Ah, the complex olfactory bouquet of the urban bus shelter. Trying to identify individual odors within such dense scent tapestries can be difficult, and most disturbing. That's not the case, however, at some locations in British cities like London and Manchester, where McCain Foods is installing 3-D ad panels that emit the aroma of freshly baked potatoes at the push of a button. Check out the picture. That "potato" looks like a big buttocks to me, but who am I to argue if those barmy Brits want to cop a feel or smear on some sour cream and chives? (Don't be so provincial, people!) McCain says "a hidden heating element gently warms the potato," so I suppose we'll soon be reading about one of those bus stops catching fire and roasting a few soul-crushed commuters in their own jackets. Actually, I kind of like the concept. And while we've seen some things like this in America, we could use more of it. That way, when I'm waiting for the bus and someone asks, "What's that weird smell?" for once I can honestly answer, "Not me!"

They didn't have "memes" in Don Draper's day, but they drank and smoked 24/7 and perfected the use of pomade in social settings, so it was basically a better world. Anyway, kudos to the folks who've done such a great job tagging NYC subway posters for the March 25 return of Mad Men on AMC for its fifth season. I guess the posters qualify as "interactive advertising," with all that white space inviting people to show off their creativity by placing the "falling man" silhouette in unexpectedly kooky situations. They didn't have interactive advertising in Draper's day either, but they got into kooky situations with gals from the typing pool all the time. Variations on the meme (some from subway cards, others created online) include "Little Draper" bouncing on a playground trampoline, about to be swallowed by Cookie Monster and heading for a shapely female derriere. (Guess which one Little Draper prefers?) Flip the silhouette upside-down, and he doesn't seem to be falling anymore. In fact, it looks like he's running—hauling ass as fast as he can. Fleeing the ad biz with what's left of his sanity? Via Laughing Squid.

By David Schwab, Octagon First Call
The New York Giants won Sunday's Super Bowl, but which individual players scored in the marketing playbook? Let's look at five who did themselves proud.

—Marketing winners
• Eli Manning. Eli is now on a short list of two-time Super Bowl MVPs. He already has partnerships with Toyota (in New York), Reebok, Citizen Watches, DirecTV, Gatorade and Oreos. He'll make immediate money from this victory, as corporate programs often have bonus clauses for Super Bowl wins and MVP awards. Same goes for his memorabilia/autograph programs. He will have plenty of corporate/hospitality appearances over the off season if he is interested in doing them. His success in the game will be more impactful for his place in history than for national advertising programs.
• Victor Cruz. Victor scored the first touchdown of the game for the G-Men. He has made headlines with his on-the-field performance and his signature "salsa" touchdown dance. Because of his Puerto Rican roots, he could become a central person in the NFL's Hispanic efforts—which would open many corporate doors. He'll be considered on the short list of brands needing a non-quarterback playmaker for football programs. I am sure there are brands already brainstorming dancing- and salsa-related ideas (He was already offered and passed up a place on Dancing With the Stars.)
• Justin Tuck. He was the standout from the defensive unit with the first-play safety and last-drive sack on Tom Brady. He is already used by Subway in the marketing efforts (appeared in a USA Today ad for the chain this past Friday). Tuck has an endearing personality and runs R.U.S.H. for Literacy, a charity that encourages children to read, understand, succeed and hope. I would expect the Giants' marketing partners to consider using him more in the upcoming season.
• Mark Herzlich. Interesting one here. Mark was inactive for the Super Bowl and didn't suit up. The cancer-surviving (rare form of bone cancer) rookie Giants linebacker was undrafted out of Boston College and made the team this past year. He already does marketing work for Gatorade and Saucony's "Find Your Strong" campaign. Because he doesn't play regularly, he will not appear in football-specific programs but will considered for motivational/inspiration programs. There is a big speaker circuit world out there for him if he chooses to pursue it.
• Mario Manningham. The incredible catch on the game-winning drive will go down in Giants and Super Bowl history. It won't win him any marketing campaigns, but it will increase his hospitality appearances and autograph signings in the future.

—Missed opportunities
Unlike games where there are obvious marketing losers, I don't see that here. I do feel Rob Gronkowski had a lot to gain which will remain unfulfilled. He had an unbelievable season and will be a marketable TE in the future. But he had the ability to fast-track his appeal through a big game on Sunday (especially with the injury story line).

—David Schwab is the managing director of Octagon First Call, Octagon's celebrity acquisition and engagement division. He analyzes the value of spokespeople for brands; leading the recommendation, contract negotiations and management of the celebrity-portion of the campaigns. Follow him on Twitter: @david_schwab.

Doritos is getting used to shelling out money to the amateurs in its Crash the Super Bowl contest. Last year, J.R. Burningham won $1 million after his "Pug Attack" topped the USA Today Ad Meter. This year, not one but two Doritos directors will each pocket $1 million—following USA Today's decision to split the Ad Meter into two separate rankings. Jonathan Friedman of Virginia Beach, Va., wins $1 million for his "Man's Best Friend" spot, which was the favorite of the traditional Ad Meter panel of 286 adult volunteers on Sunday night. And Kevin Willson of West Los Angeles wins $1 million for "Sling Baby," which won the Ad Meter's broader social-media vote, which wrapped up on Tuesday. Wilson, a 34-year-old former special education teacher, entered the contest twice before. "In high school I'd get out of doing papers by asking if I could do videos instead," he tells USA Today. "I was one of those weird kids in high school who figured out that I wanted to make videos for the rest of my life." Now, he'll have a chance to upgrade his workspace, at least, after working mostly in his garage. "It's freezing in there in the winter, and it's dusty," he says. "It's not a great working environment."

Show. Don’t tell. It’s an age old maxim in this business, and one that 180LA has taken to heart for their Mitsubishi Motors client. And it’s working — the brand’s market share has almost doubled year-to-date with significant monthly sales increases every month, since 180LA took on the business 19 months ago.

For this new “Ride the Storm” spot, the 180LA team chased a storm from LA to Kansas with the expert help of Weather Underground. The film was shot documentary-style with Directors Emmett and Brendan Malloy, two brothers who say chasing unpredictable parts of nature is a big part of their filmmaking process. A member of Mitsubishi’s social media team went along for the ride, tweeting and posting their whereabouts.

Gavin Milner, CD for 180LA, says “The team hit on a beautifully simple premise that elevated our message above all the scary winter season driving noise: with Mitsubishi’s all-wheel control technology.”

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As always, music will be a big part of Super Bowl XLVI. Madonna is doing the halftime show, of course, and musicians will appear in a number of ads—from Elton John and Melanie Amaro for Pepsi, to Mötley Crüe for Kia, to the Pussycat Dolls for Go Daddy. Our sister magazine Billboard is keeping tabs on the night's music, so check out their collection of stories: Super Bowl XLVI: The Music Behind the Big Game.

In case you haven’t heard, last night TechCrunch announced that Pinterest hit 11.7 million UMVs, becoming the fastest standalone site ever to surpass 10 million monthly uniques.

The #1 driver of consumer purchases is word of mouth recommendations from friends, and Pinterest holds the power to drive authentic “word of eye” recommendations in a way that is changing the landscape of social commerce.

How? The landing page for Pinterest is an endless visual stream of subtle product recommendations from the very people who influence your purchasing decisions - friends and strangers with good taste. This means that there is an endless opportunity for your brand and its products to be seen by Pinterest’s 11.7 million unique monthly users as endorsements from friends in the form of repins.

Currently availably stats show the average Pinterest user spends 98 minutes per month on the site, compared to 2.5 hours on Tumblr, and 7 hours on Facebook. Pinterest is most popular in North Eastern states, among females (estimates range from 58% to 70% female), and with people ages 25-44 (59% of visitors).

How it Works

In case you haven’t already joined the millions of others pinning products, here’s a quick overview of how Pinterest works: Pinterest enables users to “pin” images found around the Web into categorized collections, or boards. Think of it like an interactive, shareable scrapbook. Or as I like to say, it’s your virtual high school locker. Pinterest can capture the brand essence, personality, inspiration for product design, or company culture through visual boards. It could also be used to organically grow your brand’s reach through an influencer re-pinning strategy, to further engage with fans through themed boards, and to inspire consumers to action, perhaps through a “best board” or a “most pins” contest.

Why People Love It

“It’s lovely from a visual perspective,” says my colleague (and Pinterest addict) Sophia Aladenoye. Apart from Pinterest’s tactile and user-friendly experience, it helps people make visual mental notes of a life they aspire to, like a vision board. “Pinterest is personally helping me with my 2012 vision board exercises… helping me to more easily remember the images that represent my goals, wants or benchmarks for 2012,” say Sophia. Others claim that the site is helping them to “de-stress,” to plan their wedding, or help redecorate their home. And some say they honestly just like the fact that is invite-only and feels exclusive (or perhaps felt exclusive before its recent boost). Men are also jumping on the Pinterest bandwagon - my friend and colleague Maury posts vintage cars, and Grassroots Modern blogger Creede Fitch posts photos of modern furniture designs he finds inspiring.

How Brands Can Leverage Pinterest

1) Create a new social commerce touch point

With 11.7 million UMVs and counting, Pinterest presents an opportunity for brands to expand their audiences by going where the masses are. Consumers are always a step ahead of brands and its important for brands to follow behavior rather than dictate it. Your brand’s presence on Pinterest will create another consumer touch point and a way to be discovered by new people. The visual Pinterest boards would help invite new people into the fabric of your brand by setting a mood or encapsulating a lifestyle, helping users to imagine how your brand’s products, services or culture fit their lives.

2) Grow influencer networks

Brands can leverage Pinterest to find influencers with whom to engage. You can expand your influencer networks by following influential Pinterest users and boards, and repinning items to our own Pinterest boards, giving credit to the influencer. Brands may also choose to engage with influential bloggers and have them curate a board on their Pinterest page.

3) Identify and engage super fans

Pinterest may also be a way to identify natural brand advocates or “super fans.” You can search for your brand’s products and discover who is most frequently pinning about your products and engage with those people. Surprise and delight super fans by rewarding them with products they pin to their boards. Eventually you may create a fan-curated board that allows super fans to add their pins.

4) Increase brand loyalty by sharing your brand’s culture

Pinterest is a fun, inspirational and highly visual atmosphere and your brand has an opportunity to engage fans in new and creative ways. Consider creating boards that align with product or service themes, for example, West Elm categorizes its boards by colors from its design palette, such as “Aquamarine.” Or create a board that reflects your company’s dedication to a CSR initiative. Or, compile pictures of everyday fans and influencers engaging with your brand, such as a board that features pins of people across the globe wearing a retail brand’s clothing.

5) Host contests for further engagement

Perhaps you can host a contest for fans to create the best Pinterest board with your products, and reward the winning fan with items from her board. Or, invite other users to co-create boards on your page around certain themes, and reward the winning team with product or a brand experience. For example, a travel brand can ask Pinners to create mood boards that reflect a destination like the French Riviera, and then reward the winning board with a trip.

7) Inspire repins (and purchases) through bold visuals

As mentioned earlier, the #1 driver of consumer purchases is word of mouth recommendations from friends, and Pinterest holds the power to drive authentic “word of eye” recommendations through a repin endorsement. To accomplish this, you’ll want to make sure that you have high resolution, professional quality, close-up photos to leverage. Photos of products should be taken in a way that enables the viewer to imagine herself wearing the product, engaging with an item, or taking part in the setting. Photos should taken in a way that makes them stand out in the visual stream that is Pinterest. For example, a bold-colored photo or a gray-scale photo might set itself apart from the photo stream.

Promote your culture first, products and services second

The trick with Pinterest is to leverage the “soft sell” and promote your brand culture over the products or services themselves. Pinterest is committed to maintaining a non-promotional atmosphere, and the hard sell could get you kicked off the platform. So to create the right atmosphere, think about what your brand has to offer and what the images say to people and what you want to ask, for example:

• A tech brand: “Do you like innovation? We’re innovative too, and here’s a photo of our developers making our first-ever app for iPhone.”

• A fashion brand: “Do you like bold, basic colors? We love everything bright and bold, and this painting by Matisse captures our upcoming line’s color scheme.”

• A home furnishings brand: “Do you enjoy a clutter-free living space? So do we, and here are three books we love that talk about a clutter-free home.”

• A credit card company or bank: “Do you imagine yourself living a lifestyle of luxury? Here’s a picture from the beach in the Virgin Islands where you could be right now.”

Through play and inspiration, Pinterest might just empower you to become the architect of your brand’s culture.

What do you think about Pinterest for brands? Do you think users will stay engaged once brands join?

Special thanks to Chris Heydt and Sophia Aladenoye of Ogilvy for their contributions.

Online film magazine Notebook's picks for the best movie posters of 2011 make for an interesting list. Most of them are for movies I've never heard of, but that's due to the international focus more than pretentiousness, I think. Chris Ware's poster for Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (full image after the jump) tops the list. Melancholia's poster is boring, but Burning Man is really neat. And Super has a Burnt Face Man feel to it that I like. And while I wasn't a huge fan of the Drive poster, it is refreshing to see a picture of Ryan Gosling without that "hey girl" crap all over it. Via Kottke.

“Medical assistance for travellers.”

Agency: TBWA, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Chief Creative Officers: Juan Cruz Bazterrica, Guillermo Castañeda
Copywriter: Emilio Pastore
Art Director: Cecilia Astengo
Photographer: Blumencweig-Benitez Fotografia

Over the past year or so I’m sure you’ve seen dozen of social media related infographic. Most of them are pretty interesting and certainly very nicely done. But probably none of those is as beautiful and, I would say, intense, as this project by Colin Pinegar. Colin “audited” his Facebook friends and visually mapped out his relationships. He asked himself questions ranging from personal (do I know this person’s phone number?) to generic (can I recognize this person by their name alone?) and assigned each of his cyber-friends a score ranging from 1-25 (those that scored less than 1 were de-friended). Each score was then plotted on a color spectrum. He then made a wax bust of himself for each person in the color that corresponded to their score, purple being assigned the the most intimate friends with whom he interacts in person.

via Fast.Co

There’s no doubt that Gerry Graf, now head of Barton F. Graf 9000, has done, or overseen, a lot of great TV commercials in his career. Here’s just one:

On FastCoCreates, a project of Fast Company magazine, Graf shares the ingredients of a great commercial. Here’s the part that caught my eye, as Graf describes “The Ideal Team”:

Account people: no one who has a vested interest in making sure the client is happy. I don’t want anything to do with people who think they work for the client. Many account people get their bonuses based on how clients rate them. If your salary is based on keeping a client happy you don’t fight for work. Everyone on the agency side should have one goal–make the best work.

I get where he’s coming from, but I’ve never worked in an agency where that was the way things worked. Don’t we all have some sort of vested interest in making sure our clients are happy? That doesn’t mean saying “yes” to every whim, but I’ve never met an AE who didn’t, at the end of the day, want happy clients, or at least ones who were pleased with the work.

Have you worked in an agency with AEs the way Graf describes them? I have seen the opposite side of the spectrum: I did interview once at a rather large agency that still paid Account Directors partly on commission based on quantity of work sold, and have seen plenty other agencies where AEs had client revenue numbers they needed to meet to keep their jobs. But I don’t think I’ve seen such a seemingly adversarial setup as he describes. Or frankly, a place where everyone, creatives and AEs (and everyone in between), agreed on what “make the best work” actually meant.

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Old Milwaukee rolled out a new TV commercial starring comedian Will Ferrell during the Super Bowl. You probably didn’t see it though, as it only ran in one place–the country’s second-smallest TV market, North Platte, Neb.

According to BusinessWeek, despite its tiny TV audience, the Old Milwaukee ad managed to outperform some of the nationally broadcast Super Bowl commercials in an increasingly important metric of Super Bowl advertising bragging rights: chatter on social-media networks.

On Sunday night, a user named Daddymcc uploaded a low-quality copy of the Ferrell commercial onto YouTube, which was subsequently linked to by Old Milwaukee’s official Facebook page. At this time, the video has been viewed 564,154 times.

What this says to me is that TV may be the source material that social media users spread, but the choice to spread one item over another is not determined by quality storytelling or production. Online, quirkiness is awarded. Hence, the popularity of cat photos and videos.

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The other day, Gary Vaynerchuk predicted that Super Bowl advertisers would extend the story told in their Super Bowl ads to online venues, and that these extensions would have us talking on Monday morning.

Didn’t happen (except in a few rare exceptions). In fact, if you look at the Toyota Camry spot, to name just one, it ends with the point that all Camry drivers have stories to tell. Yet, there’s no pointer for the viewer to follow, no place to hear more Camry-centric stories, or to tell them. Granted, there is a Toyota.com graphic at the end of the spot, but that’s hardly the “force ‘em online” that Vaynerchuk had in mind.

Which says what? Does it say that when it comes to Super Bowl advertising, it really is all about the TV audience, and the nerds with second and third screens can buzz off? I think it might.

In related news, Bob Hoffman is very disheartened by what he saw on Sunday.

This could be a turning point. It could be the year that the ad industry throws in the towel, admits it is bankrupt, and hands the keys over to the metrics maniacs.

I am afraid the advertising industry has been infiltrated by people who don’t really believe in advertising, don’t care much for it, and are not very good at it.

I feel Bob’s pain, but there will be no admission of defeat from industry spokespersons. The industry will continue to respond to clients’ whims, and to trends in media (like consumer-generated spots). What very few in the ad business will successfully do is lead. There’s reactive and proactive, and the ad business is the former, because we are all in client service.

Only a handful of agencies have ever shifted to a proactive stance, but even those masters have retreated, and begun to recycle their old spots, instead of driving hard to find a new way to do TV and a new way to make meaning in consumers’ minds.

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These three new Geico ads from The Martin Agency are cute, but all of them have their glaring logical flaws. The couple who save money by getting the rescue panther instead of the pricey home security system surely spent more on exotic pet licenses and shots, and plus they're now at risk of being eaten in their sleep (if they ever fall asleep). Ronald the karaoke-dating guy, intimidated by costly matchmaking sites, could sign up for OkCupid, which is free. And let's not even talk about the bevy of problems that come with a grown man hiring middle-school girls to follow him around. Insurance won't be much good when the cops show up. Geico also has a new Maxwell the Pig spot out. Says the YouTube description: "In his quest for the most extreme thrill, Maxwell tries out the street luge and cries wee wee wee all the way home. Well, or until he gets to a really big hill. Or crashes." Three more spots, including that one, after the jump.

Pinterest is the hottest thing in social content curation right now and has been billed as one of the top web properties in 2012, even though it still remains invite only. If you want an invite, leave a comment at the end of the article with your email and we’ll invite as many as we can!

So what is Pinterest? It’s a visual curation site where you can create boards for the things that interest you. And those boards, probably say more about what you’re really interested in than any other site. For business, recent research has shown that Pinterest is driving more traffic than Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn combined! For the more visual brands out there, it’s another network to make sure they are a part of but there are clear traffic driving benefits. Brands like GAP, Whole Foods, Threadless and even General Electric are leading the way so far. It’s the greatest indication yet that the social graph is morphing in to the interest graph. A picture is worth a thousand words, right? Check out the infographic below for more and let us know what you think. Have you tried it out yet? You can follow me on Pinterest here.

The $3.5 million Super Bowl ads have all come and gone, and the conversations - supercharged by social media - are in full swing. Or are they?

To 3D or not to 3D. That is the question. Agencies and brands alike continue to second-guess this ever-growing technology as though it was the new Betamax of the digital age. Is it really worth the production complexity and added expense?

Public service advertising has been around for a long time. But there’s a new kind of public service advertising today, which should not to be confused with the pro-bono work agencies do for charities. No, this new service work is done by brands to directly benefit a community. It might be Tide helping people do laundry after a hurricane or tornado. In this case it’s a candy maker, helping to fund a hockey rink.

Last year, New Brunswick island Grand Manan got what every small Canadian town dreams of – its own ice hockey rink. And this winter the makers of MARS partnered with Hockey Canada to lend a helping hand by adding in a heated mezzanine.

BBDO Toronto Associate Creative Directors Jaimes Zentil and Craig McIntosh developed the concept and script, and were drawn to Grand Manan by the island’s unique culture and close-knit community. To bring the story to life, Emmy award-winning director Doug Pray and Holiday Films were brought on board to shoot a 30-second commercial and five-minute web film.

“I was attracted to the script because it was real,” comments Pray, who won international acclaim for his 2009 documentary Art & Copy. “Mars Canada Inc. really did make an important donation to the community and the community really did appreciate it.”

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Actress Minka Kelly and fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg have teamed up with Diet Coke and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute for the organization's The Heart Truth campaign.

Oh the honesty of children. Here we have eight year old Arturo giving his take on this year's Super Bowl commercials on behalf of Salt Lake City-based Crowell Advertising.