Can you name the top 2021 Super Bowl ad? | Brigadoon Weekend

Brand marketing in a direct marketing world

Pop quiz:

What was the top 2021 Super Bowl ad according to USA Today's Ad Meter?

Heck, if you can name one of the top ten, I will give you bonus points.

The reason you can't remember the best ad or any ads from the big game, it's not the best tool.

It's not the best tool because it doesn't connect, make an impact, or leave a mark.

You see, brand marketing doesn't work in the direct marketing world.

Brand marketing is from a different age. A different business environment. A different communication era.

Brand marketing was created when John Wanamaker's statement "half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half" worked because it could work.

It could work because advertisers created a mass broadcast communications environment to serve its needs.

Radio was created to sell ads.

Television was created to sell ads.

Brian Millar, a co-founder of the Emotional Intelligence Agency, writes, "traditional advertising went after 'share of mind’–the idea was to get you to associate a brand with a single idea, a single emotion. Volvo: safety. Jaguar: speed. Coke: happiness. The Economist: success. Bang, bang, bang, went the ads, hammering the same idea into your mind every time you saw one.

"Advertising briefs evolved to focus the creatives on a single unique selling position and a single message. Tell them we're the Ultimate Driving Machine. Tell them in a thrilling way. It worked when you saw ads infrequently on television, in a Sunday magazine, or on a billboard on your morning commute."

This type of advertising worked because it was a communications environment of one to many with only a handful of vehicles to reach an audience.

But that is not today.

Today we are living in a direct marketing world powered by the WWW.

Now we have micro-media and personalized broadcast communications environment which serves the needs of the end-user.

The internet was not created for ads.

The internet is not mass media.

The Emotional Intelligence Agency conducted a study to understand what kind of content works to better understand this new communications environment. The firm found communications that used funny, practical, beautiful, and inspiring content delivers the best results.

Not surprisingly, the most successful brands do all four.

Also, not surprising, these are the adjectives used by any top storyteller.

She knows they are the best words when executing micro and personalized communications.

Yet most of us communicate using only one type of emotionally compelling content - if at all - employing brand marketing techniques that are closer to the days of Mad Men than to the present day of Laundry Service.

We still communicate like once a day, or worse, just a few times a month.

Instead of using tools that follow and engage our most active supporters in their media diet.

When it comes to the WWW and the direct marketing communications environment, being multidimensional beats being single-minded.

Surprise beats consistency.

Emotion beats fact.

Funny beats dour.

Useful beats sales.

Beautiful beats boring.

Inspirational beats directional.

The best communicators have always understood this instinctively.

By the way, USA Today's Ad Meter ranked Rocket Mortgage's "Certain Is Better" with Tracy Morgan, Dave Bautista, and Liza Koshy" as the best 2021 ad.

I don't remember the ad either.

-Marc

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Five to read

Malice at the Palace: How a new doc reexamines the epochal NBA brawl: A new docuseries offers a fresh perspective on the infamous 2004 melee that changed the shape of basketball as we know it.
Guardian

Banksy is on the prowl again: Several works of art by the elusive painter have emerged across coastal towns in England. Here's a look at some of the mysterious artist's works in the past.
DW

What I don't do
Dave Trott

The mascot whisperer: Dave Raymond practically invented the modern sports mascot. And over four decades, he has built a career on helping pro teams bring them to life.
NYT Mag

How to start a media company in 2021:

Step 1: TikTok
Step 2: TikTok + newsletter + podcast
Step 3: TikTok + newsletter + podcast + free community
Step 4: TikTok + newsletter + podcast + free + paid communities
Step 5: TikTok + newsletter + podcast + communities + paid products

HT @gregisenberg

Like this content? Sample Brigadoon Daily for a week. Drop me an email and get added to the distribution list for a week. marc@thebrigadoon.com

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You are curious.

You can check your ego.

You want to make things.

You could be a thought leader.

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You seek knowledge from others.

You could be thinking what is next.

You could be running your own business.

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You could be seeking some new tools to help you.

You just want to learn how to get better at being you.

You have said ‘when the time is right’ too many times.

You could have a great career but have a yearning to do something else.

Join here for as low as $150 a month, and for peace of mind, you cancel whenever you get bored or find the membership trite.

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Thanks for supporting Brigadoon. See you next week.

-Marc

Curation + commentary by Marc A. Ross | Founder + Chief Curator @ Brigadoon

Brigadoon is Global Street Smarts

More @ thebrigadoon.com

Saying no wins | Brigadoon Weekend

Saying no wins

What's the difference between executive A and executive B?

Executive A:

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Executive B:

No

No

No

No

No

Yes

The difference?

Constraints.

Seth Godin often talks of constraints.

"Every project worth doing comes with constraints. Our natural inclination is to fight them.

"When we fight constraints and eliminate them, we often gain access to new insights, new products, and new solutions. It also makes it easier to compete against people who don't have those constraints.

""Give me constraints" is rarely heard, except when talented and passionate designers go to work."

In an interview with Tim Ferriss, Godin went on about the power of constraints:

"Constraints used to frustrate me so much, and now they are the core of my useful working life.

"I've set up constraints all around me, constraints about how I choose which projects, constraints about what I eat, constraints about what a project can entail and what it can't entail, constraints about how many people work with me, constraints about which media I'm going to be in and which ones I'm not going to be in.

"They're all arbitrary.

"I just made up rules, because having constraints lets me get to the edge. It lets me get to the boards without breaking my nose."

If you don't think constraints are powerful and productive, consider your favorite sport.

Sport is all about constraints.

Size of the playing surface.

Length of the contest.

Equipment for the game.

Number of players allowed.

Sport without constraints would be a pointless mess.

This weekly email is riddled with constraints.

So I will stop now.

I will embrace the constraints.

-Marc

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Five to read

Necker Island — inside Richard Branson’s Caribbean lair: After being devastated by a hurricane, the Virgin boss’s home — and celebrity magnet — has reopened to guests.
FT

Who owns street art? Pieces are increasingly being taken off walls and sold to private collectors.
Economist

How the bobos broke America: The creative class was supposed to foster progressive values and economic growth. Instead, we got resentment, alienation, and endless political dysfunction.
David Brooks - Atlantic

Real estate is booming in Bozeman, Mont.—or shall we say, Boz Angeles: The Rocky Mountain city is nearly unrecognizable, as out-of-state buyers and young professionals continue to transform the once-sleepy area into a trendy hotspot.
WSJ

You can choose to enjoy getting pummeled, and other lessons from big wave surfer Garrett McNamara: The man who's ridden some of the world's biggest waves talked to GQ about his new HBO documentary, manifesting, and why he's “not an adrenaline junkie.”
GQ

Like this content? Sample Brigadoon Daily for a week. Drop me an email and get added to the distribution list for a week. marc@thebrigadoon.com

Five reasons you should be Brigadoon Member:

• A discount for you and a plus one to all Brigadoon events, workshops, remotes, retreats, and salon dinners

• Delivered monthly, one highly curated book on leadership, performance, marketing, or public affairs

• A quarterly deck covering emerging issues, business model disruption, globalization, or behavioral economics

• Access to a global network of entrepreneurs and independent thinkers to test ideas and engage a private audience

• You are an entrepreneur and independent thinker who needs more global street smarts

Join here for as low as $150 a month, and for peace of mind, you cancel whenever you get bored or find the membership trite.

---

Thanks for supporting Brigadoon. See you next week.

-Marc

Curation + commentary by Marc A. Ross | Founder + Chief Curator @ Brigadoon

Brigadoon is Global Street Smarts

More @ thebrigadoon.com

Let's go 0 to 1 | Brigadoon Weekend

Let's go 0 to 1: 21 things I learned from Peter Thiel

It's hard to finger precisely what Peter Thiel is most famous for.

Co-founding PayPal?

Launching Palantir Technologies?

Early-stage investments in Facebook, LinkedIn, and Tesla?

Or could it be his contrarian views on education, science, and technology?

Honestly, it is probably all these things.

In Spring 2012, Thiel took his experience, insights, and knowledge and packaged them into a class at Stanford University.

CS183: Startup.

In the classroom was Blake Masters.

Masters took copious notes and then posted an essay version of these class notes on his blog.

Not surprisingly, the blog posted notes became an instant hit in the tech community and to entrepreneurs beyond.

So successful were these notes, Masters and Thiel teamed up to produce Zero to One by distilling lectures and notes into a must-read book.

Here are 21 nuggets I picked up from the book - Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future:

1. Every moment in business only happens once

2. Today's "best practices" lead to dead ends; the best paths are new and untried

3. Successful people find value in unexpected places

4. Brilliant thinking is rare, but courage is in even shorter supply than genius

5. What a startup has to do - question received ideas and rethink business from scratch

6. The most contrarian thing of all is not to oppose the crowd but to think for yourself

7. If you want to create and capture lasting value, don't build an undifferentiated commodity business

8. War is a costly business

9. Many entrepreneurs focus only on short-term growth. They have an excuse - growth is easy to measure, but durability isn't

10. Every startup should start with a very small market

11. Don't disrupt: Avoid competition at all costs

12. You are not a lottery ticket: Skill probably plays a much more significant role than people typically think.

13. There are two kinds of secrets: Secrets about nature and secrets about people

14. No company has a culture; every company is a culture

15. Everyone at your company should be different in the same way - a tribe of like-minded people fiercely devoted to the company's mission

16. Academic ideas about history or economics don't just sell themselves on their intellectual merits

17. Marketing and advertising work for relatively low-priced products that have mass appeal but lack any method of viral distribution

18. A product is viral if its core functionality encourages users to invite their friends to become users too

19. Men and machines are good at different things: Computers excel at efficient data processing but struggle to make basic judgments that would be simple for any human

20. Most of the world dreams of living as comfortably as Americans do today, and globalization will cause increasingly severe energy challenges unless we build new technology

21. We cannot take for granted that the future will be better, and that means we need to work to create it today

By the way, if you want to do a deeper dive on Thiel's insights from this class and read Masters' unabridged notes, click here.

-Marc

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WHAT BRIGADOON IS WATCHING THIS WEEKEND

Should Canada go to the Moon?
J. Randy Attwood + Renée Hložek

Love robots + UI: The role of AI in the design industry
Canvas Editorial

The blockchain is starting to live up to its potential: The digital database has moved beyond cryptocurrencies and is being used in everything from health care to elections.
Aaron Brown - Bloomberg

Toyota led on clean cars. Now critics say it works to delay them. The auto giant bet on hydrogen power, but as the world moves toward electric the company is fighting climate regulations in an apparent effort to buy time.
NYT

What will arise from the demise of mass commuting? ‘For one thing, the pandemic has transformed many suburbs vastly for the better.’
FT

Like this content? Sample Brigadoon Daily for a week. Drop me an email and get added to the distribution list for a week. marc@thebrigadoon.com

Five reasons you should be Brigadoon Member:

• A discount for you and a plus one to all Brigadoon events, workshops, remotes, retreats, and salon dinners

• Delivered monthly, one highly curated book on leadership, performance, marketing, or public affairs

• A quarterly deck covering emerging issues, business model disruption, globalization, or behavioral economics

• Access to a global network of entrepreneurs and independent thinkers to test ideas and engage a private audience

• You are an entrepreneur and independent thinker who needs more global street smarts

Join here for as low as $150 a month, and for peace of mind, you cancel whenever you get bored or find the membership trite.

---

Thanks for supporting Brigadoon. See you next week.

-Marc

Curation + commentary by Marc A. Ross | Founder + Chief Curator @ Brigadoon

Brigadoon is Global Street Smarts

More @ thebrigadoon.com

Peace, Love, and Rage | Brigadoon Daily

Brigadoon Daily
July 29, 2021

Brigadoon Daily | Exclusively for Brigadoon Members

Peace, Love, and Rage

Sponsored by | Caracal

TOP FIVE

1. Mexico says officials spent $61 million on Pegasus spyware

2. The role of AI in the design industry

3. Biden proposes Buy American rule for government procurements

4. Lollapalooza to require vaccination card or negative test

5. 'Pressure is a privilege', says Djokovic

GLOBALIZATION + STATECRAFT

England border to open for millions of US and EU travelers: The Times reports millions of fully vaccinated travelers from Europe and the US will be allowed to enter England without quarantining from next week as part of a significant reopening of the border.

England set to welcome double-jabbed US and EU tourists: FT reports relief for the travel sector as the government prepares to ease border and quarantine restrictions.

AFP: France to introduce anti-COVID pass for cafes, trains from Aug 9

Pegasus affair: Israel tells France it is taking spyware allegations 'seriously'
AFP

Biden backs embattled democracy movement in Belarus: AP reports Biden spoke out for embattled pro-democracy forces in Belarus on Wednesday in a White House meeting with that country’s main opposition leader. Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who was forced to leave Belarus after unsuccessfully challenging President Alexander Lukashenko in the 2020 elections that the opposition and the West say were rigged, has been touring Washington this month, seeking concrete US backing for her country’s opposition.

Politico: Biden nominates Mark Gitenstein for EU ambassador

+ The proposed envoy previously served as US ambassador to Romania.

Blinken pulls India closer amid challenges in Afghanistan, China: WP reports India will receive $25 million in coronavirus assistance as the two countries pledge cooperation in Asia.

Quad to tackle 'most important issues of our time,' Blinken says in India: Jaishankar joins the US in affirming the call for a stable, sovereign Afghanistan.
Nikkei

+ The leaders of North Korea and South Korea are considering a summit in a bid to restore strained relations between the two governments.

Under Xi Jinping, the number of Chinese asylum-seekers has shot up: More and more people are fleeing his rule.
Economist

China-Taliban ties warming ahead of US withdrawal: AP reports China’s foreign minister met Wednesday with a delegation of high-level Taliban officials as ties between them warm ahead of the U.S. pullout from Afghanistan. A photo posted on the ministry’s website showed Wang Yi posing with senior Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar and his delegation in the city of Tianjin, then sitting down to talks. The highly conspicuous show of friendliness had the appearance of a diplomatic mission at a time when the Taliban are craving legitimacy.

Marxism v markets: China’s techlash gains steam. Again: Online-education firms will not be the last victims.
Economist

Beijing’s threat to VIEs triggers Wall Street angst over China stocks: Investors worry crackdown on the structure used by education companies could spread to other sectors.
FT

Analysis: China engages in fierce propaganda war during Sherman visit: Using online media, Beijing shapes the narrative while the meeting was ongoing.
Nikkei

Biden is tougher on China and nicer to Russia than Trump: White House will focus on an increasingly contentious relationship with Beijing.
Ian Bremmer - Nikkei

Mexico says officials spent $61 million on Pegasus spyware: AP reports Public Safety Secretary Rosa Icela Rodríguez said records had been found of 31 contracts signed during the administrations of President Felipe Calderón in 2006-2012 and President Enrique Peña Nieto in 2012-18. Some contracts may have been disguised as purchases of other equipment.

Peru: Pedro Castillo was sworn in as president: DW reports the political novice was inaugurated on the country's 200th independence day. Castillo, however, faces difficulties in the polarized nation.

DISRUPTION + INNOVATION

Love robots + UI: The role of AI in the design industry
Canvas Editorial

AMERICAN POLITICS

Today: Biden is expected to announce a federal vaccine requirement that would apply to all federal workers and contractors.

Buy American: Biden to increase the share of US-made parts for government purchases: USA Today reports products the federal government buys would need a higher share of US parts to qualify as "made in America" under new rules the Biden administration proposed Wednesday. Promoting the changes in Pennsylvania, President Joe Biden said the new policy would strengthen American manufacturing and crucial supply chains and make companies more inclined to hire and invest in their future.

Biden proposes Buy American rule for government procurements: WSJ reports under the rule, contractors would be required to prove American content.

Donald Trump’s low-energy night in Texas: The leader of the Republican Party couldn't elect his handpicked candidate in a congressional special election.
Ben Jacobs - NY Mag

In a major upset against a candidate backed by Trump: Texas Tribune reports that Ellzey, a state representative, beat fellow Republican Susan Wright, who was backed by Trump. Ellzey will finish the term of Ron Wright, who died earlier this year after contracting COVID-19.

Gavin Newsom needs Democrats to get worried about the recall election
Ed Kilgore - NY Mag

PA-SEN: Conor Lamb preparing to launch Senate run in August: Roll Call reports the Pennsylvania Democrat joins crowded primary for open Toomey seat.

Home sales: Sales of new homes fell 6.6 percent in June of 2021, with the rate falling to an annualized 676,000 homes, down from 873,000 in March and a peak of 993,000 in January.

COMMERCE

Fortune: Delta extends frequent flier statuses until 2023

How Netflix can go big in gaming: The streaming-video leader’s modest approach is too timid for such a competitive industry. Going bold and buying Cyberpunk maker CD Projekt could make a difference.
Tae Kim

Facebook eyes a future beyond social media: Advertising has made the social network into a trillion-dollar company. Can new ventures take it further?
Economist

Facebook profits top $10B as revenue soars: AP reports Facebook doubled its profit in the second quarter thanks to a massive increase in advertising revenue, especially the average price of the ads it delivers to its nearly 3 billion users.

Facebook told employees it will require them to be vaccinated for COVID-19 in order to return to the company’s US offices.

Google is postponing a return to the office for most workers until mid-October and rolling out a policy that will eventually require everyone to be vaccinated once its sprawling campuses are fully reopened.

+ GM and Ford have announced a return of mask mandates for their workers in COVID hot spots.

Netflix has become the first major Hollywood studio to implement a blanket policy mandating vaccinations for the casts of all of its U.S. productions.

Apple plans to restore a mask requirement at most of its US retail stores on Thursday for both customers and staff, even those who are vaccinated.

Sephora said it will more than double the number of Black-owned brands it carries by the end of 2021, part of the beauty retailer’s efforts to boost diversity among its suppliers and in its ranks.

Tesla co-founder’s battery recycling start-up raises $700m: JB Straubel’s Redwood Materials seeks to upend US electric vehicle supply chain.
FT

Why it’s so hard to find child care right now: 80% of centers are understaffed: Fortune reports many child care centers struggling with staffing shortages are enrolling fewer children, which presents challenges for parents who have to work.

SPACE + SCIENCE

Katie Mack: ‘As a scientist, there’s always an ambition to make new discoveries’: Q&A with the theoretical astrophysicist on growing up in Los Angeles, getting a pilot’s license, and her dream of going into outer space.
FT

PERFORMANCE

Learning to be a better leader
Knowledge @ Wharton

CULTURE

Hollywood head spinner: Universal spends big for new ‘Exorcist’ trilogy: NYT reports the deal, expected to be announced this week, is for more than $400 million and is a direct response to the streaming giants that are upending the film industry’s economics.

RIP: ZZ Top: Bearded bassist Dusty Hill dies in his sleep at 72

Lollapalooza to require vaccination card or negative test: AP reports The four-day festival starts Thursday and is expected to be back at full capacity, with roughly 100,000 daily attendees. After missing last summer because of the threat of the coronavirus, it will easily be Chicago’s largest gathering since the pandemic started, and one of the country’s. This year’s festival will look very different than in the past. To gain entry, attendees will have to present their vaccination cards or a printed copy of a negative COVID-19 test that is no more than 72 hours old.

Watch Woodstock 99: Peace, Love, and Rage: Here's the trailer.

Forty years ago, MTV changed music forever. These four rock icons remember all too well.
LAT

SPORT

Gannett, publisher of USA Today and more than 100 daily newspapers in the US, landed a deal with a major sports betting company. The five-year, $100-million agreement with Tipico USA Technology is a first-of-its-kind deal for a major US newspaper publisher. It reportedly includes $90 million in media spend, with Tipico providing sports betting content throughout the USA Today Network.

Sporting Kansas City announced that Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes has joined the Major League Soccer club’s ownership group.

AFP: 'Pressure is a privilege', says Djokovic of life at the top

‘OK not to be OK’: Mental health takes top role at Olympics
AP

The Tokyo Olympics are turning into NBC’s worst nightmare
LAT


Enjoy the ride + plan accordingly.

-Marc

Curation and commentary by Marc A. Ross | Founder @ Brigadoon

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Like this content? Sample Brigadoon Daily for a week. Drop me an email and get added to the distribution list for a week. marc@thebrigadoon.com