For many Americans, Super Bowl is like the Thanksgiving of spring – people come together to celebrate their favourite football teams while indulging in oodles of snacks, primetime advertising and the much-awaited halftime show. This year’s match between the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs received the highest number of televised views in decades (surpassing even the Apollo 11 moon landing of 1969). Although we can’t comment much on the football side of the event, the ads are what we are most interested in! What did Super Bowl LVIII’s ads have to offer and what are the key takeaways? Join Wordsmith and let’s find out!
The power of surprise
Featuring celebrities in ads is nothing new, but what happens when they do something you’d never expect?
In this star-studded T-Mobile ad with Zach Braff, Donald Faison (Scrubs) and Jason Momoa (Aquaman), we learn of T-Mobile’s newest home internet promotion. Although Zach Braff and Donald Faison are best known for their goofy and comedic presentations, a previous T-Mobile ad with Zach Braff and Donald Faison only received about 70k+ views, whereas this year’s ad received over 55m views – not just because of Jason Momoa’s fame – but because we got to see a Hollywood movie star (who is consistently portrayed to be in stoic roles) break into song and dance.
Given how many ads the average consumer is exposed to today, it takes a lot to surprise audiences… so when exposed to a positive surprise, the ad’s lingering power is extra powerful. “Surprise turbocharges emotions,” writes Scott Redrick for Harvard Business Review. “The interesting thing about surprise is that it appears to amplify whatever you’re feeling. When we’re surprised and angry, we’re outraged. Remember what happened when Netflix raised subscription prices without warning?” In the case of T-Mobile, surprise and happiness results in bliss. Just look at the comment section and how many people were praising the ad!
“Surprise is like crack for your brain,” Redrick continues while quoting a 2001 study from Emory and Baylor University, researchers found that the brain lights up “like a Christmas tree on the MRI” when exposed to the unpredictable… “that suggests people are designed to crave the unexpected.” It’s the same reason why mystery boxes and gambling are still so popular despite the chances of scoring being astronomically low – the thrill associated with surprises are worth it for some people.
But celebrity ads are very pricey. How can we apply surprises in a more economical everyday scale? That would involve knowing your audience and competitors inside and out – only then can you subvert their expectations! For example, if your competitors are known to not interact with their customers regularly, you can break up the monotony by engaging them in small giveaways or customer case studies/features! Or if you know that your industry is widely accepted to be very sterile and neutral-toned, why not sprinkle a few dashes of humour into your content to give it more flair? These are just a few ways as suggested by 15 Forbes Councils members!
The taste of nostalgia
State Farm Insurance’s ad features everyone’s favourite Austrian bodybuilder-turned-action-movie-star-turned-California-governor-turned-action-movie-star. We see Arnold Schwarzenegger partaking in various stunts, saving lives (because that’ what action movie heroes do and what the insurance company wants people to believe), complete with his iconic Teutonic accent. Sneaking in a few cameos of Danny DeVito, it immediately makes us think of the films Junior and Twins!
All this was obviously done as a throwback to Schwarzenegger’s extensive filmography, and while not all of his movies were award-winning, they did help to shape the culture and trends that we grew up with in the 80s and 90s – how can we possibly forget the Terminator fad when leather biker outfits and dark sunglasses were everywhere?
The new and unexpected are potent tools of persuasion, but letting your audiences relive the joys of the past can achieve similar results. Considering the chaotic state of the world at the moment (old problems biting at our ankles and new struggles popping up on the daily), it’s not unusual to want to escape to the past when things were much simpler and more pleasant by comparison. Even for someone who didn’t watch Schwarzenegger’s films, you can’t deny that his face and his brands were plastered everywhere during his prime – making it a very effective trigger for reminiscing about the past!
There are many ways to integrate nostalgia into your marketing, but these are the most common:
· Reintroduce an old beloved product (think McDonald’s and the McRib – McDonald’s always says farewell to it, but the sandwich comes back when you least expect it).
· Bring back successful elements of an old marketing campaign – consider taglines, design elements, key visuals and so on.
· Let your users do the heavy lifting for you through user-generated content (UGC) – it’s an effective way to foster audience engagement and helps them associate previous experiences and emotions (hopefully positive ones) with your brand.
Represent and empathise
Modern media places a big emphasis on representation – in terms of race, gender and personal preference –and people are quick to call businesses out if they feel they aren’t inclusive enough.
However, representation shouldn’t just be confined within the space of identity and demographics, and Google realised this. Much to our surprise, the Google Pixel ad features a visually impaired man and how he saw the world every day using the camera’s facial recognition callout function.
Is the camera’s functionality the most important function of the Google Pixel? No… but for someone who is visually impaired, it’s a convenient quality of life upgrade for them. We may not think about the perspectives of the visually impaired much, and although the face recognition callouts might not be useful to a vast majority of us, it’s incredibly humbling to experience the joys and hardships of life as a visually impaired person for just 60 seconds. Such is the power of empathy.
“Empathy is the foundation of an effective marketing strategy,” writes Christine Alemany for Harvard Business Review. “Being truly empathetic means being genuine, and emotional marketing campaigns created to seize cultural moments come across as insincere at best and manipulative at worst,” (like the ads trying to cash in on the LGBTQ trends during pride month).
To make your empathetic ads genuine, Alemany recommends following these 3 steps:
1. Keep one ear to the ground – be aware of the constantly evolving needs and pain points of customers. Aside from consulting focus groups, also keep an eye on website metrics to track audiences’ habits.
2. Give customers a choice – pigeonholing customers into a decision is not the way to go. Alemany points to ad campaigns for Mother’s and Father’s Day, but for those who have lost a parent, the ad may trigger unhappy thoughts… which is why having an opt out option from holiday/seasonal ads is considered a boon rather than a detriment.
3. Set the right tone with visuals – humans are visual creatures, so having strong visuals help to set the tone of your ad. However, do be sure that they are relevant and align with your brand’s belief and message. Alemany warns of visuals that promote toxic positivity or showcase Hallmark-esque stock photos (think generic happy families or people holding hands) – many audiences steer clear of ads with such visuals because they are so tacky!
Go omnichannel or go home
Most marketing ads follow this tried and true formula:
· Create interest → explain → call-to-action
DoorDash’s ad takes this formula and straps it to a roller coaster. Luring audiences in with the prospect of winning an incredible assortment of free stuff (everything shown in the 2024 SuperBowl ads were up on the table, including a BMW i5 M60), the sweepstakes code was intentionally ridiculous. Where regular ads would have call-to-actions with simple instructions, DoorDash’s long code was both impossible to remember and incomplete – which forces audiences to re-watch the ad and visit their website to get the full code… a pretty clever way to boost both web traffic and social media presence!
Modern marketing involves more than just redirecting customers to your website or store. To truly entice customers, a brand needs to have multiple channels available for fostering interactions. “More and more, customers move across all channels – in person, online, and beyond – to get what they want,” explains McKinsey & Company. “But not every customer is looking for the same thing, and omnichannel marketing acknowledges that. Some people want more services for certain transactions; other prefer low-touch, 24/7 interactions. Effective omnichannel marketing, then, happens when companies provide a set of seamlessly integrated channels, catering to customer preferences, and steer them to the most efficient solutions.”
Most businesses are not going to have anywhere near the same level of budget as DoorDash’s campaign, but it’s still important to offer incentives to get audiences to click onto their websites. We see these all the time on Facebook – “Get a 10% discount on your first order”, “Sign up today and get $5 off”, or “Mention code XXX to our sales staff for a free upgrade” to just name a few. At very little cost to your business, a coupon or goodwill gesture creates a sense of value for consumers, because who doesn’t love a good discount? This simple first step gets people to your door, and provided you continue offering products and services that they want, they’ll keep coming back.
Next, as McKinsey describes, you need to offer content that appeals to more than one type of audience. You’ve intrigued them with a discount, but how do you get the non-shoppers to stick around? This is where audience research comes in – what problems do they experience and how likely are they to find a solution to it through your content? Do you offer channels for them to voice their frustrations and perhaps interact with other consumers? How can you integrate UGC (User Generated Content) into your marketing? There’s a lot to consider!
SuperBowl’s ads are always entertaining, but as marketers, we always need to be on the lookout for what we can take away from them. What was your favourite ad and how could it be applied to your business strategy? Let us know below!