Is a Super Bowl Ad Really Worth the Cost?

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One Super Bowl ad runs $2.6 million. Is it a good investment? What else might an advertiser do with that kind of cash? Do the people’s favorite ads even get the best results?

Super Bowl ads have, for years, been little more than a beauty contest for advertising agencies. When a company selects an agency's ad to represent it during the Super Bowl, it’s sort of like choosing a girl to represent a state in the Miss America pageant. Super Bowl ads are an iconic, cultural phenomenon that makes very little sense; essentially, they're the advertising equivalent of bathing-suit-clad girls with big eyes and high heels talking about their dreams of world peace.

Over a year, the price of one Super Bowl ad could provide your company exposure to 50 percent of the population of Southern California. It would buy you enough radio repetition for the average listener to hear your ad four times a week, 52 weeks a year throughout Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange County and the Inland Empire (Riverside and San Bernardino). Altogether, $2.6 million could buy you several thousand ads, which would reach a total of nearly 15 million people.

Paying $2.6 million for an ad to air during the Super Bowl might possibly be the dumbest thing you could do with $2.6 million. Or the smartest. It all depends on what you communicate in the ad.

The Dumbest Super Bowl Ad of 2007: FedEx Ground
Although this was one of the more clever and entertaining ads this season, it'll also prove to be counterproductive. Remember the ad? A bunch of people are sitting in a conference room …

MANAGER: FedEx saved us with their overnight service, so we’ve added FedEx Ground for everyday shipping.

JOEL: Ground? That doesn’t sound fast.

RELAXED GUY LEISURELY HOLDING COFFEE: Actually, Joel, FedEx Ground is faster than you think.

MANAGER: We can’t judge things by their name. Don’t you agree, Harry?

EXTREMELY HAIRY GUY: Absolutely.

MANAGER: Eileen?

GIRL LEANING HARD ON HARRY: Of course.

MANAGER: Joy?

JOY: (Gives an effervescent giggle with a beaming smile)

MANAGER: Bob?

BOB: (Bobs his head up and down in an extreme fashion)

GUY WITH HUGE DOUBLE CHIN: You see, Joel, we all agree that FedEx Ground is fast, despite the name “Ground.”

MANAGER: Well said, Mr. Turkeyneck.

The ad ends with the FedEx logo revolving quickly to reveal four variations--FedEx Ground, FedEx Express, FedEx Kinko’s and FedEx Freight--while an off-camera announcer says, "FedEx Ground. Fast. Reliable. And for less than you think."

Here are the major problems with the ad:

1. The ad clearly illustrates that Joel was right; you can judge things by their name.
2. The people arguing that FedEx Ground is fast “despite the name” appear bizarre and ridiculous. Joel is the only normal person in the room. We identify with Joel, not with the others.
3. “For less than you think” is ambiguous ad-speak. Specifics are always more powerful than generalities. “For as little as $2 a package” is specific. And far more impressive.
4. The ending of the ad is soft and unfocused. We’re not yet convinced that FedEx Ground is a worthy alternative to UPS, and it seems that FedEx isn't completely convinced either. In the end, the company wants to be sure that we realize there are at least three other FedEx options: FedEx Express, FedEx Kinkos and FedEx Freight.

The Smartest Super Bowl Ad of 2007: Two Lions for Taco Bell
Remember the ad? A pair of lions are looking at a group of campers in the distance eating lunch while on safari. The lions smell the new steak taquito from Taco Bell. The rest of the ad is one lion trying to teach the other how to pronounce “carne asada,” the type of steak used in the taquito.

Here’s what makes the ad work:

1. A lion is king of the jungle; its opinion is respected.
2. Lions are meat-eaters, absolute carnivores.
3. Viewers learn how to pronounce a strangely spelled word--carne asada--thereby increasing their comfort level when ordering the item at Taco Bell.
4. The ad ends with a mouthwatering close-up of freshly grilled carne asada steak as it's being sliced. You definitely want to taste it.
5. The ad is focused on one thing: the carne asada steak taquito. Taco Bell’s agency had the wisdom not to include any images or descriptions of other Taco Bell products.

TV is an impact medium. But there will be no impact if the viewer isn’t paying attention or if your ad's message is unfocused. The Super Bowl is the one event each year that guarantees viewers will be paying attention. We tune in as much for the ads as for the game.

Are your ads entertaining but counterproductive, like the FedEx ad? Or are they entertaining, focused and convincing like the Taco Bell ad?

Follow the lead of FedEx Ground if your goal is to entertain America. But if you want to sell product, I suggest you study Taco Bell's script.

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Roy Williams is Entrepreneur.com's "Advertising" columnist and the founder and president of international ad agency Wizard of Ads. Roy is also the author of numerous books on improving your advertising efforts, including The Wizard of Ads and Secret Formulas of the Wizard of Ads.

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We are often asked, and frequently see the question come up in various discussion groups, Which is the best tool for closing more sales and connecting with the right people online? Is it blogging, interacting with millions of bloggers sharing their business knowledge, industry commentary, and occasional pictures of their cat? Or one of the many business networks, such as openBC or Ecademy, which offer group interaction and private messaging as well as searchable profiles? Or LinkedIn, the trusted referral system that has attracted some five million professionals?

Asking which of these is "better" is like asking which is better: a hammer, a wrench, or a screwdriver? They are all tools, and best suited to particular tasks. A wrench can be used as a hammer in a pinch, and a hammer can force a screw into a two-by-four, but it's a lot harder and riskier. A master craftsman has a full toolbox, and unless your job is to drive nails all day, you'll be far more effective if you know the right tool to use for the task at hand.

Blogging is a way of building visibility, demonstrating your expertise, and engaging with people interested in the same topics as you. One of its greatest advantages is that it is completely open -- no membership required! Anyone on the Web can potentially find you in a search engine or a link from another blog, learn more about you, and contact you if you share some common interests or they want to learn more about your products or services. On the downside, while blogs are searchable by topic, it's very difficult to search for people in a structured way, e.g., former co-workers at a particular company, people in a certain industry in a certain city, or even people with a particular skill set.

Online communities offer a group interaction space (or multiple spaces) in conjunction with searchable, customizable personal profiles. They represent a convergence of identity (think personal Web pages), community (membership in self-organizing groups), and communication (discussion forums and private messaging). They offering varying degrees of open interaction, depending on the site and the preferences of the user, but only minimal interaction with non-members. The ability to easily learn more about a person and connect with them individually to follow up on the group interaction is compelling. One of the downsides is that they can be a little too enjoyable, and many people find themselves spending too much time in these sites when they should be focused on other aspects of their business. We are firm believers in closing more deals, not just in chatting with more people.

LinkedIn was primarily designed as a tool to help you leverage your existing network to meet specific people for a specific purpose. People are using it for more general-purpose networking, but communicating with specific people is the task for which it is optimized. There is no group interaction per se. LinkedIn also offers minimal ability to communicate within the platform, and the system encourages people to connect for a specific purpose, not just randomly or out of curiosity. These are major reasons why the site has created an attractive platform for senior executives, hiring managers, entrepreneurs, and other extremely busy people. They can leverage and be of service to their existing contacts with a minimal time investment and not a lot of unfocused interaction.

In our book, The Virtual Handshake, we introduce the Seven Keys to a Powerful Network, a framework for assessing your personal network and aligning your activities with your objectives. Comparing these tools in terms of the Seven Keys shows how each can serve your relationship-building activities in its own way:

Key	Blogging	LinkedIn	Online Networks
Character	Demonstrated over time through how you speak of others, what you write about ethical issues, etc.	Demonstrated by some endorsements.	Demonstrated strongly by your public interaction with others, your willingness to be of service, etc.
Competence	Demonstrated through in-depth writing about your topics of expertise.	Demonstrated minimally by endorsements, though multiple endorsements add up.	Demonstrated through writing about your topics of expertise, often in response to specific questions.
Relevance	Attract and connect with people interested in the same topics as you.	Ability to focus tightly on meeting people for specific purposes, and hopefully attract like-minded people.	Ability to focus on meeting people for specific purposes and to connect with like-minded individuals in a group setting.
Strength	Strengthen relationships through sustained dialog with readers and other bloggers on your topic.	Strengthen relationships by being of service, making referrals and endorsements.	Strengthen relationships through sustained public and private dialog with other members.
Information	Great source of information about someone's expertise and interest. Minimal information about relationships, contact info, etc.	Great source of information about your immediate contacts. Unique source of information about the relationships in your second and third degree.	Great source of information about your immediate contacts, though profiles are often fairly static compared to blogs. Information about relationships varies greatly by site and personal practices.
Number	Tremendous tool for building the number of people you know - probably the best (short of major media coverage).	Can be used to build large networks, but not optimized for it, as each connection requires manual intervention, and there is no way to engage people within the system.	Group interacting supports connecting with a large number of people, though the potential pool is limited to members of the site.
Diversity	Not really a tool for building diversity, except that you will often attract readers who have the opposite view on your topic as you, e.g., conservative and liberal political bloggers read each others' blogs and comment on them.	Excellent tool for purposefully finding diverse contacts, e.g., experts in a field you're considering moving into, a country you're planning to visit, etc.	Build diversity through group interaction. For example, a group focused on a particular business interest will likely include people of different political and religious affiliations.

So it's impossible to say that one or the other is best overall, and difficult to say that any one is best even for one person. Really, each is best suited for certain tasks. Because most people's business needs are many and diverse, and we're never certain what those needs may be in the future, the master salesperson, like the master carpenter, keeps a full toolbox and knows both which tool to use for the job and how to use it most effectively.

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