The annual Super Bowl gives football fans more than access to the NFL (National Football League) championship game. “Super Bowl Sunday” has also quickly become the one and only day of the year that many viewers tune in to actually see the commercial ads — ads that cost an average of 2.3 million dollars for one 30-second time spot. And that cost doesn’t include the cost of creating and producing the commercial!

So are these highly creative, high-priced ads effective?

Not if the creativity is all you remember about them.

Most of this year’s new ads were oozing with creative genius. My disappointment is that, for the most part, they were remarkably memorable for creativity alone – not the product or service they were promoting.

Is that money well-spent?  Not in my small business-minded opinion.

Especially when you consider that on this ONE day, viewers are actually WILLING and EAGER to see your ad. On any other given day, during any other television program, people would be wielding their remote controls to channel surf once the programs they are watching fade to commercial.

You and I don’t have 2.3 million dollars to spend on a one-shot chance to reach our audiences. We can’t afford the arrogance of assuming people will like us or our products based on a “clever” commercial. The people we market to need to know what good we are to them, their lives, their businesses, etc.

Now, I’m not suggesting you avoid using creativity in your advertising. I’m just asking you to remember that creativity is the icing, not the cake. Creativity enhances an ad; it cannot take its place. Don’t try to frost something that’s only half-baked!

This entry was posted on February 11, 2011 at 12:10 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Posted in Marketing & Promotion Ideas by Susan Carter No Comments Yet