Super Bowl Advertising and TOD
Who is TOD, you ask? Not a who, a what: Tyranny of Digital…a topic I am going to pursue over the coming months. TOD is intrinsically tied to FOMO, but is even more debilitating. It's when Fear Of Missing Out morphs into lemming-like business behavior, when we repeat Big Brother’s axioms like mantras…when we lose sight of the goal because we are chained to and caught inside the vortex of DIGIBABBLE.
Imagine this: the Academy Award winners are leaked or pre-released before the show…the discussion changes…gets narrower...come the show, we know who wins…but who cares it's what we do in a digital social world…the tail is longer right? Imagine the red carpet fashions are treated in the same way…and on and on…
I was struck by TOD this year more than ever, although I have been writing about the nonsense of “Pre-Release” for years. But no…it's not pre-released…you started your campaign earlier to show your digital prowess and just happen to have bought a spot on the Super Bowl.
Reading and watching and listening to the commentary around the “pre and leaked,” I never heard anyone discuss the companies, their products or services…it was always about the ad…good, bad or indifferent, and the celeb, if there was one.
Day of, same thing, as well as the day after. The various meters of success: which commercial the industry liked the most, which one actual human beings liked the most, and which one pets liked the most (kidding, maybe next year)…the consensus of which were all different. But there was little or no discussion about efficacy, nor will we hear one…a point which the NYTimes makes as well. Think about it—have you ever seen a follow up report on which Super Bowl commercial actually made a tangible difference to the companies they represented?
My friend Shelly Palmer recently critiqued the Google Loretta spot, in a very passionate way, discussing the implications of the message in terms of data intrusiveness, while making a strong case for measuring ads by what they’re actually saying.
My point is not about any single message, though, it’s simply about the moment and marketing. The Super Bowl as a marketing moment is not new. It's not a result of Digital anything or some version of Modern Marketing. In fact, go back in time to Joe Namath and Noxzema to see how to lead up to an event…how to successfully leverage the anticipation and use the platform for a high-dive, rather than a mere extra lap.
There were some smart marketers who got it right, who used the moment, led up to the moment…and then followed through. No TOD, just plain good marketing.
KNEE JERK ALERT – lets be clear TOD doesn’t mean “be analog,”way too late for that. Digital is everything—it touches every part of our lives—but not everything is digital because often the digital part is an enabler that allows us to get on with our real lives and enjoy real experiences…like the Super Bowl.
TOD means the conference room discussion of Digital First, instead of People First…or what’s the marketing goal…what do we hope to accomplish, instead of let’s “Pre-Release” instead of what we hope to accomplish, and let’s build viral hype—of which there was very little—rather than emphasize what we hope to say.
The saddest outcome, perhaps, is the overwhelming consensus that this year the ads just weren’t that good…yes there were some standouts…again…different by source of meter/vote, but in general they came and went.
I sat in Hard Rock Stadium with my grandson enjoying the game and not missing the advertising, most of which I’d seen anyway…
And there you have it. Maybe next year marketers will think about the marketing moment first, lead up to it, take that high dive, score a ten…and then do a few extra laps because they can. Listen:
“Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.” – Tim Notke
Marketing is hard work. TOD has lulled some into believing it's not so, but the real winners got it. They used every channel, worked the event, used the moment and then swam the extra laps…
Watch the Oscars this year. Whatever other issues they might have, TOD isn’t one of them. Keep an eye out for Rolex2020 and follow Milano Cookies tweets (full disclosure: both from VMLY&R). The reveal is worth it.
Marketers: don’t make the high dive a shallow wade in the kiddy pool.
What do you think?