This coming Sunday, a parade of new ads will interrupt the NFL’s programming. A few legacy brands will return to the Super Bowl with the horses that brought them. Most of the other advertisers will be looking to score points with customers and the press care of their innovative new approaches to their showcase (and expensive) celebrity endorsements.
Amazon.com, for instance.
And Nissan, for another instance.
And Rakuten, for another instance.
Scar’ Jo’, Eugene Levy, and Hannah Waddingham would be fun to cast and write for and direct. No one’s going to deny that, but what if the star in question shines so brightly that the product being advertised is made to play a supporting role?
GoDaddy’s On A Different Page
Once upon a time, GoDaddy used to be a Super Bowl regular. No longer.
GoDaddy’s chief marketer Fara Howard spoke to The Drum recently, but not about Super Bowl ads. About something more important and longer-lasting. She said:
Repetition is reputation. Make certain that you’re clear, concise and continue to articulate what your message is to your audience. We all know that our attention spans are shorter than that of a goldfish. Thank you Ted Lasso for reminding us of that. And with that incredibly short attention span, it’s imperative that brands know what they stand for, and that they say it often and are willing to repeat it.
She added, “Internally, marketers become fatigued with their message before customers even hear it.”
Her insight reminds me of Ad Legend, Rosser Reeves, who said:
…writers can forget that an advertising campaign is not designed to express their individual ego or talent for entertaining. Rather, it is a functional tool whose purpose is to fully inform the public via maximum projection of the message.
