The “Best” Super Bowl LIX Commercial

The BIG game has come and gone, with a record 127.7 million viewers witnessing the Philadelphia Eagles trounce the Kansas City Chiefs to win Super Bowl LIX.

A recent poll revealed that many viewers were more interested in the commercials than the game.

The Super Bowl is a long-standing adstravaganza with marketers paying up to 8 million dollars per 30-second spot for the opportunity to fill it with advertainment.

We now know the best football team, but what was the best commercial?

It depends on how we define “best,” which in many professed professional circles focuses on the perception of creativity.

However, David Ogilvy stated it best when he proclaimed, “It’s not creative unless it sells.”

I think it's important to break down the meaning of the word "creative" and address what it means to "sell."

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, "creative" means to "produce or use original or unusual ideas."

?The ad world celebrates creativity and the creative product.

Indeed, there are many unusual Super Bowl LIX commercials—flying eyebrows and mustaches, aliens, a seal with Seal’s head, a talking Beluga whale, and a child with a cowboy hat fused on his head, among others.

However, this goes beyond “unusual. To borrow a word bantered about during the 2024 presidential campaign, it’s just plain “weird!”

Creative must be productive. Therefore, it must solve a problem or capitalize on an opportunity.

This leads us to the purpose of "creative" in advertising. Sell!

Selling involves getting the target customer to act consistent with a SMART behavior objective.

Selling includes:

• Generating incremental purchasing in the form of spurring switching, adoption, increasing purchasing frequency, and transaction size, among others.
• Increasing the number of healthcare practitioners (HCPs) who prescribe or increase their scripts for an advertised pharmaceutical.
• Getting patients to ask the HCP about the advertised pharmaceutical (if they suffer from the specific condition treated by the drug).
• Scheduling a checkup (e.g., mammogram, dental visit, etc.).
• Encouraging people to invest in the advertised company.
• Currying favor among viewers to put pressure on legislators to treat the advertised company favorably and support its mission.
• Motivating employees and the retail trade to increase their support for the advertised brand.
• Going to a website to learn more about the brand or condition.
• Donating to support a specific (not-for-profit) cause.
• Getting out to vote for a candidate.

What’s “best?”

The “best” commercial solves a problem or capitalizes on an opportunity to trigger behaviors that ultimately generate growth.

In future THINK ABOUT IT posts on LinkedIn, I'll discuss how to develop the "best" advertising (e.g., Campaign Ideas).

THINK ABOUT IT

• So, what do you think is the “best” Super Bowl LIX commercial?
• Does your advertising live up to my definition of "best?"

MAKING YOUR MARKETING MATTER MORE

1. Before beginning the creative development process, develop SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timebound) ad objectives.
2. Research to ensure proposed ad or promotion communications can achieve your SMART objective.
3. Do not run a commercial or communication program that does not achieve your SMART objective.

Interested in reading my follow-up articles on brand positioning, advertising, and all matters marketing? Please follow me on LinkedIn https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/richarddczerniawski/, where I share my perspectives from more than 50 years of successful worldwide “brand” marketing experience across many business sectors.

Commit fewer turnovers with your marketing: The team that commits fewer turnovers tends to win the big games. Please purchase, gift, and read my most recent book, AVOIDING CRITICAL MARKETING ERRORS: How to Go from Dumb to Smart Marketing. You'll make fewer turnovers and more winning plays with your advertising and marketing.

Peace and best wishes in making your marketing matter (even) more in 2025,

Richard D. Czerniawski