There’s a brand that’s in trouble. It’s been making shoddy products for years. It was (and maybe still is) at the brink of failure. It needs not just a Hail Mary, but a succession of them.
Wieden + Kennedy may have answered at least one of those prayers with its work for Chrysler, the first-ever 2-minute Super Bowl commercial.
A Super Bowl commercial must work much like any other marketing communication. It has to speak to the right people, on a matter that’s relevant, in terms they understand, and be compelling. It has to address a need in the client’s sales process, or sales funnel.
Do you think another Super Bowl spot worked better than Chrysler’s?
Please comment at the end of this post. Or email me directly.
But the Super Bowl comes with extra burdens: It creates more pressure to make impact than any other venue in the world of advertising. Everyone’s watching. Even if they’re not watching the game, they’re watching online. They’re FB’ing, Tweeting and emailing. They’re even blogging. You mess up, you’ve done more than waste time, money and opportunity. You can embarrass your brand.
And you must justify the huge cost of placement (about $3 million per half minute) and production. For instance: Imagine what you could do with interactive and social media with the $6 million a one-minute spot costs to run, plus (for instance) $3 million to produce and another million to promote the whole thing. My half-educated guess in Chrysler’s case, is that the effort cost well over $15 million: $12 million for air time alone. I have no idea how much Eminem costs.
I am not a fan of TV advertising in general, or Super Bowl advertising in particular. But in this case, Chrysler and W+K found a way to make America sit up, pay attention and think about Chrysler – something few beside creditors have done much of for the past decade. I’m not sure they could do the same thing in social media, since they lack a game-changing product along the lines of the Prius or the Mini.
Any Super Bowl ad is a gamble. Chrysler improved its odds by partnering with one of advertising’s all-time great agencies. Well done all around.
