Brand Autopsy’s exclusive Super Bowl Ad Relevance Study reveals startling connections between today’s Super Bowl commercials and yesteryear’s television icons.
With the assistance of independent marketing research firm RPS Systems (Rock, Paper, Scissors), we assembled a representative sample of iconic television characters and electronically charted their second-by-second reactions to ads airing during the Super Bowl. The tabulated results clearly show the deep associations iconic television characters had with particular Super Bowl XXXIX commercials.
Each Super Bowl commercial resonated especially well with a select group of television icons. Some television icons gravitated to particular spots while others felt distanced.
Highlights from the study including the following strong associations between particular Super Bowl commercial and certain iconic television characters:
Anheuser-Busch: "Standing Ovation"
Gomer Pyle (Gomer Pyle - USMC) and 'Radar' O'Reilly (M.A.S.H.) both associated themselves strongly with the this spot.
While Balki Bartokomous (Perfect Strangers) and Dr. Bombay (Bewitched) did not resonate at all with the 'Standing Ovation' commercial.
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Ameriquest: "Romantic Dinner"
Jack Tripper, Larry Dallas, and Mr. Furley (from Three's Company) connected strongly with the premise of 'misundertsandings.
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Diet Pepsi: "P Diddy" (Pepsi Truck)
Because of their on-screen occupations, BJ (BJ and the Bear) and Doug Heffernan (King of Queens) felt a bond with the P Diddy 'making big trucks hip' commercial.
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MasterCard: "Brand Icons Together for Dinner"
Still clinging to their aspirations of one day becoming widely recognized icons, the Great Gazoo (Flintstones) and Gleek (Superfriends) reacted positively to this spot from MasterCard.
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CareerBuilder.com: "Cubicle Monkeys"
Lancelot Link Secret Chimp, Jim Fowler (Tonight Show), and Alf felt this spot from CareerBuilder played off stereotypes but nevertheless, they connected strongly with the ad.
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Go Daddy: "Booby Trap"
Barney Gumble (Simpsons), Paul Pfeiffer (Wonder Years), and Eddie Munster all became overly excited while ogling the Go Daddy spot.
Completely hilarious. Very clever. But I imagine that David Hasselhof is quite agitated that he was left out of your panel.
Posted by: Katherine Stone | February 08, 2005 at 11:55 AM
That's not Mr. Roper (Norman Fell), that's Ralph Furley (Don Knotts). But funny concept nonetheless.
In other news, GoDaddy is getting skewered (and getting tons of free PR) all over the place.
Posted by: Rick Liebling | February 08, 2005 at 11:59 AM
Doh! Mr. Furley. We had Norman Fell on the panel and then switched it to Ralph Furley at the last minute but didn't change the copy.
Thanks for keeping us on our toes ... we made the change.
(Dang it! I can't believe we goofed on Mr. Furley.)
Posted by: johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy) | February 08, 2005 at 12:05 PM
Katherine ... David Hasselhof was on the panel and he connected strongly with the Frito Lay commericial featuring MC Hammer. We just didn't include all the findings from our study in the posting.
However, if you are interested, you can order the complete Brand Autopsy Super Bowl Ad Relevance Study for $2,950. (WOMMA members and IXMA members get a $50 discount.)
In our complete study, Marketers can find out which Super Bowl ads Charo, Carol Channing, Christopher Hewitt, and others responded best to. Fascinating stuff I assure you.
Posted by: johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy) | February 08, 2005 at 12:12 PM
This is hilarious!!! On a serious note though there was a Knowledge@Wharton article " The $2.4 Million Question: What is the ROI for Super Bowl Ads? " at http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/index.cfm?fa=viewArticle&id=1141 (free registration required) that looks into Super Bowl Ads.
Posted by: RS | February 09, 2005 at 03:17 PM