The Super Bowl of Advertising

Yeah yeah - we all know that this Sunday is Super Bowl MCMXIIELXD. Or some combination of capital letters. And don't get me wrong, I'm a huge sports fan, but I'm also a huge advertising nut. So in my world, this Sunday is also widely known as the Super Bowl of Advertising.

It's when companies spend their entire ad budgets for the year on one 30-second commercial that runs during the most-watched television event of the year. The hype begins building in November, and the ads are scrutinized by industry experts, students, regular Joe Consumer and newspapers across the country. USA Today runs a poll the day after the game ranking the ads, based on just a few hundred people's opinions. And some clients - I'm talking CEO's and CMO's - use these rankings as the determining factor of whether their ads were successful. If they don't rank high enough, then heads at the ad agency will roll.

One of my all-time favorite campaigns launched during last year's Super Bowl. The ads were for CareerBuilder, and the campaign was called "Office Jungle." Basically, each TV spot depicts an office setting in the jungle, where the workers did things like sidestep traps, duck from darts and pass up free donuts to survive another day in a job they don't enjoy. The tagline sums the idea up perfectly - "Do more than just survive the work week." Check out the commercials here:

CareerBuilder: Office Jungle - CareerBuilder.com

CareerBuilder: Torture - CareerBuilder.com

CareerBuilder: Office Jungle Fight - CareerBuilder.com



(To see the last one, click on 'Watch Now,' copy the link and open it in a new browser. YouTube disabled embedding of these commercials so I had to improvise, but it's worth it - I promise.)

It turns out these ads didn't rank in the top 10 of the USA Today poll, and CareerBuilder immediately placed their account into review to find a new agency. Never mind that in the five years that Cramer-Krasselt, the agency responsible for this work, had the account, CareerBuilder had a huge increase in business, with skyrocketing job postings and 64% brand awareness. They even overtook Monster.com. Yet all CareerBuilder saw was that they didn't fare well in the minds of a few hundred people who filled out a survey that had nothing to do with whether or not an ad affected sales. And to them, public opinion mattered far more than good advertising.

Cramer-Krasselt rightfully declined to participate in the pitch for the business again, and with new work scheduled to run from their new agency Wieden + Kennedy during the Big Game, all industry eyes will be upon CareerBuilder. W+K might want to send someone out to buy up all the USA Today's at the crack of dawn on Monday, just in case.

-JT