We’ve just seen the latest orgy of self-indulgence from “Big Advertising” at Super Bowl 52. Great game apparently (I confess I’m not a fan of NFL) and the ads shown over the course of the game have become a major talking point. However, it seems unlikely that the folks paying for it all…the advertisers…will see a decent return on their money.
“64% of Super Bowl viewers are unable to connect a memorable ad to the brand it was advertising, according to research from research consultancy Communicus. They also found less than 20% of Super Bowl ads produce significant impact on the brand.”
More at “super bowl advertising” by Marketoonist Tom Fishburne.
Not only were the viewers unable to remember the brands advertising, there were fewer of them as ratings declined, resulting in the smallest audience in 9 years…
“With 103.4 million watching, last night’s game on NBC from Minneapolis is down 7% from the total set of network eyeballs from the 2017 Super Bowl.”
Back to the ads themselves…
…the obvious point (at least to those who actually know something about making sales) is that entertainment alone is not enough.
Mike Capuzzi points out some of things that are missing in his post…
“3 Super Bowl Commercial Fumbles”
Briefly, the ads usually lack…
- An offer
- A reason to act NOW
- A way to follow up
Still, perhaps advertisers are realising that they might have better ways to spend their budgets than splashing $7.7 million for a 30-second spot in the Super Bowl. The always insightful Malcolm Auld notes that…
“Less than one third of 2017 Super Bowl advertisers return in 2018…”
Almost a century ago, in “Scientific Advertising” (Chapter 2 “Just Salesmanship”) the great Claude Hopkins pointed out…
The only purpose of advertising is to make sales. It is profitable or unprofitable according to its actual sales.
It is not for general effect. It is not to keep your name before the people. It is not primarily to aid your other salesmen.
Ads are not written to entertain. When they do, those entertainment seekers are little likely to be the people whom you want.
Hopkins was the highest paid copywriter and marketer of his time and the principles he set out in the book “Scientific Advertising” were based on results and lessons learned at great cost over many years. Yet many current marketers are either ignorant of those lessons or simply ignore them. If you can afford to spend millions on an ad with questionable results, you may not need to understand the principles of “Scientific Advertising”. If not, then you may want to take a close look.