February 4th 2019

The (also) winners of The Super Bowl LIII

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4 Feb

The Super Bowl Ads


There were quite a few winners although Super Bowl LVIII had the lowest ratings in a decade. This Sunday (03/02/2019) was the most watched event in that particular day on the US. Crowds gathered to watch the Los Angeles Rams take on the New England Patriots. CBS was responsible for broadcasting the event that ended with the victory of the New England Patriots and charging around 5 million euros for just 30 seconds slots of advertising. This figure has increased by about 1 million since the previous year. According to Kantar Media the price for Super Bowl ads have gone up 76% in the last decade.

More than 100 million people in the United States joined the 2019 Super Bowl, although the number of viewers in the league has dropped. Views from last year's big game fell 7 percent from the 2017 race to 103 million.

Currently, the Super Bowl is much more than just a football final. The Super Bowl has become a giant platform for companies to reach out to more consumers. As above mentioned, getting a spot in Super Bowl has a cost of 5 million euros, an investment that many companies are not willing to risk. It's not just the most anticipated TV event in the US, it's one of the biggest marketing and advertising opportunities for brands.

According to Marketing Week: "The Super Bowl is arguably the most desired advertising spot in the world!"

Contrary to what would have been expected after so much buzz caused by the Nike with its last ad campaign, this year in the Super Bowl there was a less of a political protest and more of female empowerment.

Female focus

When it comes to a sport like American football, we automatically think of a sport aimed at the male audience. However, a study conducted by Forbes indicates that 49% of the public attending the event is female and this year the brands were aware of this fact.

In addition to almost 50% being female, according to data collected by the US metric platform TVision, it is possible to observe that this focus on the female audience is a smart move on the part of the companies. The same data show that women are 26.1% more focused on ads, scoring 110 on the attention scale, compared with 87.2 for men.

Olay's director Stephanie Robertson says: "We wanted to change that dynamic by reaching women on the biggest stage of the TV with a message we expect viewers to find interesting. Olay wants all women to be bold and empowered, and in a way we're doing just that as a brand, appearing in a place that's historically focused on men."

Olay aside from her ad where Buffy's ex-actress, Sarah Michelle Gellar, has also interacted with the public in her campaign. In this journey, the brand organized a competition for two fans to win a trip to the game in Atlanta. It consisted of blurring a photo of his face and uploading it to Olay's Skin Advisor online service and addressing his skin concerns. In this way, the brand not only draws attention to its presence in SuperBowl, but it also interacts with its target audience, thus generating value for its consumers.

Another case was the commercial of Bumble, in which it counts on the participation of the tennis player Serena Williams. For those who do not know, Bumble is a dating application that allows women to make the first move. Currently against 47 million users worldwide. In this commercial, it is notorious the appeal to the action of the women.

"We are living in a world and a society where people are beginning to see differently and beginning to understand that we are as strong and as intelligent and as smart and as professional as any other man in the world," says Serena Williams.

Bumble expanded its mission following the #MeToo movement and advocates the slogan, "Take the first step, in life, in love, in business." With such a strong mission, joining a voice and such a strong public figure, it could only generate a strong combination of encouragement for women.

Politics

After so much controversy that has been lived at the political and governmental level, everyone thought that there would be announcements directed to the policy. One of the examples that we can have as reference was the last year's campaign of Nike with Colin Kaepernick. This campaign could have been the basis for inspiring other brands to take a political stance, but this did not happen. According to a study by Morning Consult, 66% of fans say they do not want the event announcements to be content-driven. In contrast, only 20% of respondents say that political statements are appropriate to the event because of their visibility.

Companies seem to have respected the "minority's" wishes by listening to their customers and opting for a different strategy. In addition, the event broadcaster - CBS, is also repressing companies that seek to boost a political agenda.

An example of this 'oppression' occurred under the brand Acreage Holdings, one of the largest marijuana companies in the world. It ran a campaign in which it told the story of a veteran dealing with combat injuries and a child suffering from seizures, but the ad was considered a "call to political action" instead of a promotion for the company.

Are Super Bowl ads worth the price?

Let's agree that not all companies are willing or able to spend 5 million euros for a 30-second slot. However, these 5 million invested, currently, are more than just 30 seconds. This ad in addition to being seen by about 100 million people, generates a pre and post buzz throughout the event. The important thing is that the name of the brand is in people's minds. According to CNBC, advertisers are betting that people will join the internet to watch the Super Bowl ads preview on YouTube and watch them again after the game.

As marketers, we know that with so much information around us, it's hard to interact with our target audience. Every day thousands of distractions occur, and to catch the attention of the consumer, the company has to use specific marketing techniques to be able to stand out from the other competitors. It's no different from the companies that participate in SuperBowl. For this reason, and because of the above-mentioned investment, these companies spend most of the year planning every thousandth of a second of their Super Bowl campaigns.

According to Forbes magazine, "The ads represent months of research, hundreds of hours of planning by marketing teams, dozens of scripts and 14 hours of shooting, from there we've seen the best campaigns ever in SuperBowl."

After this, we understand that not everyone may not have 5 million to invest in advertising campaigns. However, whatever budget you may have at your disposal, at Marq:s we will ensure those adequate solutions are provided and capable of generating a good marketing campaign.