Here is the creative and funny Commercial from Old Spice run during the Super Bowl. It was concocted by Craig Allen and Eric Kallman of Wieden + Kennedy.
Now, place your bets. Was there any CGI to make this commercial or was it a single shot?
Did you win any money?
I’m on a horse!
That’s My Boat!
Anything to be made of “Bail Out” coming in at #5?
Here is the Top Ten List of Most Popular Boat Names :
1. Second Wind
2. Seas the Day
3. Lazy Daze
4. Jolly Roger
5. Bail Out
6. On the Rocks
7. Pegasus
8. Serenity Now
9. Namaste
10. Comfortably Numb
Can’t believe “Jenny” didn’t make the list.
We have been getting asked a lot lately, “is social media working for you?” or “is social media worth the time and money you invest?” We really don’t have an answer for these questions, because social media is still such a young division in our business.
But when we actually thought about it for a minute we have decided that social media for businesses is like betting on a long shot at the horse track. You don’t really know if it is going to be worth the small investment, but if it turns out a winner you are looking good and will be ahead of the game. Social media doesn’t take a big financial investment, but it does take time. So like betting on long shots, it might be worth that small investment in hopes that you find a diamond in the rough. That is why Aztec Rental got into the social media world. We want to take every opportunity to get in front of our customers to help and inform them and hopefully gain some new customers along the way.
Then came the “what opportunities are out there for businesses in social media?” and “what kind of followers should we target?” questions. The following is our thoughts and what we have learned so far.
Social Media Opportunities
First, which is the main reason why businesses are in social media is the opportunity to reach your companies target market. Aztec Rental took on social media with the idea of giving our customers another avenue to get informed and learn, with the hopes of gaining some customers with the quality of information we put out. But, we quickly learned that if you are not a national or international brand getting “customers” to follow your company in a social media style platform is very tough to accomplish. Nobody wants to follow a company that constantly and only puts out advertisements. So, finding that happy medium of information, specials and company promotions that “customers” are happy with is the goal. We still don’t know what that formula is, so we are all ears for anyone with suggestions!
Second, there is a huge opportunity to form business to business relationships. Most people don’t even think of this angle when joining the Twitter, Facebook, and blog universe, we sure didn’t. It is almost like a bonus, because most companies are just targeting their end user when they are thinking of going viral. Social media opens doors that were not possible or really feasible before the social media phenomenon hit. Your company can compare notes, ideas and suggestions with businesses in your industry or field that are thousands of miles away or possibly in another country. Not to mention, you probably didn’t even know this company existed before. What a great tool to utilize and a fantastic way to make your company better. The chance to pick the brain of other business owners for how they run day to day operations, policies or thoughts that you could implement to help your company grow, run smoother, or be even more impactful and affect your bottom line, hard to put a value on that.
The last big opportunity social media gives business is the ability to stay informed and gather news. You can learn more about current events, news from your industry, and updates relevant to your company with one hour of social media scanning than you can in day of watching the national news. Not to mention, you will know about any big news or any new products or updates that are coming out from your competitors. That is a nice little nugget of information, to be able to see what is going on with other businesses that might have an impact on your company. So, even if opportunities one and two are not working for you, keep in mind you can always stay informed with the use of social media.
Types of Followers
We have learned there are two schools of thought on this. The first thought is, you only want quality followers that are relevant to your industry or field. The second way to look at it is we don’t care how or why, we want as many followers as we can possibly get. We think that it depends on who you are and what your company is or does that will dictate what kind of followers you want. If you are using social media to aim at a specific target market and only want to reach this specific market than we think the first school of thought is for you. You might not want to accept any and everybody to follow the information you or your company puts out.
If you are a retailer or service base business the second style is probably the way to go. It doesn’t really matter how people find you, or why they are following you as long as they follow. If you put out a piece of information that catches the eye of someone that is following you, that you probably would not have targeted, you just gained a customer. In return, that customer might forward the information on to their followers and you could possible net a few customers out of one piece of information. Basically, the more eyes you can get on your company is never a bad thing, regardless of the how or why.
So, does social media work? Is your business getting a big enough return on the time and money you are investing in it?
I guess the answer is, after putting in the time from everything mentioned above let’s hope our long shot pony has a great late kick. At least, the jury is still out on the actual monetary value that is possible to receive on it. We think each company will have to place their own value on what return your company gets from the business relationships that you build.
Note: We know of a couple of people/businesses that are researching the topic, and we will link their findings when they are available.
Fully grown python takes on a deer. Did I hear you right?
*Warning: This is not for all viewers. Watch at your own risk.
LET THE GAMES BEGIN!
Opening ceremony tonight, followed by two weeks of competition, excitement, and awesome back stories. Who remembers Masahiko ”Happy” Harada from the 1998 Olympics in Nagano? Who will be this years crowd favorites?
From the opening ceremony to the “you have to be crazy” skeleton, support your country.
[2010 Olympic Games]
What is your favorite event in the winter olympics?
OK “best” might be a stretch. Let’s chalk it up to the economy for the weak ads this year.
Bad economy equals not as many players spending money.
Note: economy doesn’t affect creativity.
In no particular order, the top 4 ads in our mind.
E Trade – Baby First Class. New material for marketing home run, etrade baby.
Doritos – Dont Touch My Momma. Now thats funny.
Budweiser – Human Bridge. Pretty clever.
Bud Light – Book Club. Would you stay?
Notables: as said before economy caused fewer companies to spend, so we get some of the same brands here.
E Trade – Baby’s girlfriend
Doritos – Dog Collar. Tell us you didn’t at least smile.
Supposed banned ads: Now these are are good.
Bud Light Clothing Drive. Great!
KGB - You dont know what you are talking about.
On, Jan 7, 2010 all of the would of’s, almost’s, nearly’s and if only Colt played all four quarters couldn’t bring the University of Texas another National Championship. Alabama beat the Horns 37-21, landing the crystal football in Tuscaloosa.
But, what happened to the $300,000 worth of UT plastered National Champions apparel? Yahoo Sports says, all 13,000 shirts and 1,000 hats are headed to Haiti.
Then, I heard a interesting hypothetical question from Houston sports talk show host Charlie Pallilo on Sports Talk 790am.
If you could, would you buy one of the “almost” National Championship shirts for a $50/$100 donation to the Haiti relief fund?
It got me thinking, so let’s do the math real quick. The shirts would retail for about $20, even though retail isn’t the price that would be paid, we will use that number for our purposes. So, if you donate $50 to the fund that would be a value of 2.5 times what a single shirt would be worth. Now, let’s say that 1,000 shirts are purchased for the small donation. That means Haiti is getting 12,000 shirts plus a extra $50,000 a total value of a $290,000 donation. Which would be a $30,000 gain in donation over the $260,000 value of 13,000 shirts.
A genius I am not, but 290,000 is greater than 260,000 no matter what University you went to. I would think that Haiti would appreciate that math as well.
So, now I pose the question to you, if you could, would you want one? Would you buy one to rub it in to a friend, colleague, or family member with ties to the runner-up? Wear it for a joke? See if anyone notices? Or is the pain to great and just a reminder of the “what if’s?”
It might be a more interesting question to you, if it were more relative for you. So, think of a time when your team has been 2nd best: Like Houston’s “almost” World Series in 2005 or Arizona Cardinal’s surplus of ”fake” apparel from last years Superbowl loss. Would you give a donation to a charity or relief fund going on at the time for a shirt that didn’t happen?
Just an interesting thought.
So, Would you do it? Would you wear your heart-break around for a good cause?
One of Aztec’s own got to go on a whitetail deer capture in South Texas.
Gary joined Macy Ledbetter, one of Texas’s leading wildlife biologist, on the wildlife management adventure, put on by Whitetail Domains. On the South Texas Ranch the team split up into two crews. The “air” crew used a helicopter to spot and net the deer. While the “ground” crew quickly retrieved and secured the deer for transportation. Gary was apart of the ground crew.
Watch video here.
Watch Gary with Aztec Rental, as he takes part in a recent helicopter deer capture in South Texas. We were sure happy to have him along for the ride.
[Whitetail Domains] Grow, Manage, and Preserve Trophy Deer.
[Spring Creek Outdoors] Macy Ledbetter
Probably have seen some variation of this, but this one is pretty well done!
