The Magical Possibilities of Facebook Search

Recently, Facebook added me to the ranks of those who can use the beta version of Facebook Search.

I was skeptical. My first search for "friends who like cats" had momentary charm, but was not all that useful.

Instead of obvious questions, you need to ask questions that go to the notion of "the strength of weak ties."

"Friends of friends who grew up in my home town" is such a question.

I keyed in this question. Facebook responded with a few names. Among them was a gift.

This gift was to name someone whose parents lived four houses down the street from where I lived as a teenager. He had left town two years before we moved to that street. But, everyone knew he was the boy who went to go make movies in Hollywood.

In my youth, I was inspired seeing his name as the director of so many episodes of the leading television series of that era. One was the "Printer's Devil" episode of Twilight Zone, staring the great actor Burgess Meredith. I always thought this episode marked the peak for that landmark television series. He also directed the hallmark episode of the Waltons, "Grandma Comes Home."

For a youth, growing up in a small mid-western town, seeing the name Ralph Senensky listed as director in the credits for so many wonderful television programs and movies was my realization you could go other places and do interesting things.

Before last week, I had never been able to communicate with Ralph. But now I have, and have been able to tell him how much I admire his work. Ralph was an inspiration in many ways.

So thank you Facebook Search for finding Ralph. He is someone I was not looking for at the moment, but really needed to find.

This is a true story. It would make a great commercial, don't you think?

It underscores the importance of Facebook Search focusing on the contents of the social network service itself, rather than including Web contents in general. When on Facebook we want to know about our friends, broader returns from the Web will merely be seen as frustrating noise.

For additional perspective on the Psychology of Advertising, please see The Discipline of Account Planning.

  Copyright © 2013 by John Eighmey. All Rights Reserved.

Ad Meter Outcome Less Than Clear

This morning, USA Today reports that Budweiser has returned to the top of it's Super Bowl Ad Meter ratings. The "Brotherhood" Clydesdale commercial scored a 7.76 (out of 10).

The "Miracle Stain" commercial for Tide was second with a 7.75 score. In fact, you could say that Budweiser and Tide tied at the top since there is no statistical difference between these two scores.

Chrysler's Dodge Ram "So God Made a Farmer" commercial came in third with a 7.43 score.

This is the first time since 1989, which was the first year of the Ad Meter, that the winning commercial did not score over 8.

It is worth noting that USA Today completely changed the nature of its polling procedures this year. Instead of it's traditional in-theater tests with quota samples of the viewing population, the newspaper opted for a social media approach that invited everyone to participate.

The poll began taking votes at noon before the game. The newspaper reported that 55,000 votes were cast by 2,500 people three hours before the game even started. Indeed, about one-third of the 7,500 total participants appear to have voted before the game. Clearly, study participants were allowed to vote more once. So, what this poll means is even less clear than previous years.

In my view, the Dodge Ram commercial won the day. So, I'm really not arguing about the overall Ad Meter outcome all that much. I really thought the Tide commercial was "spot on" too.

  Copyright © 2013 by John Eighmey. All Rights Reserved.

Get in the Game Early with "Effective Frequency"

The Super Bowl is the nation's day for hoopla and hype. Indeed, Google Search Trends reveals that the hype begins to pick up about two to three weeks before the game.

This is one reason so many Super Bowl advertisers release "teaser commercials" or even game-day commercials during the three weeks just prior to the game.

In advertising, as in any aspect of business, the question always turns to maximizing the investment. Prices have reached the $4 million dollar range for 30-second commercials. This is not to mention production costs for the commercials and related promotional activities.

To maximize this investment, advertisers recognize the notion of "effective frequency." Learning increases with repetition. In advertising, as with any aspect of behavior, repeated exposures are needed for a commercial's message to be fully appreciated.  One exposure to a commercial is generally not enough.

So, by participating in the anticipatory hype, many Super Bowl advertisers are taking advantage of the basic psychology of learning theory. The teaser commercials or early release of game-day commercials place their selling ideas further along on the learning curve with a greater opportunity for impact in the marketplace.

Should advertisers hold off to debut commercials during the big game? Or, should advertisers participate in the pre-game hype with it's social media multiplier?  Learning theory tells us to get in the game early.

For more on the Psychology of Advertising, please see Advertising and the Arc of History.

Copyright © 2013 by John Eighmey. All Rights Reserved.

Super Sunday Advertising Explained

Everyday advertising often follows a conventional "learning theory" approach. Media audiences are seen as waiting to be "informed" by a message argument which may then reinforce or even increase positive beliefs about the advertised brand. This approach can also be seen as "lookalike" advertising.

On the other hand, Super Sunday is our national day of hoopla and hype. As such, this day calls for a different advertising theory, one known to scholars as "attitude toward the ad."

In this view, advertising message content is designed purely for enjoyment. The theory "posits" that if people really like the advertising, they will really like the brand.

Yes, it's vaguely Pavlovian.

Looking ahead to this weekend, VW has cleverly keyed us in to both the spirit of the day and the proper "Theory of Advertising" with a teaser commercial they began airing on January 25th.

The VW commercial features Jimmy Cliff, the legendary reggae musician, performing a specially prepared version of the Partridge Family song "Come On Get Happy." He joyfully sings the song and beckons troubled people from well-known viral videos of the past to join him on a verdant hillside for some much needed attitude adjustment. The general similarity of this scenario to the classic Coca-Cola commercial, "I want to teach the world to sing," is worth noting.

This spot is highly entertaining. Even more, it serves up a gleeful antidote for the general attitude of negativism that has been widely promulgated lately.

Hat's off to VW for this cultural "Attitude Adjustment."

  Copyright © 2013 by John Eighmey. All Rights Reserved.

How High Is Up for Super Bowl Commercials?

The Super Bowl is our nation's annual day of coming together with a shared interest. It could be the football game. But often, and especially in connection with exuberant parties of friends, the interest turns to the television commercials.

Which commercial is best? Which one made everyone laugh? Which one gave us the warmest tug? Which one gave us a new idea of what advertising can be?

We don't have a BCS committee or a national tourney for advertising. However, thanks to USA Today, we do have that newspaper's annual Ad Meter Survey to provide a metric for the commercials which garnered greatest favor.

Since 1989, USA Today has been gathering samples of Super Bowl viewers to use an "Ad Meter" device to track their "liking" for each commercial. The meter dials range from a high of 10 on downward.

Here is a figure showing the ratings for the top ten commercials since 2002.

Looking to the left-hand side of the the figure, you can see that through 2004 the best commercial topped out at 9 or slightly above. This was true in the earlier years as well.

Then, in 2005, there was a noticeable drop in the top ten ratings. Since 2004 no commercial has passed the 9-point level.

Indeed, the overall trend suggests a curious period of doldrums from which Super Bowl commercials appear to be emerging in 2012.

There are many possible explanations. One is the national controversy triggered by the "Wardrobe Malfunction" during the 2004  half-time show. An understandable aspect of risk aversion may have ensued.

In any event, the Super Bowl advertising question for 2013 is, "How high is up?" Will this be the first year in almost a decade in which the top commercial surpasses the 9-point level?

Copyright © 2013 by John Eighmey. All Rights Reserved.

The Super Bowl as an Attention Structure

Roman numerals aside (XLVII in 2013), the costs of Super Bowl advertising keep heading skyward.

For 2013, CBS is said to be garnering up to $3.8 million for 30-second spots. It has been reported that almost all of the time slots were sold by early this fall.

This may seem like a lot for a little, but it is increasingly difficult to find advertising venues to reach substantial proportions of the US population at any one point in time. All the cable channels, countless video channels, and the plethora of other new electronic media, challenge the capacity of advertisers to develop media plans with wide reach to the nation.

Through all the changes in media and popular culture, the Super Bowl has emerged as the nation's most substantial annual moment of coming together via mass media. Each of the last two Super Bowls brought in about 111 million viewers (of a total US population of 315 million). These two Super Bowls are now among the record holders for largest television audiences.

Therein lies the basis for premium pricing.

For perspective, according to the TVB, in 2012 primetime television shows brought in audiences averaging about 4.5 million viewers. The peak year for primetime programming was 1980 with an average primetime audience of about 15 million.

Accordingly, there has been a two-thirds decline for primetime television audiences over the past 30 years. This underscores the impact of the Internet, broadband communication, and social media.

Now, in 2012, the average cost of a 30-second primetime spot was about $112,000. This delivers a CPM (cost-per-thousand) of about 24 dollars. With an audience of 111 million, and a per unit cost of $3.8 million, a 30-second commercial on the 2013 Super Bowl will deliver a CPM of about 34 dollars.

So, this year's Super Bowl will bring in a 10-dollar CPM premium compared with primetime television. But, with an effective message strategy and design, the advertising investment will be worth it.

The benefits include instantaneous reach to the largest and most diverse annual audience and the opportunity to place the advertised brands in the midst of the nation's annual moment of hype and hoopla.

Attention is the most valuable commodity in the economy, and the Super Bowl is easily the most valuable attention structure.

                   Copyright © 2012 by John Eighmey. All Rights Reserved.

Antidote for Commercialization

Here's one "antidote for commercialization" in the season of plenty of it.

Telling the story by means of snowpersons makes it all the more charming and evokative. Emotions, feelings, and cognitive responses can often be heightened by unexpected or unconventional approaches.

This commercial was made by Adam & Eve/DDB in London for John Lewis, the UK's storied department store chain (since 1864).

For more on the psychology of advertising, see Diversity and Communication Power.

                  Copyright © 2012 by John Eighmey. All Rights Reserved.