The Bucs Weren’t the Only Winners of Super Bowl Sunday, and the Chiefs Weren’t the Only Losers…

For many years now, I have written about Super Bowl advertising in the week following the big event. I always like to give things a bit of time to settle in, let the scandals unfold, the votes be tallied and the true winners be designated.

During this post-game time, I’m always reminded of a meeting I had a number of years ago, after the Super Bowl, when a major consumer products company visited a group representing creative and media operating companies in WPP. The company, which shall remain nameless, had just scored a PR hit with their well-touted UGC (User Generated Content…remember that?) spot. At the meeting, representatives of this company explained to our group that that this was “the beginning of the end” for all of us, that UGC would replace all of our work. Why would they pay us when they could get their consumers to do it for free?

A while after this meeting, the truth came to light. This company’s spot, it turned out, wasn’t exactly UGC. It wasn’t exactly free. And it didn’t exactly replace the agency.

Great content and creative has never been in more demand, and other than a PR promotion here and there, UGC has remained, for the most part, between friends. NB, the same guy who had “threatened” us at the post-Super Bowl meeting, soon left his company and joined a huge platform that needed a constant stream of professional content—high impact, big production values, etc. The next time I saw him, he was asking my agency for creative, and so it goes…

I tell you this story because the Super Bowl, beyond the occasional great game and the less occasional great half-time show, is always a stage for drama within our industry. The great, the good, the mundane, the really awful, and lots of DIGIBABBLE and BS.

And, despite the less-than-dramatic performance on the field, this year was no exception.

I’m not going to comment on any specific work—great or awful or anything in between. Instead, I’d like to get your views on the way I have categorized the marketing work this past Super Bowl, and the challenges that I believe we face as an industry to be real (not authentic, a huge difference in my book, and the subject of some of my posts).

To begin with, the social issue of the day was the tone and manner of advertiser’s participation in Super Bowl Sunday, including whether or not they should participate at all, and if not, why?

Some companies contemplating a commercial spot publicly bared their souls and worried about their financial results. Others were concerned about how they might appear celebrating during the ongoing time of plague. And then, there were those who decided not to join at all…sort of.

The corporate angst was all part of the pre-game promotion. I hate to be cynical, but it was. The debates were framed as cultural, social discussion i.e., “look at us…how we agonize.”

Again, not to be too cynical, but I invite you to look at all the major companies who made big public statements about not participating, and didn’t buy media per se, but were well represented in so many big budget ways via promotions and sub-brands with actual media spend. 

Bottom line? Read the fine print: “We meant we weren’t going to buy a spot for the specified brand, not abandon the whole opportunity...” Cynical me.

Then there was the question of tone and manner for those who chose not to join the “we aren’t in this year” movement, maybe because they didn’t have enough money to spend on making “not being in” work.

Some opted for a continuation of the “we are all in this together” theme by highlighting the front line. Always a nice strategy. Hard to go wrong on social media if you avoid anything that might even remotely offend or cause controversy—or make someone laugh. Can’t remember a one.

Some were lost at sea. I imagine you have your list. I do. Because they could, they did and who knows what it all meant?

The best understood context. This is the Super Bowl. It is a huge pyrotechnic celebration with parties and hoopla. The very best advertising spots this year were unself-conscious and made us laugh, not ignoring the visual cues of today or the world we live in, but instead, seizing the moment and using it wisely, selling their products unabashedly. I’m ready to bet that we agree on more of these than not, as they stood out this year more than ever before.

So, as marketers, what do we learn from the above?

Great content, as in advertising content, needs to leverage context as much as anything else. If you choose to be in a Super Bowl, CARPE DIEM! Own it, don’t fight it. You can be culturally relevant and sensitive and still make people laugh.

Every person watching the Super Bowl is a consumer and understands that you have a product to sell. That is generally the point of a commercial or advertisement, right? Being “authentic” (hate that word), doesn’t mean pretending you aren’t selling or promoting your product.

The work featured throughout the Super Bowl, including activations and live experiences (more buzz), are part of the event. And if you choose not to participate in the $5 million media category, but still want a piece of the action, don’t pretend and pontificate. There is a tradition of great work like Volvo and Disney, and this year, Reddit (my only call out), who gleefully punk'd the system.

Sadly, some still play the “pre-release” game…lots of non-targeted views, with no leverage at the event. Oh well, it is a “digital” strategy, right? Or is that DIGIBABBLE…?

As I once read on an eCard:

“May your football team have the honor of being featured in between Super Bowl commercials”

Remember, to us in the business, a Super Bowl spot is a holy moment. We owe it to ourselves and the millions who watch to get it right.

Some do and some don’t, but some are beyond brilliant, and those that are, will be remembered for years. They win just as much as the highest scoring team of the day.

And then of course, there was Jeep and Springsteen, proving the power of the long tail of advertising.

What do you think?