Loose Cannon: Super Bowl Ad Recap Number XL

Call it a case of bookends and bupkus: Super Bowl Sunday’s two purest direct marketing television ads — those actively engaged in selling a featured product — ran right before and right after the game. But the ads shown during the Super Bowl’s four-plus hours left something to be desired, both from a DM and, in some cases, branding perspective.

From a DM perspective, the ads accompanying the game started auspiciously enough. Blockbuster Video touted its in-home movie rental program, and offered one free movie per week to customers coming into one of its locations. This is multichannel marketing at its best: The more channels a customer is engaged through, the stronger the relationship. And Blockbuster’s ad prominently featured a Web site viewers could visit for more information.

Spots that ran during the game, however, largely misused, abused or ignored DM. McDonalds, a traditional Super Bowl sponsor, ran only a single ad, which featured a man in a hamster-mascot costume talking to a Ronald McDonald statue. Now, hamsters in any form shouldn’t be associated with fast food. McDonalds apparently realized this: The chain’s actual product offerings played no part in the ad.

The McDonalds ad didn’t even feature a URL, unlike the considerably cleverer Burger King spot. Burger King’s Busby Berkeley-inspired production number featured dancers clad in costumes that represented the Whopper’s ingredients. The spot featured a URL ( www.whopperettes.com) where viewers could see — and interact with — a plethora of hamburger-related production numbers. During Super Bowl Sunday, The King ate Ronald McDonald’s lunch.

Other ads used URLs with a greater or lesser degree of effectiveness. Budweiser, which traditionally pours money into the Super Bowl, did so again this year — and by not including a Web site in any of its spots has nothing concrete to show for it. If nothing else, a tagline common to all of its ads — “Please drink responsibly” — is ripe to be snapped up and used as part of a “designated driver” goodwill program. Any takers for pleasedrinkresponsibly.com? It’s available.

Arguably, Pepsi should have taken a sip from Bud’s cup: Several of Pepsi’s ads featured the unfortunate URL www.brownandbubbly.com. Perhaps I don’t understand the nuances of brand advertising, but a Web site address that evokes an Environmental Protection Agency Superfund toxic waste site isn’t one I want associated with my cola.

Oddly enough Sierra Mist, another Pepsi product, ran a nifty spot involving someone trying to bring a soda through an airport security checkpoint. The URL for this spot — www.mist-takes.com — tied into the commercial’s theme and the product name. Nice going, folks — and a pity you didn’t play more of the Sierra Mist commercials (available at that site) in place of their brown and bubbly brethren.

Overstock.com’s spot used both its URL as well as a toll-free number — 1-800-THE-BIG-O — in a female-viewer-oriented advertisement that would have been quite at home on the Lifetime Network. I’m scratching my head over the wisdom of paying $2.5 million for a Super Bowl ad geared toward female viewers. There’s a reason why Super Bowl ads tend to be of the “laddie” variety.

Yes, the number of female football fans has grown in recent years, but was the Super Bowl the most effective media buy to reach them? I’m sure that the targeters at Overstock.com had their reasons — as well as two mediums with which to monitor the ad’s effectiveness. (Note to self: Check for news of downsizing in Overstock’s marketing department as of Monday, Feb. 6.)

Overstock.com, as well as two other advertisers — GoDaddy.com and CareerBuilders.com — have the advantage of including their URLs right in their names. Both companies capitalized on this by building on their ads from last year’s game, and both have a measurable means to track this strategy’s effectiveness.

One advertiser, financial advisor firm DWS Scudder, simultaneously managed both to incorporate and seem hostile toward URLs. The company’s spot did include its Web address (in mouse type), but it managed to superimpose white letters over a light background, and black letters over a dark background.

The price tag of a Super Bowl ad — $2.5 million for 30 seconds — is probably partly responsible for the tendency of advertisers to shy away from incorporating trackable devices into their spots. With that amount of money at stake, it’s easy to understand a marketing director’s reluctance to have quantifiable proof that an ad is a turkey. But the solution isn’t to ignore the response mechanisms: It’s to get better ads.

Don’t take my word for it: Remember how I said that the game was bookended by two effective direct response ads? Right after game ended, ABC-TV ran a classic DR spot, featuring a Web site, a toll-free number, and a strong and steady set of calls to action. The sponsor? The NFL Shop.

Now there’s an advertiser that had its eye on the ball.

To respond to this column, please contact e-mail: [email protected]