As the biggest sporting event of the year is upon us in just a few days, all I’m thinking about are… the commercials! Personally, I have no interest in the football game. None whatsoever. Yet, I spend every year watching it – just so I won’t miss those much anticipated commercials. Companies spend millions of dollars for this coveted air time. This year it will cost an estimated $3 million for a 30-second slot. With prices like that and hundreds of millions of people watching, companies spend countless amounts of time, energy, and resources to create their ads to ensure they are memorable and entertaining.

Here are a few of my favorites.

Snickers® – 2010
Betty White came back into popularity almost overnight last year. And people love her! So why wouldn’t they love her in an ad? In this hilarious Snickers commercial, Betty gets tackled during a game of football with the guys and turns into a young man who scores after eating a Snickers bar.

CBS – 2010
It was quite a surprise for viewers to see David Letterman, Oprah Winfrey, and Jay Leno sitting together at a house party watching the game. What more could you ask for?

Bud Light® - 2006
A man hides his Bud Light from his guests by creating a revolving wall with a hidden fridge. Little does he know, the fridge spins into the apartment next door. One of my favorites!

Reebok® – 2003
Reebok debut a series of ads featuring “office linebacker” Terry Tate who tackles his officemates who don’t obey office etiquette. With hilarious lines like “You kill the joe, you make some mo,” it became one of the most talked about ads.

Doritos® – 1998
Ali Landry, a former Miss USA, was featured in this commercial. All she really did was walk through the room eating a bag of Doritos but it sure got every guy’s attention! It was so popular that the company had her star in other ads too.

Budweiser® – 1995
Sometimes all you really need are a few animated frogs croaking “Bud…weis..errr.” Somehow, it stuck and the frogs came back in several spinoff ads.

I can’t wait to see what new ads this year will bring. Best Buy® is expected to announce some exciting news - wonder what that will be! CareerBuilder® is returning with their hilarious chimpanzees. The E-trade® baby is rumored to return again. GoDaddy® will be featuring a surprise celebrity. Snickers® will be continuing the same campaign as last year but with Roseanne Barr. And Doritos® is continuing its popular ad contest. And that’s just a small selection of what’s expected for this Sunday!

Which ads will be a hit? Let us know what you think! After you watch the commercials on February 6, visit paladinstaff.com on Monday morning and vote for your favorite!

*Trademarks: All trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

I’ve been fortunate to deal with some great recruiters, both as a client and as a candidate.  And I’ve been unfortunate, on occasion, to have run across some who clearly should have pursued careers in trench digging, coal shoveling, grape stomping or other fields requiring aptitude in wielding a blunt instrument.  The lack of functional expertise, responsive service, and simple finesse in professional staffing is sometimes laughable, and not in a funny ha-ha way.

True story:  A recruiter, who maintained he “knew marketing up one side and down the other,” asked if I had experience in preparing advertising and brochures, promotional materials and the like.  I said I’d developed numerous integrated campaigns with advertising and collateral.  He replied, “Collateral is fine, but what about brochures and promotional materials?” He wanted me to drop everything and immediately re-write my resume, which I did, and then he didn’t follow up for weeks, even after repeated phone calls and emails.  When he finally called, he said he’d never presented me to the client, and commented snidely, “you’re not a good fit but do you know anybody else who is?”  The problem wasn’t that he’d decided not to present me — my issue was that he refused to explain why, that he took so long to do it, and that his attitude reflected the clear assumption that he held the more important position in our relationship.  I was disappointed — but more importantly, I was unimpressed and vowed never to work with the guy in the future.So here are just a few basic tips I think could potentially be valuable for both recruiters and candidates as we all navigate the (hopefully) soon-to-come swell in recovery-related hiring:

 Know the WorkCandidates should know something about the client’s business, even if industry experience isn’t required. Recruiters should know something about the actual responsibilities – don’t just take the client’s job spec and dump it into your template. Ask questions until you get what’s really required.

Follow Up ProperlyThis is so simple, but it’s amazing how many candidates can’t find the right balance between staying top of mind versus being a stalker.  Recruiters should tell candidates when they expect to present to/hear from the client. If the recruiter doesn’t discuss a follow up plan, candidates should simply ask “how/when may I re-connect with you on this? Both clients and candidates should return phone calls promptly; it’s basic courtesy.

Respect the ConnectionThe best recruiters and candidates know that establishing a strong relationship is key to years of future success for both. If you’re a recruiter, try to remember that candidates (especially those who are in transition) are not commodities – they’re flesh-and-blood humans whose lives may well depend upon your engagement; if you’re a candidate, remember that your recruiter works for his/her client, not for you, and has to pay attention to the buttered side of the bread.  If you can unite — finding that middle ground of mutual respect — you can cement those relationships effectively and enjoy many successful placements as a result.

Monica Levy blogs about the good, bad and ugly in marketing and communications at http://www.monicaonmarketing.blogspot.com.  You can follow her on twitter at http://twitter.com/mjlevy.

In a recent Newsweek article, Sarah Kliff advises that if you want your children to eat their vegetables, simply “rename them” (the vegetables, not the kids).  She explained that “When researchers told kindergarteners they were eating ‘X-ray vision carrots’ rather than plain old vegetables, the kids ate 50 percent more”.

X-ray vision carrots?  That, ladies and gentlemen, is called marketing.

The buzzsaw of toddler protest against foods that have even a trace of nutritional integrity is something I’ve experienced first hand.  A few weeks ago, I found myself in just such a impasse as I tried to explain to my three-year old why he should eat his cucumbers.  None of my erudite rationalizations swayed him.  If anything, he dug his heels in.

Then I walked over to him, rolled up my sleeve, and showed him my muscle, and said, “You see this? This is why you should eat your cucumbers!”

The result?  Argument over. 

With one look at my flexed bicep, his objections evaporated instantly and he happily devoured his cucumber slices. 

It makes sense.  After all, who can argue with a flexed bicep? 

But I would submit that this too, is marketing.  The only difference is that the latter is a visual solution, while the former is a headline-driven solution.  Either way, it’s marketing.

News flash: if you’re a parent, you’re a full-time marketer.  And your end user is pretty fickle, so choose your marketing program carefully.

Smart people, like Professor David Just of Cornell University don’t call it marketing, he calls it Behavorial Economics.  Behavorial Economics is an academic field that studies the role of environmental factors in decision making.

So if you’re an advertising or marketing professional, you’re actually a behavorial economist.  Now go home and eat your X-ray vision carrots.

Carrots contain beta-carotene which is converted to vitamin A by the body, which forms a pigment called rhodopsin, which raisies the effectiveness of the light-sensitive area of the retina, which the eye needs to see in dim light. Maybe calling them "x-ray vision carrots" isn't such an exaggeration after all.

Understanding Influence - Part II: 7 Thoughts

Previously, we blogged that social media has fundamentally changed the world of marketing. Marketers can no longer consider that they are the exclusive owners of their brand—because brands exist in the minds of their consumers. While social media empowers those consumers and enables them to actively participate in the conversations that define their brands.

To grasp the scale of this monumental change, “Understanding Influence – Part I” offered a brief historical perspective on marketing influence. Part II picks up with the brand conversations that social media bring. And how, by participating in the dialog, you can influence it.

1. Influence begins with listening, really listening.

Put yourself in a social situation. A group you’d like join is conversing. What do you do? First, you listen. Why? To get a feel for the tone of the conversation and see where you fit in. It’s the same in social media marketing.

Your first order of business should be to see who is talking about your brand and what your audience is saying. Identify the followers and the influencers—who, by the way, will not all be customers. These free tools will help you automate the listening process.

• Google Reader – Tracking all the people who are talking about you is easier if you aggregate them into a few places. Use Google Reader to search for anyone talking about your brands and gather their RSS feeds.
• Google Blogsearch and Google Alerts – Use Google Blogsearch to take snapshots of brands and subjects of interest. Then use Google Alerts to automatically email you updates of the latest results.
• Twitter Search – Keep track of relevant Tweets.
• Delicious – Use Delicious save all your bookmarks online, share them and see what other people are bookmarking. The site’s search and tagging tools let you see the most popular bookmarks being saved across your areas of interest.
• Feedburner and Feedcompare.com – By sending your RSS feeds through Feedburner you can easily track your blog subscribers. Use Feedcompare to graphically contrast your Feedburner subscriber numbers with others.
• Technorati – The self-proclaimed, “most comprehensive source of information on the blogosphere,” Technorati indexes more than 1.5 million new blog posts in real time. It also ranks them by “authority,” the number of blogs linking to a website over the last six months.

If you need more detailed metrics and reporting, several services can take your listening to a professional level. Their websites will do a far better job of explaining what they do.

• BuzzLogic
• Radian6
• Scout Labs
• Spiral16
• Techrigy

2. Influence is not control

As tempting as it may be to jump right in and control a conversation, especially if it’s not going your way, attempting control is not the best strategy. Social media has customs. You have to be willing to give up the illusion of control left over from Mass Market era-thinking.

A funny thing happens when you surrender control. You actually become more powerful. Athletes will tell you that their best performances come when they “let go,” and get, “in the zone.”

Think what happens in a conversation when someone monopolizes it or makes it all about themselves. If you’re like me, you duck out as quickly as you can. If you want to be around to influence the conversation, you need folks to stick around.

3. Influence is built on authority

Want to have greater authority? Write greater content. It’s that simple—and difficult.

Worry less about chasing authority rankings. Worry more about posting unique and relevant content that reflects your brand and builds the brand experience. That’s what’ll keep your audience interested. And bring them back again and again.

Need help with your writing? Check out “How to Write Great Blog Content” by ProBlogger and follow Copyblogger whose blog focuses on writing great content.

4. Influence is built on relationships and sense of community

Say you’re looking for a restaurant. Who are you more likely to be influenced by: A close friend? Or, a complete stranger? The answer is obvious.

A recent Harvard Business Review study, “The Dynamics of Personal Influence” by Nichlas A. Christakis, finds that “although a person may be connected to other people by six degrees of separation, he or she is influenced only by those up to three degrees away.”

The more people talking about your brand, the more first, second and third-degree relationships you have. And the greater your potential influence. Creating a sense of community—a place—for your customers to gather and talk about your brand allows you to extend those close relationships.

Fan pages can create a hub for brand conversations. You’ll quickly learn what your customers love. And what they hate. You’ll also empower your customers to advocate for your brand.

5. Influence is built on honesty and trust

Trust is incredibly valuable—and fragile. Relationships are built on trust. So it follows that the more trusted you are, the greater your potential influence. Consistency is important. Read, “When Trust Breaks” by Amber Naslund of Altitude Branding.

If you want to have an influence, strive for honesty, humanity and humility in your all your social media communications because they build confidence—and trust—in you and your message.

6. Influence means being responsive.

Bad word of mouth can go viral almost instantly. You need to stop rumors before they spread. Like, now. When you blow it. Admit you’re wrong. And fix the problem. Here, your actions will speak louder than words.

Social media gives you the tools to listen, build positive relationships and a sense of community and provide trust-building opportunities that can help carry you through and resolve the inevitable trouble spots.

7. Influence is more powerful when it’s fully integrated

Those who say, “advertising is dead,” are just as off base as those who ignore social media. It’s not the medium. It’s the brand message and experience. Consistently delivered. At all points of brand contact.

Go and influence better

The aim of this two part series was to provide a perspective for understanding the value of social media in a marketing context. And to help you understand the components of influence. Effective influence—and marketing success—depends on going where your consumers are and joining them in the brand conversation.