Monday, February 7, 2011

Advertising's Favorite Night: Summary, Strategies of My Favs, plus Hulu's take

Ah, yes, the morning after the Superbowl.

Ad agencies have already assembled recap presentations with statistics and traffic summaries for their client. Consumers have exchanged favorites over the morning coffee. Blogs, Facebook and Twitter have staked claim in best, worst, funniest, most-forgettable. Even my mom text me her opinion (her text: 'I like the one about the coupon you get online that everyone buys together' i.e. Groupon).


So here's my spin on Advertising's favorite night.  The 2011 Super Bowl spots that stuck in my mind are below, along with my opinion of the persuasive advertising technique each agency used.

You decide whether the technique was successful (who purchased a Chrysler this morning!?!) or if you think my category is totally off-base. Definition of ad terms came from AMA but this is Persuasive Advertising 101, folks.



Brand: Chrysler
Title: Imported From Detroit
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland
Technique: Emotion / Plain Folking The advertiser says or implies that people just like you use a product. (This often takes the form of a testimonial.)




Brand: Motorola
Title: Empower the People
Agency: Anomaly, New York
Technique: Snob Appeal The opposite of the bandwagon technique, snob appeal makes the case that using the product means the consumer is better/smarter/richer than everyone else.




Brand: Audi
Title:  Release the Hounds
Agency: Venables Bell & Partners, San Francisco
Technique: Name Calling Comparing one product to another and saying it is weaker or inferior in quality or taste.






Hulu has all the ads with a nice user-interface (albeit the god-forsaken auto-play).




Here's the high-level consumer rankings, sourced from Hulu's press release in the wee hours this AM.

"Only hours after the Packers were crowned Super Bowl XLV champions, Hulu users have determined the Super Bowl ad winners as well. Votes have been cast across the 69 Super Bowl ads on Hulu's AdZone. (www.hulu.com/adzone)"

RESULTS
Overall Most Liked Ads
1.Volkswagen: The Force
2.Bridgestone: Carma
3.Volkswagen: Black Beetle

Overall Most Liked Ads by Women
1.Volkswagen: The Force
2.Bridgestone: Carma
3.NFL: Super Bowl Celebration

Overall Most Liked Ads by Men
1.Bridgestone: Carma
2.Volkswagen: The Force
3.Paramount: Captain America: The First Avenger

Most Polarizing by Gender
Women Strongly Favor
1.Chevrolet: GMME
2.Play60: Who's Next?
3.Twentieth Century Fox: Rio

Men Strongly Favor
1.Columbia Pictures: Battle: Los Angeles
2.Universal: Cowboys and Aliens
3.Skechers: Kim Kardashian: Hello Skechers

Overall Most Disliked Ads
1.Salesforce: Chatter.com Launch: Still Doing Impossible Things
2.Salesforce: Chatter.com Launch: Do Impossible Things
3.Go Daddy: The Contract

(source: PR Newswire Hulu Announces 2011 Super Bowl XLV AdZowl Winners press release)

3 comments:

RW World said...

Wow. Great piece! Some of the agencies are finally realizing the "real" person is the consumer - no more fantasy.

Jack650 said...

Have you seen fanhouses site? They have some funny comments and break it out by best ad per quarter. http://superbowlads.fanhouse.com/

AmberS said...

Is the motorola one supposed to be like George Orwell's 1984?