While there was a very clear winner and loser from the Super Bowl on the field, in the world of marketing it isn’t always that clear. We are here to break it down for you and explain who and why we think the winners and losers in the biggest show of advertising dollars there is. I am a little bummed that the Broncos didn’t perform better, but hey, you come to the big show you better be prepared. The advertisers put their best foot forward and there was a definite winner. Just like on the field.
First of all I want to point out that there are a ton of car and technology commercials in this game. Why? because that is who spends the most money on advertising and they see the value of the impression they can make. Almost every brand had a presence in the game, by sponsoring something or having a commercial, every brand was represented. The question is, if you are a Ford guy, did the Chevy commercial about World Cancer day really make you want to switch? Probably not, that isn’t the purpose of the campaign. The purpose was to create a positive brand interaction with them. Did you get a good feeling when you watched it? If you did, then it worked. Every brand discussed wants to create a feeling of either joy, laughter, sorrow, peace or something else. The purpose of advertising is to create emotion so think about each ad and the emotion it created as you recap the commercials.
The brands that didn’t stand out to me as far as car commercials was the Bruce Willis Honda “Hugs” campaign. That was just odd. What feeling are you trying to create Honda? You want me to stop and hug someone because you care about their safety? You hug them if you are so worried about their safety, or better yet, have your salespeople hug people after the sale because they are going to be safe, not because you just put another set of wheels on the road. Another total fail for me was the Kia commercial….. really? Morpheus singing opera? Yes that pretty much is an alternate universe that anyone would ever put Kia in the same brand as luxury….ever. The other ones that people either love or hate was the Butterfinger, not very family friendly and I’m pretty sure that kids eat Butterfingers, and the Coke “America is Beautiful” ad. Some people loved it and others hated it. There was a Twitter firestorm over it. Some people believed that our national anthem shouldn’t be sung in other languages, while others say America is a melting pot and it was very true to our current state of cultural acceptance. Whether it was a win or lose considering the social media storm it created remains to be seen.
The usual Budweiser, Bud Light and the unexpected Maserati and Audi ads really stood out to me personally. Budweiser had a touching and cute ad and of course a patriotic ad, both of which pulled at the heartstrings of Americans. The Maserati ad was bold and powerful although when talking to the masses, your car is not really what they would consider “affordable”. However, it did have me glued to the screen wondering what in the world is this, its so cool and mysterious. The Audi ad was just a hilarious reason why you don’t ever compromise, with dogs that is. The Doberhuahua ad was funny, although I’m not to sure on their wanting to use a compromise message in their advertising.
There was one brand that stood out to me as the best ad and believe it or not it didn’t include any puppies, soldiers or cars at all. Some of the Bronco fans probably missed it because they shut off the game in disgust, but if you missed it the best placement, message and purpose of an ad was the Esurance Save 30. Absolutely brilliant placement being the first commercial after the big game and saving MILLIONS. The message was clear, they saved money and you can save money with them, the call to action was clear and it was fun. Just tweet #esurancesave30 and you could win the 1.5 million they saved on their commercial. Twitter lit up after that commercial. They were trending on twitter and still are almost 12 hours after the game. They understand their audience and they understand how to reach them and interact with them. They didn’t ask people to buy anything, they asked them to tweet something, they asked millions of people to create a brand awareness that is user generated.
So these are our winners and losers from the #brandbowl2014 Comment below with your thoughts or who you think really stood out and who just wasted money. Keep your eyes peeled for our next blog about the pitiful “local” ads that ran here in the Grand Junction Colorado Market. It is sure to offend someone so it should be good.