Super Bowl Advertising Preview for 2017

National advertisers are already releasing their Super Bowl ads for 2017, hoping for viral sharing that will boost the brands and, with luck, encourage buying too.

• Like funny ads? Watch Melissa McCarthy in her Kia ad, teaser already up on YouTube and elsewhere.
• Like the Patriots? Tom Brady stars in an Intel ad (the ad was up even before Brady knew for sure he was back in the Super Bowl).
• Like music? Pepsi sponsors the halftime show, and its ad featuring Lady Gaga is, well, musical. 
• Like quirky feel-good ads? Skittles has one for you this year.
• Like something new? Mars (which is behind the Skittles ad) will shoot a Snickers commercial live, during the Super Bowl, which has (surprisingly) never been done. Well, it's a bit risky, maybe that's why this is a first. To attract attention, Mars will do a 36-hour livestream branded entertainment show (view at Snickerslive.com) leading up to the game. 

And Yellow Tail wine has stitched together a series of coast-to-coast local ad buys to showcase its Australian wines. Locked out of national because of category-specific Anheuser-Busch InBev's exclusive Super Bowl commitment with Fox, which is televising the big game, Yellow Tail went the local route and will be seen during the game, just like any other big advertiser (except aired locally). The reach and the exposure, just not the "official" advertiser.

Mozilla the Pro-Privacy Brand

Mozilla's pop-up "Internet Health" store in NYC

Mozilla--known for its Firefox browser and other digital products--identifies as a pro-privacy brand. To reinforce that association with its brand, Mozilla and the Tactical Technology Collective recently partnered on a pop-up store in Little Italy in Manhattan. 

The Glass House, as it was called, welcomed 10,000 visitors in 17 days and offered thought-provoking, artsy exhibits, not to mention specific instructions for protecting privacy and security online. Mozilla's CMO explained:

The Glass Room is part of a global movement raising awareness for internet health.

Mozilla has been raising awareness of digital privacy and security concerns for years. Its website hosts a portal of information about how individuals can protect themselves online. You can click here to read more.

Amazon vs Legacy Retailers

Legacy retailing continues to look for ways to compete as Amazon innovates in online retailing. Walmart, the world's largest legacy retailer, is cutting corporate jobs to get leaner. It's also reorganizing its e-commerce leadership while it integrates its acquisition of grocery retailer Jet.com.

Above, two news releases from Jet.com's "press" section, showing the acquisition just weeks after Jet celebrated its first anniversary last year. In fact, Jet.com has itself acquired an e-commerce firm known for online shoe retailing in competition with Zappos.com (which is owned by Amazon, of course).

Meanwhile, Amazon is expanding--on a large scale. It recently announced plans to hire 100,000+ employees during the next 18 months. The book industry is coming full circle with Amazon's plans to open additional Amazon bookstores. Which means that the innovator that disrupted book retailing is now joining brick-and-mortar retailing, a very different industry all these years later now that consumer behavior has evolved.

More Legacy Retail Woes

Legacy retailing (aka brick-and-mortar stores) continues to have difficulty meeting the challenges of online shopping.

The Limited--one of the original mall-based women's specialty chains--has just closed its 250 stores from coast to coast and will sell online only. Founded more than 50 years ago, the Limited at one time had hundreds of mall stores and was hugely popular, but that was before the Internet. The retailer's private equity owner said in a statement: "In an increasingly challenging environment for mall-based retail and women's apparel, we are very disappointed that the company has had to make the difficult decision to close its retail locations."

Sears also made an announcement this week: It's selling the well-known Craftsman brand to competitor Stanley Black & Decker. Sears was one of the pioneers of catalog shopping in the 19th century, and Craftsman is one of the three brand jewels in its crown (along with Kenmore and Diehard). Selling a crown jewel to raise money will likely only postpone the inevitable. Sears has been trying for years to strategize its way out of an expensive legacy retailing situation. Sears is closing yet more stores, having already agreed to rent parts of open stores to other retailers (like Primark). 

Macy's announced that it's laying off 10,000 workers and closing 100 stores after a worse-than-anticipated holiday season. The company stated that the stores being closed were "unproductive or are no longer robust shopping destinations because of changes in the local retail shopping landscape."

What is the future of legacy retailing in a world where consumer behavior is evolving along with technology? More posts on that topic soon.

Best Ad Campaigns of 2016

Happy 2017!

Now that 2016 is in the rear view mirror, marketing publications and experts are looking back at the ad campaigns they call the best of the year. Of course, we're now 11 months beyond Super Bowl 50 (and a month before the next Super Bowl).

To give this a global twist, I'm including a few non-US "best campaign" lists here.

• Canada's best campaigns for nonprofits and causes, as noted by Strategy. 
• BrandWatch's 10 best campaigns, including the one above, for Morton Salt.
• Wall Street Journal's best and worst ads.
• Adweek's 20 trends that drove the best in marketing