Category — TV Commercials

Inspired by the original GEICO Cavemen commercials, ABC decided to launch a Cavemen TV Show. The show flopped miserably. The Chicago Tribune called it one of the worst 25 TV shows of all time.

Not surprisingly, the show was canceled. And GEICO decided they’d capitalize on the show’s failure by employing a little self-mockery. They aired this commercial during Super Bowl 2008:

The GEICO commercial positions the “real” Cavemen (from the GEICO commercials) as analysts of the “fake” Cavemen from the ABC TV Show, suggesting that the mistake was in using fake Cavemen who wore makeup.

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Victoria’s Secret decided to take a gamble this year and splurge for a $3 million plus commercial during the Super Bowl. The gamble paid off.

According to Nielsen Media Research, Victoria’s Secret’s lingerie commercial in the 2008 Super Bowl was seen by 103.7 million viewers, more than any other.

Why was the ad buy a risk?

Unless the game is close, a 9:45pm commercial in the Super Bowl runs the risk of being seen by far fewer people than a first quarter commercial which is the most consistent quarter for peak viewership during the Super Bowl. For lots of people, the Super Bowl “event” ends at half time. Unless, of course, the game is close.

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Commercials during your favourite TV shows are often called “a necessary evil”. To some extent that’s understandable – people need to make money and show paid ads during prime-time television is a great way to do so.

But do commercials really HAVE to suck? Isn’t there some way that we could actually make them better – better for the audience AND better for the companies pushing those ads? I say this because I figure that:

less people hating your ad = more people watching it = more people buying your product

As long as the ad agency remembers to put in a call to action and understands the basics of conversion, the above formula should hold true, correct?

So let’s look at how we can fix the bane that is TV commercials – and it’s quite simple really: find out WHY they suck and remove that irritant without compromising on the basic goal (i.e. sell stuff / promote your brand / etc).

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