Nothing Can Wait

It used to be that there was an element of surprise during the Super Bowl commercial breaks. Which company was going to reveal that next groundbreaking spot? How was Budweiser and Go Daddy going to outdo themselves this year? It was always a huge part of Super Bowl Sunday even if your primary reason for watching was for the football.

Not anymore. If you even spend a few minutes in Facebook or on watching morning news programs, you had already seen half of the spots that ran throughout the game. It's sort of like starting Black Friday in the PM of Thanksgiving Thursday. We've become a society that needs it now. We want to be the first to see the new spots and the advertisers know it. We want to be the first to share it on Facebook and say whether or not we like it. That's why it doesn't take long for a new Volkswagen ad to spread on YouTube.

So what does it all mean? It means that although the Super Bowl has been around for nearly 50 years, there's always a different and better way to deliver a message within the context of the big game. In fact, I'm waiting for the first advertiser to say "forget paying millions to appear in-game, we're just going to make a splash around the game...for free...in a more strategic and memorable way."

Think about it. The Super Bowl is the ONLY time we pay attention to the commercials during a sporting event. Now we see them weeks in advance. What is that ultimately going to do to the price of the Super Bowl spot? Probably not much, but it should make companies think twice about their strategy.

This isn't so much a post about the Super Bowl commercials, but the lasting impression that companies have on a captivated and massive audience. We're reminded that there's so much more than just 30 seconds to get your brand out there. Like most people on the Monday following the Super Bowl, we talked about our favorite commercials around the office. There really wasn't a spot that rose to the top of that discussion. No "Wazzz-up" or talking babies dominated the conversation.

I'm thinking that's a good thing. I think advertisers and their creative partners are getting smarter. Maybe, they're realizing that long-term branding and story-telling is more important than the eye-catching and humorous creative that dominated the Super Bowl for so long. It seems that the focus is more on making products stand out in a specific marketplace as opposed to making advertising stand out amongst other advertisers. If that's the case, these companies are on to something by generating buzz well before the Dorito bags are ripped open and the parties begin.