Aaron Rodgers appeared in three State Farm Insurance ads during the 2011 NFL season

On Monday, Street & Smith’s Sports Business Daily unveiled its list of the most marketable players in the National Football League, based on a survey distributed to corporate brand managers, marketing and branding executives, agencies, sports business professors and football media. There’s no major surprises, really:

That’s eight quarterbacks, eight Super Bowl winners and — after this weekend — a combined 16 Super Bowl appearances. So, unless you can throw a football or wind up on a winning team, building superior marketability in the NFL is a challenge.

Players from 30 NFL teams have the upcoming Super Bowl weekend off, but only a few dozen will be offered opportunities to represent brands and make appearances for an easy payday. Some players choose to skip the circus until they’ve earned their trip the honest way, but players who understand the financial urgency of a short playing career know Super Bowl week is a prime opportunity to earn a check without incurring bodily harm.

Last week, David Schwab, a manager of talent agency Octagon’s celebrity acquisition and activation division and one of the brightest bulbs out there, wrote a useful blog post about six factors to consider when using talent for marketing campaign at the Super Bowl. Schwab touched on variables like pricing, timing and exclusivity, but completely left out social media.

That’s a mistake, and here’s why: While every last camera, recorder and reporter is fixed on the host city for a week straight, it’s extremely difficult to cut through the clutter and make your brand stand out. Working with talent that maintains a robust social media following is the only way to guarantee measurable buzz. After that, all bets are off.

Take a look at how the most marketable NFL players stack up when you compare Twitter following:

If you had $50,000 to spend on an NFL player to earn your client coverage during Super Bowl week, who would you rather work with — a Super Bowl-winning quarterback or someone with a built-in, guaranteed audience? Sure, with Aaron Rodgers, you can have both. But when it comes to a Peyton Manning, a Tony Romo or a Cam Newton, you better be hawking the next iPod, because your client’s message is bound to get lost in the static.

I would rather gamble with house money. Guarantees are rare in media relations and social media is the cheapest insurance policy out there.

Question for the peanut gallery: What’s the most important variable when considering talent for a high-profile campaign?

Next week, Coke is capitalizing on the growing trend of second-screen media consumption with a campaign centered around the biggest media event of the year. The brand’s iconic polar bears are going digital at www.CokePolarBowl.com, and fans who log on can check them out as they watch the game.

As the contest unfolds, the bears will react in real time. One bear is wearing a red and white scarf (New York’s less commonly considered colors); the other sports a scarf in silver and blue (New England).  So when the New York quarterback throws a pick six, the New England bear might jump off his “snowfa,” pump his fists and do a dance while the New York supporter sulks and pouts. The online experience will even include some visitors to the cave (other bears and a penguin on holiday from the Antarctic).

You might ask, “can I really watch bears for four hours?” And the answer probably is “no.” But that’s not the point. The actual goal is to engage people on a deeper level than is typically achieved through traditional advertising alone. So when you see the Coke spots featuring (what else?) the polar bears in the first and second quarters, you’ll be invited to join them in their arctic ice cave through a tag at the end of the spot. It’s an engagement strategy that hasn’t before been seen at such an integrated level during the biggest sporting event of the year.

The ads are really quite good – beautiful animation and a great brand message in the spirit of Coke’s “Open Happiness” campaign. The spot running in the first quarter (“Superstition”) is unique because it’s designed to reflect the status of the game. So if New England is behind when the spot airs, the bear in silver and blue will be seen crossing his fingers, toes, arms, etc. It’s real-time ad selection based on the score, a turnover or another game-altering event.

Screen still from "Superstition" from Coca-Cola and Wieden + Kennedy

What I find fascinating is the way Coke will synch the bears online with the bears on TV. Just before “Catch” appears on NBC (second quarter), you’ll see one of the bears leave the ice cave on the website. It’s supposed to be seamless, and will be interesting to watch on game night. You can check out “Catch” below, and I encourage you to log on to www.CokePolarBowl.com to RSVP and “attend” the festivities on Feb. 5.

Click to view “Catch”

The Thursday press launch I mentioned at the top of this post was a big success. USA Today, The New York Times, Good Morning America, Fast Company.com, The Globe and Mail, Ad Age, Sports Business Daily, CNN.com and Perez Hilton have covered it so far, with Today, the AP, Washington Post, Fortune and many others still to come.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments on the campaign – before and after the big game.

I can’t describe the CES experience as anything less than a physical assault. It’s beyond overwhelming, and it’s as much a test of endurance and physical stamina for exhibitors and attendees, as it is a chance to tell your brand’s story to the 150,000 gathered buyers, journalists, bloggers, analysts and other industry influencers.

For many companies, there’s a lot at stake at CES, so despite the hardship, they spend huge chunks of their marketing budget to put their best foot forward in Sin City.

Frankly, very little caught my attention as I jostled my way through the chaos. There was just too much there competing for my very limited attention, and I was only able to cover about half the exhibit space in the couple hours I had to wander the floor around our client’s booth. The most innovative stuff coming out of CES is well documented by now, so I don’t have much to add there.

What I’ll do instead is highlight the one booth that caused me to pull out my iPhone and snap a picture. Not because the exhibitor’s products were so innovative. Or because their booth design was so arresting. I’d never heard of the company, and frankly, I still have no idea what they sell. What caused me to take notice of Changhong’s massive booth was the company’s tagline, which was splashed in more than a dozen places throughout.

For me, something in Changhong’s huge investment in CES was lost in the translation.

The Smith Bros, Trade and Mark

Growing up in Minnesota, I became familiar with cough drops at a young age. And that meant I became familiar with the Smith Brothers, Trade and Mark.

You don’t know who they are? Well, take a look at the label reproduced here, on which the two brothers from Poughkeepsie, N.Y., are clearly identified: Trade on the left, and Mark on the right.

That old joke about the Smith Brothers – whose actual names were William and Andrew – carries with it a real truth. The brothers were pioneers in consumer packaged goods, being among the first to offer their products nationally in factory-filled boxes. They were also early and ardent adopters of trademarking, registering their bearded images and putting them on every package. They also stamped the letters “S.B.” on every lozenge and registered those, as well.

And they aggressively defended their trademarks, bringing suit and forcing infringers to cough up damages on a number of occasions.

The Smith Brothers® brand has faded over the years and is now owned by a small private-equity firm that also owns Sen-Sen, itself a once-iconic brand from our great-grandparents’ era. The brothers don’t have the national profile that they used to.

But as we enter the height of cold and flu season, it’s a good time to remember the hirsute pair from the Hudson Valley who helped give birth to modern trademarking.

John Reinan originally wrote this as a guest post for Winthrop and Weinstine’s DuetsBlog.

If you haven’t heard of City Kid Java, I’m not surprised. They don’t spend a lot on marketing and instead rely on grassroots and word of mouth. That means getting into churches, businesses and schools, and conducting sampling led by its hard working crew/sales staff/brand ambassadors on chilly days. It means creating special brews for local college campuses. It also means keeping up with fans on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. And they do a good job of it, but I want to see it grow – so I guess that’s the reason for this post.

What I love about this company is how it’s run. Not by a bunch of 30- and 40-something know-it-alls, but rather by the kids it serves. Sure, there are some adults in
charge. But the kids are the real backbone of its success. They learn lessons in business, economics, sales, and so much more by attending company and sales meetings, working at City Java cafés and assisting with sampling. It’s a hands-on lesson on life in the real world, and it’s invaluable for many of these kids.

So do me a favor. Go pick up some City Kid Java. You can purchase it at Cub, Target, online or pick it up at their local cafés. I promise you won’t be disappointed. Not only does this coffee do good, it tastes good. It even won taste tests against big-name chains like Caribou and Starbucks. You can enjoy a good up of coffee and help the Twin Cities community. Sounds like a great way to start the day to me!

In the same week that a leading journalism school predicted the death of most print newspapers within five years, the sale of a blog pointed the way to the likely future of popular media.

ReadWriteWeb, a blog focused on technology issues, was sold for $5 million to a company called SAY Media. A $5 million deal doesn’t sound like much, but this one is significant – because ReadWriteWeb is another piece in a network that SAY Media has been assembling for several years now.

SAY Media owns several dozen niche blogs and websites. Among them are very popular titles like Remodelista, Serious Eats, Dogster, Catster and Fashionista. These sites all mix “real” content, written by web journalists, with sponsored content produced by advertisers that pay to have it run on the site.

There’s nothing shady about it; the sponsored content is clearly labeled as such. But it’s mixed in with the rest of the articles on the site, so it becomes just another choice for the reader.

The theory is that if an item is interesting and on topic for the blog, then the readers won’t care whether it was written by an independent journalist or by a marketing person. If you’re moved to click on “8 Things Your Dog Shouldn’t Eat,” you probably don’t care that the author might be an ex-journalist now working for Purina’s PR firm.

We’ve placed sponsored content on several blogs for our clients. I’ve written some of the items. And they’ve been very successful at drawing traffic for our clients, providing a good return on investment.

In the era now passing, advertisers paid big bucks to promote their products in print and broadcast ads. The newspapers and TV stations, in turn, used those advertising dollars to hire professional journalists to create the content that filled the news pages and airwaves.

In the coming years, you’ll see much more of the hybrid model, with sponsored content mixed in with the independently produced items. Here’s how SAY Media promotes their sites to advertisers: “Our custom marketing programs provide simple and accountable ways for brands to engage passionate audiences at scale.”

Translation: “We’ve created a website that fans of cats – or dogs, or fashion, or computers, or interior design – will enjoy visiting. For a price, we’ll put your content in front of that audience.”

Journalism purists will be aghast. But as long as sponsored content is identified – and, more importantly, as long as it’s something people are actually interested in – I don’t see anything wrong with it.

What’s more, this change is already rapidly taking place. And it’s going to continue, no matter what you or I think of it.

This is John Reinan’s weekly marketing column for MinnPost.com.

But as Salonek started writing, he realized that the ideas developed at Intertech might be helpful to others. So instead of a few handout sheets, he wound up with a self-published volume titled, “Building a Winning Business: 70 Takeaways for Creating a Company That Will Remain Strong During Good and Bad Economic Times.”

And now that he’s written the book, he’s discovered that being an author has some unexpected advantages. Although he’s happy when people buy the volume, the book may serve an even greater purpose as a marketing tool for Intertech and Salonek himself.

It makes a good impression on new and existing clients when the company CEO hands them a copy of a book he’s written. New employees at Intertech also get a copy when they join the company.

Tom Salonek

“The IT consulting space is pretty crowded. So this book is a point of difference for us,” Salonek said. “It’s about credibility. This lays out and shares the playbook that we use in our firm: Here’s how we’re different from other groups that might be out there.

“I don’t have delusions of paying my lease using this book,” he said. “I’m really using the book to market myself and the company.”

But he won’t complain if you buy it at Amazon.com, where it’s gotten excellent reviews. It’s also available on the e-readers Kindle and Nook.

Self-publishing once was derided as “vanity press.” But the revolution in digital technology has made it a much more appealing alternative for someone with a message to deliver. Salonek used an Amazon service called CreateSpace. Kindle and Nook offer their own electronic publishing platforms.

Salonek figures it cost him only about $3 per copy to produce the book, which retails on Amazon for $9.90.  He promotes it digitally as well, through his company’s website and his own blog at tomsalonek.com. He’s also made a number of appearances on business radio programs to discuss the topics his book covers, and has been a guest blogger on numerous business sites.

Salonek said that producing a book was a lot more work than he expected. But he sounds ready to add another volume to the shelf: “I kind of have a bulleted draft of another business book on building a winning sales team,” he said.

And although most online reviews of his effort have been kind, there have been a couple of slams – as is inevitably the case in the rough-and-tumble world of digital discussions.

“When that first slam came in,” Salonek said, “a friend called me and said: ‘OK – now you’re a real author.’ ”

This is John Reinan’s weekly marketing column for MinnPost.com.

The campaign kicked off with an in-character photo shoot with Rooney Mara in February, giving the public its first official look at the new Lisbeth Salander in W Magazine. Things picked up in early fall, when several editors received an email  from an anonymous source pointing them to a Tumblr feed called “Mouth Taped Shut.”  The Tumblr feed, which started posting Aug. 20, features exclusive photos from the set and post-production of the film, but has no official connection to Sony Pictures.

Coming from a fan of the series (read my post from last year here), the Tumblr feed is fascinating.  Images posted include sketches of set designs, props and even images from the Children’s Day Parade in Hedestad(!).

Photo of Trent Reznor from Mouth Taped Shut Tumblr feed

Here’s where the campaign gets seriously awesome. On Oct. 10, the Tumblr feed posted a picture of Trent Reznor in the editing room (image on left). Fans noticed that the web address in Trent’s browser was http://comesforthinthethaw.com/.  The only thing on the site (to this day) are images from the movie, music seemingly from the score, and the phrase “What is hidden in snow, comes forth in the thaw.”

Nine days later, the Tumblr feed posted “vintage” video from the original bridge car crash that played a prominent role in the book. Upon first look, the video was just that, but smart viewers realized it was actually a clue. The tags on YouTube were strange: ‘look closer,’ ‘WIHIS’ and ‘slash.’ They quickly connected WIHIS with the other half of the phrase from the above website and found the third website, http://whatishiddeninsnow.com/. Some genius was able to unlock that site by noticing that a license plate in the video clip read ‘glance’ backwards, and entered http://whatishiddeninsnow.com/backwardsglance in his browser. BINGO!

The clues lead a fan to find this prop from The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

That URL unlocked a new page that contained a picture of a rock, a countdown timer, a set of GPS coordinates in San Diego and the words “Do not enter with it. Stairs.” Unfortunately, the timer ran out on this one, but the next one — http://whatishiddeninsnow.com/lust — was successfully retrieved in San Diego, and the lucky fan walked away with a framed flower, a real replica from the film. The cherry on top? A signed note from David Fincher, “Congratulations. This is a unique item — the only one of its kind.”

Over the past month, fans have discovered more than 25 props from the film, including Lisbeth Salander’s motorcycle helmet.  There are still 13 items that have yet to be found, and this creative campaign has fans all over the country waiting for its next move.

If traditional marketing is more your thing, an eight-minute trailer was posted last week, and it’s amazing. Enjoy:

Courtesy of Shoot

Companies will be moving more of their marketing dollars into social media in the coming years. And social media are creating a whole new class of employees to manage and provide content for sites such as Facebook, Twitter and company-sponsored blogs.

Those are among the findings of a study on social media and marketing recently released by Booz & Co. along with Buddy Media. The study, based on input from 100 selected companies, highlights just how quickly and powerfully social media have elbowed their way into a prominent place in Corporate America’s marketing mix.

Consider these nuggets:

• Virtually every company (96%) has plans to spend more on social media; 40 percent plan to spend “substantially more.”
• The top investment in social media is hiring more full-time employees: community managers, content creators and editors, strategists and product or software developers. (Finally, a jobs program!)
• The money spent on social media will primarily be shifted from other forms of digital advertising, such as display ads. So if you hate ads on websites, rejoice – you may be seeing fewer of them.
• Although spending on social media is expected to rise dramatically, those surveyed said money is not the most important ingredient for success. Far more important, they agreed, are factors like the freedom to respond quickly; clearly communicated support for social media from upper management; and a corporate culture that encourages experimentation.

We’ve already seen an advertising revolution based on the shift from traditional print and broadcast to various forms of Web advertising. But another shift is under way, this time from traditional Web advertising to other forms of consumer engagement based on the creation of content.

In many ways, it’s not that baffling. Publishers have always generated revenue based on content. The reason the Star Tribune writes about the Vikings is because people care about that content, and the paper can sell ads based on that dynamic. Similarly, TV can sell ads on “American Idol” because people want to watch it.

In the digital world, it’s not much different. Advertising will flow to sites that people want to visit, and people decide where to visit based on whether a site’s content appeals to them.

But what the Booz study suggest is that marketers are becoming ever more sophisticated in how they interact with you online. Instead of blasting a flashing banner ad at you, they’re more likely to try to gain your affinity by engaging you in some kind of interaction – whether it be a game, a discussion, a chance to post photos or invite your friends to join in some amusing activity.

In the future, more of the content you read on the Web will have been created by someone working for a corporation that wants to develop a relationship with you in hopes that you’ll spend money with them.

This is John Reinan’s weekly marketing column for MinnPost.com.

The bias toward youth has long been part of the marketing business. The idea is that older people are set in their ways – less likely to try something new, and less likely to be influenced by marketing messages. Better to focus your marketing spend on the young and impressionable.

These days, however, marketers would be wise to pay more attention to boomers and beyond. Why? Because that’s where the money is. More than three-fourths of the nation’s household wealth is controlled by adults age 50 and above, and Americans in the 50-65 age group spend about 75 percent more each year than those aged 18-25. In addition, two-thirds of the boomers are expected to receive some sort of inheritance.

That’s the turf being worked by Jean Ketcham and C. Suzanne Bates, founders of Aging But Dangerous. Ketcham and Bates have built a business promoting events aimed at older women, such as colonoscopy parties and skydiving outings.

Their mantra is that older women are in the prime of life and ought to be prime targets for marketers.

On Thursday, Aging But Dangerous is staging its second annual “Dispelling the Myths of Age and Fashion Show,” featuring what Bates called a “kick-ass modeling squad” comprising nearly two dozen women aged 50 to 83. These power-packed sexagenarians and septuagenarians will bring “high-volume attitude and energy no mere kid could express,” Bates said.

As analytical tools become more sophisticated and the internet allows for real-time feedback on marketing campaigns, I expect marketers to become ever more skilled at slicing and dicing the American public into smaller, more focused niches.

But I’m with Bates on the big picture: the current crop of older Americans is more adventurous than ever, more willing to try new things. And with the financial power they hold, reaching out to them should be a no-brainer for marketers.