Sunday night was the season premiere of Mad Men -- the final season, I should say.
With so much hype, you'd think we were gearing up for the Super Bowl. But honestly other than the big game, this is the biggest event in marketing/advertising of the year, so I guess it all makes sense.
So what's a guy like me to do with an event of this magnitude? Hold a Twitter party!
A bunch of us jumped onto the hashtag #MadMenExp to chat about the show, the marketing, and of course all the brands participating. Here are a few observations:
First of all, we got a serious lesson in marketing with the "4 P's." I felt like I was a freshman in college again! Fascinating to note that if you flash forward to modern times, we are well past the 4 P's at this point. But at the time, it was a marketing format that just had to be followed.
Secondly, we got a sneak peek at integrated marketing ... the buzz word du jour. The "client" actually coached his team by saying, "advertising is just a small piece of the marketing mix and it's better when it's integrated with the other P's" Indeed. A man after my own heart.
The "tagline" was alive and well Sunday night, signaling a by-gone ear when the art was in cracking the code on a tagline. Ah ... the way we were ... life was so much simpler then ... or has time re-written every line?
The surprise of the night, if anything, was the lack of brands running contextual advertising -- having a Mad Men, theme that is. Southwest Airlines did it best in social media by "serving Mad Men since 1971." Charles Schwab talked about "accountability," which I'm sure was a nod to Don.
Finally, we caught a glimpse of what is perhaps fueling today's current craze: facial hair! It seemed to be bubbling at the surface on the show while today it's almost impossible to find a clean-shaven agency man.
My predictions for the final season ahead: more of the same in terms of plot lines but hopefully much more activity from the brands. That's what makes it all the more interesting in my book. Oh, and more facial hair.