The postscript for Super Bowl 50 continues to be written. While sports fans wait for NCAA's March Madness, media will fill their platforms analyzing Peyton's beer and pizza preferences, the death of dabbing and Von Miller's new contact -- not to mention Cam's fear of getting dirty diving for a football. As a side note, Persil ProClean did a masterful job of real time Twitter-chatter, yet somehow missed the opportunity to comment about Cam's fear of grass stains.
Much like someone who stayed at the party too long, marketers are left staring at the aftermath of advertising's biggest event. Adweek does a particularly good job of taking stock of the Facebook chatter while Bleacher Report kept score on Twitter. When it comes to ranking "the best", everyone from USA Today to NPR has a list. As time passes, marketers will move past the rankings to identify the key lessons which they can apply to their own advertising strategies.
1. Just because you can doesn't mean you should. It is no mystery. Pharmaceutical brands have huge war chests of marketing dollars as they aim to recoup years of R&D. The battle for awareness among brand with no direct consumer purchasing is unprecedented. With an estimated $756 million marketing budget, Valeant could easily afford the $4.5-plus million price tag to make sure the audience knew there is a solution for IBS and toe nail fungus. Perhaps more frugally, Daiichi-Sankyo and AstraZeneca reportedly split the tab to share the news about OIC. While these diseases are serious, that they are marketed with acronyms underscores why the Super Bowl is not be the best forum. The real question may be why the erectile dysfunction brands pass on the temptation.
2. Quality content doesn't need a big budget. Nothing gets dollars approved faster than a high-profile Super Bowl ad. As marketing shifts to smaller, quicker campaigns, the number of creative executions needed will jump exponentially. Brand teams will be pressured to maintain their percent of non-working marketing dollars while fulfilling new high-frequency refresh rates. The low-budget ads coming from Doritos' long running Crash the Super Bowl program are consistently at the top of ranking lists. Similarly, non-profits NO MORE and the regional NCADA delivered powerful messages with minimal budget. The theme of smart execution overpowering budgets will grow stronger if mega-brands choose to hide behind big budgets. An unlimited budget won't make up for poor creative choices.
3. If all else fails, celebrity won't save you. For Super Bowl XL, six of the top 30 commercials included a celebrity -- and that counts Jack Sparrow, Kermit the Frog, Mickey Mouse, MacGyver and Fabio as celebrities. For Super Bowl 50, celebrity-based commercials (including movie ads) accounted for half of the top 30. Only three cracked USA Today's top 10. Brands hoping to catch a viral wave increasingly borrow celebrity equity to juice their earn media. Observation suggests successful brand-celebrity relationship expand beyond the singular moments created by the Super Bowl. Without longevity, the multiplier effect of celebrity is muted. For example, Hyundai's First Date featuring Kevin Hart earned rave reviews. Yet, without on-going commitment, Hart's 25-plus million engaged followers were out of reach for Hyundai. Hart's social feeds are filled with his own branding as well as hype for Ride Along 2 which opened in mid-January. Only one retweet mentioned Hyundai. The brand's other featured celebrity, Ryan Reynolds, also only had one tweet in support of the brand. Reynolds' focus is promoting his new movie Deadpool. As powerful as earned media is for brands, paid media has value for celebrities. Hart and Reynolds were featured in front of hundreds of millions of eyes at a perfect time for themselves with little investment on their part. In the end, relationships with both sides actively building stories over time prove more additive than when one side is free-riding.
While the lesson of Super Bowl advertisers are helpful guidance -- none can overcome the need for killer creative concepts, a strong team to challenge norms and the ability to execute on a consistent basis.
Special thanks to Wayne McPherson for his contributions to this piece.