March 4, 2011: Updated with video
If we had a theme for the last couple of weeks in and around my office at Best Buy, it would be “big stages.”
Our first entry into the annual Super Bowl commercial sweepstakes is well documented – and, I should add, a whopping success. Our spot featuring Best Buy’s new Buy Back program, Ozzy Osbourne and Justin Bieber was the second most “re-watched” ad according to TiVo, and the third most watched video on YouTube last week.
As CMO of a Fortune 50 company, I have opportunities to speak to audiences of all shapes and sizes, and I’ve grown pretty comfortable with the role. But every once in a while, an engagement pops up that makes me wonder what I was thinking when I agreed to accept a spot at the podium.
I had one of those last week. The event was the Association of National Advertisers’ (ANA) TV & Everything Video Forum Feb. 10 in NYC. It seemed a natural fit coming less than a week after the Super Bowl, but the agenda placed me third in the morning session – right behind keynoter and former Vice President Al Gore and before NBA commissioner David Stern.
Now that’s a big stage. And, I have to admit, their “star power” was little bit intimidating. I knew my best hope would be to give a fun presentation, and the best way to do that was to take the audience behind the scenes of the making of a Super Bowl commercial, and share all the incredibly valuable lessons we learned. We called the speech a “Super Bowl Survival Guide.”
I had good material. Our Best Buy marketing teams did a fantastic job working with our agency partners to draft scripts, generate animatics, work through consumer testing, sign talent and create the spot. All I had to do was show the audience how that sausage got made; the entertainment would take care of itself. I told myself that over and over and over again.
Here’s a story about the speech and a short video from AdvertisingAge.
And here is video of my entire talk. We’ve broken it down into six parts to facilitate easy uploading and viewing (Scroll down a bit to see the deck and videos I presented):
As always, I’m interested in your thoughts.
Very encouraging to see that Best Buy gained a lot of traction. Speaking between Gore and Stern? Wow.
But I just saw this post on some stats from Brian Solis an Reaserch.ly. In it, it shows stats about Twitter and brands from the Super Bowl. Best Buy isn’t anywhere to be found.
http://www.briansolis.com/2011/02/the-2011-brand-bowl-and-the-winners-are/
So, if BBY found traction on YouTube (which is Bieber’s 2nd home as we know), how did BBY fare with Twitter, or Facebook?
Also, would you consider Twitter, or Youtube, or Facebook as big stages? I understand the immediate impact of an event, but there’s something to be considered in “virality.”
Would be interested on your thoughts.
In a world dominated by metrics, can you say that the expense of producing and displaying that ad during the superbowl had a real ROI towards in store or online sales?
I appreciate the value of brand promotion or even message promotion – but looking at the twitter, facebook and other buzz responses, the buzz is focussed on the actors, the “many g’s” humor and heavily to Justin Bieber – but very little tied to Best Buy.
How would you analyze the effectiveness of this ad?
[...] Barry wrote about his ANA presentation , his goal was, “to take the audience behind the scenes of the making of a Super Bowl [...]
Barry-
Chris Lawrence suggested I get in touch with you, he’s a good friend. I don’t know of another way to reach you.
I want to let you know of a fantastic experience I had this morning at the Best Buy store in Evanston, IL.
The owner of a local barber shop (been here for 40 years) was recently diagnosed with cancer. Jay (the owners) does tons for the community and is a stand-up guy in every way. We started a small fundraising drive on Facebook to get him an ipad to distract him as he goes through chemo, radiation, etc.
The managers of the Evanston store heard about this and provided the product at a nice discount and provided some accessories at no additional cost. Furthermore, they were friendly, quick to help and incredibly empathetic. As the CMO of the company you should know your people in that store served you well today.
If you’d like specific names or more details, I’m happy to provide. My email is scotteweber@gmail.com.
Thanks to you and your company. You guys paid it forward today for someone who is most definitely worth it.
scott weber