I’m a little late on my Super Bowl commentary. (The Saints won, in case you hadn’t heard.) I’m also late on the other morning-after topic of the commercials—lots of guys wearing their underpants and some bizarre screaming chickens. But there is a more evergreen association idea in there, really there is.
My viewing companion, the world’s biggest commercial avoider, asked why anyone would spend $2.8 million for a 30 second slot. I said that advertising is, of course, more complicated than this but when you get up into those sorts of numbers, it becomes very simple.
- Is your target audience watching?
- Are they paying attention?
One of the big selling points of a Super Bowl commercial is that advertisers are guaranteed that viewers will be paying attention and not in the bathroom or getting snacks or checking their email. It may be the one broadcast where we actually watch the commercials. So if you are targeting mostly men, skewing younger—beer, soft drinks, fast food, video games, cell phones and an irreverent take on personal investing—this is your moment. Expensive but worth it.
This year, however, Pepsi gave up on the Super Bowl after 23 years. Instead, Pepsi has budgeted $20 million for Project Refresh, a social media campaign that will give grants in six areas in line with its CSR goals. They feel that everyone knows who they are. They don’t need brand awareness; they need engagement.
Admittedly, engagement is a vague terms that gets vaguer as it is over used. But ask yourself three questions.
- What does your association brand need? Awareness? Engagement? Clarification? Stability? Positioning?
- Where is your target audience?
- What are they really paying attention to?
Chances are you don’t have $20 million to spend, but if you did, how would you spend it most wisely to build your brand? Should you do the whole panoply of promotional marketing: advertising, PR, direct mail, social media? Or should you throw everything at the one big game when you know they’ll be there?
Great questions. It obviously depends on the brand and type of business advertising. For example it doesn’t seem fit for many B2B companies to advertise in the Super bowl as people are more interested in a laugh and unique take on a consumer product.
That said, it is interesting that Google ran their “Paris Love” ad when it had already been floating around online for a few weeks. Their ad was more of an exercise in branding and awareness than it was in selling a service. Also, Google is more of a unique case in that they wanted to almost be viewed as a spectacle for the spend when there are not direct sales at stake.
All in all, I might follow Pepsi’s lead and explore some more digital, social channels.
It makes a big difference whether you want a big audience or the right audience. Do you want to sell a lot of soft drinks to a lot of people? Or do you want the right, qualified people to join your association? More targeted efforts that lead directly to conversion are certainly the way to go for all but the mass brands.