This coming Sunday is the Super Bowl – the annual free-for-all where advertisers spend millions of dollars to reach over 90 million sets of eyes for a grand total of 30 seconds (or thereabouts). Advertisers and their agencies spend months and months planning for their brief moment in the sun.

(NOTE: this year is a little different in that some heavy hitters such as Pepsi are passing on the Super Bowl, rather directing their monies elsewhere, i.e. Social Media campaigns.)

Naturally, the hope is to create a spot that resonates with the viewer, causing them to remember and recall the spot and product from amongst all others they will see during the game.

So I thought now was the perfect time to pose this query…… What makes a TV commercial memorable?

A little while ago I posed this same query to some advertising folks along with a follow up question: Is it the product you remember or just the commercial itself?… because after all, ideally you want people to remember both your commercial as well as the product for if they only recall the commercial and not the product, what was the point?

Here’s a sampling of the responses I received…

“Heart and or Humor. One that tickles the funny bone, makes you laugh out loud… ”

“It is best done with an icon, a grabbing tag line, a memorable jingle, and humor, with the icon and the brand tied together…Example would be the “Energizer Bunny.” To stand out and become memorable, it must be unconventional. The conventional is boring, and immediately forgotten, because it never engages the consumer.”

“Commercials that portray people getting hurt are most memorable, i.e. falling off the ladder, walking into the glass door, the football player hitting office workers. Interestingly, I can’t say for certain which products they were pitching.”

“If you don’t remember the product or service, the ad is a failure.”

So, get your favorite foods and beverages of choice, pull up a chair and get ready. Not just for the action on the field, but off it as well…

And when the dust settles, we’ll be faced with the following questions:

Were any of the spots unveiled during the Big Game memorable?

Were any the kind we will be talking about for years to come, either in a positive or negative light?

Did you remember the spot or product or both?

Time will tell…

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Stream Companies is an award-winning advertising agency located right outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that specializes in creating memorable campaigns and results-driven strategies that will help you drive sales in the ever changing marketplace.

To see what we can do for you, contact us at (888) 449-7443 or via email.