When retailers and brands advertise during the Super Bowl, they need to hit the mark. With NBC charging more than $5 million for a 30-second spot, businesses can’t afford to bungle an opportunity to reach a massive audience — a good portion of which watch the game at least as much for the commercials as the on-field action.
The RTP team discusses which Super Bowl advertisements were the most effective, which they enjoyed the most and what retail brands can learn from these examples.
Debbie Hauss, Editor-in-Chief: Super Bowl ads, at approximately $5 million for 30 seconds, are apparently most affordable for brands, and insurance and automobile companies vs. more traditional retailers. But there are lessons to be learned for all B2C companies. In 2018 these were three key themes: 1. Hit the heart strings (Mass Mutual, Ram Trucks, Budweiser); 2. Be funny and use celebrities (Tide, M&Ms, Alexa, Doritos/Mountain Dew); 3. Be funny and use football players (Universal, NFL). My two favorites of the evening, though, were Kraft, which engaged viewers and incorporated social media; and NFL because I just can’t get the picture of Eli Manning dancing with Odell Beckham Jr. out of my head.
Adam Blair, Executive Editor: The Amazon “Alexa Loses Her Voice” ad caught my eye, and not just because covering the retail industry means that practically anything Amazon does is news. The commercial used humor to make a strong yet subtle point: Alexa is already part of people’s everyday lives. That may not seem like such a dramatic point to you, but I’m kind of amazed at how quickly talking to a mechanical device has become the new normal. The celebrities (Rebel Wilson, Gordon Ramsay, Cardi B) who hilariously fail at doing Alexa’s job reinforce what we now take for granted: that Alexa herself (see? I’m referring to it as a person) does a good job. Oh, and props to Anthony Hopkins for still being super scary 27 years after The Silence of the Lambs.
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Marie Griffin, Managing Editor: My favorite Super Bowl commercial was Toyota’s “Good Odds,” which features the unlikely true story of Lauren Woolstencroft. Born with two stunted legs and one underdeveloped arm, she showed grit and determination from childhood and went on to become an eight-time gold medalist as a Paralympic skier. The inspiring images of Woolstencroft are amplified by the soaring anthem “Stronger Than I’ve Ever Been,” sung by Kaleena Zanders. The commercial caught my attention in a positive way, but I was wary of having my emotions manipulated — and other Super Bowl ads strayed into this territory. So I was heartened to discover that Toyota is not associating itself with people with disabilities for inspirational value alone. The company is repositioning itself as a “mobility” company and offered a glimpse of its vision “to make movement better for everyone” in a second Super Bowl commercial. The takeaway: Content that tugs on the emotions can be powerful, but if there is no relationship between your company and that story, you risk backlash. This was very apparent in the reaction to Ram Truck’s use of a Martin Luther King quote in a Super Bowl commercial.
Glenn Taylor, Senior Editor: The Pringles commercial featuring Bill Hader got a laugh out of me, and I thought it was a good way to introduce different varieties of the product to shoppers. While the contents of the commercial could be taken in jest, it was a fun way to entice shoppers to check out and buy new flavors. People that haven’t stacked different flavors at once are probably going to feel more compelled to do so given the chance to “discover” a new flavor. At RTP we’ve talked about the feeling of discovery that still needs to be apparent in every retail experience, and that definitely applies to CPG brands. With a competitor like Doritos creating a funny campaign of its own, complete with cameos from beloved celebrities Morgan Freeman and Peter Dinklage, Pringles hit the right notes by being both humorous and product-oriented.
Klaudia Tirico, Features Editor: Many of this year’s Super Bowl commercials delivered what I expected from them — humor, a tug on the heartstrings and surprises. Out of all of them, two really stood out to me: the variety of hilarious editions of the Tide commercials featuring David Harbour, the actor that plays everyone’s favorite Chief of Police Jim Hopper on Netflix’s Stranger Things; and the Doritos/Mountain Dew “Lip Synch Battle” between Peter Dinklage of Game of Thrones and the one and only Morgan Freeman. Both featured familiar faces from beloved TV shows and movies. Plus, the Doritos/Mountain Dew commercial even added a bit of nostalgia with the music from Missy Elliott and Busta Rhymes. Because of all of these elements, I believe that both commercials resonated with a younger, Millennial audience who watches these famous shows and listened to the music when they were teens. So aside from the big Eagles victory, these commercials were also my winners of the night.
