Every year a friend of mine throws a huge Super Bowl party. More food than I can eat, three huge Plasma televisions and more sports betting than all of Las Vegas. While my guy friends and I were excited for the game, our girlfriends seemed to be only interested in the commercials.

Yes the hype surrounding the famed “Super Bowl Commercial” seemed especially heated this year. Keeping with tradition of every other Super Bowl, there were commercials that came under fire from various groups and organizations. From Kevin Federline’s much maligned Nationwide Insurance ad that enraged the Restaurant Workers of America to the now infamous Snickers-induced male kiss, Super Bowl XLI’s commercials have seemed to surpass the actual game in the following week fallout.

Ironically enough, the Doritos viewer created ad was the highest rated commercial of the entire night, according to IAG Research. Although, in the Most Recalled Ad category, the Doritos commercial was rated 8th, giving way to Bud Light’s commercial, in which a man and woman pick up an axe-wielding hitchhiker just because he is carrying Bud Light.

IAG Research used a formula that took results from over 15,000 surveys and compiled them into categories. To assess the most recalled ad, IAG took the percentage of viewers who can recall the brand of an ad they were exposed to during the normal course of viewing the Super Bowl (main game). It has to be remembered that while creating a funny or interesting advertisement is not exactly a terrible idea, one has to take in consideration its ability to stick with the viewer. Likability is no match for an ad that resonates with the viewer.

If you have read my blog a few weeks ago about my favorite commercials, and you have a keen advertising eye, you would have noticed that I wrote about the Bud Light commercial with the 4 guys in a football press conference talking about the beer to an NFL coach. I later realized, after publishing my blog, that it is in fact a Coors Light Commercial, not Bud Light. Case in point, I love the commercial, but it is rendered ineffective because I forgot what beer company’s ad it was. When creating an advertisement for your business, be sure your company, and your message, is clearly defined. If not, you run the risk of having your ad misinterpreted, or even worse, misidentified.

Only in America can marketing bring an entire city to a halt.

If you have followed the news in the past two days, you have read about the marketing stunt pulled by Adult Swim’s Aqua Teen Hunger Force (property of Turner Broadcasting's Cartoon Network) that sent the city of Boston into total panic mode. Small electronic light boards, resembling a Lite Brite (one of my favorite childhood distractions), featuring a character called a “mooninite” were placed in several locations throughout the city. These devices, complete with blinking lights and wiring, were misinterpreted by some Bostonians as bombs. This lead to the deployment of bomb squads who detonated nine of these devices across the city. Similar devices were found in other major cities such as Atlanta and Philadelphia, but only Boston went into lockdown. The city shut down major bridges, mass transit and roadways, bringing everything to a halt in the middle of the day, adding to the usual midweek chaos.

Citing a commonly used adage, there’s no such thing as bad publicity. When Peter Berdovsky and Sean Stevens allegedly placed these devices throughout the city, they obviously intended to create a buzz. However it is debatable whether or not they intended to create a buzz that shut down an entire city amidst the fear of a terrorist attack. Nevertheless, Berdovsky and Stevens have created serious discussions throughout all types of media, much to the delight of the show’s producers. Can a stunt that causes a major headache for thousands of people, including the mayor and the chief of police, really be good for the show?

First you have to look at the show itself. How do you market a show that features a milkshake, box of fries and a wad of meat getting into frequent arguments with moon men? There are not too many guidelines to follow with a program like this. A show with a completely outlandish premise can advertise effectively using unconventional means. The advertising has to fit the product. This is often referred to as “guerilla marketing”, which is marketing a product in an unorthodox and often inexpensive way. When all the smoke clears, this whole spectacle will probably prove successful for Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Actually, it’s working already; I wrote a blog about it.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, it is upon us. The spectacle of spectacles is almost a week away. America shall welcome, with open arms, the only event in the world so massive, that people actually enjoy the commercials that interrupt the game ever so often. At a cool $2.6 million per ad spot, advertisers better make the most out of their money.

The Super Bowl (or the “Big Game”, as unlicensed proprietors are hilariously forced to call it) will play its’ 41st edition on February 4th. The most storied event in professional sports traditionally draws an estimated 90.7 million viewers (and rising). Sponsors litter the entire game, slapping their name on every play, commentary, action shot and awful halftime performance. An event that spans across the globe reaching countless numbers of countries, the Super Bowl remains the world’s biggest advertising vehicle; the “Death Star” of advertising vehicles, if you will.

While you are watching the game, and the commercials, try to analyze these ads. Normally you would watch the commercials go by, generally only interesting you if the commercial is funny. Advertisers are spending $2.6 million for that time, so throw them a bone and really watch these ads, even the serious ones. Ask yourself “Did I really get the intended message?” and “Am I compelled to act on this ad?”

Say Toyota, who has purchased 2 spots for this year’s Super Bowl, produces a quality commercial that grabs your attention for the whole 30 seconds and leaves you saying to yourself “man that was a cool commercial.” Chances are you’re not going to jump up out of your recliner and go buy a Toyota immediately, but if you are in the process of looking for a new car, it would be interesting to see if that “cool” commercial would influence your purchase. There should be studies done on this. Actually, there probably are. Well, get back to me on that.

As you’re gorging on a feast of beer, wings and football next Sunday, don’t TiVo out these veritable multi-million dollar masterpieces of advertisement. Love them, in all their advertising glory, for that 30-seconds of airtime costs more money that most of us will ever see in a lifetime. Let's hope it's worth it, I know I could use the $2.6 million if they're going to waste it.

Imagine a world devoid of television commercials, billboards, pop-up ads and banners. No radio commercials, no endorsements and no “this first half of the first quarter is brought to you by” nonsense. In this world, the product literally sells itself and its sales are based solely on the quality and performance of the product or service. For small business owners with tight, fixed budgets, this would be the closest thing to Heaven on Earth since the invention of the calculator.

Unfortunately, we live in an imperfect world where products are incapable of selling themselves and small business owners struggle to keep their heads above water. Mega corporations can attract customers by their name and reputation, and if all else fails, they can utilize their deep pockets to hire Peyton Manning to do a comical 30 second ad.

The nature of a small business, however, is a completely different environment. It seems to be a common misconception amongst small business proprietors that a product or service can advertise itself, or that someone with no training in reaching diverse groups of customers can lead a company to the Promised Land. However, these ego-driven idealizers will soon find themselves repeating the phrase "Is there anybody out there" like Roger Waters on Disc 2 of Pink Floyd's The Wall.

Take for instance the Nintendo GameCube. Arriving at the same time as Playstation 2 and Xbox, Nintendo felt they would retain their loyal fan-base from the primitive days of the original Nintendo Entertainment System and Super NES. GameCube had advantages over industry powerhouses Playstation and Xbox in areas such as price and loading speed. However, coupled with a poorly targeted advertising campaign (advertisements mainly featured children’s titles such as Pokemon) and an advertising assault from Playstation and Xbox, GameCube was forced into the backwash of the gaming industry.

The customer is a fickle individual. Sit back and passively convey your message and they'll forget you exist, come on too strong and you'll scare them away. Precisely identifying your specific target market is essential to ensuring your product or service cuts straight to the heart of the audience. Reaching your specific target market causes your message to resonate with the consumer.

Yes, it is easier said than done. As mentioned earlier, the nature of a small business is a stressful environment. Building a client base is a daunting task, so why not leave the difficult process of reaching the elusive consumer to professionals with specified training and proven results. We can show you that there is somebody out there after all, eagerly awaiting the arrival of your product or service. That's what we do at CrowdConnect. After all, it’s in our name.

Regardless of the amount of talent possessed by a team during any given point of a season, the team is only as good as the leader at the forefront.

A young but talented NFL team hits the field every Sunday, full of potential but inexperienced nonetheless. This team can go in one of two directions: they can accept their lack of experience and in turn, attune to failure. Drifting into mediocrity, nothing is gained and every player leaves the team locker room at the end of the season unfulfilled.

On the other hand, that same team, under the direction of a veteran coaching staff, can rally together and refuse to accept their dim fate. A savvy, veteran coach can delve into a player’s potential and get him to unleash the talent that made him successful in less-competitive football leagues.

This same situation can be applied to the world of Marketing Consulting. Without proper guidance, a company with a new, breakthrough product may be trapped in the midst of mediocrity forever. A product without a marketing plan is like a football team without a playbook. Everyone will be working on separate wavelengths, communications between teammates diminish to nothing and ultimately, the team fails. However with sound advice, a specific plan and veteran leadership, the product’s potential can be unleashed into the marketplace with quota-smashing fury.

Take Tennessee Titans’ Head Coach Jeff Fisher for example. After his team started the season 0-5, Fisher, a veteran coach with over 15 years of professional coaching experience, inserted a young but promising quarterback into his lineup. Vince Young, star quarterback in college, struggled to adapt to the NFL in his first few games. Coach Fisher stayed with his young quarterback despite his struggles and developed him into the eventual NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year. The team also won 8 of their final 11 games.

At CrowdConnect, our team is full of veteran leaders that are ready to turn your product into “Rookie of the Year”.