There is no more hallowed territory for an ad than placement during the Super Bowl. And, as marketing geeks who live in Patriots territory, the Super Bowl hits on all the right notes—pretty much every year it seems. (Also, if you’re wondering, we’re totally doing just fine today despite the loss.) With over 100 million viewers tuning into the game, it guarantees a brand an enormous stage to be seen. It also comes with a hefty price tag–$5 million per :30. This has led to increased expectations year over year for brands looking to make their mark. While this year’s ads seemed to play it safer than usual, we still had our favorites. Here they are:
The overwhelming agency favorite for its strategic genius as well as humor. Brilliant bit of social engineering to extend the Tide brand to any and all commercials. Someone has a clean shirt? It must be a Tide ad! Additionally, we found ourselves laughing a little bit harder over the mockery of other Super Bowl commercials. By following up the first :60 spot with multiple repetitive :15 spots, it reinforced the campaign, kept people laughing, and had people questioning if each ensuing ad was actually for Tide. This series certainly was a surprising and memorable one.
Doritos always seems to land in the top rated Super Bowl commercials and this year’s dual-branded spot with Mountain Dew did not disappoint. While putting two brands within one :60 spot runs the risk of one overshadowing the other, this juxtaposition of the two (fire and ice) equally delivered. This is also a great example of market research driving creative concepting. Jennifer Saenz, chief marketing officer for Frito-Lay North America stated that the two products are actually purchased together in the same baskets more than peanut butter and jelly. This spot reinforces the mindset to purchase together.
Sometimes having a good ad, means simply making people laugh, and Amazon’s “Alexa loses her voice” spot did just that. Starring a wide range of celebrities including the company’s own CEO, it appealed to a spanning audience much like its product does. And, with industry predictions that smart devices will be part of 55% of U.S. households by 2022, Amazon is staking its claim as a leader in the space.
With a product that can be difficult to explain–helping consumers make confident decisions when looking for a mortgage—this commercial cleverly paralleled their service to translating complicated details from everyday life. The spot spoke strongly to the millennial audience and according to the many millennials we have in our office, they succeeded!
Is this a new Crocodile Dundee sequel? Nope, just an ad for Australian tourism. Through masterful use of misdirection, this :60 spot was crafted perfectly to entertain and educate on all that Australia has to offer. It was fun, surprising and most importantly – convincing. We’re all about ready to book our tickets to the land down unda!