Groundhog Day, Super Bowl 45, Hair Transplant Contest, Quit Facebook, Valentines Day: What your business can learn from oversized rodents and football players

Posted by Salem Global on Feb 4, 2011

Well, its that time of the year again. Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell Day. I mean Groundhog Day. I mean one of my all time favorite movies days. The day where if a groundhog leaves its burrow and sees its shadow, it retreats back into its burrow signifying another six weeks of winter. Well guess what folks. Its been raining, snowing, sleeting, freezing, cloudy, overcast and no sign of the sun anywhere except maybe Florida for the snowbirds. So the whole idea of an early spring is just plain insane in the membrane. But according to legend, since it didn’t see its shadow today, expect an early spring. Crazy – right?

Well, the reason why I love that movie and why I write about it year after year (I can’t find my old posts) is because its a movie about hope and perseverance and positive attitude and despair, and love and people and it will make you laugh and cry and feel good and self improvement and 2nd chances and 3rd chances and I could go on but there are lots of other things I want to write about. So my message here is see the movie regardless of your personal or professional life and where you are. You can apply the message to anything, anyone, anywhere, anytime, and anyhow.

Now as I understand it, this Sunday is Super Bowl Sunday. What’s that you ask? Ha ha. Its only the biggest game in the country. American football rocks this coming Sunday February 6, 2011, at Cowboys Stadium located in North Arlington, Texas. The American Football Conference Champion Pittsburgh Steelers will battle the National Football Conference Champion Green Bay Packers in what promises to be one of the most exciting football match ups in recent years. But as you know, I am all about the commercials. Here is a sneak peak of what I could find so far on Youtube:

<disclaimer> I don’t drink soda. I think its terrible for you, your teeth, your heart, your gums, your stomach – shall I go on? I also think that if it has no calories its even worse for you. But as a self-proclaimed advertising maven, I still can spot the good commercial that is worth spending $3 million dollars at the super bowl.

Doritos Pepsi Max is running the same campaign that everyone should be running. User generated content. Duh! Here you can see people making fun of themselves and having fun: http://www.youtube.com/user/2011DoritoCommercial at Walmart and everywhere else in the world. Here are some finalists:
This one made me laugh: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mjRU6b4ecw as did this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GE0KIDZnJ9gBut the funniest of them all: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZRdr1PiyPQ and another one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8D3qvQCP0Y . But the smartest guy out there reserved this domain name and put up advertising so I hope he makes some cash from Google AdSense off of it: http://www.superbowlcommercials2011.com/

Lets see what happens this Sunday. I think there are over 110 commercials this year. But the best contest and YouTube, blog, Facebook campaign out there is certainly by former tight end two time Super bowl champion NFL san Francisco 49er Dr. John Frank who actually retired from the NFL and went to medical school to become a plastic surgeon and hair transplant specialist. Dr. Frank is running a contest and sweepstakes to see who comes closest to guessing this Sunday’s final score. Whoever it is will be eligible to receive a free hair transplant. Now with 110 million viewers out there, there have got to be some balding guys that might want to change their appearance a bit. Check it out: http://www.prweb.com/releases/hair-transplant/superbowl/prweb5016224.htm

But wait – Valentines Day is coming up. And what better way for a homeless couple to celebrate by going to the Super Bowl. Huh? Why would people who can’t afford to pay rent go to a game that costs hundreds if not thousands of dollars to see live and in person? And what about getting to the game? If you don’t live in Texas and can’t drive to the game, its going to cost you. Well not if you are this lucky couple who WON their ticket by being in the right place and the right time. Oh – and transportation included! http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_corner/post/Homeless-couples-in-Green-Bay-wins-trip-to-Super?urn=nfl-315407

Hey – did you hear the one about the high school kid that closed his Facebook account because he was being harassed by recruiters and colleges because of his stellar football skills. Read about it here… Basically, every high school and college kid has a Facebook page. But when you get unsolicited advice from the world about what to do with your life and then people comment about your mother, its time to go offline.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/highschool/blog/prep_rally/post/Top-recruit-quits-Facebook-following-living-nig?urn=highschool-313954 This is very similar and related to our reputation management services. Some people get into trouble every now and then. Sometime lawyers and doctors like to go out for a drink and someone takes a not-so-flattering picture and posts it on Flickr or Facebook. Sometimes Charlie Sheen likes to party with drugs and hookers. So if your business hasn’t woken up to the fact that word of mouth media is here to stay and is the best way for bad news to travel fast, you better get online with a positive message and combat the negative. If you are in high school though, play sports and watch TV a little more. There will always be time in the future to get online. Plenty of time for you to do something a little off color and have your friends document it on their blogs and on YouTube.

And on the opposite side of the Facebook track, billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg has decided that fellow billionaire Marc Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of FB might be able to help the city of New York with its own social media. Come on Mike, I am right here on 45th street. Did you really have to hire a billionaire to help with the city’s social media strategy? Tell you what, I know you want to hire an in-house person for $110,000 annual salary but my firm will do it for half. Click on http://www.SalemGlobal.com for my resume. I look forward to your call.

Ok – just one last thing. Did you all see that Jesse Eisenberg the actor that hosted Saturday Night Live last week? The opening was brilliant. Andy Samberg dressed up in the famous Zuckerberg hoodie sweatshirt and matted down his hair. And behind the scenes the real Marc Zuckerberg was talking to Lorne Michaels about the fact that he didn’t love Eisenberg in the movie the Social Network. How they got the Z man on SNL we will probably never know but clearly someone knew someone.

One final final thing. My local bowling alley called itself the super BOWL in an email blast to local fans. Great play on words. Great message. Funny and to the point. Want to know more about social media and how you can take advantage of the super bowl to help your business? Call Raphi Salem at 212-993-5828 or email info@salemglobal.com and we can talk about it. Its February 2011. You need to change your marketing plan to get with the times. Help me help you