Super Bowl LV: The Ad Game
Toyota and M&M’s stand out
The Super Bowl, the biggest football game of the year, is also considered the biggest marketing event of the year. Many brands choose this platform to air their ads to reach a substantially large viewing audience hoping their ads will be memorable and resonate with the consumers.
Doing so does not come cheap. The average cost for a 30-second spot airing during Super Bowl LV was $5.5 million. But is it worth it?
This is a question that gets asked every year as we review and evaluate the commercials. And, of course, it is normal to have different opinions on which ads did well and which ones did not, often having as many people disliking an ad that others liked.
One thing that was noticeable about this year’s ads was the fairly excessive use of celebrities. It’s fairly common for Super Bowl commercials to feature celebrities. But yesterday, it just felt too much. From Bruce Springsteen to Serena Williams and from Maya Rudoplh to Will Ferrell and Cardi B to Ashton Kutcher, it seemed like every other commercial had a celebrity (including multiple ones in several ads).
This is noteworthy for a couple of reasons:
First, the actual ad cost for these ads was well above the $5.5 million price the brands paid to CBS for airing them. Adding the cost of all these celebrities along with production cost (and some of those ads went big in that respect, too) and you got to wonder if this was a worthwhile move for these brands.
Second, a celebrity by herself or himself cannot save an ad. The fact they are recognizable may help (even though that may also be less of a factor when there are so many ads using them) but there has got to be more for the ad to work. Ads like the Fairy Godmayo (Amy Schumer) fell flat despite the celebrity’s presence.
So, which ones were good? I have two that I liked the most, one humorous and one not.
M&M’s
The ad had a funny tone, consistent with the expectations from the viewing audience to be entertained. It benefited from airing during the first quarter when anticipation is the highest, especially for humorous ads. Moreover, the humor was relatable as it captured situations we have witnessed or experienced ourselves or are part of our current reality (“I am sorry I called you Karen…”)
While the humor was good and what most viewers want out of a Super Bowl ad, it is not enough for an ad to be great. In fact, sometimes it may even detract from the ad’s message or the advertising brand.
As a marketing professor, I regularly bring up examples from ads in our class discussions. Often students may bring up their own examples of ads they loved. Interestingly, for some of them, they are not able to recall who the ad was for, occasionally even guessing a competitor of the advertiser brand or an entirely different product category the advertising brand was from.
But in the case of M&M’s the humor connected well with the brand’s message, a candy that can sweeten an otherwise unpleasant situation. It is simple, it is memorable, and resonates well (kind of like the “Hungry? Grab a Snickers” message. Among this year’s humorous Super Bowl spots, M&M’s gets my vote.
Toyota
While ads in past Super Bowl telecasts were almost entirely about humor, in recent years we have seen a shift with more and more brands taking a more reflective tone trying to promote a deeper message. This year’s ads continued this trend. Among those spots, Toyota was my favorite.
It was an excellent cinematic spot with beautiful storytelling that connected with the viewers emotionally. The message (“we believe there is hope and strength in all of us”) was powerful and relevant to the story.
Of course, the question is how does this relate to Toyota and how does it help sell more cars?
Toyota is a sponsor of the US Paralympics team and, with the Tokyo Games coming up, this was an excellent way to communicate this connection and launch a campaign that I am sure we will be seeing more of throughout this year.
By partnering with this cause, Toyota is counting on influencing people’s attitudes by aligning with their values. Partnerships like that (and ads like this one relating to the partnership) humanize the brand and give it an additional dimension that can make more consumers like it and prefer it over its competitors.
The challenge with emotion-evoking ads is that not everyone may be moved the same way by them. In fact, sometimes, people may even find them manipulative or cheesy. In my opinion, what makes this ad special and truly moving is that it is telling the true story of US Paralympian Jessica Long.
I rarely get a sense of inspiration or hope from a commercial but this spot from Toyota did this for me. And for me, it was the winner of this year’s Ad Bowl.
