Category: Super Bowl Advertising

How to Judge Super Bowl Advertising: Follow The Money

Let me tell you why I am not a fan of Super Bowl advertising… it sends the wrong message to our LOCAL advertisers. – Tom Ray, Jim Doyle & Associates

how to judge Super Bowl television advertising
Photo by Nomad_Soul.DPC

As the Super Bowl approaches, the advertising critics are out in force. Most of them will miss the point. When you’re deciding whether the ad you just saw is “good” or “bad”, consider the case of Salesgenie.

In 2007, Salesgenie, a sales-lead-by-subscription service, ran a commercial that was disliked by the vast majority of the media’s judges. Bob Garfield of Advertising Age called it “monumentally brainless and amateurish.” The commercial finished dead last in USA Today’s Ad Meter.

It lives on in cyberspace — enjoy it courtesy of YouTube, and then tell me if it’s a good commercial or a bad commercial:

A few days after the game, USA Today had this to report:

•Salesgenie.com. The sales-lead website generated more than 10,000 new customer subscriptions by late Monday, far more than the 700 it said it needed to break even on its ad cost. “Our ad wasn’t supposed to be funny or clever,” InfoUSA CEO Vin Gupta says. “It was supposed to bring in subscribers, and it’s been successful beyond our wildest dreams. We’re already working on next year’s ad.”

They needed 700 subscriptions to break even on the ad, and they got 10,000. This would seem to be a very nice ROI.

If you were to accuse Gupta and the others involved in producing the commercial of being obnoxious, offensive human beings, you’d get no argument from this blog. But the commercial is an awfully impressive piece of direct-response advertising.

Salesgenie chose a specific target — lazy male salespeople — identified what they really wanted, presented their product as a way for those salespeople to get what they really wanted, and then gave them a specific action to take. The company cheerfully ignored all of the out-of-the-target people who didn’t like the ad, and took their money to the bank.

As Tom Ray points out, Super Bowl advertising often causes otherwise-intelligent local businesspeople to judge their own advertising using the wrong criteria.

If the ad works, it’s a great ad – no matter how many rules are broken or how bad it may look, smell or taste. If the ad is not working, it is wretchedly bad – no matter how clever the production.” — Don Fitzgibbons, the Guru of Ads

 

Most of the Super Bowl television advertisers have a product or service to sell. The commercial must somehow advance the sales process to be effective. As you watch the advertising this Sunday, ask yourself what each advertiser is trying to accomplish.

  • What do they want the audience to do  as a result of seeing the commercial?
  • Did the commercial cause the audience to do it?

If it did, the commercial worked, and it’s a good ad. If not, it’s a bad one. Salesgenie wasn’t counting USA Today Ad Meter votes — they were counting subscriptions. Like it or not, there were more than 10,000 reasons to say that the ad worked. 

If you are a local radio or television advertising salesperson, or someone who advertises on local radio or TV, don’t let the Super Bowl media judges take your eyes off the prize. Artistic merit doesn’t matter — businesses advertise because they have something to sell.

Follow the money. The prize that counts is awarded in dollars.

[reminder]What’s the best Super Bowl television commercial you’ve ever seen — and why?[/reminder]

 

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Making a Funny Commercial Work

“Oh… and make it funny.”

For nearly a decade, my biggest Portland radio advertising client was a car dealer who appeared in his own commercials. I wrote the copy — more than 500 separate scripts over that time. And whenever he gave me the copy points, “Make it funny” was one of them.

He wanted the commercials to sell cars. But more important to him, I learned over time, he wanted his employees, customers, and friends to tell him what a funny guy he was.

In the interest of getting the copy approved, and preserving my commission, my first objective became to make him laugh when he read the script. My second objective for the script was to make it sell cars.

I’m not necessarily proud that my objectives were in that order, but there you go.

I’m reminded of that struggle every time I see the Volkswagen “The Force” commercial. This ad debuted on the Super Bowl, and two things happened:

1. Everybody loved it. Loved it. LOVED it.

2. When it was over, nobody could remember what car was featured in the ad.

It entertained, but it forgot to sell.

Pretty much everyone who owns a TV has seen it, but if you haven’t, here it is:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R55e-uHQna0]

It was Radio Copywriting Guru Dan O’Day, at a seminar in Los Angeles, who taught me how to do both. His rule: the sales message must be part of the comedy.

On Dan’s blog, he’s begun an extended discussion of why humor, used properly, works in advertising. Here’s a short excerpt:

When an advertisement comes on the radio, the listener’s guard is up. Even though my saying this will offend a few radio sales chauvinists, people do not turn on the radio for the commercials….

If the commercial makes you laugh, however, then while you’re laughing your guard is down. Your filter is in the “pause” mode.

The full discussion is well worth reading, and there’s more to come. You’ll find the full post here.

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2008 SalesGenie Ads — I Think They’ll Work

Time to follow up last year’s post on the SalesGenie Super Bowl ads.

To start with, a note so that you don’t think I’m a complete boob: I hated them. Poor animation. Ethnically insulting, bordering on racist. Not even remotely clever.

And yet…

I think they’ll work. And by “work”, I mean bring in enough business to the company that the seven-figure ad buy turns a profit for them.

The first-quarter ad actually told a story that could resonate with salespeople — a failing seller is threatened with loss of employment, signs up with SalesGenie, and wins Salesman of the Year honors. It answers a question that many sellers are asking — “How can I double my sales?”, cleverly typed by the seller into Google. The answer? SalesGenie.com.

It’s got a clear call to action, with a reward that will appeal to salespeople and managers — go to SalesGenie.com and get 100 free leads for every rep in your company.

The second ad — the one with the pandas — told a story that seemed less clear, but the call to action was there with the same reward.

Neither ad was an artistic success. But as the economy goes south, there is an increasing demand among salespeople for anything that might give them an edge. Even if the tone offends them (and I suspect there’s a segment that won’t be bothered at all), they are likely to hold their noses and give the company a shot. I’m thinking SalesGenie may win the only award that counts.

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Super Bowl Advertising — Another Chance For Experts to Miss the Point

Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal article on first-time Super Bowl advertisers begins this way:

Super Bowl viewers will be on the lookout for rookie mistakes — and not just on the field.

Advertising at the big game is a gamble for newcomers not just because of the rising cost of buying the ads — advertisers are paying up to $2.7 million for a 30-second spot this year, up from $2.6 million in 2007 — but also the risk to their reputations if the commercials fall flat or offend.

When the game’s over, there will be articles and polls on which were the “best” and “worst” ads. Most will judge the commercials on artistic merit, missing what should be advertising’s ultimate goal — to sell something.

One advertiser from last year’s game who kept its eye on the prize was SalesGenie, whom I wrote about a few weeks after the game. Just about all the experts hated their commercial. SalesGenie cheerfully accepted the abuse, and kept bringing truckloads of money to the bank.

Here’s another, according to the Journal:

One of last year’s newcomers, Garmin Ltd., the maker of GPS devices, is coming back this year despite coming in low on some ad poll lists with an ad featuring a map that turned into a Godzilla-inspired monster. Reaction “was a mixed bag but it was still a success,” says Ted Gartner, media relations manager at Garmin. “As long as people are spelling our name right and still purchasing the Garmin units, it’s all good.”

 

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Click this link to subscribe to Portland’s Finest Advertising Blog.

Request your free copy of my white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them here.