Monday Morning Quarterbacking: You Grade The Car Ads Of The Super Bowl
Today, ad agencies all over the country crunch numbers to prove to their clients that the outrageous amounts of money spent for production and media buys of Sunday’s Super Bowl ads were well spent. Too bad their clients already saw on TTAC which ads were shooting stars, and which were duds. Oh, and Mercedes did not run the car wash ad. They had something more devilish in store.
No doubt each agency will find the most fitting metric to prove that their ad was great. Edmunds has a handy and free metric that shows how well an ad resonates. They call it the “lift.” Edmunds watches your clicks as they are driven to the respective cars on the Edmunds website. It’s a seismograph for the impact an ad has. If the clicks signal a lot of lift, the ad works, as far as Edmunds is concerned. If the needle stays flat, that ad is a dud. Here is the play-by-play.
Audi did the umpteenth rendition of boy goes to prom. But did mother ally say (at 00:10) “Nowadays, lots of people don’t wet themselves?” The ad created decent lift, not just in the pants. Too me, the best part is in the kiss-off.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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Upon seeing the $29,990 pricetag in the Mercedes ad, my first thought was, "I wonder whether that includes options like A/C or doors?" I think Kia should've taken a cue from Lincoln and shown all those ridiculous hamsters burning to death in an old Forte. That would've been memorable.
Quite possibly the most disappointing, weakest crop of SB commercials since I started paying attention to these things 20 some years ago. None stood out in a positive way. There was no water cooler talk about this ad or that ad on Monday. Just a general "gee none of the ads were very good."