By Erica Stritch

I don't know about you, but I tune into the Super Bowl for one reason: the commercials. And, with this year's ad costs at about $3 million for a 30-second spot, I had high hopes. If a company chooses to spend millions of dollars in this economy to advertise during the Super Bowl, my expectation was they'd make the most of it. I was waiting for wow. Bring on the Bud-Weis-Er frogs!

Instead, disappointment. No frogs, just dogs.

Where was the sense of urgency? Where was the call to action? Where was that zippy business-to-consumer, make-an-emotional-connection creative? The ads this year were completely forgettable. (Not to mention the abundance of ads for NBC TV shows, making me think they simply did not sell all the inventory for these overpriced spots.)

Sure, how can talking babies not be cute (what was that an ad for again?); I liked how Pepsi used the medium and "Forever Young" to launch their new logo; and I have new respect for Conan O'Brien, v'room v'room meow. But overall, these companies did not use their time and money well to drive some sort of emotional reaction and to get the consumer to take action.

Now there were the GoDaddy.com ads. I give them points for having a call to action: Go to our website to see, in full glory, the rest of the...um...ad. (However, being a self-respecting woman, I made sure none of the men in my household visited GoDaddy—my husband was too excited about "Land of the Lost" and "Star Trek" anyway.)

The Missed Opportunity

Another major flaw in the Super Bowl ads as a whole was a seeming lack of interaction with the customer and integration with other marketing. A commercial (and all marketing really) has the opportunity to get consumers and business prospects interacting with your brand. Perhaps I missed it. Maybe I was looking too hard. Then again, maybe they just didn't get it done. 

Imagine the connection and response Pepsi could have elicited from all of us if they asked us to visit their website to react to their new logo or even vote for a favorite logo before the company makes its final choice.

Approaching ads with an eye towards interaction and integrating ads with other media (mainly online media), I would do a couple of things:

1. Extend the ad's connection: Interaction extends beyond a 30-second commercial's influence and gets consumers interacting with a brand online. It offers a call to action and gives consumers a purpose to visit their website. Then, they can look around and interact with the brand and the other marketing on the site.
   
   
2. Build relationships: The consumer would have a strengthened bond with the brand. In the Pepsi example, they would likely feel connected as a part of the decision making process. And if the logo they voted for was chosen, they would have a story to tell about the brand. The next time they visited a convenience store, they might just buy the can of Pepsi which they "helped design."

This is a simple example, yet each of the advertisers had an opportunity to build this type of interaction and bond, and passed it up.

Learning from the Ads

We can apply these same principles to professional services marketing. No matter what marketing you're doing—running an ad in a local business journal, sending a direct mail piece, pay-per click advertising—each piece should integrate with the rest of your marketing, and create interaction and connection with your brand. Take a holistic view of your integrated marketing program and get all the pieces working together. Elicit response. Create interaction. Extend your influence. Build the relationship.

And perhaps most important, if your agent gets you to do that one ad in Sweden, send me a link. I promise I won't share it.