Super Bowl Ads Forgot The Message

You can see all the Super Bowl 45 ads at http://superbowlads.fanhouse.com/2011

Today’s photo caption in the Wall St. Journal about yesterday’s Super Bowl was spot on – “Between Commercials, Packers Hold Off Steelers, 31-25.”

I love that…between commercials the game the was played.  When did the commercials overshadow the reason for them? With that, the NFL may have a little branding problem on their hands.

But, not really, for everything that I have read and what I saw yesterday is that most viewers/reporters felt that the ads were bland, blah and meh-like this year.  And that’s not good when you spend $3 million a pop for a 30-second message. The game ended up being the quality content.

LACKLUSTER AD PERFORMANCE

Part of the problem with the flamboyant ads is in their messaging.  Over and over on the twitter stream, I kept reading that each commercial just tried too hard to be funny, memorable and/or outrageous.  The companies forgot that all they really needed to do was be good and on brand. Otherwise, it’s just a wasted effort.

Consumers will remember your brand if you provide a solution in their life. That’s a key point that was missed 99.9 percent of the time yesterday.

Instead of having Richard Lewis and Roseanne Barr working in a lumber yard-why not feature a Snickers ad about practical uses for the candy-a personal reward. Or for Best Buy, show off the fact that this franchise is about the only one left that allows you to touch electronics before you buy them.  Online you can’t touch and feel a tablet, but you can there. By choosing the wow factor by combining Justin Bieber, Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne in the Best Buy commercial, that didn’t say anything about the store or its products.  I could go on and on about this and how the ads were “nothing” about the featured product.

VALUABLE INFORMATION IS ALWAYS NEEDED

Groupon was a disaster with the Tibet theme and Timothy Hutton cameo in the commercial. I know what GroupOn is but, the majority of the country does not. That commercial left them even more confused.  LivingSocial.com’s commercial did a better job of describing its service. And those stupid GoDaddy.co ads…they are the same every year (non-sensical) and don’t get me going about the E*Trade baby. He needs to grow up.

Doritos and Bud Light also go for the humor and the car commercials went a bit more Americana with the Detroit Chrysler and BWM ads.  Those were a nice touch.

But all in all, not one of the commercials made me think I needed to check out a product.  None provided a solution to a pressing need.  And that’s not good.

AND YOU?

What solutions are you providing with your company and are they being clearly conveyed.  I know I need to work on that point myself.

See ya online,

Cindy