The Super Bowl is behind us, and now it’s time for consumers and the ad industry to dissect the commercials that ran during the game to choose the best and worst of the year. Consumers watched the commercials not only during the game, but online after the event ended; millions voted for their favorite Super Bowl commercials on Hulu’s AdZone and on YouTube’s AdBlitz.
While everyone had favorite ad – whether it was the Snickers “Game” or the Doritos “Underdog”, or another one entirely – we decided to review the commercials for more than just entertainment value. We asked the question: which of these spots would work as online video ads… and which wouldn’t?
As we pointed out in a recent blog post, for most marketers, it makes sense to take TV spots and turn them into online video ads; you get more bang for your buck by distributing a commercial both on TV and online, because you can reach two distinct audiences with one piece of content. Transforming a TV spot into an online video ad is relatively simple – you just need to add interactivity elements – but some commercials lend themselves better to this transformation than others.
Here are two examples of Super Bowl ads – one that would work well as an online video ad, and one that would not.
This Teleflora commercial is a great candidate to transform into an online video ad.
The message of the commercial is crystal clear: don’t send someone flowers via a service that ships them in a box if you want them to arrive fresh. There’s not too much going on visually, and it’s short. The clarity and brevity of the commercial lends itself well to the online environment, where viewers have little patience for longer-form ads.
What’s more, there is a lot of opportunity to add custom interactivity elements to this commercial. Because there are no text overlays on the commercial, you could add clickable text in the online environment. You could, for example, add an interactivity button that said “Click here for 15% off your next flower purchase” or “Send someone flowers now!”, which leads to the Teleflora website and automatically applies any discount at checkout. Other potential custom interactivity elements could include a “Build a Bouquet” applet, a “share this ad” button, a “Send a virtual bouquet to a friend” button, or a short text promoting the Teleflora iPhone app.
On the other hand, this commercial by GoDaddy offers an example of what NOT to produce if you want to later translate the commercial into an online video ad.
The concept might work well on TV, but it would be tough to transform this commercial into a video that engages online audiences. First of all, there is too much talking, too much action, and too many characters; it’s just too “busy” to engage an impatient online audience. Also, the subject of the commercial – a spoof on a TV talk show – doesn’t really work online, where people aren’t in a “TV” mindset. Lastly, because there is already so much text overlay, it would be difficult to add calls-to-action and other custom interactivity elements to this commercial. The bottom line: the content, action, and format of this commercial make it a TV-only opportunity.
Many marketers realize today that you can’t create video content in a vacuum. One video ad can be used in many places – on TV, on your website, in email campaign, seeded to video-sharing sites like YouTube, and distributed on video advertising networks. The goal in creating engaging marketing videos is to “create one, use often.” When creating TV spots, keep in mind that your commercial may ultimately end up online as a video ad – so make sure to create simple, straightforward videos that you can later overlay with custom interactivity elements on the Web.
