Black Sheep of Advertising: SalesGenie.com

Figured I'd take Seth and my discussions public and take a look at Salesgenie.com post-Superbowl.



I quote from USA Today (who ranked Salesgenie.com's SuperBowl ad dead last creatively):

"The sales-lead website generated more than 10,000 new customer subscriptions by late Monday, far more than the 700 it said it needed to break even on its ad cost. "Our ad wasn't supposed to be funny or clever," InfoUSA CEO Vin Gupta says. "It was supposed to bring in subscribers, and it's been successful beyond our wildest dreams. We're already working on next year's ad."

It ain't exactly a pillar of creativity...but one has to ask: "well, didn't it work?". And if it worked, well, to again quote that statesman Bishop Don "Magic" Juan, "Don't hate, congratulate."

I do agree with Seth, though, that surely there is a CHEAPER MEANS TO GET THESE SAME RESULTS...AFTERALL, SALESGENIE SUPPOSEDLY CHAMPIONS SMART AUDIENCE TARGETING. "I don't work hard. I work smart," proclaims Pierce so smugly.

A true Black Sheep of Advertising, such as Ron Popeil, champions THRIFT ABOVE ALL ELSE. Black Sheep Orthodoxy typically endorses anti-advertising in lieu of more POP, or economy/weakened judgement effects of late-nite media flights, or :10-only buys, cluster flights of 2 or 3 :10 or :15 TV ads ganged up to pummel the senses and/or co-promote multiple products, strong mnemonic jingles and repetition (ie "you bet your sweet Aspercreme!"), or just plain smarter audience targeting with their media money.

It is somewhat ironic that SalesGenie didn't get their 10K subscribers more smartly than with this very mass blast at America during SuperBowl.

On an unrelated note...I've been working on a SuperBowl assessment and some of you may find the following figures interesting for SalesGenie.com:

SalesGenie.com Suprbowl XLI AftrBuzz
Social Media Metrix
v.Tue13Feb/4:40pm CST


Topline Highlights
Total Social Media =655,236 Views @ YouTube+MySpace+iFilm

@ YouTube
:30 Spot =224,023 Views @ YouTube
@ MySpace
:30 Spot =343,847 Views @ MySpace
@ iFilm
:30 Spot = 87,361 Page Views @ iFilm





Some of the online sentiment included: Fervent disapproval, Violated, Not relevant, Disengaged...

To quote a few respondents...
"Biggest piece of shit commercial ever.”
"Douche-baggery”
"umm... that was crap”
"BOOOOOOOOOOOOOO…DELETE THAT BULL"
"i want my 30 seconds back..."
“poor"
”suckness
"positive side to this commercial? gives you time to run to the bathroom"

Of course, SalesGenie would say phooey to this mass sentiment...afterall, the 10,000 marks he needed were engaged enough to activate whether you liked it or not.