I have been carefully appraising this year's crop of Super Bowl ads, now that the initial excitement has leveled off. Keeping in mind that these business people were paying somewhere around $85 to $86 thousand Yankee dollahs per second to etch their brands into the collective consciousness of viewers, I have to conclude most of them came up short.
In fact, the only ones who really didn't need to worry are the ones who have already long since imprinted themselves into our minds -- outfits like Coke or Bud. They don't even need to do good commercials, that's how solidly entrenched they are.
Another observation is that clever use of interesting or adorable animals is almost always a winner. One pundit asserted he always deducted points for ads with talking animals but I disagree, especially now, when digital magic makes the speechifying look so real. The lions in the Taco Bell ad, for instance, were pretty cool. Several of the polls rated Blockbuster's ad, with the bunny and the guinea pig mauling the feisty mouse as the best of the bunch.
After all is said and done, you have to wonder if these people are really getting a reasonable return on their investment. I'm sorry -- $85,000 per second seems an obscene amount to me. What I'm thinking is, we of the blogging community could be of genuine -- and cost-effective -- assistance here. Really.
Let's suppose one of those companies, already forgettable because their over-priced ad was so blah, let's suppose they hired us -- this merry band of bloggers -- to blog-flog their product. Let's suppose they paid us by the blog-mention instead of by the second. Hooboy! I could do a whole lot of quality blog-mention for far less serious cash than what is paid during one afternoon a year. The companies would spend the same total amount but they'd spread it out and make all of us happy -- and I'll bet they'd get better return for their bucks while they were at it.
That's what I think.
Which one of those outfits do you think we ought to query first? Personally, I think I could do an excellent job for Snickers. Or any outfit wanting to sell chocolate. Heck, I might even take out some of the compensation in product, instead of cash.
In fact, the only ones who really didn't need to worry are the ones who have already long since imprinted themselves into our minds -- outfits like Coke or Bud. They don't even need to do good commercials, that's how solidly entrenched they are.
Another observation is that clever use of interesting or adorable animals is almost always a winner. One pundit asserted he always deducted points for ads with talking animals but I disagree, especially now, when digital magic makes the speechifying look so real. The lions in the Taco Bell ad, for instance, were pretty cool. Several of the polls rated Blockbuster's ad, with the bunny and the guinea pig mauling the feisty mouse as the best of the bunch.
After all is said and done, you have to wonder if these people are really getting a reasonable return on their investment. I'm sorry -- $85,000 per second seems an obscene amount to me. What I'm thinking is, we of the blogging community could be of genuine -- and cost-effective -- assistance here. Really.
Let's suppose one of those companies, already forgettable because their over-priced ad was so blah, let's suppose they hired us -- this merry band of bloggers -- to blog-flog their product. Let's suppose they paid us by the blog-mention instead of by the second. Hooboy! I could do a whole lot of quality blog-mention for far less serious cash than what is paid during one afternoon a year. The companies would spend the same total amount but they'd spread it out and make all of us happy -- and I'll bet they'd get better return for their bucks while they were at it.
That's what I think.
Which one of those outfits do you think we ought to query first? Personally, I think I could do an excellent job for Snickers. Or any outfit wanting to sell chocolate. Heck, I might even take out some of the compensation in product, instead of cash.
3 comments:
I like the idea of hiring bloggers - only they should have to make their stuiff so good, that they really please the bloggers, like a useful for every day, easy to handle, really time-saving or strength-preserving kitchen gadget. Or a plug and print thingie for the computer. Easy to handle includes of course the changing of batteries or ink cartridges... *dreams on* Wouldn't ist be wonderful to have the market full of things one really wants to have and stays happy owning them?
Not me for Taco Bell. If I eat their foods, I get acute acid indegestion and all the rest of it. One kid who used to manage a local shop, tells me that all the ingredients are fresh. They add something that doesn't make if for me.....
But I will be blogger for Diet Coke. :)
Now, see? That's what I'm talkin' about! We'd be blogging for things we really like, need, want, use, etc. so there's "truth in advertising" as well as enthusiastic word-of-mouth. I can see us all sitting alongside the information highway, cardboard sign in hand, saying, "I'll blog-flog for choccy." Or widgets. Or soda pop. Fill in the blank. We may have something here.
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