Mobile Shopping: One e-retailer is capitalizing on the mobile barcode scanning: Amazon. Amazon recently integrated scanning into its mobile app. “Integrating the scanning capability is a smart move for Amazon because it removes friction from the buying process and enables interested consumers to pull the trigger on a purchase right from within the app,” writes eMarketer. With 43 percent of consumers in nine major markets, including the US, using barcode scanning to find the best prices to give them more control over the shopping experience, Amazon might also be the king of mobile retail.

Mobile Consumers of Advertising: Consumers are becoming familiar with advertising on their mobile devices. In fact, 38 percent of people feel mobile ads “serve an important purpose” and an additional 25 percent stated they are becoming accustomed to viewing mobile ads, according to a recent InMobi and comScore report. A mere 10 percent of respondents feel uncomfortable with mobile ads and 12 percent felt they were intrusive. The study suggests mobile advertising to be a level playing field for advertisers to target mobile consumers.

Mobile Ad Spending: Advertisers have an opportunity to cash in on the enormous mobile market. US mobile ad spending will be up 79 percent to reach $743 million this year and spending is expected to be over $1.1 billion in 2011 and more than $2.5 billion by 2014, eMarketer forecasts. Hot spots will be video, display and search — all nearly doubling this year. With consumers receptive to mobile ads, now is perfect time to start experimenting with mobile ad placements to determine whether you can make mobile work for your brand.

The Mobile Ad Exchange: Mobile users are willing to view ads in an exchange for something. Typically the exchange is a free app and the paid app is for those that want the game, news, etc without those pesky ads. An interesting statistic from Oracle’s September 2010 “Opportunity Calling: The Future of Mobile Communications” survey revealed 54 percent of adult mobile users would be willing to listen to or watch mobile ads in exchange for a 5 percent credit on their monthly phone bill — further incentivizing users to view ads.

Mobile Scanning on the Rise: Mobile is big. We get it. So what are the emerging areas of mobile marketers should be on the lookout for? Let’s focus on the fantastically popular app, RedLaser. The app scans barcodes with the mobile camera and topped five million downloads in early October. There is a rising segment of mobile users that want to make searching for products more interactive and inclusive and barcode scanning is one way.

Innovation Strategy

Successful innovations incorporate strategy and creative inspiration. The most successful innovators combine left and right brain thinking to guide innovation development and drive your brand forward. New Product Development: Identifying Product Opportunity New Product Development: From Concept to Launch Innovation for CEOs Accelerating Innovation with Industry Insiders Innovation on the Web

Creativity Tools

Where do great ideas come from? Sometimes new ideas come from customer research, and other times you need ”wow” ideas that seem to appear out of thin air. To consistently spur creative thinking in your organization, consider the following creativity tools. Inspire Innovation in your Company Inspiring Innovation Series: Workshop Wonders Innovative Work Environments How to Work Multi-Dimensional

Best Practices in Innovation

Innovation strategy is one part science and two parts art.  Learn from leaders in the innovation market.  Use their insights, best practices, and inspiration as a starting point for your own innovation strategy. Top 5 Best Practices for Innovation Top 5 Innovative Mashups Innovative Social Media Campaigns SXSW: Best Practices in Innovation Innovating with 3D

Trends in Innovation

As the macro-environment shifts (social, political, cultural and economic), new opportunities will emerge for creativity and innovation. Examining Beta People: Segments, Stats, Brands, Facts Crowdsourcing Innovation Innovation with Coca-Cola and Nintendo Agile Development with Google & blur Group Finding Opportunity in Crisis

Must Read Articles: Inspiring Innovation

Hitting a creative dry spell? Explore these resources to get inspired. Inspiring Innovation: Best Practices (Forbes) Innovation: How the Creative Stay Creative (Inc) Emerging Innovative Entrepreneurs (Springwise) Top 10 Business Ideas (Springwise)

We are in a transformative time in advertising. We are transitioning away from pushing a message to advertising 2.0, where users select relevant, entertaining content. “If people instead pull bits of information into their lives through a game, they are more likely to feel a sense of ownership,” writes the NY Times. Games are just one way to create consumer / brand ownership.

Much like EA Sports banner advertisements, marketers are pioneering new ways to engage users in fun, informative and highly relevant ways — whether it’s through high-quality, banner ad games or iAd’s Toy Story 3 microsite or Groupon’s group discount voting. Advertising 2.0 is about having fun. And the following brands are championing a new thinking in the advertising industry:

EA Sports – EA Sports pulled out all the stops marketing its Need for Speed: Shift release. Users could sign up to win prizes, such as a Coca Cola fridge and play a demo version of the game all within a banner advertisement. EA’s banner ad featured crisp graphics and smooth game play — a far remove from the bop-George-Bush-on-the-head games that populated MySpace in its early days.

iAd Network — Steve Jobs offered a glimpse into a new direction in mobile advertising with the iAd Network. Jobs demonstrated a Toy Story 3 banner ad mock-up in which users could click the ad and be transported to a microsite. The microsite enabled users to play games, download wall paper and use GPS to locate a nearby theater featuring Toy Story 3. Jobs’ vision of advertising 2.0 is one where the ad engages the user in a deep and interactive way.

Groupon — It’s called collective buying power. Groupon borrows principles of crowdsourcing to get incredible discounts for its users. Just sign up, vote on your favorite discount and if enough people like it, you can have it. Groupon provides discounted products and services while ensuring patronage for businesses. It’s truly a win-win advertising model.

Sponsored Tweets — You’ve spent months building your Twitter fan-base to 6,000. Thanks to Sponsored Tweets, it’s time to cash-in. Marketers craft a message and determine the type of Twitterers that should spread it. Then they segment users, much like Google AdWords (location, timing, etc), and Sponsored Tweets suggests you, the Twitter influencer, to pass on their message.

FourSquare — Imagine after checking into your favorite cafe, you’re given a 10% discount on a tall latte. FourSquare is a location-based game that rewards you for checking into your favorite hangouts with badges and mayorships. Gaining 1 million users in its first year, FourSquare is the hottest mobile social network. It’s no surprise it’s trying to monetize its userbase through FourSquare for Businesses. Tasti D-Lite is an early participant in the program — offering discounts to users in two of its New York City locations. Since Tasti D-Lite’s beta test in 2009, Starbucks has also signed up.

Make no mistake, EA Sports, Apple, Groupon, Sponsored Tweets and FourSquare are not individually the answer to advertising 2.0. Each represents a new mode of thinking that will push how users interact with brand marketing. If, collectively, the above examples, what could advertising look like in 5 years? Combining these examples, you’d have a highly interactive and engaging ad platform.

Imagine walking into Borders Books, checking into FourSquare where it serves up a banner ad. Click on the banner ad, and to gain access to deep-discount coupons, you must play a game. You must collect the Dracula and Action Hero badges in the horror and comic sections, respectively. Then Borders gives you a choice of which coupons to download. Because you’re in the mood for a latte, you download the 50% Seattle’s Best coupon, which automatically announces the savings to your Twitterverse. The location-based hunt for discounts might not be the complete vision of mobile advertising, but it includes many of the emerging elements in advertising 2.0: social, interactive, valuable and most importantly, fun.

Read the 2010 social media report:

To date, there are over 400 million Facebook users. That nearly parallels the total number of residents in America and Mexico, combined. We should expect there to be more Facebook users than people in North America in the next three months, given Facebook’s current trajectory. Following on the tails of the world’s largest social network are new, emerging companies changing the game. FourSquare is a location-based social network and brightest star among its emerging peers — with one million users and 20 million “check ins” in its first year. The scope of possibilities for brands to capture these growing social audiences is astounding.

With seemingly unlimited possibilities, marketing leaders are blazing new trails with experimentation and innovation. For marketers, and an interactive agency, to engage consumers, they must take risks and focus on hyper-relevant content, meaningful relationships, multimedia, exclusivity, and Internet ubiquity.  Starbucks leverages GPS to deliver discounts, EA Games enables users to play professional quality games and win prizes without ever leaving the banner ad, digitally savvy politicians are mobilizing support through location-based social networks and we’re witnessing the re-emergence of loyalty programs. For marketers to engage consumers, they must take risks and focus on hyper-relevant content, meaningful relationships, multimedia, exclusivity and internet ubiquity.

The posts below explore the ever-changing marketing environment and how to use it to your advantage:

The Next Generation of Affluent Networkers – For prestige brands that strive for exclusivity, Facebook’s 400 million users is quite an intimidating number. That’s not to say prestige brands should not target social networks, however. Instead of focusing on 400 million, prestige brands should cater to gated online communities, such as Gilt Groupe and aSmallWorld.com. More specifically, purveyors of luxury should target the emerging class of digitally savvy affluent Gen Yers. Learn how affluent Gen Yers will shape tomorrow’s most prestigious social networks.

How Retailers Are Using Social Media to Promote, Sell, and Engage - If you haven’t heard, the buzz word these days is “Foursquare.” A small, New York tech start-up that is on its way to becoming the next biggest thing in social media. Foursquare is a location-based service that allows users to “check in” at places they frequent in their daily lives. By encouraging users to do this simple task, Foursquare is offering a huge draw to local retailers, and helping to bring back the long-outdated promotion tool known as the loyalty program. Not long ago considered an ancient and cliche business tactic, the loyalty program is having a rebirth by way of social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and newcomer Foursquare.

FourSquare: What the Buzz is About – If you’ve been using social networks for the past few years, you’ve seen how the buzz has shifted from MySpace to Facebook to Twitter and back to Facebook. These seemingly organic shifts between virtual worlds have probably left you wondering what might be next on the horizon. Well, many experts in the digital and social arenas have been keeping a close eye on Foursquare.

Top 5 New Advertising Directions – Advertising is in a transitional period, where marketers are experimenting with innovative strategies and tools. EA Sports, FourSquare, Apple, Sponsored Tweets are just a few advertisers and developers pushing a new mode of thinking in marketing circles — one that relies on social, interactive, valuable and most importantly, fun. Using the aforementioned examples, we’ll build a new marketing model that leverages the benefits of each innovative campaign to provide a glimpse into what advertising might look like in 2-5 years.

Social Networks Across Media Platforms – Social media exists not only on Facebook.com or Twitter.com. Advancements in social media tech, in particular Facebook, enables users across the web to have the utility of their favorite social networks without ever visiting its URL. This social media ubiquity creates a seamless connection to third party sites and enable users to always be connected to their favorite social network — whether they’re at a train stop or reading their favorite blog.

Using Social Media to Rally Support for Politicians – To advance the conversation and mobilize community support, social media is becoming a staple of the political tool box. Facebook, Twitter and other social networks reinforce political messages and fuel offline support. Though Facebook and Twitter have seen several political seasons, emerging social networks, such as FourSquare, are only now beginning to make in-roads into politics.

How to Use Social Media to Improve Your Health - With each advancement in communications, the consumer health and wellness category grows larger and further empowers those seeking a healthier lifestyle. Home exercise was popularized by VHS (think Richard Simmons), On Demand TV channels eliminated cassettes, WebMD put health on the digital map and now we’re witnessing Health 2.0 with the advent of social media.

Image by B S K from Stock.Xchng

The question to tourism officials is: how should these significant grants best be used to make an impact?  Of course, their answer was tv ads.  Yes, tv does have the broadest reach, can connect emotionally, and was a fast response time vehicle.  But it seems like the “easy” choice.  Given the short lead time, let’s give that decision a pass and move onto the actual messages.

The following 3 tv ads (1 for the entire Gulf Region, 1 for Mississippi, and 1 for Alabama) all welcome tourists to enjoy the clean beaches of the Gulf.  With oil spewing offshore, this is obviously a touchy subject.  A close inspection shows that they have slightly different approaches, tones and messages which have varying degrees of effectiveness.

Let’s start with the Gulf Coast region ad.  The overall tone is balanced: positive, but not too positive given the tragedy just offshore.  There is subtle reference to the oil spill without calling it by name, in saying that government agencies are working hard to preserve the natural beauty.  The spot ends on a high “the gulf coast is open … for fun.  We’d love to see ya.”  This could be tweaked to be slightly more human and embracing of nature, but overall this is the strongest of the three ads referenced in this blog post.

Now, onto the Mississippi tourism ad.  This ad gets a thumbs up for being locally authentic, with Tourism Director Mary Beth narrating the spot.  Smart to time stamp (May 11th) and location stamp (Mississippi beach) the spot.  The tone of this ad is very positive and upbeat.  Given that the Tourism Director is front and center and yapping away with only positive messages, it comes off as perhaps too idealistic.  To improve this spot, we would suggest making a subtle reference to the natural disaster so that it comes across as truly authentic and makes a fuller emotional connection.

Onto the final ad, this from Alabama tourism.  It starts off with a more serious and sophisticated tone, more akin to the 1st Gulf ad above.  However, it immediately veers off course with the statement, “It’s June 2010 and nothing has changed.”  Really?  Are you kidding me?  And onto “Alabama’s Coast is Absolutely Clear,” which together with the first statement speaks of arrogance that Alabama is unconcerned with the tragedy of the Gulf.  To top it all off, the final still is of Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail which sponsored the ad.  In order for these ads to work, people need to trust the message:  that Alabama’s beaches really are clean, safe, and enjoyable.  As of today, it is true … but the Alabama ad does little to instill further confidence.

QR codes enable consumers to find out more about a product or service by scanning a pixelated, black and white image with their mobile phone camera. The code is connected to a unique URL or web address, whether it’s a screen saver, video clip, news, information, game, promotion, coupon, etc. Unlike a UPC label, QR codes can embed several hundred times more information. App developers for Google, Microsoft and Apple platforms are tapping into this emerging market with new smart phone apps: Barcode Scanner, Microsoft Tag and NeoReader, respectively.

US advertisers are only now understanding the value in QR codes, where Japanese marketers and businesses have been using QR codes for some time. Why jump onto the bandwagon in the US? “The proliferation of internet equipped phones such as iPhones, Android and newer Nokia handsets gives advertisers a tremendous opportunity to reach a sizable and engaged audience,” said Scanbuy CEO Jonathan Bulkeley. Indeed, QR codes enable consumers to connect to product and service information directly, efficiently and immediately — eliminating the time gap between when audiences see a product and when they search for more information about it. QR codes link users to e-commerce sites and reviews while expanding product offerings:

Link to e-Commerce – Polo Ralph Lauren is among an emerging class of brands pioneering QR codes in advertising. The fashion company integrated QR codes into its billboards, banners and other print mediums as a new way to connect audiences to e-commerce sites and bridge the gap between offline and online interaction. QR codes directed audiences to videos, style web pages, online stores and other brand-related information.

Expand Offering – Beyond traditional media (i.e. videos, product descriptions, e-commerce sites, etc), QR codes can connect customers to additional offerings. British popgroup Pet Shop Boys used a QR code as a link to download the single, “Integral.” QR codes in its video, “Integral” to expand their message of “big brother” by linking to online content about civil liberties.  As QR codes essentially translate an image to a unique URL, they can be used to link to additional product offerings.

Access to Reviews – San Francisco is known for its progressive attitude towards politics and lifestyle, but they are also progressive when it comes to tech as well. As one of the largest uses of QR in the US, over five hundred restaurants and businesses featured a QR code that linked tourists to Citysearch for reviews and other web-based content. The city-wide campaign demonstrated how QR code technology could be used on a large scale.

As smartphone adoption and user tech savviness increases, expect QR code technology growth to parallel Japan. “You’ll be able to walk past fruit at the supermarket, scan an apple, and see when it was picked and where it came from,” says Bulkeley. Or, QR code technology can be incorporate into social networking. Semacode is collaborating with Facebook to allow users to send people they meet a link to their online profile by having them scan a Semacoded “social card.” Moreover, Google developed a QR code generator, called ZXing, and its employees are using it on their business cards. QR codes have the potential to be the next major trend in the way we connect with products, brands and people.

“People have a completely different perception of mobile content and advertising when they’re on-the-go compared to when they’re at home or in the office,” said David Staas, senior vice president of marketing at JiWire. “This is an opportunity brands and agencies are more rapidly embracing.” How are mobile ads different from desktops? Mobile today is what the web was ten years ago: new. Users are exploring and discovering what the platform has to offer, which includes clicking on ads.

When the web was in its infant stages, users were more inclined to click on flashy banner advertisements for free products. Since that time, online clickthroughs have declined significantly. In 2009, all clicks for online ads are derived from a mere 16 percent of internet users — down from 32 percent in 2007. This 50 percent drop could be explained by an increase in user savviness and loss in banner novelty.

Novelty in mobile is most prevalent in apps. Given Apple’s milestone of 1 billion app downloads in just nine months, mobile users are app-crazy. Of the roughly 1,000 smartphone users surveyed, 40 percent of users spend more than one hour per day using apps — the most popular of which is Facebook — and have an average of 22 apps on their devices. JiWire reports 52 percent claim they have acted on an advertisement in an app and 18 percent made a purchase directly from an app ad in the last month.

Mobile also presents a new way to engage users in meaningful, entertaining ways. Apple’s new iAd platform offers a glimpse into the future of mobile advertising. The iAd network encourages advertisers to go beyond traditional banner marketing and engage users with brand-related games, posters, downloads, etc as demonstrated by a Toy Story 3 banner ad mock up. In addition to mini-games and free downloads, Apple’s Toy Story 3 ad utilizes location-based technology to bring a personalized, relevant user experience (i.e. close movie theaters).

Mobile users seek hyper-relevancy in advertising, despite the hooplah surrounding Facebook privacy. Indeed, the astonishing growth of location-based services, such as FourSquare and Gowalla, demonstrate users are willing to sacrifice privacy for functionality. In fact, FourSquare cultivated 1 million users in just one year — growth that parallels Facebook’s early years. The majority of mobile users are willing to share their location to receive more relevant advertising and 84 percent of the On-The-Go Mobile Audience is just as likely, or more likely, to engage with an ad that is relevant to their location.

Check out the chart below via Mashable:

Mobile users also understand the necessity of advertising. Banner ads exist on hundreds of thousands, if not millions of websites. Banner and contextual advertising subsidizes the cost of maintaining the site so users do not have to pay. The same principle holds true in mobile apps. JiWire reports 76 percent of users prefer to download a free, advertising-supported app instead of paying an upfront fee for the same app.

Looking to the future of mobile advertising, if brands want to maintain engagement with mobile users for the long run, ads must be highly targeted and relevant to keep users interested. Much as Google AdWords made advertisements relevant (and consequently achieved high clickthrough rates), mobile needs to follow a similar path. Mobile ads need to be fun to explore, offer an engaging, entertaining experience, bring hyper-relevancy to products and services while subsidizing the cost of app development (equaling free entertainment). Given the chance to engage users in a meaningful and relevant way, brands have an incredible opportunity to get their message heard through the next advertising platform: mobile.

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Paul Bannister, CEO of the International Marketing Council of South Africa says:

“With the world’s eyes upon it as host of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, South Africa is seeking to establish itself as a competitive and relevant nation brand. We’re excited about the potential for social media channels to generate greater discourse and narrative about our brand from people who have experienced or researched our special place in the world.”

Current and aspiring creative professionals, digital media buffs, South African citizens and expatriates, and anyone with a lust for travel to Africa, are invited to come up with inventive ways to produce a fresh and evocative message about a country that has gone from tragedy to triumph in less than two decades.

“We’re looking for inspired messaging and out-of-the-box advertising executions that capture and convey the essence, attributes and qualities of Brand South Africa,” noted Donovan Neale-May, the Executive Director of the CMO Council.

The unique creative challenge asks participants to consider economic and political characteristics of South Africa along with the cultural dynamics of the ubuntu philosophy and international icons like Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela when producing their work. Contest entry information including a creative brief, background on the contest assignment, and links to South African resources are available on the Get Wildly Creative About South Africa user-generated advertising contest page.

“Some of the world’s most recognizable brands have used our platform and engaged our creative community to produce advertising for consumer and business to business campaigns, and we’re excited to be a partner in this innovative approach to nation branding with South Africa,” said Wil Merritt, CEO of Zooppa.com.

$20,000 in cash and prizes – donated by SA Tourism, in-country partners and creative technology solution providers — will be awarded to the top submissions for video, graphic design and online banners. Winning entrants will have their work showcased globally to the CMO Council’s 5,000 members who control more than $150 billion in annual marketing spend and recognized at a special IMC-hosted reception in New York City.

Zooppa is the world’s largest source of user-generated advertising. With a community of more than 57,000 people, Zooppa offers brands an innovative model for developing creative advertising, building word-of-mouth and gaining consumer insights.

While there were the usual and expected sexy and fun ads by Bud Light and Coke, this year saw an infusion of another breed of ads aimed at “modern man”, whomever that may be. A brief look at four commercials and their commentary on changing male roles and expectations, reveals an opportunity for brands to step in and help define what masculinity means for men of the new millennium.

Enter the metrosexual.

Women may love them, other man may raise their unibrow at them, but, no matter the reaction, we are seeing an undeniable rise of the metrosexual. The fact that we see ads speaking to this new metrosexual (a breed of heterosexual man concerned with his physical appearance and in touch with his emotions in a way that may have been questioned in the past) appear in the Superbowl is testament to just how large this target audience has become.

Dove Men’s line is a great example of a metrosexual commercial. It is aimed at the growing number of men tossing aside the traditional signifiers of masculinity (ie, the two second shower and simple hair toss back) in favor of beauty regimes formerly aimed exclusively at women. Men, such as this growing number of metrosexuals, no longer use those products abandoned in the shower by their significant other. They proactively find products that suit their individual needs.

Branding implication: There is huge potential for brands in the health and beauty category to extend their reach to men, and not just a small niche audience of “metrosexuals” but really a huge audience of men who are taking control of their own physical wellbeing and are “feeling comfortable in their own skin”. Now add that to the list along with “be good at sports”, “be strong”, “lift weights” and the bar has been raised again for men.

Expectations overload.

Dove was certainly not the only commercial to show that men are having more and more expectations placed on them. Dockers’ ad “I wear no pants” is another interesting commentary on male identity. In it, men are seemingly chanting in universal pride and brotherhood that they “wear no pants.” At first, the message can be interpreted as liberation from societal expectations (go naked! Wear a skirt!), but then at the end of the commercial Dockers decrees: “It’s time to wear the pants.” Again, mixed messages about masculinity are posed here. Pants cam be interpreted as the traditional symbol of the male and a differentiator from the female (think of the bathroom signs, woman=skirt, man=pants) and can be interpreted as an attempt to regain authority “as a man.”

Branding implication: Brands that reaffirm some aspect of traditional masculinity or macho-ness may become more popular as masculinity gets diluted. This may provide opportunity for brands to come in and serve as the steadfast male role, to boost traditional blue collar values, or to simply represent male signifiers.

Battle of the Sexes.

Dodge also captures this quest to resassert masculinity in its Superbowl commercial. Dodge outlines a long list of things that men may have conceded to their girlfriend but ends the commercial declaring that the Dodge Charger is not one of these concessions. The Charger is for him. No compromises. Interesting to note that this whole commercial is framed through a battle of sorts between what men will and will not succumb to. In the past, for example, it may have been acceptable for men to leave their underwear on the floor and have it straightened up after him. Nope. The excuse “men will be men” doesn’t resonate today and there will be no cleaning or parenting exceptions based on gender. What this commercial does bring into question is what the battles that men fight for, or “last stands” they choose will be. Dodge, for one, is claiming cars.

Branding implication: There is room for brands to sculpt out those bastions of masculinity that are no holds bars, unapologetically for men and put their fork in it.

This “battle” or gender struggle is also played out in the FloTV commercial in which the “girlfriend has removed his spine” and has effeminized him by having him sniff lilac and wear a skirt. What these commercials show is that gender relations do not happen in a vacuum. They are dynamic and affect both male and female brands.

Branding implication: Going forward, we might see opportunity for “coed” brands that are fair, equitable and show empathy toward the struggles of men and women as they evolve their gender identity in the home and workplace—helping create a compromise between the two genders that doesn’t compromise either’s sense of self.

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The fact that commentary on changing gender roles has infiltrated one of if not the most masculine event left—the Superbowl– is a testament to the magnitude of the cultural changes underway. This gender confusion and seeming lack of a clear male role model or definition of masculinity provides significant opportunity for shepherd brands to come in and help lead the redefinition. It may be messy, and it may be controversial, but it is necessary and a great opportunity for many a brave brand to become a category leader.

Image by StillSearc from Stock.Xchng

Grade: 7 / 10

Auto nation has swarmed the 2010 Super Bowl with ads from Honda, Kia, Hyundai, Chrysler Dodge, Bridgestone, and Cars.com.  Audi must be well-aware that the Super Bowl isn’t a magnet for a green audience.  Nonetheless, we give credit to Audi for standing out with their Green ad featuring the Green Police and Cheap Trick.   The integration of Cheap Trick was the key to making this ad relevant in the Super Bowl.  Overall, Audi’s ad is fun, light-hearted, and upbeat, with the tag “green has never felt so right”. 

Financially, this ad seems like a poor investment, as the 60 second ad likely cost $6 million for the media and a significant amount for Cheap Trick and production.  Wow, think of all the marketing alternatives for $6+ million.  For Audi’s sake, we hope that the ad goes viral on YouTube to extend its life beyond the Super Bowl.  Currently the ad is approaching 20,000 views and has a 4.5 star rating on YouTube.