A Quick Review of the Salesforce.com Chatter Superbowl Ad
For all of us Salesforce geeks, not only did we see the superbowl commercial but most of us sat glued to the television before halftime to make sure we didn't miss it. I have to admit, it was pretty cool to see the Black Eyed Peas promoting the software-as-a-service platform I know and love, but did it deliver? Here's what this Salesforce geek thinks.
The Chatterati
The fact that Salesforce.com has made it to primetime is an amazing step in itself regardless if the full message got across. To think in less than five years, enterprise social software has gone from a mere concept to a superbowl ad viewed by millions. What I was scratching my head about at last year's Dreamforce has got me telling every business owner I know how Chatter can help their business. The other big thing is it costs nothing to get started. If the ad at least got you to go to Chatter.com, a free offering warrants a try. If one trys, then they tell a friend and so on and so on.
Just Chit-Chat?
Both commercials seemed a little rushed and not fully informative. As one tweet put it, "Apparently with Chatter.com, the Black Eyed Peas can make donkeys and elephants make out, nice." (link to that tweet) Is that going to get people to go check it out and on top of that, what audience did it get the attention of? Most business owners I know aren't listening to the Black Eyed Peas and when I asked some of them what they thought, they had nothing to say. Not till I explained what they can do with it did they start asking questions.
Next up for Chatter?
I give Salesforce an A for effort but a C for the final product. The commercials didn't give enough information for someone to open the laptop and Google it but might of started enough of a buzz to give evangalists some good talking points to help spread the word. Hopefully this isn't a one and done and the commercials get more play time in different venues. In a few months I will revisit with a part two of this blog to see where it has gone and what impact it has had.
