To Sum Up:

Obviously, the airing of our ad was the highlight of Super Bowl Sunday, and will likely continue to be the highlight of our career for quite some time. To be honest, I was too busy freaking out to see the rest of the game (or any of the other commercials that aired) that night. If you've been receiving emails from me, you already know that we officially won the "Crash the Super Bowl" competition by only a 2% margin in total votes. I'm still blown away by the amount of support we received.

Just before kick-off, they lined us all up to film our reactions to what would be the first-ever consumer produced ad to air on the worlds biggest stage... No big deal.


I edited "Live the Flavor" and have seen it many times since its completion, so as I heard that infamous music fade up for the 500th time (give or take) I instantly knew we had won. It's hard to describe the feeling you get when you realize a few hundred million people are all watching something you've created... so here's a picture... it should save me a thousand words or so:


We all felt beyond blessed in that moment, but now feel even MORE blessed by the scores our ad keeps receiving, making the top 5 charts of... well... pretty much everybody.

USA Today ranked us 4th out of the 62 ads that were aired... which we are VERY happy with, considering that the remaining 4 of the top 5 were ads by Budwiser. Frito-Lay was ecstatic about this because not once in the history of their Super Bowl ad campaign have they received a top 5 ranking... stop right there and think about that for a second... I mean... DANG.

We received a 1st place score among consumers both through research done by IAG (as shown on adage.com), and through an online "SuperVote" on YouTube.com, with over a million views in just 2 days. Apparently, the only people who dislike our ad are Madison Avenue Executives who are now fearing for their jobs/company... go figure. Here's the proof:

The morning after the big game, we found ourselves in a mad rush to get to the stadium for a live satellite interview with Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieira of the Today Show, which kicked off our continuing PR sprint:

Click Here to watch our Live Satellite Interview

In the segment after our interview, they segued into a story which proved "Live the Flavor" to score well even in the "MRI brain-wave test"... so I'd like to take this moment to give a shout out to "science"...

...Thanks... and keep up the good work...

In this test, I found it interesting that we were pitted against the "Emerald Nuts" ad with "Robert Goulet" (apparently). The analysis showed that the ad was awful... and the reason that's interesting is because I've seen testimonies from those very same "Madison Avenue" types who picked it as their VERY FAVORITE. Since I'm the prime age of the target market for Emerald Nuts, I feel that I have the right to ask just one question... WHO THE HECK IS ROBERT GOULET?! Check out the clip:

Today Show: MRI Ad Test

When we finally arrived home, we were immediately invited to Duke University for their annual MBA Marketing Conference. It was a real honor... but awkward situations arose every once in a while when students (older than me) would walk up and ask "where did you go to school?"

ME: "Well... what do you mean by 'school'?"
THEM: (awkward pause)... "your undergrad."
ME: "Oh..." (becoming pompous) "...West Cary Middle... I was on the honor roll."

One of the guest speakers there was a marketing executive from Frito-Lay (whom we didn't meet in Miami). She treated us like famous people... that's always nice. Here's a photo from the event (starring Team Five Point & Michelle Adams):


We had to race back to the basement-office for an interview with WRAL's Scott Mason who did an awesome segment on us. He included some of the footage of our reaction in Miami upon seeing the winning spot.

Watch our Reaction in Miami (WRAL)

Read the WRAL story

I also did a phone interview from the Penthouse Lounge in our Marriott hotel with NPR's Frank Stasio on "The State of Things" (which just showed up on their site). It's a few minutes long, which was a nice change since I'm used to cramming everything in to just a minute and a half or so.

Click Here for my NPR interview

This whole experience feels like we've just won the American Idol of the business world... and in a big way. Again, we couldn't have succeeded without your support, so here's another thanks. We're still trying to ride this PR wave and if we end up being flown out to LA or NY for an appearance, I'll be sure to let everyone know. (Also, I'm still working on the video from the trip... so stay tuned).

Well... it's 3:30am... time to move on to email ;)

One Last Post!

It's the beginning of the end! Here are some more photos to take you through some of our Super Bowl Experience:


Dale investigates Motorola's "NFL Experience" on the sand of South Beach in Miami.


Dale poses as a Bently owner. There are a ton of these down here, so in Cary NC, it would be like posing as a Jetta owner.


Dale preps for a live interview on Fox News along side Kristen Denhert, the creator of "Check Out Girl".


Rudy Wilson, Brand Manager of Doritos, gives Nick a run for his money on the "Cheesy" face.


Both Michael Ian Black and Jim Gaffigan were at a Pepsi/Frito-Lay sponsored presentation called the "Chalk Talk" lead by John Elway.


Here's Jim Gaffigan strangling Cori as usual.


The "Live the Flavor" team took a group photo with Mr. Elway after his presentation. Needless to say, this morning was a blast. Nick is holding the "Super Bowl XLI" helmet that was once the centerpiece at our table... it is now in our luggage.

This is my final post before the big moment. Thanks again for your support!

"How's this, Dad?"

As just an example of the fun we've been having here in Miami, Frito-Lay brought in a HUGE 3-story yacht that would accommodate dinner for 80.


Needless to say, we had a BLAST.


We took a quick picture on the second floor before everyone piled in for dinner. We realized one is able to gauge how fancy a dinner party is by counting the number of forks he is given. We each had 4... (that's pretty fancy for us considering we eat with no fork on a regular basis.)


(It's a strange phenomenon, but when you're around an ice sculpture, you have to lick it.)

Tony Dorsett showed up as our NFL celebrity guest for the evening. He holds the record for the longest run in NFL history (99 yards)... but since he set that record before any of us were born, we were far more interested in speaking with the executives from Frito-Lay and Pepsi. They all loved our work and it was so awesome to get such good feedback from people in such high places in the corporate world.

In other news, the Washington Post did a great story on us a few days back, printing Dale with his roller-blades on the front page of the business section. Unfortunately, the information in this article somehow got construed in another press release (which declared us as the winner of the competition). At this point, the winner is still unknown and will remain that way until Super Bowl Sunday around 6PM.

We're still getting crazy amounts of press, and we're soaking up every bit we can. (Though I didn't see it myself) I heard that "Good Morning America" aired an interview with Dale, Cori and Nick on thursday. In just a few hours, we're headed to shoot another morning show interview with "Fox and Friends". This thing just keeps getting bigger and bigger...

Finally! A New Post!

...So this whole "Doritos" hub-bub has really gotten in the way of our Utah vacation... (as this shot of my bum clearly depicts).


(KIDDING, of course) ...But this time away has really given us a chance to relax since the voting period has ended.

I threw a quick photo gallery together:

Click Here to View (sorry if it's buggy)

Unfortunately we don't have the internet in our condo, so I have to come up to the club house once a day just to maintain a thread of communication (and it's slow here... which is why I haven't been able to post in a while).


At this very moment, we're excited for two reasons:

1) No one has fallen off a cliff and died (yet)... and...

2) NICK'S CHEESY FACE SHOWED UP IN TODAY'S NEW YORK TIMES!

Click here for the PDF

Apparently, it was the only screen-grab used from any of the five contestants in the PRINTED VERSION (and it was SURPRISINGLY LARGE). Nick is pretty much freaking out. His "Cheesy" face is really starting to become a national icon... we're kind of happy about that :)

The Times also did a story on the web. Here's the link:

Click Here to View

Miami is less than a week away! We can't wait!

News & Observer Story

Thanks to writer/reporter David Ranii, Nick's "Cheesy" face popped up on the front page of the News & Observer!


...Then we opened it up to the Business section...


...DANG.

Now for fun, we can take dumb pictures like THIS:


Again, we can't thank everyone enough for your support!

PLEASE KEEP VOTING!

Surprise Radio Appearence!

We got a tip from Kim Walker of Peak Automotive (and Hope Chapel) that Bill Lumaye (a major radio personality) would possibly bring up our story during his show this afternoon. Sure enough, he began talking about the Super Bowl competition. In an attempt to fill him in on recent developments, Nick called the station and was IMMEDIATELY put on the air. Both Dale and Barrett listened closely to the radio, trying to catch both sides of their conversation as Nick and Bill chatted away.


Needless to say, it's been an exciting day (and it's not over yet!)

Again, we can't thank everyone enough for your support!

PLEASE KEEP VOTING!

Tuesday's Interviews

At 9:00am, Nick and I had a live interview over the phone with "Bill and Sheri in the Morning" on MIX 101.5 (WRAL FM). Although, up until the interview began, we had been under the impression that the interview would be recorded and aired at a later date... so we were quite surprised to hear "Hi... you're live with Bill and Sheri!"


It was my first taste of a live boadcast, so I was definitely nervous, but everything went over very well. Both Bill and Sheri seemed very impressed and excited about our opportunity, and I believe their listeners will really help us out in our push for local support. Big thanks to Bill and Sheri (espicially for posting our link on MIX website!)

MIX 101.5

Less than an hour later, David Ranii arrived at our front door to perform an interview for the News & Observer. So far, it has been the most relaxing interview experience yet. It's said our story will be in print for tomorrow's paper.

THEN, Mike, from G105's "Bob and the Showgram", rang me up requesting an interview with Nick, Cori and myself at 8:40am on Thursday. I had emailed 'the Showgram' Sunday night and KY Kristin promptly responded and had our link posted on their website yesterday... and it's at the top of their headlines! We're totally pumped!

Our Link on the Showgram Website's front page!

Again, we can't thank everyone enough for your support!

PLEASE KEEP VOTING!