Teaser campaign? Make sure the product is worth all that hype.

Rance Crain’s Ad Age piece on this topic is a very smart look at how teaser campaigns, particularly one by Bright House, can backfire when consumer expectations are heightened, then completely underwhelmed.

Crain sites cable company Bright House, and their four-week teaser campaign titled "Hello Friend." After creating high expectations, the campaign resulted in some agitation when people in markets where Bright House does business found out their local cable company wanted to befriend them.

Crain points out that you don’t see very many big “teaser” campaigns these days. It could be just because of the cost. The upper-management types understandably want to see clear product feature-benefit and call-to-action so they can measure results. It could also be that the advertising consuming public has become just plain stupid. Crain offers the recent Honda teaser ad with Matthew Broderick as an example of how the whole thing could be misconstrued. In January, when Broderick showed up in a teaser campaign on the web reprising his role as Ferris Bueller, thousands of consumers thought the spot was for a sequel to the film. The video was just a teaser to a Super Bowl commercial for Honda, and many of the film's fans were disappointed. Classic example of people connecting dots that aren’t there.

Crain goes on to say, “What disappointed a lot of people is that they got their hopes up thinking somebody or something really cool wanted to be their friend, only to find out that it was their local cable company pledging not to charge them if they showed up late.”

Be my friend? No thanks, but a nice clear picture and a faster Internet feed would be nice.