Century 21?

Century 21, the real estate company, is advertising on the Super Bowl this year.

I know what you are thinking: Century 21? Really? What in the world is Century 21 doing advertising on the Super Bowl?

It isn’t the most opportune time for a real estate company to invest in a Super Bowl spot. The housing market continues to slump. Prices have fallen, and sales of both new and existing homes are quite weak. There aren’t even many homes for sale; housing inventory at the end of 2011 was the lowest it has been in four years.

So is Century 21’s strategy crazy?

I suspect not.

There is a good chance the housing market will improve in 2012; the low inventory level is a positive sign and many people are optimistic that things will get better. If so, Century 21 is wise to get in front of the trend.

Even if the market doesn’t improve, Century 21 stands to benefit from its first-ever Super Bowl spot. The company will apparently be touting its excellent agents, saying they are smarter, bolder and faster. This message could attract both sellers and buyers. Century 21 will get a boost simply by showing up; it is the only real estate company advertising on the Super Bowl this year (or in many years).

If nothing else, Century 21’s Super Bowl spot will fire up its agents. It is an optimistic sign and a sizable commitment to the business. And after years of weak sales, Century 21 agents certainly need something to cheer about.

H&M: The Super Bowl goes Global

This week H&M announced that it will air its first-ever Super Bowl ad.

H&M will use the time to support the global launch of its David Beckham Bodywear Collection, which will be in stores in early February.

Although Super Bowl advertising is still largely a U.S. phenomenon, the Super Bowl is clearly becoming a global event.

Football, in general, is much bigger in the U.S. than in other countries. Similarly, when it comes to Super Bowl ads, game night advertising historically isn’t as big a deal to viewers outside the States. In part, international advertisers don’t treat the Super Bowl as a big deal, so the hype overseas may not reach the same heights when compared to American viewers.

Nevertheless, the fact remains that the Super Bowl is the biggest single marketing event in the world. I suspect it isn’t a coincidence that H&M scheduled its big product launch to perfectly align with the timing of the Super Bowl. This may be a signal that the Super Bowl is starting to shape the global marketing industry.

Also, I suspect that as time goes on, more marketers will focus on global product launches, and this dynamic will make the Super Bowl even more valuable for global brands. H&M is just the beginning.

HomeAway Takes a Pass

While many of the 2011 Super Bowl advertisers will return to this year’s game to air ads, HomeAway is sitting out entirely; instead, the vacation home rental company will buy time on the Oscars, the Grammys and the 2012 Survivor finale.

This isn’t a surprise.

HomeAway had a rough experience in 2011. The company ran a piece of advertising that the Kellogg Super Bowl Advertising Review panel and others found rather confusing and very disconcerting. The ad featured a baby being thrown into a plate glass window. This resulted in a major backlash from customers, with the company eventually pulling the entire campaign and issuing an apology.

After that experience, it isn’t surprising to see the company focus on other, less scrutinized advertising venues. HomeAway CEO Brian Sharples explained that the Super Bowl garnered the company a lot of exposure, but proved to be very burdensome. Speaking at an event at the University of Texas, Sharples said, “It worked out great…but after the experience last year I don’t have the stomach for it.”

The Super Bowl is a high-stakes event for companies and executives. The issue isn’t just the expensive media time, which can be hard to justify. The issue is that a weak Super Bowl spot can damage a brand and even one’s career.

HomeAway discovered just how risky it can be. I understand why they wouldn’t return for another try this year.

Making the Grade: Not Just Smarts, but Hard Work

Over the past seven years conducting the Advertising Review we’ve had the opportunity to strategically evaluate numerous commercials from a diverse set of brands. Throughout the years, we’ve observed that some brands seem to consistently get it right and earn an A or B grade from our panel. Budweiser, for example, is one such brand. Because we look at a brand’s portfolio, as opposed to a single spot, such consistency has to be attributed to what the brand is able to do across multiple executions as opposed to having multiple opportunities to do well.

The fact that some brands consistently perform well, whereas others show either erratic or consistently poor performance, suggests that there is more than just luck in creating a good advertising spot. One might attribute success simply to some brands or their creative agencies having “the knack.” While some form of that hypothesis is probably true, it’s also worth recognizing that at least several consistently high-performing advertisers succeed because of immense foresight and hard work. Indeed, we know of one brand that starts with more than 50 possible ideas before ultimately landing on an execution that fits their creative and strategic objectives.

Conversely, I can think of several advertisers who are known not to test creative ideas aggressively, if at all. These same brands have scored inconsistently, at best, on the Kellogg Ad Review’s report card. For example, CareerBuilder has relied on their gut in some cases, and we have seen performance range from fantastic to questionable (literally). Although brands might sometimes get it right without any studying, our results suggest that those who spend the time to test their creative concepts are rewarded for their efforts.

What does this mean for new entrants into the Super Bowl advertising game? Brands should recognize the added value that comes from aggressively testing ads before they air, and building adequate time to do so into their creative timelines. If a brand is willing to spend $3.5 million on a Super Bowl spot, it doesn’t hurt to have studied a bit!

Winning the Super Bowl versus Winning Super Bowl Advertising

On February 5, millions will tune in to watch the Super Bowl. And, many of those millions will also be paying attention to the Super Bowl advertising. Although penalties can be disputed, a simple tally of the number of points scored will forever etch one football team into the winner’s circle. However, choosing the top Super Bowl ad is quite different. This gives rise to this question: How is the winner of Super Bowl advertising determined?

There is no referee to make the call or indelible numbers on a scoreboard. There will be polls, of course. For example, here at the Kellogg School of Management we will grade the various ads on their finesse in brand building and strategic execution. Others will produce a popularity contest giving top honors to the most beloved execution. However, if one wanted to make a case for a definitive metric, one might argue that it would be the advertising that created the largest return on investment. Indeed, such a metric would seem straightforward and of interest to any business.

The problem with the ROI metric is that at the end of the Super Bowl there is no definitive winner. Tim and I have noted this in the past, but the decision to invest in a $3.5 million spot is not solely about the 30 seconds that an advertisement appears on the screen. It is about creating buzz (pre- and post-game) and the ability to use the Super Bowl as a platform for launching subsequent advertising. And, it can also be about motivating employees and signaling brand strength to distributors. All of this makes ROI impossible to capture in an absolute sense, and even the meaning of ROI in a Super Bowl context is debatable.

But these factors raise another exciting question for the upcoming Super Bowl: How will brands maximize their buys? What will they do before, during and after the Super Bowl to take full advantage of their multi-million dollar investments? We have seen a rapid proliferation in recent years of more discussion of Super Bowl advertising online. You can go to YouTube or elsewhere to find the executions shortly after their release. Some brands will release their spots early for the public. Others have started to take advantage of social media such as Twitter or Facebook. For example, last year Audi set up a Twitter feed for its Super Bowl execution, and Budweiser established a Facebook presence letting consumers comment on what ads the brand should run. Of interest will be what each brand will do and who will do it best from a strategic standpoint.

When all the ads have aired, Tim and I will recap some of the strategies employed by brands this year and whether these new tactics are maximizing their Super Bowl ad dollars to move the needle.

Super Bowl Advertising: The Best Way to Drive Buzz

One of the themes that Professor Derek Rucker and I frequently touch on is the unique power of Super Bowl advertising. In the United States, there is simply nothing quite like it in the world of marketing.

A new report from Zeta Interactive highlights exactly why this is the case.

The New York Times ran a story about Zeta Interactive’s report. Each year Zeta studies which ad campaigns created the most online buzz. Zeta studies the number of online posts and the tonality.

In 2011, eight of the top ten campaigns were launched during the Super Bowl. The list included notable Super Bowl advertisers such as E*Trade, Snickers, Chrysler, Bud Light, Cars.com and Volkswagen.

This is astonishing. Eight of the top ten campaigns launched during the Super Bowl. So in just a few hours, marketers sparked a massive amount of interest and discussion, capturing the attention and interest of millions of people. The rest of the year, eleven months and thirty days, there were just two campaigns that achieved a similar spike.

For advertisers hoping to have an impact on sales across the United States, the Super Bowl is an essential place to be.

Happy New Year!

Now that the holidays are done, people will focus on the next big event on the calendar: the Super Bowl.

This means that Super Bowl advertisers will begin rolling out their teaser campaigns, with carefully crafted PR efforts designed to capture media attention, and creative programs on Facebook to engage consumers.

The Super Bowl is still five weeks away. Look for initial stories this week; a few advertisers will try to get a jump on things. Most advertisers will likely wait until the week of January 15, steering clear of the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary on January 10. Things will be very busy the week of January 22.

More and more, the Super Bowl advertising battle plays out well before the game. The big question this year is this: which advertisers will create the most positive buzz over the next five weeks?

Super Bowl Advertisers: Welcome Back

The list of advertisers for the 2012 Super Bowl is starting to take shape. The final line-up won’t be set until the game actually airs, of course, since advertisers come and go in the weeks leading up to the event. But even now, we know many of the key players:

Go Daddy	Best Buy
Toyota	Dannon
Century 21	Coca-Cola
Volkswagen (VW)	Kia
Skechers	Teleflora
Cars.com	General Motors (GM)
Teleflora	Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABInBev)
Audi	Hyundai
PepsiCo Beverages	PepsiCo’s Doritos

 

The remarkable thing is all but two companies are repeat Super Bowl advertisers. This suggests that despite the high price of a spot, many advertisers are pleased with their ROI. Test your Super Bowl advertising knowledge by identifying which two are making their Super Bowl ad debut. I’ll discuss those advertisers in more detail in an upcoming post.

The Buzz Starts

The 2012 Super Bowl is a long way away: 124 days, to be precise. Between now and then, there is a lot on people’s agenda including Halloween, Thanksgiving and the frenzy of the gift-buying season. Nonetheless, the buzz about Super Bowl advertising is starting to build.

-Stuart Elliott at the New York Times wrote recently that the 2012 Super Bowl is largely sold out, with just a few spots remaining.

-The USA Today has announced that it will create a Super Bowl advertising app with Facebook.

-Last week, Doritos announced that it is running its Crash the Super Bowl campaign for the sixth year.

This is astonishing, of course—people are writing, reading and talking about commercials that will run on a show more than four months in the future. This early media buzz explains why the Super Bowl is an event worth marveling in the world of marketing.

If the early signs are any indication, the 2012 Super Bowl will be the most discussed and dissected advertising event ever.

Learning from Groupon and HomeAway

The 2011 Super Bowl will leave a mark in the advertising history books because two advertisers issued apologies shortly after the game due to public backlash.

HomeAway and Groupon have both released statements in response to the public reaction to their Super Bowl ads. The HomeAway ad featured a baby flying into a plate glass window. Groupon’s spot portrayed the sad state of the Tibetan people before noting that Groupon has great discounts at restaurants that serve Tibetan food.

Both ads received widespread condemnation. Visit either brand’s Facebook site to get a flavor of the very intense backlash.

Both companies are trying to contain the damage.

HomeAway CEO Brian Sharples issued a statement on Facebook: “…we’re deeply sorry that the ads offended some and hurt others.” The company is modifying its advertising.

Groupon CEO Andrew Mason wrote in a Facebook post: “The last thing we wanted was to offend our customers – it’s bad business and it’s not where our hearts are.”

This is extraordinary. Both companies spent millions of dollars buying a spot on the Super Bowl, worked very hard to create great advertising and now are forced to apologize in a bid to limit the damage.

So how did this happen?

I suspect there were three main causes. First, the pressure to stand out on the Super Bowl is huge. The first thing we look for in the Kellogg ADPLAN framework is attention. In a bid to stand out, advertisers sometimes make bad decisions, pursuing something that is creatively unique but also edgy. This was clearly the problem for the HomeAway spot; the ad was shocking.

Second, advertisers can forget that Super Bowl advertising gets incredible scrutiny. The reason people advertise on the Super Bowl because the advertising receives a lot of focus. But this can also be a problem. Marketing efforts that might be fine otherwise are magnified on the Super Bowl. I think this is clearly what happened to Groupon; the company confused a Super Bowl ad with the witty and sometimes cheeky descriptions it sends along with email offers.

Third, it is all too easy to ignore problems. Researchers at Kellogg and other schools have studied this extensively; we know that people tend to gloss over issues and play down negative news. Both Homeaway and Groupon claim to have tested their spots and didn’t uncover any issue. But I suspect the feedback was there; the advertising team just ignored it.

The big learning for future Super Bowl advertisers is this: consider the downside. Don’t take a risk with your brand in a bid to be creatively different; a Super Bowl ad can build a brand, but executed poorly it can also cause a lot of damage.