Super Bowl 2017: things got political

Every year, two football teams fight against each other on live television for our viewing pleasure. And every year, millions of Americans watch the game because they want to see the commercials everyone will be talking about the next day.

These millions of viewers will be watching the game with beer, chips and guacamole. By the way, I had the pleasure to experience this evening at a friend’s house in San Francisco two years ago. Needless to say: I loved it.

For us marketers, it’s a perfect day to communicate our messages to a captive audience, if you have the right budget and a good idea how to get the viewer’s attention.

Some key facts:

• Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest day of the year for advertisers: it’s the only annual TV event where more than 100 million viewers are watching your commercials.
• For a standard 30-second ad in Super Bowl XLI, companies will be spending an average of $5 million.
• Hashtags featured in 20 of the 66 ads – a 30% share – that aired nationally between kickoff and the end of the game.
• URLs were included in 26 slots, 39% of the total number.
• Research demonstrates that the ads  getting the most attention are not necessarily the most loved.

Humor tends to be a defining characteristic of Super Bowl ads. One reason being that the game is typically a social event for friends and family, when serious messages can be viewed as inappropriate. For example: in 2015 an insurance company tried to sell a product by showing a cute little boy that told the audience that he died in an accident. This ad got a lot of attention but also a lot of negative feedback from the viewers. Research is also indicating that humor helps prod viewers to tweet or talk about ads, which boosts a commercial’s reach far beyond the game-night airing.

This year a lot of advertisers and brands stepped-up and made political statements (intentional or not) or featured higher cause topics.

Here are some trends and examples (that are partly connected) that stood out for me:

• There seem to be more ads focusing on the brand level instead of product level
• Some ads were seen as touching upon current topical debates
• Other brands emphasized diversity and inclusion
• There are examples of brands taking a stance on the hot topic of immigration
• We saw brands encouraging consumers to be global

Focusing on the brand level instead of individual products

A lot of brands used the Super Bowl to build an emotional connection with their audience using the power of their brand and story-telling techniques . They also leveraged the power of cross media and particularly the power of digital and mobile to deliver advertisements tying back to their storylines.

 One ad where you could argue it is more an product than brand level is the Mr. Clean spot which had 3.7 million views coming in at third place in terms of views. Mr. Clean takes on a sexy vibe as he scrubs the floors. "Cleaner of Your Dreams" was one of the most liked ads of the night, with a 99 percent positive sentiment rating.

Touching upon current topical debates.

A lot of people were touched by a deeply emotional ad by 84 Lumber. The brand tells the story of a family attempting to find a better life in the 'land of the free', only to have their hopes and efforts dashed by the newly built wall. In the current political debate, this ad is provocative and it was so popular upon release, that the hosting site initially crashed due to the amount of people who wanted to view the ad.

Diversity and inclusion

The most prominent example for me is the Audi ad promoting equal pay for women. It features a girl, her dad, and his dream of a world of equality. It starts with the powerful question “What do I tell my daughter?”

According to research, progress has been made in terms of bridging the wage gap, but men continue to out earn all demographics of women in terms of median hourly income.

Google home is focusing on the beauty of different people and cultures in their ads by showing a diverse range of family units and cultures.

Immigration

Brands took advantage of the Zeitgeist by promoting human causes. Airbnb and Budweiser are examples of brands taking a stance on the hot topic of immigration.

AirBnB used their Super Bowl ad to promote equality for all by using the hashtag #WeAccept. They show where you’re from, who you love or who you worship. The world is more beautiful with a diverse group of people.

Without any spoken words, the commercial featured tight shots and split screens of a variety of faces — people of different genders, ages, and skin color. Quiet piano music plays as these words splash across the screen: “We believe no matter who you are, where you’re from, who you love or who you worship, we all belong. The world is more beautiful the more you accept.”

Budweiser's Super Bowl commercial looked at the story of the brand's co-founder – German-born Adolphus Busch – and his pursuit of the American Dream.

Although the ad generated the most views (number of online views: 8.2 million), the spot drew some of the harshest reactions of the night. The sentiment around the ad was only 57 percent positive, with many viewers complaining it was too political. Even before the game, angry customers had reacted on Twitter with the hashtag #BoycottBudweiser.

Although this Budweiser ad was shot before the November election, it had a serious political message based on recent events. Regardless of the creative team’s motivations, the timing made it more of a political statement on immigration than Budweiser could ever have imagined or intended.

Global citizens

Coke’s ad, called “America Is Beautiful,” showed a montage of people doing typical leasure activities — on surfboards waiting to catch a wave, at the movies, dancing, camping — with bottles of Coke, of course, placed in some of the scenes.

There’s nothing exceptional about it at all, except for one thing: like the AirBNB spot, the faces featured represented a huge cross-section of races and religions. A Hispanic family eats a meal at a restaurant. A pair of Jewish men look out their window. Women wearing hijabs stop at a street vendor. It's beautiful in its simplicity.

Expedia’s spot featured a woman’s life, starting and ending on the Trans Siberian Railway — and in between you see her life as she explores the world, including a scene where she is helping refugees who are arriving in raft. The ad encourages people to be curious about and to explore the world they live in.

In summary

The Super Bowl is synonymous with the most eye-catching, touching and inspirational ads.

The 2017 commercials covered a wide range of topics and styles. Good to see: this year a lot of brands made political statements or featured higher cause topics and thus created a lot of interest and debate on highly relevant topics like diversity, immigration and globalization.