Bizlife Smarts

Just like Christmas, the time when the Super Bowl ads are rolled out, comes every year. We avidly watch and evaluate the “best ads” of them all. But are Super Bowl ads really the best ads? Or are they like a Paris fashion show; all the haute couture that can’t be worn by the common (wo)man?! So, let’s use the small sample of some of the best ads of 2024 Super Bowl to give a perspective on good advertising.

The background on best super bowl ads

The ads

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pk8BBGV2ypI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErwS24cBZPc

I believe that Super Bowl advertising, as we know it, began in 1984, with Apple’s ‘1984’ TV commercial. Prior to this, TV ads ran during the Super Bowl, just like any run of TV advertising. In the Master Lock ad we see an example of earlier ads. These ads focused on the product, and were not based on current issues, nor social consciousness centred. The Apple commercial, that ran to qualify for a best ads awards competition for 1983, in my view, was the advent of advertising to drive a social agenda.

It was around this time, that Super Bowl ads began to be more of a beauty pageant, than effective advertising. The rates for Super Bowl advertising spot buys then began to increase exponentially. These rates were around $37,500 per 30 second spot in the 60s. These rose to $1 million in the 90s, $4 million to $5 million in the twenty-teens, hitting $7 million in the twenty-twenties.

When you factor this in against advertising spot buys of $100,000 to $700,000, outside of the Super Bowl, it is quite an expense. But remember…this is a beauty pageant. Don’t you for a second think that everybody is going to run basic 30-second spots. There are those brands who decide that they want a mini movie production. 60-second spot buys run for $14 million; 90-second spot buys run for $20 million. https://www.forbes.com/sites/rogerdooley/2024/02/09/how-to-not-waste-millions-of-dollars-on-super-bowl-commercials/?sh=154d2eb452ea

So, not only are these long ads an extravagance for spot buys, but then we come to production costs. The 2024 Super Bowl ads were heavy on celebrity features, often with the characters clouding out the product. So, let’s give the decision makers the benefit of the doubt. The captains of industry of multi-billion dollar corporations can’t be doing this simply for ego. There must be a deeper rationale on investing such insane amounts in Super Bowl advertising, without a calculable ROI (Return on Investment), nor ROAS (Return on Ad Spend).

Before we address the issue of the rationale behind these Super Bowl ads, let’s go back to advertising 101.

The half-time show

American football has since inception been associated with marching bands. Marching bands are as American as apple pie, and are still prevalent in college football. But in 1970, the National Football League (NFL) began celebrity performer half-time shows.

I won’t spend a lot of time on this, but suffice it to say, they reflect the commercialism of the whole event, and the ads created for, and run during the Super Bowl. In 2024, Usher received no payment to perform at the Super Bowl half-time show, but used it as a platform to gain exposure, and promote the new album he launched 2 days before.

The Super Bowl money game

Beyoncé, who has on previous occasions been a halftime performer, used her role in her Verizon ad to promote her new album, Rennaissance II. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilGUh4Wn1VQ

Not only that, but she got paid $30 million for the Verizon spot, as well. She has mastered this Super Bowl commercialisation game. That gives us a good segue on whether the product owners running the Super Bowl commercials have mastered this game as well.

Only the product and the customer matter – the rest is noise.

Learn from the best

Getting your product to the right consumer must always be central. Let’s not lose sight of the fact that sports and music are some of the biggest income sectors for individuals in the U.S. economy today. https://bizlifesmarts.com/sports%20and%20music%20icon%20brands

What Madonna, Michael Jordan and Jay-Z have always understood is that they control, and are masters of their product, but always listen to their customers. Madonna is still the material girl, drawing crowds at 65. Michael Jordan retired from the NBA 21 years ago, but understand that he is still a basketball icon. Jay-Z, otherwise known as Hova, should have retired, or faded away in his youth, like so many rappers. But Jay-Z controlled his brand from the outset, and has used his brand partnerships to grow, while keeping his music at the cutting edge. https://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/30/5-strategies-that-helped-jay-z-build-an-800-million-career.html

It’s not about expensive, glitzy production budgets

Kanye West https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BWYyRicB8w

What exactly are the “best” Super Bowl ads trying to do?

At the end of the day, running ads is a means to an end. What matters is what impact did they have off the field and off the screen? https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/a-definitive-list-of-super-bowl-58s-top-performing-ads/

Kantar’s and System 1s’ ad testing tools, checked for the effectiveness of 58 Super Bowl ads. We should note that 56% of these top ads leveraged celebrities.

Kantar criteria were impact, enjoyment and brand equity. System 1 criteria were characters, celebrities, cultural references and comedy.

The stars: Booking.com (Tina Fey & others); Reeses (no celebrity stars); Popeye’s (Ken Jeong); Doritos (Jenna Ortega & others); Squarespace (directed & featuring Martin Scorcese); Toyota Tacoma (no celebrity stars); Microsoft Copilot (no celebrity stars).

Good try, but left it on screen: Michelob Ultra (Lionel Messi, Jason Sudeikis & Dan Marino); Dunkin’ (Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Jennifer Lopez & Tom Brady); State Farm- “Like a Good Neighbaaa” (Arnold Schwarzenegger & Danny De Vito);

What were you thinking?!: NFL – “Born to Play” (no recognisable personalities); Uber Eats (Jennifer Aniston, David & Victoria Beckam & David Schwimmer); and Google Pixel 8 phone ad (no celebrity stars).

The end game (pardon the pun)

So, after the Super Bowl of ads really shouldn’t be a catwalk. The marketing directors of those companies and products strutting and preening need to fired – just like losing National Football League coaches.

The best ads are those that win both on the screens and off the field, in the marketplace. The basement cost of $7 million for just airing a 30″ spot, is too high a cost for vanity.

For the winners, the returns are not just in the multiples that come in incremental sales, but in the increase in brand value from the best ads, which is immeasurable. These are just a few lessons for brands dipping deep into their pockets, and planning to run ads at Super Bowl LIX.

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