Last evening, while most of us were winding down from our respective Super Bowl festivities, participants from the Harvest Research Center consumer panel and guest panelists were busy putting the final word on Super Bowl XLV advertising. Their instant feedback demonstrates the power of instant research and once again provided a first-to-market consumer perspective of the winners and losers within the advertising industry’s game-within-a-game.

And the winner is? Volkswagen.
Advertising is all about connection and if you watched the game with a large group you probably felt it the moment that ad ran. With its “Kid Vader” ad Volkswagen deftly tapped a universal shared experience and unlocked deep-seated emotions within its primary target audience. Unlike many Super Bowl ads, this one did not get in the way of its own success. With thoughtful delivery and subtle restraint, Volkswagen evoked powerful childhood memories and managed to bind that good will directly to the brand. The spot carried 97% recall and earned an 82% approval rating among the 25 – 34-year-old demographic, no doubt a critical audience for the Passat. Even master Yoda could not have done it better.



Once again Flynn Wright partnered with Harvest Research Center to conduct this annual study of Super Bowl advertising throughout the Midwest. Testing continues today with our annual Vibetrak study which collects moment-by-moment response to the game’s best advertising. Download Harvest Research Center’s 2011 results here and watch for our Vibetrak rankings of 2011 top ads to post soon. 

Do you get your kicks from graphs, data strings, analytics and reports? Do you dream of building mind blowing research, web and social media reports that would make your grandma weep in amazement? Well our research and interactive team does. They are the cream of the crop hipster nerds. But to do these amazing tasks, sometimes they need an extra hand to pull a lever or push a button.




THE SUMMER RESEARCH AND INTERACTIVE INTERN! You can check out the full details of this internship and apply here. But long description short... we're looking for the right guy or gal to come in here and jump right in. Being hip on the web, social media and research is a great starting point, but we're also looking for someone who can analyze the results of campaigns and gather all the details. Cool, eh?

And here come the sweet bonuses
We believe that interns play an important role in the make-up of Flynn Wright. So, you're not only going to get the chance to work with the best client list in Des Moines right out of the gate. But you'll also get all the free caffeine you want be it coffee or Coke products. You'll get to spend the summer in downtown Des Moines and not worry about paying for parking. You'll get the valuable experience that everyone will be ragingly jealous about. And...you'll get paid!

So get the full details and apply.

It’s Monday morning after the Big Game and water cooler talk should be buzzing about the Super Bowl ads, but will it? Each year Super Bowl ads are over-scrutinized, over-hyped and, as of late, thoroughly underwhelming. I doubt there will be a lot of buzz around the cooler this year, at least not about the ads anyway. Where were the iconic images? Where were the game-changing ideas? Yawn. (Insert head scratch here.) Oh well, I hope you reached for another handful of Doritos, grabbed a Bud Light and caught up with some old friends during the commercial breaks, because there was nothing new here.

Again in 2010, Flynn Wright partnered with Harvest Research Center to publish response to Super Bowl advertising the evening of the Big Game. Response was similar to our 2009 survey results, and the ads at the top were strikingly similar in style and content. I don’t blame Doritos or Budweiser for sticking to a winning formula. After all, continuity of efforts could in and of itself be a marketing strategy. (My personal belief is that charting a new course each year would be a better way to capitalize on the unique opportunity and expectations of the Super Bowl’s viewership.) However, the field utterly lacked competition. There were some nice ads. Snickers, for one, did a very nice job of leveraging Betty White’s comedic talents with a spot that engaged and reinforced a core brand promise. But there was no shake-up, nothing really new, not even a great new twist on an old idea. This year more than 50 ads vied for the coveted title of Super Bowl champion, but sadly the game itself provided the only true champion. Will the ads of 2010 be remembered? I doubt it. Money well spent? Now that’s a whole other story.

tell us who deserves to be ad champion
Whether or not you participated in last night's Big Game survey, you still can help us determine the best Super Bowl ad. Using our Vibetrak system, re-watch the top commercials and give us your feedback.

Take the Vibetrak survey here »
Download Harvest Research Center’s 2010 results »

For the most part, the use of "proven methodologies" is essential to making good business decisions. But times change, markets change and so does the consumer, so we must keep our eyes open to innovation within the research discipline.

Researchers in general tend to tread lightly where new methods are concerned, but methods must evolve to properly address client goals. Consider consumer testing for advertisements, political speeches, promotional videos and other audio visual content -- these methods often require direct consumer interaction but have long been bound by budgetary constraints. A small sample may lack statistical or geographical validity, while the expense of reaching an accurate level of consumers can kill a project. This is probably the main reason that so few executions are actually tested on any level prior to reaching the market. 

Traditional dial testing methodologies represent a common approach to market research and tend to work well because of their ability to gather direct consumer interaction. But this method often requires that researchers bring consumers to a research facility or focus group center, creating significant expense for rental, recruitment and participant premiums. It’s a catch 22 for research consultants.

An Alternative to Traditional Dial Testing
With no viable alternative in the market, our team decided to take on the challenge of building a better solution, and it's called Vibetrak. With a focus on innovation matched with smart, adaptive research methodologies, this web-based system was created to provide the market with a high sample and quantitative approach to perception analysis testing.

Consider the case of USA Today’s Ad Meter. The publishers of one of the nation’s most anticipated post-Superbowl advertisement rankings utilized only two markets (Chicago, IL and McLean, VA) and just 234 respondents to publish its “best and worst” list. The compromises on sampling undoubtedly introduced geographic product bias and significantly limited the potential for consumer insight. Granted, I’m guessing the folks at USA Today were going for a good story, not great research, but the case could be made here for a little innovation. Ah, the perils of research.