The season ahead: back to branding basics

September 11, 2000

BY MICHAEL KRAUSS

With the football season and tailgate parties once again upon us, a question, predictably, hangs in the air: Will Super Bowl XXXV be another dot-com Super Bowl?

I hope not; what a fantastic waste of money. Last year, it cost $ 2.2 million for a 30-second spot -- plus production costs and agency fees -- so that most spots could disappear in a field of clutter.

In preparation for the new season, I spent some time reviewing the films of last year's 23-16 victory by St. Louis over Tennessee in Super Bowl XXXIV. I wasn't watching Kurt Warner's performance; I was reviewing the ads, which were far less impressive.

Six spots drew my attention. There was Britannica.com. Do you recall their use of silence and a series of supered-over questions? Probably not; most don't. Television advertising is about using the power of sight and sound to influence an audience, but Britannica.com decided to "attract attention" by being clever. That's sort of like trying to tackle a star halfback without using your hands -- they just slip by you, and so did Britannica.com's audience. How could the people who compile most of the knowledge known to man turn out a spot so inane? Blame the agency.

Then there was WebMD. I found it painful to watch Muhammad Ali huff, puff and shuffle through this spot once again. Ali, as most people know, has Parkinson's disease, and seeing him in the ad certainly caught my attention. But like most viewers, I was left clueless about the spot's intentions. The message was too sophisticated for its own good. Adios, $ 2.2 million.

What about those wonderful cat-herding cowboys from EDS? Just like something out of a Hollywood epic -- realistic, great production values and a nice use of humor. Now, refresh my memory: What do the folks at EDS sell? I'm sure the agency is laughing all the way to the bank.

Just to show I'm not jaundiced, there were three spots I liked . . . somewhat:

• E*Trade: This is the spot in which the son is a college basketball star going to the pros after the championship game. Suddenly, the lad says, "Dad, I want to dance." Music comes up, and he becomes a song-and-dance man headed for Broadway as the crestfallen father looks on. It's an entertaining spot with charm and appeal, although I have to admit I do keep thinking it was from Ameritrade.
  
• Pets.com: That cute little pet puppet in the ad was so memorable that I heard Pets.com started marketing them. The good news about this spot was its focus -- plainly aimed at pet lovers, and that includes me. I can't say I've purchased anything online from Pets.com, but that pet puppet is cute as a button.
  
• Ourbeginnings.com: This spot with the mad-cap chaos of a group of brides fussing, fighting and generally carrying on was an eye-grabber and focused on a niche, although I'm not sure how many brides-to-be were hoisting Miller Lites in the third quarter waiting for that spot to come on. Maybe it was aimed at their mothers; I know my mother-in-law adores football and simply hangs on every moment of the game. (Well, OK, not really.)

What each spot was trying to do was emulate one of the greatest marketing coups of all time: the Apple Macintosh "1984" ad from Super Bowl XVIII. And like players in their first Super Bowl, each of this year's advertisers tried way too hard and fumbled the communications ball.

The Apple "1984" commercial was a blockbuster, capturing the inherent drama of the Macintosh ideology and movement in a 60-second bit of film, positioning IBM as Big Brother and capitalizing on our Orwellian fears. Running just once, it boosted awareness of newcomer Macintosh to household-name status. It used feature film production values and extraordinary casting to convey a message -- a message communicated overtly by the narrator at the end of the spot: "And you'll see why 1984 won't be like 1984."

The Apple "1984" ad appealed to both our right and left brains: visually appealing, intrusive, dramatic and also logical, clear and pragmatic. Above all, it was compelling and created a clear call to action. Consumers wanted to learn more about the new Macintosh computer. And the spot positioned Macintosh as unique and different, the computer for the rest of us who were not IBM clones.

The "1984" ad was marketing lightning, galvanizing marketers. They saw the possibility of using the Super Bowl as a platform for launching new technology. Lightning rarely strikes twice, but that didn't prevent a large number of online marketers from running in the marketing thunderstorm last year with hundred-dollar bills falling out of their pockets and huge metal umbrellas over their heads praying, "Lightning, please strike here."

Of course, it didn't, and as marketers, brand developers and communicators, we have to do better than last year. Maybe we can blame our poor showing in Super Bowl XXXIV on a lack of discipline, too much VC money and unlimited exuberance. But this year, the "new economy" and the "old economy" are melding to create the "future economy." More of the traditional communication rules will apply.

So if you're a marketing director in training camp producing your reel for Super Bow XXXV, here are 10 thoughts to chew on during the regular season:

• Don't try to be clever. Just communicate.
  
• Intrusiveness is not communication. Put a relevant message in your ads.
  
• Say it simply. Most viewers don't get the technobabble.
  
• Speak person-to-person, as you would to a neighbor.
  
• Omit the oblique. "New-age" gloss and design misses the audience.
  
• Forget the "1984" ad; perfection is difficult to recreate.
  
• Test the stuff. Run your ads by some customers and prospects.
  
• This is not for your resume. Don't go for the Bowl just to put a notch on your curriculum vitae.
  
• Keep the VCs off the field. Bankers don't know anything about advertising.
  
• Have a balanced game plan. Super Bowl ads are like long passes -- use them sparingly, if you use them at all.

If Vince Lombardi were reincarnated as an ad man, I think he'd look at Super Bowl XXXIV's advertising reel and shake his head. He'd assume all those ads had been produced by teams that had forgotten the marketing fundamentals. And he'd be right.

Michael Krauss is a partner with Diamond Technology Partners in Chicago.
He can be reached at news@ama.org.