Resume Ruin!

I have a lot of friends out there looking for a job. The fact is, many people are still out of work despite improvements in the economy otherwise, and even those who currently have a job may be looking for something else because they’ve held onto a job they were unhappy with due to a slow job market. It’s a tough time to be job hunting because the market is flooded with candidates. I have helped many people with resumes and cover letters as well as networking and closing the deal on a job. And I have read a lot of resumes and gone through the resume review, interview and selection process to hire for positions many times in my past and current experience. And I see the same mistakes all the time.

Writing a resume is harder than most folks anticipate. Often what happens is people will write down their list of positions and what they did on the job, and send it out there hoping the job they want will magically come to them. Then, after sending out a hundred resumes, they wonder why no one has called. That is a bad idea in a normal job market; it is downright a waste of time in a challenging market. When you are searching for a job, no matter what kind of job it is, you become a sales person. You have to sell yourself (and I mean that in the most professional sense), and your resume is your primary marketing tool. Your resume is one of the most impactful things you can use to convince an employer that you are worth talking to (perhaps after networking, which is another blog entry). Once you get the interview, you can shine with your charming colors and show what a great person you are and what great interpersonal skills you have. But you could so easily be ruled out without a recruiter saying one word to you if you make a single mistake on your resume. So don’t you think it’s worth spending a little (correction—a LOT) more time writing and perfecting that resume?

Don’t feel too bad about it. Actually, many people make the same mistakes, so you are not alone. But just think—if you take the time to fix them, your chances will be so much better. So without further delay, here are the most common resume-writing mistakes I see people make:

1. It’s too long
When it comes to resumes, longer is not better. Very few people should have a resume longer than one page. Recruiters look at so many resumes for every open position, they spend very little time reading each resume (less than 10 seconds). So if you can’t convince them how awesome you are in one page, two pages are just going to bore them. It’s a much better idea to keep it short and make it count.

2. The “objective” or “summary” adds no value
Your objective (if you have one, and sometimes you don’t even need one) should state specifically the job you want and in some way point to your career goals and how your experience leads up to them. This is most useful if you are changing careers or industries since it’s sometimes hard to make that connection between a resume full of unrelated experience and the job you’re applying for. But if you can’t specifically state the job you want, don’t include an objective. You will just end up looking unfocused or not sure if you really want the job. If your list of experience is relevant and leads up to that job, the objective also would not add much value and would just take up valuable space in your resume that you could use highlighting that experience.

3. Bullet points are just a job description
Think about the person who reads your resume. She really does not care what you did on your last job. She cares about what you accomplished. What made you so special at that company or in that position? What did you do that was more than what any Joe Shmoe could have done in that same position? And most importantly, why should she hire you? If you highlight all your amazing accomplishments, she will think you can make the same level of accomplishments in that new job. If you just write down what you did, you wind up looking like someone who just does the minimum and does not take pride in the work that you do.

4. Nothing is quantified/No results are given
So you’ve figured out that you should highlight your accomplishments. Great! But how does the reader know exactly how good you are? Numbers are objective. I can write down that I cut costs or increased sales or was an amazing person to work with. But that is just my opinion about myself or my work until I can say how much I cut costs or increased sales or affected the organization. Don’t just make numbers up, though. If what is on your resume is an estimate, make sure you can back up what you write down with how you came up with that number, and that it is reasonably logical. Imagine someone in an interview asks you how you came up with that number and what you did to accomplish it.

5. Important words and/or skills are missing
It’s a sad fact that in many companies these days, the first pass at your resume comes from a computer. It searches for a certain number of key words in the resumes in its database, and only the ones that include most or all of those key words are then reviewed by a human being. That means that you could be the most qualified person out there for a particular position, but if you didn’t phrase your accomplishments in a way that includes certain words, you don’t even get noticed. Frustrating? Yes. But not impossible to conquer. You can usually determine the key traits that are important to the position by reading the job description. Imagine that! So by reading the job description you discover that the recruiter is looking for someone with good analytical skills and creativity, assuming that you do have those skills, make sure that the words “analyze” and “creative” appear on your resume when you describe your accomplishments.

6. It’s too generic
Many job-seekers do not modify their resume to reflect the job they are applying for. Unless every job you apply for is exactly the same and is in the same industry, you are going to need different versions of your resume. True, your work history and your accomplishments are still the same, but for different jobs, you will have different recruiters from different companies looking at your resume, and they could be looking for different things. Do your research on the industry, the company, and the job. Find out what is important to all of those things. Even companies in the same industry may have different values and cultures, and your resume should describe why you are exactly the right person for that job, company, and industry. So how you describe yourself may be slightly different.

7. Gaps in employment history
People are always trying to find clever ways of covering up imperfections in their work history. The truth is, the recruiter reading your resume is not stupid. They know what you’re doing if you omit dates on your resume or reorganize it out of order or whatever trick you come up with. You are better off being honest about what happened and explaining it in your own words (the way you want the company to understand your history) rather than letting them imagine what happened (which is often the worst). If you lost your job and were out of work for a year, it is better to explain your interpretation of what happened in your company to make you lose your job and what you did do with that year (hopefully you were staying informed about the industry, volunteering, or maybe you took some time off to spend with your family or travel, rather than lounging on the couch eating pork rinds) instead of just leaving it blank and letting the reader think that you did actually sit around eating pork rinds.

8. It doesn’t tell a “story”
Nobody really has a perfect work history because it’s rare that we know from day one what our dream job is and every job we have along the way leads us progressively and directly there. Sometimes we have to take a step back, move to a different industry, move to a different function, and try new things altogether. But if I’m looking at your resume and you have 8 years of computer engineering experience and you are applying to a job selling insurance, I’m going to scratch my head a little. You can still tell the story of how your previous jobs lead you to that point in your career through your accomplishments along the way. If you want to sell insurance, useful characteristics for that job might be influential skills, building relationships, a knowledge of medicine, teaching skills (so you can sell to other people who don’t know much about medicine), and being results-driven (since it’s probably commission-based). Show how you used those skills in your experience with computer engineering and how those skills would mean you’d be the best insurance salesman ever. And if it still seems like a bit of a stretch, here is where a career objective can help you. The idea is that YOU may know you would be the best insurance salesman ever, but the recruiter reading your resume may not make that connection. You have to make it more obvious. Remember—they only spend 10 seconds reading your resume.

9. It’s too wordy
Resume writing is not the same as writing a grant proposal, or writing a novel, or any other kind of writing. You can cut out virtually all unnecessary words as long as the message still makes sense. And because space is limited, it is in your best interest to do so, anyway, so you can get more of those “good” words in there that really describe who you are, and those results that illustrate how you performed on the job. But get right to the point. Again, think of the recruiter who spends 10 seconds looking at your resume. If he sees a page full of words words words, he could just get dizzy and lose interest. Hey, he’s human, and he has 300 resumes to look through to fill one position (let alone the five others he’s supposed to fill). Maybe it seems too difficult to describe the situation in few words, but remember that you can fill in the details in your interview. On your resume, get to the point: your exact accomplishment.

10. You are over-or under-qualified for the position
It’s probably not likely that you match every qualification in the job description to the letter. I think it’s safe to apply for positions if you match up with 75-80% of the qualifications or more. But a word of caution: you’re not necessarily going to have a better chance if you’re overly-qualified. One reason is that they might worry you would be constantly looking for a better offer, or they could worry that you would ask for too much money. But in addition, remember that the people considering you are human. If the hiring manager or someone on the team who reviews your resume feels that you might be too much competition for their own career paths, you might have a strike against you. Be careful to apply for positions that you are appropriately qualified for.

Good luck to all the job-seekers out there. Happy hunting, and stay strong.

A Tale of Two Genders

Introduction

This is a topic that is very personal to me, very controversial, very difficult to solve, and very fascinating. It has been proven in virtually every study ever done that women are still getting paid significantly less than men working similar roles and hours. The million dollar question is why, and of course, what can be done about it. There are people out there who study this sort of thing for a living, and write PhD dissertations on the subject, and it should be said that no one has come up with the undisputed reason for this phenomenon. While I cannot offer the same extensive amount of research and insight on the subject as the best in the field, I can offer my own perspective. I also cannot think of a better time to write about this topic than in March, Women's History Month.

A Little History

An obvious place to begin discussing this subject is to look at the discrimination against women in the past and how it has evolved. Inequality between men and women has existed as far back as history books go. The women’s rights movement in the United States began in the mid-1800’s with a push for voting rights, with leaders arising such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. After a long battle, the 19th amendment granting women the right to vote was signed into law in 1920.

Although some women have been in the workforce for some time, they had been in the minority until large numbers of women began working during World War II with many American men away at war. In 1942, The National War Labor Board requested employers to adjust wages to women to be equal to those paid to men, but most employers chose not to adhere to this voluntary request. Not only that, but many women were pushed out of the workforce when the war ended so that veteran men could return to their jobs.

Until the early 1960s, newspapers listed separate job postings for men and women, at times listing identical jobs for both sexes but with different pay scales. On June 10, 1963, congress passed the Equal Pay Act, making it illegal to pay a woman less than what a man would be paid for the same job. In 1964, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act made it illegal to discriminate on the basis of race and sex in employment. These Acts have not come close to solving the problem, though, because employers will always seek ways to cut expenses, and unequal pay is difficult to prove because payroll is seldom discussed among employees (and always held close to the chest in human resources), and job descriptions are often written to be just so different that it becomes more difficult to compare wages for similar roles. This problem was somewhat addressed in Schultz v. Wheaton Glass Co in 1970, Corning Glass Works v. Brennan in 1974, Jackson v. Birmingham Board of Education in 2005, and the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act of 2009, but none of these have really solved the problem completely.

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/womenstimeline1.html
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/equalpayact1.html

Current Wage Gap Statistics and Study Findings

Although closing the gap in wages for women has improved over the decades, it still needs quite a bit of improvement. Women are currently earning about 77-80% of the wages men earn working similar hours and jobs (depending on the study and the scale used, such as weekly or yearly earnings). This is an improvement over the rate of 59% in the early 1970’s, but considering the commonly-held belief that women now have equal rights and abilities in the workplace since the Equal Pay Act, the 80% rate is still an abomination. Many of the world’s top companies have yet to institute any policies that would address the disparity in pay and in advancement opportunities, and most companies do not even have systems to track salary differences by gender. Only 15 of the Fortune 500 companies are currently run by women, and the absense of women in leadership positions trickles down to many higher-level positions as well.

http://www.iwpr.org/pdf/C350.pdf
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/08/business/global/08manage.html?ref=business
http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2009-01-01-women-ceos-increase_N.htm

Speculated Reasons for the Wage Gap

Over the years, many hypotheses have emerged as to why a wage gap still exists. Perhaps the first thing to consider is the methodologies of the studies finding the wage gaps. Some of these studies look at the gap as an aggregate—that is to say, the gap does not compare lawyers against lawyers and nurses against nurses, but rather averages all wages among women and compares it to those of men. The problem with this method is the high numbers of women in so-called “pink-collar” jobs, or jobs historically believed to be predominantly held by women and that have lower pay, such as nurses and teachers. The reason why women are drawn to these types of jobs is a study all on its own, but the simple fact that more women occupy these jobs and more men occupy jobs as executives in high-paying industries, so the average is inevitably skewed.

Still, not all studies measure the wage gap in this manner. In fact, a study through the Center of Gender Studies found that only four occupations where women earned more than men: special education teachers, order clerks, electrical engineers, and food preparation. In all other occupations, women’s pay lagged behind. The study also found that the gap did not improve with education; quite the contrary, among those with higher levels of education, the gap actually widened.

Another argument for the reason for the wage gap is that women work less, take more time off, or have more gaps in their work history due to pregnancy or other family-related issues. First, studies like these usually only include those working full-time, so the part-time or unequal hours argument does not hold. When it comes to breaks in experience, this could potentially account for problems in achieving equal pay. In some jobs or industries, breaks in work experience mean becoming out-of-touch with industry trends or a loss of drive and productivity. However, this deserves a closer look. In actuality, the wage gap widens when looking at men and women who work longer hours. In addition, it seems that women may have to work longer to get promotions that will lead to higher salaries, as women in higher-level positions have more years of work experience than men in similar positions.

http://www.womensmedia.com/new/Lips-Hilary-gender-wage-gap.shtml
http://moneywatch.bnet.com/economic-news/article/salary-checkup-is-the-gender-pay-gap-over/390638/

Call to Action

It is difficult to propose a solution without understanding the nature of the problem. However, there might be a few things that could help address the issues:

1. Better tracking of wage discrepancies within organizations
Since most companies hold no methods for tracking possible gaps in wages, a logical place to begin would be to monitor the situation to see if a problem exists on a company-level.
2. Better handling of potential sex discrimination issues
Many times when issues like this exist, they are not addressed because women are concerned it can be a career setback. If problems like this were brought to the forefront more often, more awareness could be built in this issue and the involved companies could take action.
3. More transparency in wage and promotional opportunity
It is a separate argument (and a separate blog post altogether) for whether or not introducing more transparency in wages is a good thing for the organization as a whole. However, it would certainly bring problems like this to the surface and give women more insight into how to achieve promotions and raises.
4. Widespread training in career development and negotiations
This may be an old-fashioned suggestion, but women seem to negotiate less often. They are more likely to accept offers and be grateful to have one than to put themselves at risk by pushing for what they deserve. Men seem to fight for themselves more instinctively, and perhaps with a little more of a push, women can find a way to get what they deserve as well.

Human Resources and Joe Worker at War--Will They Ever Make Peace?

Over the years of my professional life and through conversations with people from various companies and industries, one common trend I have seen is that people everywhere are unhappy at work, or have some issue to complain about regarding HR policies or practices at their organizations. Many companies are making the same mistakes with regards to human resources, and many employees make mistakes with regards to how to respond to issues they see. The combination makes it impossible to create a positive environment, and problems just get amplified in a difficult economic environment. However, good HR practices are important no matter what the economy is doing, and employees need to understand how to take control of their own career track and workplace happiness.

Advice for HR Leaders

One big problem among creating corporate HR practices is that many things involved in HR are expensive (benefits, incentives, raises, bonuses, perks, etc.), and while every company wants its employees to be satisfied, these things are often seen as unnecessary for the core operations of the business, so in good times, companies will employ these practices to be competitive, but in difficult times, they are often the first thing on the chopping block. The reality is that the employees are really what make or break the company, so their satisfaction with the workplace is supremely important for achieving all other goals. When you take away perks or benefits, you are also taking away productivity and even your best employees altogether (who will leave for greener pastures).

Another problem is that companies often put HR policies and practices in place and believe they are doing the right thing, but the implementation of these practices comes out very differently at the end of the tunnel (the employees) than they were envisioned in the planning stages, thus creating a disconnect preventing top leadership from understanding the needs and satisfaction levels of their workers.

In response to these problems, I will list some suggestions for companies and employees with regards to their human resources practices. These suggestions are for HR leaders:

When it comes to performance evaluations and setting goals, be very specific, and follow through.

It is important for every employee at every level to understand exactly what is expected of him/her. This means knowing what it takes to do the job sufficiently, what it would take to earn a raise or promotion, and what it takes to stand out among the crowd. These goals need to be as specific as possible, recognizing positive results rather than punishing bad ones, and most importantly, the boss or HR rep needs to follow-through on promises once the goals are reached. Just like animals and little children, we respond best to positive rewards for positive results, but our positive results will only happen if we know exactly what the reward will be, and actually get it once we deliver our part of the bargain.

Incentives don’t always have to be monetary

Many managers assume that money is what it takes to make employees happy and to put in their best work. But the truth is, happiness among employees comes from a variety of places, and money is only one of them. Knowing that someone recognizes our good work is a great motivator, so verbalizing recognition for good work regularly is important. It is also nice to know that the boss cares, so simply asking how they are doing goes a long way, and so does allowing people to leave early once in a while, or give the opportunity to take an afternoon to volunteer in the community (without taking away pay). These things may sometimes seem like a waste of productivity, but employees are often more productive during the time they are working if they are happy in their work and motivated by perks like this. These things do not really cost much money, but because of the increase in happiness and productivity among workers, they are a really good investment.

…but the monetary ones do help

I’m not going to lie; a little extra money goes a long way to make someone happier at work. But that money needs to be specifically tied to a measureable result. It’s a downward spiral to let employees feel entitled to yearly raises and bonuses, but tying it to an achievable, measureable result will ensure that those results are achieved and workers have more control over their own successes.

Watch the pipeline and react appropriately

Implementing policies is a lot like playing telephone—the message changes more and more the further along it gets in the chain. And most HR managers or senior leadership don’t really follow what happens to these policies after they sign their approval except for periodic top-level updates. Keep tabs on exactly how the practices are being communicated, executed, evaluated, and modified at every level of the organization. There is no need to micro-manage the process, but it is important to watch the process at every level and in a variety of different departments because with all the different styles of management and work implementation, messages and policies are going to be different to virtually every person, so you need to stay on the pulse of what people are saying about the procedures not only to make sure they are understood correctly, but also to make sure you didn’t miss anything when planning them out. And by the way, before you even decide on any incentive policies or benefits or whatever, you should ask the employees what would work for them. This happens very rarely, and it would help employees to feel empowered to have a say in how the organization is run. But be careful how you do this. No employee should feel he/she is being judged for the feedback given or feel that job security is in jeopardy depending on how the feedback is received.

Advice for Employees

Before all the fingers start pointing just at the HR leaders, it should be noted for as often as I see problems in corporate HR, I also see workers place blame for their unhappiness on HR and senior leadership before they search inside themselves. Yes, sometimes the company makes mistakes, but we can’t depend on the company for all of our happiness, especially since we, too, make mistakes. Here are the suggestions I have for employees:

Put your expectations in check

I hate to be the deliverer of tough love, but I feel that it needs to be said. It is a workplace, not a camp. Your HR representative is not a counselor or therapist and is paid to keep the company’s best interests in mind just as much as yours (if not more). Your boss isn’t paid to worship the ground you walk on; your boss is there to make sure you do your job. You are paid to do a job, and you are not entitled to additional money, or promotions, or play time, or unnecessary luxuries. Sure, those extra things make you happy, but I think so many people wind up disappointed with their jobs because they expect the job to be something it isn’t. They expect pats on the back for doing what they are supposed to do anyway. They spend much more time complaining about the workplace or the boss or the job rather than doing something to make it better. The boss is human. No work project is perfect, and there are always problems. What is going to make the biggest difference in your happiness is how you handle those problems and how you learn to deal with a difficult boss or colleague. Your happiness is up to you.

Manage your boss

Now that I am sure I have made everyone reading this mad at me for the tough love part, let me clarify one piece of how you can take ownership for your own work happiness. We have all had bad bosses and dumb bosses and bosses that do so little we wonder why we couldn’t be paid to do just what they’re doing and do it better. But the only way to succeed in an organization and be happy working there is to find some way to work with your boss. Your boss cannot read your mind and does not know what circumstances are best for you to do your best work, so you need to have a constant discussion about that. Do you need that pat on the back when you do good work? Schedule a wrap-up evaluation meeting when your project is done so that you can ask what went well and what to improve on. And by the way, as cliché as it sounds, you should learn how to take criticism as an opportunity to improve yourself rather than an identification of weakness. Do you want a raise? Tell your boss you will do whatever it takes to get it, ask specifically what he/she would want you to do to be considered for a raise (actual, measureable goals), and do it. If you deliver the results, follow-up with him/her and ask for your raise. No one is going to have a raise or promotion gift-wrapped and delivered to your desk. You have to do the legwork.

Manage your environment

This one is kind of tricky. Workplace happiness is a living, breathing thing. We all want to make friends at work, which is important to our workplace happiness, but if one person is unhappy, the complaining can turn to gossip, which can turn to empathy, which can turn to other people feeling unhappy, and before you know it, you are feeling unhappy and nothing about your job has really changed—only your attitude has changed. This kind of sharing and recycling of negativity is what creates a toxic environment. A toxic environment is easy to create, but nearly impossible to escape. The only way to manage this is to stay strong in your own workplace satisfaction and managing your own environment. Don’t take part in workplace gossip when it turns to bashing bosses and complaining about company policies. This type of talk is usually done by people who do not know how to do the above suggestions (keeping expectations in check, manage the boss). You cannot let others’ dissatisfaction infect your own. If you really are unhappy about something, do something about it. Yes, there will always be office politics which make getting your voice heard or changes implemented all the more difficult. But no one ever got anywhere by whining about it. So learn the system and the politics, and find a way. If you can’t find a way, decide if it is something you can live with. If not, find somewhere else to work. There are a thousand stresses in life, and you make it exponentially worse for yourself by letting things bother you, or by complaining about them and not taking action. Take control. Either do something, or live with it. If it’s the latter, don’t let yourself complain or be subjected to complaints by others.

Conclusion

The truth is, no workplace is perfect, and no person working in a job is perfect. Whether you are a corporate leader or Joe Worker, it is always beneficial to step into someone else’s shoes to understand why they make the decisions that they do, and also be introspective to understand how you can improve yourself. On the side of the company, there needs to be more focus on finding out what employees need directly from them—they will be happier, more loyal to you, and will probably work harder, too. On the side of the employees, there needs to be more ownership for workplaces satisfaction and less entitlement—do something about a problem, and if you find yourself with an unavoidable toxic attitude, maybe it’s time for a change in your career. There will always be problems. But it is how we deal with the problems that define how strong we are both as individuals and as organizations.

Further Reading
http://www.dirjournal.com/guides/the-best-hr-practices-that-successful-companies-practice/
http://www.entrepreneur.com/humanresources/humanresourceburtongoldfield/article204482.html
http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/health/24-tips-for-being-happy-at-work-631166/

Super Bowl XLIV Commercials: A Review

Evaluating the quality of a commercial begins with identifying the goal of the commercial, which you can usually decipher simply by watching it. Goals can range from awareness building, brand development, special promotions, market comparisons, and sometimes segment targeting (i.e. fashioning your ad to address a particular audience who might relate to your product more than anyone else). Usually, television advertising is difficult to measure in effectiveness because few consumers pay attention to it, and all it can often do is remind the consumer of a brand by repetition or paint a picture of what a brand stands for. The Super Bowl is special, though, because many people watch the program more for the commercials than the game—it becomes part of their conversations at work the next day, and everyone wants to be able to share their opinions about the creativity and humor that they saw. In the case of Super Bowl XLIV with 100 million viewers (many of whom are expecting commercials to be exceptional in some way—funny, creative, moving, etc.), segment targeting is probably not a good idea. All other types of ads could still work, but with such a big audience, such a big price tag, and so much potential for the ad to live longer than just the 30 second spot during which it is aired, the goal of each ad should be, above all, to be memorable. You want your ad to be one that makes it into water cooler discussions at workplaces the next day, passed around on social networking sites, and discussed in humble little blogs like this one.

Overall, I saw a bunch of disappointing ads—really, missed opportunities. I saw a few mediocre attempts, and a few good ones. But I have to say that this year there weren’t any that I was really excited about. So while I was able to pick out my favorite ads, this is really relative to an overall mediocre field. And what I also see is there is a wide range in ads that most people liked—everyone I heard from picked out different ads that they liked, proving that there really is no stand-out winner this year. Below, I highlighted my top 5 ads, as well as some honorable mentions.

5. Coca-Cola--Mr. Burns is Broke
This was a good use of one of the longest-running and most popular television shows of all time in combination with one of the world's most recognizable brands. Everyone wants to see Mr. Burns lose his fortune, and Coke can heal problems by bringing people together.


4. Budweiser--The Bridge is Out
Harkens back to "Lassie" and other old-school folksy tales, this ad stays in the theme of Budweiser for keeping the party going and rallying together by the whole town creating a human bridge for a beer truck.


3. Doritos--Dog "Anti-Bark" Collar
Doritos have a reputation of putting out some very creative, funny ads, and they often make it into my favorite list. This year's Super Bowl featured a whopping four ads from Doritos, and while two of them did not land on my good side, I was definitely not disappointed with this cute and clever ad featuring a dog taking revenge with his "anti-bark" collar.


2. Doritos--Two House Rules
Short and sweet, this cute little boy sticks up for his mama and his Doritos by laying down the law for a gentleman paying a visit.


1. Google--A Search Love Story
This ad is not only heartwarming and cute, but it is spot-on for the image and reputation that Google maintains in pure simplicity and reliability for providing information on absolutely anything. It was also a departure from the usual Super Bowl ad that features men doing dumb things like walking around without pants or getting yelled at by their girlfriends. This ad was a standout for me.


Honorable mentions:
Snickers--Betty White Playing Football,
Hyundai--Brett Favre in 2020,
Audi--Green Police,
Coca-Cola--Africa Sleepwalk

Duds:

• GoDaddy in the past tried to push controversial raciness, which worked the first time because it drove traffic to its website. But this time, they pushed it too far, we've seen it before, and now it just looks dumb and cheesy.
• e*Trade--it is time to give up on the creepy talking babies. Really. Please.
• In the Denny's commercials--all three of them--I was so distracted by the annoying screaming that I didn't even get the message that they were giving out free breakfasts. Hey Denny's, next time you want to get our attention--less is more.
• Census, I was really rooting for you. You come along only once every ten years, and this was such a great opportunity to get a huge American audience ready to take part in one of the most important and useful studies there is, and that's what you came up with? I was still confused after I re-watched your commercial online. Such a disappointment.

Next year, I would like to see the year's biggest night of commercials step away from making men look stupid (read the Dockers and CareerBuilder ads with men sans pants, or FloTV showing a guy getting dragged around by his girlfriend, or Dodge showing men making promises to their women but drawing the line at their vehicle, etc... etc...), and challenge more real issues. Coca-cola and Doritos will always be around for something clever and funny. But I'd like to see clever paired with issues we can all relate to. The Google ad was the closest thing I saw this year, and the Tim Tebow ad for Focus on the Family had potential to do that (although fell a bit short). Lets see if we can move advertising beyond half-naked people and creepy babies to make a real, artistic, pushing-the-envelope, revolutionizing statement.

Super Bowl Advertising: A History

Super Bowl I took place in 1967, although at the time it was called the “NFL-AFL World Championship Game.” The temporary unofficial name of “Super Bowl” was contrived when Kansas City Chief owner Lamar Hunt observed his daughter playing with her super ball. After some time with the original name, fans and media took to the shorter unofficial name over the wordy original name, and in 1969 the name was officially changed to “Super Bowl.”

As a marketer, however, what is more interesting to me is the other half of the Super Bowl spectacle: the advertisements. It is arguably the one time of year when advertisements take center stage and are given almost as much attention as the regular television program. The reason this came about is because the Super Bowl has grown in viewership to become the most watched program of the year, and high ratings attract competition among advertisers. This demand has caused the price for a 30-second spot during the Super Bowl to rise dramatically, and thus pushed advertisers investing in spots to put special amounts of innovation and creativity into these expensive ads.

To see this transformation in action, we turn directly to the numbers. When looking at television ratings, the “rating” indicates the % of all television-equipped US households who tuned in to the program, while the “share” indicates the % of those viewing the program out of those who were watching television at the time. Super Bowl I in 1967 was shown on two networks with ratings of 22 and 18, shares of 43 and 36, and viewership of 26 million and 24 million. Back then, a 30-second spot cost about US $40,000 (adjusted for inflation would be about US $245,000). In 2009, Super Bowl XLIII grabbed a 42 rating and 62 share with almost 99 million viewers. A 30-second spot in 2009 cost US $3,000,000.

One of the first really memorable commercials aired during the Super Bowl was a Noxzema ad shown in 1973 featuring Farrah Fawcett applying shaving cream to Joe Namath's face. Both were popular celebrities of the time, and audiences of the 1970s showed little issue with sexual innuendo in advertisement.

However, the bar was truly set in 1984 with the engaging Apple ad directed by Ridley Scott introducing the Macintosh to the world and inspired by the George Orwell novel “1984.”



In 2010, prices for Super Bowl ads will unusually dip slightly to between US $2.5M and US $2.8M due to the dip in the global economy, and some big players in Super Bowl advertising such as PepsiCo and General Motors will be absent, potentially making way for creative newcomers to enter the scene. I am personally looking forward to this event, and plan on reviewing the advertising in full in a special Super Bowl entry of this blog.

References
http://www.superbowlhistory.net/superbowl/index.php
http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/01/18/historical-super-bowl-tv-ratings/11044
http://articles.sfgate.com/2008-02-01/entertainment/17140446_1_super-bowl-bud-bowls-super-ads
http://advertising-influence.suite101.com/article.cfm/superbowl_advertising
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/marketing/super-bowl-ad-prices-fall-but-still-cost-millions/article1426695/

2010 Trends to Watch

Trendwatching.com recently published a list of trends to watch in the coming year (some of which may have already begun, as trends don't necessarily follow the calendar). I will summarize them here:



1. Business as Usual: Despite any difficulties in the economy, businesses need to continue to follow consumer trends and demands, which include stepping up to sustainability or being a good corporate citizen, in order to compete for business. Which ironically is not really "business as usual..."

2. Urbany: More and more people are now living in cities, and becoming more "sophisticated, demanding, try-out-prone, and super-wired. This also leads to a sub-trend of pride in one's own city.

3. Real-Time Reviews: Consumers crave instant gratification, and are sharing more of everything they do, including reviews of everything they consume.

4. (F)Luxury: The definition of luxury is whatever seems scarce to the consumer, which can be any number of things, and seems to be in flux.

5. Mass Mingling: Although people are spending much more time socializing online, the trend has not been to create more homebodies. On the contrary, people are spending more time socializing offline, perhaps driven by finding social networks online with similar interests, the need to be with warm bodies away from the computer more often, etc.

6. Eco-Easy: A trend toward making it easy for consumers to do the right thing for the environment, which is made most possible by strong government or other large entity intervention, such as city-wide bans on plastic bags or bottled water.

7. Tracking & Alerting: The idea that relevant information will find its way to consumers based on their preferences, instead of consumers having to hunt down the information.

8. Embedded Generosity: Making gift-giving easy and painless, if not automatic, such as companies who automatically donate something to a charity when you make a purchase.

9. Profile Myning: This isn't about advertising mining your personal information, but about users managing their own digital profiles, whether it be offering bits up for sale to advertisers, or hiring someone to manage digital real estate after death, etc.

10. Maturialism: No doubt due to much more exposure to racy media, people don't want to be treated as uninformed or easily shocked, and can handle much more quirkiness, raciness, and daring and exotic innovations and communications in marketing and otherwise.

/summary



What is interesting to me in all of this is how these trends overlap. There is definitely an increased trust and dependence on technology (3, 7, 9) and a movement toward edgy youth away from the traditional (2, 10). There is also more focus on doing the right thing (6,8). Any companies that are not already finding ways to reach consumers through these trends are really missing an important opportunity and will likely have a difficult time staying relevant. It is also interesting that these trends point away from the thrifty and cautious consumerism of the recession and toward spending a little more, whether it be on technology, sustainability, social activities, or the more expensive urban lifestyle. 2010 will be an interesting year, as we will still be seeing the effects of the recession with jobs struggling to come back and consumers slow to start spending again. But the desire is there--people are tired of being holed up in their homes watching every penny. They will invest again eventually, get their jobs back eventually, and start spending again soon. They are ready.