Hasta La Gadget!

The Super Bowl is a good two weeks behind us now, but the commercials are continuing to live on. We ended up rounding all of them up and showing all the ones that we liked the best, and it looks like the public shared some of our same thoughts. The 2013 YouTube Ad Blitz contest saw Dodge’s Ram Trucks “Farmer” ad take the top spot.

YouTube users voted on their favorite Super Bowl advertisement for the past two weeks, and it’s not too surprising that Dodge won the crown. Their ad was a bold step towards originality, using strictly photos and a voice-over from the late Paul Harvey, who was a famous radio broadcaster for over a half-century. While the ad may not have been comical or fast-paced, it tugged at the heart strings for many viewers.

Rounding out the top five Super Bowl ads on YouTube include Budweiser’s “Clydesdales” ad, Samsung’s “The Next Best Thing” featuring Paul Rudd and Seth Rogen, Jeep’s “Whole Again” ad, and Hyundai’s “Team” ad. All five of these adds have a combined 62.7 million views as of this writing, with the most being Samsung’s ad with 21.3 million views.

In total, these five ads made up more than 30% of all total views of Super Bowl ads and teasers on YouTube. Plus, the Ad Blitz channel itself had over 46 million interactions. To celebrate the end of Ad Blitz, YouTube is hosting a Google+ Hangout later today at 3 pm ET where they will chat with the “creative heavyweights behind these winning ads, along with ADWEEK editors James Cooper and Tim Nudd.”

Dodge Ram “Farmer” ad wins best Super Bowl ad on YouTube is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

David Eun, presently serving as EVP at Samsung’s Open Innovation Center after stints at AOL, Google, Time Warner and NBC Entertainment, just took the stage here in Dana Point, California during the opening night of D:Dive Into Media 2013. Given the media / content focus of the event, the conversation between Eun and host Kara Swisher revolved almost entirely around Samsung’s role in the world of content, production, connectedness and distribution. Starting things off with a bang, he affirmed that Samsung is opening two new Innovation Centers that’ll act as idea accelerators. In a way, this is Samsung getting into the funding game, which certainly adds a new twist to an industry that has largely been dominated by angels that aren’t necessarily a part of a major corporation.

Initially, one will be opening up in the Bay Area, while the other gets planted at an undisclosed location in New York City. Eun noted that in the past, Samsung was “focused on manufacturing hardware,” but it realized some time ago that you “have to get both hardware and software right.” He stated that the company as a whole has been “investing quite significantly over the past few years on software,” and turning to how it impacts content, he explained an internal company process that aims to gather insight about consumers. Not necessarily in the creepy, privacy-invading kind of insight, but in the way of discovering what consumers want, but don’t yet have in the marketplace.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Samsung

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The Nexus 4 made its first primetime television appearance last night during the Grammy Awards. However, it actually wasn’t at the awards ceremony, but rather as an advertisement during a commercial break. The ad is pretty basic, and it goes over some of the cool features of Google Now, like weather updates, directions, and even language translation.

Google‘s focus on Google Now is a strong indicator that they’re looking to take on Apple’s Siri technology on the iPhone, and are wanting to win the affection of diehard Siri users. The ad itself doesn’t go into a lot of detail on the Nexus 4 — actually, there’s zero details given on the new handset, other than the fact that is has Google Now on board.

This makes for an interesting way to promote a smartphone. While many companies tout the specs and numerous features of a device, Google has been focusing on one single feature that takes the spotlight, and most recently it’s been Google Now. In the one-minute ad, you can see Google Now Google Now doing a whole host of things, like checking the weather, finding a restaurant, and setting up a Google+ Hangout.

Google definitely wants its ads to communicate with its viewers in a personal way, and they show off some of the things you can do with their devices in an everyday situation. Gone are the days of flashy commercials with smartphones doing flip tricks while a dubstep track plays in the background. At least we wish those days were gone.

First primetime Nexus 4 ad shows off Google Now in action is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

You see free Wi-Fi stations all over the place these days, but when was the last time you saw a free ‘No Wi-Fi’ zone? Probably never, if you haven’t been down to Amsterdam lately. Instead of offering free Wi-Fi for bystanders and on-the-go passersby, Kit Kat’s station blocks all sorts of wireless signals instead.

If you’re the type who spends every waking moment on Facebook or Twitter, then you should make your way to this no Wi-Fi zone once in a while and take a break from all that madness of the online world. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to stay connected, but if you stop living in the real world and begin to ‘live’ more online, then you’ve got a problem.

Kit Kat’s ‘No Wi-Fi’ campaign was thought up by advertising agency JWT Amsterdam and was designed by Kyoko Takeshita.

[via Pop Up City]

If you’ve ever been creeped out by those targeted ads on Facebook, they’re about to be a touch easier to spot. The social network has agreed with the Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program to start displaying the “AdChoice” icon (the image above) in behaviorally targeted Facebook Exchange (FBX) ads, but only when users roll over a gray “x” above the ad. Not only will this let them know the ad is marketed to them based on browser behavior, but it’ll let them opt out of that specific ad network. Facebook’ll also replace the “Report this ad” hover text with a more descriptive phrase like “Learn about Facebook Ads.”

However, it’s unclear if this is in complete compliance with the Federal Trade Commission guidelines for “clear and prominent notice” since the ads still require user interaction to reveal their targeted nature. In an emailed statement from Facebook, Chief Privacy Officer Erin Egan said: “At Facebook, we work hard to build transparency and control into each of our products, including our advertising offerings.” Whether you agree with that or not, you’ll start seeing the AdChoice implementation in desktop FBX ads at the end of March.

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Via: Ad Age, Ars Technica

Source: Advertising Self-Regulatory Council (PDF), ASRC Reviews