Always fun to see what the public reacts to in each years super bowl ads…Check them out. Perhaps not as memorable as years gone by, but still highly creative approaches at targeting and connecting with today’s consumers.
SUPER BOWL XLIX
THE 5 BEST ADS FROM SUPER BOWL XLIX
Here are the standouts in a so-so year for Super Bowl ads
Brands’ efforts to expand the scope of their Super Bowl campaigns took interesting and elaborate turns this year. Squarespace created a real album of relaxing sounds by actor Jeff Bridges, which viewers could purchase through DreamingWithJeff.com. Mountain Dew used Snapchat to allow fans to choose the direction of an interactive story.
On game day, agency “war rooms” once again sprang into action across the land to make sure brands were front and center, and, of course, super relevant, in the Twitter conversation around the game. McDonald’s conducted an unusual social sweepstakes, Tweeting at and about other Super Bowl advertisers and giving followers a chance to win products by those brands (the Twitter campaign ran alongside the much-discussed “Pay With Lovin'” ad, in which cashiers allowed customers to pay for their Big Macs and nuggets with gestures (like calling their moms) in lieu of cash). T-Mobile sent random Twitter uses “leaked” photos from Kim Kardashian’s data stash and Cheerios issued a perfect product-shot reaction to a game changing play in the fourth quarter.
But no one set quite the same kind of big-game tone as Kotex, the first entity to bring “period cravings” to Super Sunday.
Here are some other brands that achieved flow state during Super Bowl XLIX. The list is a short one.
SNICKERS “THE BRADY BUNCH”
You might think that when you have a successful platform like Snickers’ “You’re Not You When You’re Hungry” campaign, your job is easy. But with each outing, the pressure mounts to top the best installments—to make hilarious casting choices without just letting the whole gag reside in that casting choice. In Super Bowl XLIX, the team at BBDO New York outdid themselves. Danny Trejo as Marcia Brady is pretty much funny enough in itself (in fact, one of the best things about this spot is just thinking about the creative team thinking of Danny Trejo as Marcia Brady). But here, an inherently funny scene was made even funnier by great writing, and by Trejo’s own performance. And a Steve Buscemi puts it all over the top, while reminding other advertisers that kickers should actually have kick.
BMW “NEWFANGLED IDEA”
BMW and agency KBS reached back for a true pop culture gem, unearthing the cringe-making 1994 Today Show clip wherein Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel grapple with the terminology, and the very concept of “Internet.” The agency replays and then reboots the clip, with good sports Couric and Gumbel confounded anew by another game-changing technological advance—the BMW i3.
(The only sour note is the arbitrary twerk reference at the end). The spot was one of the released before game day that actually made media hay, receiving coverage on a long list of news and pop culture sites, and generating nearly 10 million views on YouTube before its appearance in the Bowl.
CLASH OF CLANS
Supercell and agency Barton F. Graf 9000 goose their popular Clash of Clans ad with a little angry Neeson52.
SQUARESPACE “DREAMING WITH JEFF”
In a game that had its share of emotionally manipulative sadvertising, and fear-mongering (dead kids, for crying out loud), Squarespace went refreshingly weird. With agency Wieden + Kennedy, the website service company tapped Jeff Bridges to make an album full of sounds to fall asleep by.
BUDWEISER “LOST DOG”
Budweiser put its puppy in peril and casts a wolf as the evildoer in a spot that seemed in keeping with the slightly paranoid tone of the game’s ads this year.
TPG Social Media