Eye-on-Retail Tipsheet 2/4/13: Super Bowl Ads – Bud wins Ad Meter; Ram Trucks wins Hulu
“Budweiser’s Clydesdale wins Ad Meter by a nose” by Bruce Horovitz at USA Today. “Anheuser-Busch climbed back into the saddle with the Super Bowl’s top commercial — a heart-tugging tale of the bond between a trainer and the Budweiser Clydesdale he raised.But it was a horse race. This was the Super Bowl when ads with heart got all the love in USA TODAY’S Ad Meter, which, for its 25th anniversary, vastly expanded in scope by going online to 7,619 pre-registered panelists.” Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/02/04/clydesdale-ad-wins-by-a-nose/1889693/
“Hulu Announces the Top Ads from Super Bowl XLVII”:
OVERALL MOST LIKED ADS
Top ranked by fan votes.
1. Ram Trucks: Farmer
2. Budweiser: Brotherhood
3. Taco Bell: Viva Young
4. Volkswagen: Get In. Get Happy.
5. Universal Pictures: “Fast & Furious 6” Game Day Trailer
6. Jeep: America Will Be Whole Again
7. Paramount Pictures: “World War Z” Big Game Spot
8. Skechers: GOrun 2 – Man vs Cheetah Big Game Commercial
9. GoDaddy.com: Perfect Match – Bar Refaeli’s Big Kiss!
10. MilkPEP: The Rock in Morning Run
“Forbes.com: No more Super Bowls for New Orleans until ‘outdated’ Superdome is replaced” by Mark Lorando at NOLA. “The Super Bowl 2013 Blackout Backlash is officially underway, with Forbes.com suggesting New Orleans and the Superdome may not play host to another championship game “unless they replace this outdated facility.” In a piece headlined “Superdome Shutdown: Super Bowl XLVII Blackout Hurts New Orleans’ Chances to Host Future Super Bowls,” Webster University economics professor and Forbes.com contributor Patrick Rishe unleashes a scathing attack on city, Superdome and NFL officials for the electrical snafu that caused a 34-minute third-quarter delay in the big game. “No matter how many times the city has hosted the big game before, this cannot happen,” Rishe wrote Sunday night on the influential business news bible’s website. “It is an embarrassment for the facility operators, and quite frankly, it is a black-eye for NFL operations.” Read more: https://www.nola.com/superbowl/index.ssf/2013/02/forbescom_no_more_super_bowls.html
“Amazon.com reminds Tennesseans they may owe taxes” by Shelly Bradbury at Times Free Press. “East Ridge resident Jillian Alexander was sure the email from Amazon was a scam when she first saw it on her phone. “You may owe use tax on purchases you made from Amazon.com LLC during the previous calendar year,” the notice from the online retailer read. It listed the money she had spent on the site last year — $87 and some change — and included a link to Tennessee’s state website where she could pay the tax she apparently owed. “I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?'” she said. But it’s not a scam. Online shoppers across the state are receiving the email notice this week, part of a law Gov. Bill Haslam signed early last year in which the state agreed Amazon doesn’t have to collect state sales tax until 2014.” Read more: https://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2013/feb/01/retailer-reminds-tennesseans-they-may-owe/
“The Home Depot Canada Prepared For Penny Phase Out” “In 2012, the Federal Government announced that the penny would be phased out of circulation. The Home Depot Canada carefully reviewed the phase out requirements based on its values, associate input and consumer needs. According to a recent poll commissioned by The Home Depot Canada, 88 per cent of Canadians don’t know that the penny is being phased out of circulation on February 4, 2013 and 41 per cent don’t know what retailers are doing to manage this change. The Home Depot Canada wants its customers to know that after this date, anyone shopping at its stores using cash, will have their total rounded down to the nearest nickel. In addition, if a customer makes a cash return to the store, it will always round up to the nearest nickel. The Home Depot feels it’s vital to continually meet the needs of its customers.” Read more: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-home-depot-canada-prepared-for-penny-phase-out-189376511.html
“Supervalu bets big on its wholesale business” by Mike Huglett at Star-Tribune. “Supervalu is going back to its wholesale roots, for better or worse. When the struggling Eden Prairie-based firm unloads its four largest grocery chains in a pending $3.3 billion deal, the company will again rely on wholesaling for almost half of its business. Wholesaling has accounted for only about 23 percent of total sales in recent years. The problem: Food distribution is a shrinking industry, as Supervalu can attest. Its own wholesale revenue has fallen 17 percent in the past four years, to $8.2 billion in fiscal 2012. A good part of the decline stems from the gradual loss of a big customer, Target.” Read more: https://www.startribune.com/business/189436511.html
“Kroger Launches New “Low Price ” Campaign” at WKRC in Cincinnati (Video & Text). “Cincinnati based grocery store chain Kroger today announced the launch of a new price campaign. The stores promise to lower prices on thousands of items in grocery, produce, organics, natural foods, and general merchandise beginning on Monday, February 4th…Kroger says that as part of the price lowering, the price on Kroger 24 pack water will drop 71 cents, the cost of a 3 lb. bag of onions will go down $1.00 and the retail on Soy Milk has been reduced by $1.40. But at the same time, the company plans to discontinue their popular double coupon program. This program will end within 30 day.” Read more: https://www.local12.com/mostpopular/story/Kroger-Launches-New-Low-Price-Campaign/UZFg7rVTJk2Q43ZQPS7Lyg.cspx
“Amazon Outage Could Cost a Lot More Than 400,000 Pairs of Unsold Underwear” by Marcus Wohlsen at Wired. “Imagine the front doors suddenly locked on every Walmart in the country simultaneously right in the middle of the business day — and for nearly an hour, no one could find the keys. That’s basically what happened to Amazon when, in an incredibly rare hiccup, its homepage went down for nearly an hour Thursday afternoon.” Read more: https://www.wired.com/business/2013/02/amazon-crash-unsold-underwear/
“J.C. Penney Is Bringing Back Sales” at CNBC. “The struggling department store chain this week is rolling out some of the hundreds of sales it ditched last year in hopes of luring back shoppers who were turned off when the discounts disappeared. Penney also plans to add new price tags or signs for more than half of its merchandise to show customers how much they’re saving by shopping at the mid-priced chain — a strategy that a few other retailers such as home decor chain Crate and Barrel and TJX Companies. Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/id/100413301