Two Minutes for Entrepreneurial Leaders.
This weekend I experienced the Super Bowl media phenomena in south Florida. For two weeks leading up to Super Bowl Sunday, there was more national media coverage, more analysis, and more analysis of the analysis than any other entertainment program in history.
Yes, there was actually a game played on Sunday—for just 60 minutes. It featured some of the world’s most skilled, best-conditioned and highly-paid athletes competing for the distinction of being called the best professional football team on the planet. Mixed throughout the hour-long game were celebrity appearances, performances, and approximately three hours of commercials with a $3 million dollar price tag for 30 seconds. With estimates of up to 150 million viewers, the Super Bowl was also the world’s largest stage for big advertisers.
Who were the advertisers?
Here’s a partial list: 1. Doritos, 2. Hyundai, 3. Coke, 4. Budweiser, 5. Google, 6. E-Trade, 7. Snickers, 8. Motorola, 9. Go-Daddy, 10. Focus on the Family, 11. VW, 12. Dr. Pepper (okay, that’s all I can remember).
What were they trying to sell us?
Honestly: 1. heavily-seasoned corn chips, 2. cheap Korean-made cars, 3. highly-sweetened carbonated drinks, 4. beer, 5. who to use when you search for something, 6. another online way to play the stock market, 7. highly-sweetened chocolate, caramel and peanuts, 8. electronic communication devices, 9. web naming and hosting services, 10. traditional Christian-based communications, 11. German-made cars, 12. yet another highly-sweetened carbonated drink.
Here’s what the advertisers really wanted us to buy…
1. chips from a hip company, 2. an inexpensive car that looks expensive, 3. the drink for everyone young and old, 4. the emotional favorite choice for beer, 5. the name for searching is also your friend, 6. the stock trading service that stands apart because of the funny talking babies, 7. fun, tasty candy bars with energy, 8. way cool electronic stuff, 9. the web naming and hosting company with sexy girls, 10. winner Tim Tebo is a good guy and you can find out why, 11. German cars aren’t stiff like Germans/they are fun and hip, 12. the band Kiss is cool and rebellious—so is this extremely sweetened carbonated drink…
It’s no secret that the advertisers want us to associate with these attributes (and they bet millions we will)—so each message is carefully crafted and designed for us to have certain, emotional connections to their brands. Studies prove that they work, too.
Is there a silver lining to our overly-hyped (and easily-fooled) culture?
Yes, many people simply like Coke because of the taste. Same with Snickers. Hyundais save you money. We like an online stock company because we remember them in a world of media messages. VW’s do have cool colors. And so on.
But here’s the one I like best…
Most businesses have brands with attributes (features and benefits) that are more genuine and actually fit the company, product and/or service. Unlike these giant, consumer-based companies who must create associations to make us think their products/services are fun, cool, memorable and even shocking—most smaller entrepreneurial companies (that make up for 80% of all American businesses), succeed when they deliver on their more authentic brand attributes.
So, even though the (advertiser’s name here) Super Bowl half-time show featuring the rock band, The Who, sang “We won’t get fooled again,” my guess is that we will. We’re key players in this game of advertising, as we want to be hip, cool, fun, loved, and a winner. Associating with things that are perceived that way makes us feel better.
Everywhere you looked on Super Bowl Sunday there were black and gold clad Saints fans, and blue and white dressed Colts fans. Monday it was all black and gold.