Usable Clicks

Is All Talk Really Good Talk?

There is an often cited theory that “all press is good press”, or in the course of advertising – if you get them talking, it’s good no matter what.  Well the day after the Super Bowl, when advertisers spent upwards of $3 Million per :30 second spot on commercials in the hopes that just about everyone in the country either sees or hears about the brand, that statement is worth reconsidering. 

Take GoDaddy for an instance.  I’ve heard a lot of people tell me that they hate the GoDaddy commercials, either because they’re inappropriate, or because they don’t even offer any information about the product.  But at the same time, just about everyone can only name one domain registrar – and it’s pretty obvious which one that is.  The worse the GoDaddy Super Bowl spot each year is, the quicker it gets censored by the broadcast station, the more people rush to GoDaddy.com, whether they like the spots or not.  A no-name brand in a non-informed field can leverage the “all press is good press” to it’s fullest.

On the other hand, we have brand face-offs like Miller vs. Bud, or Coke vs. Pepsi.  This morning I heard was how the new Pepsi commercials were weak, the new branding lacked any cool, and they’re losing their identity. Whether this was everyone’s opinion doesn’t matter – it serves the point regardless.  When you already have a name, and you’re in a competitive market fighting for brand image, the “all press is good press” adage seems to fall short.   Maybe it still sent people to their website to check out the spots, but what was the value? (though I did learn they make a Vanilla Pepsi – which I have no interest in – so that’s something)

I guess the take away here needs to be – don’t assume just putting something out there where it can be seen is enough.  You need to have an objective, and you need to respect the environment.  If all you care about is to get people repeating your name, maybe being really bad is better than being really good.  If your brand image matters, though, consider the message you’re putting into market.

[UPDATE: Compete has a post about the after effects of the Coke & Pepsi ads - apparently the Pepsi ads have had varying effects on their website traffic.  Still, the questions above apply]