Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Super Bowl Ads Fail to Score — Again
The Super Bowl ads were once again generally lackluster. Several were a complete waste of money. Here are the 5 biggest losers:
1. GoDaddy.com: This ad was an ego trip for CEO Bob Parsons and was aimed at the wrong audience. GoDaddy is an Internet domain name registrar that provides other web hosting-related services. Most Super Bowl watchers don't know a URL from a UPC and those who do already know about GoDaddy. (I use them and they're the best at what they do.) At, say, two bucks profit per registration, they'll have to sell 1.2 million just to break even on the cost of the ad. Bad decision.
2. CareerBuilder.com: This is the company that provides online job listing services via major newspapers. The ads featured chimpanzees with the theme, "I'm working with a bunch of monkeys so I need a better job." First, chimps are not monkeys. Second, there was no mention of WHY someone should visit CareerBuilder vs. the competition (Monster, Yahoo Jobs, etc.). And third, whoopee cushions and butt-kissing depictions went out with The Three Stooges. I counted three times this ad was run. That means they'll have to sell $7.2 million in job postings just to break even. Good luck.
3. O2 - The ad featured people with bubble-like O2s attached to them. I didn't know who they are or what they do before the ad, and I don't know now. The person who approved this ad should be taken to the village square and put into stocks (those wooden contraptions that hold your feet and hands) with a sign around his neck that says, "Buffoon!"
4. Ford Mustang - This showed a highway patrol officer investigating a frozen guy in a Mustang convertible with the top down stopped at a traffic signal in the middle of winter on a snow-covered road. I guess the idea was to show that driving a ragtop Mustang is so much fun, you lose track of time. Apparently even Ford thought this message was a stretch because they ran the same ad three times by my count. They'll have to sell a lot of Mustangs to recover the $7.2 million they wasted on these ads.
5. FedEx-Kinkos. First of all, pick one name and drop the other. Or maybe combine the name: Finkos. Yeah, I like it. But I digress. This ad parodied Super Bowl ads in general by listing the ten elements needed to create a successful ad, including having a celebrity. So they chose Burt Reynolds, whose celebrity star is, at best, fading. The list went on to include an animal and a child. Waaaaaay at the bottom of the list was the "message." Folks, this is why most ads fail miserably - because the message gets lost or stolen by the creative. Another loser.
Bottom line: Image ads (like those run during the Super Bowl) RARELY get short-term results and often don't get measurable long-term results. If you want to get the most bang for your buck, run ads that are targeted and that convey a compelling benefit of doing business with you, combined with a meaningful offer that will motivate qualified prospects to contact you and buy from you. It's that simple. Why don't the big dogs get it?
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1. GoDaddy.com: This ad was an ego trip for CEO Bob Parsons and was aimed at the wrong audience. GoDaddy is an Internet domain name registrar that provides other web hosting-related services. Most Super Bowl watchers don't know a URL from a UPC and those who do already know about GoDaddy. (I use them and they're the best at what they do.) At, say, two bucks profit per registration, they'll have to sell 1.2 million just to break even on the cost of the ad. Bad decision.
2. CareerBuilder.com: This is the company that provides online job listing services via major newspapers. The ads featured chimpanzees with the theme, "I'm working with a bunch of monkeys so I need a better job." First, chimps are not monkeys. Second, there was no mention of WHY someone should visit CareerBuilder vs. the competition (Monster, Yahoo Jobs, etc.). And third, whoopee cushions and butt-kissing depictions went out with The Three Stooges. I counted three times this ad was run. That means they'll have to sell $7.2 million in job postings just to break even. Good luck.
3. O2 - The ad featured people with bubble-like O2s attached to them. I didn't know who they are or what they do before the ad, and I don't know now. The person who approved this ad should be taken to the village square and put into stocks (those wooden contraptions that hold your feet and hands) with a sign around his neck that says, "Buffoon!"
4. Ford Mustang - This showed a highway patrol officer investigating a frozen guy in a Mustang convertible with the top down stopped at a traffic signal in the middle of winter on a snow-covered road. I guess the idea was to show that driving a ragtop Mustang is so much fun, you lose track of time. Apparently even Ford thought this message was a stretch because they ran the same ad three times by my count. They'll have to sell a lot of Mustangs to recover the $7.2 million they wasted on these ads.
5. FedEx-Kinkos. First of all, pick one name and drop the other. Or maybe combine the name: Finkos. Yeah, I like it. But I digress. This ad parodied Super Bowl ads in general by listing the ten elements needed to create a successful ad, including having a celebrity. So they chose Burt Reynolds, whose celebrity star is, at best, fading. The list went on to include an animal and a child. Waaaaaay at the bottom of the list was the "message." Folks, this is why most ads fail miserably - because the message gets lost or stolen by the creative. Another loser.
Bottom line: Image ads (like those run during the Super Bowl) RARELY get short-term results and often don't get measurable long-term results. If you want to get the most bang for your buck, run ads that are targeted and that convey a compelling benefit of doing business with you, combined with a meaningful offer that will motivate qualified prospects to contact you and buy from you. It's that simple. Why don't the big dogs get it?
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