A tale of 2 Superbowl spots ...

This isn't so much a rave of the Chrysler "Clint Eastwood" spot that ran yesterday in the Superbowl ... everyone's already done that to death since last evening, and rightfully so! This is more of a statement or observation of how to "use the stage" ... as Chrysler so admirably has done in the last two Superbowls !

And the thing that is completely elusive to their crosstown competitors ... GM.

This spot ... "Halftime In America" ... did something (again - reprising last years "Imported from Detroit" Eminem masterpiece) that very little advertising seems to accomplish these days.



It made you come away thinking something way bigger than a sales message. In fact, what it has done ... again ... is create the conversation the next morning that every marketeer dreams of for their Brand. The provocative musing that embeds itself in peoples psyche. Hey it may not turn into a sale today or tomorrow ... but, frankly most advertising doesn't. But it will continue to get the Brand talked about or even reminisced a long time to come. If we're honest here ... we are still remembering last years Superbowl spot from Chrysler.

Now, ... we have a body of work that will resonate for the Chrysler Brand for at least many months later.

In DMG's mind? ... Chrysler made the cost of 2 minutes in the Superbowl count for something that will live on ... It's what you want and expect of good advertising for that kind of investment.

A company owned by Italians managed to say something more in this 2 minutes about America, Americans ... and American Brands ... than any other American company that advertised in the big game.

Unlike GM.

All they gave us was some kind of pompous brand hubris that seems about as stale as the Twinkies and Barry Manilow soundtrack they so aptly "survived" with in their Apocalyptic dream world ...



Know what else felt right about Chrysler's Superbowl attempt versus GM's? ... Chrysler spent the money on getting the message and good story telling right and out to as many people as possible ... as opposed to spending it on production.

Hey GM ... looks like you made it ... but where'd you make it to?


UPDATE: Ford and Chevy Trade Barbs ...

Fiddle-dee-dee ...

Here is a brilliant summation of what's wrong in our economy right now ... and why these "Take Over Wall Street" movements are cropping up all over the country ...

Gordon Gecko Rules

Steve Jobs: 1955-2011

Steve Jobs in his own words ...











I blogged on this way back in June 2005 ... right after Jobs had delivered this address to the Class of 2005 at Stanford.

It resonated with me then ... and becomes most poignant, and poetic ... now.

RIP Steve Jobs

UPDATED: 10-10-11 Reflecting on the dates of Jobs ... only a year older than me ... but sooooo much further on the intellectual and cosmic continuum ... humbling.

Will they ever learn?

Any way you cut it ... it's good this deal seems done: Ford, UAW Reach Tentative Agreement.

Clearly, Ford was in the most precarious position of the US Automakers ... and once again almost incredulously so ... for not having accepted the Federal bailout.

That, of course, meant that GM and Chrysler could not be struck by the Union subject to federal law.

Ford, on the other hand, was flying solo. Subject to whatever "flight of fancy" overtook the UAW. Almost remarkably, the union seems still not to have "gotten the message" of 2009 ...

"Ford workers feel the deserved a sweeter deal than GM got because Ford didn't follow GM and Chrysler LLC into bankruptcy and Federal bailout in 2009"

Wait a minute ... have I got that straight? Since Ford wasn't on the ropes in 2009 (no, not in 2009 ... it was only a year earlier (!!!) ... when Ford mortgaged the entire company - on their own backs - right down to the script on the door!!), that somehow this means the union should be profiting more from Ford?

Could be possible the union is still populated with birds of a different feather than those that know how to "fly right" ...

A wormhole in the Apple? ... a boogle in the Google? ...

Or ... just another reason to love Amazon? ...








UPDATED: And, yet one more way that Amazon has upped the ante for either Apple or Google ... as the new Kindle Fire courts the magazine publishing community for content ... and advertising that will most certainly append itself ...

"Discussions between publishers and Amazon went more smoothly than they did with Apple in part because Amazon from the get-go agreed to share more customer data, including customers' names and addresses, according to executives familiar with the talks."

read more here: Magazines Join With New Tablet Challenger

UPDATE: 9-30-11 Amazon Fire vs. iPad 2: Review & Comparison - Shelly Palmer

Chevy Runs ... uh ... (sorta) Deep ...

Who caught up with Ewanick's latest assessment of Goodby's Chevy work?


Ewanick said he has “seen grade-A work,” from Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, the San Francisco agency that is the creative force behind the “Chevy Runs Deep” campaign that began last fall.

“The problem is, it hasn’t been consistent,” Ewanick said last week in an interview with Automotive News, a sister publication of Crain’s Detroit Business. “We need to find our stride where it’s always at that level.”

But, he said, “To get an A, you have to be consistent. That’s more of C and B work when you can’t find the consistency.”


He said he expects to see more contemporary versions of iconic Chevy campaigns. Modern iterations of Americana-heavy “Like a Rock” from the 1990s and the “American Revolution” campaign of the past decade “could be used at any time,”

Wait just one minute!!! Whaddya mean!? I thought that old Cambell-Ewald stuff was just advertising trash? Goodby was supposed to remake the brand in a whole new and compelling image! ... Right?

Right!

Like a Rock.

F-bombs away ...

Ford's Farley ... let's it fly!

You just can't get more quotable than Jimbo ... I mean ...
“I'm going to beat Chevrolet on the head with a bat. And I'm going to enjoy it." Choice!!!

Apparently, GM just really got under his skin the day he was interviewed ... or, the Touretts meds wore off ... either way ... sometimes, you just gotta drop a bomb ... !!

Google wants to eat your young ...

One more glaring example of Google's insatiable appetite to rule the world ... Google+ ... or, simply, Googlezilla.

In the fine print of Google+ social network sign-on ...

"By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services."

Really? Google? ... I give up the right to everything? ... because I use your service?







... pretty obvious I guess ...

A general sentiment for the day ... any day really ...

... I didn't F it up ... you probably didn't F it up ... but, I damn sure know who did F it up!! And one of these days I'm comin' for ya!

Apple takes a bite out of Google.

Apple usurps Google as world's most valuable brand I guess this is totally surprising to me ... since I would naturally have assumed that Apple had already done so ...

But lets face it ... Google hasn't produced anything of value since it's initial algorithm that set it on the course of becoming a verb. Certainly a valuable brand. But, the most valued brand?! uh-uh.

Whereas Apple continues to produce and update the personal computing/connecting space in such a way that actually makes Google valuable.

And, who could top GodJobs for trotting out the brand Apple the way he does every 6 months. Sergey Brinn? Larry Page? ummm ... uh-uh.

Go buy Apple stock. Even at $348 a share ... it just keeps on climbing.








... just sayin' ... which would ya rather?

Hope springs eternal.

I was fascinated by these images of the Chernobyl ruins, ... the abandoned Pripyat ... , and some of the "humanity" that seems to have snuck into the vast apocalyptic landscape there (see the wonderful photos of graffiti left behind by more recent visitors).

But, then I started reading comments posted after photos ...

It's amazing just how many Detroit haters there are that seize on this kind of portraiture ... and feel inclined to comment negatively on a place that most, quite obviously, have never even visited. Except perhaps in photos like these. And, there are certainly enough of Detroit ruins photos floating around out there.

Somehow, at least in The D, the graffiti that one sees is not of some apparition. A silhouette of missing persons.




And, at least right now ... Ford, Chrysler, the Wings and Tigers, are all helping me to believe.

Message to readers.

To readers of DMG,

- First of all, thanks again for checking in and partaking of the fare. You're never quite sure what you'll be sampling ... but we strive to always provide a decent portion of the truth.

- Second, if you look over there on the right ... you'll see a facebook button (with a guy hanging himself with his necktie - that'd be me). By clicking on it, you will of course be transported to DMG's facebook page.

And when you are there, you will find even more content fare posted (and not all found here ...).

So, tell your friends and neighbors that they too can find a quick shot of DMG on facebook. And be sure to friend DMG there!

Misery loves company!!!

Thanks - the mgt.

Torpedos of Truth ...

Charlie Sheen may have bombed in Detroit this past weekend, on his Violent Torpedo of Truth jaunt ...

But, the violent torpedo of truth that really struck home was one you might not have ever seen coming ...

Mitch Albom: 'Office' is now the code word for our low morale
- Freep.com

Mitch, as usual, cuts to the quick ... "A new study suggests that more than a third of Americans are hoping to leave their job to find a different one this year. A third? That same study suggests their bosses think the employees are satisfied.

That spells a disconnect."




And if you need it to hit even closer to home ...

"Everywhere you look in this country, people are stressed, annoyed, overworked and angry. Seemingly everyone has a story of wages being slashed, benefits cut and responsibilities tripled. "There were five of us on the sales force. Now I'm the only one." "I haven't had a raise in five years. They keep telling me there's no money." Co-workers are laid off and their load dumped on survivors who are made to feel they're lucky to have a job."

And that pretty much sums up the ad agency life in Detroit for the last many moons.

Mitch carried on ... "But this past week, a pair of headlines caught my eye. One, from USA TODAY, read, "CEO pay soars while workers' pay stalls." It detailed how, yet again, CEOs were being lavished with incredible pay packages, some up 140% or more from last year. Median CEO pay jumped 27% in 2010."

Ouch.

While the rest of us are sitting in cubicle purgatory - not knowin' when the almighty "scope" for our job will run out.

I don't know ... guess I've been known to bury my head in the sand with the best of 'em at times ...

But, truth is ... we been torpedo'd.

"I, for one, welcome our new computer overlords ..."

More proof that Google is all about open access to the web for all ... so long as it's through Google ... Microsoft Files EU Complaint Against Google - NPR

"Google has engaged in a broadening pattern of walling off access to content and data that competitors need to provide search results to consumers and to attract advertisers," Smith said (Microsoft's General Counsel Brad Smith)

@Smith: And, so ... yeah ... what's your point?

In the immortal words of Ken Jennings ... (see title above).

I know!!! Maybe Google and IBM should both get together and create one gigantic superficial intelligence to rule all mankind ...

But wait ... that would never work.

That would mean ... neither one would be able to control all mankind.


What was that Dr Sergey?











UPDATE: 4-4-11 Life 'In The Plex': The Future Of Google
... wherein Steven Levy (Wired) postulates ... "Google is in Facebook panic right now, because their biggest fear is that Facebook, which is going to approach a billion users eventually, will be creating and sharing information that Google cannot get a hold of in its indexes," Levy says. "And that's really going to weaken all the things that Google wants to do.

The passing of a Fancy ...

... or maybe more of a dandy ...


Longtime auto journalist David E. Davis Jr. dies

... at any rate, a legend to Automotive journalism.

What's the frequency, Sergey?

Google has had an apparent epiphany.

Grow Better Managers the Google Way
Bnet

They have discovered what most successful organizations do to grow talent, engender confidence and success in their employees ... and generally what keeps them from experiencing mass defections (along with a stagnate economy ...)

The eight rules of treating humans like something other than an algorithm:

In a nutshell, here are the eight good behaviors Google has cataloged for its managers:

1.Be a good coach
2.Empower your team/don’t micromanage
3.Express interest in your team member’s success and well-being
4.Be productive and results-oriented
5.Be a good communicator and listen to your team
6.Help your employees with career development
7.Have a clear vision and strategy for the team
8.Have technical skills so you can help advise the team

All this was discovered, by Google honchos, as part of what they have dubbed "Project Oxygen" ... and is being lauded by industry types as now (somehow) revolutionary. Emanating from a data-driven initiative to understand what it's employees truly need to succeed ... seeing how so many were opting to leave the company to find what they really need.

(Hence, they needed oxygen to their brains ...?)

Find this the telling storyline, ...

"Project Oxygen is also unusual, Mr. Safferstone says, because it is based on Google’s own data, which means that it will feel more valid to those Google employees who like to scoff at conventional wisdom."(It's worth reading the whole NYT article here: Google’s Quest to Build a Better Boss )

Of course they couldn't believe in conventional wisdom ... not unless Google had discovered it themselves!!.

What's the algorithm for that?

Now, if the ad agency industry could take a cue from all this ... we might be on to something!!

F-bombs away!

The nerve!! ...

Chrysler Splits With New Media Strategies Over F-Bomb Tweet
- AdAge

"The tweet was seen in even harsher light given that campaign strategy. In the automaker's communication blog to the media today, Chrysler Communications staffer Ed Garstens wrote, "The tweet denigrated drivers in Detroit and used the fully spelled-out F-word. It was obviously meant to be posted on the person's personal Twitter account, and not the Chrysler Brand account where it appeared. So why were so sensitive? That commercial featuring the Chrysler 200, Eminem and the City of Detroit wasn't just an act of salesmanship. This company is committed to promoting Detroit and its hard-working people. The reaction to that commercial, the catchphrase 'imported from Detroit,' and the overall positive messages it sent has been volcanic."

But, have to say ... this all sounds quite hollow.

Has anybody up in Auburn Hills holier-than-thou sepluchre listened to or read the lyrics of an Eminem song recently ...???

Didn't think so.

NO Imagination.

GM ... none.

Last week ... that thing I posted ... about the "old GM" fading into the rearview mirror?

Forget it! - GM, in a real backslide, decided to rev up the incentives engine yet again !?
And, once on the dope ... there is no stoppin' it.

Beware incentives - AutomotiveNews

How could that tactic have become the holdover of the GM wreckage left behind?

GM just has no imagination ... no Adonis DNA what-so-ever.

(Quick - what is it?)














(Answer: GM's brain on incentives.)

Charlie TV ...

Taking reality TV to a whole new gnarly level ...



Video streaming by Ustream

All you can say is ... this is about 1000 times more interesting than Jersey Shore ... (which is basically for troll viewers who haven't graduated to Charlie's whole other universe ...) ;-/

More: Too much Sheen: Good for ratings, bad for Sheen? -AP

Out with the old ....

The "bad" GM becomes a fainter and fainter glimmer in the rearview mirror ...Old GM comes to end of road
- DetroitNews

The Cobo makeover ....

What NAIAS has to look forward to ...

In the eye of the beholder ...

The London Olympic Games logo ... which seems to be insighting some trepidation and criticism, for all the wrong reasons ...

Iran threatens London boycott over 'racist' Olympic logo

First, Iran thinks it is anti-Muslim ... (hmmm, must admit ... not seeing that at all).

And according to the article, some Big Ten fans may be seeing it as pro-Izzo ... (clearly not seeing that ... and as bad as the Spartans are this year ... who would really want to see that anyway?!)

Nope ...

Criticized for all the wrong reasons.

It's just a really crappy logo!

Comic Twist ...

... to a tragic tale.

I love that reality TV can now be animated!!

Poking at the beehive.

The buzz seems to still not have worn off of Chrysler's "Imported from Detroit" spot that first aired in the Superbowl ... How Chrysler Chief Olivier Francois Is Selling Detroit - AdAge

And perhaps that is the spots most enduring quality ... as it continues to invite discussion. Whether you thought it good ... or, completely off the mark.

On the one hand, I for one am giving credit where credit is due here on behalf of Chrysler brands CEO, Olivier Francois.

'You've got to tell stories that grab people by the collar,' Says the risk-taking CEO.

And that is the job of advertising messaging. Because clearly, if the ad has failed to do that in a compelling way ... the message ... and that elusive one chance to speak to a prospect ... may be gone for good.

But, also ... that message must be on target .... both for the Brand and the prospect. It helps not at all if there is no truth that resonates throughout.

And that is the art of good story-telling.

Think the Chrysler spot hit the mark there.

The lingering question, though ... is, did the spot hit the mark for the product, or was it just an emotional (and, yes ... gripping) sell on Detroit.

The AdAge article is the tripe of advertising these days ... another CEO/CMO star, who has made some buzz ... and we like to trot that out there like the latest hit parade on TMZ.

But the truth will really lie in what the results are that are born from said risk taking ...

From some commenter's to above posted article in AdAge:

By zv | Timonium, MD February 22, 2011 09:15:10 am:
the marketing mix includes a small detail called "product". Mr. Francois can sell Detroit all he wants, and takw all the risks he wants. Until people actually buy his cars the jury is out.

By twopdhart | San Antonio, TX February 22, 2011 09:18:19 am:
To use another American analogy, the guy has hits, strikes and fouls. The Super Bowl Chrysler 200 spot was a hit and so was the Jeep Grand Cherokee intro. The George Washington-in-a-Dodge Challenger ad was a stupid strike. And the rebadge of Dodge trucks to Ram is a foul. Why throw 80 years of tradition in the trash?

And this ...

By len | marlton, NJ February 21, 2011 11:56:35 am:
He spent $9million on the Super Bowl ad to attract new customers, but not a penny to retain an existing one (me) whose lease is about to expire and who has received no communication and no incentive offers from any Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge dealer nor the corporation. I guess that's how they do it in France! Won't work here! Ta Ta!

Ouch!

For me at least ... as the buzz begins to fade ... the epilogue to the story will be, "Imported from Detroit" did much to reinvigorate positive discussion about a Brand (Chrylser) that has been facing a strong headwind in the market. It can't get on anyones shopping list if they are unopened to that discussion, or it has just drifted completely out of their heads altogether.

And it will all have been for nothing if Chrysler doesn't quickly get the rest of the marketing right (as so well noted by the commenter's above).

Beware those that poke the beehive ...



But, plaudets to those that poke the beehive.

It is why we do what we do.

Shouting in a windstorm.

Over the weekend an unheralded moment passed ... quite unobtrusively ... and without fanfare.

DMG went over the 100,000 "unique sessions" mark (estimated 500,000 page views).

Its taken almost 6 years ...

And while the milestone is only personal, and in and of itself is somewhat meaningless (more like a Casey Jones chronicle of the never ending swing of the hammer) ... never-the-less, it is an opportunity to thank all the readers who have accounted for it's passing.

So, Thank you.



And the beat goes on ...