Fire Your Ad Agency!

Maybe firing them is a bit extreme, but today I read an article that said make your marketing budget work by cutting it in half. Before I even got to the suggestion of why a company would do that I already knew why that was a good idea. What happens when you halve your budget? You have less to work with, of course. When you have less to work with, you have to work smarter and more efficiently. All of sudden, you see less money going out and more money coming in. You adapted; and it was a success.

According to Plato, necessity is the mother of invention. I strongly believe he’s right. From a biology standpoint, when something needs to be done it either gets done or you die off. It’s the same in the business world. Sometimes you need to get off the ground, spread your wings, and quit being a dinosaur. Whether that’s cleaning house or rethinking your entire image, a big change in results requires a big change in action.

Write that down, it’s important:

“A big change in results requires a big change in action.”

Read the entire article and then get to work.

Super Bowl XLII Ads – Interesting Connections

I think it’s only fair to state the following upfront before I discuss the interesting connections I found in the Super Bowl XLII ad ratings: I’m not a big fan of commercials. I’ve reached the point in my life, where I am not easily influenced by the use of a celebrity, vulgarity, or humorous punch line in a commercial. Unless a company has a new product or service or an existing product or service has been significantly improved, I just want to fast forward through the commercials on my TiVo. That said, I appreciate that commercials keep me informed of new products, services, or features I wasn’t already aware of. More importantly, I appreciate the fact that commercials keep my suspiciously high cable bill from being astronomical.

For some reason, people have decided that commercials they’d normally walk out of the room on or fast forward through are worth watching on one occasion: the Super Bowl. Because the Super Bowl carries the largest viewing audience of the year, advertisers spend a lot of money just to buy the time slots for their commercials; up to $2.7 million for a 30-second ad this year. Keep in mind that doesn’t include the cost of making the commercial, just the time spot to air it in.

Super Bowl history is full of blowouts. With that in mind, if advertisers want to be seen, they know the key is buying a spot before the game gets out of hand. The past few years have seen close games, but a blowout can happen any given year; so for companies that buy multiple spots, they need to prioritize which ad goes in which spot. The USA Today’s Ad Meter, which rated all 55 ads, results show some interesting connections:

• Out of the 10 most popular ads, only 1 was aired after halftime.
• A 4th quarter ad didn’t make it into the top 13 or bottom 12.
• Eight of the bottom 12 ads—including the 6 worst—were aired before halftime.
• Movie promos accounted for spots 17, 33, 35-37, and 52.
• Commercials blatantly using the “sex sells” idea came in spots 23, 44, and 48—interestingly enough the one with the least clothing (the Victoria’s Secret commercial) ranked highest.
• Commercials promoting responsibility, i.e. for a hybrid SUV, parents to be aware of prescription abuse by teens, and buying products that result in money being donated to fight AIDS, pulled in spots 51, 54, and 34, respectively.
• Five of the top 10 rated commercials involved animals in one form or another.

As always, feel free to comment. Did you see any interesting trends or connections in the USA Today data?