How do we measure marketing, advertising, and PR strategies and tactics? Well, we often argue about what is great, but we rarely (if ever) argue about what’s bad. Very simply, marketing that makes us cringe.

Bad marketing is more than just wasted time or money. It’s lost opportunity. The 2 Guyz Larry created the 9 P’s of Marketing (Planning, Product, People, Price, Promotion, Place, Partners, Presentation, and Passion). There is so much that goes into good marketing, that’s it’s easy to go astray. Unfortunately, for some, it’s easy to turn not-so-good marketing into bad marketing.

Bottom Line: Some ads should have never run, some press events should never have happened, and some brands have just taken terrible turns for the worse.

A major lesson learned: If anyone in a client meeting or in the approval process should have said, “No way,” listen to them, and take another look at what you are doing.  

So, for your marketing “guilty pleasure”, we present to you, the 2019 Baddie Awards!

cringe  •   /krinj/   verb

bend one’s head and body away from an ad or promotion in fear or in a servile manner.

“they cringed away from the ad and thought negatively about the brand, for almost forever.”

1. (tie) Juul

Juul’s “Product.” Mint was their most popular showing mint’s huge popularity among underage and teenage vapers.  Mint accounted for about 70% of Juul’s sales in the U.S.  Juul Labs has immediately stopped online sales of their mint “Products” in October, it was last month that Juul Labs announced that they would stop the sale of flavors other than tobacco, mint and menthol.

1. (tie) Santa Anita Race Track

Santa Anita Race Track, with its 37 racing and training deaths of horses. Do we need to continue a sport which horses die at a rate of 1.68 for every 1000 starts?  Think about track and field and human. How is this acceptable to entertain bettors and race track goers? During the 2019 season, there were 493 horse racing fatalities. Enough is enough.

3. Political Ads

Any 2019 political ad, since most are not believable. We can’t wait for 2020. That’s sarcasm.

4. Cheez-It Pizza

The stuffed Cheez-it pizza from Pizza Hut. It gets on our list because of how it looks. 

5. M&M’s

M&M’s running the “Spy” spot in their cinema advertising, running over and over and over. This cinema spot appeared on last year’s list and is on again. Still running. Enough is enough. Frequency of obnoxious ads makes them worse.

6. IHOP

IHOP’s Happy Mother’s Day to ALL the moms out there!” They tweeted a bizarre image of a towering pile of pancakes seemingly stacked inside a woman’s body, via an ultrasound. Inappropriate image and promotion. “If you have pancakes in your tum tum does that make you a pancake mum mum?”

7. Movie Pass

Last September 14, 2019, MoviePass was shut down. MoviePass, the subscription service that spent enormous amounts of venture capitalists’ money subsidizing movie tickets in a bid to upend the theater business model, is officially died. Last year Movie Pass said it had 2,000,000 subscribers at $9.95/month, letting movie goers see a movie a day. 30 movies a month. When it seems unbelievable, it usually is. Too much demand. Couldn’t sustain and had to take out loans. Dropped from 30 movies a month to 3, plus limited access to wide-release movies during peak demand. Not the same deal. Couldn’t generate any more investor money. DOA.

8. Tesla

Tesla’s Pickup Cybertruck Press Conference. Tesla is cool. Elon Musk is cool. But who told them to demonstrate breakproof glass by throwing a rock at it…twice?!?!? And doing without being 100% sure it would work. That was a PR gaff that will be remembered (and enjoyed) by many years to come.

9. Facebook

Facebook. Facebook makes over $50 billion a year. They have more than a billion users. Yet they just can’t seem to get this whole “security” thing together. This year we learned more about Cambridge Analytica and their access to all of our private data, data breeches, fines (some $5 billions of fines from the FTC alone!) Facebook…we like you, but we don’t need you to survive. You must protect our data better, or we will leave, and many are threatening to do so in anticipation of the 2020 elections!

10. Boeing

The 737 Max Scandal has really tarnished Boeing’s once rock-solid image.

The Boeing 737 MAX is a narrow-body commercial aircraft series, the fourth generation of the Boeing 737. FAA has said it again, and again: Boeing’s 737 Max is not ready for certification.

It all started with Popeye’s introducing a new chicken sandwich. It consists of some chicken on brioche, with pickles and mayo. That’s it. This was way back, a little more than two weeks or on Aug. 12.

Chick-fil-A tweets out a simple, harmless tweet that lays claim to being the first with the sandwich, not even mentioning Popeye’s.

And the gauntlet was thrown down.

Popeye’s responded, and a chicken sandwich war had become. Shots across bows. Hashtag mania. Tons of PR.

Some tweeted that they now could get a great chicken sandwich without supporting Chick-fil-A’s politics. Others made racial slurs about the target audiences. And even celebrities jumped into the fray.

And now, not even three weeks later, Popeye’s has just announced that, while the purchased enough to supply stores with sandwiches through September, they are official sold out of the new sandwich. Which in turn is causing even more publicity?

Londre asks “Was this all planned?”  Some was. Most wasn’t.  Add the “planned” scarcity and publicity and sometimes you can strike gold.  There’s a concept of “scarcity marketing,” which is a technique or principle that “People (one of the nine P’s) may want what is difficult to obtain. If an event is SRO (standing room only) don’t “people” want to get in?

Apex Marketing Group, a consulting firm in Michigan, has released a report estimating that Popeye’s received $23.25 million in free advertising as a result. Popeye’s ad agency, GSD&M, which also oversees social media for the chain, is clucking with happiness.

Popeye’s Twitter following has grown more in three weeks, than in nearly three years.

Will it have staying power? Time will tell.

Sounds like a victory for Popeye’s. And maybe a taste test for the 2 Guys On Marketing…when the sandwiches are back in stores!

For the 2 Guyz, smart Marketing moves, and it’s a chicken sandwich which has legs, sales and publicity.

Serena Williams narrates the moving spot that depicts woman after woman, girl after girl, in sporting situations. Williams lists the words so often used to describe women athletes: nuts, delusional, dramatic, etc.

Late in the spot, Williams comes to the word crazy, and rather than fight it, the dialog embraces it. Nike, through Williams and a superbly-edited commercial appropriate (and rightly so) the term “crazy”. Yes, women athletes are crazy…in a good way.

The spot ends with the lines, “So if they wanna call you crazy, fine. Show them what crazy can do.”

Homerun. Touchdown. Goal. Slam dunk. Nike “Just Do It” rides again.

Nike has strayed here and there, and many question the strategy of the Colin Kaepernick ad of last year, but with Dream Crazy they have returned to the roots that helped build a superbrand.

Two Guyz Brian said of the spot, “It’s why I got into advertising in the first place, spots like this. I love the story it tells. I love the emotion it evokes. And I love the message it conveys. It makes me want to ‘just do it’, and it makes me want to buy something Nike right now.”

And creating a spot that is about the power of women and female athletes that MOST guys will like is not an easy feat.

The 2 Guyz On Marketing teach that emotion is a much more powerful communications tool than logic the vast majority of the time. Done properly, emotional appeals get into your psyche and your soul. They touch you in ways you were not expecting, and not prepared for. And that makes them both powerful and memorable.

A bit crazy? Brilliantly crazy.

As an owner, operator, supervisor, marketing executive, manager or employee, can your customers, clients or users tell the difference between your product or service and your competition?  

Do you have strategic and significant difference? A U.S.P., unique selling proposition?

Every brand should have a story to tell whether they are in the Super Bowl or not.

Are you telling the right story? Is your brand and story reaching the right people, your customers, and your potential purchasers?

Here are the insights from The 2 Guyz On Marketing.

1. Gladys Knight hit it out of the park with her rendition of the National Anthem.
2. Pepsi didn’t get their money’s worth with the halftime show of Maroon 5, Travis Scott and Big Boi.
3. One of our favorite spots was for Amazon. They used the celebrities of Mark and Scott Kelly and Harrison Ford and how Alexa can misunderstand.
4. Mint Mobile hit the mother lode in bad taste with “Chunky Milk.” When the 2 Guyz presented the Mint Mobile spot to a university class, none of the students liked the spot and many cringed.
5. CBS promoted almost all of their shows and programming. The number one advertiser by number of TV spots and promotion: CBS who brought to all of us Super Bowl LIII.
6. The 2 Guyz liked the message for Bumble. Giving women the right to make the first move, but the spot with Sabrina Williams wasn’t impactful enough.
7. While there were fewer cars advertised this year in the Super Bowl, the number one brand promoted: Mercedes Benz. Super Bowl Liii was televised from Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta, and its signage was constantly seen.
8. Looking at U.S.P.’s or unique selling propositions, it was Bud Light who said Coors Light and Miller Light use corn syrup in their brewing.  Bud Light doesn’t use corn syrup. While done in the “dilly dilly” style, it is possibly the most hard hitting beer ad in years.
9. Another U.S.P. of note: Some 33.3% of their cars will be electrified by 2025. Impressive.
10. As predicted by The 2 Guyz, Persil rated in the bottom five of all advertisers.
11. Stella Artois used celebrities Jeff Bridges and Jessica Parker in character from famous movies and hit shows. One mispronounced Stella Artois. Has Stella been promoting all of these years and yet potential beer purchasers do not know how to say “Stella Artois?”  

The 2 Guyz teach and consult that the right Marketing belief or practice is not merely an idea the mind possesses; it is an idea that possesses the minds of each individual employee in trying to satisfy the consumer and in the advertising of the company.  

As Management guru Peter F. Drucker once said: “The aim of Marketing is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him (her/it) and sells itself.  This is one of the reasons the Nine P’s of marketing were created. “People” or targeting was somewhat forgotten in the traditional 4 P’s of the Marketing Mix, but is a major, significant part of the Nine P’s of Marketing.

,TV spots cost the most in history, up to $5.3M per :30 and that did not include production, agency fees or creative.

As for ads, we definitely saw a few trends. Here’s a rundown of some of the things we learned from this year’s Superbowl of Advertising.

• Trying to be cool doesn’t work. Being cool isn’t something you do, it’s something you are. We ask every year, why not feature the product.? Just putting a rapper in an ad doesn’t mean you’ll be successful. That was Pepsi’s philosophy with Steve Carell not being funny with Lil Jon and Cardi B.
• Downers don’t play. If you don’t get our attention, and don’t keep it, you lose. Think Turbo Tax, Turkish Air, and ADT. The advertisers need to think of the home TV environment and the amount of drinking, especially on east coast.
• Funny plays well when there is a message. Bud Light actually had a message about ingredients. It was about what their competitors are putting into beer., Who knew corn syrup was being used? Alexa made fun of themselves, in a good way. Hyundai hooked us with the elevator spot.
• If we don’t know who you are, tell us, and tell us what you do, otherwise, we don’t care. Bumble, Mint Mobile, and Persil are guilty as charged.
• Preach to the choir. NFL killed it with their 100-year kickoff promotion. Nicely done. Brought out the personalities of the stars.
• Tugging at heart strings or strong advocacy messages resonated. Verizon, Microsoft, Google, and the Washington Post all had winners with smart ads.
• Changing perceptions is difficult, but possible. Stella Artois and KIA both had memorable ads that asked us to see things in a new light. Or as Londre says, has Stella spent so much and knew people didn’t know how to pronounce it.  It’s beer drinkers who have to order.
• Boring is bad. Wix’s popular Karli Kloss ads played like they were old and stale on the big Superbowl stage.

Superbowl advertising is a time to be special, to make a big impression. It’s sad to see wasting the chance for a big audience and a big message.  Kudos to those who succeeded. Back to the drawing room for those who didn’t.

Want to see Ad Meter‘s full rundown of the best and worst? Click here.

And then it pops up. Or, “poops” up, if you will.

Air Wick’s new VIP (Very Important Pooper) spray rears its, well, less than attractive head.

Think back a year or two, and PooPourri.com went viral with their sweet British accented-spokeswoman chatting cleverishly about the indiscretions of bathroom smells. The spot walks right to the edge of propriety, but somehow straddles it just enough to keep it fun, and not gross.

Unfortunately Air Wick crosses the line. It could have straddled the line, but they chose not. The creatives on this thought a full frame shot of a older man, an airline pilot, sitting on the loo, with shorts around his ankle.

The 2 Guyz like funny spots as much as anyone. Heck, we’ve written and created advertising that gets close, and yes, sometimes crosses the line, but feel it’s only worth it if you’re in a competitive position to capitalize upon it. This is usually reserved for a small, unknown brand that needs to create a name for itself, and shock value matters.

Think GoDaddy.

We’re not puritans here. Far from it. But we do like guiding our clients down paths of long prosperity.

Not sure this spot fits the bill.

“WENDY’S!!!”  (@Wendys on Twitter). (Thanks COM 490!).

While Taco Bell seemed to hold the crown a year or two ago, Wendy’s has developed a following of over 2.4 million people.

Brand and Marketing researchers know there is a correlation between social media engagement and brands, but there is debate whether people like a brand and then follow, or follow a brand and then like it.

Either way, getting millions of followers to engage with your posts, liking, sharing, and commenting, is basically a social media home run.

BoredPanda.com, a website dedicated to “showcasing the world’s most creative artworks, offbeat products and everything that’s really weird or wonderful”, recently highlighted they Twitter genius of Wendy’s.

Research does indicated witty brands can be more memorable. But it can be a delicate balance.

The 2 Guys On Marketing teach that funny is good when it is memorable, relates to the brand or product, and is within the brand character. Londre and Hemsworth also know what makes the cash register ring is most important.  It’s about sales and their generation.

The Wendy’s tweets walk a fine line, but they appear to be witty and hitting the funny bone of millennials. The result is that Wendy’s is seen as cooler, hipper than places like McDonalds or Burger King.

Wendy’s is also on a steep upward growth track, planning to add 1000 stores globally in the next two years. (Source: http://www.nrn.com/operations/wendy-s-plans-add-1000-units-2020).

How long will the Twitter halo last? Will it continue to generate sales?

What the 2 Guyz really know about fast food is that new product development is key to future success, too, but that’s a future topic!

We’ll keep you posted!

The 2 Guyz are all over this. The advertising budget in question isn’t that large at all. At $100K it’s 2% of one Super Bowl spot.

Let’s look at the elements:

• Copy
• Headline
• Any graphics
• Media planning (including targeting or “People” under the 9P’s)
• Timing
• Budgets

The 2 Guyz on Marketing know and teach that Facebook, the world’s largest social network, is in the process of giving the Russia-linked ads to special counsel, Robert Mueller and to Congress. Facebook stated that they would provide copies of the ads, plus to whom the ads were targeted. The 2 Guyz believe that is the most important part. Facebook will include ad cost data. Again the budget and media spending wasn’t hat much.

Under media planning and execution, these Facebook ads have reach. With $100K the ads would not have much frequency unless it was a very small target. Three thousand ads seem like a lot, but the budget is small. Where (geographic segmentation under “People,” in the 9P’s of marketing) will be important.

We want to know where and to whom they targeted the ads, which will help in the analysis!

What is a teaser campaign? A teaser campaign is a pre-launch campaign, for a product, service or event and this advertising consists of one or more ads in a series of small, cryptic ads with more to come in a larger ad campaign.

The headline is “Netflix is a joke.” which surprisingly Netflix is the one sponsoring and paying for the outdoor boards.

The boards are plain white with type in black.

This sign is part of a new ad campaign from the streaming service. If you are in NY check it out in Hell’s Kitchen or in L.A. at Olympic and Robertson.

Netflix is a registered trademark of Netflix, Inc.

Larry Steven Londre offers one unique definition of marketing, and Brian Hemsworth comments on the execution of some :06 commercials.