When doing any advertising or marketing for your business, there is just one question to ask yourself: 

Why am I running this ad?

Am I running this ad for name recognition so people will remember my business or product?  Am I trying to ‘brand” my business?  Or am I running this ad because I want to inspire people to use my product or service?

Everyone watches the Super Bowl for two (maybe three reasons): 1) the game  2) the commercials  3) the half-time show.

If the advertisers running commercials during the Super Bowl this year wanted to create business from the ads, in my opinion, they did a rather poor job of it.  Oh sure, the ads may have been entertaining or inventive but many of them contained inappropriate actions and/or language.  How does that sell product?  And what type of image does it present of the company or product being advertised? 

Savvy Madison Avenue media people may argue the point that sensationalism sells.  But does it really?

Sometimes you can get too creative with the end result being advertising that is so far removed from its intent that it does not achieve its objective which is to sell.  Using humor, for example, in advertising can be risky.  What’s funny to one person is not funny to another.  When advertising you must know your target market.  Otherwise, you could lose the very customer you are trying to sell to.

The purpose of advertising, or any type of marketing, is to create business.

If your advertising is too creative, too humorous and people are just going to view it for the enjoyment of it but it doesn’t have a call to action to pick up the phone or to seek out the product in the store, then you are just wasting your money.

Advertising is for building a business.  Selling a product or service.  Getting people to want to do business with you and your company. 

If the ads don’t achieve that objective then you are wasting your money.  In this economic recession, every advertising dollar becomes important.  Be careful how you spend your advertising dollars.  Spend them in the right place and you will create business.  Spend them in the wrong place and you will receive nothing in return. 

Remember:  Advertising is about the message that will result in more business for your company.

Every year companies waste millions of dollars on advertising.  Don’t waste your advertising dollars just to be trendy or funny.