How To Make Your Super Bowl Ad Memorable

Dear Reader,

The coincidence of today being Groundhog’s Day and the Super Bowl made me laugh.

Originally, Groundhog’s Day was the early Christian holiday of Candlemas, a day when priests gave out candles to keep dark winter homes lit.

After moving to the US, Germans elaborated on this late winter holiday.  They named it Groundhog’s Day on February 2, 1887 in Punxsutawney, PA.

Unfortunately, the groundhog has a 40% success rate at predicting winter longevity.

Since I was out of New York during December, I’ve missed most of this season’s meager snowfall.  Regardless of your beliefs about global warming, I remember the big, thick snow that lined our long driveway 20 miles north of the city.

In 1997, Bill Murray starred in the movie, Groundhog’s Day, and gave the holiday a new meaning: Being stuck in time.

Since the Super Bowl was played on Groundhog’s Day this year, Jeep got Murray to re-enact key elements of the movie for their ad.

The movie’s story provided a memorable framework for Jeep’s commercial. So they could make Murray’s relationship with Punxsutawney Phil standout in their bright orange Jeep.

With more streaming and paid content options, the Super Bowl remains network television’s prime opportunity to attract a mass audience for 3+ hours on the first Sunday in February. This year, Fox sold 30 second spots for as much as  $5.6 million. And that doesn’t include creative costs.

Both Amazon and Google showed how people use voice-first devices.

Amazon went big with Ellen Degeneres and her wife, Portia De Rossi imagining life before Alexa. They poked fun at fake news and gave a hat tip to Richard Nixon’s tapes.

By contrast, Google put the audience at the center of their ad in a way that underscored the human side of technology. In the spot, a man asks his device to help him remember the small moments of his life with his wife. The ad shows how people can use Google Assistant to meet their personal needs.

While a number of advertisers used the Super Bowl to spotlight women, I applaud Microsoft for focusing on Katie Sowers, an offensive assistant coach for the 49ers.  Like Jeep, Microsoft benefited from the 49ers being in the game.

But more importantly, Sowers was the first female and openly LGTBQ coach to appear in the Super Bowl. And Microsoft celebrated Sowers.

For the first time in its history, the Super Bowl allowed political advertisers, namely Michael Bloomberg and Donald Trump. These ads upped the price for political advertising and underscored the ability of only the very richest candidates to pay for them.

But, more importantly, these political ads underscore the more critical and less discussed topic of the blurred line between advertising and fake news.

Why?
Because the content in these political ads potentially contained unchecked facts.

According to Edelman’s 2020 Trust Barometer, advertisers are accountable for the fake news on the platforms where they advertise. Specifically:

• 72% of global respondents believe that companies should stop advertising with any media platform that fails to prevent the spread of fake news and false information.

Looking to improve your marketing skills to get better results?
Then consider attending these events:

► Social Media Marketing World, either live or virtually. While I won’t be attending this fun and information packed event this year, you should put this conference on your calendar if you use social media.

► Also, I am keynoting the Midwest Digital Marketing Conference in St. Louis (April 8th to 10th). This conference has a special place in my heart since it’s organized and run by my friend, Professor Perry Drake. (BTW—This reasonably priced conference was rated a Top 2019 Marketing Conference by Forbes!)

Happy Marketing,
Heidi