We just 
finished a weekend where there is tremendous hype about all the “Superbowl ads” and how awesome they are going to be and how we should almost watch the game for the ads. What about the game? Have we gotten to a point where the ads become more important to a larger and larger portion of the audience than the actual game. I don’t have any numbers on this (Las Vegas probably does) but I have to believe they are growing. What happens if the game is a “yawner” and the bad bean dip looks really good? We turn to the ads. I also have to believe that the population not that interested in watching football, because they are at the party with their spouse (men and women), is growing.
But wait a minute. It’s already Tuesday and the ads are fading from our memory. If they didn’t spend millions of dollars to create one of the top 10 ads, does anyone remember their ad? They still had to spend hundreds of thousands to get on the game but now they’re not memorable after just a few days? Did you have a chance to rush out and buy the product you saw on one of these ads before it faded from your memory? Unfortunately, this is the story behind much of today’s advertising – no “long tail” to sustain any momentum after spending lots of money. And certainly no “word-of-mouth” being created.
The goal of any company today should be focused on how do I create something memorable, is being “shared” by your audience, and has a “long tail” so it doesn’t immediately fade away. Achieving this is the holy grail for marketing in today’s world. Write that down. Ask your executives the question, “Is what we are communicating compelling enough that our audience finds it memorable and wants to share it with their audience?” If the answer is no, re-evaluate your brand messaging and communication efforts. The message and channels should be designed to create this “long tail” of memory and action.
In today’s ever increasing “noisy” and fast-paced internet world, with and without social media, this is make it or break it stuff. Our lives today aren’t about “campaigns” and broadcasting messages. There is just too much content out there for this to work today. We are ALL changing our patterns and behavior for how we get information. If we can get it from someone sharing it with us, it carries a ton of value (my new quantitative term). If we have to find it on our own, we check our networks to see if anyone has experience with it, which comes back around to people sharing. If you want to create a “long tail” around your brand and messages, create a strategy that allows your audience to share. It’s not simple, but it’s effective and we’re running out of other options that work…
