Now that the dust has settled on Super Bowl, the Dayton Business Journal Reports “that companies that spent big bucks to air advertisements during the Super Bowl did not necessarily see those dollars translate into more visits to their Web sites this year.” Traffic to Super Bowl advertisers’ Web sites saw no dramatic increase during the game this year, according to a figures released Monday by Akamai Technologies(Nasdaq: AKAM), a Cambridge, Mass.-based content delivery network company.
How can that be? At a cost of $2.4 million per 30 second ad how can the ads not deliver more interest, more web trafic to the advertiser?
The answer is simple. None of the ads I saw follow the equation for what makes an effective, powerful ad.
Sure, some of them were cute, entertaining, comical, but how many of the ads you witnessed can you connect with a company?
If you remember from my last post, great advertising is a simple equation and here’s the equation:
Interrupt + Engage + Educate + Offer = Success
Let’s take a closer look at the Marketing Equation.
Interrupt - The ad should get qualified prospects to pay attention to your marketing.
Engage – The ad should give prospects the promise that the information provided in the ad will facilitate their decision making process.
Educate – The ad should identify the important and relevant issues prospects need to be aware of , then demonstrate how your company stacks up against those issues.
Offer – The ad should provide prospects a low-risk way to take the next step in the buying process . . . give more information to the prospect so they have the necessary information to make a good decision.
Most of the ads I witnessed on Super Bowl Sunday only met one piece of the Marketing Equation – - - Interrupt. They got me to pay attention, but then, there was some much nonsense attached to the ad, that by the time time the ad was finished, in many cases, I couldn’t tell you who the company was or even what the product was that they were pushing.
So, what is marketing supposed to do again? Marketing and advertising should get the attention of the target market, facilitate their decision making process, and lower the risk of taking the next step in the selling process.
Did Sunday’s Super Bowl ads accomplish this?
It’s no wonder we are confused at what company or product is any better or worse than than the others.
In my next post, I will discuss the Confidence Gap and why it is prevalent with today’s consumers.
