Aside from the New England Patriots, whose epic Super Bowl 4th Quarter fail will be remembered by many fans for years to come, what are the other big, fat, stinking losers from Super Bowl Sunday? By most accounts, and because of record ratings, most of the advertisements shown during the game garnered strong viewership ratings. Which means that it sucks to be Ford right now. Or does it?
The iconic blue-oval brand decided not to show a Super Bowl ad this year and now company executives, while sticking to their guns, are wondering what could have been.
According to USAToday, Jim Farley, Ford’s Marketing Chief, told dealers at the NADA convention that “My biggest regret is we didn’t create a long-form Super Bowl-like ad and promote it.” Because the automaker runs a heavy social media marketing campaign, Farley said the decision not to air an expensive Super Bowl ad is the “perfect verification of Ford’s strategy.”
But did that strategy work? With big advertising gains by Chrysler, Cadillac, and others from the Super Bowl, did Ford miss a valuable opportunity to pimp it’s all-new Fusion, Focus Electric, or C-MAX Energi plug-in hybrid vehicles? Despite Chevrolet’s lightly-buffed attack on Ford’s best-selling F-150 truck, Ford seems to be doing okay, since 80-percent of its buyers research Ford vehicles online before buying, and half of those were directed to dealership lots from online-generated leads. Which begs the question–could an expensive Super Bowl ad help the automaker that hasn’t needed help selling trucks?
We don’t think so, either.
Source: USAToday
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