It was that time of the year again...Superbowl AD mania. For all of the bad things I typically say about traditional advertising I do have to say this: The Superbowl is great for the Ad industry. Its the one time a year where there is some appreciation for the creativity and the art behind what many hard working folks do in this industry. I think thats great...overall, its almost like one big Ad for the Ad industry. Believe me...this industry needs some good PR.
While, in that aspect, the Superbowl is good, it's also horrifically bad for our industry. It stands for everything that is wrong with what advertisers do or rather don't do. While I was watching the ads and listening to the crowd of folks I was with play "Ad Critics" (an interesting thing to watch if your in the industry), I had to take notice of what I don't think I saw in one single ad...A CALL TO ACTION.
Will somebody please explain to me why! This years Superbowl was the 2nd most watched TV show of all time (second only to the last episode of M.A.S.H). Thats a HUGE audience. Thats a HUGE captive audience who is ACTUALLY paying attention to your ad. Don't you think that this would be a good opportunity to put in a call to action...I mean ask them to do something.
All of this makes me wonder again about ROI. I would love to see an independent company do an analysis of the ROI from the Superbowl. Of course this will never be done because the second there is a white-paper on return vs. cost the whole friggen system will blow up...even though it's something everyone already knows.
IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE THAT WAY !!!!!!!!
Instead of getting into a creative competition / ego bursting effort to make an audience laugh, why don't marketers focus on whats important...RESULTS. When I am sitting there watching Bud Light and Miller Lite battle it out for laughs...call me stupid...but I don't see the value.
Then I sit here for the next month and read the AD reviews from AD AGE rating which commercials were better than the others. I would say the best Ad is the one that moved the needle on KPI's (Key Performance Indicators) the most...but nobody ever wants to share that because...I am guessing here...it's a bust.
To make your next Superbowl Ad worth it here are some recommendations:
- Really really really, plan ahead. If you are going to do the Superbowl next year start planning now.
- Use the opportunity to promote something with a good call to action. Forget about laughs (but not completely) just don't let the creativity over take the result. Maybe use the opportunity to promote a new innovative product line. You can track that. Maybe promote a special sale. You can track that. maybe promote, a certain even where you want people to show up. You can track that. Maybe tell them that there is something really great, but it has limited quantities and a limited time to act...a blowout of some sort RIGHT NOW. You can track that. Do you see where I am going with this?
- Leverage the Internet. www.myreallyexpensivead.com/superbowl because its accountable. The Internet is a infinite space where you can hold them as long as they are willing to be there. Which is often times more than 30 seconds, its a lot cheaper and not to mention interactive.
- Build up some hype prior to the Ad actually running.
- Or just forget the whole thing and re-direct that Superbowl money to non-traditional efforts or focus and target in on your profit center customers. ROI for 30 seconds on the Superbowl = butkiss. ROI if you were to spend $3 Million on your highly targeted profit center customers = BIG TIME.
Then again...I don't expect logic to prevail when there are egos involved, and lets be honest...isn't that what Superbowl Ads are all about anyways.
There is a new book out written by John Rosen and AnnaMaria Turano titled Stopwatch Marketing. The premise talks about how consumers have an internal clock. This internal clock, which rules their decision making process, is set by a number of factors, such as urgency to purchase and risk. This totally dictates how slow or fast they actually purchase. 
