Ameriquest & Cake Boss

The Ameriquest Mortgage Company viral video spots are making their way around again, and they are still very funny. http://www.metacafe.com/watch/yt-cyMFhQE0RFo/funny_advertisment_ameriquest_cat_dies/.

My daughter has got me hooked on Cake Boss, the TV show on TLC. Never in a million years would I have turned on this show to check it out. I think we have it set on our DVR, but I'll have to go home and double check. It is interesting how your family affects your media habits. Plus, it provides another connection point with my daughter. Thank you Buddy: http://tlc.discovery.com/tv/cake-boss/cake-boss.html

Taco Johns, Cars.com and Chevy Traverse

My son and I stopped at Taco Johns this past weekend because I was craving some Oles and their Crunchy Chicken Burrito. My son likes wraps too, so he ended up ordering the same. He had never tried one before and really liked it.

Unfortunately, there is not a Taco Johns nearby, but we were in another city and found one. Their quality of food is much better than Taco Bell, in my opinion. A little more expensive, but worth it in the end.

To be transparent, our agency works with Taco Johns.

Cars.com and Chevy Traverse
Our family purchased a new car the other weekend. The Memorial Day ads pushed us to into the dealerships, even though we did not end up buying it that weekend.

We narrowed down the search quickly, due to the following criteria:

We needed a vehicle that could seat 7+ because we have two kids and need to haul around friends to sporting events. And we head up to a cabin at least once a month during the summer and a couple times in the winter.

We were trading in our van and did not want another one, and we also did not want a standard SUV mainly because of the gas mileage. Therefore, a crossover quickly became the vehicle of choice.

My wife was leaning toward a Traverse, she liked how it looked, but we had never driven one or knew of anyone that had one.

I used Google to search out other crossovers and ended up on http://www.cars.com/. They have a good comparison shopping function (which is a little hard to find and they could improve its functionality by automatically pulling a list of similar vehicles that you could select) that allowed us to look at the following 4 similar vehicles in our price range: Chevy Traverse, Buick Enclave, GMC Acadia, and Saturn Outlook.

In the end, we landed on the Traverse. We bought it from a dealer in town, the same one that we bought our van from a number of years ago. However, this did not play into our decision. Price was the primary motivation.

Castrol Dip Stick & Amstel Damn Good

Over the past week I have seen and heard a number of advertisements, but there are only two that broke through and made a connection.

The first is Castrol's Think With Your Dipstick. Check out their TV spot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mj5ms9PJDNY In this instance, frequency definitely played a roll.

The spot is a little amusing, so I do not turn the channel or tune out when it came on. Frequency is only good if you don't mind the ad. Due to the lack of "irritation factor" the spot sinks in and I get their message after a few exposures. I would estimate that I have seen the TV spot 4-5 times over the past week. I must be a target.

I also heard their radio spot for the first time this morning. Hearing it after seeing the TV spots made the radio spot have greater impact. Good use of a multi-media campaign.

On a side note, I am still wondering what a Scottish/Irish guy has to do with oil and/or the brand. Maybe it was chosen just for the accent.

I'll let you know the next time I need motor oil, and if I choose Castrol over the others.


The second brand that has made a positive connection with me is Amstel Light's Damn Good Beer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRnGpr5D8nY I have seen the TV spot 4-5 times as well. It is the song by Chelsea Dagger that really sticks with me, I like the song. I might even buy it on iTunes.

Also, it was very interesting to hear the same song played in the arena when Chicago scored a goal during the Detroit vs. Chicago NHL Playoff game. Coincidence? If this was strategically orchestrated by Amstel and their ad agency - kudos. Very smart.

Unfortunately, for Amstel, I am not a beer drinker. I will have a positive brand association, but will not be buying.

Brand Bits 2

I was looking through my Facebook updates from "fan" companies today, here are the ones that resonated with me:

Animal Planet - found out that River Monsters was picked up for a second season. A good show, but not sure how many "monsters" there are in rivers to keep it interesting and engaging. We will find out.

Paramount Pictures - watched TV spot for Transformers, can't wait to see this one. One downfall of the spot was that Megan Fox was no where to be seen.

Six Flags Magic Mountain - I am a big rollercoaster fan, but not a big fan of TV spots that don't deliver. The Terminator Salvation: The Ride spot did not engage me or show much of the ride. There was not much to connect with. A teaser spot needs to tease and this one didn't.

Jamba Juice - they had another Bananaman video. I watched it because the other one was really good. He was at the Special Olympics. Not as good.

Milwaukee Summerfest - KISS is the headliner, I had to go to the Summerfest site to find out who else is playing. Looks like a great time, probably won't be able to make it - too far away.

Samsung Mobile & Ozzy Osbourne TV commercial - ended up watching it, mainly to see Ozzy. Now I can't remember what Samsung was trying to get across, but I did pay more attention to this spot because of Ozzy.

Looking back through the list, I was surprised to see that many of the Facebook updates that I engaged with were TV spots. It seems that I am more willing to watch commercials and even go out of my way to watch them if they are relevant to my interests.

Arby's and Crown Royal

There have not been many brand connections or brand breaks over the last week, however I do have a couple updates:

I received another mobile text message for a free Arby's Roastburger last Tuesday. The offer was only good for the next day. I did not take advantage of it. If the offer was good until yesterday (Sunday) I might have used it. Instead of stopping at Arby's we ended up at KFC. I felt like chicken, more than a traditional burger. A roastburger would have been a good alternative. Here is an article about their mobile program: http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/commerce/3198.html

As for the Crown Royal bombarding of radio spots, they continue. I am still hearing them at least once a day. They are still irritating.

Brand Connections On Facebook Part 1

I have been catching up on my Facebook page updates over the past few days, here are the brand updates that caught my eye and that I spent some time with:

Jamba Juice - I am a fan. They have some great content related to their Bananaman mascot. I spent 2 minutes watching a funny video and a couple more scanning other updates and photos. Now I am craving a JJ. We had a location right by our old office, since we moved last July I have not had one. I'll let you know when I do.

Paramount Pictures - I am a fan. They had an update about the new Star Trek movie which included a TV Spot, it showed that the spot was only 17 seconds, so I clicked. If it was longer, I may not have. Good idea to make it short and sweet. I have heard good things about this movie on the radio (KFAN sports station). I wasn't plannning on seeing, but now it has inched up my list. I'll let you know if I end up going.

Flight of the Conchords on HBO - I am a fan. Love this show. The update on Facebook was lame. Just a photo of a fan's dog. Did not extend the brand in my mind.

Ticketmaster - some brands should not be on Facebook, many Facebook users are concert-goers that hate paying transaction fees. They had a coupon offer on Facebook for buying tickets. The update had been out for 35 minutes and only 4 people liked it while two made very negative comments. However, Green Day and Fall Out Boy also had updates that had been out about 35 minutes and they had from 450 - 600 people liking it and 70 - 90 comments (mostly positive).

Brand Bits

Here are a couple brand connections and a brand break (still broken):

Last Sunday at the Twins Baseball game we were headed out and there was a Mall of America outdoor bulletin right across the street from the Dome. It was almost at street level and was hard to miss. A great location for a board promoting their Nickelodeon Universe themepark reaching families leaving the game. Full disclosure, they are a client of ours and we placed the bulletin.

Before the game our family stopped at Taco Bell instead of having lunch at the game. It was chosen based upon family consensus (the other two options right next door were Wendy's or Burger King), except for our son who wanted to have a hotdog at the game.

On Monday I ate lunch at Subway, which just opened up a location near our offices. I chose Subway because I can get a footlong sub for $5 and eat half for lunch and the other half for dinner. We were going to be busy with kids' activities on Monday night, so I would not have time to pick up something at home or on the way to the soccer game. I have heard their radio spot a few times, the one where people are singing "5 Dollar Foot Long." It is very annoying, but not enough for me to ban Subway. I like the convenience (close to the office) the cost ($5 for basically 2 meals) too much. And it is a healthier option.

Lastly, I heard the Crown Royal radio spot again on the way home from work today. Yes, it is still irritating (see previous post).

Drag Me To Hell

I found my way to the MySpace homepage today, mainly to join a non-profit group: National Marrow Donor Program's Be The Match (which is a client of ours). I typically do not use/visit MySpace.

When I got to the site there was a large rich media online display ad (see above) taking over the top of the page. It was for the upcoming movie Drag Me To Hell. From the ad you could view the trailer within the ad itself and not have to leave the site. You could see a shorter TV spot, send a "curse" to a friend or visit their web site. There was not much content besides the preview, when I went to the web site it was just the trailer.

When I was looking for movies last week to go see with a friend, I was looking on www.moviefone.com to find what was playing at a nearby theater. I also skimmed through the upcoming/summer movie content and briefly saw Drag Me To Hell, but did not have the time to view it further.

So, I was aware of the movie coming out soon, but did not know much more besides it was directed by Sam Raimi. When I saw the ad on MySpace it gave me the opportunity to engage and learn more (make a brand connection). Unfortunately, there was not much there besides a couple trailer versions.

I am a horror movie fan, but this one has not grab my attention yet. I like Sam Raimi enough to go see it on that alone. However, I wish there was a little more content to help tell me a little more about it, create a deeper connection. At this time it is not a must see for me.

KFAN & Crown Royal

Here is my first post that discusses a "brand break."

I listen to KFAN, the local sports radio station in the market, quite frequently. KFAN is not the "brand break." It is a great station with diverse personalities that keep your attention. I particularly like Dan Barreiro during PM Drive. He is not all about sports, he has smart discussions on a variety of topics including legal and political issues. http://kfan.com/main.html

I would say that KFAN is a very strong brand for me personally, at least the radio portion. I do not spend much time on their web site or downloading on-demand content.

The brand break I am talking about is with one of their advertisers, Crown Royal. I hear their spot at least once a day for the last 2 weeks. I am a heavy listener, but if they are targeting passionate sports fans, then they do not need the spot frequency that they currently have.

I am not a fan of the drink anyway, so it probably doesn't matter that their spots are irritating to me. http://www.crownroyal.com/

However, I think KFAN should be more worried, the ad makes me change the station. I wonder if a radio station would ever limit the number of spots that they would sell to a single advertiser.

The Exterminators & The Office & Angels and Demons

There was not much television viewing this weekend at home. The weather was to nice and there was too much to do outside (both work and play).

However, last night our whole family watched (my wife and our 2 kids, 8 and 10 yrs) an episode of The Exterminators on A&E. They both really like the show. http://www.aetv.com/the-exterminators/ We caught up on 1 of the episodes we have on the DVR.

We zipped past all of the TV spots except I did stop to watch the trailer of the new Tom Hanks movie Angels & Demons. I had briefly seen advertising on TV for the movie but had not really made an effort to find out what it was about. I had also seen it listed on www.moviefone.com when I was looking for movie to see last week.

I like Tom Hanks and it looks like this movie could be good http://www.angelsanddemons.com/. With all of the other summer movies coming out I may not catch this one in theaters.

Last night I also caught up on the last 2 episodes of The Office, via our DVR. Fast-forwarded through all of the commercials. I do catch the end of some spots, like a McDonald's one, but not much of a message is retained - just a brand reminder.

Minnesota Twins

We went to the Minnesota Twins game yesterday afternoon. It would have been a great day to sit outside, but instead we were in the Dome. I can't wait until next year when we have the new stadium built. www.minnesotatwins.com

As you know, we are bombarded by advertising messages during the game. Here it is a day later, and I will try to remember the connections made:

Stanley (I believe the tools) had approx 5 large logos on the left field wall. I defintely saw them, but when all you have is your name it does not do much in terms of communicating something deeper about the brand. I'll let you know if they connect with me on a deeper level elsewhere.

Ben & Jerry's had a contest between innings where someone coudl win a year's supply of ice cream if they bounced a ball from the upper deck into a big blowup ice cream container. Recently, Ben & Jerry's has really been a brand that I have connected with. Still have not bought any yet.

That is about all.

Wolverine Movie

A friend and I went out last night to check out the new Wolverine movie. I had seen the trailer at a previous movie and on television a couple times. I did not plan on seeing it opening weekend, but it worked out well last night. I'll review how we ended up where we did:

When deciding what movie to see we first determined where in the metro area that were going to meet, we chose St Louis Park. I looked at the "cheap theater" in Hopkins, but there wasn't much playing that one of us had not already seen.

So then we looked at the main theater in St Louis Park to see what they were playing. Really the only movie of any interest was Wolverine. We both wanted to see it, so it worked out. Plus it is the type of movie (action and special effects) that you really need to see in the theater - this has become an important consideration for me when deciding which movie to go to, since I do not see too many in the theaters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPmbGzQaOCs

We arrived about 15 minutes early an saw a number of the locally placed ads, but I cannot remember any of them.

As for the national ads that start right before the trailers are shown, I remember one of the ads. It was for Sprite and showed kids/teens running into each and exploding into a splash of water (or maybe it was Sprite).

A guy behind me said that he thought the ad was cool, I thought so too. It was the first time that I saw it. We have some Sprite in our refrigerator, but I grabbed a Mt Dew for lunch today instead.

For the most part the movie-goers (including me) did not pay attention to the locally placed ads as much, but as soon as the lights go down and the nationally placed ads start - the theater got quiet and people were more attentive/engaged.

With that said, I still only remember the one Sprite ad. There were a number of other ads, my friend even felt like there were a lot (too many?). As DVR penetration increases, more and more advertisers are going to head toward placing these types of ads. Hopefully, film studios do not get too greedy and start running more and more ads.

I believe that as long as there are only a few ads and they are entertaining (because that is why we all go to movies), movie-goers will not mind sitting through a couple without tuning out.

In terms of the movie trailers, we saw a few of them as well. The two that I can recall instantly were for Transformers 2 and Terminator. Probably because they were the ones that I would be most interested in seeing. And, ironically these are both movies that will be much better in theaters (action and special effects).

I will defintely make an effort to see them both this summer. I'll let you know if I make it there.

On a side note, I do not remember any of the in-theater ads/posters or the restroom ads that I looked at briefly.

AC/DC Rock N Roll Train

I found out about twt.fm today through a friend. I decided to try it out (see @scottdahlgren on Twitter).

The song that I decided to Tweet was AC/DC's Rock N Roll Train. This is a great song, but I have not been able to purchase it on iTunes. I know that AC/DC does not put their songs there. I guess a popular group with passionate fans like AC/DC doesn't have to bow to technology.

I'll have to check out some more songs to see if it is worth it to buy the entire AC/DC album.

http://twt.fm/86789

Also, twt.fm lead me to imeem, which I had heard of before but never used. Now I am signed up so I can use it to find songs to tweet. A good idea by imeem to partner with them.

Ben & Jerry's & Facebook

I was reading an article about Ben & Jerry's Facebook Connect effort and decided to sign up on their web site.

You can then send it to "up to 8 friends" on Facebook and it will appear on their page, which I did. There is a little example of viral marketing for you.

I voted for Vanilla Heath Bar Crunch as a favorite. What is your favorite?

This appeared on my Facebook page as well (see above) and friends can comment on it.

Will I head out and buy the ice cream flavor? I am seriously considering it.

Arby's Mobile Marketing

I saw the Arby's Cherry Pie TV ad again last night, I think it was during an NBA playoff game.

Today, by coincidence, a co-worker showed me a newspaper insert for Arby's which included a mobile marketing offer: send a text and get a free Roastburger, with the purchase of a drink.

During lunch we took advantage of this offer. All we had to do was to show the text message that was sent to our phones and we were in. It was a very smooth transaction, they were on top of things at this location.

I go to Arby's every once and awhile, but never order their roast beef sandwiches - I had one a long time ago and did not like it very much.

This offer gave me an opportunity to try one of these "new" Roastburgers, which seemed more appealing that their traditional roast beef sandwiches. I did not have high expectations, but the Cheddar & Bacon one turned out to be very good.

Next time I am at Arby's I the decision on what to have might be a little more difficult.

Arby's Cherry Pie

Last night I watched about an hour of TV, primarily the NHL Playoffs on Versus.

Only one ad really grabbed my attention, Arby's "Cherry Pie" video for their Roast Burger. I actually saw it twice last night. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssukzKa5P0w

The song by Warrant was what got my attention initially. I liked that song, back in the day. Okay, I still like it (and the video is not too bad either). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdDxz2bkfhE

A great spot that grabs your attention with a strong music track, "good visuals," and humor. What else can one ask for?

I'll let you know if it ends up driving me to Arby's to try a Roast Burger.

Johnsonville & Rapala

On my way home tonight...two new outdoor billboards caught my attention.

One was for Johnsonville sausage. The board read: Johnsonville Vacationville.

The other was for Rapala fishing lures and read: More Hits Than Google.

Both were quick and easy to read, the fewer the words often the better when concepting creative for outdoor.

However, that was not the case for the Johnsonville's board. Even though I know the brand well, and love their brats, the word Vacationville does not have much meaning in itself.

I get it...brats and weekend vacations might go hand in hand. But, just seeing the word Vacationville did not paint much of a picture. It did not support or deepen my current image of the brand. Maybe if I end up seeing some other advertising it will explain Vacationville and create a deeper connection. For now this connection serves as just awareness and a reminder.

In the case of the Rapala message it was simple, supports the brand image I have, and instantly got to the utility that the product provides: their lures help catch fish. Brilliant!

I do enjoy fishing, but am not a hard core angler. My father-in-law has a lake home and is a very passionate fisherman. He has more lures than anyone would ever need or be able to use, but he does keep buying them. I told you he was passionate. So, my Rapala brand connection will most likely not result in a purchase any time soon for me, but I am sure it will with my father-in-law.

www.rapala.com
www.johnsonville.com

Pepsi SodyPop

I passed a number of outdoor bulletins this morning on the way to work, but the only one that I was able to recall when I arrived at work was Pepsi's SodyPop.

I have read many criticisms of this campaign, but I like it. Simple and fun.

This was a positive brand connection, but I am a Coke brand loyalist. Nice job by Pepsi to get my attention, but advertising will not be able change my preference from Coke to Pepsi.

Photo from: http://knoxvilledailyphoto.blogspot.com/2009/04/sodypop.html

The Beginning

It is the beginning of my blogging life, but definitely not the beginning of my life as a consumer, a person surrounded by brand messages every day and all day. This blog is meant to provide a record of the impressions that brands make on my life and how I end up making decisions as a consumer to buy, ignore, or store them for later use.

I realize that I will not be able to include every single advertising, marketing, and PR impression that I see, feel, smell, taste, or hear each day. Therefore, my focus will be on those impressions or connections that make a lasting impact on my life as a consumer or at a minimum break through my cluttered brain of categorized brands.

These impressions can be both positive and negative. I will call the postive ones "brand connections" and the negative ones "brand breaks."

Full disclosure - I work for an advertising agency. However, I see this as a benefit and not a bias. I hope you see it the same. Let's begin...