Salesforce debuted two Chatter commercials during halftime of the Super Bowl last night. The buzz leading up to the big game was pretty intense ... with most of us pretty excited (albeit surprised) at the idea of the $3 million dollar ad spots. If you missed them, click here and then here to check them out. So how did the ads fare? Let's break it down ...
The Good:
If you’ve used Chatter before, you know that the product itself is great. If you’ve used Chatter before, you know that the commercials – especially the first one – did a pretty accurate (though speedy) job of portraying the type of collaboration that happens between users. If you’ve used Chatter before, you may be excited to know that unlimited licenses are available to any business (not just Salesforce customers) at no charge. If you’ve used Chatter before …
Do you see the trend? If you watched those spots without any prior knowledge of Chatter, would you have any idea what they were about? Would you have any desire to visit the website to learn more? Probably not. Which brings us to …
The Bad:
If you’ve used Chatter before, you probably didn’t want to announce it to anyone at your viewing party after seeing those commercials. The biggest complaint I’ve heard is that the ads were confusing. Sure, having fewer than 30 seconds to explain the concept seems daunting – and I certainly don’t envy those in advertising trying to develop these ads under such scrutiny - but I do wish the commercials had done a better job of communicating the benefits of Chatter (even if it was at the expense of the entertainment value). Speaking of the entertainment value, we come to …
The Ugly:
And it is very ugly. Hulu asked users to vote on the Super Bowl commercials. According to their results, the Chatter ads hold the #1 and #2 spots for the “Overall Most Disliked Ads”. Ouch.
Despite the reviews, there is good news: Salesforce obviously has a great platform, and the addition of Chatter only makes it better. And, if all else fails, can we just fall back on the old adage … any press is good press?
One final note, be sure to check out the super interesting blog that Salesforce wrote about the creation of the commercials.