Fumble!

It’s been only three days since Super Bowl Sunday, and already a couple of things are undoubtedly true about the overly-hyped commercials from the broadcast:

1. You’re already bored to death with all the talk about which ads were good, bad, funniest, blah, blah, blah…

2. You’ve already forgotten about 80% of them — or more.

Yes, once again sharp direct response marketers everywhere have gotten our annual good laugh at the expense of big, dumb companies. I found myself continuously shaking my head for hours on Sunday, wondering how so many otherwise-smart corporate executives could believe whatever BS the various bigwig advertising agency folks told them to convince them to throw away millions of dollars on such ineffective garbage.

I counted a grand total of one — ONE! — Super Bowl ad that had both an Offer and a Deadline — the basic elements of direct response marketing. In true big, dumb company form, however, they flashed that offer so momentarily quickly on the very bottom of the screen at the very end of their commercial that almost nobody even noticed it.

Did you?

I found a replay of the ad here — but this video doesn’t include that offer at the end of the ad:

Why is the offer gone from this video? My guess is because of its deadline: As I recall, it said something about “The first million [to Like a Facebook page or something] get a free Pepsi.”

With an estimated 100 million-plus viewers, that seems like a fair scarcity-based deadline.

And if indeed those million people responded to that well-hidden offer at the end of an otherwise-useless ad, that means Pepsi “bought” one million leads — via their Facebook page or wherever — for the cost of one can of soda each, plus the $3.7 million cost for the airtime, or about $4 apiece total.

With the right back-end sales funnels and strategies in place, Pepsi should easily be able to turn that into a profit.

Which is a lot more than anyone can say for the vast majority of other ads aired during the big game.

As usual.

This was indeed another sad-but-typical year of ineffective Super Bowl ads (unless you feel that the main point of an ad is to entertain instead of make money, which apparently the misguided corporate execs okaying these crazy ad expenditures believe).

That’s why before I sat down to write this post, I decided to check back into my own archives to re-read what I wrote one year ago about last year’s similarly-disastrous bunch of not-so-super commercials.

And guess what?

That post just so happens to be as strikingly appropriate for this year’s ads as it was for last year’s collection.

But before I invite you to read it, allow me to single out one of this year’s Super Bowl ads that I felt had an especially-appropriate message for small business owners and entrepreneurs.

Do you know which ad I’m referring to? Here’s a hint…

It drives home the meaning of a saying I’m well-known for:

“Ideas Make You Feel Good, But Only ACTIONS Make You Money!”

I have no idea whether that ad convinced millions of people to purchase services from GoDaddy.com, but I hope it helps a whole lot of small business owners and entrepreneurs give themselves a much-needed kick in the butt to TAKE ACTION on their ideas — NOW!

If you want to read more of my take on the sorry state of Super Bowl advertising, Click Here to read what I wrote about last year’s disastrous crop of Super Bowl ads. The post is just as fitting today, and will likely be next year, and the next…