Willis' Bag

My Favorite TV Commercials of '09

2009 is long gone by the wayside now, but my mind and memory till always reels around 'My Top 5 TV Commercials’ of the year, which is a matter I do not take lightly, and frankly obsess over, so here you go...

#5 - Nike’s Xmas Basketball Puppet Throwdown between the reindeer, Lebron and Kobe puppets was a tour-de-force in product targeting terms and along generational lines just like a Lebron dunk. It speaks to a broad and global adolescent urban market segment, which by-the-way is huge in population size, but that might be into basketball or just wants to look cool in a pair of Nike's, like a Sneakerhead. The commercials rap soundtrack was cleverly peppered with a seasonal baseline under “Jingle Bells” that helped to develop the storyline andbuild-up to the basketball game. But, the key feature about this spot and other Lebron/Kobe puppet spots is that any adolescent, pre-teen, or even teen market segment are not so far removed from watching Sesame Street that they jus might likely still pay attention to what some cuddly puppets might have to say or do. OK, maybe some Ole G’s too.

#4 - The Marine Corp “Black History Month” spot that I'm thinking premiered during one of the Friday night NBA games televised on ESPN during February of 2009. I found the combination of images and messaging exquisitely put together integrating both historical vignettes of the WWII with more recent footage of African American flag officers, astronauts, etc. As a cultural pride piece, the execution was flawless in connecting past, present, and most importantly imparting a feeling of welcome and tradition on the next generation of Marine Corp leaders. The spot comes full-circle with the over-arching Marine Corp advertising theme and message that says - 'you too can be one of us' - the few, the proud, the marines'.

#3 - McDonald’s Cafe' spot picks-up on the urban café scene with McDonald’s launch of various flavored coffees. It also serves as a take-off on the spoken word and poetry scene, and opens with an MC, audience, and Dewele singing. Based on some of the findings from Urban Radio: The Power Unlocked! the use of the Neo Soul musical genre was a clever way to resonate with the psychographics, demographics, and musical tastes of what we found in the research to be a younger, more educated and up-and-coming urban market segment. What's more, this younger intelligentsia segment has largely re-pioneered the urban coffee and poetry scene that was more prevalent back in the 1950's with the Beat Generation and 1960’s with the Black Power Movement.

Targeting this new urban city set, the urban intelligentsia with Neo Soul crowd was a good example of identifying and literally playing to an important trendsetting group while launching a new product or service line. Whether McDonald’s café coffee will pull them away from their urban coffee houses and Starbucks is still unknown, but someone really did their homework or maybe just followed their gut – spot-on!

Next time - our #1 and #2. What's are your favorites?