TV audience ever assembled will plunk down in front of their flat screens to watch Super Bowl XLVI—and the carnival of advertising surrounding it. Last year’s big game drew an incredible 111 million viewers. And this year, the rematch between big-market rivals the New York Giants and the New England Patriots (after the Giant’s underdog victory over the Pats in 2008), incandescent with hype, will certainly blow away that audience record.

That’s the beauty of the Super Bowl. Its theatrical tension consistently draws the year’s biggest, most engaged audience, and marketers will hemorrhage money, as much as $3.5 million per 30-second spot this year to be a part of it.

In a fragmented media world, big sports media events, the last true reach vehicles, get people to tune in. They defy ad skipping, foster communal viewing and, if you’re trying to sell cars, beer, sneakers, iPads or movie tickets, you have to suit up, pop in your mouthguard and literally get in the game.

Consumers Want Online Video Ads No More Than 15 Seconds Long
Mashable

Want to capture customer attention with online video ads? They’d better not be more than 15 seconds long, a new poll suggests.

According to a survey by Poll Position, about 54% of Americans think 15 seconds is the acceptable time to view an online video ad before seeing free content, from YouTube clips to streaming TV episodes.

The poll—conducted among 1,179 registered voters via a telephone survey—found that patience is low when it comes to sitting through a lengthy commercial before gaining access to the content they want to watch. Only 12% of consumers believe 30 seconds is an appropriate length.

Meanwhile, 4% of respondents said a 45-second ad is acceptable and 3% said the same thing about a minute-long ad. About 27% expressed no opinion on the matter.

The news comes on the heels of a study released last week by eMarkerter that revealed marketers are expected to spend more on online advertising than ads for print magazines and newspapers for the first time in U.S. history. In fact, online advertising is projected to generate $39.5 billion in sales this year—a 23.3% increase from 2011—compared to $33.8 billion on print.

Facebook 101: Is Your Brand Worth a Like?
AdAge

As JWT's newly appointed North American Chief Creative Officer Jeff Benjamin put it, "I have a policy—if somebody spams my wall, I remove them as a friend." He's talking about Facebook, of course, and his point makes a lot of sense. So why do so many brands spend so much time creating the sort of campaigns that clutter your newsfeed and leave that sort of processed-meat-food-in-a-rectangular-can taste in your mouth?

Peek inside the minds behind the most successful Facebook campaigns in the fourth volume of the Creativity series.

Ad Age and Creativity's latest trend report explores what it takes for brands to "do good Facebook." We gathered a roundtable of seasoned creatives, including Mr. Benjamin, a former CP&B co-CCO who helped steer notable Facebook campaigns such as Burger King's "Whopper Sacrifice." We were joined by his former Crispin colleague Paul Aaron, now digital executive creative director at Amalgamated; Tool's Jason Zada, EVB co-founder turned director, who created one of the most viral Facebook efforts of last year in "Take This Lollipop"; Pereira & O'Dell Creative Director Jaime Robinson, who worked on the successful Intel-Toshiba "Inside" social film; Team Detroit ECD Scott Lange, who oversaw Ford's "Doug" social-media puppet effort; and Jung Von Matt Limmat's Livio Dainese, creative director on Graubünden Tourism's "Obermutten Goes Global," which earned a tiny Swiss town more Facebook action than the fan pages of Justin Beiber and Lady Gaga.

If you don't know their work, you should. All of them have successfully navigated the social-media platform and created Facebook campaigns that people actually cared about. They discussed what works and what doesn't, and "social skills" you need in order to truly interact with at least some of Facebook's 800 million users.

We also dissected a number of the most-innovative Facebook efforts of the past 12 months, and noted what brands should keep in mind when trying to build a dedicated fan base on the platform.

Content Conundrum: How Owned Media Changes the Game
AdAge

Point your lens toward Madison Avenue. What you see is the media industry burning its index finger on the digital-content trend. Agencies squirming when clients ask them for a content strategy. Content farms burning, measurements churning and advertisers yearning for content.

Why the fuss? After all, great content has been around since Moses made his low-tech tablets. The conundrum arises from the simple fact that content builds relationships, but those who pay someone else via paid-media advertising don't control that relationship. Since the web provides universal access to publishing, advertisers now have the means to take back some control. Oh, and did I mention that on the web, great content gets free distribution? Consumers come and get it if it meets their needs.

Advertisers can produce content and get their own audience without, ostensibly, the assistance of a media company. In her new book, "Content Marketing," Rebecca Lieb points out that while anyone can become a publisher on the internet, few can do it well. But even with the know-how to produce good content, we need to make a lot of decisions. How do we measure the new model? How do we communicate brand in a way that supports our business, and how does the content reflect or support our brand?

The aspiring publisher quickly runs into the problem of too many options on blending content and persuasion. By contrast, traditional publishing leaves advertisers with relatively few choices: There's an ad. It appears in a box. The box contains copy. Ad agencies make the copy. The brand figures out "who," and the media ecosystem delivers those eyeballs. Put money in the slot, and out comes advertising.

It's the mousetrap model: Content is bait, persuasion is the trap. The ubiquity of this model helps grease the skids by making clean lines for transaction. It scales well. The process for connecting brand persuasion to content is simple juxtaposition. But when advertisers create content for themselves, no "box" is required, and weaving brand and content becomes a craft.

Local Advertising to Reach $24 Billion in 2016
Marketing Daily News

Local and mobile have always been linked as a natural pairing, but the promise of that alliance has often outstripped actual ad spending. In a keynote presentation at MediaPost’s Mobile Summit Friday, local media guru Gordon Borrell said local mobile advertising was set for steep growth as dollars increasingly flow to mobile devices.

In particular, ad budgets earmarked for the desktop Web will shift to mobile in the next five years, propelling U.S. local mobile ad revenue to shoot up from about $2 billion this year to about $24 billion by 2016.

By then, Borell estimates that 88% of all local online advertising will be delivered on a mobile device. That growth will come directly at the expense of the desktop Web, where spending will decline 76% in the next five years.

To be clear, that total reflects ad spending across smartphones, laptops and untethered devices, including GPS-enabled laptops. Wider adoption of tablets, in particular, is expected to drive the hockey stick-like growth projected for local mobile advertising. Separate research from the Pew Internet & American Life Project showed tablet ownership among U.S. adults nearly doubled to 19% just over the holiday season.

Borrell Associates estimates more than half of Americans will own a tablet or notebook computer in five years (52%) and 87% will have another type of mobile device.

Millennials Trust People, Not Brands, When Buying
Marketing Daily News

Marketers that are trying to connect with millennials ages 18 to 34 to promote products and services related to love and Valentine's Day might want to consider tapping social influencers who produce user-generated content (UGC). This generation trusts people rather than brands, and values the opinions of like-minded strangers as much as people they know, according to a new study scheduled for release Monday titled "Talking to Strangers."

Strangers appear to have the most influence when it comes to making a purchase. About 51% of millennials are more likely influenced by UGC produced and posted by strangers, compared with recommendations from friends, family and colleagues, but only 34% of boomers agree.

In fact, 84% of millennials report that UGC from strangers has some influence on what they buy. That's because 65% of millennials believe UGC offers a more honest and genuine view online, and 86% believe the content represents a good indicator of the quality of a brand, service or products.

Millennials question the motives of companies that collect customer opinions. The study finds 71% of millennials say companies care about customer opinions simply because they impact how other consumers will view the brand, rather than truly caring what their customers think.