Super Bowl advertising costs reached a record high this year with some :30 second spots going for $10 million, although viewership ended clocking in slightly lower than last year at an average of 124.9 million. With the matching investments NBC often required to enter into the Super Bowl commercial line-up, production fees and celebrity costs, an all-in cost can be 20 to 25 million.
For that kind of bank, companies’ Super Bowl commercials had better deliver. Unfortunately, from a broad perspective, this year’s ad lineup was about as exciting as the game itself – not very.
That said, it’s easy to forget that while Super Bowl ads are known for being entertaining, that shouldn’t be the whole point of them. The long-term success of the ads themselves still comes down to meeting the three core tenants of any good commercial. Your commercial should:
- Know and speak to your target audience.
- Ensure your messaging highlights the unique benefit of the product or service.
- Convey that message to that audience with an easy-to-understand, memorable story.
Using those principles, what’s a good example of a Super Bowl that really delivered and one that didn’t?
The :60 Novartis commercial, titled “Relax Your Tight End,” featuring Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach and prostate cancer survivor, Bruce Arians, checked off every box. The target audience was men 45-69, hundreds of thousands of which were watching the Super Bowl, along with younger men who may be looking out for their fathers and grandfathers. The spot featured football legends especially relaxed because they could opt for a blood test instead of a finger test to check for prostate cancer. It included Arians looking at the camera and noting the life-saving importance of testing. And just in case you missed the benefit of blood tests, there were humorous close ups of butts unclenching and a football player with a Band-Aid on his arm. It was a creative, funny way to tell an important story that is certainly memorable.
Conversely, the Dunkin’ commercial, “Good Will Dunkin’”, gets points for ensuring their commercials are highly anticipated with plenty of star power, teasers and social media pushes, but did not deliver with their game day spot. They have a very broad target market, yet essentially tried to reach Baby Boomers, Generation X and Millennials, simply by throwing characters from every era in there in a confusing hodge podge mess. Donuts were shown, but they barely served as a supporting actor to the chaotic scene that was far from memorable.
You don’t have to have an ad in the Super Bowl to ensure you craft a strong commercial. Whether you are planning a TV, radio or even a small print ad for a local newspaper, ensure it tells a story about what makes your product or service valuable to your target market in a noteworthy way.