With the Super Bowl fast approaching, it reminded me of all the excellent commercials that are featured during the game. In 2010, my top two Super Bowl commercial favourites were:
To add to Jasna’s blog post about advertising during the Super Bowl, it is expected that this year more than 90 million viewers will be watching the game. A 30 second advertising spot costs a whopping $3 million. This raises the question- are people watching the game for some great football or just purely for the outstanding and much anticipated commercials that will air? Whatever the reason, several companies are happy to have such high exposure to their commercials and are hoping to attract new customers to buy their products. With a downturn in the economy, companies are especially optimistic that advertising during the Super Bowl will increase sales and lead to a more profitable year. That said, millions and millions of dollars are spent on creating these “one of a kind” commercials. When designing these commercials, behavioural influences, specifically, attitudes and perceptions must be kept in mind as each company only has a short 30 seconds to impress their audience. Since attitudes consist of three components- cognitive, affective, and behavioural- it is important that each company influence all three within their commercial to maximize its effectiveness.
For example, Google did an excellent job of influencing consumers’ behaviours with their “Search On” commercial above. To add to Jasna’s analysis of the commercial, there is a rather large affective influence. The entire commercial is based on a Parisian love story, which evokes consumers’ feelings about love and romance. Further, it ends with a baby laughing and someone searching “how to assemble a crib” on Google, which signifies a happy ending to the vignette. Next, there is a behavioural influence because the ad ends with the phrase “search on”, persuading consumers to search the internet using Google. Finally, there is also a cognitive influence because the consumer is informed of several features Google offers and it makes us think about how we could fully utilize the search engine.
As I sit down for the Super Bowl next Sunday, I will appreciate both the art and psychology behind the commercials. I cannot wait to see what is in store for us!