SuperBrand

Once a year one of the greatest events of the year happens: Christmas, Halloween, my birthday, Nordstrom Half Yearly Sale, no, no, no… the SUPERBOWL. With brands paying approximately 4 million dollars for a thirty-second ad, they are doing everything they can to be the most memorable. But what makes a memorable ad? Which appeal works best?  Are you going to focus on your target market, the Superbowl watchers, or more broad because it is such a hyped event? Will you release the ad early, if so how early?

These are just a few of the things I thought would be going through marketers minds for the past few months. 

As a consumer, and taking this class during the Superbowl was extremely exciting to put what I have been learning to use when watching these commercials. Though my friends weren't too thrilled with me during the ads because I was picking out which appeals they used after each ad.

There was one ad in particular I really enjoyed, the Coca Cola “America is Beautiful” ad. Though I am slightly bias since a family friend did help create the ad, I felt like it was beautifully done especially for the little branding that appeared during the ad. But that is my opinion, not what everyone else thought. Outrage over the ad spread across social media like an internet wildfire. The argument that was being made was that in America we speak English. As many people identify Coca Cola as being a symbol for America, its audience spans the entire globe and the logo is universally known.

As the ad began to gain more negative attention, it also brought a lot of positive attention stating that United States has become a melting pot and we have to realize that we all speak different languages but are all still the same. After receiving media attention, Coca Cola issued a statement that summed up exactly what the ad was intended for and it makes those who had the negative thoughts look ridiculous.

“America is beautiful and Coca-Cola is for everyone. “It’s Beautiful” was created to celebrate Coke moments among all Americans who together enjoy ice cold, refreshing Coke. For centuries America has opened its arms to people of many countries who have helped to build this great nation. “It’s Beautiful” provides a snapshot of the real lives of Americans representing diverse ethnicities, religions, races and families, all found in the United States. All those featured in the ad are Americans and “America The Beautiful” was sung by bilingual American young women.
We believe “It’s Beautiful” is a great example of the magic that makes our country so special, and a powerful message that spreads optimism, promotes inclusion and celebrates humanity – values that are core to Coca-Cola.”

With all the media attention that surrounded the ad both positive and negative there were some people who found humor in the controversy.

One of the great things about social media for brands is that you are able to see what your consumers are saying about your product. In the instance of Coca Cola you are able to see the outcry of both positive and negative comments over your ad.

My past employer- Postano, a social media aggregation platform has always been creative in looking at how people engage during different events. What they did for the Superbowl was create a Postano that aggregated the hashtag #BrandBowl to see which brand’s hashtag was leading. The Postano ran for a short period of time and was then analyzed to see who ‘won.’ The Postano team found a winner- sort of. The winner was Pepsi but the most common hashtag that followed was #Halftime making it fake winner to me. The next hashtag came from Budweiser who created had #BestBuds which was an ad that was loved by every person who saw it.

This year Budweiser created two ads that both used an emotional appeal. The first “Puppy Love” ad was released a few days prior to the Superbowl gaining attention before it originally aired during the game. The great thing about pre-releasing the ad is that it one, gains lots of impressions before the actual game, and two, people everywhere are waiting for the ad to air to simultaneously cry with their friends over a one minute ad and then go tweet about it and share it on Facebook.

Budweiser created another ad “A Hero’s Welcome” that spoke deeply to me, and every other family that has welcomed a solider home. I have watched this ad the most out of all the ads, there is something so genuine and real that made this ad so successful. What I enjoyed most about the ad was how you knew quickly that it was a Budweiser ad. Not because someone cracked open a beer, but the simplicity of the Clydesdale pulling the carriage with the solider. A great use of music choice combined with applause made the ad clean, powerful and effective.

When looking at both of these ads, there was a feeling of euphoria I had. I had seen them somewhere, not on YouTube prior to the Superbowl so I did some digging and found their ad from the 2013 Superbowl.

Familiar to the ads this year? I think so.

The emotional appeal. Check.

Clydesdale in the barn with the same owner. Check.

Parade with Clydesdale’s pulling a carriage. Check.

A simple hashtag promoting the appeal. Check.

Something that I didn’t first notice, but is so wonderfully and tastefully done is the symmetry in the ads. I was hoping that someone else has caught the symmetry and wrote more about how well done they were made, but unfortunately I was unable to find anything.

What I did find was a NewYork Times article that briefly discusses how the Budweiser ads have drastically changed, from sexy crude humor to emotional appeals that literally made me cry. With over 34 million views on Youtube of the ads, I would say that Budweiser should stick to this theme as it has clearly hit the nail on the head. 

Lastly, it is important for marketers who have had some negative reactions to think if the one clear voice they originally had is the right way for them to go. For Cheerios, they released an ad that featured an interracial family and it caused negative comments to flood in. The backlash  from the ad had Cheerios think if this was the correct way for them to go with their advertisements. Cheerios then released a Superbowl ad this year featuring the same family and not one but two new additions.  

Cheerios strongly believed in the message they originally had and created another ad. Cheerios released a statement about their new ad.

 “We know our first interracial commercial brought some negativity. But we’ll take the economic risk that those who object will be lost purchasers.  And just so you know we mean it, we’ll pay $4 million for 30 seconds to reaffirm our commitment.”

Case in point. The believed so they did it again. The message they send is beyond just a healthy cereal option, it allows consumers to connect deeper with the brand and share big moments such as the addition of a new child and/or puppy to the family.

Ads are a great way for brands to connect with consumers, by pushing the limits you hold the possibility to have good ads become great. But you also have the possibility to fail. What these brands have done is push the limits but do it with grace, though there was negativity they handled it in the best way and came out on top.

Until next year Superbowl ads.