THINK ABOUT IT: So Whadaya Think About Super Bowl LVIII Advertising?

Hmmm, I’m not hearing much about the Super Bowl LVIII advertainment adstravaganza.

Yes, I know; the KC Chiefs and SF Forty-Niners clashed in the championship game 16 days ago. It's long gone from people's memories.

The bloom is off for the game and, seemingly, the advertainment.

Were the ads successful?

It depends on how you define the word “success.”

Did they have a broad reach? Yes, record numbers. Tens of millions.

Did they engage viewers? For the most part, yes.

Did viewers like what they saw? Again, for the most part, yes, according to "likability" ratings.

Did the ads go viral? Many did.

But like the burning candles on a 10-year-old's birthday cake, one blow and poof, they're extinguished from consumers' consideration set.

You know how I measure success: at the cash register.

It's only successful if it profitably drives incremental sales and market share.

Did they? Meh, show me the numbers.

So, how might we characterize and assess Super Bowl LVIII commercials without the numbers?

I think AIDA is an excellent way to put Super Bowl LVIII ads into context.

No, not the opera. The acronym for “Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action.”

AIDA is a sound construct for thinking about advertising.

Many of the ads certainly generated attention. How could they miss with more than 60% of the commercials featuring a celebrity and more than 40% more than one celebrity?

There was Arnold, J-Lo, Ben and Matt, Beyonce, Christopher, Usher, Jennifer and David, Laura, Zach and Bradley, among many others—including celebrities I didn’t even know were celebrities.

Interest? Yes, that, too. However, the ads misplaced interest in the stars and their performances, not in the brands they represent. I don't feel I learned anything new about the brands; if I did, it wasn't important.

Desire? Hardly.

While some ads positively reinforced the brand's message, they were too few and far apart. The excessive reliance on celebrities and attempt to out-entertain the field overshadowed the brands.

So, no, they did not stoke my desire.

If they did not stoke desire, it is only natural that they failed to incite me to action.

What type of action do I refer to? Let's return to how I define success: profitably driving incremental sales and market share growth.

It's only successful if it sells.

I may hear the music, but I'm not dancing to the tune.

Let’s get real. Restore sanity in advertising.

Get beyond entertaining. Stimulate customers to act on behalf of our brands.

THINK ABOUT IT

• How do you define a successful ad?
• In what ways, if any, should we use different criteria for Super Bowl advertising?
• What Super Bowl LVIII ads do you believe were most successful? In what ways?

MAKE YOUR MARKETING MATTER MORE

• Apply the criteria of profitably increasing sales and market share to your brand's advertising. Are your ads successful?
• Inspect what you expect. Measure against your expectations of brand performance.
• Make sure you know what to expect. Include a Communication Behavior Objective (i.e., specific customer actions such as switching, adoption, etc.) in your Creative Brief. Make it SMART.

Please follow me on LinkedIn: https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/richarddczerniawski/, where I share my perspectives from 51 years of successful worldwide brand marketing experience in my blog THINK ABOUT IT each week.

Commit fewer turnovers with your marketing and advertising:The team that commits fewer turnovers tends to win the big games. Please purchase, gift, and read my most recent book, AVOIDING CRITICAL MARKETING ERRORS: How to Go from Dumb to Smart Marketing, to make fewer turnovers and more winning plays.You can learn more and purchase it here:https://www.amazon.com/AVOIDING-CRITICAL-MARKETING-ERRORS-Marketing-ebook/dp/B084YXVWFY/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2YN4B8VC23YWC&keywords=Avoiding+Critical+Marketing+Errors&qid=1675354412&s=digital-text&sprefix=avoiding+critical+marketing+errors%2Cdigital-text%2C78&sr=1-1

Peace and best wishes for making your marketing and advertising matter more,

Richard D. Czerniawski