Is pre-game press of Super Bowl commercials causing disappointment?

The Super Bowl ads. Many people I've spoken with have called this year disappointing. Actually they have thought the last few years have been. I think this all goes back to "nipplegate" as well as is apart of the higher expectations people have of a "Super Bowl Commercial".

It's not just the ad rags of the journalistic world that talk about upcoming Super Bowl ads. The mainstream press gets caught up in the hype of what will air as well. This spreads to the consumers/viewers and that hype could actually be hurting the resulting opinions of the ads.

OTX did a survey prior to the game to see if people were more critical if they knew a spot was a Super Bowl spot.

"What we found was that respondents took a much more critical view of the ads when they were told they were Super Bowl ads. They hold them to a higher standard than ads in other venues. So not only are advertisers already paying much more, they also have to work much harder to make an impact."
Two groups of people each saw the same six ads -- the first group wasn't told anything about the ads and the second group was told the ads were going to be aired in the 2006 Super Bowl.
"The findings may suggest that there's an expectation among viewers that Super Bowl ads aren't meant to be informative. Instead, perhaps they should just be entertaining in order to elicit an emotional response and reinforce the brand," said David Brandt, managing direcor for OTX's Marketing Insights division.

I have to say this does not come as a surprise at all.

And in fact, surprise is one of the key things to creating a good Super Bowl ad. Some of the top CDs were asked "What makes a good Super Bowl spot?" Number 2 on the list is "Shock 'em and surprise em".

Viewers watching the Super Bowl have a mindset that dares advertisers to "show me something I've never seen before," says Nina DiSesa, chairman of McCann-Erickson New York.

It's hard to be surprised when you know what's coming.

So many creatives and advertisers get caught up in making something bombastic, a la Apple's 1984, that they miss out on quite a few important things. Yes, we all remember the cat herding spot from 2000, but how many remember who or what it was for? That's not a good ad. Consumers don't realize that it's important for them to remember who an ad was for, they just like the concept and remember that. For a Super Bowl commercial to be effective and not a total waste of money, you want people to say "oh, that Masterlock ad" not "oh that ad where they shot at a lock". Jaw-dropping and impactful are important but it does no one any good if it overshadows the brand.

What was good about the Masterlock ad was it was different. The FexEx "Apology" spot from 1998 was so brilliant because it was different. Everyone blowing things up, farting, and having animals act like humans reduces the stand-out-ness of the spot. Last year's Ameriquest Catricide spot was probably one of the most talked about spots, because it was different. It surprised people.

All the pre-Super Bowl chatter really does make it harder to accomplish this. Yes, we here do a spoiler. And yes, I even feel like sometimes I'd like to be surprised when I see a spot. Plus, now we have even more people pre-releasing their spots online, like Toyota did with their Camry spot and GoDaddy did with their approved spot. Plus there were those who ran old spots like Hummer, Motorola and Degree. Although those spots are pretty good spots on their own and are of Super Bowl caliber.

But one big question advertisers and ad agencies have to ask themselves is if releasing these spots and even just news on the spot early going to hurt them in the long run? Is it a really expensive mistake they are making? Is the pre-game press killing the effectiveness of buying a $2.5 million 30-second spot? It's definitely not easy to build suspense while churning the PR machine.

Stay tuned....tomorrow we bring you AdLand's Super Bowl Review Bonanza.