The athletes don’t play it safe at game time and neither should brands
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010By: Allen Adamson
The biggest upset in this year’s Super Bowl wasn’t that the Saints beat the Colts, although that was pretty exciting. It was that most of the commercials were less than wonderful. Like everyone in the marketing business, I watched the game expecting to be bowled over by the ads, or at least a good number of them. Yes, I chuckled at the little kid protecting both his mom and his Doritos from a besotted suitor. And the coca-cola ad, in which Monty Burns gets his come-uppence, followed by a Coke and a smile, made me smile. I also really like the Google ad which used the device of a charming search-story line to reinforce its brand promise. But in more cases than not, the branding seemed to shift into neutral. Not a smart media moment. When you’ve got such a diverse audience and a one-shot opp to present your brand promise, you’ve either got to break the rules with conviction, not half measures, or you’ve got to tell your brand’s story with simple brilliance. In this edition of Forbes Online, I write about how events like the Super Bowl and the Olympics offer companies the chance to make the play for millions of viewers at the same time, occasions few and far between since digital technology took over our lives. When consumers can compare and contrast ads and brands in such a finite amount of time and space, it’s not the time to go neutral, but go for the win.
Image permission being requested @coca-cola-art.com