A weak showing in last year’s USA Today Super Bowl Ad Meter got (or,
depending on whom you believe, contributed to getting) CareerBuilder’s agency,
Cramer-Krasselt, fired. So, does a significantly worse showing in this year’s
survey mean that the online job site’s new agency, Wieden & Kennedy, ought
to be worried?
Wieden’s debut spots for CareerBuilder, which kicked off a new campaign
dubbed “Start Building,” placed 39th and 47th in USA Today’s annual popularity
contest. The best of C-K’s three “Office Jungle” spots last year finished 16th,
and its top “Office Monkeys” spots rated 11th and fourth, respectively, in 2006
and 2005.
CareerBuilder also aired a third ad on Fox after the game. A spokeswoman said
CareerBuilder and Wieden jointly determined that the other two spots were more
relevant to the Super Bowl audience.
Asked about the Ad Meter results, a CareerBuilder spokeswoman said Wieden was
safe, adding: “We’re very excited about this campaign.”
She also maintained that the Ad Meter was not the sole criterion in C-K’s
firing last year. “The whole decision wasn’t based on the poll or any single
factor.”
Spat with C-K
That claim, of course, contradicts C-K chief
executive Peter Krivkovich, who made a stir last winter when he quit the
CareerBuilder business in a huff after, he said, he was told the account had
been placed into review solely because of the Ad Meter results. “There are a few
times in your life when you have to tell someone to [expletive] off and mean
it,” he said at the time.
The spat kicked off a discussion within the business about the relative
merits of day-after-game polls. Critics contend that the polls measure nothing
except likability and are therefore useless to sophisticated marketers. But
proponents say winning the so-called Ad Bowl—as Anheuser-Busch just did for the
10th straight year—is a priceless PR coup that extends the value of ads that
cost as much as $3 million per 30 seconds.
Asked about the most recent poll, Krivkovich at first played coy.
“Oh, were they in the game this year?” he asked, before conceding with a
chuckle that he’d seen the latest Ad Meter results. “I was sitting on a plane
going through the papers, and I have to say, it was interesting.”
Filed by Jeremy Mullman of Advertising Age, a sister publication of Workforce
Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.
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