Who dat? Who dat? Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints?

It was the talk around the water cooler all last week. What was good, what was bad, what was funny and what was a waste of money. No, it wasn’t the fashion at the Golden Globes; it was the much anticipated Super Bowl XLIV commercials.

There were the ones that busted your gut, the ones that tugged at your heart strings and the ones that just left you completely dumbfounded.  But all in all, I think there were five that stuck out as being truly worthy of the water cooler:

1. Dorito’s Dog Revenge – The dog strapping the shock collar to his master, all for a taste of those triangles of nacho cheese, was priceless.

2. E*Trade Jealous Baby – Give me a talking baby and the term “milkaholic” in a commercial and it might even convince me to begin trading my own stocks. After all, if a toddler can do it, surely I can as well!

3. Snickers – Betty White… need I say more?

4. Google Parisian Love – This simple, yet purposeful, advertisement gets to the heart of what Google is – a search engine.

5. Volkswagon PunchDub – A great throwback to “slug-bug,” my favorite road trip game as a kid. Expanding it to all Volkswagens brings back the fun (and makes for a clever marketing campaign).

Despite the recession, the 30-second advertisements sold for $2.5 to $3 million a pop and companies had no problem forking over the dough to reach the Super Bowl’s estimated 106.5 million viewers. With that price tag, advertisers sure had to do their research to make certain their ads would bring actual results.

The trick to getting results from your marketing efforts is to understand your audience. You have to know who they are, what their likes and dislikes are and where they get their information. The audience of the Super Bowl is primarily male (55 percent this year, in fact) so advertisers historically tailor ads to male interests. This year was no exception.

However, just like its ratings, this year’s female Super Bowl audience was at its highest ever at 45 percent – leaving a large portion of viewers that must not be neglected when it comes to targeted advertising. Such companies as Frito Lay, Mars, Inc. and Anheuser-Busch did well among both genders, according to Nielsen’s findings. These companies did their research, testing the waters with their ads prior to shelling out the cash. And their research paid off as these companies received great ratings across the board. 

Spending $100,000 per second on advertising may not be in the cards for everyone, but by doing our due diligence we can all reach our target audience on a slightly smaller scale.

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 02/18 at 10:06 AM

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