Super Bowl XLVII: The good, the bad and the ugly

No doubt you have an opinion on the best and worst Super Bowl commercials from yesterday's game. In my opinion, the best way to judge the effectiveness of an ad is by how well it fulfills the objective of the brief. An ad that doesn't appeal to me, but appeals to my Mom, may be a good ad because that is to whom the ad was supposed to appeal. So, from that perspective, I will give all the ads the benefit of the doubt that they each of them fulfilled their brief.

Having said that, here is my critique of the ads that stood out from a brand or messaging point of view.

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The Best Use of Visual Content in Social Media

I just saw this great Slideshare called 55 Brands Rocking Social Media with Visual Content and thought I'd share it with you. The deck is from a Hubspot PDF and was posted by Laura Lopes. 

55 Brands Rocking Social Media with Visual Content

Kevin Duffy is the Creative Director for The Duffy Agency's Boston office.

Santa Claus Graphic Guidelines

How not to get sued by an elf this Holiday Season

Hey it's that time of year again.

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8 Steps to Improve Your SEO

In order to keep people from "gaming" the Google algorithm,Google has actually started placing less importance on things like keywords and meta-tags and instead is trying to use how people interact with content as a means of determining relevancy. What this mean for companies is that content and getting people to share and engage with that content is the most significant way to rise in Google rankings. To ensure success, brands need to evaluate and optimize the content on all their online assets. The following is an outline to the 8-step process The Duffy Agency uses to help clients optimize their online assets.

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THE SOCIAL VOTE: OBAMA VS. ROMNEY

Sean Duffy takes a unique perspective to this year's presidential race in today's Brand Rants blog post:

OK, all the Americans at The Duffy Agency have now voted. Like many Americans, I'll be watching the results come in for the rest of the day trying to piece together the fragments and get a glimpse into the future of who will be my country's next president.

In that spirit, I've turned to online networks and Google to see how the candidates stack up there. This is a bit like peering into tea leaves to forsee the future, but go ahead and see if these rankings tell you who the next US president will be.

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4 CRUCIAL STEPS TO TAKE NOW TO ENSURE A SUCCESSFUL 2013

As we enter the final quarter of 2012, it is time to start thinking and planning for 2013. We’ve put together a quick check list to help make the most of Q4 and get you ready for 2013.

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WHY THE CMO HAS TO GO

The life expectancy of a CMO has reached an all time high of 3.5 years (nearly double what is was five years ago) but it seems the rift between CEOs and their CMOs has never been greater. So what needs to change to move forward?

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COMING TO TERMS: WHAT IS A BRAND? WHAT IS BRANDING?

In today's Brand Rants post, Sean Duffy tries to come to terms with defining a brand and branding.

There’s little wonder why people have so much trouble defining a brand or branding. One brand "expert" tells us that branding is all about graphic guidelines while others say it’s a promise, or a covenant, or a look, or a feel, or an attitude, or an emotion, or an association, or a perception, or a bond, or an experience, or even a religion. So what exactly is it?

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How to launch your new product effectively

In today's BrandRanter post, The Duffy Agency founder, Sean Duffy, talks about effective product launches.

Today, Apple will announce the new iPhone 5, and analysts are expecting it to become the fastest selling smart phone in history. How does Apple seem to do this with every iteration of the iPhone? Because unlike most companies, which simply "release" a new product, Apple understands how to truly "launch" a product.

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4 QUICK STEPS TOWARDS A UNIFIED MARKETING VOCABULARY

THE GREATEST ENEMY OF COMMUNICATION IS THE ILLUSION OF IT

Marketing professional share an extensive vocabulary of marketing terms. Unfortunately they don't share common definitions for many of those terms. In day-to-day office chatter the differences don't reveal themselves. 

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Why measurement is critical to managing global brands

The biggest innovation in global marketing in the last twenty years is not what you may think. In fact, true innovation in marketing happens infrequentlyFor example,the focus group was invented back in 1941. 

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The value of a Facebook "Like"

Facebook has turned many brands into a neurotic mess. Like some smothering and needy friend, brands are constantly asking us to show our allegiance to them with a “like.”

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The most important aspect of branding: follow through

If you're a golfer then you understand the importance of follow through. The same principles can be applied to developing brand equity. Today's Brand Rants post looks at defined steps to build brand equity.

The idea for brand managers is to create a brand strategy and tactical communication plans that combine all ten steps of brand equity development into one smooth swing. 

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Does Google really need help with their brand?

The Duffy Agency's Sean Duffy just finished publishing a four-part series on the Google brand, which we at The Duffy Agency believe has not been managed as well as it could be. It's a very quick, but very insightful read.

But I’m not saying that their business model is sinister or that they don’t deserve every dime they have earned. For the most part, I’m OK with that arrangement so long as Google can keep me convinced that it will stay true to it’s founders unofficial yet well-hyped corporate motto “Don’t be evil.” That's brand management. To date, they're not doing such a great job. In fact, they're doing a lousy job. Unchecked, I believe this will be the company’s undoing.

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The Real Value of Facebook for Brands

In Sean Duffy's latest Marketing Moxie column on Talent Zoo, he looks beyond advertising to explore the real value Facebook for brands.

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Are there lessons to be learned from @Sweden?

The @Sweden twitter account has captured the attention of social media folks. People are arguing about whether Sonja is helping or hurting the brand of Sweden, but I think they might be asking the wrong question.

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The social launch: 5 elements critical to online success

Have you considered incorporating social media and other online assets in your next launch plan?

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Spring Cleaning for your brand’s online presence

If your brand is like most, then chances are that its web presence has grown organically over the past several years. A Facebook page here, a Twitter feed there and before you know it you have a constellation of web assets in orbit, like space junk around your brand.

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Health Care and Social Media

A recent article in Information Week stated that the health care community in the United States doesn’t take full advantage of social media as a health care tool. Most healthcare organizations in the U.S. use social media solely for marketing.

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The Duffy Agency Gets Serious about Social Media

As we've written about previously, the social media revolution is over. Social media is a reality in marketing. The question now is how to we use this new tool as more than just a diversion? What are the implications of not just two-way marketing communication, but also many-way? In other words, what do we do now?

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