On Monday, February 6, 2012 the blogosphere and TV news programs will be buzzing about the Super Bowl commercials. Which ones hit the mark, which ones didn’t. I think Super Bowl commercials are a great entertainment feature of the big game – especially if your favorite NFL team doesn’t happen to be vying for the national title. (My team is IN this year – so the commercials will actually take a back seat to the game itself.)

This week a few commercials have been “leaked” early — and have appeared on social media. An interesting approach by advertisers. Are they building buzz or shooting themselves in the foot? I’m not sure, and don’t have access to their analytics, so I suppose time will tell. Have you seen these?

The holiday season ads and the early release Super Bowl commercials have led me to think again about what makes a good ad campaign and what doesn’t.

I took note this December of a regional jewelry store that produced a series of ads and scheduled them in a way I thought were very effective.  They were short – maybe 15 seconds – and ran during my morning news programs. Right there the store gets points – I am most definitely their target market (“HONEY! Look! I want that necklace for Christmas…”) and they reached me at just the right time of day. And they reached me repeatedly during the weeks before December 25th. I noticed that all of the spots had the store’s “branding” and included the same voice over. The one thing that varied was the “special” – “Buy one charm, get the bracelet for free…” or “Buy our signature ring and save $20 off your next purchase…”

So the advertisers hit just who they wanted, when they wanted. And I remembered the message because I was reminded of it over the course of the “holiday purchasing season.” Plus, the store’s sales specials also doubled as a call to action. If I were to buy the ring, I would save money. These were not complicated or costly productions. But the advertisers hit a home run. (No home run for my husband however; he did NOT visit the jewelry store this December… but don’t worry, I have a birthday coming up.)

But advertising during the Super Bowl is a whole different story – often we see domination by international brands (because they are the only companies who can afford to advertise during the sports spectacular…) or up-and-coming brands who take a huge risk to hit a huge audience. And usually these commercials have to resonate with the target market by using a different approach than my local jewelry store – they don’t have the luxury of using repetition or geo-targeting.

These large brands have to capture our attention through an emotional connection, humor, or unexpected entertainment.  Three non-Super Bowl commercials that certainly accomplish this in my household are the following commercials for AT&T, Nissan, and Honda:

These three commercials resonated and captured me because I have two teenagers in the house – and I (and they) thought they were pretty funny and a little true to life. But this is a harder and more costly approach, obviously. I also think that using humor or trying to establish a strong emotional connection is a bit risky – after all, I tend to remember the sentiment or premise of commercials such as these, but rarely do I remember the brand. (I do have great hopes however for one of my favorite charities, however – Ronald McDonald House Charities will air a spot between 6:00 and 6:20 pm on Super Bowl Sunday, so I hope it’s a strong one!)

I am looking forward to the Giants winning this Super Bowl. I’d be interested to hear any feedback on the commercials as well. Happy viewing all!