Super Bowl "On the Sideline"

As an agency specialising in Sports and Entertainment, we asked our National Creative Director Tom Denton for his take on the 2020 Super Bowl ads.

For advertisers around the globe, the Super Bowl is like Christmas Day for suits and creatives alike. With a 30 second advert costing as much as USD $5.6m, we get to see some of the largest brands in the world, go big, for a small slice of the game. When we break that down even further, that equates to USD $170,000 per second! With an estimated 100m viewers in the US alone, one could argue that the cost per view (around 5c) makes that money worth spent, however in such a hotly contested market, surely eyeballs alone is not just enough to cut through…

This year saw over 54 different brands advertising across the game, which lasts for approximately 3 hours and 45 minutes. While most categories have representation, there are a few that consistently dominate the space. Unsurprisingly the beer category is the standout, and this year we saw an overwhelming response from Anheuser Busch. From Bud Light featuring Post Malone with #Postybar to Jimmy Fallon ‘Works it Out’ with Michelob Ultra they had a strong presence throughout the game. However it was Budweiser’s ‘Typical American’ that struck the biggest cord for me. Budweiser is seen as the typical American beer, so this execution focussed on redefining what a ‘Typical’ American is, and what they can achieve. It’s a powerful message, and by using a mash up of recorded clips and an absence of big-name talent, I don’t expect that it would have broken the budget from a production perspective (apart from the big name director).

Beer, snacks and cars aside, it was the large number of tech giants that caught my attention in particular. Google really humanised AI in their creative ‘Loretta’. This tearjerker saw Google assist a widower to remember everything about his late wife. What particularly impressed me was how an ad for essentially a piece of software could have such an emotional impact on me. Additionally, this year saw Facebook release its first ever Superbowl ad ‘Ready to Rock’, running with a 60 second ad in the fourth quarter – which had an incredibly strong focus on the power of Facebook to bring communities together and unite them under a common interest. Additionally, we saw other Silicon Valley companies backing their home city of the San Fran 49’ers with Amazon’s ‘#BeforeAlexa’ featuring Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi which focussed on highlighting the incremental value that Alexa has bought to world through simplicity and convenience. Finally, Square Space channelled their inner Fargo with ‘Winona in Winona’, with none other than Winona Ryder with a simple call to action – “A website makes it real”.

It’s interesting that these tech giants, who are arguably the most powerful brands in the world with their own media platforms, are still choosing to spend such a large amount of money within a traditional broadcast channel. It shows how they really understand the value of an engaged audience in a large-scale sporting event.

The feeling of nostalgia certainly wasn’t lost on me with Mountain Dew remaking Stanley Kubrick’s ‘The Shining’ and Jeep re-living Ground Hog Day. It’s something that I have started to get really excited about on a global and importantly local level – and we are excited with some of the opportunities this presents within the in-stadium context for sport in Australia.

Adverts featuring women as the protagonist in what is an otherwise male dominated sport included Missy Elliot and H.E.R in Pepsi’s Zero Sugar and Maisie Williams sing ‘Let it Go’ from the movie Frozen for Audi. Although it was Katie Sower’s story in ‘Be The One’ by Microsoft on becoming the first female Super Bowl coach for the 49er’s which really grabbed my attention. The line ‘I’m not trying to be the best female coach, I’m trying to be the best coach’ is a powerful message and paving the way for young women who haven’t previously seen this as a possible path they can take. The MKTG team have had a busy off season working on a number of women’s specific campaigns and I couldn’t be more excited to see them launch!

Finally there were the brands that decided they weren’t going to take themselves too seriously, and it’s always enjoyable to see 'silly' in the game plan. Doritos showed us a ‘The Cool Ranch’, Genesis took on “old money” and Reeses’ ‘Take 5’ just kept it hilariously simple. It’s a little bold but never gets old. 

My personal favourite was Cheetos ‘Can’t Touch This’ for the launch of their new popcorn product. I can almost hear the argument with the client and creatives over how to launch the NPD. I am very proud to say that I think the creatives won this argument! No flavour profile, no Macro 4K ingredient shots, no trance like models eating, just the simple insight that your fingers get messy when you eat Cheeto’s. Oh and a sprinkle of nostalgia with MC Hammer doesn’t hurt either.

To summarise here are my 5 top adverts for the 2020 Super Bowl. Happy watching!

5. Square Space “Winona” Whilst the ad itself didn’t grab me, I was compelled to add this one in purely for the line and insight “A website makes it real”.

4. Reeses - Simple, silly and undeniably funny.

3. Cheetos “Can’t Touch This” - 5 stars for nailing the pure and simple insight that Cheetos make your hands yellow.

2. Google “Remember” - Making an AI robot human was not an easy task. Made a grown bloke cry.

1. Budweiser - “Typical” How to advertise boring, standard and the everyday. They simply re-defined what typical is.

Tom Denton - National Creative Director at MKTG Australia

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