“The Super Bowl is a big cultural moment that’s about people coming together for a good time, so we believe we need to be there.” -Pio Schunker, VP/Creative, Coca-Cola

“After last year’s experience, I don’t have the stomach for it.” -Brian Sharples, CEO HomeAway.com

Pio and Brian articulate the two ends of Super Bowl advertising. Every season since 1984 some ads enhance “the big cultural moment” positively, and some negatively. The majority of the spots that fill the forty six minutes of ad time fall somewhere in the middle–ranked modestly by all the ad monitors and gradually fade away.

This year NBC is charging $3.5 million per :30 spot. Last season the average cost for a :30 ad was around $3 million. Hard to believe that just six years ago the cost was $2.5 million.

This season many marketers are following what VW did last year and releasing the ads beforehand. Consumers “like to be let in on the joke, let in on the story early” said Mike Sheldon, the chief executive of VW’s agency Deutsch/LA.

He’s right. These two ads are already at nearly 16 million views:

Judging from some of the pre-releases, it might be a good show this year. Socially, if you’d like to weigh-in on ads during the game and have them count in some form #BrandBowl is your hashtag where tweets will be streamed live on Boston.com as well as a new mobile-friendly version of the well-known Brand Bowl site during the game.

This season features two major market teams in a re-match. Last year saw 111 million viewers with two very popular teams: the Packers and the Steelers. This year the NFL could break the record again and bring total viewers to around 115 million.

There have been tons of articles about the ads. But our favorite is perhaps from Stephen Marche at Esquire who talks about the ubiquity of marketing and how there “is no outside the ad” anymore, regardless of where we are. We often don’t realize the degree to which marketing subtly surrounds our life. But the Super Bowl, proudly, just puts it out there:

“The Super Bowl offers the possibility of a new relationship with advertising, one that’s different from the game of hide-and-seek we usually play. It runs against the tendency for naked pleas to become grainy and peripheral. It puts advertising at the center and asks: Which are the good ads and products and which are the bad ads and products? And thus it serves the same function today as the great medieval trade festivals and the World’s Fairs of the early twentieth century: providing chances for the marketplace to indulge in fantasies of industrial possibility.”

Enjoy the game.

Deloitte just released their 6th State of the Media Democracy. The survey of 2,000 people (ages 14 – 75) focused primarily on the proliferation of devices: smartphones, tablets and DVRs. If you’re in need of up-to-date numbers the study is another good example about how access to content is increasing American media consumption.

Of key interest:

Smartphone penetration is now between 40 – 42%.

For tablet owners, 51% say they use their tablet in place of a laptop at home.

Of particular note, however, is that of DVRs. In this survey only 44% of people had DVRs as part of their current cable package. We thought that would be a larger number.

Find Deloitte’s State of the Media Democracy here.

So what happens when we can’t strap on our snow gear and tear up the snowy mountain? Dry-heaving sobs, of course. But also, Bogus employs up to 700 of our friends and neighbors. And these friends and neighbors have been without a job for the past couple months. This effects more than our ability to shred the proverbial gnar.

The good news: we live in a community that cares greatly for one another. That’s why many of us live in Boise and the surrounding areas. We love our jobs, we love our people, we love our lives and the lifestyle this area affords us.

Our little community has pulled together to support Bogus Basin. We’ve had musicians, vendors, community celebrities, and community figures pull together to create this evening’s event, Get Louder For Powder, a community rally to bring the snow. By the looks of it this snowy morning, we’re getting the job done!

Please join us in supporting Bogus and our community tonight on the Basque Block from 5pm – 8pm. It is free for everyone, and we hope to see lots of families, lots of friends, lots of people who love our mountain.

We’ve got a stellar music lineup, Curtis Stigers, Rebecca Scott, Bill Coffey, a.k.a. Belle, In Joy Drum and Dance, Marchfourth Marching Band, Reilly Coyote, Steve Fulton and Shon Sanders. Agri Beef, Hayden Beverage and Payette Brewing Company have so generously provided food, beer and wine. All the profits from food sales will benefit Bogus, which is a nonprofit organization. If you are a current season passholder, show it and you’ll get a Double R Ranch Bogus Burger for $1 as well as $1 beers.

Let’s turn this valley into a snow globe tonight! Be sure to wear your winter gear: snow pants, googles, ski jackets, and the like, and let’s bring it!

Where: Basque Block
When: January 18th, 5pm – 8pm

Poster art: Cale Cathey

Patagonia has started a new kind of green initiative—Buy Less. In the past, telling your customers to buy less has traditionally been a bad business model. Key words: in the past. Al Ries titled a recent Ad Age article, “It’s not marketing we do today, it’s branding.” The branding aspect of this new initiative is what hits deep. They’re not talking about 25% off their winter line; they’re branding their product with a bold association to environmental preservation. Perhaps this is why so many people have strong feelings, both positive and negative, about this campaign.

Some might say Patagonia is doing this to increase sales by initiating a cute marketing ploy around a fancy green initiative. Rick Ridgeway, Patagonia’s environment VP, stated, “Anyone who says this is a clever marketing ploy, we say that higher sales will allow us to carry out our mission statement. We take one percent of sales off the top, and give it to environmental groups. The better we do, the more we give back.”

Fast Company recently highlighted the positive feelings towards the brand and its new initiative and wrote, “After it was launched at New York fashion week last month, some commentators described the initiative as an inspired piece of marketing that would cement customer loyalty and reinforce the message that Patagonia apparel is long-lasting and worth holding on to.” On the other side of the table comes a recent post by Gawker, which took the conversation the other way and told Patagonia to “just give us a break with this sanctimonious crap.”

Love it or hate it, people are listening. I’m not here to pick sides because I think it is still early on in the campaign to choose sides. If Patagonia is really sincere about this promise, their commitment to this initiative over time will tell the story.

This idea of going beyond the bottom line to brand your products is not a fad—it’s a trend. The branding aspect of Patagonia’s Common Threads Initiative is encouraging (assuming this isn’t a cute marketing ploy). They’re willing to set profits aside and stand for something greater than a number on their income statement. By standing up for the cause and associating their brand with an initiative that seeks to reduce waste, they establish themselves as the dominant player in going green.

We sometimes talk about brands as “badges.” Every brand that is well executed is a badge for a specific immaterial symbol. A badge is defined as “a special or distinctive mark, token, or device worn as a sign of allegiance, membership, authority, achievement, etc.” Most of the time, badges are thought of as physical objects. When used in the context of branding, they represent something more than a physical object. They represent the metaphysical thoughts and emotions towards a particular category. Patagonia is one of the most powerful brands in this category. Their brand has always represented quality with an association to being Earth-conscious and this new initiative could potentially bring them to the next level.

Green Marketing is becoming a major part for some brands. Don’t believe me? Maybe you’ll believe the 40 million search results on Google. There are many brands out there trying to stand for a healthier planet but Patagonia is making some bold statements and making a case to be the one who owns the badge of environmentally conscious.

Written by Brad Weigle, Drake Cooper Project Manager.

Tolstoy wrote that in the very insightful book What is Art? and it applies to words such as “beautiful” and “creative” and, nowadays, “like”.

Everyone thinks they know what “like” means. But it turns out that what consumers primarily think it means and what companies think it means are different…

When consumers “like” a brand the number one thing they expect today is to be eligible for exclusive discounts and offers. This is followed closely by the ability to enter unique promotions or opportunities.

However, organizations have a different perspective. They believe that people primarily want to be heard and that they want to read news about brand and product developments.

These were the findings of a new study by the CMO Council. And they follow what IBM reported in “From Social Media to Social CRM” early last year where they graphed the social media perception gap between consumers and businesses:

(click to enlarge)

It’s not really surprising that many organizations are focusing more on chatter than they are exclusivity. Since 2007 social media consultants from all over the world have talked constantly about “the conversation” and how “engaging in the conversation” is the essence of social. But as social continues to evolve that terminology may now be a bit misguiding.

Per the CMO Council, when consumers want to converse with a company they choose six methods over social channels:

- Email: 76%

- Phone Call: 54%

- Tradeshow: 27%

- Online Form: 21%

- Offline Event: 20%

- Visit Retail Location: 19%

- Online Forums: 12%

- Brand Facebook Page: 11%

- Tweet: 8%

Some companies, such as Amazon, are wise to the fact that social channels are towards the bottom of the communication list. In an excellent November Wired article Jeff Bezos relayed Amazon’s approach to customer service and the social web:

“Our version of a perfect customer experience is one in which our customer doesn’t want to talk to us. Every time a customer contacts us, we see it as a defect. I’ve been saying for many, many years, people should talk to their friends, not their merchants. And so we use all of our customer service information to find the root cause of any customer contact. What went wrong? Why did that person have to call? Why aren’t they spending that time talking to their family instead of talking to us? How do we fix it?”

A terrific thing about “like” is that every organization, no matter how small, has the ability to treat their fans to special opportunities. Who’s great at that? The music industry–rock bands and their fan bases. They appreciate every single fan and it shows at every touchpoint, from their websites to whenever they win an award and thank the fans while standing on stage.

Right now consumers who “like” just assume that the organization “likes” them too. But organizations largely view it as “look at all of these people who like us.” If companies had to “like back” the relationship would probably feel different on their end.

People who like each other share things and offer things that they don’t give everyone else. Embracing that “like” is automatically reciprocated may encourage more organizations to post those unique promotions and create those exclusive offers directly to people they like. Which would help align the primary expectations of what “like” is meaning to consumers these days.

Flying Pie was voted Best Pizza in Idaho by USA Today in 2010 and has won over 30 pizza awards in the last 25 years. We love them, and so does America! They’ve even been on the Travel Channel’s “Man v. Food” (that trip-hab pizza is a fiery delight). Flying Pie loves their customers too. Check their website or their signs out front and if your name is posted, you get to roll up your pizza-making sleeves and give the dough a toss.

One of our graphic designers, Conrad Garner, took a few shots of the night.

To see more photos of the night, check out our Facebook album!

The 2011 holiday shopping season turned out to be a solid one for retailers. But it was a strange and bumpy ride to get there… Black Friday started things off well but December sales were weak up until closer to Christmas when shoppers returned to stores. Overall, holiday retail sales were up 4.5% compared to last season while average daily spending during the holidays was $83/day (vs. $85/day last season per Gallup).

Just how bumpy of a ride was it? Per USA Today and ShopperTrak:

The post-Black Friday lull was deeper than usual this year. The two weeks after Thanksgiving weekend showed the biggest percentage sales decline since 2000. Then, during the final two weeks before Christmas, sales surged again, by the highest rate since 2005.

Interestingly, Christmas Eve and December 26th were the second and third heaviest spending days of the season. Which is odd because many analysts didn’t even have December 24th forecast to be among the top 10 days. (But it was on a Saturday this year, which should have tipped a few off.)

Online retail in particular had a great season, up 15% versus last season. (Weekly online spending is below–click to enlarge.)

The combination of aggressive retailer discounting, the long-enduring recession and some rebounding activity created four types of shoppers this season:

The Bargain Timer:

Wait until the prices are at their absolute lowest, then strike hard.

The Midnight Buyer:

Get the best inventory no matter what time.

The Returner:

Over-buy and return. (Interestintly, retailers plan on returning nearly 10 cents of every dollar taken in during the holidays.)

The “Me” Shopper:

One for you, one for me.

Most likely, everyone showed signs of each this season.

But a strong holiday shopping season kicks 2012 off in a welcomed positive direction and somewhat helps abate the worries of low consumer demand which, per McKinsey, is the key thing executives report to be concerned with as 2012 begins.

Online retail in particular had a great season, up 15% versus last season.

Drake Cooper “Be Merry” from Drake Cooper on Vimeo.

We also put together a holiday recipe book filled with tasty things to eat and drink this holiday season. You can download it here. All recipes are ones that we at DC make in our homes this time of year.

Enjoy! And cheers to a merry holiday season.

2011′s Black Friday and Thanksgiving weekend brought a record 226 million shoppers to stores. Spending rang in at $52 billion, which was 16% more than last year according to the National Retail Federation. A complete look at the last six years of shopping activity is below (click to enlarge):

A couple of random retail notes about last weekend: Men purchased more than women with an average spend of $484 versus $317 and, on average, US shoppers visited 3.1 stores per shopping trip.

Online spending over the weekend was up 26% per comScore to $816 million as 50 million US shoppers took to the web on Black Friday, 35% more than last season. Amazon led all sites with 50% more visitors than any other retailer.

How much did each shopper spend online? According to IBM Coremetrics the average order was $190 for 6 items–interestingly, both of these figures were slightly lower than last year*. But overall a jump of 26% in online spending is good news considering that last season online spending rose only 9%.

There were also a notable amount of consumers looking online for offline deals, further supporting the idea that advertising online does indeed sell stuff offline. For example, TheBlackFriday.com had 3.2 million visits last weekend up 137% from last year.

Mobile shopping was another area that saw significant growth this season with PayPal reporting a spending increase of 516% over last year courtesy of four times as many people shopping Black Friday sales on their mobile phones.

Most reports cite three key reasons for the holiday weekend upsurge:

- Pre-Midnight Openings

- Positive Strong Merchandising

- Competitive Price-to-Value Relationships

This is probably true as yesterday’s Cyber Monday (a phrase coined in 2006) continued the positive sales momentum. Online traffic yesterday was up 43% from last year with online sales up 18% (as of 9pm last night). Electronics were the most popular item purchased, up 26%.

Moving into December the National Retail Federation has estimated that holiday sales will increase to $465.6 billion this year, up about 2.8% versus last season.

Yet while all of these numbers are strong, and publications like Reuters are posting headlines like holiday shopping is off to a solid start, it doesn’t necessarily mean this holiday season will be breaking records. RetailSails provides us with a good historical reminder…

“Black Friday weekend has historically not been a very good predictor of overall Holiday retail sales. For example, both the National Retail Federation and ShopperTrak saw record spending over Black Friday weekend in 2008, but overall that Holiday season saw by far the worst performance on record as overall sales in the November-December period tumbled 4.4%.”

Additionally, with 84% of American households saying today that they will spend the same amount or less than they did last holiday season we should look for retailers to continue their aggressive approaches all month long with some doing exceedingly well at the expense of others.