Okay, some “marketing expert” on CNN this morning said Super Bowl ads are a waste of time and money! Well, I’m an advertising fan, and I completely disagree with that assessment! (But what he said after making such a dubious claim is exactly what I’ve been saying on this blog for months!) The great Super Bowl ads are great, but they really ought to be tied in thematically with the product they’re advertising. If nobody remembers the product after the ad, it really is a waste of money! But to say that to do advertising during the Super Bowl is a waste of effort and money is a complete fallacy! It’s one of the biggest platforms in the world, and lots of people tune in to see the ads too: it’s just that so many Super Bowl ads, as fun as they are, don’t really help sell their brands/products very well.
This guy on CNN used an ad with a guy with 2 heads shopping for cars as an example. And he’s right: after seeing it and hearing him talk about it, I still couldn’t remember what kind of car it was an ad for. And unless I’m the only one who feels that way, that means this is a waste of money for the car company. And unfortunately, many, many Super Bowl ads are just like this: they take a silly/funny/odd/attention-getting flashy thing, and then they just slap the brand on at the end of the spot. This does nothing to build brand identity, in my opinion. But if the thing they did was somehow tied into the product, and why you’d want to buy it, then it’s memorable and great!
Here’s an example of what I’m talking about: There was a commercial for Net10 done by an agency called Droga5 where they had a cartoon of a super villains league, and they’re calling their cell phone company and threatening to use a death ray on them in retaliation for the terms of the cell phone contracts, but then the agent on the phone says they’d still have to pay the fees and honor the contract even if they disintegrated the company, so then the main super villain guy tells them not to use the death ray. So then they tell us why Net10 is better, because they don’t have contracts that trap and chisel you like other companies.
See? Perfect! It’s a great, memorable scenario, it’s tied into the product they’re selling, and it shows you why you might want to buy it. Oh, and it’s fun and attention-grabbing. What else can you ask for in an ad if you’re a company paying for it? (Nothing! That’s the answer: there is nothing more anyone can ask of an ad than this one delivers. Except generate sales, that is; but this ad does its work very well. If it didn’t help with sales {I don’t know the answer; I just love this ad!}, then the product sucks, or else everyone is stuck in a contract like the ad is talking about. And that’s not the ad’s fault.)
Here’s an ad that’s in league with the Super Bowl:
