2010

Book of Tens: Industry Imperatives for 2011





SELF-REGULATION
Self-regulation is the industry's most important and fundamental principle for effective marketing ecosystem management. In 2011, the industry, under the aegis of the National Advertising Review Council, will institute the self-regulatory accountability program for online behavioral advertising. This overarching program, which addresses privacy issues, consumer notification and marketer compliance to industry principles, will be fully activated and operational in early 2011. The success of this program is critical, representing to the Federal Trade Commission, legislators and public-policy activists that the marketing community can address legitimate concerns without encumbering the industry with harmful governmental regulation.


MARKETING DIVERSITY
It is time for the industry to get its act together to address this long-standing concern. For years, the marketing community has been sharply criticized for its lack of diversity. Despite a wealth of "diversity programs," there has been no way to demonstrate real progress due to inadequate data, a lack of centralized and coordinated management and inconsistency in the industry's commitment to "solve" real issues. Currently, there is a debate as to what the marketing community can and should do. The industry needs to make a commitment to real, tangible and measurable progress. We have talked about this for too long -- now we must do something that will make a difference


MEASUREMENT
"You can't manage what you can't measure." That quotation is as relevant today as it ever was. Despite increased attention to marketing accountability, the proliferation of media and a dearth of rigorous analytics leave many gasping for guidance, indicators, metrics and measurements. The industry has a number of important initiatives underway. If these initiatives don't make more measurement progress, we will render effective marketing and media decision-making to a patchwork of guesses, estimates and intuition -- an untenable posture.


ADVERTISING TAXES
We must insure that the industry remains free of unnecessary and burdensome advertising taxes. It is crucial for the industry to fend off attacks on tax deductibility and product-specific proposals. In the past two years, the industry has successfully deflected proposals to restrict the deductibility for prescription-drug advertising, fast-food restaurants and certain image advertising. As Congress and state legislators seek to balance budgets and slash deficits, the industry must not let them do so on the backs of the marketing community. The government relations' teams at multiple trade associations are geared up for a bruising battle in 2011.


MENDING CLIENT-AGENCY RELATIONSHIP
Despite the posturing by industry leaders, client-agency relationships do not appear to be improving. In fact, they may be deteriorating, as evidenced by roster consolidation (including multicultural), the increased role of procurement departments, agency-compensation issues and strategic concerns about the current "unbundled" state of agency services. All of these are real issues and place additional strains on the client-agency relationship. It is imperative that we make substantial headway on these issues so that we may all get back to the fundamentals of building brands and businesses.


BRAND-VALUATION STANDARDS
What's the valuation of your brand? Do you know? Probably not. Should you know? Definitely, yes. The role of marketers is to build brands and brand value. Unfortunately, that ends up being lip service rather than the primary focus of brand marketers and agencies. The industry's problem is that it lacks generally accepted brand valuation standards -- rules of the road that would provide guidance for understanding the impact of marketing. In 2011, the Marketing Accountability Standards Board and the ANA will be working jointly to see if much-needed progress can be brought to this highly important area.


SUPPLY-CHAIN MANAGEMENT
The marketing ecosystem has been making great strides towards improving the productivity of the supply chain. By leveraging technology, all players have been able to reduce cycle times, trim costs, reduce labor and simplify tasks. Despite all of this progress, the industry still lacks a common digital asset coding system that would bring unity across the many players and processes in the ecosystem. The industry needs to barrel forward in leveraging Ad ID, its growing coding system, to optimize productivity and squeeze more costs out of production, and improve asset trafficking and tracking.


SCREENS! MOBILE/INTERACTIVE/CONVERGENCE
We could talk all day about this. Suffice it to say that marketers are lining up to leverage the exponential growth of mobile, the growing convergence of the internet and TV. Marketing and media is being turned on its head. It is imperative that marketers and agencies catch up lest they be left in the dust of these very exciting and transforming media opportunities.


INDUSTRY RESPONSIBILITY AND IMAGE
The marketing industry has always had a penchant for "doing good things." The work of the Advertising Council and the Partnership for Drug-Free America are examples of how marketing can be leveraged to make a difference in people's lives. But now the industry must be aggressive to insure that the public -- particularly younger people -- have a critical understanding of the value of advertising. The industry has a relatively poor public image which needs to be bolstered via education and responsible programs that restore advertising as a desired career track.





Book of Tens: Campaigns Creativity Loved


A Space Chimp, a Good-Smelling Man and a World Cup Anthem Are Among 2010's Memorable Efforts





OLD SPICE: The Man Your Man Could Smell Like/Responses
It wasn't just "Hello, ladies!" but "Hello, everyone!" Wieden & Kennedy's pop-culture-infiltrating commercial and the "Responses" follow-up capitalized on the beloved Isaiah Mustafa's character and the immediacy of social-media channels, creating, over a period of three days, more than 150 tailor-made YouTube responses from the Man to fans. The latter drummed up tons of media attention for Old Spice and generated some impressive statistics: it increased Facebook interaction by 800% and Oldspice.com website traffic by 300%, OldSpice's YouTube page became the all-time most-viewed channel on the site. More impressive? Even actual sales were up.


PEPSI: Refresh Project
The social-media-driven campaign from TBWA/Chiat/Day, L.A., which saw the marketer divert its Super Bowl budget toward social causes, has been one of the most -- dare we say -- important brand efforts of the year. Demonstrating what a reallocation of a portion of a mega media budget could do, the campaign ended this year with nearly three billion media impressions, 51 million votes from a broad demographic sample and millions given to worthwhile grassroots causes. The campaign has been a massive success in terms of awareness and -- say Pepsi bottlers, no less -- palpable goodwill toward the brand.


ARCADE FIRE: Wilderness Downtown
Director Chris Milk, data viz artist Aaron Koblin, Google, B-Reel, @radical.media, mr. doob and others brought their combined tech wizardry and artistry to bear on this phenomenal interactive video for the Arcade Fire song, "We Used to Wait." Milk's motivation was to endow the music-video experience with the same emotional resonance as music itself. The video, which uses Google Earth to provide a powerfully personal angle on the song, succeeded as an HTML5 case study, a nifty calling card for Chrome, a giant PR boost for Arcade Fire's new album and, most importantly, a powerfully personal way to experience a great song.


DOMINO'S: Pizza Turnaround
With the help of Crispin Porter & Bogusky, Domino's bared its soul and turned to focus groups and social-media channels to find out what consumers really thought about its pizzas. After discovering that eaters were likening their pies to "cardboard and ketchup," the brand went on a quest to turn opinions around with a major recipe overhaul, documenting its efforts in a series of web films and spots and on the website PizzaTurnaround.com. The experiment in transparency was a success, and according to CMO Russell Weiner, resulted in plenty of media buzz, more satisfied customers and third-quarter same-store sales increase of 11.7%.


MITSUBISHI: Virtual Test Drive
Mitsubishi, its agency 180 L.A. and digital production maestros B-Reel made test- driving a car much more accessible to potential buyers (and, doubtless, much less nerve wracking, smelly and awkward for dealers) with what the marketer called an auto industry first -- the Live Drive. Part of an integrated campaign for the Outlander, Live Drive allowed 5,000 web viewers to drive an actual vehicle on an actual course, via a remote control software system. It's perhaps not the most enduring effort, but demonstrated how a big tech-enabled idea could come to life and create energy around a brand.


DARE LABS: Remote Palette
London agency Dare made an investment in creative technology in 2007, launching Dare Labs to foster new-product development. This year, the Labs bore fruit in the form of Remote Palette, a magical app that links iPad and iPhone, allowing users to paint on the iPad using their fingers as brushes and phone as palette. The app garnered huge online buzz, helped along by a web video featuring a man dressed as a certain artist, trying to shake ketchup onto his iPad -- a nod, of course, to the 1982 art clip, "Andy Warhol Eats a Hamburger."


NIKE: Write the Future
The cornerstone of this World Cup campaign, from Wieden & Kennedy, Amsterdam, was a stellar anthem spot directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, starring an elite cast of athletes and celebs. Other components included a digital outdoor effort whereby users generated headlines that were projected onto a prominent Johannesburg building, and an online push that allowed visitors to see their own glorious rise from soccer unknown to all-star athlete in an interactive film and promo posters.


JAY-Z/BING: Decoded
Ubiquitous and massive -- two words that easily describe Droga5's campaign to promote Jay-Z's book, "Decoded." The multiplatform effort gave new meaning to "outdoor," and brought every page of the book to life on practically every surface imaginable -- from the rooftops of a building in New Orleans and the bottom of Miami's Delano Hotel pool, to the lining of suits -- giving fans a preview of the content at the locations that inspired them. For those who couldn't view the physical pages, a partnership with Microsoft Bing allowed Jay-Z followers around the globe to search for each page online via a scavenger hunt.


WWF: Space Chimp
The World Wildlife Fund Australia collaborated with musical artist Ben Lee and Leo Burnett, Sydney, on this gut-wrenching video. Serving as a music video for Lee's "Song for the Divine Mother of the Universe" and an environmental-awareness message, Space Chimp follows the titular astronaut returning home from a long voyage to find himself alone on a ruined planet. The visuals, orchestrated by director Steve Rogers, are superb and the effort is a great example of inter-brand collaboration.


CONAN O'BRIEN: Comeback Campaign
When it came time for Conan O'Brien to return to TV land with his new TBS talk show, he and the cable channel leveraged his legion of online supporters, aka Team Coco, and launched a slew of social media-minded pushes that included everything from a Foursquare-linked blimp, web films and a webcam showing live antics from his new office. The campaign also included hilarious TV promos, including a massive actioner starring the host in an explosive cliff dive. And, of course, there were the hilarious Twitter missives of O'Brien himself. All resulted in a successful opening night, with O'Brien surpassing both Jay Leno and David Letterman in the ratings.











Book of Tens: Biggest Stories of the Year


Recalls, Oil Spills, Media Mergers and One of Adland's Most Lauded Execs Leaving the Industry





BP OIL SPILL ASSAULTS GULF COAST
Not only did BP spill 158 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico with an off-shore oil-rig explosion that killed 11 people, it was also pegged as the ultimate hypocrite. BP's 2001 launch of its "Beyond Petroleum" campaign from Ogilvy had been held up as a rebranding case study. But its disastrous oil spill that flowed for three months this year was a harsh reminder that despite waving the green flag, the company is still very much in the oil business. Its campaign was not only at odds with reality, but BP was seemingly unprepared to deal with the fallout, bungling messages and public statements like this gem from then-CEO Tony Hayward: "I'd like to get my life back."


CAMPAIGN FINANCE UN-REFORMED
When the Supreme Court ruled in January to overturn two key elements of campaign-finance law -- the ban on corporations using their own money to engage in political activity, and the blackout period that prevents certain groups from spending money on ads within 60 days of an election -- it set the stage for the biggest midterm-election-spending season ever and a windfall for local TV stations. Of course, it also didn't hurt that Republicans were energized in their fury over President Obama's health-care legislation and looming deficit. Add to that an active tea party, and that resulted in Democratic incumbents, many of them used to easy re-elections, having to fight hard -- and spend more -- to keep their seats.


CORD-CUTTING BECOMES REALITY
Much ink has been spilled over the past few years questioning if and when people start eschewing $100 cable TV bills and opt for the plethora of free online content. But this year, it finally arrived: the first total decline in subscriptions since, well, the advent of cable. In the second quarter, the multichannel TV industry -- cable, satellite and telcos -- collectively lost 216,000 subscribers compared with the same period last year. The trend continued into the third quarter, though many industry execs are quick to point out the losses are still a small percentage of the more than 100 million multichannel subscribers.


BOGUSKY BAILS ON ADVERTISING
In July, Alex Bogusky, the rock-star adman who has won piles of industry awards, graced many a publication's cover, wrote a diet book and, like any real celebrity, boasted scores of fans, haters and Twitter impersonators, left the industry to become, in his words, an "insurgent in the new consumer revolution" as part of Fearless Revolution, an activism-fueled business platform he founded. Whether or not he's the new Ralph Nader (branded skis, anyone?), his departure shone a light on a bigger question the industry had to ask itself: Why are some of its best creative people leaving if not the industry, then at least the big, established shops that were supposed to be the pinnacle of success in adland?


A NEW HOPE: THE APPLE IPAD GIVES
One would think Steve Jobs was the second coming for the publishing industry, the way iPad frenzy hit once the tablet launched in April. There have been scores of iPad editions, including some very nice ones from Wired, Popular Science, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today. Heck, News Corp. boss Rupert Murdoch even assembled a team of pop culture all-stars to create content for his brand-new all-iPad venture, The Daily. Early results show wide disparities in just how valuable the device has been for publishers, with tech and science titles showing more impact, but it will be tough to determine whether that hope turns into dollars until iPads and subscription offers become commonplace.


PEPSI BOWS OUT OF SUPER BOWL
Pepsi yanked commercials for its beverage brands from the 2010 Super Bowl, instead putting its efforts toward Pepsi Refresh Project, a social-media-fueled campaign meant to support community-building projects. Born in January, the campaign proved one of the most hotly watched by fellow marketers. Refresh boosted Pepsi's clout at the local level, helping bottlers snag more shelf space and media interest, but it hasn't yet proved whether it can lift sales. For its part, Pepsi is back in the Bowl in 2011.


WALMART BACKS OFF BRAND DELETION
The changing of the guard at Walmart U.S. (see People to Watch, page 8) ushered in a retreat from its recent merchandising strategy that knocked thousands of items off the retailer's shelves and cleared the aisles of promotional merchandise. The retailer made moves to give regional and store managers more power over what their stores carry and how merchandise gets displayed, and backed off on demands that marketers fork over their consumer marketing funds for Walmart to use in its programs, refocusing on a return to Everyday Low Pricing.


COMCAST BUYS 51% STAKE IN NBC UNIVERSAL
OK, so the deal still isn't done, and was technically announced last year, in December 2009. Yet Comcast's move has consumed the media world's attention for the better part of this year. When it closes, it will combine a cable-provider giant with a content giant and it will free GE from some of the stress of being in the media business. Some suspect the new entity will try to make a run at ESPN, by combining NBC's sports assets with Comcast's Versus, but more interesting for advertisers is its potential to drive new couch-potato behavior, such as increasing video on-demand and introducing more folks to new forms of interactive, high-tech advertising.


TOYOTA, J&J FUEL RECALL FATIGUE
Toyota and Johnson & Johnson, two of the world's most-respected companies, revered for quality and high standards, were subject to grueling recalls in 2010. But they were far from alone. Joining the recall trend were Fruiti Pops frozen-fruit bars, Gap baby swimsuits, four varieties of Kellogg cereals and 550 million eggs. All of that -- and the fact recalls today are widely publicized through any of your favorite social-media channels -- amounted to a distinct case of numbing recall fatigue for many consumers.


PROCUREMENT FIGHTS BACK
After more than a year of being lambasted by agencies, internal marketing colleagues and, yes, the trade press, the industry's procurement players set up a task force under the Association of National Advertisers that includes high-powered executives from IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Toyota, Anheuser-Busch. The goal? To repair the widespread misalignment between procurement executives and their internal and external marketing partners, and to help those who work in the marketing procurement field become as smart as possible about marketing, creativity and strategy.





Book of Tens: Follies


The Year's Biggest Branding and Marketing Fiascoes





THE JAY LENO/NBC FIASCO
At this time last year, we were wondering how the Peacock would respond to the fact that moving Jay Leno to 10 p.m. had tanked with viewers, advertisers and network affiliates. About a month later NBC reversed course, adding fuel to an already hot fire. Sure, affiliates may have grinned, but the maneuver automatically created the Conan monster, turning Mr. O'Brien into a lovable victim who'd been wronged by the suits. NBC became both laughingstock and villain -- too harsh, perhaps, for the one network at least willing to experiment with reshaping prime time.


GAP'S LOCO LOGO
Who knew Gap still had so many faithful fans? You certainly wouldn't have known it from its sales over the past few years. But when the retailer updated its logo, you would have thought it had defiled a sacred text. Sure, the old logo was a cool classic and the replacement looked like something puked up from a late-'90s Dallas office park, but the outrage was a little over the top. The bigger folly may have been being one of the few marketers who actually caved to the braying of the social-media crowds -- especially considering how unlikely it was that any of them shopped there.


ESPN'S LEBRON JAMES SHOW
Sure, Cleveland fans have plenty of reason to hate LeBron James for abandoning their NBA franchise. But all of America should have boycotted ESPN. The sports network ceded control of its air to Team LeBron (meaning his friends and advisers, not the Cleveland Cavaliers), so that the championship-ring-less star could announce whether he was staying or going. LeBron used the hour-long special to stab Cleveland in the chest. Repeatedly. ESPN, ostensibly a sports-news outfit, looked like it worked for LeBron; LeBron, ostensibly a loyal and humble guy, annoyed the country enough that he -- and Nike -- felt a need to make an image-rehab ad.


MICROSOFT'S KIN
Not much to say on this one. The company's first phone product, was as we said in June, "one of the fastest launch-to-failure paths ever taken by a major marketer." A fitting fate for a physically unattractive communication, er, thingie with no clear positioning.


NIELSEN'S FUZZY MATH
In November Nielsen revealed that it had been underestimating unique visitors to the top 1,000 sites on the web by an average of 5%. That admission came one week after disclosing that it had been seriously underestimating the amount of time people spend on the web because its system was choking on long web addresses -- those with more than 2,000 characters. This not only reinforced the sense that metrics for the web (supposedly the most accountable medium) are closer to nonsense than suggested, it set back Nielsen's quest to be the standard for online measurement.


IPHONE 4
Thanks to a forgetful Apple engineer, the super-top-secret Phone of all Phones IV (are we already up to the fourth version?) found its way into the hands of the enterprising bloggers at Gizmodo. This made Steve Jobs very unhappy. Also making Steve Jobs very unhappy? You silly left-handed people who pointed out that the phone part of the iPhone (always a sketchy detail to begin with) didn't seem to work so hot. Jobs' solution? Hold it in your other hand. Oh, and get a protective casing. Most bizarre about all this is that Apple consumers -- even the left-handed ones -- are already lining up to buy the iPhone 5.


CHRISTINE O'DONNELL
The Delaware politician went from zero to hero when she beat GOP pick Michael Castle in the Republican Party's own primary, much to the consternation of Karl Rove and others who saw this as the Tea Party snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. (A former governor and nine-term U.S. Rep., Castle was seen as the favorite to win the Senate seat.) While she may have been anointed as the second coming of Sarah Palin and the face of the Tea Party movement, she was little more than a media distraction and a constant source of embarrassment. Note to aspiring political candidates, never start a commercial with the phrase, "I am not a witch."


CHEVRON HIJACKED BY THE YES MEN
When Ad Age received a call from a Chevron spokesman miffed about our coverage of its new campaign, we were puzzled -- we hadn't covered the campaign. After some digging, it turned out that activist group The Yes Men, along with Rainforest Action Network and Amazon Watch, had hijacked Chevron's brand, its ads and its PR push. Not only did the group send out convincing fake press releases, it set up very convincing fake Chevron sites and even a fake Ad Age site with fake coverage. Much to the consternation of Chevron, a number of real news outlets fell for the ruse.


BARE BEAR BOTTOMS BANNED
We didn't know if this qualified as a folly, but we didn't have a list solely for headlines we never thought we'd right. But news is news, and "NAD to Charmin: No Bare Bear Bottoms. P&G Must Show Some Pieces of TP on Bruin's Bums" was an actual story. After a challenge from Kimberly-Clark, Procter & Gamble was forced to add little flecks of cartoon toilet-paper to the backsides of its Charmin cartoon bears to avoid the wrath of arbitrators. The National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus determined that P&G had indeed substantiated its claim of leaving "fewer pieces behind" than K-C's Cottonelle. The problem? The tests used by P&G didn't mimic the way humans actually wiped.


THE STEVE SLATER AFFAIR
It wasn't JetBlue's fault. We understand that. The airline can't be held responsible for a flight attendant losing it (allegedly because of an abusive passenger), popping the emergency slide and escaping the airport with beers in hand. But the airline, typically known for transparency and a strong social-media presence, had to go silent for legal reasons and let Slater go. And go he did, becoming a media sensation and a folk hero to a population that's had it up to here with the indignities of air travel.





Book of Tens: 10 Who Made Their Mark


From a Nonagenarian Looking to Save a Storied Mag Brand to 15-year-old Heartthrob, All Eyes Were on These Influencers





Janet Rollé
BET
As recently as 2007, when Janet Rollé joined BET Networks, the Viacom cable network's ratings were at a standstill, and it was viewed as a risky environment for major marketers. Fast-forward to 2010, and BET is having its best year ever under Rollé's leadership as exec VP-chief marketing officer. The network has seen record ratings growth for the last 18 months and a bigger, wider audience. In an interview with Ad Age, Rollé articulated her charge: "We were trying to be all things to all people. But we settled on being more things to more people. My job is to direct you and help you understand the full array of offerings BET has, no matter what your interests or background may be."


Joel Ewanick
General Motors
He started the year at Hyundai, making big splashes in big places (Super Bowl, Oscars), then jumped to Nissan for a mere six weeks before landing at GM, where he had carte blanche to remake the marketing organization. And that he did, ditching both longtime agencies and newcomers for his own group of shops with whom he has had long relationships. Now GM has IPO'd and he's back in the big game. While it's probably too soon to tell if GM will be able to resurrect itself as Ford has done, the automaker seems on the right track with its latest round of cars. It will be up to Ewanick to make sure the marketing matches the metal.


Conan O'Brien
Talk-show Host
Conan may have gotten the short end of the stick when NBC changed its mind on the failed Leno experiment (and for some reason, can't let go of his resentment over landing at TBS), but the comedian put his time between networks to good use and provided a case study in word-of-mouth and social-media marketing. His stand-up-comedy tour drew thousands around the country, building up goodwill and a hell of a beard. And don't forget his smart-aleck Twitter feed. By the time Team Coco's blimp landed at TBS, O'Brien had a built-in audience that was 4.2 million strong for his debut show.


Sidney Harman
Magazine Savior
He drew all eyes back to magazines by buying Newsweek from the Washington Post Co. without a business plan except the intent to save it one way or another -- and then by forging a stunning but risky merger with The Daily Beast that secured Tina Brown as Newsweek's new editor. Harman, a nonagenarian who made his millions in the stereo business, told staffers he would be "delighted" to see Newsweek return to profitability "over a period of a few years."


Mary Beth West
Kraft
During her tenure, the Kraft CMO -- along with CEO Irene Rosenfeld and Senior VP-Marketing Strategy and Communications Dana Anderson -- has been remarkably aggressive in terms of shaking up its marketing as well as its agency roster. Once a two-agency marketer known for its steadfastness, Kraft has spread its work far and wide. West had an incredibly fast ascension at Kraft and is clearly someone Rosenfeld trusts and counts on -- so much so that she's been given oversight of the Cadbury business as the leader of the global chocolate team.


Betty White
Actress
Who'da thunk the last surviving Golden Girl would become one of this year's pop-culture phenomenons and a marketer's dream? She kicked off the year in a high-profile Super Bowl spot for Snickers (totally eclipsing poor Abe Vigoda), hosted one of the highest-rated "Saturday Night Live" episodes of the year (after a Facebook movement to get her the gig) and was handed a co-starring role on TV Land's first sitcom, "Hot in Cleveland."


Marc Pritchard
Procter & Gamble
He might not be flashy, but he quietly has made or had a hand in some substantial changes either begun or implemented this year. These include consolidating all marketing functions into the global brand-building organization; leading P&G's biggest corporate-branding campaign ever at the Winter Olympics; and pushing through the "store back" movement of trying to ensure every campaign idea starts with looking at how it will play out at the store shelf.


Russell Weiner
Domino's
Domino's chief marketing officer headed a campaign in which the company admitted it was selling a crappy product, then lived to tell the company's success story. Recognizing that sales were down and something needed to be done, he embarked on a risky move that could have failed miserably. But critics' skepticism of the campaign, from Crispin Porter & Bogusky, gave way to praise for the ads' self-deprecating and authentic tone, and consumers responded with their wallets: The pizza chain saw a 14.3% increase in first-quarter same-store sales. Most recently, third-quarter same-store sales were up 11.7%.


Justin Bieber
Heartthrob
Can you recall a simpler time, when no one knew what a Bieber was? In fact, most people over 15 probably still don't know what a Bieber is, other than a word that's always topping trends on Twitter and other social-media platforms. But the music industry knows, as do thousands upon thousands of young girls. Oh, and Walmart, which has inked a deal that gives it first dibs on young Bieber's albums, his fragrance line and a line of ... nail polish? Yes. Nail polish.


Sarah Palin
Political Powerhouse
Remember when people were debating whether Sarah Palin lost John McCain the presidential election or breathed life into a campaign that had no shot against Barack Obama? The Mama Grizzly seemed to answer that question this year. She became a powerful forces in then Republican Party and a big influence on midterm elections, staying in the spotlight all the year with good publicity and bad, and giving (or withholding) her blessing in primaries and generals across the land. All this, of course, while letting her name float for a 2012 presidential run. Like it or not, Brand Palin has legs.





Book of Tens: People to Watch


Some Have a Tough Road Ahead in 2011, but All Are Poised for Greatness





Bob McDonald
Procter & Gamble
It's been a year-and-a-half since the former Army man took the chairman-CEO reins from A.G. Lafley. And while results have improved and P&G is broadly gaining share again, increasing competition, rising commodity costs and harder comparisons make 2011 a tougher year. To that end, it's launched a "just one more" campaign to get consumers in North America, where it has near-full penetration, to buy at least one more P&G product. And it's working hard to reach a billion more among the world's 6.7 billion consumers within five years (last year it added 200 million, right on target). Still, some analysts and people close to the company believe that to succeed, McDonald needs a big restructuring or a big acquisition.


Oprah Winfrey
Daytime Icon
Oprah's OWN cable network starts up on New Year's Day, making her the biggest name yet to switch to cable from broadcast. She'll be following Martha Stewart, whose jump to cable has largely flopped, and Conan O'Brien, who's move has proved more successful. It's been a rocky road to the launch of OWN, which is a joint venture between Oprah's Harpo Inc. and Discovery Network, though it's managed to snag eight-figure ad deals from the likes of P&G, GM and Kohl's. Oprah, for her part, plans to end her daily daytime talk show that runs on ABC in May 2011 after 25 years.


Sheryl Sandberg
Facebook
Sandberg was tapped as Facebook's chief operating officer in March 2008. At the time, many likened her appointment to the role Eric Schmidt played when he arrived at Google to join co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. She was the "grown up," brought in to run the business, build out Facebook's revenue and turn it into a real operating company. But unlike Page and Brin, who gave up the CEO crown to Schmidt, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has yet to relinquish the title, leading us to wonder: When will Sandberg be named CEO, and, if not, when will she jump ship -- and to where?


Bill Simon
Walmart
Declines in comp store sales have slowed and traffic has improved since Simon took over as president of Walmart U.S. in July and the retailer retreated from its brand-deletion movement. The exec, upped from COO, a role he'd held since 2007, has been credited with improvements in service and cleaner stores. But will his push to refocus on "Everyday Low Pricing" and Walmart's core consumer while trying "smallmarts" in urban areas return the behemoth to topline growth?


Steve Burke
Comcast
Once the NBC Universal acquisition is approved, Burke will be the division's new head, and responsibility for reviving the NBC network and making more of NBCU's cable portfolio will rest on his shoulders. But perhaps his biggest potential influence will be on how marketers advertise, by melding the one-to-one addressable technology of Comcast's cable distribution with the content and programming might of NBC Universal. Expect him to use Comcast technology to make enhanced advertising functions a selling point for NBCU.


Nick Brien
McCann Worldgroup
He took over the troubled agency giant in January and the word on the street was if anyone could fix Interpublic's problem child -- and marquee global network -- it was Brien, who'd led a similar turnaround at Universal McCann before launching and leading Mediabrands, the group for all of IPG's media assets. But after a relatively quiet 2010, Brien has started to make waves, persuading creative star Linus Karlsson to leave the successful New York office of Mother for McCann's New York and London outposts. Look for more movement in 2011, when he'll also need a few big wins to cement a change in momentum.


Ken Jautz
CNN
Jautz was named exec VP of CNN's U.S. operations in September, taking over for Jon "Middle Road" Klein and promising to make CNN's prime time more "compelling and engaging, sometimes more fun, you could even say." No stranger to shaking things up, Jautz put radio talker Glenn Beck on TV back when he was running CNN sibling HLN. He'll be overseeing the debut of Piers Morgan, the colorful British TV host who takes over Larry King's timeslot come July, and he'll be deciding the fate of the newly launched Eliot Spitzer show. Already CNN got a lot less boring.


Natalia Franco
Burger King
Tapped in May to be the fast feeder's exec VP-global CMO, Franco was previously global VP-marketing and innovation at Coca-Cola Co., where she was charged with supervision of the brand's division that serviced BK rival McDonald's. The Harvard-educated Latina was a shrewd choice for the traditionally testosterone-fueled marketer, which has had more than one cultural misstep, as it looks to improve relations among women and ethnic minorities.


Ivan Pollard
Coca-Cola
The former global partner at Naked Communications in London is relocating to Atlanta to take on the role of VP-global connections at the beverage giant. He had been working with Coca-Cola in his role at the agency, most recently leading the integrated agency efforts for the brand's World Cup efforts, and his new role will include leading the company's efforts to engage consumers through paid, owned, shared and earned media. With Coca-Cola CMO Joe Tripodi ushering in an era of increased marketing creativity, look for big things for this team in 2011.


Tina Brown
The NewsBeast
The editrix with a history of resurrecting sleepy rags (New Yorker, Vanity Fair) will have the test of her life as she looks to remake Newsweek in her image. In a deal that put Brown at the top of the edit masthead, her IAC-financed site The Daily Beast will be merged with Newsweek and take over the magazine's web presence. Brown's efforts will demonstrate whether or not a glamorous editor can pull an ailing newsweekly back to profitability.





Book of Tens: TV's High Points (and a Few Lows)


Zombies Were the Fall's Biggest Surprise, and See You Later Simon Cowell and Jeff Zucker





CONAN'S FAREWELL
In late January, Conan O'Brien agreed to exit his much-desired perch on NBC's "Tonight" program after network executives asked him to move it back to midnight to give Jay Leno -- at the time, driving a flailing prime-time vehicle -- his old roost at 11:30. "Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get," O'Brien said during his last moments on NBC's air. But TV viewers, station affiliates and advertisers at least thought they'd get better treatment from the network.


CONAN'S ARRIVAL
He may make fun of his new basic-cable perch, but O'Brien's debut on Time Warner's TBS, which 4.2 million watched -- and an average of 1.7 million watched the second week -- suggests TV viewers, especially the younger ones advertisers covet, see less of a distinction between the big broadcast networks and their smaller rivals.





"LONE STAR" DIMS
We heard loads of talk about the big broadcasters investing in high-quality scripted drama, but then we saw many of those "quality" shows yanked off the air. So long, Fox's "Lone Star," NBC's "Undercovers" and "Outlaw" and ABC's "My Generation." We know quality when we see it -- on cable, that is.


ZUCKER SIGNALS HIS DEPARTURE
Give Jeff Zucker this: He was never dull. After years of talking about the demise of broadcast TV, Zucker will be able to say "I told you so" if NBC Universal's new majority holder, Comcast, fails to make the Peacock fly anew.


COWELL SIGNS OFF
Did Simon Cowell walk off with the value of Fox's "American Idol" franchise in hand last season? Or does the powerhouse show still have life left in it? We'll see what the ratings are like when J. Lo and Steven Tyler try to fill his shoes next year.


TV AND ONLINE MOVE CLOSER TOGETHER
With the CW selling packages of TV and online ad inventory, Fox selling time on Hulu to marketers who missed their ratings guarantees on its network and Nielsen working to come up with a plan that measures viewers across TV and web viewing, we're close to a day when the TV is just one screen among many.


SUPER BOWL SELLS OUT
Three months before the kickoff of the 2011 gridiron classic, Fox sold the whole thing out -- and at between $2.8 million and $3 million per 30-second spot, to boot. Call it the gift of an improving economy, top ratings for CBS's broadcast of the event this year and sports audiences' desire to watch the game live, without skipping past the ads.


CNN'S TROUBLES
Yes, the channel represents a significant chunk of parent Time Warner's operations, but its "straight down the middle" approach has cost it ratings in the prime-time race against MSNBC and Fox News Channel. Piers Morgan's arrival in 2011 will be telling, since the new "Parker/Spitzer" has yet to prove itself.


SPIKE TV'S 10-MINUTE AD BREAK
We tune in to TV to watch, well, TV shows. But Spike took the opposite tack this year, breaking up brief flashes of "Entourage" with mammoth ad breaks lasting eight to 10 minutes in length. Ad Age's inquiry into the situation got State Farm and others riled up, and Spike did something it should have done all along -- cut its ad breaks down to size.





ZOMBIE LOVE
With only six episodes, AMC's "Walking Dead" could have just been an interesting miniseries, but it instead became a cult phenomenon. Forget vampires and superheroes. We want to watch monsters eating flesh.





Book of Tens: Jargoniest Jargon We've Heard All Year


Here's a List of Words We Wish You'd Stop Saying


CHOICEFUL
This means something, just not what most users think. The connotation, before it was embraced by business folk, was about making frequent and sometimes contradictory choices, i.e. being fickle. As such, it may secretly be an apt use of language. But deciders should use "decisive" to convey the intended meaning.





Paul Piebinga


OPEN THE KIMONO
The image of corporate executives gently loosening and dropping their kimonos in advance of Geisha-like acts with one another is very disturbing. But it, too, may be secretly apt. The failure of so many deals suggests the due diligence described by this phrase focuses too much on the heat of the moment and too little on the morning after.


TOUCH POINTS
Here because it's so widely used and sounds so dirty, particularly in the context of many personal-care categories. But it may really be useful language because, unlike so many entries on this list, it describes something real, using fewer words or syllables than the alternatives. Even so, please keep your touch points inside the kimono unless asked otherwise.


360
Marketing that, like a serial killer perched in a tower, aims in all directions. Also known as holistic, which apparently does the same thing, maybe using herbal medicines. We still like former Colgate-Palmolive Co. Chairman-CEO Reuben Mark's joke that the combination of the company's shotgun marketing with its 360 approach could create self-inflicted wounds.


THE NEW NORMAL
A catchall for the dismal post-Great Recessionary world. Let's face it, this feels normal to almost no one and good to even fewer people. In marketing, where rules and conditions of social media, mobile and other digital marketing evolve constantly, it's particularly meaningless. Or, maybe that's the ... new ... normal -- aieee!!!


ALL THE WAY TO BRIGHT
We're not sure how this weirdest of phrases came to be. But it sounds like reports of near-death experiences. Perhaps any marketers who fully master the Zen-like intricacies of social media, where they no longer own brands or shill for them but profit immensely by bathing in the warmth of collective goodwill, are close to meeting that great light.


SOCIAL
Is there any media left that's not? Or at least that doesn't delude itself into believing it is?


SUSTAINABILITY
A good concept gone bad by mis- and overuse. It's come to be a squishy, feel-good catchall for doing the right thing. Used properly, it describes practices through which the global economy can grow without creating a fatal drain on resources. It's not synonymous with "green." Is organic agriculture sustainable, for example, if more of the world would starve through its universal application?


MONETIZE
Besides not really being a word, it describes something that's often not a strategy. Its roots stretch to the dot-com era, where you lured traffic with free services, then figured out how to get paid. Many, notably those in print journalism, are still working on that last part. Then again, so is much of social media.


AT THE END OF THE DAY
This pernicious weed of language takes six words to say what "ultimately," or perhaps better still, nothing at all, could convey better. At the end of the day, we'll all be all the way to bright.

You’ve heard the word “agnostic” at work, in the trade press or in the marketing classroom, as in “media agnostic” or “channel agnostic”.

These terms refer to
communications planning that favors no medium, channel or discipline over another – until a proper analysis or strategic exercise helps determine the best ways to engage the right consumer.

The above definition is a common-sense way to decide your marketing budget, but common sense rarely prevails. It is insane that in the 21st Century marketing budgets are artificially siloed or pre-allocated to trade spending, deal-making, promotion or advertising. None of us wants to be seen as insane so we use terms like “media agnostic” to signal that we would
never pre-assign the budget to TV or sales promotion or whatever.

“Agnostic” is the wrong term to use, not only because it’s inaccurate but because it distracts us from an opportunity to stop the insanity described above.


It’s the wrong word


“Agnostic” in modern English usage connotes
a doubt or skepticism about the existence of God. This dictionary definition is pretty close to the actual etymology of the word. “Agnostic” was coined in 1860 by English biologist Thomas Henry Huxley to define his own disbelief and disagreement with all things spiritual. This would be counter to the Gnostics, an early 1st Century religious group that to Huxley represented any and all claims to spiritual knowledge. There is a continuing scholarly debate about the Gnostics and their beliefs, but we won’t go into that here.

Simply put, agnosticism is not the opposite of Gnosticism, but the opposite of spiritual belief. The opposite of belief is doubt. Agnosticism is doubt.


So, all you “media agnostics” out there: Do you doubt the existence of media? Of course not, but you may doubt the relevance of my argument so far.
Everyone knows what I mean by “agnostic”, so what’s the big deal?

The big deal is that words can lead us astray


This is a practical concern, not an academic pursuit. A vaguely philosophical-sounding term covers up a vital planning discipline. Some may think if their philosophy is “agnostic” then they need not do the strategic heavy lifting to find the right mix of channels for each particular assignment. In other words, if we are open to any and all media, we’ll never find the right one(s) for any given assignment. Thus we sound smarter but we miss the opportunity to describe and
do something truly revolutionary.

In
the words of Ahmad Islam: “I am definitely not agnostic. I have no doubt that there is a best fit media or media mix to address most client challenges and ensure business objectives are met.”

Try “channel neutral”


So if not “agnostic”, what word would capture the opportunity we have to do something truly revolutionary? My
own usual phrase is “channel-neutral” but perhaps you can suggest others.





























































































Campaign
Industry
Agency
2010 Views*
Release Date
Watch the Spot
1
Old Spice - Responses
Health & Beauty
Wieden & Kennedy
68,299,955
7/12/10
ld Spice - Responses
2
Old Spice - Odor Blocker
Health & Beauty
Wieden & Kennedy
41,633,251
3/31/10
ld Spice - Odor Blocker
3
Doritos - Crash The Super Bowl 2010
Packaged Food
Goodby Silverstein & Partners
36,544,211
1/5/10
oritos - Crash The Super Bowl 2010
4
Old Spice - The Man Your Man Could Smell Like
Health & Beauty
Wieden & Kennedy
36,357,426
2/4/10
ld Spice - The Man Your Man Could Smell Like
5
Nike - Write the Future
Apparel & Accessories
Wieden & Kennedy
35,219,072
5/15/10
ike - Write the Future
6
DC Shoes - Gymkhana Three
Apparel & Accessories
In-house
22,684,962
8/24/10
C Shoes - Gymkhana Three
7
Old Spice - The Return of The Man Your Man Could Smell Like
Health & Beauty
Wieden & Kennedy
22,437,071
6/29/10
ld Spice - The Return of The Man Your Man Could Smell Like
8
Pepsi - Oh Africa
Non-Alcoholic Beverages
N/A
20,239,289
2/27/10
epsi - Oh Africa
9
Gillette - Perfect Length
Health & Beauty
Jack Morton
18,505,753
6/19/10
illette - Perfect Length
10
E-Trade - Super Bowl 2010
Financial Services
Grey
18,425,875
2/1/10
-Trade - Super Bowl 2010








Book of Tens: Mobile Apps





Fee Ninja
An app that arms us to fight the good fight on excessive fees and charges. Upon prompting, the Fee Ninja cranks our rebuttals or copy language for fighting excessive fees -- airline, credit-card, rental-car late fees. It even provides personal sound-bites (e.g., threats from my mother) that can be played on demand.


Press Zero
An app that automatically navigates phone trees to get you to the right and most effective customer-service rep. This might even include a bypass around the phone directly to a faster-response social-media help desk via Twitter or Facebook.


Head Compass
An app designed for consumers (especially marketing professionals) that meters how often our heads are down (vs. up) while using our mobile phones. Calculates a daily "Social Isolation" index and offers real-time suggestions for social basics such as how to perform a handshake, high-five or initiate a chat with the person sitting next to you on a plane.


Food Finder
A GPS app that makes it easier for less-savvy grocery shoppers (i.e., me) to find specific grocery products on shelf based on a given shopping list. Looking for Saran Wrap? Food Finder will map the course. And not unlike the latest Nike GPS, this app will also calculate and map the efficiency of your shopping trip.


Kiddie Curator
Alas, pure serendipity has consequences. This iPad or iPhone app sets and sequences permission for kids to use certain apps. A parent might require, for instance, that a kid has to complete three paintings on the iPad "Draw Program," then win a game in electronic chess before proceeding to Angry Bird or Cut the Rope. It would also provide parents with a daily log. (I'm serious. We need this.)


Augmented-Reality Food Scrambler
This app -- a sneaky one with a health objective -- would use augmented-reality protocols to make any mix of veggies or health food look better and more tempting than, say, a Happy Meal. Just aim the app over your meal, and Brussels sprouts suddenly look like chicken nuggets.


Talking Snarl
An app that we can use when marketers penetrate our "do not call" protocols. We simply pick an angry (snarling) personality on the "Talking Snarl" list and play it live on the phone. The app also includes an augmented-reality scanner that recognizes what's in a piece of junk mail before you open it up. This aspect can also act as a voice-activated marketing-buzzword detector.


LooLookout
A travel app that helps travelers -- especially families -- select fast-food restaurants based on the cleanliness of the bathrooms. The app would also reward GPS-powered ratings/reviews of bathrooms and wash facilities.


Pavlovian Prodder
A device that sends a benign shock to the user when it determines that we're overusing tools like Twitter, Facebook or other social devices. My prediction is that this will make most of the "must have" lists for 2011.


GreenSquare
An app that awards folks who "check-in" at designated green locations, from recycling bins to organic green gardens. "Green" and "Earth" badges would be part of the mix. The mobile app would sit on the kitchen garbage and scan trash UPC or QR codes and then immediately replenish shopping lists and calculate waste levels.


~ ~ ~
Contributing: Josh Hammond and Bryan Bartlett





Book of Tens: Cause Campaigns





BREAST CANCER AWARENESS MONTH
We're used to seeing a lot of pink in October, but this past October will be hard to top. Be it linked to the American Cancer Society or Susan G. Komen, 2010's effort may be the biggest marketing campaign ever as judged by consumer impressions. And as off-putting as it may have been to see every team in the National Football League accessorize in pink or have gate attendants for Delta rattle the cup for charity, for sure, few could not be aware.


PEPSI REFRESH
Pepsi grabbed headlines last year when it announced it would bypass the Super Bowl in favor of this cause campaign. A year later, the campaign is still in full swing and Pepsi plans to make it bigger in 2011, expanding it to Europe, Latin America and Asia as it continues in North America. The program garnered more than 2.8 billion impressions from earned media through mid-October and attracted 51 million votes for 7,000 projects. It all resulted in $11.7 million in funding for 287 ideas from 203 cities and 42 states.


DAWN SAVES WILDLIFE
This effort by Procter & Gamble Co.'s Dawn, which began more than two decades ago, even before the Exxon Valdez oil spill, gives dish detergent and money to wildlife organizations to rescue victims of oil spills. Dawn was in the perfect place, and on air with Earth Month ads, when the massive BP spill hit the Gulf Coast. All of which points out why this is one of the best cause programs ever, a perfect match with the brand's longstanding equity of being tough on grease but gentle on hands (and birds) -- and an evergreen PR program.


AMERICAN EXPERSS
The Members Project deserves props for getting cardholders deeply involved in the corporate charitable effort. Beyond this, American Express has turned a program aimed at shoring up its penetration among small businesses into something decidedly cause-like, through such things as "Small Business Saturday" ads urging people to support local merchants the weekend after Thanksgiving.


http://adage.com/images/bin/image/photo/19-bot10-cause-purel-121410.jpg?1291936125


PUREIT/UNILEVER SUSTAINABILITY
Unilever has big plans for Pureit, a water-purification brand now in India. Here, the marketing is the cause. By 2020, it wants Pureit to provide clean drinking water to 500 million people (7% of the world's population) and be profitable. It's part of Unilever's broader sustainability plan, which sets 50 often hard-to-achieve goals toward halving absolute environmental impact, while doubling sales. And it shows clear business rationale. Neither Unilever nor developing markets can grow fast without major environmental efficiency breakthroughs.


BOXTOPS FOR EDUCATION
An oldie but a goodie, this program launched by General Mills gets a lifetime achievement award for continuing to work for decades, including generating $49 million for schools last year. The Minneapolis-based food company has expanded reach of the program through partnerships with Nestlé, Kimberly-Clark Corp., S.C. Johnson and others as it continues to leverage substantial old-fashioned word-of-mouth through Parent Teacher Organizations nationwide.


TARGET'S 5%
Another oldie but goodie outpouring of Minnesota nice. It's easy to forget that Target has been giving away 5% of pretax profits to charity since 1946, well before cause marketing had a name. Today, that program generates more than $3 million in charitable donations weekly.


P&G CHILDREN'S SAFE DRINKING WATER PROGRAM
In August Procter & Gamble Co. launched a novel way to promote its 6-year-old Children's Safe Drinking Water program -- a "Blogivation" initiative in which every click on a widget on a participating blog generates the donation of one day of purified water. So far, the program has generated 50,000 days of water through 272 blogs on the way to the goal of 100,000. More broadly, CSDW has provided 2.5 billion liters of clean drinking water since 2004 and is growing fast, as it's expected to provide more than 1 billion liters in the fiscal year ended June 30.


PRILOSEC'S OFFICIAL SPONSOR of EVERYTHING YOU DO WITHOUT HEARTBURN
Another system of microsponsorships -- 100 awarded in four rounds so far ranging from $500 to $4,000 for individual small causes -- seems to have the legs that can carry it for a long time. It lacks the star power or spending of Pepsi Refresh, but also has a certain grass-roots feeling that's hard for a big brand to generate. So far, it's generated 250,000 website visits and 100,000 votes for the causes -- 66% of them from heartburn sufferers and nearly 60% of them Prilosec OTC users, according to agency Bridge Worldwide, Cincinnati.


WALMART FIGHTING HUNGER TOGETHER
Two billion dollars is a big number any way you cut it, and that's what the Walmart Foundation pledged this year to give to food banks in food, cash or equipment by 2015. It's giving away $1.5 million of that through a social-media program launched in November and running through Dec. 31 in which 100 metro areas compete for six grants through their "friends" liking the program's Facebook cause page. It does, yes, smack of organized panhandling via social media, but also generated substantial local media coverage.



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