"What does good advertising look like?" is probably one of the most common debates in the communications industry. The answer to the question totally depends on who you ask, of course.
For example, if you ask a body of consumers, it is likely that the vast majority would answer that good advertising is the what you see in Super Bowl ads with the witty humor, emotional strings being pulled, and hot chicks eating a greasy hamburger - AKA "Sexy Advertising".
We definitely love and look forward to these ads every year ourselves. You can't beat the level of creativity and entertainment they bring. However, if you were to ask a marketer, business owner, or financial representative of a company the answer would be whatever is measurable, delivers results, and proves scalability.
It is very difficult for these million dollar Super Bowl commercials to distinguish - to the penny - ROI on their spend and if it was truly a wise financial decision. However, for these bigger brands that have the money to spend, it is not necessarily their objective to understand an accurate ROI because what they are seeking is unmeasurable. What they are seeking is sustaining or growing brand awareness and building a buzz around their brand name. With that objective, there is no way to measure consumers increasing or decreasing psychological recognition of a brand.
GoDaddy is a prime example. Check out this snippet from AdWeek's article when GoDaddy decided to cut the Super Bowl ads and move towards more targeted and data-driven results:
This brand was well-known for their risqué ads during the game since 2005 - it launched in the late 1990s—including several memorable spots with Nascar driver Danica Patrick and supermodel Bar Refaeli. "The Super Bowl has been a great platform for our domestic brand building," a GoDaddy rep said in an email statement. "It's done its job to get our name out there. Now, we can move beyond the generic megaphone of a Super Bowl campaign to a more targeted brand of marketing. As you've been tracking us over the past several months, you've seen us shifting away from high-level domestic brand awareness to a more personalized, data-driven marketing approach as we expand globally," GoDaddy said.
In the video above, Jon talks through what good advertising looks like from a direct response perspective and how you can audit your current efforts to see how they compare. Additionally, we are offering you a FREE editable P&L spreadsheet to help you better understand financial projections for a direct-response campaign launch. Check out the video above, and click here to access the free download!
What does good advertising look like to you? We would love to hear your comments!!