Brick Thinking

Away from the big-spending brand advertisers that we looked at and judged in our varied, whistle-stop tour of the SuperBowl media melee, there has been a really neat tactical piece of content launched.

Latching on to the post-SuperBowl buzz and excitement, a British animation studio has combined the best Super Bowl ads in a stop motion video made entirely of Lego bricks. 

We love this piece of (and very quick turn-around) tactical promotion, using an apposite piece of popular culture combined with a creative concept that has worked so well for the Lego brand in the past. 

The best example of this is the full ad break that ran, where they recreated existing TV ads using Lego. 

Innovation at its finest! 

Who won the #SuperBowl?

So – we’ve established that brands spent an almost unfathomable amount of money on a one-day event (in excess of $300,000,000 on TV ads alone), so now seems a good time to try and assess who made some headway in the marketing race and who was left floundering.

Oreo led the charge when it comes to doing something differently, purchasing the first ever Super Bowl ads with programmatic technology, although they were only shown regionally. Cited as being back to their old savvy marketing self and leading innovators adopting this game changing automated ad buying technology. Something to add to their impressive SuperBowl marketing history.

Moving on, here is a snapshot of some of our winners and losers .....

WINNERS

Missy Elliott 
The big winner of the half-time show was not, as might be expected, Katy Perry, but rather Missy Elliott, whose Spotify streams (already substantial) increased by 676%...OVERNIGHT. Her track, “Lose Control,” which she performed solo while KP had a quick change, achieved the largest jump, with a pretty out-of-control 1,396% hike. Indeed, the three tracks she unleashed (the other two being fellow 00’s classics “Get Ur Freak On” and “Work It”) ended up in the iTunes top 10 singles. Now that’s a result!

Newcastle Brown Ale: 
Played the digital game brilliantly – especially through use of their social media channels. An ingenious satire of the media frenzy was delectably pre-promoted and then superbly executed as a great piece of ambush marketing. They couldn't afford the $4.5m for a 30 second ad and Anheuser-Busch (i.e. Bud Light and Budweiser) had airtime locked up, so they ‘crowdsourced’ a TV spot with 37 other companies and aired on NBC affiliate channels in their #BandOfBrands campaign. The spot - which you can watch here - was fun, catchy and used digital media in a lateral and hugely effective way.

Twitter 
Still the undisputed hub for real-time marketing. Despite attempts by its key competitors (see ‘Losers’ below) Twitter maintained its grip on the title. With over 28 million tweets referencing “#SuperBowl” or “#SB49” (let alone all the brands, people, teams, etc. attached to the event), it was certainly the crux of the frenzy.

Always 

The rehashed ‘Like a girl’ campaign stole the ad show. Although the Liam Neeson ‘Revenge’ ad for Clash of Clans was a Pure Media favourite and comedy highlight, the P&G brand has successfully highlighted the clear idiocy of “like a girl” as being associated with weakness and inferiority. It was a categorical insult which has rightfully been ‘called out’. As of Tuesday, the hashtag #likeagirl had in excess of 270,000 mentions and more than 340,000 tweets.

LOSERS:

Nationwide: 
The backlash against Nationwide’s spot (which focussed on children’s death by preventable accidents) was swift, prolonged and crushing. The callousness and lack of ‘fit’ for the occasion is pretty obvious, though the insurance company released a statement claiming that it was intending to start a debate rather than sell policies...either way, the internet is now awash with disparaging comment and parodies.

McDonald’s: 
The Golden Arches tried to schmooze pretty much every person and every brand on Twitter in some kind of love-in/ giveaway. Piggybacking on the respective spots, the fast food retailer didn't really earn themselves any positive vibes – it was a neat piece of real-time marketing, but didn't have the cut through of other campaigns…or the genuine feel.

YouTube and Facebook: 
YouTube boldly tried to divert its mainly millennial fanbase’s attentions and make their second screen into their primary one, by staging a competing half time show. However, this was – frankly – unsuccessful. Likewise, Facebook (despite claiming it’s “biggest ever SuperBowl”) ended up streets behind the powerhouse that is Twitter when it comes to real-time marketing.

The SuperBowl is a massive event in the calendar and as with every big game, there are winners and losers. There were brands (and individuals) that successfully navigated the melee to stand out and get their money's worth. 

On the flipside, there were those who blew their budgets - or hard-earned brand image and trust - without a lot to show for it. #PurePoint

Super Budgets, SuperBowl

Despite being what is (obviously) predominantly an American sport, the SuperBowl XLIX's global impact and reach was in evidence again over the weekend.

An estimated 115 million viewers tuned in last night to watch the New England Patriots defeat the Seattle Seahawks in Arizona, contributing to what is routinely the biggest televised event in American programming.

Social media and word-of-mouth conversations typically revolve around the event for days on end, turning the event into something more spectacle than sports; the half-time performers, generally huge names like Bruno Mars and this year’s Katy Perry, even perform free due to the returns they can expect a boost album sales which, according to Forbes, can be an increase as high as 92%

With that many bums parked firmly on seats in front of television sets – not to mention 2nd, 3rd and 4th screens such as computers, mobiles and tablets – the Super Bowl has serious attraction for advertisers.

This year’s broadcasters, NBC, were surely counting on that fact when they set the rates for advertising during the event. With a 12.5% increase on 2014’s pricing, a 30 second spot setting advertisers back a cool $4,500,000 for the media alone. The total event is reputed to have pulled in around $360m just in advertising revenue.

However, despite the staggering entry prices for advertising, having a spot at the Super Bowl can pay big dividends for advertisers. With millions of fans glued to screens around the world, Super Bowl commercials are generally the tour de force of each participating advertiser’s year, and the agencies involved generally try to come up with something pretty good for their spots.

So how did they go?

Other than the Patriots, one of the biggest winners this year was mobile game Clash of Clans, which had an entertaining spot featuring Liam Neeson in full Taken-esque personality: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuFebXDkI3k

As always, the airwaves were thick with a bevy of other celebrities, with big names including Kim Kardashian (T-Mobile), Kate Upton (Game of War), Bryan Cranston (aka Walter White) and Lindsay Lohan (both for Esurance),

Animals also featured strongly, with Dorito’s flying pigs and Budweiser’s horse-and-dog friendship providing both amusement and emotion to the masses.

The unanimous vote for this year’s worst commercial seems to go to Nationwide, who used the concept of a dead child to shock the audiences out of their sports-day festivity; whilst it was certainly effective in that context, the insurance company went a little too far in bringing the atmosphere down: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKUy-tfrIHY

Which do you think deserves the crown this year, and which the wooden spoon? Check out the full list of adverts here and let us know.

#PurePoint