Last week Nike launched its FIFA World Cup “Write The Future” campaign with an epic three minute ad featuring star international players including Wayne Rooney, Didier Drogba, and Cristiano Ronaldo. The concept behind the ad is that there are certain amazing moments in during the game that can change the player’s lives and write their place in history flashing forward to the potential future based on the outcome of the moment. The commercial was directed by Mexican film director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, who previously directed and produced Babel and 21 Grams. To premiere the video Nike released a ten-minute short film to introduce the video and talk about the concept and production. Interestingly, the video is only viewable if visitors click the “Like” button making visitors become fans before they can view the video. This could become a new trend for brands making their content accessible only to registered fans.
Nike is now getting aggressive with their soccer marketing efforts competing directly with Adidas who launched their “Every team needs” world cup campaign months ago to start building hype for the event and their products.
According to a recent study from the research firm TNS in conjunction with ESPN and Electronic Arts, 38% of sports video gamers spend at least as much time playing sports games as they do watching the same sport on TV during its season. This study suggests that advertisers are missing a major opportunity with in-game advertising. The sports gamer demographic is 75% male and half are between the ages of 18 and 34, on average they are single and have a disposable income. This demographic is increasingly difficult to reach using traditional media and sports games could be the ideal outlet. First, it would be very easy to implement; all sports games now feature online support and are constantly undergoing content updates, this would allow advertisers to place updated brand messages and ads into the updated game content so the in-game ads constantly change if the player is playing online or not. Also it would add to the authenticity of the game; broadcast sports already have many ads and brand messages displayed on the playing field and having the same look in the virtual environment would make the game more realistic while providing a new, largely untapped ad space. While this new medium is just starting to gain momentum, I predict this ad space will becoming increasingly effective and sought after.
The biggest night in advertising is finally over. With over an estimated 100 million viewers, who according to a recent Nielsen poll mostly watch the game to see the ads, it is no wonder why companies fork out millions of dollars for thirty seconds of airtime and choose to premiere their best ads. There were some surprising developments this year; Pepsi chose not to run an ad this year and focus on other campaigns and after a short hiatus auto manufacturers are back. It was no surprise that Budweiser had a lineup of very funny inspired ads but there were a few other companies that seemingly came out of nowhere with great, memorable ads. To celebrate all the great work that was done to make some very clever and memorable commercials I have put together a top five list of my favorite Super Bowl XLV commercials. (Although Budweiser consistently produces brilliant ads I opted to leave them out of the list because I wanted variety.)
5. Hyundai’s “10 Years Strong Featuring Brett Favre”
Hyundai’s ad featured Brett Favre laughing off the fact that he will probably never retire. The ad, set in the year 2020, shows a locker room press conference where an elderly Favre is receiving an MVP award and mentioning that he will probably retire. I particularly enjoyed this ad because it is clever, effectively speaks about Hyundai’s warranty, and proves that absolutely nobody takes Favre seriously when he claims he is going to retire…not even himself.
4. Homeaway.com’s “The Griswolds”
In this ad/short film from Homeaway.com, a vacation house rental company, Chevy Chase reprises his role as the iconic road tripper Clark W. Griswold from the Vacation movies in this spot from Homeaway.com criticizing the poor service and high costs of staying at hotels. They aired a thirty second spot during the game that served as a trailer urging people to visit their site to view the whole 15 minute short film. I really enjoyed both the ad and the sponsored short film. I’ve been a fan of the Vacation movies as long as I can remember and I was very happy to see an ad give nods to the movies and effectively portray the iconic characters. They managed to deliver their brand message without alienating the viewer and making it all about the brand.
3. Snickers Candy Bars’s “You’re Not You When You’re Hungry”
This ad aired in the first quarter and was the first impressive ad I saw while watching the game. This short spot featured Betty White and Abe Vigoda getting tackled while playing a game of backyard football. Although a Snickers bar probably isn’t the best thing to eat for energy while playing a high impact sport they were able to deliver their message quickly and humorously. The only thing more shocking than seeing the elderly get tackled in the mud was the realization that Abe Vigoda is still alive.
2. Cars.com’s “Timothy Richman”
This cars.com commercial narrated key moments and accomplishments of the fictional genius Timothy Richman. His exploits include extinguishing a house fire as a baby, successfully delivering the birth of a baby Bengal tiger, and saving the lives of an entire cheerleading squad with his knowledge of tornadoes. The ad ends with Richman’s lone obstacle in life; buying a car, which was naturally made easy with the help of cars.com. I really enjoyed the narration and storytelling in this clever ad and the dialogue seemed to be directly taken out of the script of Wes Anderson’s “The Royal Tennenbaums”, one of my favorite movies.
1. Google’s “Parisian Love”
Google’s 50-second spot creatively told the story of a guy trying to get laid but eventually falling in love in Paris. I considered this ad to be the best for many reasons; first it was very effective storytelling that was conveyed only using screen shots of someone using Google. Instead of telling a story about Google they managed to tell someone else’s story using Google making it a memorable, relatable experience centered around their brand. Also, it was a very simple and straightforward ad but also managed to be humorous, sentimental, and genuine all at the same time, by carefully choosing content they were able to grasp a wide range of emotion and surprise the viewer in a short amount of time. Lastly, it had to be incredibly inexpensive to produce. Brilliant storytelling, effective message, and inexpensive production made this my top ad of the Super Bowl this year.
If you disagree or think an ad was missing let us know in the comments section below.
The Superbowl is well known as being the biggest advertising event of the year, with around 95 million viewers it showcases the most expensive television advertisements. Advertisers are willing to pay close to $3 million for 30 seconds of airtime. Super Bowl ads have become almost as iconic as the game itself. In recent years with the recession and more companies cutting back their ad spending, many predicted that this year more companies would not be willing to pay high prices and it would become increasingly difficult for CBS to sell the ad spots. Last year no automakers were able to afford the high price tag of running an ad during the game.
Surprisingly, this year they have had no problem selling the expensive spots. Over 90% of the spots have been reserved and the only ads left are in the fourth quarter and post-game. To put this into perspective, last year NBC was only able to move 85% of their Super Bowl spots at this time. Although ad space has always sold old, these early sales are a good indicator of how demand is rising and more businesses are willing to increase their ad budgets again.
This could have something to do with the increasing use of social media for advertising. Superbowl ads are much more than 30 seconds of airtime, today there are calculated social media strategies behind the ad. According to Advertising Age, last year there were more online views of the ads than viewers watching the game on TV. The spots during the game are still extremely valuable with all the viewers but paired with social media the shelf life of the ad is greatly extended. Last year 90% of the brands had their ads up on YouTube before or shortly after they aired during the game, a quarter of the brands utilized social media to drive additional comments and facilitate conversation, and more that two thirds bout paid-search ads online for their brand. One great example was GoDaddy.com’s spot where viewers were forced to go online to view the ad in its entirety. Similar tactics and social media spending should increase this year as well with the growing popularity of social media and its cost effectiveness. Online video sharing sites are gearing up for the event too placing emphasis on the posted ads to attract more visitors to their sites. As more brands try to find innovative ways to mix traditional and new media for their advertising it will be interesting to see how brands this year integrate their social media with the high profile TV spots to get more for their marketing dollar. I would predict that Twitter will be heavily utilized this year in some form or another with its massive increase in popularity over the last year.
Be sure to check the Chado Blog in the days following the game for more articles, videos, and commentary on the ads and new campaigns unveiled during the Super Bowl.
