Beware the Trap of Publicity For Publicity's Sake!

It cost the chain $8 - $10 million to air the commercial, plus, probably another million or two in production, Paris's fees, and website production fees.

But what did it do for sales? Same store sales revenues at Carl's Jr. increased only 1.7%, at Hardee's just 0.7%.

Hardly the kind of boost one would want to see for a $10 million investment. Looking quickly at the numbers, Carl's Junior did $44.2 million in sales during the month, Hardee's did $47.0 million. So, applying the sales increase numbers, 1.7% means that ad generated roundly $750,000 for Carl's Junior and the 0.7% increase at Hardee's added roughly $325,000 to their sales.

Sounds like a great investment to me - Spend $8 to $12 million, get back $1.1 million in sales. And if you like those numbers, I happen to have a bridge that's for sale...

And keep in mind that the $1.1 million was top line sales increase, costs still have to come out of that number! Given that their actual net income percentage is 3.2% of net sales, that $1.1 million in extra sales only dropped $35,000 to their bottom line!

But what about branding? Isn't a 3-4% increase in restaurant traffic worth something?

Don't know, did those people who flocked to the restaurants buy anything? Doesn't look like it!

But what about the 4 million hits to the website? Yep, that's got to be worth something, until you think about what they really came for. Those people weren't hungry for spicy burgers, they were people hungry for something else altogether! To say nothing about the fiction of website hits versus traffic (be warned everyone, they're not the same. In this case that 4 million hits probably means 200 to 500k actual visitors.)

So, what's the value of buzz?

Answer - neither I nor anyone else can answer that definitively.

But what I can answer is that there's one thing I can measure - sales and profits.

Unfortunately, most buzz-focused campaigns don't pay back onto the bottom line.

And there's a reason. Pay attention now, because this is key.

Most publicity-oriented campaigns don't pay back in profit increases because they focus the consumer's attention on the buzz-generator, not on the product and why the consumer should buy from you.

This ad is an excellent example.

The ad hits your screen and you see 27 seconds of Paris Hilton, 2 of the burger (together with Paris) and 3 of the message and branding at the end.

There's a hint here - 27 seconds of splashing, posing, gyrating Paris, 5 of the product. Which do you think people paid attention to?

CKE got everything wrong - they shouldn't have paid Paris - they should have charged her for the advertising exposure. This ad didn't advertise the Spicy Burger, it was an ad for Paris.

And as much as the ad agency world will say that there's a residual rub off from Paris to CKE, the hard numbers clearly show that any rub off was only worth at most 10% of what they paid for that publicity.

As far as I'm concerned, this was a textbook case of failure, CKE should fire Paris, fire their ad agency, and probably should fire their CEO and ad department for being gullible enough to believe that an ad that only showed their product and brand for a few seconds could sell burgers!

OK, Don, calm down...

Key message - never, never, never allow the vehicle that you are using to promote your product (Paris) overwhelm your product itself (the burger). If you do, you're destined for failure.

Could this ad have been salvaged? I think so. Lose the car, lose the water, lose the gyrations. Show Paris sitting in the restaurant eating the burger with obvious delight on her face and in the sounds she's making. Let the camera romance her and the product. Maybe end with a drop of ketchup on her chin that she licks off. Hot music in the background. All of this is interspersed with the name of the burger, the name of the restaurant and their "That's hot" tag line flashed several times onto the screen.

You still get the connection between Paris and the burger. You still get the buzz, the attention, the branding and the website hits.

But this time the burger is the hero, not Paris. Consumers remember the product. Sales go up, money gets deposited in the bank, and you're happy.

Do the same in your advertising and publicity events, and you'll come out the winner!

It's your choice. Be wise.

Interested in knowing about ways to generate media coverage that really builds business? Check out Kick Up a Media Storm: How to Get Free (or Really Cheap) Publicity.

And for tips on how to properly build your brand, we recommend Brand Your Business and Make Your Profits Explode!

Tags: publicity paris hilton advertising