Why S’-Bowl Ads Ain’t All That…

I watched the Chiefs-Eagles game while in Mexico on Sunday so I didn’t see most of the US television ads… 

…until this week when I saw the endless parade of “Best Ad” lists and “Lessons Learned…” analyses. 

This Squarespace ad, starring Adam Driver, made some of the lists. 

Here it is…

And what does this ad reveal? 

“Squarespace is a website that makes websites.”

And what does the ad ask you to do (in marketing-speak, what’s the call to action)? 

Nothing. No call to action. 

The ad ends with a white Squarespace logo on a black screen. No website address. No “find us on Facebook.” 

Just that logo, designed to brand itself on your consciousness so…

…maybe…just maybe…you’ll remember “Squarespace” when you think about building a website. 

I wish and a prayer. “We hope you remember us later…” 

So it goes at the annual…

Brand Awareness Bowl

We pull up a chair, peep at the extravagance ($233,333 per second ), and then celebrate the “brilliant” ads…

…as if they set some kind of standard. 

(They don’t.)

In a few months, various advertising industry groups will dish out awards and many of these ads will win accolades and trophies. 

They’ll herald these ads as “best-of-the-best” — just as the articles running this week have done. 

Don’t fall for the hype.  

Listen, instead, to legendary ad-man David Ogilvy who compared this kind of “general advertising” to “direct response” advertising:

“You direct response people know what kind of advertising works and what doesn’t work. You know to a dollar. General advertisers and their agencies know almost nothing for sure because they cannot measure the results of their advertising. They worship at the altar of creativity which really means originality.” 

Amen, David Ogilvy

Don’t get me — or David Ogilvy — wrong. Creativity matters.

But creativity is not the end goal. Creativity is a means to the end. 

In the end, you have to measure what’s important.

How many leads did the ad generate?

How many leads became warm prospects? 

How many warm prospects became customers? 

What was the cost of acquiring a lead or customer? 

What’s the lifetime value of a customer?

Those who traffic in ads for the big game (or similar paid brand-building) can’t answer any of those questions. 

What did their $233,000 per second get them? Hard to tell. 

If you have a gazillion-dollar budget, maybe you can say, “hard to tell,” shrug, and whistle into the sunset.  

But you don’t have a gazillion-dollar marketing budget so…

…You can’t afford to market this way.

You need a direct way. A way that includes calls-to-action. A way that you can measure results and adjust as necessary. 

Next month, when I released Email Marketing Power, I’ll show you the way direct response marketers use email to drive action, measure results, and maximize ROI. 

Until then, see the p.s. part below for some other calls-to-action…