The Brainzooming Group

Can you believe we’re already this far into the year? It seems like yesterday that we were looking ahead to what the new year would hold personally and organizationally. 

Now, the year is a third over. To celebrate how both innovation and Spring are in the air (and are a lot alike), it’s great to have Woody Bendle back on the Brainzooming blog. Here’s Woody:

Innovation Is a Lot Like Spring by Woody Bendle

“The force of Spring —
 mysterious,
 fecund, powerful beyond measure.” - Michael Garofalo

I love spring – I have always been inspired by it.  It’s not that I have any particular disdain for the other seasons; but rather, spring has always represented newness, a fresh start, and a promise of tomorrow.  And for me, there’s simply something special about new.

Every year, Mother Nature orchestrates a truly remarkable renewal; putting in motion the natural order of life anew.  It feels as if Earth unleashes an inquisitive energy as it casts aside its winter respite.

Each spring, life takes on new shape and form as it reaches out seeking a new way.  And, every spring, I am captivated by the many remarkable things I maybe haven’t seen before.  Most of which have emerged from things that have been there in front of all of me all along.

In many ways, innovation is like spring…

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines Innovation as “the introduction of something new.”

And in business, Innovation is often regarded as:

“The process of creating and delivering new customer value into the marketplace.”

That certainly has a spring-like feel to it. When I think about the meaning of innovation and its impact, I feel it can be summed up in the following way.

Through Innovation…

  – Businesses, markets and cultures change

  – Businesses, markets and societies grow

  – Businesses, markets and consumers prosper

And through Innovation, we can forge a new and brighter tomorrow.

Yes, Innovation is a lot like Spring.  - Woody Bendle

If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the free Brainzooming blog email updates.

Download the free ebook, “Taking the NO Out of InNOvation” to help you generate fantastic creative thinking and ideas! For an organizational innovation success boost, contact The Brainzooming Group to help your team be more successful by rapidly expanding strategic options and creating innovative plans to efficiently implement. Email us at info@brainzooming.com or call us at 816-509-5320 to learn how we can deliver these benefits for you.

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The Brainzooming blog has a wonderful group of guest authors who regularly contribute their perspectives on strategy, creativity, and innovation. You can view guest author posts by clicking on the link below.

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Today’s Brainzooming blog guest post comes via @FlyingSpatula, a former Brainzooming guest blogger. He direct messaged me over the weekend to let me know about a blog post his uncle, Sheldon Rozansky, founder of Les Specialistes HCS Montreal, wrote about how big box brands can be indifferent to and even downright contemptuous of customers. While this sucks for customers, he uses shortcomings at big box brands to create a competitive advantage when price competition isn’t an option. Here’s his take on crappy customer service at big box brands and how smaller competitors can fight back for themselves and their customers:

Big Box Brands and Crappy Customer Service by Sheldon Rozansky

One of my clients, Mike, purchased a laptop from a Big Box Brand Chain Store. They also sold him the extended warranty for which he shelled out over $200.  I am not a big fan of the extended warranty, but I wasn’t with him when he purchased the laptop or the extended warranty, so I couldn’t advise against it.

Six months later Mike called me because the new laptop had stopped working.  I visited him and after looking at the laptop for about 5 minutes, told him the hard drive was dead.  He asked if there was anything I could do to recover the data. I told him, “No.”  It was a hard drive failure, and it needed to be replaced.  He mentioned the extended warranty and how Big Box Brand Chain Store’s “HELP SQUAD” would fix everything.  I told him the manufacturer’s warranty would replace the hard drive anyway in the first year, but since he paid for the warranty, he might as well get it checked.

He asked, “How much do I owe you Sheldon?”

“Nothing. I didn’t fix anything. All I did as tell you the bad news.”

He thanked me, and away I went.

A week passed, and he told me about bringing the laptop to the Big Box Brand Chain Store.  “Yeah, Sheldon, they said they are going to charge me if they are able to recover the data. It’s about $260, but if they can’t recover the data, they are only going to charge me $59.”

I replied, “I have the same software they use to recover data. If I were able to do it, I would have. It is a physical issue with the drive. They can easily tell whether they can recover the data by testing the drive – which they should do to see if the drive is the issue for the warranty.  The only way you are getting your data back is through a data recovery specialist, and they charge much more than $260.  If these guys are using specialty equipment to recover your data then $260 is a bargain; otherwise they are just ripping you off.”

A few weeks more passed and Mike called. The Big Box Brand Chain Store couldn’t recover his data (surprise, surprise), but the hard drive had been replaced. “It will only cost $59.”

I asked, “Why is it costing you anything?????? You bought a stupid extended warranty. Please call me when you get there.”

Hand Him the Phone

I always loved the old advertising line, “You have a friend in the diamond business,” because I have always felt, “I am your friend in the computer business.”  When my customers – my friends – are about to get screwed by the Big Box Brand Chain Store, I fight for them. I do this because it is the right and honest thing, not because I get paid for it.

Mike called from the store to say he was being charged $59.  I told him to pass the phone to the computer guy.  He later told me the guy had no idea why the phone was passed to him.

“I have a question for you,” I told the Big Box Brand Chain Store guy. “Why is Mike being charged $59 for work covered by his extended warranty? Oh, and by the way, I should tell you that I am a computer technician.”

“He’s being charged because of the time we spent recovering data. We worked on the hard drive for 2 days with special software,” he replied.

“Don’t lie to me. I know how recovery works. You didn’t recover any data. In fact if you had examined the hard drive you would have seen it was DEAD and needed to be replaced under the manufacturer’s warranty. You would have had to look at the hard drive anyway to send it to the manufacturer. If it took you 2 days to find out it was dead, you guys are the most incompetent people I have ever seen.”

“Umm, yes sir you’re right. We were able to see the drive was dead, and it was covered by the manufacturer’s warranty”

“So why did you lie to me?”

“I didn’t lie to you.”

“You told me you were working on it for 48 hours, and you are charging my friend for all those unnecessary hours.”

“No, I’m not.”

“Then why are you charging him $59?”

“No, I am not. He was mistaken. Since we didn’t recover anything and he has an extended warranty, we weren’t going to charge him anything.”

The phone was passed back to Mike, and I told him, “The guy says he wasn’t going to charge you for any of this.”

“He’s lying,” Mike said.

“Well, you’re getting back all your money for this non-job,” I replied.

Mike didn’t have to pay. He later told me, “These guys weren’t going to give back a dime if they didn’t speak to you.”

Competing Against Crappy Customer Service at Big Box Brands

What bothers me most about this is the dishonesty. Mike was sold an extended warranty. That is a contract between customer and vendor that if the product becomes defective, the vendor will honor the agreement to maintain the product. It shows the vendor is willing to stand behind its products.

I run my computer business by giving clients the best personalized service possible. Knowledge, skill set, and honesty are my advantage. I am honored when someone has faith and trust in the business I have built to understand I ALWAYS try to do the right thing. I have accepted that the Big Box Brand Chain Store can beat me to submission on price, but never on service.

The Big Box Brand Chain Store should realize an extended warranty is a sign the customer honors your beliefs, and you will do the right thing.  It is not an agreement that “the client was an idiot the first time when we sold him this useless extended warranty and now we know we can charge him for ANYTHING!!!!!” – Sheldon Rozansky

Guest Author

The Brainzooming blog has a wonderful group of guest authors who regularly contribute their perspectives on strategy, creativity, and innovation. You can view guest author posts by clicking on the link below.

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Today’s Blogapalooza guest post is from Jessica James. Jessica has been working for one of the world’s larget casual dining restaurant chains since 2006. She is currently working on completing her master’s degree in journalism from The University of Kansas. We’re excited to share Jessica’s seven lessons for creative success – lessons that are a valuable guide to creating no matter the industry in which you work!

Creative Success – A 7 Lesson Guide to Creating by Jessica James

For 15 years, I have been in the business of creating new products and ideas. The first eight years were formative; learning my craft, sharpening my skills, networking, and building a reputation – finding my way in an all-consuming industry.  The last seven years have been innovative – a culmination of what I have learned, whom I’ve had the opportunity to know, and the creative success challenge that comes with maintaining relevance everyday.

From these innovative years, I have identified seven lessons for creative success that are my guide to creating.

1. Take Notes…and Use Them!

I use the Notes app on my iPhone everyday.  Perhaps I’m a bit OCD, but I have lists for everything.  Ideas for my house.  Ideas for upcoming projects.  Wines I need to try.  Places I need to go.  Anything that might be useful for inspiring creativity down the road gets logged into notes.

I read the notes a few times a week, usually at night when unwinding.  I use this time to focus on something that may have grabbed my attention earlier and think about how it might apply to things I’m working on now. This process is very helpful in balancing my decisiveness and impulsiveness with my desire to present researched and thought out ideas.

2. Read All the Time

This ties to the first creative success tip.  If you’re taking notes all the time and generating lists, chances are, you’re reading things that are interesting and relevant to your personal and professional life.

I try to read a mix of things– parenting magazines, fashion magazines, cooking magazines, trade journals, blogs, websites, social media outlets, news magazines, Twitter, and the occasional ‘trash magazine.’ A mix of information will keep your ideas fresh and give you a perspective and creative success you would not otherwise have.

3. Focus on the Fix

When creating things, it is inevitable people will challenge your products or ideas, valid or not.  Don’t minimize your creative critics.  Pay close attention to your critics and what they are saying.  Be discreet about it and you will stay ahead of them.

Think about how things might go wrong and focus on how you would fix them.  Do this all the time – not just when something is near completion.  Have the voice of your creative critics in your head and use it to fine-tune your work.

4. Stay Organized

I read once somewhere (affiliate link) that creative people tend to achieve their best creative success in environments described as organized chaos.  To the contrary, analytical left-brained people work best when things are tidy, organized and maintained.  I relate to this.  My desk at work has piles of things that haven’t moved in a month or so, but I could tell you the contents of every pile. It’s a mess, but it’s organized.

Keeping your ideas and projects in organized and accessible piles or files will help you prioritize and shift gears quickly from one project to the next if needed – something critical in today’s world of news updates by the minute.

5. Do Things You Hate to Do

This is nothing new.  You should do things that make you uncomfortable.  It helps to vary your perspective on your life and work.  It makes you stronger.  Most importantly, doing things you hate to do builds character and makes you more interesting.

I recently joined my undergraduate university’s alumni association.  I was not involved on campus at all when I was there.  I was a non-traditional student who lived off campus and attended classes a few nights a week for three years.  I joined the alumni association to feel more connected to the hundreds of dollars per month I am about to start paying back as a result of student loans that funded my private, Jesuit-school education.

I don’t really enjoy my time spent with the association.  The monthly commitment is always preceded by me trying to think of how I can get out of it. The people are nice; they are just nothing like me. They are Catholic, very connected to the university, know one another, and are all adverse to taking risks or creating conflict.  They are homogenous and tend to surround themselves with people just like them. Needless to say, this experience has given me a better understanding of how to interact with people comfortable with status quo.

6. Consult a Consulate

It didn’t take me long to realize my creative success was tied directly to the success of others and their willingness to aid me when I needed it.  The half a dozen or so people I rely on most are a motley crew of experts, inside and outside of my industry.

Being nimble and being able to rally others to help you make things happen is critical to the creative process.  I’m connected with lawyers, artists, tech-guys, photographers, producers, entrepreneurs, writers, police & firemen, and educators.  You never know who will spark an idea or make a connection to redirect your path to success.

7. Fail

Being creative comes with a lot of failure.  I generate over five hundred ideas every year; half of those might be shared with other people and only a dozen or so might come to fruition.

A lot of creative success comes with a lot of failure.  Don’t be afraid to fail; fear will only hold you back. Each time you fail, you should learn something.  Each failure should change your perspective.  Creative success is built on a foundation of failure.

And what does creative success look like?

What’s the theme that ties together this seven lesson guide to creating? Always remember that creative success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm!  - Jessica James

Guest Author

The Brainzooming blog has a wonderful group of guest authors who regularly contribute their perspectives on strategy, creativity, and innovation. You can view guest author posts by clicking on the link below.

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Woody Bendle is back with one of his favorite strategies for getting past creative blocks, using a creative thinking exercise we explored early in the days of the Brainzooming blog under the name “Change Your Character.” I really enjoy Woody’s very fun take, turning the brainstorming questions from “Change Your Character” into a creative thinking exercise that puts the FUN into a creative funk!

Overcoming the Funky Creative Funk with Scooby Doo and Friends by Woody Bendle

We’ve all heard of “creative blocks” and most of us have probably experienced one at some point in our lives.  If you have experienced a creative block, you know they can be frustrating and sometimes even worse.  So, where do they come from, and what are some strategies for getting past creative blocks?

A creative block is generally regarded as a common and temporary psychological condition.  I personally call it “creative funk.”  And if your livelihood depends upon creativity and producing creative ideas or solutions, a creative funk can feel devastating. Time in a creative funk feels like an e  t  e  r  n  i  t  y and is exceptionally nerve racking, especially if there is the looming pressure of a deadline.

For some, a creative funk can even begin to feed on itself and snowball, creating anxiety and sometimes even leading to a person seriously doubting one’s ability to be creative at all.

That’s a major creative funk!

Creative Funk and a Bad Brainstorming Session

Creative funks can be caused by a number of things ranging from fatigue, to stress, to criticism (or fear of criticism), to obsessing over self-imposed performance expectations (perfection).

And, if you’ve ever participated in a poorly run brainstorming session with your organization, you’ve probably experienced all of theses things, and possibly even more.  There aren’t too many things worse than a bad brainstorming session.

Let’s see if any of this sounds familiar. You’re cooped up for hours with a bunch of corporate stiffs in a small, sterile conference room with buzzing fluorescent lights; getting hopped up on M&Ms, Twizzlers and Coca-Cola, and you’re being told to come up with a bunch of good, game-changing ideas because you’re organization’s future (and your job) depends on it.  Yep, that’s a recipe for a real funky creative funk. YIKES!

On its own, the pressure of having to be imaginative or creative under a time crunch can be stressful.  But, add the pressure of having to be brilliantly creative in front of your peers (or perhaps, even your bosses) – it can almost be paralyzing.  I mean let’s admit it, we’re human right!  And even though you’re told that the two most important rules for brainstorming are: 1) there are no bad ideas, and 2) do not criticize the idea, you naturally might be worried about making a bad impression and being judged.

So, what do we do?  Scooby Doo!

Scooby Doo and Friends to the Brainstorming Rescue

One technique I’ve found particularly valuable in breaking through a funky creative funk is something I call, “What Would Scooby Do?”

I use Scooby Doo as my illustrative cartoon idea sleuth, but I recommend inserting as many different characters (cartoon, TV, or movie) as you like. The idea here is to put yourself into your character’s mindset and approach solving your problem as they might.  This exercise can be particularly fun in a group!  When everyone is assigned a very different character, and is asked to think about as many different ideas that character might bring to the table, some pretty interesting things can happen.  But the most important thing that happens is that the creative funk gets broken and the creative ideas get flowing!

This creative thinking exercise can help you, and your team break through your funky creative funk for the following reasons:

1. You focus on the character and not yourself – which can instantaneously de-funk your creative funk
2. A character has permission to provide “whacky”, off the wall ideas – it’s their idea, not yours
3. People often see characters quite differently and can offer additional very interesting opinions about how any given character might approach solving the problem, last and perhaps most importantly
4. It’s a ton of fun and you feel like a kid again! And who doesn’t want to have a little more fun every now and then?

Scooby Doo in Brainstorming Action

So, let’s say you’re team has been charged with coming up with a revolutionary new way to get remove dust from delicate, high-tech surfaces.  There are a number of products out there already that do this pretty well, but how many of those solutions were created by, Rambo, or Wile E Coyote, or MacGyver, or Harry Potter, or Tigger, or Po (Kung-Fu-Panda), or Ferris Bueller, or Kenny (from South Park), or Granny (from the Beverly Hillbillies)?  You’re getting the idea by now I bet.

Each one of these characters would likely approach the problem quite differently and have VERY VERY different ideas about how to solve it.

• Rambo might just decide to blow the surface up – screw the dust and the stupid surface it’s on!
• MacGyver might use duct tape – because what can’t he do with duct tape?
• Tigger might hop up and down to vibrate the dust off.

We could go on like this for hours!  And that’s actually the point in the first place. You’re looking to break down your creative funk, and once you get the ball rolling with this technique, it’s actually hard to stop those creative juices from flowing!

I’ll admit that “What Would Scooby Do” might not be the solution for every creative funk, but what have you got to lose?

Have your own techniques for breaking down creative blocks?  I’d love to hear about them! - Woody Bendle

If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the free Brainzooming blog email updates.

Download the free ebook, “Taking the NO Out of InNOvation” to help you generate fantastic creative thinking and ideas! For an organizational innovation success boost, contact The Brainzooming Group to help your team be more successful by rapidly expanding strategic options and creating innovative plans to efficiently implement. Email us at info@brainzooming.com or call us at 816-509-5320 to learn how we can deliver these benefits for you.

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The Brainzooming blog has a wonderful group of guest authors who regularly contribute their perspectives on strategy, creativity, and innovation. You can view guest author posts by clicking on the link below.

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B2B marketing expert Randall Rozin (who you can find on Twitter under his @RandallRozin account) is back with a history lesson on branding in the Wild West and how that models translate to the important area of employee branding  in today’s companies.

Employee Branding Lessons – Riding for the Brand by Randall Rozin

In the late 1800s, brands were like a heraldic crest, a cattleman’s coat of arms, if you will. Brands identified not only an owner or a ranch; they also provided a set of traditions and a unique sense of identity for the cowboys who represented the brand’s ranch. It was not uncommon for a cowboy of the times to ride for the brand more than for the individual ranch owner.

As the preface to his short story of the same name, Louis L’Amour described the term ‘riding for the brand’ as an expression of loyalty to an employer.  It was considered a compliment of the highest order. Today, a great deal of effort is invested by companies creating internal branding efforts designed to inspire employee identity, loyalty, and a sense of ‘riding for the brand’.

Background on the Cowboy Branding Process

On the great plains of the American West, Ketch Hands roped each calf and pulled it near the branding fire. Flankers then grabbed the calf by the ear and loose skin of the flank, lifted it up and laid it on its side. Others called out the brand of the calf’s mother and the appropriate branding iron was brought to the fire.  While one man held the calf, an Iron Man branded the calf at the hips, ribs, or shoulder according to the practice of the owner.

From Cowboys to Corporations

Modern corporate brand managers employ an analogous branding process. Today’s “Ketch Hands” are typical pre-purchase activities such as advertising, sales promotions, point of-purchase displays, permission-based marketing, social media, and trade show sellers. Each element is designed to bring potential buyers “closer to the branding fire.”

Ropers of today often take the form of marketing automation and other CRM processes. As prospects come into the company via electronic means they are tagged via a cookie or other ad-serving technique to identify their origin. Some companies have consistently done their branding job so well that their customers come willingly to the “branding fire.” Examples where customers actually brand themselves include: Harley Davidson Motorcycles (whose customers often tattoo the company’s logo on their bodies) or many apparel brand fans such as those of Nike –whose millions of customers around the world brand themselves with the Nike Swoosh.

Employee Branding – Supporting Your Brand “Iron Men and Women”

Where the ultimate aim is for customers to perceive a brand as unique, relevant, credible, and differentiated enough to seek it out, most brand managers must adopt the cowboy’s “iron man” process and apply the brand one interaction at a time. However, rather than having one “iron man,” modern brand managers must look for ways to make each brand representative an “iron man” in their own right. Today’s brand “iron men and women” must look for ways to imprint their brand on their customers through employee branding behaviors, attitudes, and consistent delivery of brand promises made at all points of contact.

Likewise for employee branding efforts, today’s management teams and leadership must continuously find credible ways to apply their own branding iron to their employees.  They do this by creating consistent linkage between company values, goals, and behaviors.  They link reward and recognition systems to the delivery of company brand behaviors and create compelling workplaces that consistently live the brand they advocate.  It’s no simple task to authentically and consistently connect brand aspirations to brand behaviors, but walking the walk in visible ways is a best place to start.

While it is entertaining to draw similarities between the branding process of cowboys and the modern branding of corporations it is, admittedly, an over simplification. Today’s brand managers do not have the luxury of taking one key opportunity to permanently brand their customers for life. In addition, unlike the rancher, the brand is not truly owned by the company, but by the customer.

Create More Riders for the Brand

An important goal of the modern brand manager is to uncover each “moment of truth” in the relationship between his/her brand and the customer.  It is equally important to define for employees the role they play in delivering against a given “moment of truth.” It is within each moment of truth that brands are truly built or damaged. The key for effective overall brand management is to ensure that each “iron man” understands his or her role in the branding process.

Like the cowboys of the Wild West, today’s brand manager looks for ways to differentiate his/her product or service from similar offerings. The modern brand is a sign of ownership, of heritage, of quality level, and of employee identification and affiliation. The ultimate goal of both the cowboys of the past, and brand managers of today, is to create more ‘riders for the brand’ to help differentiate the brand and to create more loyal advocates for it. – Randall Rozin

If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the free Brainzooming blog email updates.

Download the free ebook, “Taking the NO Out of InNOvation” to help you generate fantastic creative thinking and ideas! For an organizational innovation success boost, contact The Brainzooming Group to help your team be more successful by rapidly expanding strategic options and creating innovative plans to efficiently implement. Email us at info@brainzooming.com or call us at 816-509-5320 to learn how we can deliver these benefits for you.

Guest Author

The Brainzooming blog has a wonderful group of guest authors who regularly contribute their perspectives on strategy, creativity, and innovation. You can view guest author posts by clicking on the link below.

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Brainzooming regular contributor and retail marketing sage, Woody Bendle bring a fantastic quantitative perspective to his analysis of Super Bowl Advertising. Woody used a rating scale exploring relationship and creative strengths to assess this year’s crop of Super Bowl advertising entries. Check out Woody’s methodology and see how your favorites fared with his analysis:

Mike reached out the weekend before the Super Bowl and asked if I’d be interested in writing a blog post about this year’s Super Bowl advertising.  I had no idea what I would write but I’ve always found the pressure of a deadline invigorating so without even giving it much thought, I immediately said yes!

OK… so now what?

Super Bowl Advertising by the Numbers

It is estimated that there were approximately 120 million viewers for the Super Bowl this year.  Come Monday morning, these viewers talk not only about the game, but also the Super Bowl advertising.  This conversation happens from the water cooler to the boardroom.  Everyone watching instantly becomes an armchair Creative Director with a lot of advertising opinions, some favorable, and some…. well, not so much.  What do they know anyway!?  Oh yeah, they’re actually potential customers!  That’s right, the folks who Super Bowl advertising was, in theory, created for in the first place!

This year, the average 30 second spot in the Super Bowl cost about $4 million to air.  This is up a staggering 14% from last year!  Talk about inflation!!!  Four Million Dollars for 30 seconds.  Man, that ad better work!  OK… maybe there’s a little pressure associated with creating an impactful advertisement for the Super Bowl.

So let’s pretend for a moment, that you had a spare $4 million lying around.  And for some CRAZY reason, you decided to run a commercial during the Super Bowl.  I already noted that you’re going to have 120 million people judging you, and they’re going to be comparing you with some advertising heavyweights such Budweiser, Doritos, Volkswagen, E*Trade and probably every car manufacturer on the planet.

Still feeling up to the challenge?

Oh, and remember that some of those 120 million watching the Super Bowl are potential and current customers (see above)!  And, last but not least, some of those 120 million people are your bosses, shareholders, and board members – and they’re going to want to know if your Super Bowl advertising “worked.”

Are you prepared to answer that question?

Measuring Potential Advertising Effectiveness

In my opinion, the goal of TV advertising should be to create (or build upon) a profitable relationship between your brand and your consumers, and to clearly register a memorable (preferably favorable) impression that can build upon your brands equity over time.

In television advertising, there is usually a very STRONG relationship between creative execution (that is aligned with the brand’s personality and promise) and the ad’s ability to create (or further build upon) a relationship with your brand.  And, being the geek that I am, I decided to perform a highly unscientific quantitative evaluation of the Super Bowl advertising this year with an extremely unrepresentative sample (13 people made up of my family and some friends – with a slight sample bias towards high school students).  Well, maybe we’re not all that unrepresentative.  We do live smack-dab in the geographic middle of the United States, and I suppose that make us the “average” in some way, shape, or form.

OK, so the objective of my little Super Bowl advertising research project was simply to demonstrate the relationship between creative execution and relationship potential.  To do this, we rated each ad that ran from the kickoff through the end of the Super Bowl.  And, each ad was rated on five simple measures (that’s over 3,000 scores I had to crunch).

Relationship Potential was measured through:

1)     Consideration – “The ad made me interested in buying from this company (or buying this product)”

2)     Connection – “The ad made me like this company or product”

Creative Impact Potential was measured through:

3)     Message Clarity – “I clearly knew who the ad was for and what this ad was trying to tell me”

4)     Likability – “How much I liked this ad (or not)”

5)     Buzz Worthy – “Is this ad worth sharing online with my (Facebook) friends”

Let’s see how your ad did!

By plotting Super Bowl advertising based on its Relationship Potential score vs. its Creative Impact score, we end up with a 2 x 2 grid that helps us quickly see who the Super Bowl ad winners and losers were (at least according to my family and friends) this year.  And, as we hypothesized earlier, there is a VERY STRONG relationship between an Ad’s Creative Impact and its Relationship Potential!

The top marks for this year’s ads goes to Best Buy, Doritos (goat ad), Budweiser and Taco Bell.  These ads scored well for both their ability to build a relationship with the audience, and their strong creative execution.

The bottom marks go to Cars.com, MiO Fit, Bud Light (Voo-Doo Dolls), GoDaddy.com (Walter), Gildan T-Shirts and Mercedes Benz (although I gotta give them props for the Stones tune!).  These ads were rated poorly for both Creative Impact and their Relationship Building Potential.

And by the way, the Calvin Klein ad in the Super Bowl did very well with the High School girls (I’m expecting that to be “shared” and “liked” a lot of Facebook over the coming days by teenage girls).

So how did my family and friends do?  Do our ratings reflect your opinions? - Woody Bendle

If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the free Brainzooming blog email updates.

Download the free ebook, “Taking the NO Out of InNOvation” to help you generate fantastic creative thinking and ideas! For an organizational innovation success boost, contact The Brainzooming Group to help your team be more successful by rapidly expanding strategic options and creating innovative plans to efficiently implement. Email us at info@brainzooming.com or call us at 816-509-5320 to learn how we can deliver these benefits for you.

Guest Author

The Brainzooming blog has a wonderful group of guest authors who regularly contribute their perspectives on strategy, creativity, and innovation. You can view guest author posts by clicking on the link below.

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I asked a couple of regular contributors to the Brainzooming blog to weigh in with their own perspectives on the Super Bowl advertising for Super Bowl XLVII. Today, Randall Rozin (who you can find on Twitter under his @RandallRozin account) shares his perspectives on the common archetypes showing up in this year’s Super Bowl: 

Super Bowl Advertising – 8 Archetypes by Randall Rozin

Literature, theater, and yes, the Super Bowl advertising are chock full of general themes or archetypes that are used as models to connect you to a given point of view.  Advertising provides a unique emotional shorthand to these archetypes in the form of characters (real or imagined) and through situational placements.

Given a high percentage of ‘’average Joe and Janes” watching a telecast such as the Super Bowl,  it was not surprising to see this particular archetype played out many times throughout the telecast. It was not the only one, however, as this year’s Super Bowl advertising featured at least eight common archetypes:

1. The Average Joe or Jane

Volkswagen had an interesting take on an Average Joe from Minnesota turned Island Sage with its Beetle ad “Smile.” A dismal office scene and is turned into opine for the optimist that exists in all of us – if only we could bring our smile to the surface.  One manifestation of the smile we all need rests in the Volkswagen Beetle, whose anthropomorphized front end is a smile incarnate – sorry, but couldn’t resist that pun.  The call to action is simply, “Get happy.”  The line, “Don’t fret me brother, sticky bun come soon” is sure to be a classic.

2. The Damsel

Regardless of what one thinks about the ad’s execution, the most obvious use of combined archetypes in their purest forms was from GoDaddy.Com. The firm employed a Damsel (sexy Damsel in this case with Bar Refaeli) and a Smart Nerd to demonstrate a Match of sexy domain and smart website capabilities.

3. The Outlaw

Average Joe turns Outlaw in its new Audi “Prom” ad.  Our young hero goes to the prom alone, but his father’s Audi gives him the confident horsepower he needs to make his move on the prom queen.  He kisses the girl, get’s a black eye from her prom king boyfriend, and celebrates his new found bravery all the way home in the Audi.

4. The Devil

The new Mercedes “Soul” commercial – with an extended play online – provides a fun depiction of several common archetypes in one ad:  The Devil (Willem Dafoe), the Average Joe (the lead actor in the spot) whom via fantasy sequence, experiences the Damsel (Kate Upton) and the Hero models as well.  A wonderfully filmed fantasy spot with the payoff being an affordably-priced car you’d think you’d have to sell your soul to have.

5. The Trailblazer / The Traveler

The epic Play Date spot from Hyundai blends the Trailblazer/Traveler archetypes together with a bit of Outlaw prototype to answer the question, “What are we going to do today?” in a fun, energetic and engaging way. This Super Bowl spot features an average family in dynamic situations with the Flaming Lips thrown in for good measure.  Every day is an adventure in the new seven passenger Hyundai Santa Fe.

6. The Child

Hyundai delivered a second clever Super Bowl spot called ‘Team’ that utilizes the Child archetype to cleverly bring home the 7-passenger Santa Fe selling proposition in a memorable and entertaining way.

7. The Hero

The entry from Axe this year features the Hero (Firefighter) with the Damsel in Distress archetype. Spoiler alert….an odd deviation from the ‘hero gets the girl” ending exists in that a new hero enters at the end of the Axe Super Bowl commercial as an out of context astronaut that connects the girl to the name of the Axe product descriptor.  In this case the descriptor is “Apollo.”

8. Buddies

Budweiser, a perennial favorite in Super Bowl advertising, had an entry called, “Brotherhood.”  It’s a beautifully shot buddy prototype that strongly reinforces an important corporate symbol.  Seemed like a 60-second send-up of the movie Warhorse but done with a Budweiser Clydesdale.  Nice.

Preview Week before the Big Game

A strong Super Bowl advertising ‘preview week’ ahead of this year’s big game telecast was quite interesting. The Super Bowl advertising previews running ahead of the Super Bowl via online display, social media, and other outlets garnered significant impressions, buzz, and excitement.  The end result was greater anticipation when the Super Bowl spots actually aired during the game with the business result being enhanced amortization of the investment and greater potential for longer term exposure.

Speaking of longer term exposure, my favorite Super Bowl advertising example . . . no strike that . . . my favorite advertisement of all time, in any venue, remains Apple and its 1984 which was aired only once by Apple, but continues to get impressions to this day.  This spot’s use of the classic hero saves the day and opens us to new realities is a classic that endures with aspiration as much nearly 30 years later as it did the day it aired. – Randall Rozin

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