Tuesday Morning Quarterbacking

Friday, I was asked which will be better, the Superbowl, or the commercials.

Here it is 30+ hours later, and I have some answers.

The Superbowl was an event. For the folks in Texas, it will be a long time before it is ever repeated at their stadium.

For football fans it is an annual event.

In less than a year, it will have been played in my home state of Indiana.

But all the Superbowl hype and festivities have a deadline, and once the time has passed, it is over, until the next year.

The season is over, the time has passed, we have to wait a few months until the start of the next season.

And to throw another monkey wrench into the equation, the players union are renegotiating for the next season, which means there is always a possibility of a strike....

But I want to talk about the difference between the game and the commercials from a marketing viewpoint.

Like I said, the game was an event. It's over. There was a timeline and it has passed.

The businesses that ran commercials during the television broadcast however, needed a different mindset. A long term, long range, branding mindset.

Grab a pen and paper and jot down the commercials that you saw.

I'll wait...

(Tick, Tock)


How many companies did you write down?

That is the power of the Superbowl and the megabucks it cost to run a 30 second ad.

What will really determine the success of the ad however is what all those companies do next.

If they had the event mindset, you won't see their ad again on tv. Which is a BIG waste.

If they are smart and have the long range, long term, branding mindset, then you'll see those ads again and again and again and again and again.

Those companies used the Superbowl to launch an advertising campaign.

For the others, the Superbowl was their advertising campaign.

What about you? Are you a one and done advertiser?

I won't sell one radio commercial.

I could, it would cost you $50, and be a complete waste of my time and your money.

Go Long instead.