Recently, my business partner and I had lunch with Kurt Zoller and Mark Modesto, our associates from the Tenacious Group — a marketing strategy and idea group. The conversation meandered between business and personal, as business lunches typically do.
This conversational meandering brought us to discuss the current state of television commercials. As Brooke said, “Has anyone else noticed how terrible TV commercials are lately? Don’t you agree, Kate?” My initial response was “I don’t know, I never see television commercials.” (Fact). But, when I gave it more thought, I realized that yes, they are bad. So bad that I have slowly evolved from watching them altogether. Take my experience with the Super Bowl, for instance.
For nearly a decade, my family and I have been blessed with access to a ski condo in Deer Valley, UT. Also lucky for us, we’ve reserved it every year for Super Bowl weekend. While I myself am not a huge sports fan, my husband is. But skiing on Super Bowl Sunday is tricky if you want to catch the first commercials.
Here’s the deal.
The game starts 30 minutes after the lifts close. So, you either have to skip a part of the ski day, not go at all, or miss a portion of what are widely considered the most lucrative ads of the game. For the first few years, I made a giant effort to ensure we were seated front and center before the first commercials aired, not an easy feat with three small girls. But I was determined to catch those commercials.
Yet just this year, I noticed that this priority was gone. I skied all day with my girls, then we took a swim in the hot tub. I didn’t even view one minute of the Super Bowl until halftime. And I didn’t care.
The Good Ol’ Days of TV Commercials
From the Cola Wars of the 80’s, to the iconic Budweiser Clydesdale commercials, (who could forget the one featuring those beautiful horses bowing down at the edge of Ground Zero?), brands have historically used the Super Bowl as a platform for launching commercials.
But now, times have changed. And most TV commercials suck. They don’t make you laugh, sad, or wistful like they used to, and they certainly don’t keep you from fast forwarding through them. Many commercials feature celebrities peddling products, mostly for humor. The heart is gone.
If you read the optics of this, there are two glaring reasons why broadcast commercials are on the decline: digital innovations and streaming.
Let’s take a look.
Commercials by the Numbers
Eight decades after the first commercial aired in the U.S., ads have become an integral part of the TV experience. Primetime advertising ranges an average of 12-17 minutes per hour, and air times during top-rated TV shows, sports events, and awards ceremonies are particularly popular among marketers.
During the 2020/21 TV season, NBC Sunday Night Football was by far the most expensive show for advertisers, and the average cost of a 30-second TV commercial during the Super Bowl reached a record $6.5 million in 2022. So there isn’t a lack of quantity in commercials, just quality.
The decline in quality TV ads, coupled with the high prices of running them, have correlated to a rise in alternative advertising mediums. Here are seven.
Seven Up and Coming Digital Advertising Mediums
Video
Considered one of the most important advertising trends in the next 5 years, with nearly 9 out of 10 companies using them in their marketing, video advertising is vital. It not only translates to virtually all devices, but there are a lot of options on where to place them, like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Personalized
Personalized advertising isn’t necessarily new, but it is on the rise due to an increased innovation in acquiring customer demographics and shopping habits. Interestingly, they are highly preferred:
90% of people think personalization is appealing.
63% of customers feel annoyed when receiving generic advertisement blasts.
6 out of 10 people feel personalization plays a role in their shopping decisions.
80% will more likely do business with companies that offer personalized experiences.
Mobile-First
During the pandemic, mobile phone use unsurprisingly surged by 70 percent. This led to many or mobile-first innovations, shaping nearly all digital advertising trends. For instance, most videos are now filmed in an upright position to create a “vertical video,” which is preferred for mobile viewing.
Further, stories and in-app purchase advertising are on the rise. This ad form has a high completion rate, allowing brands to promote their products easily.
Yes, you read that correctly: has silently made its move to innovate and keep up with the digital world. However, the quality that made it an effective medium — being trustworthy — hasn’t changed.
Print’s recent success is that businesses realize its benefits: people love tactile experiences. The feeling of being able to touch something provides a comfort that digital can’t provide.
Display Advertising
Display advertising, or banner ads, is attractive to marketers due to an impressive array of innovations: capturing target keywords and relevant user information, and remarketing.
Another growing trend in display advertising is the addition of videos in the banners. According to Bannerflow, display ads that have a video embedded in them rake in an 18.4% higher CTR.
Programmatic
Programmatic advertising uses AI to automatically buy ads that target audiences more specifically. This process is faster and more efficient with lower acquisition costs and a higher conversion rate compared to traditional advertising.
Social Advertising
Back before digital blew up, people watched TV. Now they watch their phones. Targeted social media ads are a cost-effective method to reach a vast number of people.
Let’s touch on the other innovation I mentioned: streaming.
Streaming’s Effect on Advertising
Streaming is everywhere, and booming. Not only video streaming, but music streaming, too. There are dozens of options — and the option to opt out of commercials is prevalent in both. Let’s review the numbers:
Current market value is $24 billion.
6 out of 10 people viewing live streams are between 18 and 34.
56% of live streams are breaking news.
60% of American citizens watch TV through live streaming.
Live streaming saw a 99% growth between 2019 and 2020.
78% of Facebook users watch live streams.
Let’s face it, TV commercials are a dying art. Digital has rendered them overpriced superfluous puffery. While I highly doubt there will be a strong resurgence (is one necessary?), it will be interesting to see what the future holds. And, as a parting thought, I want to pay homage to 10 memorable commercials that launched during the Super Bowl. Please note that I personally remember all of these ads, but I did review a handful of various “top” lists as well.
Ten Memorable Super Bowl Commercials
Hump Day (Geico): In this classic, a camel is seen sauntering through a corporate office yelling, “Guess what day it is…Hump Day!” to all his cohorts, who simply roll their eyes in annoyance.
Milky Way (Volkswagen): Friends in a VW Cabriolet convertible take a magical, moonlit drive down a country road on their way to a party. The melodic “Pink Moon” plays in the background.
Baby (E*Trade): Who could forget the cute little baby furiously defending his age amid his stock-trading prowess?
Where’s the Beef? (Wendy’s): The iconic three grandmas peering down at a “very big bun,” only to open it and question, “Where’s the Beef?
The Force (Volkswagen): A pint-sized Darth Vador wanders purposefully around their house, trying desperately to use their powers for evil to move items — to no avail. That is, until their dad comes home and they finally manage to start dad’s VW. With the help of the remote starter, of course.
Brotherhood (Budweiser): I dare you not to tear up when you remember this one: a man rears a horse and sells it to become Budweiser Clydesdale. He gets wistful missing his four-hooved friend. He sees that the Clydesdales will be in a parade nearby, so he attends. His old buddy doesn’t recognize him in the crowd, but he sure does afterward.
Cindy Crawford (Pepsi): When Cindy Crawford tears into a dusty storefront’s parking lot in a fiery red sports car, shakes out her lustrous hair and buys a Pepsi, two little boys’ lives are forever changed. But is it her they’re ogling or her Pepsi?
The Man Your Man Could Be (Old Spice): This strange commercial is summed up nicely with its opening line: “Look at your man, now back to me, now back to your man, now back to me. Sadly, he isn’t me.” Interestingly, this commercial contains one of the first images to be translated into a meme.
Joy to the World (Pepsi): Airing in 2002 and featuring a very young Britney Spears, this commercial superimposes the star in a variety of vintage Pepsi ads, starting with a black and white ad from 1958.
1984 (Apple): This iconic commercial mirrors George Orwell’s dystopian classic, “1984.” In this version, the totalitarian party’s control is disrupted by a hot blonde in very colorful hotpants. While you can’t help but be drawn into the visual imagery, the tagline is the sticking point: “On January 24th, Apple will introduce the Macintosh. And you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like ‘1984.’
And the rest is history.
A great recap packaged as "Whatever happened to...?" Well done KKD! And nice to know I'm not alone in my "meh state" of broadcast advertising