Toyota mined the vein of green and sustainability with its Prius TV ad campaign, but I can’t remember a car company leveraging, well, mortality to recast itself.

A new Buick TV commercial called “What Matters” does just that. It isn’t focused on automotive speed, comfort or price. It doesn’t spend time spouting superlatives. Or cite independent sources to validate car quality.

Instead, it frames around the inevitability of dying and living the best possible life. Heady stuff in an industry still largely dominated by flash, sex appeal and performance.

It begins:

“How will the value of your days be measured?"

“What will matter is not what you have, but what you gave. What will matter is not your success, but your significance. What will matter is how long you will be remembered by whom and for what."

“A life of meaning and purpose and happiness… that’s the greatest luxury of all.”

During the voice-over, we see images that are largely people-action-centered.

• A man and woman run for their car in the rain; he shields her with a newspaper and opens the car door for her.
• A dad and son shoot hoops in the driveway at night.
• A father and daughter play in the beach sand. Then he gently brushes sand from her little legs as they spill out from the rear seat.
• A man pauses to savor a beautiful landscape, then captures the moment with his camera.
• One driver happily yields for another.

While Buicks are visible throughout, they’re in the background quietly supporting the spirit of "what matters."

Then Buick transitions more directly to its own brand and makes the consumer connection.

“What if there was a car company that felt the same way? That car company is Buick, a brand that’s growing faster than any other major car company in America. By making vehicles of substance and quality, with a look and feel that says, ‘come as you are.’"

“This isn’t luxury the way you’ve always known it; it’s luxury the way it should be. Your kind of luxury.” 

Turns out this clever emotional alignment was based on a longer poem written in 2003 by Michael Josephson. Buick gives credit at the end of the spot, but the tiny type is easily missed.

By aligning its brand with the highest level of human desire (remember Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and the ultimate level of self-actualization?) – instead of wooing base desires – Buick is leveraging a high-level branding platform that spans multiple demographics in one swoop.

Caring. Kindness. Helping. Is it magical positioning? Authentic brand reinvention? Or clever salespersonship? I’m not sure, but I do know Buick hopes to sell more cars by embracing the best in all of us and hoping we, in turn, align with their brand because it represents what we cherish (or hope for) most in ourselves.

I don’t think this kind of appeal will hurt Buick, and it may spur even higher revenues. After all, Buick was the fastest-growing major automotive brand in the United States in 2010 with 40 percent of its sales coming from other manufacturers’ customer bases.

At the very least, we’re seeing a formerly stodgy brand intelligently re-aligning itself toward a new level of success…and Relevance.

I've collaborated with over 300 chief executive officers, from the world's largest global brands to established independents to VC-funded startups.

What jumps out is how few of them were personally instrumental at positively transforming communications and public relations programs.

The 80/20 rule holds true. 80 percent of my CEO experiences were middle of-the-road from the point of view of “making the PR effort better.” These middle-of-the-road CEOs didn’t do anything horrific, they just never put real skin in the game. They did what we needed them to do, nothing more, nothing less.Ten percent were dreadful. They paid lip service to public relations, never got genuinely engaged and expected miracle results without investing any effort. They’re the easiest to recall because they were often self-absorbed and sometimes arrogant, myopic and bullheaded, belligerent and autocratic. Some of these CEOs ruined their own companies. Others lost their personal reputations -- visibly and publicly -- due to fundamental personality flaws. Cases in point: one was arrested, prosecuted and ended up in prison. Two were profiled on the front page of the Wall Street Journal in scathing exposes.
 
The remaining 10 percent stand out in my mind’s eye as clearly as the dreadfuls, but for a better reason. These CEOs were enlivening, vigorous, catalyzing leaders who worked hard to take public relations programs to a new level.
 
My six best CEOs shared similar attributes: enthusiasm, personal humility, straightforwardness, class, and a belief that great reputations are earned, not deserved.
 
One of my favorite CEOs was an engineer by training. I call him Mr. Engage. He was most comfortable hanging with his software development teams, but once we pulled him out of the R&D labs, he lit up the room with his technical and competitive knowledge. He made PR programs better by becoming intellectually engaged. He didn’t just go through the motions, he shaped discussions. He disagreed, pushed back, offered refreshing points of view and always kept the discussion lively. He didn’t suffer fools lightly and was a great match for the toughest bloggers, reporters and analysts.

Mr. Credibility has endeared himself to customers, employees and media because he tells it like it is, the good and the bad, and isn’t myopic. When something isn’t right with his own product, he shares this. Conversely, when his company and/or products are clearly better than the competition, he isn’t shy to say this either, but does so in a way that proves his opinion is rooted in fact, not hype. Mr. Credibility sees the competitive forest clearly and doesn’t live in a “my company is always great” world. He made the PR program great by keeping the company vigorously focused on earning customer trust by delivering products that exceed expectations.

Ms. Social made an early intellectual leap to the emerging world of social media, then took bold action. Even though her company sells B2B vs. B2C, she understood the potential impact of building a grassroots following, especially with her customers. She figuratively jumped off the cliff, opening up her company’s brand to two-way conversations with newly forming online communities (which she helped create). Ms. Social embraced Twitter when everyone wondered if it was a fad. She  made sure her company blogged at a high level with non-myopic issues, trends and topics that people would search on naturally. Ms. Social made the PR program better by taking risks and trying new things that had never been done. While some panned out and others didn’t, the net-net is she created competitive advantage over others acted slowly or failed to seize the opportunity. 
 
Ms. Caring understands how great brands are built by going beyond solid products, profit and revenue. By creating an empowered culture of giving back within her organization, Ms. Caring has transformed her company's brand. She makes the PR program greater by increasing relevance with consumers, customers and other stakeholders who prefer buying from (and dealing with) companies who make the world a better place.

Mr. Focus is disciplined. Unlike many CEOs who want it all (or are satisfied for only a brief period of time), this particular executive continually pushes back to make sure PR efforts deliver needed value. While he’s passionate about focus, he’s also one of the most energetic and engaging CEOs I’ve ever worked with. He listens with excruciating patience and his expectations are adjustable. He makes the PR program better by truly understanding how public relations works, getting personally involved, pushing back, and focusing himself -- and us -- on the most important things.
 
Mr. Genuine headed a Fortune 50 company and personally made tens of millions of dollars but never let this consume him. He didn’t have a large ego, and was amazingly serene and genuinely personable. He made each individual feel like they were the only person in the room. He was patient and a great listener. He transformed his company from highly political to open and fair. He made the PR program great by subsuming his own ego and being able to take advice from his internal communications team and external PR firm.
 
If you have the opportunity to collaborate with a truly great CEO, enjoy the ride and remember to leverage this asset to the fullest. It’s a rare moment in a career, one that will remain as indelible as an early morning run down a fresh powder trail.

What worked & what didn't with 2011's Super Bowl ads

• What happened to social responsibility? Super Bowl ads were trending this way but we lost it last night. My hopes started rising when Timothy Hutton began talking about Tibet, but the ad speedily deteriorated into a pathetic sales pitch for Groupon. Not aligning purpose-driven brands with authentic social responsibility marketing campaigns is a missed opportunity.
  
• Bloat busts brands - I usually love Coke's Super Bowl ads, but not this year. The medieval-themed animated world was visually mesmerizing but the idea fell apart. The evil dragon can't breathe fire because he guzzled a Coke...the invading army retreats. Too much set-up for a petering payoff. Ditto for Coke's enemies border guard ad - a lengthy build-up to a disappointing ending. Other brands lost their way: Motorola's de-positioning of Apple's iPad tablet was another example.
  
• Jumping the shark - The E*TRADE babies aren't cute anymore - the concept is hackneyed. Cloud computing must be jumping the shark when animated Black Eyed Peas characters are pitching the atmospheric technology concept in salesforce.com ad. Some topics should never go consumer. 

• Simple trumps complicated - the ads that stuck were also short and simple. VW's endearing Darth Vader and Faith Hill's "your rack" ad for Teleflora artfully demonstrated how a tight focus generates the most impact and memorability. 
• Dumbing down can be dumb - we faced an onslaught of sophomoric Doritos and Bud Light spots in the early going. Post-SB measurement is validating how the lowest common denominator doesn't always equal effectiveness.
• Dumbing down cleverly is better - Bud Light's dog-themed "They'll do whatever you want" was clever-dumb, right down to the canine poker game fade-out.
• Long builds can work if the concept is tight - while bloated, convoluted ads (see Coke) can lose the brand, the Detroit-themed "this is what we do" Chrysler commercial featuring Eminem was captivating.

• Connecting TV to the online brand - Go Daddy made the most blatant connection between traditional and new media, driving viewers to its website to see the presumably titillating payoff.  
• Fresh creative will always pop - the CarFax ads were original and felt it. The messaging platform "Service shouldn't be a thing of the past" was brilliantly set up by eager beaver 1950's era service station attendants and home delivery milkmen. Ditto for this brand's "I feel like a..." ad. It was fun to watch because we haven't seen it before. Ditto for GM's Camaro ad featuring voice-overs from TV creatives talking through their ad concept as we saw it unfolding. The schoolteacher ending was cherry-topping.
• Flashback montage winner - who wasn't sucked into the NFL Channel's zippy montage of favorite TV characters brought back to life? 
• Seventies music ruled - from Budweiser's Western gunslinger to BMW's X3, the music often took a retro turn featuring baby boomer classics like Elton's "Tiny Dancer" to Bowie's "Changes." 
  
• Best tease - went to VW's "Beetle" ad. Their only mistake was using Ram Jam's politically incorrect 1977's "Black Betty" as the theme. They could've picked a better-fit song; this will backlash.
  
• Subtlety thy name is not Audi - it's unusual to see a car company select one - and only one - competitor to aggressively and directly de-position. Like its previously themed ads, Audi used nearly all the time from last night's spot emphasizing how Mercedes is no longer relevant. The new Audi 8 makes a quick appearance a few seconds at the end as the shiny relevant machine. Meanwhile, Mercedes relied on Janis Joplin's tune and P. Diddy to assert its hipness - it didn't work. 

There aren’t many B2B companies that wouldn’t be delighted with a more differentiated brand position.

Why is standing out so difficult? Putting aside (major) issues like inferior products or insufficient market demand, most companies repeat the same common mistakes: