Super Bowl marketers keep their secrets

Martin Wolk Chief economics correspondent • Profile • E-mail

It is the dirty little secret of the Super Bowl that after two weeks of puffed-up media coverage, the game itself is often a big letdown.

Recent years have seen some close games, but there have been plenty of one-sided clunkers like Tampa Bay’s 48-21 shellacking of Oakland in 2003.

Leave it to Madison Avenue to keep us glued to the screen until the final gun. In a game considered the premier showcase for national television advertising, most marketers carefully guard a secret twist in their commercials, betting that people will keep watching even if the on-field action is less than scintillating.

Strategies vary for the so-called “reveal,” which can be the difference between a brand-boosting hit commercial and a flop ruthlessly dissected by millions of Monday morning creative directors.

Most of the two dozen advertisers who have bought time in the game — at a record $2.5 million for a standard 30-second slot — have offered at least a tease of their plans, and sometimes much more.

Toyota, for example, which has garnered pre-game publicity for a “bilingual” ad promoting its forthcoming hybrid Camry, already has posted the entire spot on its Web site, so no surprise there.

Other advertisers have gone to the opposite extreme and are tightly guarding the creative content of their commercials, keeping them under wraps like the blueprints to some new weapon of mass destruction about to be unleashed on the competition.

Ameriquest, for example, the mortgage company that scored a hit last year with its funny commercials about misunderstandings in a kitchen and a minimart, confirmed it will be back with two spots this year but has refused to offer any details.

Most advertisers fall somewhere in the middle, releasing snippets of commercials to benefit from the enormous “free media” they get in the run-up to the Super Bowl but holding back enough to make sure viewers pay attention — and perhaps get a jolt.

“There really is an art to trying to maximize your return on investment for the Super Bowl,” said Fran Kelly, president of Arnold Worldwide, an ad agency. “The dilemma Super Bowl advertisers have is on the one hand you want to maximize the buzz, so revealing a little bit of the spot can help you do that. But it’s a little but like getting reviewed by movie critics — if people don’t like it, it can drag you down.”

Sunday’s game decides far more than the National Football League championship. It is the Super Bowl of advertising, too, and by Monday morning everyone is a critic. Dozens of Web sites, including this one, will offer viewers a chance to watch the ads again and vote on their favorites.

MORE FROM BUSINESS OF SUPER BOWL

Business of Super Bowl Section Front

Super Bowl ads were a bunch of fumbles Suicide-prevention group: Pull GM ad Snickers pulls ad over homophobia charge Why does America condone mouse abuse? Voters love Blockbuster advertisement Interactive: View and vote on XLI's best ad What ads needed? More has-beens please No Super proposal — but still a proposal Dungy, Rhodes going to Disney World Amateurs ads get Super treatment Business of Super Bowl Section Front   Add Business of Super Bowl headlines to your news reader: