Super Bowl Round-Up: Lexus’ Music Video, Bud Light & Pac-Man

We’re in the thick of Super Bowl marketing season, with the big game 17 days away and fans in New England, Indianapolis, Green Bay and Seattle hoping their team has what it takes this weekend to get to Super Bowl XLIX in Arizona on Feb. 2. Brands have been slowly leaking more info on their Super Bowl marketing campaigns, and Chief Marketer is bringing readers a weekly update of what’s happening across all things Super Bowl marketing. Here’s this week’s installment:

• It’s no secret that Super Bowl advertising is expensive, and this Wall Street Journal story reports that the cost for a single 30-second ad spot during the game has gone up by a whopping 75 percent over the past 10 years (the cost was $4.2 million last year). Super Bowl ads have accounted for $2.19 billion of network advertising sales from more than 130 marketers from 2005 through 2014, according to data from ad-tracking research firm Kantar Media. That’s a lot of dough.
• Automakers aren’t exactly lining up to buy ad spots during the game, with General Motors and Volkswagen already announcing that they are out while Audi and Hyundai, which have run ads in recent years, have yet to confirm whether they will take part. Nissan, Kia and Lexus sister Toyota are slated to run commercials. This story from Variety highlights the Lexus ad spot, which shows the brand’s new NX car in action and transforms the sounds of the vehicle into a soundtrack for the ad.
• A larger-than-life Pac-Man maze popped up in downtown Los Angeles this week, and rumor has it that it’s tied to a Bud Light Super Bowl ad campaign. The New York Daily News reports that the 60-second commercial will be titled “Coin” and will feature a man who gets dropped into a real-life game of Pac-Man after he receives a giant coin. The commercial will be part of Bud Light’s “Up for Whatever” campaign. Based on the pictures alone, this looks incredibly cool!
• Who loves adorable puppies? Anheuser-Busch and GoDaddy are hoping that everyone does, as both brands will running ads starring incredibly cute golden retriever puppies. And get ready to have your heart strings pulled big-time, as both ads are about lost puppies, according to this USA Today report. And, for the 11th consecutive year, Animal Planet plans to air  its “Puppy Bowl” broadcast opposite the Super Bowl, featuring nothing but puppies at play.
• Newcastle is trying a new stunt to get into the Super Bowl advertising game. This week the beer company kicked off a campaign to partner with 20 to 30 brands where in exchange for a cash contribution, the other brands’ logos and messages will be incorporated into a spot crafted with Newcastle by the advertising agency Droga5, according to the New York Times. If the scheme is successful, the ad will air online and in some local NBC television markets during the game’s broadcast. Pretty sneaky.
• Online taxpaying service TurboTax must have liked the results from its Super Bowl ad in 2014, because it re-upped for a 60-second spot during this year’s game. USA Today reports that details about this year’s commercial are being kept under wraps, but that it celebrates the American do-it-yourself spirit by showing that no one is better at doing taxes than hardworking Americans.