Superbowl XLVI commercials

We all love Superbowl commercials. Sure, that may be a gross generalization, and it's probably untrue, but how else can you start a blog post to get people excited about ads? Maybe the real question is, how do companies get people excited about ads?

One factor working for them on Superbowl Sunday is the mystic that surround Superbowl commercials. Since more people will be watching television during that time than any other, companies tend to trot out their best stuff when they are shelling out the most bucks to have it seen. For these economic reasons, companies have to make sure they are getting their message across to the correct audience when all that money is on the line. So who are these commercials speaking to? What message are they trying to send?

For this past Superbowl we can get NBC out of the way. With their ad time they are sending a clear message. "We're awesome. We're giving you this great game. Your welcome. Now watch our shows!" As for the rest of the commercials, I found that they seemed to be targeting various audiences, which would make sense since everyone is watching.

With everyone watching (more than any program ever), it does make sense for companies to try to reach as wide of a demographic as they can (and apparently EVERYBODY loves dogs). Which is why this year, like many, a large number of ads made attempts at humor (Acura with Seinfeld) or unnecessary theatrics (Samsung's ad featuring The Darkness, my favorite of the night since they are my favorite band) sometimes to the point where the ad has nothing to do with the product, which is a risk. Either your joke misses and nobody gets your message, or the joke hits, and people still don't get the message but are talking about the ad because they love it. Even if the joke hits you are at risk of people identifying the ad as "the one with Seinfeld" or "the one with The Darkness, oh, and did you see Brian Urlacher in there?!" which eliminates the involvement of your company, which is the opposite of the goal.

Basically, I think the idea with Superbowl commercials is to appeal to as many different people as possible, and hope that people identify the ad with your brand and not just the content.