Super Bowl Ads: Female Friendly?

Ok, so how many of the Super Bowl's $3mill per 30 second ads actually appealed to women, you might ask. I wondered, even though I didn't ask. After all, who would I ask? Other women, presumably, but that's a limited group (if I'm asking during the Super Bowl).

Interestingly enough, Hoffman York's advertising to women's division, the Kaleidoscope Group, just released the 2010 PURSEuasion Report and it talks about how effective the Super Bowl ads were to women. Prepare to be informed. I am pretty impressed with the note I received about this.

We all know, by now, that this yearly "bowl" game was watched by 106 million viewers in the U.S. If you didn't know, you're living under a rock. It's been all over the news and the net. Well, did you know this - according to a Hanon McKendry Poll, 67 percent of women and 48 percent of men watched the game as much for the ads, as for the sport. (I watched it because I had to...there, I said it. I was with a group of people who were interested in it, and I did my best to stay alert; at least the food was good! And, I predicted the outcome in the first five minutes!)

Anyway, the poll above also says that "women are 2.5 times more likely than male viewers to watch for the ads..." Here are the ads that "resonated" most with women,

1) Google "Paris" - communicated pure product benefit that told a compelling story (however, it wasn't immediately obvious that the ad was telling a story; I was confused until the very end)

2) Cars.com "Timothy Richman" - The ad was easy to like, easy to follow, with a clear benefit. (No clue, here. Only glanced at the ad when it came on; am not a car person...)

3) (Tie) Hyundai "Brett Favre" and all of the E-Trade's "Talking Babies." (let's face it, the talking babies cheat - they are babies, after all! And, truly...Tom likes them far more than I do. I find them a bit creepy.)

"This," the Super Bowl, "is by far one of the best opportunities for advertisers to place their products squarely in the circle of conversation and consideration with the people who influence purchases - women," [said] Tom Jordan, Chief Creative Director at Hoffman York Point of View. He further states that the commercials weren't "particularly influential to women," and, "the overall theme could have been 'take back your manhoood.' "

His closing remark, in the press release, is, "...the Super Bowl has become the premier event that places enormous pressure on every advertiser to have 'bragging rights' and 'talk value' about their brand, whether it sells th eproduct or not... If advertisers really want to reach women who actually do the shopping, then they'll need to stay away from always being the class clown and become strategic and smart about their messaging."

Hmm...where have you heard that before? Kudos to Tom Jordan but... no where in this note to me did I actually sense a woman's presence. Although it was delivered by a woman, I don't get the feeling she's an executive in the firm. The quotes were from a man. And the message was parrotting what other marketing to women professionals have been saying for five years now.

My question to Jordan is: where are the women executives who could have reported on this - WITH you? I do believe we need a man's and a woman's perspective on this issue - and I would have liked to see a quote from a woman on his team, or just a woman in general. Jordan? 

Comments

[Yvonne DiVita]

Bill, if they would just listen to you, they'd be fine! Oh, and me...they should listen to me. I am a woman, after all! Thanks for stopping by. It's amazing how women are overlooked, neglected, ignored, or insulted in ads, every day... we should just stop watching TV for a week and see how the advertisers like that.

[DRWARD]

It is crazy that most marketers choose to ignore the 42.6 million women watching the Super Bowl. (most watched TV show ever w/ 106.5 million viewers / 40% women)