Loose Cannon: Fumbles and Touchdowns from the 30-Second Line

Good show, Doritos and Chevy: Your consumer-generated Super Bowl spots proved the average American is no better or worse than the average agency at generating commercials that sell. Like the agencies, your commercials by and large ignored anything even approaching measurable sales, or collecting prospect information, or even giving viewers a chance to further interact with the brand.

There's nothing like being screamed at by three hours' worth of commercials, all of which are trying ever so hard to be memorable. (Didn't have a chance to view this year's crop of ads? Most of 'em are available at http://cbs.sportsline.com/nfl/postseason/superads.) If Super Bowl XLI's radical concept – at least, in terms of commercials – was the layman-generated ad, let me be the first to propose the hook for next year's Super Bowl XLII spots: Promote benefits. Engage prospects. Sell. Nifty, no?

Much like last year, advertisers went out of their way to avoid giving viewers a chance to interact with the brands, such as via Web sites. And when they did, the results weren't exactly serendipitous: A spot for Snickers featured two burly auto mechanics inadvertently lip-wrestling while eating the same candy bar, and then directed viewers to http://www.afterthekiss.com. But viewer backlash over the spot's take on straight men's attitudes toward same-sex kissing led to the commercial being scrubbed from the URL, which now redirects to the snickers.com home page.

So one can understand if Snickers parent firm Mars Inc. feels burned. But last year Sierra Mist used the Internet well, offering a special Web site that featured not only its commercials but a chance to view outtakes. This year's two rather limp spots for Sierra Mist merely carried the URL for the brand's home page – and no particular reason to log onto it.

A few advertisers have an advantage when creating brand-building spots. GoDaddy.com and Careerbuilder.com both use their company name as their URL, effectively making any spot an interactive spot. Would have been nice if the sites had touted a reason to log on – beyond, say, GoDaddy's standard "$1.99 for a domain registration" offer. Folks, you've got the response mechanism – go for the call to action and seal the deal.

The purest DRTV spot was run by InfoUSA, which touted Salesgenie, its online source of sales leads. InfoUSA's spot used a trackable call to action (http://www.salesgenie.com/tv) as well as an incentive for responding.

The Super Bowl spot broke from a motif used in Salesgenie ads that run in the trade press (yes, including Direct). In print, the product's ads depict magic lamps as well as a Barbara "I Dream of Jeannie" Eden lookalike. Using such images in the commercial might have given it a bit of brio, as well as helping the casual prospect remember the product's name.

After the spot ran, infoUSA announced it had received 10,000 registrations. The company hopes to convert 700 new subscribers from those leads (7%, for the math impaired), according to USA Today. This means that, in addition to brand building, infoUSA will be able to put hard numbers to the return on investment directly attributable to its Super Bowl ad. That's something Budweiser and Ford won't be able to boast.

So what are the numbers? With a Salesgenie subscription fee of $180 a month, all 700 of those anticipated subscribers will have to stick with the service for just under two years to recoup the asking price of a single ad (and the Salesgenie spot actually ran twice – once during the first quarter and once after the game concluded.)

InfoUSA's salesgenie.com URL appeared several times in its ad – once on a laptop hoisted by a character in the ad, and again in a closing card.

King Pharmaceuticals and The American Heart Association took advantage of the same tactic. In the second quarter the two organizations showcased an ad that was not only compelling (almost disturbing) and slick, but featured the URL http://www.beatyourrisk.com in both subtle and overt locations (look for it in passing on a movie marquee). Viewers logging on were presented with a nod to the Super Bowl ad, and a high blood pressure risk calculator. This ad is on the CBS site – it's worth watching.

Another spot that promoted its Web site well was a public service announcement for Big Brothers Big Sisters, which stretched a large, white-type-bordered-in-black URL (http://www.bigbrothersbigsisters.org) across the bottom of the ad for a solid 10 of the spot's 15 seconds. In short, the URL was large enough and bold enough to make an impression on viewers.

For whatever reason – because it was a public service announcement? -- the ad for Big Brothers Big Sisters didn't make it onto the CBS Sportsline Web site referenced at the top of this column. It is on YouTube.com – but CBS's not including the spot alongside the paying customers is pretty déclassé. It's interesting to note that the controversial Snickers ad mentioned above was, as of this past weekend, still on the site. Somehow I doubt that if the folks at Mars Inc. wanted it off, it would still be there.

And some of the other advertisers could have used Big Brothers Big Sisters mentoring – in URL use, if nothing else. Take Van Heusen, a first-time advertiser that ran a spot featuring a final card that had a URL on it. At least, I think it did. Between the reverse white-on-black type, and a squint-inducing size, Philips-Van Heusen, it could be said, lost its shirt on this ad. Surely the company has, if not an online e-commerce operation, at least a store locator they could have sent viewers to?

Then there were the URLs that weren't used at all. A couple of commercials played with some interesting concepts, or coined unique phrases. A spot for Budweiser that ran in the first quarter, for instance, riffed on the game Rock Papers Scissors. Surely someone could have reserved budweiserrockpaperscissors.com and done something – anything – to give the ad a bit of extra life.

Similarly, Sprint Broadband based an entire ad on a condition called "Connectile Dysfunction" (shot in the same style as Viagra commercials) – and failed to do anything, or even reserve. Connectiledysfunction.com.

C'mon, guys, this is an obvious step. I realize Super Bowl spots cost $2.6 million apiece, but according to GoDaddy.com's commercial, it only costs $1.99 to register a domain. Couldn't you – I dunno – root around under the office sofa's cushions for some spare change?

Readers, many of you sat through the same ads I did. For those that didn’t, most of 'em can be found at http://cbs.sportsline.com/nfl/postseason/superads. Your thoughts?

To respond to the opinions in this column, please contact richard.levey@penton.com