Some people come to watch football and others come for the snacks — but on Super Bowl Sunday, we’re here for the commercials.
The Super Bowl remains one of advertising’s biggest stages, and the mounting price tag ($8 million for a 30-second spot!) reflects the platform’s importance.
Check out our takeaways from this year’s batch of ads:
Pre-Game Lead Up
Traditionally, a brand will leverage Super Bowl Sunday as a moment to launch a new ad campaign. But this year, Coors and Taco Bell used the spot to close out campaigns that had already been running IRL for weeks.
Coors’ intentional misspelling of “refershment*” on a billboard advertisement, and subsequent launch of a physical case of (beer) called the Mondays, got people talking about the brand in the lead up to the big game. The overlap of physical (billboard), traditional (press release) and digital (social) media created a memorable campaign that culminated with a “Slow Monday” Super Bowl ad.
Rather than relying on celebrity involvement — a time honored Super Bowl ad tradition — Taco Bell put their customers in the spotlight by building a content studio around their drive thru window. Thousands of customers created unique moments of genuine brand enthusiasm, which were highlighted as a photo scrapbook in Sunday’s ad.
Empowering Women
A welcome trend this year was around women’s empowerment, with multiple brands’ commercials bringing inspiring messages of female strength.
In its ‘80s jock-inspired ad, the NFL showed a women’s flag football player metaphorically wiping the floor with the high school football team. The spot ends with a call to action to bring flag football as a varsity sport to all 50 U.S. states.
Nike also had a roster of female athletes in its ad, being told all the things they can’t do. The athletes encourage viewers to do [it] anyway, ending with “so, win.”
Flying Hair
In an unexpected twist, not one but two brands took to the skies — with celebrity facial hair.
Little Caesar’s ad showed Eugene Levy, who raises his famous, bushy brows after taking a bite of pizza. The taste was so good, that Levy’s eyebrows raised off of his head and began to fly around. The ad was, perhaps, a bit odd, but not particularly memorable.
That is, until Pringles showed their mascot’s famous moustache lifting off its can to replenish the chips at a party. The moustache rounds up other famous moustaches, including actor Nick Offerman, NBA player James Harden and Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid, to help.
After the game, the brands teamed up on social media to laugh about the “hair-raising coincidence.”
Our Takeaways
While not the most memorable group of ads, Super Bowl LIX shows the constant evolution of advertising on a massive stage.
For brands considering new creative campaigns, consider these principles:
- Create spaces for authentic interaction
- Use major moments to tell extended stories
- Coordinate across channels
- Give your audience a voice
Ready to brainstorm your next campaign? Let’s talk.
