Now that I have had time to digest what we've seen and eaten on Super Bowl Sunday, there was one company whose commercial was a colossal failure in both content and in integrating its message with its online marketing efforts.
On the other hand, there was one company—Go Daddy—which once again, while its commercials were not the most intellectual content, did successfully drive people to check out the web content.
That big failure was Groupon. And in the interest of full disclosure here, I had a poor customer experience with the company earlier that weekend when I attempted to purchase a discounted coupon from the website.
Still, when the commercial first came on, it sounded like one of those typical fundraising efforts, in this case for the people of Tibet. So I was only half listening when all of a sudden Timothy Hutton blurts out that he is at a Tibetan restaurant which makes a great fish curry. My initial reaction was "oh my lord, did I just hear what I thought I heard?"
Like many people who are politically attune, I thought an attempt to inject humor into what is happening in Tibet was a poor choice. That is where this marketing effort failed on the intellectual level.
On the link to social media level, the failure might even be worse, if you look at the history of Groupon. Groupon grew out of a philanthropy website, thepoint.com. The Tibet ad and other similarly themed ads online also were tied to fund raising efforts for those causes (and not just to sell Groupons). The television ad failed to make this point. As a result Groupon failed to make the sale and hurt its reputation.
The big takeaway: Humor sells, but you need to be careful in how you use it. Take the wrong steps and your brand can be permanently damaged. Only time will tell how badly Groupon is damaged.
A smaller takeaway: If you advertise in more than one medium, make sure your efforts are aligned.
