So, most of you will read this after the big game has been decided. Whatever the outcome, as has been said before – I’m sure this year’s Super Bowl was a series of interesting and hopefully entertaining commercials periodically interrupted by a football game.
Super Bowl advertising has, of course, been around since Super Bowl I when the Packers beat the Kansas City Chiefs 35-10. The first really famous ad was a Noxzema ad featuring Joe Namath and Farrah Fawcett. As a side note, you’ve got to check it out – it’s a gas. Joe Namath saying he’s “gonna get creamed” and Farrah singing breathlessly. Aaaaah the 70's!
Over the years the ads have become bigger and more lavish. And, many say it culminated during the dot-com years when companies without a revenue model were spending millions on a 30 second spot. Maybe no ad exemplified this better than the E*Trade ad that proudly proclaimed that they’d “Wasted $2 Million Bucks”. Ironically, E*Trade is one of the few survivors of that era.
And certainly there’s been a shift in the types of companies advertising during the big game. In the 1990’s, the ads were dominated by food and beverage (fast food, snacks, soda and beer predominantly) and into the early 2000’s with the tech companies. And then with the fall of dot-com, movie trailers and car companies were the primary advertisers. This year Pepsi is withdrawing completely, and given the current state of the auto industry, we’ll probably see far fewer automobile commercials. And, finally, political ads have even made their first foray.
Whatever, the mix, there are three interesting trends in Super Bowl commercials that I think can take and apply to our own marketing and content strategy.
Merging Content Platforms – Television and Internet
No company has really done this better than Go-Daddy. For the last few years, the company has featured their “Banned Ads” during the Super Bowl. They frequently feature scantily clad women in a SFSB (Safe for Super Bowl) commercial – and then invite you to go to GoDaddy.com to see the “unrated” version.
The real lesson here is to ask ourselves how we can leverage our content marketing across different channels. For example, I recently worked with one client on a strategy to extend their local radio ad buy into a micro-site.
Instead of using a 15 or 20 second radio ad to promote something that would quickly be forgotten – they simply directed people to a micro-site (mobile friendly as well) inviting them to experience much more content. Plus, by using different sub-domains (which was faster than saying “slash XYZ”) in the different DMA’s, the client could measure some of the effectiveness of radio that was more difficult before.
More Creative Content – Not More Efficient Content
Nothing exemplifies Super Bowl ads more than their irreverence. In fact the cliché about Super Bowl ads are that they are “wasteful” because of their focus on content/brand rather than bottom line results. But today, more than just the ads themselves, there’s the coverage of the ads, and the coverage of the coverage of the ads. So, in today’s Super Bowl ad – you’ve got to bring something extraordinary to the table.
Consider how this irreverence has really exploded over the years. Here’s a Super Bowl Ad from Masterlock in 1974. Can you imagine this going viral today? Compare it to this ad from Pepsi last year. They both feature violence in a way – but certainly one is much more irreverent.
The lesson here is that there is occasion for our content to be something special – something with a distinct point of view. Even in today’s measurement-mad environment we need to sometimes reach beyond that which will generate a “conversion metric” – and instead drive for something special that will represent our brand in a much more creative way.
Use The Platform As Crowdsourcing Opportunity
Frito Lay has really embraced both of the above trends, while creating a third – in crowdsourcing their creative Super Bowl Ad content. Doritos has transformed their Super Bowl ad strategy into a contest called the “Crash The Superbowl”. For the last few years, the brand has had “fans” create ads of their own, and then awarded prizes for the top five – and the chance for Super Bowl air-time for the winner.
Last year, the winning commercial went to two brothers who spent $2,000 on a commercial and walked away with $1 million plus a Super Bowl ad. And, they also ended up as the top selection in USA Today’s Ad Meter focus group ranking the best ads during the big game.
Interestingly, Pepsi, a veteran of Super Bowl advertising has decided to withdraw from this year's game and try a contest of their own - outside of the game - with their .
The lesson for us marketers here is that we really *can* enable our fans to create our content for us. Two things are key here though. The first is an incentive that’s transparent. Chase learned this the hard way with the recent controversy around their Chase Community campaign. And, the second is some level of trust in the brand. You may remember Chevrolet tried this a few years back, and it didn’t fare as well.
So, What’s Your Super Bowl Ad Strategy
In the end, very few of us will ever work on creative content that will end up being shown to the type of audience that the Super Bowl provides. But that doesn’t mean we should treat our Content Strategy with any less passion. In whatever organization we’re in, we all have an interesting and distinct story to tell. And, it’s up to us to tell it in a way that makes it worth two million bucks.
Enjoy the game….and the ads....
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