Only 361 Days to Go

At four hours in length, the Super Bowl runs like the Oscars for sports fans. Instead of numerous award winners across countless categories, in this match-up, only one wins. Yet as much action and anticipation takes place off the field as on. For as much money as the attendees spend to gain access to the best brand in sport’s top game, it pales when compared to the amount spent by the advertisers to reach the millions upon millions of viewers in this country and worldwide. In what could be considered the best subscription program, many of the advertisers from past years renew for the current year. One of the storylines revolves around who chooses to renew and who doesn’t, along who decides to spend when they hadn’t previously. Perhaps the more interesting story is what the commercials tell us about the advertisers’ views on the world – optimistic vs. pessimistic, the role of technology, the state of society, and more.

Here is what we took away from monitoring the ads during the big event:

• Some things you can’t force – Followers of the game’s big day in ads apparently knew that Audi would integrate social media in a way that others have not before. At the end of their entertaining commercial, they opted to see about spurring discussion on Twitter by promoting a particular hash tag. Jumping online shortly after the commercial and looking up #ProgressIs, I found a steady stream of tweets, not bad considering the odd choice in tags and relatively small placement. We couldn’t quite tell if Audi was using a contest to gain additional tweets or if people just seemed to think there was a contest involved. Audi did well, but Groupon did better, except they didn’t necessarily intend to start such voluminous levels tweets. When it comes to tweeting, like other media, organic is better than promoted.
• Funny is priceless or at least not as expensive – Not having yet checked the more official polls, we have decided to declare Doritos as once again winner of the most enjoyable commercials. Many companies spent huge amounts on production to try and create what Doritos did with simplicity. There were not many commercials looking to tug on our heart strings this year. Coke premiered spots both cute and funny as well as just sweet and cute. The NFL, though, may have taken the cake for its fan appreciation spot that also paid tribute to the advertisers.
• Facebook as the URL – In what is another reason for us to only wish we owned Facebook shares, like Twitter, the company didn’t spend a dime but came out a huge winner. We’ve long been bullish on the company, and we continue to be as we see yet again the level of corporate support. Outside of Fox who broadcast the game, the vast majority of brands all pointed viewers to their Facebook page. Pages have come a long way and now function more like mini-websites with social features. Interesting to us was seeing how several major brands use the "Like" button as an incentive. They ask users to Like the page in order to unlock content. Incentivized marketing, Facebook style.
• Making expensive airtime more expensive – Were that a question, the answer is add a celebrity to your commercial. Talk about letting the good times roll. Just top of mind we counted almost ten different celebrities, more if you cont Emimen’s dual roles as a hawker of tea and cars. Ozzie and Bieber together? Check. Their Best Buy spot was, we hate to say it, good. (It does have Ozzie). We might not have had Justin Timberlake, but Mercedes went big with P. Diddy. Even Stella Artois got in the act with our favorite schnoz, Aydrian Brody. From Kenny G to Kim Kardashian, companies took big risks and put out some big bucks. Whether they will do well this year, they clearly have cash.
• Where’s the beer – There are always losers, at least when compared to other spots, and this year, an unlikely group takes the prize – beer. Bud and Bud Light have for so long made the event memorable with their often quirky, generally hilarious, occasionally sentimental creations that their uninspired several minutes worth of ads left us missing. We’re not drinking less because they spent less, and perhaps we are placing too much emphasis on the lack of quality, but somewhere, it’s disconcerting. Maybe we weren’t drunk enough when watching.   
• Auto nation – Car manufacturers came out in force with a mix of different styles and messages. Hyundai continued with their voice over slightly hipstery presentation, while Kia went sci-fi crazy in showing-off a rather sexy and sleek compact. Chrysler showed that we are not their target demographic, as their pro-Detroit, Eminen ad had us scratching our heads at the juxtaposition of raw, down-and-out Detroit and a concept of American luxury. The whole auto ecosystem was represented, cars to dealer groups and even buying sites. The number was truly staggering – Chevy showing off efficiency and performance, Ford with both truck and cars slots, Toyota focusing in brand, and Honda on their gas-sipping abilities as a manufacturer.  All together, this should be a good year to promote automobiles, and while eco and green is on the mind, it’s not as dominant as before.
• Movies – Another bullish but seemingly less so group than the automakers are the major studios. They often use the big game to unveil their big budget movies, and this was no exception. The only exception was the sheer quantity of superhero inspired movies. The world might be looking up, but perhaps the movies didn’t think so when they commissioned these works. Escapism is the name of the game and back are the big investments in older, paper-based franchises. Creativity is now on hold.

Minor themes, in brief.

• Sex still sells – We weren’t surprised to see sex used; perhaps we expected more sexy ads, but those who did use it, didn’t hold back. Sealy and mini, with the latter’s punny stuffing things in a roomy trunk not sucking too badly and the former hitting a homerun of European inappropriateness in a spot that focused our attentions on what beds get used for besides sleep. Not sexy? Selling out. That is what the Fox hit show Glee did with GM.
• It is better to ask forgiveness than permission – Groupon’s Tibet / Tibetan food, Andrew Mason’s doppelganger Tim Hutton commercial was nothing short of memorable. Almost as surprising as the monkey brain scene in Indiana Jones and Temple of Doom. The LivingSocial Groupon battle wages forth.
• Don’t daddy – we are used to GoDaddy’s attempt at sex, their teaser "Webcontent unrated" language to push us online, but this year we were confused by their strategy. Two different GoDaddy’s. The usual GoDaddy.com that they have spent tens of millions of dollars on, and this year, a spot dedicated to driving people to GoDaddy.co (not a typo).
• Tablets and Apple – we should buy Apple stock even though it is at an all time high. The company is so good they get free air time from Verizon, but more than anything, watching this year’s event helped us appreciate what 20mm people already know – that tablets are going to change the way we consume connected content.