New Jack City: Forget the National Ad Spots—How’d the Locals Do

If Sunday’s Super Bowl commercials were the best the local marketing brain trust could come up with it’s high time to shake up Madison Avenue…
To think of the kind of money that was shelled out by local advertisers for some of these weaklings is (almost) a crime. And we’re not talking about the $3.8 million charged by CBS – we’re talking about far less pricey local ad rates.

Of course the lame creativity of most of these blurbs made the game itself that much more exciting. I guess.

I digress.

You’ll recall that I wrote recently about the high prices KCTV was charging for local ad insertions during the game. Rates that ranged anywhere from $35,000 to a $50,00  ‘bump rate.’

So did our local advertisers come up with with fresh looks and spots worthy of the K.C.’s  stiff market price? Yes and No.

In my humble opinion the best locally inserted commercials during the game were from two competing companies – Time Warner Cable and Google Fiber.

Time Warner’s effective ad promoting streaming and featuring The Walking Dead ran at 7:28 p.m. Market newcomer Google Fiber’s came on strong at 8:52 p.m. with an excellent “Never Get Left Behind” spot featuring the Wyandotte Bulldogs.

Wait a minute. Who?

You know, the Wyandotte High School basketball team Bulldogs.

There were also two winners in the local image sweepstakes.

The first at 7:01 p.m. was Molle Chevrolet for what looked like a newly produced ad spot. It was classy and featured institutional positioning which surely raised the bar and perception of the dealership.

The other tip of the local corporate marketing hat goes to Park University whose 9:51 p.m. aired spot was simple and to the point. And excellent imaging for the northland institution.

There was one other local ad that stood out and it was a freebie!

Why? Because it was a promo produced by KCTV for KCTV. The nostalgic promo bit aired at 7:27 p.m. and touted the station’s television news heritage and harking back to the days when Channel 5 w known as KCMO. You know, before all that Fast-Late-Breaking-Investigative crap. Back when Wendall Anschutz and Anne Peterson ruled the roost.

Were there any local comedy spot approaches during the Bowl breaks?

Just one.

It was for www.MissionRepair.com which aired two 15 second bookend spots at the beginning of half time. Something about a group gathering where a woman throws a football at a dude on the phone to get his attention for not watching the gamep, it hits him the the face and he drops the phone which shatters into a million pieces. The end game being call Mission repair to fix it.

Other local also-rans with no particular newness, freshness or impact – in other words, snoozers – include Taco Bueno, GMC Trucks, American Family Insurance, Mazda CX-9 and Menards. All of them underwhelming, expecially in light of the fact that this was THE SUPER BOWL!!!

Finally there were a couple of local, uh, quickies in the mix. The first for Metcalf Bank which reminded us that they’re still the bank of the Kansas City Chiefs. And we care why?

That and KB Complete, which got its name out there for the company’s plumbing, heating and cooling services.

Each of the two minis seemed like five seconders. Go figure.

All of that said,  since I enjoyed several adult beverages by then they easily could have been ten seconds. Who’s counting?

The bottom line on rating the quality of this year’s crop of local commercial drop-ins during the big game:

Would you believe, 2-1/2 out of 5 expensive as you-know-what fingers.