Super Bowl Ad Wars

My favorite was Google.

There are three reasons why:

1. Strong narrative.  I talked earlier about brand and firm positioning as being part of a narrative.  Narrative works because it draws people in.  This is a strong, well told story.  (It’s tight–kinda reminds me of the sequence in the movie Up where they tell the story of a couple’s 40-year marriage in about 2 minutes.  Brilliant.)
2. It shows off the product’s features.  How many Super Bowl ads have you seen that you enjoy but then can’t remember what company it was for?  You don’t have that problem here.  Key point (which you learn when writing fiction.  The shows the product features, it doesn’t just tell you about them.
3. The tone clearly differentiated it from all the other ads.  Most of the other Super Bowl ads were too clever by a half.  Most of them played off male stereotypes.  The monotony got boring.  (Did you notice they showed back-to-back ads that featured guys not wearing pants?)  The Google ad had a completely different feel, which made it stand out from the pack.  Talking dogs and violin playing beavers aside, tone (which gets back to brand) is another way to differentiate yourself.

Of course, none of my clients will be buying Super Bowl ads any time soon.  But I think it’s important to look around to see what works and what doesn’t work and try to figure out ways to adapt what works to your situation.

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