Goal of Super Bowl Ads: Raise Awareness or Sell Product?

Can you name the product in these ads?

At times I struggle with whether Super Bowl television advertisements are worth the money. This year, the average cost of a Super Bowl ad was $3.5 million dollars–you need to sell a lot of cars or chips to see a return on that investment. So, what’s the purpose of the ad? Is it to get maximum exposure for the brand, or is it to sell products and services? I guess the big corporations see it as a way to promote their brand by getting as many eyeballs as possible on the product. But were you really paying attention to the product?

There were a few ads that I laughed at, but I completely forgot which product was being promoted. Isn’t the whole idea of advertising and marketing to sell more products and/or services?

The companies that elected to advertise during the Super Bowl, got tons of “free” publicity. Twitter went crazy after every commercial; consumers rushed to YouTube to re-watch their favorite commercials; countless major media publications offered critiques of every commercial. This is all great publicity for the major corporations. I guess I’m geared more towards wanting to know exactly where my sales are coming from, so I can track and tweak my marketing campaigns to ensure the greatest profitability and return on investment.  As a small business owner, testing, tracking, and tweaking should be at the heart of your marketing strategy. 

Although it’s hard for me to imagine shelling out $3.5 million for an ad, it’s still fun watching the wildly-creative ads during the Super Bowl.