The Super Bowl is also about raising a company's profile.
In the case of Monster.com of Maynard, a fondly remembered Super Bowl ad lifted the job-search Web site to prominence. Filmed in black and white and created by Mullen, it featured about a dozen kids who said things such as: "When I grow up ... I want to be a yes-man." "When I grow up ... I want to claw my way up to middle management."
Monster.com, which has become a regular Super Bowl advertiser, will air an ad talking about its sponsorship of the Olympics. The ad was created by Arnold Worldwide of Boston.
Ask a football fan what Electronic Data Systems Corp does, and few are likely to know, but that didn't stop many viewers from liking a Super Bowl ad that suggested that providing business services in the Internet age is as tough as riding herd on hundreds of cats.
"The Super Bowl put EDS and Monster on the map," Velocity's Hickey said.
EDS's ad may be seen again Friday night on a CBS show titled "Super Bowl's Greatest Commercials II." The program claims to be about the most popular Super Bowl ads ever.
One man unlikely to tune in is chief executive David Kenny of Digitas Inc, a Boston-based Internet marketing firm. An ad's popularity means little, he said; it's an ad's effectiveness that counts. In his view, Super Bowl ads and other mass media strategies will become less important, Kenny said.
"The productiveness of Super Bowl advertising is questionable," he said.
"The payback is hard to measure, and the expense is extraordinary.
RSS