On Super Bowl Sunday just as much action happens during the commercial breaks as it does on the field. Both Dean and Nick will have Super Bowl ad commentary available in their respective media. During the game, Nick will provide color commentary on the ads in real time on Twitter like last year. If you want to join or follow the larger Twitter conversation around the Super Bowl, use the hashtag #SB44. On Monday, Dean will offer a post-game ad wrap-up on 1700 The Champ’s “Out of Bounds” with Larry Cotlar, The Round Guy, & Andy Garman for those of you in the listening area. Also be sure to check out YouTube’s Super Bowl Ad Blitz where you can view all of the ads and vote on a fan favorite. Ready? BREAK!

POST-GAME UPDATE:
Dean’s Favorite: Telaflora’s “Talking Flowers”

“In what may be considered a somewhat lackluster year for Super Bowl commercials, I thought there were a few bright spots.  The Bud series was very entertaining.  I also gave high marks to the Snickers/Betty White spot, the E-trade Milkaholic Girlfriend, and also to Punxsutawney Polamalu.  However, I thought someone who made the best use of their advertising dollar was Teleflora.  The spot was entertaining, immediately creating a villain and a heroine – it told a story and made a strong point.  Most of all, which other Super Bowl advertiser will feel as much instant impact from their investment?  With Valentines Day just a week away, Teleflora will know immediately if their Super Bowl effort was truly effective.” – DHW

Nick’s Favorite: Google’s “Parisian Love”

“Often it seems that TV ads — especially Super Bowl ads — showcase creativity for creativity’s sake. And while that works on occasion it shouldn’t be the norm. The goal of any ad is to build the brand and sell product. This simple story-driven ad from Google does just that while driving home their brand’s very personal connection to our lives’ decisions.” – NHW

To catch up on the Twitter conversation, check out the hashtag #brandbowl. You can listen to or download Dean’s post-game summary from 1700 The Champ here.

Hummel’s Nissan wanted to drive January showroom traffic with a bold local event. Together with Hummel’s we developed a real Sign & Drive sales event that features an attention-getting call to action delivered with integrity by the dealer himself. When Mark Hummel says that all you need is approved credit and a pen — you can believe it. This campaign included a TV and online push along with supporting email and targeted print. As you can see above, the TV spot marks the first use of our new virtual dealership. We promise you’ll be seeing this again soon.

View the complete email creative here.

For Peoples Trust & Savings Bank, people first banking is more than a slogan — it’s a way of doing business that informs every decision their employees make. It’s this level of care that has won the bank exceptional customer loyalty. Recently, we announced their new social media story sharing site peoplefirstbanking.com. This social hub is designed to facilitate the sharing of these people first stories. And what better way to encourage this than to showcase actual customers sharing their stories. In our first installment in this series, Stephanie tells us how she’d never been a fan of banks until she starting banking at Peoples.

Here’s more creative from the People First Banking campaign. In this spot, Bob Smith tells about the Peoples Bank experience from his point-of-view as a small business owner.

This TV campaign is also supported by online display and pre-roll video as well as mobile marketing.

One of the most expensive aspects of creating quality television advertising can be the production cost. Having said that, it is well worth spending the extra money to ensure that your brand is conveyed professionally. One thing we try to do for our clients is maximize production time when you shoot a spot. Why create just one commercial when, with some extra planning and strategy, you can create a series? That’s just what we did for Hummel’s Nissan with their Anniversary Sales Event.

Earlier this fall we shared our 80/40 Anniversary TV creative. This was a soft sell, branding message that established this milestone and provided some backstory on the history of the business. At this time, we also knew that we would be ramping up marketing before Thanksgiving to drive sales before Nissan’s national holiday sales event. To further honor their 80/40 Anniversary, Westergaard suggested that Hummel’s launch an Anniversary Sales Event to fill this gap.

Leading the creative effort on this charge was a television campaign carefully designed to piggyback on the prior month’s messaging. During that shoot, we created a “sales donut” with Mark Hummel reminding the audience of their anniversary and inviting them to take advantage of these special offers. Running footage from Nissan was added in the middle to provide a harder sell and a more concrete call-to-action. In the end, this solution offered a cost-effective way to continue a campaign and build on its success while changing the message up slightly as well.

To drive additional sales, we borrowed a classic direct marketing strategy and put a new media spin on it. Direct mail vouchers are no knew thing in the auto business. In fact, they are a great, measurable way to market to your existing database. In keeping with the cost-effective nature of this event, Westergaard took this methodology and applied it to email marketing. As this email launched in the midst of the TV campaign, we included Mark Hummel’s image as well to tie the two programs together. The end result is an email version of a direct mail classic.

View the full email creative here.

Here are just a few photos from the festivities …

You can view the whole album on our Facebook fan page. (You’re a fan of WA, right?)

If you were able to stop by, we thank you and hope you enjoyed yourself. If you weren’t able to make it, be sure and watch your inbox for details on Hawktoberfest 2010.