Brand: Emerald Nuts
Execution: TV (Super Bowl), Viral Video
Target: Attention-Deficit Viewers
Rating: **
Reviewer: David Vinjamuri

Description:
The spot opens to a shot of an office clock as the voiceover says, “Around 3pm when your blood sugar and energy are low,” here we see an office worker falling asleep, “some say that Robert Goulet appears – and messes with your stuff,” here we see Robert Goulet sliding down a rope and messing with the stuff of the sleeping office drone. He then moves about the office, tap-dancing on a sleeping woman’s desk and taping another man into his Steelcase chair and wheeling him down the corridor. “But the natural energy in just one handful of Emerald Nuts,” the narrator continues as we see an alert young man standing in a break room, tossing a nut into his mouth, “is enough to keep Robert Goulet away. Until tomorrow anyway.” Suddenly, Goulet is spider walking back away from the office, clinging to the ceiling on all fours. The spot closes with a package shot of Emerald Nuts. The viral video (see link above for YouTube posting) is a moc-documentary version featuring interviews of the affected workers.

What Works:
Emerald Nuts first broke out with a Super Bowl spot two years ago, expectations were high for their return in 2006. The spot that actually broke was bizarre, to say the least, featuring the tagline “Eagle-eyed Machete Enthusiasts Recognize A Little Druid Networking Under The Stairs” which spells out Emerald Nuts. (see our review here) We can safely say that the new Emerald Nuts Super Bowl spot is not the disaster that spot was. In fact, this spot is entertaining, cohesive and actually attempts to create a selling proposition for the product. The ‘Robert Goulet – office vandal’ angle is fresh and startling and it does grab the attention. It is also funny and well-executed. There is an attempt to brand Emerald Nuts with a verbal mention midway through the spot and the closing shot of the Emerald packaging.

What Doesn’t:
This advertising blog is a fan of Bob Garfield (particularly his 2004 article ‘The Chaos Scenario’ which has been proven true by subsequent events), but his choice of this spot for four stars as the top pick of the Super Bowl illustrates a repeated problem we have with agency-side critiques of advertising. The question we should all be asking is whether this spot will build the Emerald Nuts brand and whether it will sell more nuts. Garfield suggests that giving office workers energy at 3pm is a brilliant new USP (unique selling proposition). We might agree if we had not been exposed to twenty years of Snickers advertising which has been focused on ‘pick-me up energy’ in office and other situations. So although we agree that the execution of this spot is inspired genius (and Robert Goulet’s dead-pan vandal is hysterically funny), we think the brand positioning is imitative and not ownable.

The second issue with this spot is that for the general, less ad-obsessed public, Robert Goulet may end up being far more memorable than Emerald Nuts as the brand associated with this commercial. Yes, that’s right, we did just say that Robert Goulet overwhelmed another brand in a commercial.

Emerald is still struggling to find out what is unique about the brand – or at least unique about nuts in general. Attempting to own an occasion makes more sense that a features-and-benefits pitch, but unfortunately Emerald chose a value proposition that Snickers already owns. Still, this is a much improved effort over the 2006 disaster.

Branding Bottom Line:
Emerald takes a big step forward but fails to deliver the nuts.

Brand: Emerald Nuts
Execution: TV
Link: Click Here To View (Go to ‘TV Ads’ section)
Target: The Terminally Confused
Reviewer: David
Rating: *

Description:
Several men wield machetes in a living room, pretending to use them. On notices a druid under the stairs, speaking on the phone. The spot cuts to him as he negotiates on the phone. The voiceover takes over, saying “Eagle-eyed Machete Enthusiasts Recognize A Little Druid Networking Under The Stairs.” Which spells EMERALD NUTS, as the visual shows. Finally, we see the Druid and two Machete Enthusiasts sitting on a couch eating Emeral Nuts as the voiceover says, “Even druids love Emerald Nuts.”

What Works:
Nothing, really.

What Doesn’t:
This spot is a disaster from start to finish. The idea was to create a quirky, iconic spot that would match the success of last year’s Super Bowl Ad for Emerald, which was an instant hit and dramatically lifted brand sales. That spot (click here to view) had a father telling lies to his daughter about unicorns to avoid sharing his nuts. The Easter Bunny and Santa Claus made an appearance as well.

Emerald learned the wrong lesson from that spot. It was offbeat, that is certain, but it underscored a real brand proposition (they are so good that you’ll lie to keep them to yourself.) The 2006 Super Bowl spot dissolves into complete nonsense. There is neither a brand proposition nor a reason to believe in this spot. Instead we are left with a sort of puzzle that is supposed to be charming because of its unexpectedness. It only succeeds in annoying us.

This advertising blog supports creativity, but creativity must build a value proposition for the brand. We see nothing of the sort in this confused, difficult ad which does not even show us the brand or brand name until the second half of the spot.

Branding Bottom Line:
Emerald needs to stop adding peyote to those nuts.

Here is our first take on the hits and misses of the game, by category:

CELEBRITY

Hit – Desperate Housewives (ABC) – Shaquille O’Neal, Hugh Hefner etc.
Instant Analysis – A nice job of using celebrity to show that absolutely everyone is watching Desperate Housewives. Turns celebrity on its head. ABC does a nice job of using its own time to build one of its own brands.

Hit – Debit MasterCard – MacGyver
Instant Analysis – We reviewed this spot before the game (click here to read review and watch video). It does a great job of bringing the God of Small Things – MacGyver – to the card for small things – Debit Mastercard. A good balance of big-game production value and solid marketing.

Miss – Pizza Hut Cheesy Bites – Jessica Simpson
Replace Carls and Paris Hilton with Pizza Hut and Jessica Simpson and you have this equally irrelevant spot which uses sex in a puzzling way. It not only fails to support the brand – it does not even make sense in context. Click Here to view.

HUMOR

Hit – Sprint Phones – Two spots do a nice job of showing the benefits of high speed phones with TV and downloads for Sprint. The first has the phone with the extra benefit of “Crime Deterrent.” The second is about the music and ends up with a Benny Hill romp around the room. What makes these work is that the humor connects to the product and the brand and the phone is very visible in both. Click Here to view.

Miss – AmeriQuest Mortgage – The ‘Don’t be too quick to judge’ spots are both very funny, but even professionals will have a hard time remembering the brand – which shows up only at the end of each spot. Click Here to view.

CAUSE MARKETING

Hit – Campaign for Real Beauty (Dove) – We have been critical of Dove using the Campaign to sell Dove Moisturizing lotion (click here) but for the Super Bowl Dove used its marketing dollars to promote the campaign instead. In the end, this will do more for Dove than the earlier spots. (Click Here to view)

Miss – The Beer Institute – The Beer Institute? Beer needs an industry group? It was nice to learn all of those foreign words for ‘cheers’ but with Budweiser spending nearly $20 million on the Super Bowl, nobody was going to forget Beer. (Click Here to view anyway.)

NEW PRODUCT INTRODUCTION

Hit – Hummer H3 (General Motors) – This is an older spot we have previously reviewed (click here) but one that worked well for the big game. Even though we would like more face time for the Hummer, this spot reinforces the ruggedness of the brand very well. (Click Here and turn of your pop-up blocker to view the spot).

Miss – Full Throttle (Coca-Cola) – This pre-game epic spot pulls out all the stops to convince you that you’ll be meaner and badder with Full Throttle Energy drink – including running a Red Bull car off the road. At the end we’re confused and Coke is a bit poorer.

Miss – Gillette Fusion (Procter & Gamble) – Not as bad as we had expected from the preview spot, but a flop nonetheless. Gillette does try to give us a plausible reason for adding two blades and draining our wallet further (more contact points equals less pressure equals less skin irritation) but it seems weak and irrelevant. We’re still more interested in real fusion – or maybe cold fusion. (Click Here to view – 2nd Quarter spot.)

OTHER NOTABLES

Hit – Budweiser Clydsdales (Anheuser-Busch) – Anheuser-Busch wasted a lot of money during the big game with spots that were all over, many of which were just forgettable beer commercials. This one, however, connected at an emotional level. Fortunately, the Clydsdales are so closely tied to Budweiser that there is no question which beer the spot is pushing. And the value of authenticity seems like it is Bud’s best brand proposition. (Click Here to view – 3rd Quarter)

Miss – Emerald Nuts – In the early 1990′s in Los Angeles, we learned that random success (like buying some beach property in L.A. in the 1970′s) makes people think they are geniuses. But sooner or later this random-ness fails. After spectacular luck last year with a quirky little spot, these random geniuses failed spectacularly. But perhaps the real nut fans will love it. (Click Here to view)