Yogi Knows… Ads

Reagan and I have spent most of 2007 preaching the virtues of Web2.0; we see the future of marketing as creating a dialogue with your customers using their (interactive) medium of choice. Of course, step one is to engage the viewer – and with eager anticipation I watched the Super Bowl commercials to see who did the best to engage viewers. I was a little disappointed, only a few commercials coaxed me to think past their 30-something second slots and/ or take action.

Honorable Mention
The GoDaddy commercial featuring Danica Patrick started off by having her take her top off. Viewers were encouraged to visit their site. While the TV ad was interesting and coaxed some people to go the website, I didn’t think it was in harmony. The web commercial continued on a different path – no, she didn’t take off her top. But it makes you stop and think, from an email marketer’s perspective; it seemed more like an ad with one subject line, different copy and a totally different landing page… enough to confuse a viewer/ reader as to what GoDaddy really does. Opportunity lost in my book – despite their success in luring 500,000 Danica fans to their site (read more at AdAge.)

The Sobe water commercial featuring the Thriller dance started off bright and fun and offered a website. However, the ad turned long and sadly when you went to their site, I was asked to download a plug-in to view the site – its 2008, enough of that already!

Gold, Silver & Bronze Medals
I loved the Diet Pepsi Max “Nod” ad for a number of reasons, the music was good, the message was clear – people that were feeling lethargic were cured when they started sipping Pepsi Max. I don't care too much for Pepsi but the commercial persuaded me to try the product. Especially because they carried their ads over to YouTube and the Pepsi channels with extended versions – very nicely done.

Budweiser’s Clydesdale Team commercial was one of my favorites, it started with draft picks for their Clydesdale Team – one horse didn’t get selected so the Budweiser Dalmatian mentored him for next year’s team, Rocky-Style. Additionally, Budweiser asked viewers to text message their votes for the best commercial.

At this point, I thought Budweiser had won the ad war until I saw the Victoria's Secret commercial with a couple of minutes to spare in the game. Their model reminded men that the real games were about to begin, Happy Valentines Day. The irony made this an absolutely great ad! It was intriguing, had a great punch line and reminded people to pay attention to the upcoming Valentine’s Day holiday.

Even with a smaller budget, eMarketers should follow the same principles. Like these commercials, your emails need to stand out and work in harmony with other channels. A few suggestions to the email world:
1) Inbox Landscape – how will your email get attention compared to the others that day? Do you really stand out, is there something special?
2) Five Message Points – the subject line, the image, the copy supporting the image, the landing page and the follow-up messaging. You can't forget any of these items; make sure they are all in agreement.
3) Captivate – put yourself in your reader’s shoes, you may not have the music or the Victoria's Secret models, but you have to create an alliance with your reader and work it.

Good luck with your campaigns and visit Advertising Age to see any of the Super Bowl Ads you may have missed.