Why do so many people watch the superbowl? Is it because they love football? Well, for lots of people that is pretty much the reason, but in order to get XX million people to stare at the same thing at once, there has to be more to it, right? The fact is, people anticipate the ads more than the game, and are very critical of the ads that don’t deliver. They stand at the water cooler (or whatever) and laud the ads that were most entertaining, the most memorable ads.

You have the opportunity to do a superbowl-sized wallop with your marketing, and get great reaction and recall from your target audience….what are you going to do to make that happen? What is so unique about your product that will make it rise above the din and scream for your target’s attention and understanding, and trip whatever switch is necessary for them to take some kind of action TODAY to find out more about your offering?

Right now, advertising agencies all over the country are getting ready for the superbowl. They are storyboarding, brainstorming, playing ping pong and going back to their clients with wonderfully unique concepts meant to thrill and entertain the largest television audience in the world during the event that will put more people in front of the television than any other. It certainly is a lot of pressure. Why is it such a big deal? Because the audience expects great things on this day. The TV ads that air during the Superbowl are talked about as much as (if not more than) the game itself! It is the ULTIMATE branding opportunity, where customer affinity can be made or broken. AND it is the only time that this guy lays off the TIVO fast-forward button.

These are huge consumer brands with enormous advertising budgets. They are the Coke’s, the Budweisers, The Geikos, the Careerbuilder.coms….all B2C products who know that this is the most efficient way to effectively get their message across.

Entertainment…that is the key to engagement during the Superbowl. If your commercial stinks, YOU stink. If your commercial is funny and unique, YOU are funny and unique. It is that simple, and that has an impact on sales.

Now, in comparison let’s take a look at B2B. No matter what kind of budget you have, you are not going to spend it on a Superbowl Ad. It’s just not efficient. Your target isn’t the entire world. It’s a much smaller group of decision-makers out there, hidden away on a precious list which is neatly kept and cared for on your company’s CRM database. But are these people any different in terms of their expectations of what is placed in front of them for their attention and consumption of their precious mental energy than those who have gathered around the tube for Superbowl Sunday?

As they sit at their desks, to-do lists of meetings and calls and projects and spreadsheets and data and metrics to analyze and important decisions to be made about the economic future of their company (and their career), how can you POSSIBLY hope to effectively gain their attention in an efficient way? Email? Well, if they have signed up for your newsletter, they might look at it once in a while if you have a title that is particularly compelling to them (a very rare event). It’s certainly a good idea to have a newsletter (and hey, write a pithy blog while you’re at it).

Here are some ways to get the attention of your audience:

1. You need to stand out from the competition. Attention-getting creative on all your marketing materials will make you stand out from the crowd.

2. Just like with a superbowl ad, you need to get your audience to talk about you and your ad. Make sure you send them something that is worthy talking about.

3. It’s a fact, consumers need to be exposed to your brand a multitude of times before you are placed in their memory. Make sure when you are thinking about a campaign, multiple touches are a must.

Now, you tell me…which of these will you choose to invest in to get your message across?

BUILD IT AND THEY WILL COME….or will they?