From the Super Bowl to Leather Goods: Marketing Essentials for 2024

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SUPER BOWL 2024: A MARKETING SUMMARY

While the Kansas City Chiefs were successfully defending their title against the San Francisco 49ers, Super Bowl viewers were treated to the usual barrage of advertising from across the corporate spectrum. But who, exactly, is behind the biggest sport and show in American culture?

To answer this question, Blueliner CEO Arman Rousta provided a high-level marketing summary of the brands and brand categories most represented in the Super Bowl commercials.

The video and full transcript follow.

“[This is something] I've done since back in 2007 to see who's got the best creative, and which kind of companies and start ups and big companies are advertising. At this point in time, I'm going deeper into the analysis just trying to understand where the money is flowing, where it's coming from, and who's paying for all of this.

“It's our attention that's basically paying for it, right? All the viewers? And then the advertisers, and that's where most of the money comes from to pay for the TV, rights and deals, and the salaries that the players get. So it's really this group here.

“I came up with my own categories. It wasn't easy to classify everyone. For example, Uber Eats–is that food? Is that Big Tech or is it some kind of logistics service? Or Ecommerce, right? Not everything fits so neatly into a category. The ads from the NFL–is that sports? I put it under sports, Category 10, but you know, it's social. It's content.

“And so here's the 18 categories I came up with. We'll be doing some deeper analysis and probably this will evolve into a full podcast but you can just see at the top–it's content, right?

"At first I had shows and movies and channels like Disney Plus, Pluto TV, separately. But at the end of the day, it's content. It’s feeding our attention, our interest, our entertainment, our fantasies. And that's right up there with 33 spots between all the shows and movies. A lot were for Paramount Plus trying to promote a streaming service which I'm determined not to subscribe to. I just hate all these one-off streaming services and payments. Although, it seems like a tactic and a wave of the times.

“Obviously, there’s food, and mostly unhealthy food, right?That one CPG product was mayonnaise and then eight for candy and three for soda, although one of them was for a healthy soda brand. And then two restaurants. Which restaurants? If you can consider Dunkin Donuts a restaurant and really, you're going to get all those big name actors to promote a coffee shop, albeit a famous one. And then Popeyes! So you can see why America is really in the worst shape of any modern country?

“Four: alcohol. I expected about that, maybe a little more.?

“Big Tech media, which can go again, really under content. A lot of that was Apple Music ads for the halftime show, which really isn't music ads, right? That's really just Apple and their streaming services. And to put that under Big Tech streaming mobile, like Verizon T mobile and ecommerce. Timo was a big one there; a Chinese company trying to come in and compete with Amazon.

“And real estate. Homes.com had three ads there, five auto . . . usually around that amount. Sometimes more.

“We're not really going to get into the creative analysis as much. Might do a little bit of that from a 7 Pillars and marketing standpoint. But it’s really more about who's spending money, because this is an interesting gauge in the economy: to see who has the money, and who's spending it for various reasons.

“Pharma? Surprisingly, only one. Usually there's more but I guess they're trying not to rear their evil heads during the most watched event in the country.

“Retail store was interesting: Bass Pro, Bass Tracker.

“Now again, this is here in New Jersey, New York. I know that people in different states and different areas watching in different ways are going to get different ads. So this is just what I saw on the CBS broadcast here from New Jersey, for the New York Metro Market.

“Gaming? I thought there'd be more gaming and gambling. There were two. Not a big fan of that at all for reasons that go into my personal history and just the legalization of sports betting and how rampant it's become and how unapologetic all the top athletes and commentators are just endorsing it with no regard whatsoever to how devastating that is and will continue to be on young people and all ages; mostly men, that have that weakness, right??

“And, of course on the women's side, there's the beauty and the fashion. There’s three CPG beauty ads, only one for tourism, and so on.

“The political ads! How about RFK, or the RFK super pac. Independent party politics! I hope people know about RFK. He's the best candidate easily on the slate. That’s my opinion and, I think, a rational one.

“And of course, finance, banking, e-trade . . . that could go under investments. We just put all that together. Even the tax, TurboTax or whatnot--just put that into that finance category. And then, of course, insurance as well.

“So that's a bit of an overview there. And we will continue to do a little bit of a deeper dive and I'll try to present this in a spreadsheet or some charts that are a little nicer looking, but it's always good to see where the work is done here on our Basement Sports, b.lab board here, right?

“Sponsored by Kidcoin. There's maybe a Super Bowl ad in the next year or two.

“All right, guys take care.”

BLUELINER LAUNCHES FASHION PODCAST

Blueliner has launched a fashion podcast in collaboration with blogger and event planner Nie?ge Machado and Blueliner client Jack Georges, a designer of fine leather goods. In early February, Nie?ge and the Blueliner team toured the Jack Georges factory and showroom in Passaic, New Jersey. It was exciting to inspire and facilitate conversation on the latest trends in fashion.

In an earlier interview, Jack Georges, the founder and mind behind the Jack Georges brand, relayed how he worked to differentiate the product during the early days of his company’s ascendancy.?

“You demand a high price point but you have to look good,” Jack said. “I came in and was humble and working, once a month . . . sharpen, cut and sew . . . [whatever it took.] I did my own design. Once a month, I came in on a Saturday and worked strictly on product development.”

By working hard, innovating, building a dynamic company culture, and standing strong behind product quality, Jack Georges has become a major player in the fashion industry. We look forward to exploring the business and marketing sides of fashion in greater depth.

BLUELINER OFFERS MARKETING PACKAGES FOR SMBS

As part of our Light Blue initiative, Blueliner has introduced new subscription-based monthly packages for website, app design and development, SEO, mobile website design, monthly ROI reporting, and beyond.

The team has launched this effort largely with small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in mind. According to a 2024 study by Intero Digital, SMBs identified revenue growth and budget constraints as two of their three greatest pain points. Through Light Blue, our team hopes to address these concerns head on. It is designed to be less expensive, complicated, and risky than hiring in-house staff, and is scalable to grow with a company’s expanding market share, thus alleviating budgetary pressures while paving the path for higher revenue.

To learn more about how Light Blue can assist your SMB, visit blueliner.co.