Captivating Connections.

super bowl parties set to break records (in spending, not just fun).

I'm going to be on a plane missing the best part - the ads!!

What are you doing for the Super Bowl? Chances are, you're spending money on it!

"A new poll from the Retail Advertising & Marketing Association (RAMA) says a record 173 million people expect to watch the game on Feb. 5, the most in its survey’s eight-year history.

Spending is expected to reach $11 billion. And 63.6 million (27.1%) plan to attend a get-together -- up from last year’s 61.2 million -- while 35.9 million (15.3%) plan to throw a party, also up from the 34.9 million who said they would do so in 2011." 

is CES losing it's swagger?

No, I'm not asking this because I'm bitter I'm not there (it's a worthwhile sacrifice to finish up my MBA at an expedited pace!!!).

Now that Apple has been gone from CES for quite some time, and Microsoft has announced that this is their last year there, the NYTimes notes that "the show is unlikely to be where any blockbuster products of 2012 are introduced. Many of the hottest new gadgets in recent years — including Apple’s iPad and iPhone, Microsoft’s Kinect and Amazon’s Kindle Fire — were first announced at other events, even though C.E.S. remains the world’s biggest consumer technology convention."

Why is that?

According to the NYTimes, "this reflects the changing nature of the technology industry — particularly the fact that the most important developments in the electronics business are no longer coming from the makers of television sets and stereos that have been most closely identified with the show since it started in 1967.

And as the industry and its trade show have grown, the need for buzz and branding has become more acute. The most innovative players — like Apple and Amazon — need to stand out from the crowd and so have chosen to introduce their products at smaller, more narrowly defined conferences and company-only events."

 

 

taking the tailgate to a new level (and location).

The NFL is looking to spread the notion of tailgating, taking it into the home...

"With a newly launched site, Party Collection and expanded women's fashion line, the NFL is hoping to make 'homegating' as popular as tailgating and team-name purses as widespread as jerseys."

Why homegating? 79 million female fans make up 44% of the NFL's fan base, and the NFL believes there's plenty of opportunity to engage these ladies, while helping them turn their home into "NFL headquarters."

According to Johanna Paretzky, licensing manager for the NFL who directs the homegating initiative, "women who watch football 'are sometimes more passionate about the food, family and planning' aspect of the game and so the league has partnered with licensees to create a collection of party products for these 'homegating' events."

What do you think? Is this something of interest to you?

super bowl week was a good week for plasma tvs.

According to NPD Group, "sales of plasma TVs jumped 45% in units, and 11% in dollars during Super Bowl week, compared to the same period last year.

About half of those sales were of 50-inch plasma sets, with an average price of $670, down $170 from last year. The average price of 42-inch plasmas fell $100 to $451, says the Port Washington, N.Y. based market research firm."

the best liked and most recalled ads.

The official list is in of the best liked and most recalled ads from the Super Bowl, people...start the drumroll...

"Volkwagen's "The Force" spot was this year's Super Bowl commercial you liked best, according to Nielsen research. Its performance for brand recall, though, wasn't as strong."

See the full Nielsen lists of most-recalled and best-liked spots from this year's Super Bowl here.

are pepsi and bud too irreverent for their own good?

Can you be too funny and be too present to be memorable? One AdAge writer seems to think so, even though Anheuser's Bud Light and PepsiCo's Doritos tied for first in USA Today's Ad Meter...

"Each commercial PepsiCo and Anheuser debuted last night during Fox's Super Bowl extravaganza seemed worse than the one that preceded it. PepsiCo's consumer-generated portfolio of stupid men getting smacked in the groin, ducking a can thrown in anger or being tackled by a dog seemed ripped off from previous, better Super Bowl work from the likes of Sprint or Anheuser itself (back when the brewer really cared about what it was saying and doing in the broadcast)."

So what's the point?

"Simply put, Pepsi and Anheuser may have won the Ad Meter, but they seem to have lost the war. The Volkswagen and Chrysler ads are the talk of the town this morning, not the frat-boy antics that Pepsi and Anheuser dusted off the shelf yesterday and pretended were new.

Maybe the Super Bowl simply doesn't fit either company's mission and marketing method as much as it once did."

 

super bowl sunday = super bowl spending.

"A new survey from the National Retail Federation predicts that come Feb. 6, Super Bowl partiers will spend $10.1 billion, with 171 million planning on watching the game -- the most in the survey's history. Of those, 34.9 million -- or 15% of viewers -- plan to host their own parties, an increase from last year's 31.6 million. And 61.2 million, or 26.3%, plan to attend a game party, up from 58.8 million last year.

While the survey was fielded before the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers had earned their tickets to Dallas, it shows Americans are willing to spend more on the big day than they were a year ago. The survey, conducted by the NRF's Retail Advertising and Marketing Association with BIGresearch, finds that the average consumer plans to spend $59.33 on game-related merchandise, apparel and snacks, up from $52.63 last year.

And that's not just on guacamole (although Americans are expected to eat about 80 million pounds of it on Game Day): Some 4.5 million say they will buy a new TV for the event, compared with 3.6 million who said they would last year, and the 2.7 million who said they would in 2009. And Best Buy says it is offering its best deals of the year, marking as much as $1,400 off some of its higher-end Sony sets. (Target, Walmart and Sears are also pushing big-screens for big savings on their websites.)

Still, less than half of those who will view the game -- 47% -- think football is the most important part, with 26% admitting they like the commercials best, 20% conceding it's just a nice excuse to socialize, and 8% showing up for the halftime show, reports NRF."

annnnnnd they're off (holidays sales, that is)

Here come the stats starting to trickle in!

"More Americans went shopping over the Thanksgiving weekend than ever, and online shopping accounted for the highest percentage of the weekend’s sales yet.

The average amount spent per person from Thursday to Sunday was about $365, more than a 6 percent increase over last year, according to a survey of about 4,300 Americans by the National Retail Federation, a trade group that reported results on Sunday afternoon.

And an estimated 212 million people shopped, up from 195 million last year. That is the highest number of Thanksgiving weekend shoppers since the first survey in 2004.

Spending on discretionary items rather than bargain-basement discounts seemed to help push the weekend total to a high of $45 billion, up from about $41.2 billion recorded in the last two years."

so how did black friday do this year?

"On this year’s Black Friday, retailers and analysts said they saw a surge in traffic at stores and malls over last year, and also were noticing that shoppers snapped up discretionary items for themselves rather than gifts or necessities.

Still, the shop-a-thon that began late on Thanksgiving night was not a free-for-all. Burned by the recession and its aftershocks even now, many consumers looked for major deals, or stayed within strict budgets by limiting themselves to cash."

So what are they seeing? "Analysts, mall owners and retailers said that traffic was higher than last November and that people seemed to be spending more. But concrete assessments as to whether sales were up over a year ago, and if so, whether they were enough to lift major retailers out of their long-term, recession-driven slumps, were not available. The first sales figures for Black Friday will not be available until later this weekend."

the cultural (and healing) powers of food infiltrate affluents.

Food isn't just for foodies this season as fashionistas get in on the food festivities (try saying that 5 times fast!)...

"Barneys New York will flaunt food as fashion this holiday in its New York windows.

In a partnership with the Food Network, Cooking Channel and Illycaffe, Barneys says the windows will be themed 'Have a Foodie Holiday,' with an unveiling scheduled for Nov. 16, which it will promote with national print and online advertising.

Tableaus will celebrate the foodie pantheon, including a Bad Boys window (everyone from Mario Batali and Bobby Flay to Jean-Georges Vongerichten), A Revolutionary Stew, which will include trailblazers like Julia Child and Jamie Oliver, and the Gals, with such chic luminaries as Lidia Bastianich, Sylvia Weinstock, Rachael Ray and Paula Deen.

The trendwatchers at Iconoculture say it's just one more example of how 'the cultural power of food is on the rise,' with a special appeal for Gen X shoppers. 'Chefs have become tastemakers in so many ways, from gentrifying urban neighborhoods with their restaurants to inspiring the fashion world with their bravura.'"

I wouldn't have necessarily thought of Food NEtwork watchers as a Barneys consumers, but, hey, love me some Co-op, and love me some Thanksgiving Food Network specials!