So the best commercial ever - literally, the best commercial ever - shows up with Ridley Scott as the director, and half the folks who see it, including Apple's board, want to give the time back to the network rather than run it.
Who isn't a fan of this ad? It's got a great director, great message, and it's really entertaining. So much so that it transcends that hazy strata between commercial and 'content'. It's clever.
But what were MSNBC's criteria for judging this as the best ad ever? Did it sell more Macs? While it's certainly an incredibly cool ad for you and me, I wonder if it was such an early winner for Apple (granted, now that their products have achieved cult-status, this ad (and the HAL ad) only feed this branding, so in the long run it was a great call).
And Apple is a special case by almost any standard -- their product line exudes hipness and differentation. That's why this ad works. But how often do these 'clever' ads fall flat on their face in returning marketshare, branding awareness, and revenues to the advertiser?
One that comes immediately is this ad:
Pretty funny, huh? Quick, who was the advertiser? Yeah that's what I thought. And even if you remember the name, did you catch what they do?
I saw this ad during a Super Bowl a couple of years back and was talking about it around the water cooler the next day, when it dawned on me that among the five of us talking, we had each seen as many as three ads from this series of very clever, funny commercials -- yet none of us had any idea which company had sponsored it.
Did Ameriquest - the advertiser - not catch this when they screened the ads with a test market? Or were they too busy judging whether the ad was clever enough. I've gotta say that as much as I love these Ameriquest ads, if I was on their board, I'd nix them from a Super Bowl spot, too. From the MSNBC article Skrenta referenced, one of the critical elements for success:
Brand recognition is vital. Even if Carmen Electra agrees to appear half-naked, McG is directing and the ad has a $2 million special effects budget, it doesn’t matter if nobody knows what the product is.
Now go back to the MSNBC article and read the "results" section for each of their ads. I count one or two at most from these top-ten that point to any remotely measurable results in delivering on brand, market, and/or revenue.
Armchair Quarterback
They say that you need to hear a brand five times before you remember it. What a neat experiment it would be to take a 30-second spot in
the super bowl for some unknown company, and simply repeat a six-second ad five times. Just a guy in a suit standing in a white room:
"Ameriquest: We're a mortgage company that doesn't judge you too quickly." Fade out. Rinse Repeat.
Ok, I admit it sounds annoying, and I'd imagine that the rapid-fire repetition would not really count towards five encounters with the brand in different contetxts and times.
But I bet you'd at least remember the name.