Super Bowl Ads Create Live Excitement...and Debate
The Monday morning ad execs are out in full effect. EVERYONE has an opinion on what Super Bowl ads rocked, and which ones fell short. brainwoo ad execs (and creatives, and account coordinators, and so on) love a good discussion about advertising any time of year, but especially on Super Bowl Sunday. For many advertisers, it’s a big spotlight with big risks – about $2.6 million worth of risk, to be exact.
We love the debate over the ads, and the fact that everyone is talking about advertising. But, at brainwoo, we know that advertising is more that just a funny 30-second spot. Who really resonated with their audience last night? Who told their brand’s story effectively? Who fell short?
USA Today’s annual Ad Meter poll ranked Mars’ Snickers “Betty White” commercial number one. The 22nd annual Ad Meter ranks Super Bowl ads based on real-time viewer reactions.
We did a little real-time analysis ourselves, with a live conversation via Twitter during the game. We came away with some great up-to-the-minute insight. The “Betty White” commercial was received favorably among those participating in our chat, both for its humor and its cross-generational appeal.
However, other ads seemed to hit the mark a bit better. Google’s ad, which told the story of boy meets girls all the way through marriage and parenthood through Google search queries, hit home with our panel. brainwooer Ralph Berry called it, “the best brand pure ad” and brainwooer Michael Thompson called it “absolutely mesmerizing.”
Other winners? Dove seemed to resonate well with its introduction of body care products for men. Many noted that the commercials were beautifully produced. Doritos also scored high, with Michael calling the brand the “best overall advertiser” and brainwooer Christie Rutherford calling the “Doritos Boy” spot her favorite.
We found it interesting that brainwooers across generations liked the VM Slug Bug spot. Brainwooer Emily Fletcher remembers slugging her brother every time they saw a VW bug drive by, so the ad hit home for her. And brainwooer Bob Phillips counts the spot as his favorite of the night, for the same reason.
So, who missed the mark? Our panelists agree that the Budweiser Clydesdale ads may be reaching the end of their run, and we threw things at our TVs when we saw how Teleflora buried the call to action and URL in their ad.
As for the most hyped ad of the night, the Tim Tebow ad, it turned out to be a huge PR win for Focus on the Family. The ad itself was not controversial, but the buzz it caused before the game was a huge win for the organization.
That’s our take. What did you think? Join the conversation below, and on Twitter by following @brainwoo. You can also check out our Twitter page for more of our live reactions to the ads.
And, oh yeah, Go Saints!!
I think Punchdub and Snickers win for broad appeal, both for brands that appeal to a broader audience and the brilliance in that they were able to connect with that broad audience - a tough thing to do. Each invested in star power as well, which can be risky from an ROI but in both of these I think they hit the mark in the spots. Of course, sales numbers will be the real measure. Google ran in 'real time' - meaning that it moved at the speed that people in general think now - in large part because of search engines - representing the rapid choice-making habits that have resulted. You didn't want to look away for a minute so I'd say it was definitely the most effective engaging spot for me. 'My Generation' right before halftime was also engaging but I can't for the life of me recall the advertiser, so...Google should win but I'm a huge Betty White fan so I'm going with Snickers for my top pick.
"My Generation" was for FLO TV and maybe my technology bias is showing, but I thought the message was right on (at least on 2 of their 3 spots). Maybe it's not my bias, but rather I'm part of their target audience - Men that are early adopters of consumer electronics and technology. One spot that really hasn't been mentioned, is the Census spot.
I was entertained by the ad, but can't for the life of me figure out why the government would spend that kind of money on the star power and air time. I guess I have trouble seeing the value of boosting awareness that the census is coming.
Also, is it just me or does "casual Friday" have a whole new meaning? That career builder spot was hilarious.
I agree with Ralph that Google’s ad was “the best brand pure ad.” “Google” was displayed in about 45 seconds of the commercial, which totaled 52 seconds. Yet, it did not seem obnoxious, since we are used to seeing Google on the “screen.”
I agree with Michael that the Google ad was “absolutely mesmerizing.” I was so intrigued, I did not realize this ad was almost a minute in length. The ad kept me engaged, spiking my curiosity to see how the ad would end. I enjoyed the music and sounds as well. Very moving.
I agree, Kathryn. The Google ad stopped people in their tracks, and I think that was due to its simplicity. That clean white Google background is so iconic, and the ad was so simple, that it stood out among some of the more over-the-top ads. I, too, didn't realize it was almost a minute long.
The Doritos commercials were my favorite! I literally was laughing out loud at all of them. They were entertaining, the message was clear and the commercials catered to wide variety of audiences. Two thumbs up!
Although I think the GoDaddy.com ads are terrible, it's hard to argue that they don't drive traffic to their website. I know that 99% of all the Super Bowl ads had a URL posted, but there was little to make me want to type in those URLs and check it out. It seems to me that these companies would do more in their ads to try to drive the "wired" audience to their websites for prolonged exposure. Thoughts?
One non-ad, more of a CBS promo that has not been discussed is the promo for Letterman's show. Letterman and Leno on a couch with Oprah between them. What a remarkable promo. It caught everybody off guard. Why would Leno from NBC do a promo for his CBS rival? Perhaps this is Leno beginning to try and heal the negative feelings his move back to late night has caused. I think it proves that for talk show hosts, attention and buzz is everything. I understand it was Letterman's idea. Hats off to him for coming up with it, hats off to Leno for agreeing and good for Oprah to get "into the middle." I think this was a win for all three "brands," but a real win for Letterman.
