Best Super Bowl 2015 Ads

Last night’s Super Bowl XLIX Seahawks-Patriots match up was definitely one for the ages.  Ratings were up 4% (total viewers to be announced later today) from last year which had a record breaking audience of 111.5 million viewers.  Super Bowl commercial are among the most expensive mainly due to the mass audience they attract.  According to The Wall Street Journal, brands shelled out a record breaking $4.5 million this year for a basic 30-second Super Bowl XLIX ad.  The true value of the overall exposure includes online views, brand recall, social media leverage, wide spread media coverage, and positive PR associated with the game.

This year’s ads were focused on heartfelt emotions (from the powerful ads like NFL’s domestic violence, Dove’s Fathers are hero’s to Dodge’s 100 year life lessons) to off-putting (Nationwide childhood death which was very depressing).  Most effective Super Bowl ads use animals, babies/kids, humor (which we didn’t see much of this year with a few exceptions like the Snicker’s ad), surprise endings, celebrities, and longer storytelling.

According to YouTube Trends Dashboard the “Lost Dog” ad by Budweiser was one of the most viewed videos in the last 24 hours (20.8M views) since uploaded on January 28^th. Super Bowl 2015 Chart ranked “Lost Dog” #1 with 2.1M shares across Facebook, Twitter and blogs in the last 30 days.  This ad has also taken top dog honors among several media outlets including USA Today Ad Meter, Hulu, Denver Post and Shift Communications tally of online and ad sharing.  Emotions were definitely riding high with this ad and were used successfully to engage consumers with the Budweiser brand.

“The Brady Bunch” ad by Snickers was ranked #2 by Super Bowl 2015 Chart with 187,237 shares in the last 30 days.  This spot was clever and very funny and had it not had a puppy or baby in it, it might have taken the top slot.  “The Brady Bunch” ad has been one of the most shared videos on Facebook & Twitter in the last 24 hours and has 8.1M views on YouTube.  One of Snicker’s successes outside of the humor they used was in launching their ad early with their teaser campaign.  Their teaser ad generated 3.35M views alone.  Launching before the Super Bowl game is ultimately the way to be a part of the larger conversation, engaging with consumers longer.

The keys to a successful commercial are:

1. Attention: The ad needs to grab consumer’s attention.
2. Distinction: The ad needs to be different, distinct so it stands out from the competition.
3. Positioning: Your ad needs to deliver your brands benefit in order to be memorable to your consumers.
4. Likable/Effective: Your ad needs to be liked, inspiring conversation in a positive way, engaging both consumer and brand.
5. Net Equity: The ad has to be consistent with the overall brand.

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How To Identify Your Target Market?

Understanding your target market and their behavior patterns is critical and probably one of the most underrated aspects of the planning process.  How can you create a great product or offer a great service if you don’t know who your target audience is, what they like and need and how much they are willing to pay?  Knowing your target market has many benefits to your business:

 

1. Makes it easier to reach your target market with focused advertising and marketing outreach.
2. Makes it simpler to optimize your product catering to the target market’s needs and wants which is important for product adoption and customer retention.
3. Helps to better understand your market size which enables you to make more accurate financial estimates.

Businesses struggle to define their target market and too often set their sights broadly, trying to please everyone.  One of the biggest marketing errors that brands make is not identifying the target market properly resulting in all of their marketing efforts to be seen by the wrong people which make it much more challenging to convert to customers.

Before you start marketing your product/service and creating your marketing campaign, you need to identify who your target market is.  A target market is composed of a core or primary target, a secondary target and a tertiary target.  The core is composed of consumers who will definitely buy your product.  The secondary target is composed of consumers who may want to purchase your product through persuasive advertising, from word of mouth knowledge and by trying the product initially.  The tertiary target audience is the group of consumers who want to wait and see.  They will wait for the product to be popular, the price to be within their purchasing range and if the product will answer their need at one point in time.  The process of identifying a target market is called market segmentation.  This simply means that you break down the market and define the audience or consumer by:

• Demographics: Age, Income, Family Size, Education, Occupation, Gender, Marital Status, Nationality/Race
• Geography: Location, Region of the World, Climate
• Behaviors: Brand Loyalty, Value of Quality
• Psychographics: Personality, Attitudes, Values, Lifestyle, Interests/Hobbies, Behavior

Here are some key areas to start identifying who your target market is:

Analyze Your Product/Service USP (Unique Selling Proposition)

• Try to understand your products/services unique selling proposition or try to understand the problem your product/service is solving for your customers. This will help to begin to identify who would pay for your product/service.
• Define your product/service features & benefits. A feature is an element of what something does or what it is. For example, a car’s features may include ski racks or an upgraded stereo system. A benefit is a positive result that the feature delivers (I get to go skiing). You can then define your benefits by whether they are functional or emotional. A functional benefit is directly related to the functionality of the feature. For example, an upgraded stereo provides higher-quality sound. An emotional benefit is one that evokes a feeling or emotion. An example is an upgraded stereo might make the user feel like a rock star. From here, make a list of people who have a need that your benefit fulfills.

Know Your Competition

• Evaluate your competition’s marketing strategy can help you analyze your own target market.
• Look at your competitor’s USP, who are they targeting, who are their current customers, study their advertisements, marketing campaigns, pricing strategy, products/services, etc.
• Be sure to differentiate what you are doing from the competition, don’t go after the same target market.

Look At Your Current Customer Base

• Look at who is already using your product/service. Identify who the heavy users are and their buying patterns, look at their demographics, look for common characteristics and interests.

Choosing Your Target Market|Creating A Customer Profile

• Based on your product/services USP, your positioning in the marketplace vs the competition, and who your current customer base is, identify who not only has a need for your product/service but who is most likely to buy taking into considering demographics, geography, behaviors and psychographics.
• Rather than make assumptions that people will need your product/service, conduct research to get a more realistic picture of your audience.
  • Surveys: most common and least expensive. Conducted online, in person or by phone. Can tap into current/potential customer pool, client’s, and vendors for feedback.
  • Focus groups: more expensive, gain feedback on product/services by asking questions in an interactive group setting with a moderator.
  • Search Online: blogs, forums, articles, etc. that talk about your target market or that talk to your target market.
  • You’re Network: tap into your social network to get feedback, opinions and advice.

Evaluate Your Decision

• Once you’ve decided on a target market, you need to consider the following:
  • Are there enough people that fit your marketing criteria?
  • Do I fully understand what drives my target market to make buying decisions for my product/service? How much purchasing power do they have? Who influences their buying decisions?
  • Can the target market afford my product/service?
  • Can you effectively reach the target market with your marketing message? Are they easily accessible?

Identifying your target market is essential to successfully marketing your product/service.  It will be important to reassess your target market periodically as the marketplace shifts and evolves.  Staying ahead of the curve and adjusting your planning accordingly is an ongoing process.