Mullen and Radian6 Want You to Play Brand Bowl

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Once again it's the battle of the Twitter Super Bowl hashtags. Last year, there were about four that played prominently. In fact, we had one of our own. Can't even remember what it was. And we don't care. This year, we're letting someone else do all the work. An agency with, unlike us, an army of talented creative and technical people who can put stuff like Brand Bowl 2010 together.

So make sure you leave a tab handy in your browser for Brand Bowl. You can see how the ads rank based on tweets and other metrics. You can log in right from the Brand Bowl page and barf your Super Bowl commercial opinion for all to see. Oh, and there's a sweet link to Hulu where all the ads will be house once they air.

So for this year's Super Bowl Twitter hashtag, we're putting our money on #brandbowl. Sorry #sb44, #sbad, #sbads, #sbads10, #superbowlads, #admeter, #superbowl and all the rest of you.

by Steve Hall    Feb- 7-10    
Topic: Social, Super Bowl 2010



Best Super Bowl Voiceovers, Nivea Donates, Brand Barfs

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- Check out Whose Voice is That? It's all about celebrity voiceovers and they've just posted a Super Bowl commercial roundup that looks at ten classic Super Bowl spots making great use of the narrator and/or voiceover.

- "The Real Men and Women of Madison Avenue," an exhibit that celebrates the contributions made to American business and to popular culture by the real stars of Madison Avenue, is coming to San Francisco for its first public showing outside of New York City at the Academy of Art University's 79 Gallery on New Montgomery Street February 24, 2010 for a one-week showing.

more »

by Steve Hall    Feb- 5-10    
Topic: Cause, Industry Events, Social, Super Bowl 2010



iJustine Helps Pimp New Heinz Ketchup Packets

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In a friendly little tit for tat (tweet for twat?) exchange between Amber, Mike and iJustine, Heinz is getting the word out about its new individual serving packaging.

For the first time in 40 years, the ketchup king has redesigned its packets. The new packets, which won't replace but be sold alongside existing packets, are shaped in a way that makes them usable for both dipping and squirting on food.

We're not claiming this is necessarily anything more than organic word of mouth. But if you know anything about Justine, she does love a good burger.

by Steve Hall    Feb- 4-10    
Topic: Social



Doritos Has Early Social Media Super Bowl Buzz

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Here are some pre Super Bowl social media stats from Collective Intellect:

- Doritos leads CPG advertisers with 51% share of voice, Mars second place with 16%
- Denny's leads restaurant advertisers with 50% share of voice, Papa John's and Taco Bell second with 25% each
- Coca Cola leads beverages advertisers with 58% share of voice, Bud Light second with 22%
- Overall, Super Bowl conversations are mainly positive in nature
- The controversial Focus on the Family commercial causes the most pre Super Bowl buzz this year online
- Four out of the six automakers with an ad airing this year make it into the top 10 for early buzz
- Dodge and Honda have the most polarized posts compared to other commercials receiving early mentions

by Steve Hall    Feb- 3-10    
Topic: Research, Social



Nokia Navigation Goes Social With World's Largest Sign

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So if you're a brand that makes navigation products but no one thinks of you when it comes to navigation, what do you do? You erect the world's largest signpost and make it social. To hype it's navigation products and to "make navigation into something social," they built a huge sign next to London's Tower Bridge. People could text their favorite destinations all over the globe and a few minutes later, the sign would mention the location and point to the location.

The whole thing was streamed live to Nokia's site and a data base of everyone's location was built for anyone to peruse. Farfar Stockholm did the work.

by Steve Hall    Feb- 2-10    
Topic: Outdoor, Social



Help Us Crap on Lame Social Media Campaigns

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The famed SUXORZ panel is happening Feb. 3 in New York as part of Social Media Week. It's been a hit at SXSW two years running and now it's making a stop in the middle of advertising's mecca. Well, OK, what used to be advertising's mecca but still.

Join Ian Schafer, Steve Hall, BL Ochman, Caroline McCarthy and moderator Henry Copeland as they review and skewer your nominees for the worst social media campaigns of '09. As always, the audience will have the final say, voting for the SUXORZ losers.

There's an open bar to lubricate our deliberations.

There are a few half-off tickets available to longtime Facebook SUXORZ members, so pogo over to http://suxorz10.eventbrite.com/ and enter offer code SUX55 ... and if you can't make it, be sure to submit your nominees to the SUXORZ Facebook wall.

by Steve Hall    Jan-26-10    
Topic: Industry Events, Social



Got Empty Cup Holders? Dentyne Wants to Fill Them With Gum

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Realizing the proliferation of cup holders in cars and the apparent fact they're not all occupied with a beverage, Dentyne decided to package their gum in a container that would fit in a cup holder. To promote this packaging, Dentyne wants people to Twitpic their empty cup holders with the hashtag #emptycupholderto get a free bottle of gum. Bottle of gum. That just doesn't sound quite right.

Wants some free gum? Hurry up. The promotion ends at noon today.

We can't tell you who was behind this work. Well, we could but they asked us not to. We're going to honor that request but, wow, for some reason, we feel like going out and buying some wine right now.

by Steve Hall    Jan-13-10    
Topic: Social



BuyYourTweet Wants to Sell You A Tweet

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Stranger things have happened but with just 32 followers, BuyYouTweet, a "viral experiment" that sells tweets to advertisers on eBay, seems like a non-starter.

So far the auction, placed by Ben Cooper, sold its first tweet for $3,24. That's not exactly a business model but, as we said, stranger things have happened like, oh, say, cartoon bubbles being labeled rapists.

by Steve Hall    Jan-12-10    
Topic: Social



Coldwell Banker Pimps Homebuyer Tax Credit With Paid Posts

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OK. So here we go. Sharpen your bayonets. Polish your vitriol. Crank up your voracious commentary. Yes. This is Adrants' first IZEA Sponsored post. Let's get the necessarys out of the way: This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Coldwell Banker. All opinions are 100% mine.

Why are we doing this? It's a newish form of advertising and that's one of the things we write about here on Adrants. While we've written scathing reviews of this form of advertising in the past, it's become a significantly prevalent form on online advertising. We want direct experience and direct feedback from you on this. Yes, we are being paid for this.

The other reason we're writing this is because the subject matter is of interest to many. It's all about the 2010 Homebuyer Tax Credits (tracking link). Coldwell Banker (the client) has all the information here (tracking link). In short, homeowners who have lived in a current home consecutively for 5 of the past 8 years can receive up to a $6,500 tax credit when purchasing a home. First time home buyers can receive up to $8,000. As with all things tax-related, there are income limits: $125,000 for singles, $225,000 for married couples with a $20,000 phase-out of the credit for both. You have to apply for this by April 30 and close on your home by June 30.

more »

by Steve Hall    Jan- 5-10    
Topic: Announcements, Social



Seesmic Has Acquired Ping.fm. Get Ready For Update Overload

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Thanks to Seesmic's recent acquisition of multi-social network updating service, Ping.fm, we're all now in for an exponentially increased onslaught of "I just made a ham and cheese sandwich" updates.

There are those who love Ping for its simplicity. And there are those who hate it and its ilk for trying to cram the same update down the throat of multiple services which, because they aren't all the same by design, often call for individualized, network-specific updates.

We love it because we're lazy but just wait until brands catch on to this. It will be like broadcast media all over again. Sometimes we never learn.

by Steve Hall    Jan- 4-10    
Topic: Social, Tools