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It's that time of the year when everyone publishes their "best of" lists, the year in review, top blog posts, and so on. Not one to buck the trend, I thought I would contribute to this flow of content with some clever and fun ads from 2009.

These are a few of my favorite ads from 2009 and ones that I could easily remember, meaning they stuck with me for some reason. What were your favorite ads?

Note: I would have included the Dos Equis commercial, Most Interesting Man in the World, but they do not have an official video you can embed. Social media FAIL.

A little over two months ago, we released the video, "Entrepreneurs can change the world" to spark a movement to help turnaround the economy, remind entrepreneurs why they started out in the first place, and inspire others to go out there and realize their dreams. As an entrepreneur who serves other entrepreneurs, I hear stories about growth each day: how people went out and offered new products and services, created jobs, and used their entrepreneurial passion to make a difference.

Our goal with the video wasn't to generate more sales. Instead, right from the start, our success metrics were: 'number of video views', and 'comments and ratings' (both on YouTube and other social sites). We also released all of the data about our campaign so that other entrepreneurs could use it as an opportunity to learn about this kind of unique approach, and the costs involved. In other words, we made the entire project (and our strategy) transparent. With just under 200,000 views, over 200 comments and 575 ratings on YouTube, the response has been truly amazing.

As I've described in previous posts, tremendous effort was spent by talented individuals (not large agencies) to create an authentic and inspirational message with words and design, and also music--we even had an original score created by Carly Comando in order to give the video a fresh sound. It turned out great, and the video's received a huge, positive response.

Imagine my great surprise then, just a few days ago, when I got phone calls and emails from people asking if Grasshopper had done a TV commercial with American Express. People were telling me they had heard "the song from the Grasshopper video" on TV, and I had to explain that, no, Grasshopper had not partnered with AmEx, or permitted them to use any of the elements of our campaign. It wasn't until a couple of days later when I was watching the news that I heard music very similar to Carly Comando's score emanating from the TV. I ran to check it out and sure enough, it was the AmEx ad everyone was telling me about. As I later found out, not only was the music the similar, but so were the words and overall message.

After a little research, I discovered that Ogilvy & Mather was American Express' ad agency. I then researched a lot more and discovered that Ogilvy & Mather had visited the Grasshopper website page regarding our campaign multiple times prior to the release of the American Express ad on TV (thank you, Google Analytics). I reached out to the video's producer and writer, Sonja Jacob. She also checked her site analytics and found that Ogilvy & Mather had visited her site multiple times. And can you guess which page they spent the most time on? Yup, you got it--the page where she discussed her work with Grasshopper and displayed the video. Curious.

It's important to note that the amount of time Ogilvy & Mather spent on our website is very high. Below are the Google Analytics reports from both websites for May 1st to July 26th. As a result of this data I had to conclude that at minimum, Ogilvy was aware of what we created (and that is the absolute minimum you can conclude--although you can extrapolate much more). With site analytics to tell the story, at the very least one can say that it wasn't just a coincidence that American Express came out with an ad that sounded a lot like ours only two months after our video was released.

You might also want to listen to the radio ads The Cultivated Word created for the movement, which were also on Sonja's website. I mean, you might as well--Ogilvy & Mather definitely checked them out while they were there.

It bothers me that a very large ad agency would "borrow" from not one entrepreneurial company (Grasshopper) but also an independent communications professional we hired to produce a video. But what bothers me more is that the message is being used for direct commercial gain by AmEx to promote another venture of theirs, OPEN Forum. Obviously, we sell a product at Grasshopper, but the purpose of the video was to motivate entrepreneurs--hell, anyone--to go out and do something, make a difference.

This video was never created so that we could monopolize the message, "entrepreneurs can change the world," but there are certainly lots of ways to get this message across without replicating someone else's campaign (especially if you have the resources of Ogilvy & Mather). After all, we were open to sharing the video. In fact, we even released it under the Creative Commons license so anyone could download it, show it at conferences, company meetings or anything else. What's more, we removed our branding almost entirely so that people could just use the video to motivate people. Instead, a very large ad agency decided it would be easier to just "borrow" the feel of our messaging, and not even engage in a partnership that would truly help entrepreneurs (there are definitely ways to do this, American Express).

End result? We're not whining about Ogilvy's usage of our message, we just think it's kind of lame for a big ad agency to come in and take messaging from an entrepreneurial company. Not holding people accountable for their actions is what has put our society in the turmoil we're in today, and I think Ogilvy & Mather should be held accountable, too. Yes, "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery," but I think it might have been more authentic if Ogilvy & Mather had just come up with their own campaign. Moreover, it would've been cool if AmEx had considered a partnership with us to help entrepreneurs, or raise awareness on an even greater level of how entrepreneurs really can change the world, without using someone else's original ideas. (AmEx execs, if you're reading this, give me a call.)

All of the data is here. Draw your own conclusions. Either way, I hope you'll consider spreading the word about the video that inspired it all, "Entrepreneurs can change the world," as well as the important message that we really are capable of turning the country, and the world, around.

The Grasshopper 5000 campaign has been amazing for our company, and a large part of our success is due to the inspirational video we made for entrepreneurs (and, of course, the people that love them). As of today, the video has been viewed nearly 200,000 times on YouTube, and we've received mountains of feedback from entrepreneurs (many of whom are Grasshopper customers) and numerous organizations who find the message in the video compelling and persuasive.

First off, I'll give credit where credit is due. We hired copywriter and creative Sonja Jacob to come up with the concept and story for the video, and she got motion designer Ben White, who does amazing motion design work, involved in the process. Last--and certainly not least--Carly Comando was brought on board to create a one-of-a-kind and incredibly moving piano score for the video.

As soon as the video went live back in early May, people began contacting us for details about the music--they wanted to know who it was and where they could buy the track. Up until a week ago, we'd been telling people to buy the track on Amazon.com, but now the song Carly created for us, called "Chain Reaction," is also available for purchase on iTunes. Hope you enjoy listening to the track as much as I have, and thanks again to ALL of the incredible, creative people who brought the video to life.

You may have heard about our recent campaign to re-brand ourselves as Grasshopper on Mashable, in the Wall Street Journal, or from the recent post on MarketingProfs. The media attention really raised awareness about our marketing campaign, which involved sending 25,000 chocolate covered grasshoppers to 5,000 influential people across North America. In addition to the chocolate covered grasshopper component, we also created a two minute inspirational video about entrepreneurship. The campaign was conceived and executed entirely in-house--no advertising or PR agencies were used at all. As a result of the nature of the marketing campaign and the video, we got a lot of inquiries from people asking how we did created both, how effective the campaign was, and what the price tag was to create the entire campaign.

Well, ask and you shall receive.

As of today, the answers to all of your questions regarding the campaign can be found in our case study. You'll get an in-depth look at the campaign and detailed metrics about the results it produced, such as number of mentions on Twitter, YouTube views, website traffic increases from Twitter and Facebook, and number of blog post mentions, just to name a few. There's also quite a bit of metrics on user-generated content in response to the Grasshopper campaign. Why are we making all of this information public? Easy: Entrepreneurs from all over asked for it.

And yes, we detail the actual cost of the campaign in this case study. Don't believe me? Check out the case study for yourself.

You may have read about our recent campaign to spread the word about GotVMail's re-branding as Grasshopper, or perhaps you were one of the 5,000 influential people that received a package of chocolate covered grasshoppers. Maybe you even read our case study on our unique marketing campaign. But I guarantee you don't know about the blood, sweat, and tears that were shed to get this campaign off the ground.

One of the things I'm really proud of is that we have the best people working for us at Grasshopper. Just before the launch of our re-branding and our chocolate covered grasshopper marketing campaign, everyone was working ridiculously hard to meet deadlines and deliver the "goods" so to speak. For some people, those "goods" consisted of creating our new website, and for others, it was building our amazing new web administration tool. People worked for days straight, operating on little more than sheer adrenaline in many cases. Our headquarters in Needham began to feel less like our traditional, clean workspace, and more like a lived-in home that just so happened to have dozens of committed employees plugging away at all hours of the night. Whatever the task, there was someone who owned it, and when the day of the official launch rolled around, everyone delivered.

Everyone was able to contribute to the re-branding of Grasshopper, especially when it came to preparing the 25,000 chocolate covered grasshoppers for shipment. Once they were in their glossy white packaging with tags attached, employees and their families joined Siamak and I stuffing the bags into thousands of FedEx envelopes (5,000 in total). Instead of paying some anonymous crew to come in and prepare the packages for shipment, we all got together in our training center and formed a quasi-assembly line, everyone stuffing and sealing those special envelopes. With everyone pitching in, we finished packaging all of the bags of grasshoppers in record time, even with a surprise visit from our local Fox news station.

I'm pretty tired of hearing about the financial woes of huge companies like GM when there are many entrepreneurs and small businesses that never received bailouts struggling to stay afloat during these difficult economic times. While it certainly doesn't solve the problems so many people are facing, having a good laugh always helps a bit. This GM spoof video I found on Twitter (via @tcwsonja and @adfreak) is good for a laugh and highlights the ridiculous situation big, bloated companies are finding themselves in. It was produced by Current TV's InfoMania.

Saw this awesome picture on the AdFreak and 37signals blogs a few days ago and loved it. Someone at Audi wanted to challenge BMW in this ad, and BMW responded quickly with a billboard across the street saying "Checkmate." This is what I like to call "conversation sensitive" advertising and two companies having some fun.

How should Audi respond?

Saw this fun Sprint Now television commercial the other day and then saw it again on the AdFreak blog. The voice over used in the commercial is what originally caught my attention, but I also liked the data representation graphics. It was even more intriguing to hear this whole concept might have come from the success of the Sprint Now widget.We're obsessed with data for sure, and it's cool to see this "real time" data as a representation of what we're doing with mobile phones today. But what's really fascinating is that the ad starts with phone calls, and the rest is other activities--some of which aren't even performed on mobile devices.

Last year, American Express did a photo shoot featuring me and David at our headquarters in Boston. The purpose of the photo shoot was to produce material for AmEx's various marketing campaigns featuring customers (they've done spots with PinkBerry, MusicDirect, and Jerry Seinfeld among others). Since we didn't know where and when they'd use the photos, it was interesting to get an email last week from a friend who attended an art exhibit and just happened to spot an AmEx information booth featuring some of the pieces from the photo shoot.

AmEx's practice of shining a spotlight on interesting customers is a bright idea. Regardless of where the pictures end up - in a campaign for either AmEx business or consumer credit cards - their presence gives each campaign life, and creates unique brand stories in a subtle way. It also strengthens the relationship with the customer/client, which then gets AmEx even more press (case in point, this post).

GotVMail has a program similar to AmEx's, called Tell Us Your Story. Through the program, customers tell us about themselves and their businesses. We then try to either feature them in our marketing initiatives or match them to reporters seeking interesting stories. So far, we've gotten some great coverage for our customers, including: SmallCellars.com, featured in PC Magazine; Babysitters.com, picked up by the Associated Press; and Small Business Majority on BusinessWeek.com.

The Snuggie has made the rounds, from TV ads to the front page of Yahoo! becoming a pop culture phenomenon. Here is a great parody video for a good Friday laugh.

Shepard Fairey, famous for his "Andr

I was less than overwhelmed with the Super Bowl ads this year, and it looks like I'm in good company. I realize how ridiculous it is that we've built a subcultural sport of anticipating, watching, and rating these ads, but humor me for a bit. I need to vent.

The one spot that really stood out to me was, curiously, also the worst. The offender? GoDaddy.com. In a masterpiece of repetitive advertising, GoDaddy dragged out the same old tactic they've used for what, maybe four years now, and featured women with their *ahem* assets hanging out. Hey, beautiful women are... well, beautiful women, but honestly, does GoDaddy think this really adds any value? I think not. Just to play devil's advocate I realize I'm discussing this ad on my blog and generating buzz about it. I see the irony in that, and maybe that's GoDaddy's tactic--but ultimately, it devalues their brand and reminds me why I hate not only their ads, but their point of sale process when purchasing domains. It's one of the most frustrating checkout processes I've encountered.

To end on a bright note, I did really enjoy NBC's LMAO commercial for their Thursday night line-up as well as Monster's awesome ad, which I think was the best of the night in terms of originality:

It could've been worse, but GotVMail ended up with one of the more positive "awards" on Adweek's article entitled, "The Year of the Freak." Author Tim Nudd named some of the freakiest ad campaigns of 2008, one of which was GotVMail's viral "ad campaign" featuring Gary Busey (I put that in quotes because it wasn't really advertising our company), which Nudd called the "best celebrity endorsement."

The thing about GotVMail's viral videos featuring Gary Busey is that it wasn't an ad campaign, and it wasn't a celebrity endorsement. We wanted to think of it as an opportunity for GotVMail to communicate with those who share our sense of humor, or just our general fascination with the creature that is Gary Busey. Since Gary shares his first name with our company mascot, and so many of us at GotVMail were fans of Busey's insane antics (one of our favorites is Busey's ability to draw new meaning out of words like "team"--together everyone achieves more--but that's just one example) on VH1's "Celebrity Fit Club," (for all of you recent Gary Busey converts, this was before his more recent "Celebrity Rehab" series) we just felt like it was the right fit.

No, our Busey ads didn't really explain exactly what GotVMail was, but that wasn't the point. Instead, we were trying to get across that this guy is insane, but sometimes, when you're excited about something, that's how you should be. And it's true the spots were totally bizarre, but the whole point is that everything shouldn't be the same, whether that's business or human behavior. Entrepreneurs are successful because they think outside the box--and the Gary Busey spots were all about doing just that. And if after watching a few of the viral videos you're curious about what GotVMail is, there's a little something called the world wide web or internet where you can check our website to find out what we do.