Taking Market Reseach to the Streets

It is interesting to watch ads in a crowded bar. Normally, the ads are background, mostly visual, and really have about as much affect as the flashing Budweiser bottle.

But introduce the Super Bowl and you have a focus group in action. The reactions to an ad from a bar filled with half-cut, burly, loud and easily distracted football fans who drive Jeeps, drink Bud, and wear Levis is pure gold.

Because, even if they don't mean to, they watch the ads on the Super Bowl. Everyone does. And sometimes they laugh. Sometimes the whole bar will laugh, really, really loud.

This ad brought down the house at the pub I was at Careeerbuilder Celebration.

Now that is an effective ad. Not only are people paying attention to the whole ad - it is creating a reaction, amongst a large group of people.

Other ads completely flop.

To advertise on the Super Bowl is not cheap. It can be as expensive as $2.6 million for a 30 second spot. And no company invests that much money in one ad without focus grouping it to death.

But how many of those agencies actually ran focus groups in a bar filled with half-cut, burly, loud and easily distracted football fans who drive Jeeps, drink Bud, and wear Levis

You can analyze it, and say it's good or not, but only the true target market experiment can confirm its immediate effectiveness.