Where is Socks the Puppet?

Are you ready for the Super Bowl LI??

Here’s a little sumpin’ sumpin’ from CBSSports, 51 things you need to know about about the Patriots v. Falcons in Houston.

I’m really looking forward to that part where NFL Commish Roger Goddell has to hand over that trophy to the Patriot’s QB Tom Brady.

“Tom, I don’t want to let the gas out of this, your record fifth Superbowl win!”

Oh, I’m sorry, did I skip right over that part where New England crushes the Falcons??! : ) My apologies, Falcon fans!

Actually, I don’t have a dog in this particular hunt — my Cowboys got left behind by the Packers and I’ve tried to never look back.

Looking forward instead, I am particularly interested in the Super Bowl TV commercials, as always. They seem so quaint these days, considering we just got our first Twitter president.

Forbes is reporting that budgets for Super Bowl spots have reached a new high, with the average production cost reaching north of $1M and companies spending an average of $5M for a 30-second time slot.

One sec, let me consult my good friend, IBM Watson…yeah…okay…okay, wow….thank you, Watson…so Watson says that comes out to $166,666 per second.

Watson also wanted you to know that 30 seconds is 3e+10 nanoseconds.

With that backdrop, here’s a few sneak previews of what to expect on Sunday, with my Turbo Rating (in parens) and pithy comment:

2017 Kia Niro | “Hero’s Journey” Starring Melissa McCarthy (B) — Melissa goes wild in the wild for the eco-firendly Kia Niro.

The Internet Wants You | GoDaddy Big Game Commercial (D) — Oh boy. Hardly the controversy we’ve come to expect from the Big Go Daddy on Super Bowl Sunday.

Mercedes-AMG GT Roadster Commercial “Easy Driver” – Directed by The Coen Brothers (B+) — Hello there, Peter Fonda! Nice ride, and
a smooth spot directed by none other than the Coen Brothers.

Wendy’s 2017 Fresh Beef Commercial “Cold Storage” (C-) — The only thing this spot has going for it is Foreigner’s “Cold as Ice.” Dare I say it, but “where’s the beef?” Wendy’s would be better off keeping this on ice!

Budweiser 2017 Super Bowl Commercial | “Born The Hard Way” (B) — It may seem to be about the origin myth behind Anheuser-Busch’s Budweiser founding fathers, but what it really seems to be is a political screed against our new president’s immigration policies. I’ll only say this: We’re a long way from Spuds McKenzie and the “Wassssup!?” bros!

Super Triple Discount Double Check

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Don’t get me started on the weekend’s football games.

As a longtime Dallas Cowboys fan, I’ve become accustomed to getting my heart broken in the postseason over these past 20 long years.

And while I’m very proud of our rookie lead team this year, I do have some sour grapes over Dallas spiking the ball so prematurely there at the end.

You can never…EVER…under any circustances…underestimate the abilities of Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

Super triple discount double check, game over.

Congrats to the Packers, the Pittsburgh Steelers, the New England Patriots, and the Atlanta Falcons. I have a feeling we could be seeing a Pack/Pats SuperBowl in H-town, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself.

Now, on to the world of technology for a moment.

Recode is reporting that Walmart is broadening the roles of two of is key executives and giving them new oversight in the company’s U.S. e-commerce website and its retail stores.

Jeremy King, who was previously the chief technology officer of Walmart e-commerce operations in the US, will now oversee technology teams for Walmart’s physical stores in addition to its online stores.

Similarly, Tony Rogers, who was previously CMO for Walmart U.S. stores, will now also serve as head of marketing for Walmart.com and Jet.com.

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said in a statement “We were starting to see our store as an e-commerce team solving many of the same problems and now we can remove what might have been become more duplication in the future. I know change isn’t always easy. But I’m certain that our future success is partially dependent on becoming more of a technology company in our stores and clubs and everyone everywhere else the customer sees us.”

I don’t expect this will be the last major retailer to make such moves, and in fact, could start a trend.

Live At IBM Pulse 2013: NFL Quarterback Peyton Manning On “Getting Back To Zero”

NFL quarterback Peyton Manning explains to the IBM Pulse 2013 audience in Las Vegas the importance of effective decision making, in football and in life.

Peyton Manning has earned his way into NFL history, playing for the Indianapolis Colts for 14 seasons before making his way west to the Denver Broncos, where he had to learn a completely new playbook and offense.

The backstory: After undergoing extensive neck surgery in May 2011, he was forced to miss the entire 2011 season with the Colts and was released in March 2012, at which point he visited with and worked out with several NFL teams during a two-week period before settling on the Broncos.

Along the way, Manning developed his own personal playbook for cultivating leadership and effective decision making, the points of which he shared in the IBM Pulse 2013 day three general session.

The four-time MVP quarterback hit the stage running, explaining he’d just returned from a USO tour overseas where he’d been visiting the troops. He began by explaining that he “hope what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, because I don’t need the Ravens and Patriots to hear some of what I’m telling you today.”

Manning then segued into his key theme, the art and science of decision making and “how quality decision making leads to resilience.”

Manning explained to the gathered Pulse audience that “people make decisions every day,” but that there are those who “make good decisions habitually,” and acknowledging that “it’s easier to practice a skill when the heat is off and when there’s nothing important on the line.”

But unlike most people, Manning explained, “my decision making is instantly judged by 80,000 fans in the stadium and millions on Twitter” — and that he wouldn’t have it any other way.

In fact, Manning explained, “I savor being on the front line,” and that “you can’t wait for someone else to make or execute the plan — you have to be willing to take the risk, even when you have doubts.”

“If not you,” Manning queried, “ then who?”

The key, he went on to explain, is that you make key decisions without hestitation and no stutters, because “when you demonstrate 100% confidence, your team will follow.”

Manning acknowledged that he’s become known for “making audibles,” calling plays ad hoc once his team is lined up in reaction to “something I’ve noticed on the field.”

Manning claimed that his teammates have to trust those instant, snap decisions, and “that if they hear it in my voice that I believe in my decision, that they’ll believe in it, too.  They’ll run better and they’ll block better.”

But to get to that level of confidence, Manning explained, it requires an enormous amount of preparation.  Days of practice, of watching and analyzing game and practice film on his iPad, talking with his teammates.

“Usually there is no one right answer,” Manning conveyed, “but you can’t build decisions on hope. You need a strong and more stable foundation, and thorough preparation is absolutely essential.”

Every week, Manning said, “I gather every piece of relevant information about my opponent, and I study every tendency a defense has. I know exactly what coverage to expect and how to counter it.”

But once on the field, he simply “blots out both the spotlight and the noise and then just decides. It doesn’t matter what the situation is. I can eliminate options before the ball is even snapped.  That allows me to take more calculated risks more confidently.”

Because at the end of the day…or perhaps more appropriately, at the end of the fourth quarter, “If you’re the boss or the quarterback, that’s what you’re paid to do.”

And even with all that preparation, Manning acknowledged, “it’s important to recognize that you can thoroughly prepare and still be hit by a thunderbolt.”

“Some decisions in life,” Manning explained “just aren’t yours to make.”

Manning explained his own decision making philosophy as “getting back to zero.”

“We have seconds to pick ourselves up off the field after we’ve been hit and immediately focus on what’s ahead. You can’t dwell on what just happened, because if you do, your head just won’t be in the game.”

Manning then channeled that great American writer, Ernest Hemingway: “The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong in the broken places.”

After his injuries in 2011, Manning related that “I’ve learned to savior what resilience can do for people.” His first pass after his rehabilitation “went literally about ten feet,” and he explained “it’s hard for most people to understand the magnitude of changes and the elasticity needed” after such an ordeal.

He had to take his rehab slowly, that the healing had to “happen at its own pace. And no matter how painful it was, I had to accept that.”

Once he arrived in Denver, he explained, he also had “to get my team to trust that I could lead the Broncos. I was now one of them and I was going to put the work into making us a winner.”

Despite taking a brutal hit during a preseason game that year, he bounced up for more. “Resilience was the reward for more meticulous preparation and strategic decision making.”

Futbol And Football

Anybody following the UEFA Champions League semi-finals this week?

If you’re a soccer fan, it’s been a “must-see” week, with Chelsea outing the world-class Barcelona team on a 2^nd half lay-up by Fernando Torres in a match earlier this week, and Real Madrid losing to Bayern Munich last night in a heartbreaking 3-1 penalty shoot-out after Bayern had tied Real-Madrid 3-3 in the aggregate.

Bayern, a four-time champion of the Champions League, will now have reached the final for the second time in three seasons, and will take on Chelsea at Allianz Arena May 19.

Of course, if you’re more interested in the football that takes place on this side of the Atlantic (I happen to enjoy both!), then you’ll want to tune in to ESPN this evening at 8 PM EST for the first round of this year’s NFL draft.

The first five projections? Stanford QB Andrew Luck is expected to go to Indianapolis at #1.  #2 is Baylor’s QB Robert Griffin III to the Redskins.  #3 is offensive tackle Matt Kalil from USC, expected to head to the Vikings. #4 looks to be Alabama running back Trent Richardson, expected to be picked up by Cleveland. And bringing in the rear is LSU corner back Morris Claiborne, expected to be taken by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  But this is all pure speculation, so watch tonight’s first round tidings to know for sure.

Meanwhile, IBM made an important announcement today in the healthcare research field.  It announced that researchers from The State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo are using IBM analytics technology to study more than 2,000 genetic and environmental factors that may contribute to multiple sclerosis (MS) symptoms.

As part of the initiative, Researchers will tap into IBM’s analytics technology to develop algorithms for big data containing genomic datasets to uncover critical factors that speed up disease progression in MS patients.  Insights gained from the research will be shared with hundreds of doctors to better tailor individual treatments to slow brain injury, physical disability and cognitive impairments caused by MS.

Using IBM analytics technology, SUNY Buffalo researchers can for the first time explore clinical and patient data to find hidden trends among MS patients by looking at factors such as gender, geography, ethnicity, diet, exercise, sun exposure, and living and working conditions. The big data including medical records, lab results, MRI scans and patient surveys, arrives in various formats and sizes, requiring researchers to spend days making it manageable before they can analyze it.

Using an IBM Netezza analytics appliance with software from IBM business partner, Revolution Analytics, researchers can now analyze all the disparate data in a matter of minutes instead of days, regardless of what type or size it is. The technology automatically consumes and analyzes the data, and makes the results available for further analysis. As a result, researchers can now focus their time on analyzing trends instead of managing data.

MS is a chronic neurological disease for which there is no cure. The disease is believed to be caused by a combination of genetic, environmental, infectious and autoimmune factors making treatment difficult. According to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, there are approximately 400,000 people in the US with MS, and 200 people are diagnosed every week. Worldwide, MS is estimated to affect more than 2.1 million people.

You can learn more about IBM’s Big Data strategy and portfolio here.

SuperBowl Social Sentiment

I’ve been so busy here in San Francisco this week covering the IBM SmartCamp finals that I’ve not paid nearly enough attention to one of my favorite subjects this time of year, NFL Footbal.

Never mind that I dumbly booked a trip back to Austin smack dab in the middle of the SuperBowl (thankfully I’ll be flying JetBlue, so I’m optimistic I’ll catch Madonna and the full second half of the game at 35,000 feet).

But before we ever get to the actual gridiron action, IBM has once again partnered with the University of South California Annenberg Innovation Lab to conduct a little social media smackdown analysis prior to the main event.

Overnight results of Super Bowl Twitter buzz drove Giants quarterback Eli Manning’s ‘T score’ for positive sentiment ahead of Tom Brady. Manning now leads with 66% vs. Brady’s 61%, which represents an 8-point shift compared to the previous day.

Specifically, they’ve already analyzed one million Tweets to determine which of the two quarterbacks, Tom Brady and Eli Manning, are the social media fan favorites.

Thus far, it’s very close, and really depends on when you take the pulse, but to date, the Giants’ Eli Manning has a slight edge at 66% positive sentiment, compared to Tom Brady’s 61%.  But that’s an 8-point shift from the prior day, so stay tuned.

Meanwhile, on the virtual sidelines, Giants head coach Tom Coughlin has a 76% positive rating, above both all the other players and coaches on both teams.

As you look into the rest of the roster, it’s the wide receivers getting all the attention, with Wes Welker #1 in positive sentiment, and Victor Cruz a close 2^nd.

This analysis, of course, though in all good fun, demonstrates the powerful influence social media are having on organizations, companies, governments, and brands.  New analytics technologies make it possible to understand positive, negative and neutral sentiments, and can detect irony and even apply machine learning to distinguish between Tweets that are nothing but background noise from those that are truly brandshaking!

But hey, if football’s not your thing, IBM and USC will also be following sentiment around the upcoming Academy Awards.  More on that in a future post.

In the meantime, learn more about IBM’s social analytics capabilities from our director of digital marketing and analytics, John Squire, in the video below.

First Down And Ten Million

It wasnt exactly the best sports weekend of the year.

Golf season has ground pretty much to a halt

The English Premier League big game of the weekend (Chelsea v. Manchester United) was snowed out.

Thank Heavens for the Philadelphia Eagles.

No matter what you might think about Michael Vick, his performance on the football field this year has been nothing less than stellar, and the comeback victory he and the Eagles served up on the New York Giants yesterday on the Giants’ home turf was downright embarrassing.

How often in the NFL do you see a team come back from a 31-10 defict in the fourth quarter only then to win 38-31?

Not very frickin’ often, and nothin’ like yesterday.

As for DeSean Jackson and his humbling 65-yard punt return for a TD at the end of the game, all I have to say is “wow”…and someday, dude, those end zone antics are going to cost you six more points…but it sure is fun to watch.

On the sports marketing front, I just saw an article (and for the life of me can’t find it again) which indicated that NFL football, particularly on Thursday, Sunday, and Monday evenings, is nearly the last thing big left in appointment television, and that the networks, though not making beaucoup bucks from NFL advertisers, are using it as a massive venue to promote the rest of their TV schedule.

Rock on, NFL.

Just don’t look to find anything to watch soon on GoogleTV, which The New York Times joked earlier had Google making its first programming cancellation.

Next month at the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas, Google was expected to have a major coming-out party for Google TV on a range of TV sets, but according to the Times piece, Google has asked the TV makers to delay their introductions.

In other words, wait for Google TV, Version 2.0

Me, I’ve learned my early adopter lessons, over and over and over again.  My Apple TV is still collecting dust, although Netflix on the Wii has found a place close to my heart…and my remote.  Maybe because it (mostly) works???

Being the Texas boy that I am, I’ve also been on the hunt for a bird hunting game for my Wii for some time now, and lo and behold, where do you think I finally found one?

At an Academy sporting goods retail store here in Austin in the checkout line.  I was purchasing some AR-15 and .40 caliber ammunition for a weekend trip to South Austin’s Red’s Indoor Gun Range in Oak Hill to shoot the real thing, and there it was, product placement galore, staring at me from the check-out line bin.

I loves me some marketing that works!

The price for the bird shooting game and the Wii plastic imitation shot gun was $25.00 (after the nice checkout guy gave me a $5.00 coupon break), which, for the record, cost about the same as two boxes of .243 ammuntion.

Put another way, it’s a heck of a lot cheaper to shoot at your TV screen (virtually speaking) than it is an AR-15…and almost as much  fun.

The game’s branded by Remington, no less, the great American firearms manufacturer (although “Mastiff Games” seems to have done the actual development).

The game title?  “Great American Bird Hunt,” of course.

You can see it in action here.

Finally, speaking of good shots and the NFL, Dallas Cowboys’ interim coach (and long ago former QB) has now gone 4-2 since taking over for Wade Phillips and is a possible candidate to take over the ‘Boys on an ongoing basis.

I’d like to think it’s true, but that means Jerry Jones would have to have made a good decision.