It might seem like a risky time to take a chance on a $3 million Super Bowl commercial, and indeed some past advertisers, like FedEx, Garmin and General Motors, are sitting the game out. After all, buying a spot in Sunday’s big game on NBC doesn’t ensure that the ad will resonate with viewers. Garmin and FedEx received low marks from consumers for creatively convoluted ads during the past two Super Bowls. Still, even in a recession, dozens of companies believe the buy is worth it. The key is to come up with a clever, memorable ad that is actually relevant to the brand’s core identity. Ads with the Anheuser-Busch Clydesdales, for example, certainly fit that description. Only a small handful of companies can get away with outlandish commercials that have absolutely nothing to do with what the advertiser is pushing. GoDaddy, the domain-name seller, has had great success producing ads with scantily clad women that barely mention the company’s purpose. Jonathan Paisner, brand director at CoreBrand, a New York-based brand consulting firm, talks to Media Life about who should still advertise in the Super Bowl, why the spots make sense for a select few, and how such a commercial can backfire.
 
In a down economy, why spend all the money on a Super Bowl spot?
 
There is a real challenge here: not to have your Super Bowl ad come across as an anachronistic extravagance.

But, this is still a major national television event, and major mass-market moments are increasingly fleeting. So if budget and strategy allow, and if you’ve got a large and broad target market that you need to reach, the Super Bowl is one of the few places where you can still do that instantaneously. 

Are you at all surprised at the number of traditional Super Bowl advertisers, such as FedEx, that have decided not to advertise in the game?
 
Absolutely not.

Obviously the market and its impact on ad budgets is a factor. But it seems there are just better ways to spend that kind of money for most brands.

Look at a FedEx with their silly caveman commercials from last year or the year before. First of all, Geico already owned the caveman thing. But more importantly, FedEx can reach their targets much more efficiently with more finely tuned ads built to speak directly to some core benefits offered by one division or another.

The whole shotgun approach to make a splash for 30 seconds in this day and age really only makes sense for a handful of companies.
 

Are there certain brands that will benefit more than others from them?
 
Super Bowl ads obviously have a life well beyond their 30 seconds of air time.

One of the brands that has benefited most in recent years is Go Daddy. They created these essentially scandalous ads and generated tons of press (positive or negative, didn’t much matter to them), and it has been a huge driver of attention.
 
Also, marketers that leverage the event in an interesting way can also benefit.

Doritos had a contest for a consumer-generated ad in the past, and it was very successful effort for them. They had thousands of people engaged in creating their own homegrown ads and posting them online. And they even carried forward some of these “crowd-sourced” ideas into subsequent commercials. 
 

Why is Super Bowl advertising a "double-edged sword?"
 
That double-edged sword can often be self-manufactured.

Companies that think they can reinvent themselves with a Super Bowl ad are setting themselves up for failure. A brand is built over time across a wide range of experiences with customers. Companies that forget that turn the Super Bowl ad into a high-risk game.
 
So, there can be a big emotional investment there, in addition to the financial one. Many of the ads, of course, are meant to be funny or shocking or memorable, and sometimes marketers can really lose sight of the fact that they are delivering just one (albeit very grand) communication about a product or a brand or a company.
 
Maybe all a beer ad needs to do is generate a bigger laugh than its competitor, simply to create some social currency and tick market share by a fraction of a percent.

But many other advertisers seem unable to resist that same urge to catch some lightning in a bottle, and end up creating something that clashes with the brand or fails to resonate, and just ends up looking silly.

There seem to still be brands every year for whom a Super Bowl ad is their marketing plan. That is quite the Hail Mary pass. And those usually end up getting batted away or intercepted. 
 

What is the risk of a Super Bowl ad failing? How do you define that?
 
In the scheme of things, the value of a brand is based on a longer-term set of perceptions. So a single bad ad or campaign is probably not going to measurably impact brand value. But the risk comes from highly visible exposure that will be reviewed and discussed in the business and popular press, and in the world of word of mouth.
 
A brand needs to know its audience. A Super Bowl ad is as mass as it gets. Advertisers with a more specific target may feel the need to appeal to a broader set--and, again, create something that is just not right for them--and they’ve done that on the grandest stage.
 
At the end of the day, is brand equity going to take a serious hit from a poorly received or even a much-maligned Super Bowl ad? Doubtful. It can be a chink in the armor, a potentially squandered opportunity.

Yet if it fails really big, as the goat of the ad games, maybe the sales team turns that into a positive by using that as a reason to connect with customers. You can’t simply look at a Super Bowl ad in a vacuum; that’s when you’ll only get into trouble.

You recommend aligning a combined corporate and product brand strategy with a Super Bowl spot. What does that mean and why is it important?
 
Again, a Super Bowl spot is one execution within a marketing plan. Using it to grab attention for attention sake (unless, perhaps, you are Go Daddy), is a short-sighted approach.
 
The nature of the event can drive marketers towards a message about the corporate values. Think about the Budweiser Clydesdales after 9/11. Sometimes these can be effective and memorable. But often, these kinds of ads can be a real self-indulgent yawn.
 
A combined approach that speaks to brand values while delivering a relevant message to consumers can be a more powerful way to let the corporate brand and product brand leverage each other within a single communication.
 

What is the best-case ROI for a Super Bowl ad?
 
Different brands will answer that differently.

If you are Budweiser, the ROI is some alchemy that says the Bud ads were more impactful and memorable than their competitors--and maybe created some buzz that you can build upon.
 
If you are Go Daddy, lead news items that you pulled one of your spots because of FCC issues is pretty much a home run.

But for most, a Super Bowl ad is one (large) expenditure within a substantial advertising/media budget. So, best case, it builds upon or sets the tone for a broader campaign, and does so in a way that builds relevance, enthusiasm, and appeal with target audiences.