Since this is a Jets office, this year Digital Natives Group was truly just watching the Super Bowl for the commercials. And, just like the outcome of this New York Jets football season, our team was let down by a crop of underwhelming and uninspired commercials (with a few notable exceptions). We know this won’t be the first, last or only blog post you’ll read on the subject, so below find an abbreviated list of our thoughts, as well as our favorite (and least favorite) ads of the night.

Observations:

1. Did anyone pay attention to see how many “Shazamable” commercials there were last night? We counted three that had the logo clearly identified in the ad (as well as the halftime show and pre-roll), but that number is far below the rumored “half” of Super owl ads the service would be powering. Perhaps some advertisers just couldn’t figure out a creative way to let viewers know they could use Shazam in their commercial
2. In case we needed another reminder that social media had “arrived,” last night’s Super Bowl commercials worked hard to convert viewers into fans and followers. We counted six ads that identified dedicated hashtags (including Audi, Bud Light Platinum and Best Buy). As much as it was great to see social media receive its due in a coordinated campaign, we can’t help but feel let down by these forms of integration. Outside of these hashtags, multiple campaigns sought to drive folks to a Facebook page. Yes, let me step away from the party I’m having and the exciting game of football before me to go “like” your brand on Facebook (and please, we don’t like the argument “people will watch this on YouTube later” much either). Could it have driven some novelty likes? Yes. Is this going to become best practice anytime soon? We hope not.
3. What happened to Budweiser? Usually the king of Super Bowl ads, Budweiser left much to be desired this year, as their marketing efforts shifted to focus on launching Bud Light Platinum as the “high-class beer of urban 20-somethings,” (our words, not theirs). Attempting to capitalize on the growing popularity of liquor and spirits as drinks of choice (young professionals are always seeking to show off their wealth and sophistication), Budweiser forwent the usual comedic ads for something a bit more…we don’t entirely know. Yes they brought the Clydesdales and Dalmatians back for one ad, but on the whole Budweiser forgot one thing: it was they who set the bar for themselves all those years ago and they alone who forgot to live up to that this year.

A few commercials we didn’t care for:

1. TAXact – “Free to Pee” – No comment.
2. GoDaddy – Both Commercials – A perennial loser in our book. Sealed a spot this year by poorly incorporating a QR code in their commercial. Who wants to be the guy to run up to the TV and scan a QR code during a tasteless commercial?
3. Cars.Com – “Confident You” – Seriously, this just made us feel really uncomfortable.
4. Kia – “A Dream Car. For Real Life” – We didn’t think this was a bad commercial (wife dreams of a horse ride from a stud/prince, husband dreams of fast cars, Motley Crue, babes in bikinis and saving his wife from aforementioned stud/prince) until we saw who it was for. Instantly, this commercial lost all believability and became a punch line.
5. Audi – “Vampire Party” – Positioning and brand personality aside, when you’ve got a brand like Audi, you don’t try to sell cars, or an image, based on your headlights. Also, we’re over vampires.

And five commercials we really liked:

1. Hyundai – “Gonna Fly Now” – We’re a bit biased because Rocky is a favorite film of ours, but this pre-game ad was far better than most of the muck we saw later. This all-hands-on-deck rendition of “Gonna Fly Now” got us so excited we were ready to take the field ourselves!
2. Samsung Mobile USA– “Thing Called Love” – Just when we thought the game had nothing left to give us, this fourth quarter gem managed to blow our minds. From a song that brought us back to high school, to a cameo from Brian Urlacher, this commercial of Baz Luhrmann proportions left us on our feet begging for more.
3. Chevrolet Silverado – “2012” – Where to begin! From start to finish this commercial had us excited and engaged. In addition to creatively reinforcing a classic brand image, Chevy included a shout-out to one of food’s greatest urban legends (Hostess may have filed for bankruptcy but welcome to the Super Bowl Twinkies!), and a sampling from one of those musical artists we hate to love (Mr. Music himself…Barry Manilow!).
4. Volkswagen Beetle – “The Dog Strikes Back” – We were a bit afraid that Volkswagen wouldn’t be able to live up to the standard it set for itself last year with the great “Darth Vader” commercial, but they did. This enjoyable spot was only made better by the “bonus” Star Wars homage at the end.
5. Acura – “Transactions” – Frankly, we aren’t sure how this ad played outside of the tri-state area, but we are such great Seinfeld fans that we are going to overlook that analysis and just say “Leno!”

Our Super Bowl Winner: Doritos. Two great ads (“Man’s Best Friend,” and “Sling Baby”) brought the biggest laughs of the night.

Are we wrong? Did we forget something? Tell us in the comments what you think of our list!

Once again, Ben and Jonathan were fortunate enough to be invited to Smithtown eatery Aji 53 to talk digital, this time focusing on the value of social media. Thanks to friendlier skies and a more well-known topic (everybody attending knew about “The Facebook” and was eager to learn more, whereas few knew ahead of time what a QR code was last go-around), business folk from across Long Island came down to hear Ben and Jonathan talk social media. The boys provided a synopsis of the social media scene, which included a look at the “Fab Five” (Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, LinkedIn, and Google+), as well as an overview of emerging trends and services. They left the crowd with some parting words on the best ways for a business to be engaged on social media.

Also, we were fortunate enough to be joined by two fellow speakers, one who discussed the value of cloud computing for data storage and recovery, and another (our good friend Carmine Inserra from ProSysCon) who covered systems for computer “damage recovery and repair.” Great job done by both of them and we were glad to get to hear them present on these important topics.

What scares marketers so much about social media is also what excites them about it: the fact that marketing on the web is a two-way street. Just as a brand is able to engage with customers, customers are just as able to engage with a brand. There is no better example of how this can ding a company than what happened to fast-food giant McDonald’s last week.

On Tuesday, the corporate McDonald’s account (@McDonalds) sent out two tweets using the hashtag #McDStories, an attempt to start a conversation around the hard-working employees who keep McDonald’s in business. Little did McDonald’s know that this hashtag would take on a life of its own.

Said @Deweymedia, “#McDStories More than half a year since last McTerrible McFattening McMeal. I don’t McMiss the McFood McOne McBit.”

Said @SkipSullivan, “One time I walked into McDonalds and I could smell Type 2 diabetes floating in the air and I threw up. #McDStories”

Folks, it only gets worse. What’s the lesson here? Well, for starters, I go back to that same lesson at the core of a good social media campaign: listen. Pay attention to how not only your customers, but all of the public interacts with your brand on social media. McDonald’s should have been more aware of those people who have a negative perception of the company, and how quickly they could turn a positive hashtag into a “bashtag.” If McDonald’s had simply stuck to their original hashtag (#MeetTheFarmers) rather than use the more vague #McDStories, things would have gone down a lot differently.  Always choose your words carefully, and be sure to consider how all iterations and variants of your messages could be used or abused.

But there was something McDonald’s did right: they had a plan. As soon as it became clear that #McDStories was taking a turn for the worse, the company switched back to using the #MeetTheFarmers hashtag, and the flurry of negative tweets slowly turned into a trickle.

What are the lessons here?

1. Listen. Know how people talk about you on social media, and don’t try to unilaterally change the conversation (unless you are prepared to handle every possible response)
2. Think. Consider your tweets carefully, because once it’s public, it’s permanent.
3. Plan. If the ship starts to sink, make sure you know where the life boats are.

-Jon

I love football (J-E-T-S! JETS! JETS! JETS!), but when the Superbowl rolls around next week, the game going on in Indianapolis won’t be the primary thing on my mind.

Some of you may have recently noticed that some commercials during your favorite programs now include a little icon in the bottom corner of some of their ads. Look familiar? That little icon is the logo for Shazam, everyone’s favorite “Name That Tune” application. Thanks to an injection of venture capital funding, this one-trick pony is poised to turn in to advertising’s next great tool. During a Shazam-enabled commercial (typically identified by an on-screen logo, or, more creatively, a mentioned worked into the ad itself), an individual can open the Shazam application and be instantly connected to content, offers, deals, etc. At this year’s Superbowl, nearly a third of all ads will be “Shazam-friendly.”

The benefits? Shazam already has 165 million users, so folks won’t need to download a third party app like they would to read a QR code. The content that can be linked to isn’t limited by a codified URL, and doesn’t have to “fit” into any type of graphic. Finally, it’s only a hop, skip and a jump to convince users to take a current behavior (Shazam-ing a song) and turn it into a modified/new behavior (Shazam-ing commercial content, in-store or otherwise).

What do you think? Will Shazam catch on as a way to connect users in the physical world with digital content, or is it just another in a long line of attempts that will try to do so, but will eventually fail?

The other day news broke of Kodak’s impending Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, and we couldn’t help but be saddened by this end of an era. Kodak was, for generations, one of the strongest brands in the world, and to see it (perhaps) slip away, would be one of the most startling falls from grace in the history of modern business.

We all know why this is happening. The market began moving towards digital photography at the expense of film photography a decade ago, but Kodak didn’t move with it. Failing to adapt to the rapid and monumental changes of today can bring down even the strongest of businesses. All of us here at Digital Natives are photographers in at least some sense of the word, and while we’ve snapped our photos to SD cards instead of Kodachrome for years now, we’ll never forget our first roll of film in that yellow box.

Finally, we leave you with our favorite piece of Kodak marketing around, this heart-warming “Live Forever” ad:

We live in an age of big numbers, and while the number of 250,000,000 shrinks in comparison to some of the other dizzying multi-comma monstrosities thrown about in today’s business world, it’s still a pretty gargantuan total for what it represents. Why? Because 250 million is the tally for how many apps were downloaded in just one day: Christmas.

We know that millions of smartphones means billions of app downloads, but seeing a total like that in the span of just 24 hours is a system shock to the status quo. Will your business take advantage of the low-entry-barrier opportunity available in the long tail of these mobile customers? Getting your message to even 1% of 1% of this market can change everything.

When we aren’t sitting in front of our computers, we at Digital Natives Group love to take the opportunity to share our digital expertise with the world. That’s why we were so excited to be able to participate in The Dream Network’s November networking event, “Your Business in Today’s Trends.” Representing Digital Natives Group were Ben and Jonathan, who were brought in to explain to attendees the purpose, function, value and use of QR codes in today’s business climate. Their audience knew relatively little about QR codes, so it was incredible to watch their faces as they learned that QR codes could be used to do things other than just direct people to a webpage (for contact information, calendar events). Naturally, this was followed by a series of demonstrations as folks came up to us for one-on-one explanations and assistance.

Every time we sit down with a client, they are always asking us to explain what makes Foursquare so different from Facebook Places. It’s a tough question, and we love both services, so we thought it would be useful to outline each one for you here. Below, we look at how these two services compare and how they can be used to help promote your business.

First and foremost, both services, at their very core, are location based services that allow a user to “check in” to a particular location or event (read: let your friends on your social networks know where you are and who you are there with). Foursquare is a standalone product whereas Facebook Places is a product  integrated within the towering Facebook platform.  Let’s take a look at how they stack up:

Well, there you have it, the main differences between Facebook and Foursquare. Which is better, and which is best for your business? That’s up to you to decide! (Or, you could always e-mail us to help you figure it out)

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen advertisers overlook the “call to action” when it comes to marketing their social media properties. All too often, I catch some lonely URL or a whole slew of glossy social media logos on the bottom of a billboard. You’ve done a Google Image search, great. But what do you want the consumer to do with that blue icon?

We get it, you have a Facebook/Twitter/YouTube/InsertSocialNetworkHere. We’re past the point where just having these presences is enough, today your brand has to engage and be creative to make a splash.

Why do I, the user, want to connect with your business on social media? Do I get some exclusive content? Is there a tangible benefit like a discount or contest entry? Can I get customer support or expert tips? Adding words like “Follow us for specials” or “Find out first on” go a long way towards inducing that connect. It’s an invitation to engage. An invitation to ask for help. An invitation that says “Hey! We’re going to make your first experience great so you’ll actually want to like us and interact again.”

Don’t just leave it blank. Whether you want a user to discover what you have to offer on social media, or even to drive them to a particular section on your own website, don’t forget the call to action.

-Steve

“I love myself. Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s not without good reason. Yeah, I may not be available on Sunday’s from 2PM onwards, but other than that I’ve really got it going on. Have you ever checked out my room? Oh it’s so cool! I just installed new light fixtures that make me look great. Oh, and on Thursdays I always do karaoke. Just can’t get enough! But enough about me….oh wait, no, there’s no such thing as enough about me!”

Sound familiar? While you may think this is the rant running around in a famous celebrity’s head, or even the words of your own teenager, this monologue actually hits closer to home than you may think. In fact, the quote above could very well have been delivered by any of your own social media pages! There is a belief held by many companies using social media that goes something like this: if someone likes me on Facebook, follows me on Twitter, or connects with me on LinkedIn, it’s because they like me, they really like ME. That’s true, but not entirely.

Yes, a certain portion of customers choose to interact with a business on social media because they just like the company. Content comes second to the joy they get by simply connecting with their favorite retailer or financial institution. However, connecting on social media is actually about much more than this one feeling. Consumers connect with businesses on social networking sites for any multitude of reasons: to show affiliation, to reach customer service, to access valuable content or to meet other brand enthusiasts, among other reasons. Don’t just assume people come to the page because they like you.

What does this mean for your business? It means that you need to study how your followers/likers/whoevers are interacting with your brand on the web. See how people use your pages and the resources on them, and provide content that is relevant to that. If people don’t talk about the hardwood floors in your office, don’t upload photos of them because your brand will become defined as out of touch. Just keep in mind: the customer is always right, so give them what they want.

-Jon