Industry Tuesdays (errr Wednesdays): Super Bowl Spots Before the Super Bowl

There will be over 70 spots at the Super Bowl. 111 million viewers. An average of $3.5 million dollars per 30s spot. That’s a lot of money, a lot of eyeballs, and a lot of competition.

So there’s a new trend to get more eyeballs, more exposure & less competition (and more bang for your quite a bit of buck)… Releasing a teaser, or the whole spot, before Game Day.

It started with Volkswagon. Well, it really started with their Darth Vader spot last year, but continued this year with “The Bark Side.”

(I’ve never seen Star Wars, so it didn’t mean that much to me. But it seemed to be pretty popular… 10 million views anyone?)

And then the Dog Strikes Back, a commercial within a commercial responding to a commercial posted on YouTube:

We love this Audi spot. I’m a big fan of vampires, and la and I have concepted our fair share of “vampire” inspired car spots (when you work on cars for long enough, everything is game!). We’re kinda bummed Audi has now killed our dreams of ever having a car spot with vampires!

This super funny ones from our old CDs Chris & Margaret at Saatchi:

Even teasers from Chiat’s own Pepsi (from our buds Armando Samuels and Kristina Krkljus!):

And a teaser from Hulu with “TV Star” Will Arnett:

But our most favorite one started with this – and created a maelstrom of guesses, conjectures and posts:

And then ended up as this:

Congratulations to my old partner Ariel Shukert for making what may be the most popular Super Bowl ad of 2012! Can’t wait to see it on television this Sunday!

Is it worth releasing your Super Bowl spot before the Super Bowl? I think the 6 million views, coverage on the Today Show, the Daily Show and countless blogs would say “yes.” But next year, when everyone releases their spot before the Super Bowl, will it still be worth it? We’ll see…

In the mean time, we’re looking forward to eating chips & dip, chicken wings, drinking beer and hanging out with friends while watching ALL the commercials on Sunday. Oh, and throwing in a little football watching too! Here’s to seeing what social media extensions people use on the spots to make it worth their high price tag…

xo,
la

Industry Tuesdays: The Shit People Say Phenomena

So we weren’t going to cover this because we thought oh, maybe the shit people trend is kind of over (which is maybe shit people in advertising say) but then today, “Shit People Say in LA” came out and it was pretty funny (for those of us who live in LA… In-N-Out! No Parking! Coachella!!!)

Shit People Say in LA

So we thought this Industry we’d talk about the Shit People Say phenomena. And give a little lali best of the shit people say videos.

A month or so ago, “Shit Girls Say” strikes the internet. 10 million YouTube views. Every girl on Facebook shares the link – saying “I’m guilty,” and “That’s totally me” and “I’ve said all of those things.” And then shortly afterwards, “Shit Black Girls Say” hits the internet. And it may be even funnier than the original.

And then, more and more shit people say video hit the internet. It had that elusive quality that so many of our brands are looking for – the “make it go viral” quality.

What Shit Girls (and black girls and white girls to black girls and guys and black guys and gay guys and black gay guys and guys in LA and sorority girls and vegan girls and Pilipino mothers) Say did was say to girls everywhere: you’re part of a group. You belong to us. To the shit girls say club. And being in that club is funny.

And then everyone else wanted to say the shit that they say. It was like every race, gender, stereotype, location and subculture wanted to tell the world what made them (humorously) them. Get a video camera and some pretty good actors and a bit of clever editing, and you can be amused for hours. (I was!)

So this Industry Tuesday takes a look at the meme, the phenomena, the craze of… shit people say.

Shit Girls Say
Here’s the obligatory original. You’ve got to give originators Graydon Sheppard and Kyle Humphrey some credit. The formula was easily spoofable (and therefore super funny). The tone, mood and editing were very well done. And the replications have kept the repeated scene editing, the cross-dressing (sometimes, or at least costume-dressing), the flutter cuts and comedic timing.

And here’s where it went.
Shit Black Girls Say

Shit White Girls Say to Black Girls

Shit Black Guys Say

Shit Gay Guys Say

And as the phenomena keeps going, the iterations have to be more specific.
Shit Skiers Say

Shit Liza Minelli Says

Shit Girls Say to Gay Guys

Shit Asian Dads Say (I don’t know if it’s just my Asian grandfather, but this one was super hilarious)

It even got to a place where it wasn’t shit people say, but what they DON’T say!

Shit Nobody Says

Shit Guys Don’t Say

Shit Girls Don’t Say

We’ve even gotten to things like “Shit Gay Guys Say To Their Cats” and “Shit Girls Say To Their Personal Trainers” and “Stuff Black Church Girls Say” and “Shit People Say About Shit People Say Videos.” Wonder if the more specific they get, the more the charm will wear off? But for now, it’s going strong. Maybe we’ll make a “shit ze lalis say,” filmed by Antoine Bardot-Jacquet… Or maybe we’ll hold off on that one.

xo,
la

PS What’s your favorite shit people say video?

Industry Tuesdays: a salute to a real adman, and a look at what ads have become…

I don’t know much about Leo Burnett as an ad agency, then or now, but I do know a thing or two about Don Draper. And watching this tribute video — an animation to a speech evidently given by Leo Burnett himself — really makes you think about the passion that advertising creatives have shared over the last 75 or so years. Sure, back then, late nights were spent picking a spokesman or writing a simple jingle, and yes by today’s standards that’s taking the easy way out. But it’s still endearing to hear the sentiments we have in common across the generations.

Leo Burnett “When to take my name off the door” from Lobo on Vimeo.

But as we all know, there is so much settling in advertising today. So many numbers to hit, and so many boring people who think these numbers can only be achieved by employing some tried and true formula. Even though this next video is beautiful, the narration is super entertaining, and the heroine’s hairstyles are to die for, this parody of the modern ad concept (if it can be called that) hits really close to home when so many of us are trying to live up to the ambition of our forefathers (and mothers!)

Une Fille Comme Les Autres from Jalouse blog on Vimeo.

Ok, now that we’ve explored what the ad formula should NOT be, I want to see 5 facebook ideas, 10 homepage takeovers, and 20 media arts stunts by 10am!

jk,
li

Industry Tuesdays: “Crash Corsage”

Want to fiesta for free? And watch people ages 50 and up dance the funky chicken? Have a one night stand? Or maybe meet your one life stand? Nope, it’s not an audition for Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson’s parts in Wedding Crashers. It’s from R/GA Creative Eric Schlakman and it’s a new app.

The app collects data from the open directories of personal wedding site providers and filters for nearby weddings, time, what to wear, how the couple met, etc. It even offers a social aspect, and challenges for users to compete against other crashers, upload photos and cross off items on checklists.

If lali didn’t have a very important birthday coming up this weekend, we might be crashing a wedding instead! Blog knows we like to dress up :)

xo,
la