INSPIRATION, VB&P STYLE.

Paul Venables was recently asked by Fast Company’s 30 Second MBA how he inspires employees. Instead of using the allotted 30 seconds, Paul provided a three word answer. See it here.

AND THE GOLD GOES TO…..

In an article on the best of this year’s Olympics advertising, New York Times Advertising Columnist Stuart Elliott gave our Audi spot “Spell” a gold medal, praising it for the fact that it “cleverly spoofed status-seeking.” Watch it here.

THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON VIZIO.

Sands Research, a leading neuromarketing firm, measured brain activity in correlation with synchronized eye-tracking of all sixty-three Super Bowl commercials to determine actual viewer engagement. VB&P’s VIZIO “Forge” spot was named the second most effective commercial. You can even see the ad alongside a brain scan to see how the content of the commercial affects the central nervous system. Check it out. Your brain will love it.

WE’RE CRACK DEALERS.

In a post about our new Intel “Generations” TV spot, popular ad blog, Agency Spy writes, “This ad makes two campaigns from Venables Bell & Partners that I like. They’re crack dealers over there. The first campaign was a pair of Audi-is-better-than-everyone ads which we showed you last week. By the way those spots have a combined total 70,000+ views on YouTube and a lot of commentary. Who says TV is dead?”

Thanks, Agency Spy. We’re blushing over here.

THE MAYOR GIVES US THE THUMBS UP.

If you missed our Super Bowl commercial for Audi, then you are practically the only one. Green Car, which aired in the 4th quarter of Super Bowl XLIV, was the second most viewed commercial during the Super Bowl with 115.6 MM viewers (that’s 231.2 MM eyes) making it the second most watched commercial in U.S. history. There were several car companies vying for attention during the big game, but Audi rose to the top, ranking 6th in the USA Today Ad Meter and 1st in the Wall Street Journal poll. People weren’t only watching, they were also talking. “Audi Wins the Super Bowl,” was the title of a piece written by CNET, while Advertising Age ranked us as one of the best spots of the game and wrote, “Very funny for all the obvious reasons.” Edmunds.com posted, “Audi ‘Green Police’ Slays in Super Bowl Ad Wars.” And yes, our very own mayor Gavin Newsom tweeted, “Ok. . .That green police Audi commercial hits home. . .” In the end, Audi gained 1 billion media impressions, including coverage of the spots on The Today Show, CNBC, and The CBS Early Show.

THE BUZZ AROUND VB&P’S VIRTUAL WATER COOLER.

Today, Venables Bell & Partners launched its Twitter Cooler MMX to house a virtual office environment that data visualizes the online conversations happening around our Super Bowl ads for VIZIO, Intel and Audi.

Say what you will about the death of the TV spot — the Super Bowl is still the biggest stage for brands to reach a mass audience, reaching 100 million consumers. And, the life of an ad won’t stop on Sunday. VB&P found that 41% of Super Bowl watchers plan to re-watch their favorite ads online and that Americans are just as likely to discuss ads as they are plays after the game.

“A Super Bowl spot is a pretty important marketing asset, but perhaps what’s more valuable is the amount of chatter and buzz that spot creates online. So, today, we’re unleashing a virtual water cooler – a data visualizer to track the conversations our three Super Bowl spots ignite,” said Paul Venables, founder and creative director, VB&P.

The Twitter Cooler is an extension of a project VB&P created last year to track the online chatter around its 2009 Super Bowl spot for Audi. The Twitter Cooler MMX builds on the idea but replaces the simple infographic approach with a retro videogame-styled office environment and pixel avatars to represent tweets related to the three, different Super Bowl spots it made for Audi, Intel and VIZIO. The visualizer tracks twitter messages from a week before the Super Bowl to a week after, and displays them in a time-lapse animation that the user can also control manually.

MEN ARE FROM MARS, WOMEN ARE FROM VENUS.

Except when it comes to Super Bowl advertising. VB&P has found even though women (48%) are more likely than men (29%) to discuss their favorite ads after the Super Bowl, the sexes have a lot in common when it comes to brand memorability, preference and purchasing habits after the game. The study is part of a survey we did with 1,000 Americans to better understand the pulse of consumers on the economy, social networking and preferences according to gender, coming into this year’s Super Bowl.

Men (81%) and women (91%) both report that humor makes an ad more memorable, so it should come as no surprise that both sexes chose Budweiser as their favorite advertiser from last year’s game, with Doritos, Pepsi, E*trade and Bud Light all ranking high on their lists. In a split of the sexes, the majority of men (34%) admitted they were more likely to remember an ad if it had an attractive person in it, whereas the majority of women (51%) were more likely to remember ads with cute animals.

Men report they’re more interested in the game than women are, but the next day they are the ones who will be more likely to rewatch their favorite ads online (45% of men vs. 37% of women). However, women (34%) were more likely than men (27%) to pass along those favorite ads on popular social networking site Facebook.

When it comes to purchasing habits, women (75%) are only slightly more likely than men (71%) to buy a product after seeing it advertised during the game, despite men being more optimistic about the economy and feeling more strongly that spending ad dollars in a recession is responsible.

If there’s one thing the sexes agree exactly on, it’s what brands they would like to see in this year’s game that didn’t advertise last year. McDonald’s, Google and Apple are the brands Americans would like to see in the 2010 Super Bowl spotlight. Men and women ranked these three the highest on their list in this exact order, picked from Interbrand’s list of “Best Global Brands.”

For more information on the study or to schedule an interview with Lucy Farey-Jones, Partner and Head of Strategy, Venables Bell & Partners, please contact Meredith Vellines at meredith.vellines@venablesbell.com.

A TOP 10 AGENCY. AND FEISTY TOO.

Today, Ad Age named VB&P one of the top 10 agencies in the country for showing what they described as “moxie, innovation and effectiveness” in 2009. Our 23% revenue growth and ability to deliver standout work that generated results for clients across a variety of tough categories were key ingredients to getting us on the list. “Spend a little time with folks from Venables, and you’ll find that feistiness is a theme,” Rupal Parekh of Ad Age writes. We’ll take it. See the full article here.

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER.

The Meth Project unleashes its most powerful weapon: the kids of Montana. Directed by three-time Academy Award-nominated cinematographer Wally Pfister of Independent Media, the spots urge kids to speak up at a critical moment and help keep their friends away from meth. The ads show teens reflecting on the consequences of standing by while their friends spiraled into addiction. The spots have been hailed as VB&P’s most powerful work to date by none other than Barbara Lippert at Adweek, who named “Ben” as her “Spot of the Day.” Check out the latest round of what she calls “advertising that actually alleviates human suffering.” View all the spots here.

THE AFTERLIFE OF A SUPER BOWL AD.

Almost half (41%) of Super Bowl watchers will rewatch this year’s ads online, according to our agency’s survey of how Americans plan to interact with Super Bowl ads. This technology survey follows a prior study by VB&P that found Americans are just as likely to discuss ads as they are plays the Monday after the Super Bowl.

YouTube will be the online destination of choice for those who want to relive the Super Bowl’s advertising glory, over Google, Yahoo!, AOL, and USAToday’s popular Ad Meter site. 26% of those online watchers expect to pass along their favorite ads via e-mail or social networking sites. The majority (31%) will use Facebook to share their top picks over sending links of the spots to friends via YouTube, Twitter or LinkedIn.

Though Facebook was the preferred medium for sharing ads across all age groups, women (34%) were more likely to share their ad on the popular social networking site than men (27%). Men were more likely to rewatch the ads broadcast online and use Twitter over women.

Super Bowl watchers will also be busy communicating online while watching the game. With over half of respondents reporting they will have the ability to surf the Web during the actual broadcast, 44% plan to engage in some sort of technology communication tool (text messaging, search, Twitter, Facebook, blogging, IM, talking on the phone). Of those multitaskers, 20% plan to text message and 15% will either talk on the phone, e-mail or Facebook.

For more information on the study or to schedule an interview with Lucy Farey-Jones, Partner and Head of Strategy, Venables Bell & Partners, please contact Meredith Vellines at meredith.vellines@venablesbell.com.