Super Bowl Advertising has always been a high-stakes activity, with brands spending millions for 30 seconds of broadcast time just to get their messages out in front of over 100 million viewers. But in 2021, the stakes are even higher after a bruised year, which included a pandemic, an economic crisis, racial justice demonstrations and an attack on the Capitol building.
Some long-term advertisers are giving up from this year’s Super Bowl LV, including veteran players like Coke and Pepsi. Brand experts note that advertisers who will appear in the game may have to go fine with their messages, Northwestern University business professor Derek Rucker describes the situation as “icebergs in the water.”
“Going to the Super Bowl means you’re talking to an audience of 100 million or more – you have to make sure you don’t send an unintentional message, that you don’t hit an iceberg along the way,” he said. “There is a certain commotion on the part of advertisers – I think they are right to be careful.”
A memorable Super Bowl ad can be worth much more than investing in broadcast time, which this year amounts to $ 5.5 million for a 30-second seat. Advertisers with a memorable advertisement can stand out from the crowd, helping to win customers and build goodwill – such as the famous 1984 Apple ad, which helped it stand out in the early personal computer wars.
But a poorly executed Super Bowl commercial can wreak havoc on a company, as was the case with the 1999 Just for Feet, which featured white hunters chasing a barefoot Kenyan runner, drugging him and forcing shoes on his feet.
“What you saw and what the brand intended are two different things,” Rucker said of inappropriate Super Bowl commercials. “As a brand, you need to think about the big picture and how consumers might respond to it.”
CBS (the parent company of CBS Interactive and CBS MoneyWatch) broadcasts the game on Sunday, February 7 at 18:30 ET. The network at the end of last month said it was “practically exhausted” from the advertising inventory, with some newcomers buying advertising space as regulars, such as Coca-Cola.
Chipotle, DoorDash
Despite the risks, the championship game remains a good opportunity for companies to attract the attention of spectators, said Deb Gabor, CEO of Sol Marketing, a brand strategy consulting company. She pointed to Chipotle, which is launching its first Super Bowl commercial this year.
“They had a one-year demise in a positive way,” Gabor noted. “They were moving towards a model that was for convenience and had a Chipotle application long before the pandemic – they were well positioned for the changing world.”
The ad’s message is focused on organic farming, linking it to Chipotle’s marketing efforts to supply food responsibly – and Gabor said it’s likely a topic with many consumers, given growing concerns about to climate change and the environment.
Another newcomer to the Super Bowl this year is DoorDash, which has also seen a step towards its business this year amid the pandemic. As restaurants restrict or sometimes close tables inside and consumers worry about eating out because of the risk of exposure to the virus, millions of consumers have turned to delivery apps like DoorDash to order food.
While DoorDash did not pre-launch the Super Bowl ad, it did offer a brief teaser view featuring Sesame Street characters, such as Cookie Monster (which swallows cookies ordered from DoorDash, of course) and Super Grover. Teasers seem to be nodding to the pandemic – such as Super Grover ordering paper towels – and aim to highlight “local heroes” such as small businesses and delivery workers.
DoorDash said it wants to build on raising brand awareness by taking a place in the Super Bowl and also liaising with the five-year $ 200 million pledge to support retailers, its workers and local communities. The company said it is also donating $ 1 for each order starting Super Bowl Sunday to Sesame Workshop, with donations exceeding $ 1 million.
“The essence of the spot is about optimism – giving something back to our communities in hopes of brightening up their days and building a space for our neighborhoods,” while helping David Bornoff, head of consumer marketing at DoorDash, at Sesame Workshop. stated for CBS MoneyWatch.
De Dash
“DoorDash is a great example of a newcomer who makes a lot of sense in the Super Bowl – they had a big increase,” Rucker said last year.
Meanwhile, the Robinhood stock trading app is also running its first Super Bowl announcement, following a turbulent few weeks, when it restricted trading in GameStop and other stocks after some of its users raised their shares to stratospheric heights, followed by a sink in value.
Many customers were upset by Robinhood for restricting their ability to trade shares. The Super Bowl announcement, with the message “We are all investors,” could be a way for Robinhood to rebuild its image following a backlash that includes calls for a congressional investigation into the so-called “meme stock” rage. she is now infamous about Robinhood.
Too early?
Bud Light takes a more direct approach to recognizing the pandemic, with its advertisement for Bud Light Seltzer Lemonade using lemon metaphor for last year’s crisis. The old message of the new brand: When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.
The ad describes people at weddings, parties and other events when lemons start raining from the sky – in some cases, physically injuring people and causing damage to buildings and cars. It’s supposed to be a humorous metaphor for 2020, but it also takes a risk with an approach that some viewers might not find hilarious right against the backdrop of a deadly pandemic.
“Some stupid 18- to 24-year-old men will find this ridiculous and laugh at it,” Gabor predicted. “As a 52-year-old woman, I didn’t feel attractive at all.”
Meanwhile, Anheuser-Busch offers an emotional commercial to remind people of the random moments of commission and company that almost disappeared in the pandemic – drinking a beer with colleagues, reminiscing with friends in quiet moments and sharing a joke.
“The prospect comes straight out of real life because so many people just want to be back together with friends and family,” Marcel Marcondes, CMO, Anheuser-Busch, said in a statement.
“Safe” approach
Other advertisers are taking a more traditional approach to providing humorous places that don’t relate to the pandemic, the environment, or any other crisis – other than dirty laundry and slippery snacks.
“Whenever you have something in the world, you’ll often see the ‘safe’ approach,” Rucker said. “Advertisers say, ‘We’re going to do something funny that is evergreen – if we don’t really miss something, no one will hate us.’
Ia Cheetos. His Super Bowl LV spot features actor Ashton Kutcher asking his wife, actor Mila Kunis, if he saw her Cheetos bag. Despite her orange-tinted fingers and face, she denies being the thief, while Shaggy’s “It Wasn’t Me” offers the soundtrack.
Another more traditional commercial comes from Tide, with a mother telling her teenage son to wash his “Jason Alexander sweatshirt”, which is embossed with the face of actor Jason Alexander. The teenager insists that the sweatshirt is clean, but a series of flashbacks, which contain the swimsuit’s many unhappy facial expressions, show that he is far from spotless.
Pringles is another brand that targets tried and true humor. Called “Space Return,” the spot features people so wrapped up in stacking Pringles chips that mission control loses the return of two astronauts to Earth.
“Most brands try to play it a little light and optimistic, without being polarizing or divisive,” Gabor said.