Once again, the music industry, and more specifically The Who, stole the marketing show during Super Bowl XLVI. Why, you ask? Because the entertainment industry understands marketing their brands better than any other industry. The Who, Carrie Underwood and Queen Latifah are probably the only brands that got paid some big bucks to advertise and not the other way around. Plus, they took advantage of the opportunity to make a personal connection with their customers. Smart.
Once again the mega-advertising-agencies stumbled on the most important thing - selling products. The same story plays out each year: huge brands hired overpriced advertising agencies to create some very nice television ads --- and I can't remember what they were advertising. Sure, it could be my ADHD --- OR --- it could be that they've forgotten how to sell.
It seems that, for years, the advertising has attracted "creatives" that think up really cute ideas. Those ideas are supposed to sell products and they often fall short of that goal. Years ago, one of my clients related this story to me as he sat there crying (literally) about the huge amount of money he spent (wasted) on an advertising campaign. It was very creative --- part of it featured a video filled with very sexy camera moves, lit very well, great performances by the on-screen talent, fabulous musical score --- it, however, did nothing to sell his product. The advertising business has almost become the outlet for aspiring artists, musicians, and filmmakers to milk clients for money to live out their creative dreams without regard to their primary job - selling products and marketing brands.
Right off the bat, The Who told the audience to "put down the chicken fingers and turn the television way up!" Then, they hooked the audience with standard Roger Daltrey and Pete Townsend energy. During that time he reached out to his audience in the stadium and the screens at home and left them wanting more. Without any wardrobe malfunctions - short of Townsend’s belly flash - they sucked in the audience and was the most memorable part of the 3 plus hour-long event.
My wager is that overall, The Who will sell more units and get more hits on MySpace this week than any other product that had a commercial during the Super Bowl. I'd love to explain why, but that will be in my new book "Brand.gineering" and the subject of future blogs.
Rock On! --- Carl Hartman, CEO brandgineering.org
8 comments:
But The Who were dreadful. What kind of marketing is that? They get the Taylor Swift Award for worst vocal performance.
And, yet here we sit discussing Taylor Swift and The Who, and not the commercials. We are not discussing the quality of the product, but the marketing. Taylor Swift is well marketed and regardless of her vocal ability is one of the most popular brands out there in or out of music.
But maybe the people talking about the Who are old (and white)? Daltrey and Townsend are in their 60s. They're not even iconic like the Stones. Does the Who appeal to a young (under 35) or diverse audience?
Is this some sort of sly, Punk'd-like joke? I had a bunch of people over my house, and everybody thought The Who were pathetic and embarrassed their legacy. Daltry's voice was shot for most of it -- he improved by the end, but by then it was too late -- and the whole thing reeked of misbegotten CBS CSI synergies.
Dunno if they appeal to an under 35 audience. My son is a rock musician signed with a major label and 18. He and his friends loved The Who. We had a group of people over and they thought The Who rocked, given their age.
I'm willing to bet that The Who received a greater revenue boost than any other product shilled during the Super Bowl.
So Who didn't know The Who would suck as the half time act?
Think about it. When 50% of your members are dead, and you've made the musical request to die before you get old, somebody needs to step in and do something about it.
Instead, we suffered through 12 minutes of their wheezing, 1970s musical onslaught, including their CSI:Geriatric hits.
Did anyone else notice they couldn't even get FAKE excited people to stand around the stage for The Whoot's performance? Wow.
Here's where the Census Bureau missed the boat. Instead of blowing our money on a stupid spot trying to convince us to use 10 minutes of our precious time to complete the census, they'd have been better off just getting us the form early since it would have been a PLEASURE to fill out instead of watching The Who!
Carl,
Given; many of the commercials aired during the Super Bowl didn't sell product very well. That's an advertising problem every day of the year. And, I will give you that The Who was clearly selling their music. But did they increase their audience?
You wrote;
"Then, they hooked the audience with standard Roger Daltrey and Pete Townsend energy. During that time he reached out to his audience in the stadium and the screens at home and left them wanting more."
I was at a Super Bowl party with about 30 people and no one wanted more. If anything, they wanted Springsteen back. And I know The Who will sell plenty of units this week, but they sell units every week. Will they increase those sales because of this performance?
Well, I was prepared to say, "who knows?" but I checked iTunes and, The Who are doing Ok today. The Who: Greatest Hits is the #20 download album and Baba O'Reiley and Who Are You and both in the top 100 of the download singles. My guess is that their music was probably not that high on the list last week. our point seems valid and, as you said, they were paid for their exposure rather than paying for an ad spot.
But I do think there were very effective brand ads aired during the Super Bowl. The Google ads were brilliant, storytelling and tied closely to brand. And I think the Focus on Family ads with the Tebows -- regardless of your personal political position -- were very effective even before they aired. There was more talk about that campaign than any other. And certainly more than The Who.
tom
All you guys are a hoot. This is not about The Who, but WHO is better at advertising.
With such a short sales cycle on their product, the music business kicks the traditional advertising businesses butt.
They got paid to advertise their product. Duh? They got about 10-15 minutes of PAID advertising. You do the math.
BTW, my comments on James Dobson were not political. God's kingdom is not of this world. Those that believe otherwise, need a reality check.
Post a Comment