Super Bowl 2010 Ads: Rankings and Rants

Overall, an uninspiring collection of Super Bowl commercials last night.    Few disasters, few fabulous, a lot of just okay.    In most cases, each :30 ad was a $3 million investment ($2.5 million for air time, $500,ooo ish for production) – so mediocre won’t exactly drive a return-on-investment.     Today’s Super Bowl ad chatter is mostly about entertainment, humor, and likeability – and lots of fun.   Entertainment is swell, but advertising effectiveness – persuasion (making consumers feel differently about your brand) and incremental sales –  is what really matters. 

Here are the winners from four marketing mavens – USAToday’s AdMeter (popularity), Ad Age’s Bob Garfield (ad quality), Squawq (brands’ Twitter buzz), and me (effectiveness).

USA Today                                                                                                    
Best:
1.   Snickers             
2.   Doritos (dog collar)                                                                   
3.   Bud Light (beer can house)                                        
4.   Anheuser-Busch (Clydesdale friend)                                        
5.   Coca-Cola (sleepwalker)

Worst:  Skechers                                                                                                                                                                                         

Ad Age  
1-3.  3 1/2 stars: Audi,  Chrysler, and Qualcomm 
4- 18.  3 stars:  Budweiser Select, Denny’s,  E-Trade (milkoholic), Careerbuilder,  Electronic Arts, HomeAway, Honda, Hyundai,  Monster, Motorola, NFL, Teleflora, Vizio, VW 

Worst:    Go Daddy

Squawq   
Best: 
1.      Doritos 
2.      Anheuser-Busch
3.      Coca-Cola
4.      Dove (Unilever)
5.      Audi 

Worst:   KGB

Katz Marketing Solutions   
Best:
1.      Doritos (House Rules) 
2.      Bud Light
3.      E*Trade
4.      Google
5.      Hyundai (Favre/warranty)

Worst:  U.S. Census

Doritos (“House Rules”) earns my #1 – strategic (crave Doritos) and engaging, relevant to its audience, and seamlessly inclusive (diversity appeal – race and gender).    Similarly, Bud Light is strategic (covet the beer), has aspirational imagery (cool guy attracting friends), and memorable.     E-Trade, while highly entertaining, cleverly tells you about their superiority vs. higher priced brokerages, and also has diverse appeal.    Google was highly engaging and reinforced its brand’s leadership and scale (thwarting encroaching competition).   And Hyundai continues to increase its brand awareness and improve its product quality perception.

Lesson Learned:   Don’t judge your advertising by how entertaining or likable it is.    Judge it by its ability to persuade (convince your target audience to be aware of/purchase your brand) and drive a strong return-on-investment (incremental sales/costs). 

Brand Authenticity: Tiger’s Tailspin

Brands must be authentic.    Great brands, like people, create positive enduring relationships based on their credibility and consistency.      While brands have always needed to continuously earn their esteem, social media now makes brand authenticity a mandate.     All eyes are watching your brand, and missteps are reported globally in an instant.    Keep it simple.    Make your brand authentic.

Lack of authenticity is what’s driving the unprecedented demise of the Tiger Woods brand.   His ‘brand truth’ is dramatically different from the carefully honed aspirational brand image.    And it was that faux brand image and esteem that made brand Tiger so ideal for corporate sponsorships.     Incessant media coverage and its exponential visibility in the blogosphere unearthed the size of brand Tiger’s lack of authenticity.     Post-media frenzy, his champion credentials will remain, but the ‘wonderful man’ imagery has been unveiled as a sham.      Brand Tiger’s demise is an extreme, but illustrative example, of the danger of lack of brand authenticity.     Last week, AT&T joined the growing list of multi-million dollar sponsors who really had no choice but to stop aligning their brand with Tiger Woods.    The financial value of the Tiger Woods brand is a fraction of what it was just a month ago.    

Sure, the Tiger Woods brand fiasco is an extreme – but it’s a great reminder of a brand imperative.   Brands only thrive when they are consistently truthful.    You have to be exactly what you say you are – or you’ll be exposed to embarrassment, market share erosion, or general underperformance.    First, your brand needs to meet or exceed the primary benefit you claim.     A simple example:  Coca-Cola is refreshing and tastes the same all the time.    And you have to successfully deliver on your claimed benefit in consumers’ minds, not by biased internal assessments only.   Second, you need to fulfill your brand promise at every customer touch point, not just some.    If you claim great service, it’s well beyond simply the time you are delivering the service.   Gaffes in customer experience, such as customer service, before or after the service delivery can quickly erode your brand.     Think of your most irritating recent customer service experience here, as an example.  Third, be consistent.   Every aspect of your product, pricing, distribution and promotion strategies should reinforce your brand’s unique promise, or you will confuse or lose customers.     For example, everything Whole Foods does reinforces its brand promise of providing superior quality natural and organic foods.    Fourth, correct mistakes immediately.   If your brand has a misstep, don’t hide and deny.   Take it as an opportunity to change and reinforce your brand’s truth.

Great brands thrive and endure because they are authentic.   So should yours.

Lessons Learned:
1.  Make sure your brand’s promise is clear and truthful.    Always deliver on that promise.
2.  Don’t try to communicate or ‘spin’ that your brand is something that it is not.   Consumers are too savvy and connected.
3.  Continuously improve and track the consumers’ experience and perception of your brand.    Brands need to evolve to continue to meet and exceed customer expectations.

Off! brand: Innovation by Nailing Nuisances

Off! brand solved one of consumers’ biggest problems with their category… and their new product is flying off the shelf. Here’s a great example of a company that sufficiently understands its category and consumers and use that knowledge to drive breakthrough innovation. They solved one of consumers’ biggest concerns about insect repellents – the inconvenience and fear of applying it to your skin – with the Off! Clip-On and early sales results are exceptional. According to Ad Age, the Off fan has exceeded S.C. Johnson’s initial sales expectations by 400%, sold $4.2 million in its first month, and retailers’ sole problem with the item is keeping it in stock. And at a premium price of over $10!

Swine Flu: CDC’s Brand Coup?!

As we all wash our hands for the 89th time today, you have to admire the Center for Disease Control’s effective branding and positioning of the Swine Flu. Really, would the threat of an obscure H1N1 virus sufficiently capture our attention or become a media darling? ‘Swine flu brand’ has gained exceptionally high consumer awareness in a short time, reinforced awareness with frequent and relevant messages, generated buzz and driven preventive activity. Amazing, given that medical professionals are still sorting through the validity of this flu’s unique severity.

Target Triumphs with Consistent Communication

A staggering 96% of Americans recognize Target Corporation’s bullseye, putting the brand in the brand awareness stratosphere with the likes of Nike and Coca-Cola.

This exceptional brand awareness is a direct result of their consistent communication. While most chief marketers continue to cite Integrated Marketing Communication as their biggest challenge, according to the Association of National Advertisers, Target masters it.

Swanson’s Inclusive Advertising: Stirring Sales Growth

Kudos to Swanson brand and parent company, Campbell Soup Company for its outstanding, inclusive print advertising campaign. The campaign features great chefs using, and providing recipes for, their delicious broths… and a delicious, authentic respect for diversity. While many companies are wisely striving for, but often struggling with, diversity, Swanson’s work is exemplary. They are elegantly appealing to caucasion ‘traditional families’ – AND the roughly 50% of the U.S. population that isn’t – appealing to millions of consumers that others overlook.

Gee Gatorade, what are you selling?

Good marketing fundamental: be clear. If consumers understand what you are selling and what it can do for them, they can buy some from you. Common sense, right? The problem with common sense is, sometimes it’s not that common. The new, incomprehensible “What’s G?” campaign for Gatorade violates this basic rule.

Levi’s’ Lame Advertising Campaign: Provocative and Pathetic

Levi’s current brand advertising and communication are fabulous examples of ‘what not to do.’ Here’s a classic case of an advertiser and their agency who are so desperately trying to “break through the clutter,” that they forgot that good advertising is supposed to sell more stuff and enhance the brand’s appeal. But wait, the concurrent viral ‘Unbutton Your Beast’ campaign is even worse. Both communication efforts give the consumer absolutely no performance or emotional reason to go buy a pair of Levi’s. And they do nothing to enhance the brand’s image, and quite a lot to tarnish it instead. What’s the message? Levi’s is for amorous pathological liars? Millions of dollars gone badly astray. Meanwhile, Levi’s reports disappointing sales and profit performance globally, and in particular, North America. Cause and effect? You bet.

Exceptional Brands: Wii Nails Consumer Needs

In a pretty sober selling season,  Nintendo Wii sales are still on fire – up 100% versus last year in November.   December should be even better, as Wii is on Santa’s short list in so many homes.    Here’s a truly exceptional brand on so many levels.   First, by adding a mobile dimension to gaming, it truly is different, superior, and preferred.   Second, the product concept is clear – even the youngest of children can grasp the simple idea in a moment.   Third, the product truly delights the consumer – not only does the user get the fun and enjoyment they expect, but a higher level of fun and enjoyment well beyond those expectations.  Fourth, the new product innovations – Wii Music, Super Mario, and Wii Fit are all brilliant, appealing ways to extend the brand franchise.

Wendy’s Is Waaaay Better: Truly Effective Advertising

Wendy’s advertising has improved dramatically – and their same-store sales trends prove it. They’ve done a great job getting back to basics by touting their brand’s superior quality. Kudos to the Wendy’s brand marketing team and their advertising agency, kirshenbaum bond + partners, for bringing superior quality to life with the ‘Waaaay Better’ campaign. It’s no secret that Wendy’s has struggled since 2002 to replace their legendary Dave Thomas campaigns, including the tragic guys-in-wigs misfire last year. Wendy’s advertising is waaay better indeed. Same-store sales, the most important business indicator for restaurants, have steadily improved for the last few months.