Super Bowl Marketing
The genius and failure of the E*TRADE commercial.
NAIL THE PROBLEM
E*TRADE COMMERCIAL GENIUS
#1 identify the problem
"People have their money just sitting around doing nothing."
#2 agitate the problem
"People are taking money advice from memes."
NAIL THE ASPIRATIONAL IDENTITY
E*TRADE COMMERCIAL GENIUS PT.2
-wealthy (cabin in the woods)
-important ("they found me")
-very important (I get picked up in helicopters)
-wise enough to retire early (I'm a retired baby)
NAIL THE ENDING
MullenLowe pledge.
MullenLowe actual demographics.
E*TRADE COMMERCIAL FAIL
Humor is a risk and sometimes it offends.
If you're going to spend $6.5 million on a commercial, plus the cost of hiring an agency, you have to nail every second of the story–especially the ending.
The ending was a pleasant surprise but it also failed.
I don't think anyone processed this because it happened so fast, but familiar stories often affirm subconscious beliefs. We've seen this scenario before, just not with babies.
I don't think anyone was offended by this commercial but I think it unintentionally reinforces a cultural trope–an important white guy telling his black chauffeur what to do.
Baby Benny was a supporting character in other e*trade commercials so a stronger ending would have been the "finally together" scene of all agents (babies) recruited for this mission-impossible.
I'm not virtue signaling here and I'm not trying to create controversy. I'm trying to highlight how difficult it is to get a message on-point.
I doubt MullenLowe, the agency that made the commercial, had any bad motives. In fact, you can read on their website their pledge to create a diverse culture at their agency.
Lesson: Marketing is hard. We need diverse perspectives to learn new things and unlearn other things.