Advertisers weigh in on Super Bowl spots
When only a few seconds of airtime cost millions of dollars, relevancy is the key to a successful advertisement, regional marketing executives said at a recent panel discussion.
That becomes especially true with the increased longevity of featured advertising spots resulting from the growth of services like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook, said panelists at the 10th annual “Best of the Super Bowl Ads” event, which was held Feb. 21 at the University of Connecticut”™s Stamford Learning Center and hosted by the Fairfield County chapter of the American Marketing Association.
Among the most memorable ”” and divisive ”” ads that aired during Super Bowl XLVII was GoDaddy.com L.L.C.”™s “The Kiss,” which features model Bar Refaeli and actor Jesse Heiman.
The ad spot attempts to convey that GoDaddy.com, which is among the world”™s largest providers of Web domains, is the perfect blend of brains and beauty. But to the audience, the commercial was a grotesque use of stereotypes that neglected the fact that women are now the largest segment of the market buying domain names, panelists said.
“I have very violent feelings about this,” said Nancy Shenker, founder of Yonkers, N.Y., marketing firm ONswitch. “I will, as a consumer, never again buy a domain name from GoDaddy because they objectified women, they didn”™t speak to the target market and as a mother ”” my daughters are 20 and 24 ”” I don”™t want them watching this. It was clearly an example of a young, hip ad guy, sitting in a room with his friends asking, ”˜What”™s hot?”™ and losing all sense of marketing 101.”
In contrast, panelist Tom Sebok, formerly CEO of advertising agency Young & Rubicam, referenced a 2003 appliance commercial fostered by General Electric Co., which he said used the same concept but in a more tasteful way that was more relevant to the product. That commercial featured the unlikely romance of model Yamila Diaz-Rahi and an actor portraying a nonotechnology professor. The concept was a marriage of beauty and brains to sell GE Profile appliances.
“There is zero brand differentiation here,” Sebok said comparing the GoDaddy commercial to the GE example. “(It”™s) absolutely disgusting, painful to watch ”¦ and fundamentally irrelevant.”
Sebok, a Westport resident, has worked on accounts for Chevron, Dell, Ford Motor Co. and Virgin Atlantic.
As the lifespan of Super Bowl commercials increases with the prevalence of the Internet and social media, the panelists agreed the ads”™ messages should aim to build a relationship with customers ”” and hopefully one that customers are happy about.
For the past couple of years, the onslaught has begun even before the Super Bowl. According to GoDaddy.com, the company”™s “The Kiss” ad spot drew 4 million YouTube views before kickoff.
Social media users continued to weigh in on commercials during the game, discussing whether commercials such as “The Kiss” were inappropriate or whether a “Get Happy” ad fostered by Volkswagen was racist.
“Advertising today isn”™t just your 30-second spot,” Shenker said. “It”™s what you are doing on the Web.”
Companies even seized on the 30-minute blackout that interrupted the Super Bowl just after the start of the third quarter.
During the game”™s blackout, when half the stadium lights when out, brands like Oreo and Tide tweeted their own mini print ads, piggybacking off of the trending topic. Sebok even argued that Oreo”™s “Don”™t worry, you can still dunk in the dark” tweet was more successful than its real “Whisper Fight” commercial.
“They spent a lot of time and energy and probably overthought themselves to death to come up with a big dramatic commercial and yet within five seconds they came out with something far more deeply rooted in its brand,” Sebok said.