Tuesday, February 6, 2007
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Gino Bona clearly enjoys having his ad talked about. "Everyone wants to be liked," he said.
Photo courtesy ifilm.com by
Gino Bona's NFL ad features die-hard fans in full regalia resigning themselves dejectedly to months without football.
| THE COMMERCIAL
While Gino Bona was in California for production of his ad, he kept an audio blog on MaineToday.com.
Listen to Bona talk about making a commercial
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In a way, Gino Bona and Archie Manning shared similar emotions Sunday night. Both hoped that their offspring would perform well on the world's biggest stage. Both had to be satisfied.
While Peyton Manning was named Super Bowl XLI's most valuable player, Bona's brainchild -- the NFL ad lamenting the end of the football season -- was rated among the more popular advertisements of the television extravaganza.
It's a good feeling, said Bona, 33, a Portsmouth, N.H., resident and director of business development for Portland's Garrand Marketing Communications. "Everyone wants to be liked. Everyone wants to have their brand talked about in a popular light. The brands that were liked (Sunday night) are being talked about all over the country," he said.
Bona beat out thousands of other football fans to get his idea transformed into an ad for the NFL to show during the Super Bowl.
The commercial ended up ranked 12th in USA Today's Ad Meter popularity poll, out of the 57 ads that aired during the game, scoring better than ads for Coca-Cola, Taco Bell and General Motors. NFL executives were pleased.
"They said everyone in the NFL was thrilled, and then my phone didn't stop ringing with media outlets," said Bona, sounding exhausted while he waited at the airport in Miami for his delayed flight home.
The experience of having his ad idea aired to millions of viewers was overwhelming, as was the whole Super Bowl experience. Bona and his wife got tickets to the game, courtesy of the NFL, and got access to all kinds of behind-the-scenes action.
"It was first class all the way," he said. "The party the night before was VIP only, with a private concert with Blondie, REO Speedwagon, New Edition. Anything you want to eat, anything you want to drink. Before the game was the same thing. We got to see Stevie Nicks in concert."
He met league MVP LaDainian Tomlinson, Troy Aikman, Joe Namath and Drew Brees.
Watching the game, Bona and his wife sat with 70,000 other fans in the pouring rain, soaked to the skin in spite of their ponchos. The two-minute warning approached -- the time slot when the NFL ad would be shown to the world.
At that point, the couple was invited in out of the rain to relax in Katie Couric's box seat, to watch as the ad played.
"Katie wanted us to come up there so we could watch the commercial," he said. "She was really sweet, got us some beers, introduced us to everyone."
The ad looked good, but Bona didn't know that it played well until he got the call from the NFL early Monday.
The NFL ad resonated with football fans because its creator really understood the motivation for the brand, said Tim Calkins, a marketing professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, who runs a panel of students who rate the ads.
In creating his ad, Bona had the advantage of being a football fan and genuinely understanding the emotions to which he was appealing.
"It was so well branded and it really conveyed how special the NFL experience is, and for that reason it scored nicely," Calkins said. "You have to either be part of the target group or you have to really understand the target exceptionally well."
Calkins' students evaluate Super Bowl ads for their appeal, and for their success in advancing the brand and other essentials of effective advertising. They rated Bona's ad in the top third. Calkins said it might have scored better but lacked the overt humor of the most successful ads, many of which were for Budweiser beer.
The NFL ad had understated humor, with die-hard fans in full regalia resigning themselves dejectedly to months without football. Bona said the ad that aired included changes to his original concept.
For example, he suggested having the ad end with legendary football tough man Dick Butkus crying. The final version went instead with the wistful look of the more contemporary Brett Favre. After much speculation that he would retire, Favre announced recently that he will return to football next year.
Bona was proud that he showed he could put up material just as effective as some of the best in the business. Now, he's ready to get back to his more mundane and satisfying life, tending to his infant at home and his work at Garrand.
"This was all a great experience but I'm happy to kind of slow down now and get back into the swing of things." Of course, he's still coming to grips with one painful reality -- football season is over.
Staff Writer David Hench can be contacted at 791-6327 or at:
Reader comments
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There was absolutely nothing stirring about this ad.
I had heard Mr. Bono describe his concept on the radio and it sounded both funny and interesting. Unfortunately, the ad that aired wasn't either. I can't tell if Mr. Bono's idea wasn't really as good as it seemed or if the ad makers simply mutilated it.
I guess the thing that gets me the most is this article's depiction of Mr. Bono as some advertising mastermind based on that mediocre-at-best superbowl ad. report abuse
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