What makes a good Super Bowl ad? Of course it has to be entertaining. It must stand out from the 60+ ads that are being shown in the course of the game. And if brand owners are to really get their moneys worth, it must reinforce and advance the brand story.
That's where most marketers seemed to lose the plot this year--trying so hard to stay in the 'cultural conversation', garner shares and 'likes' and become 'the next Darth Vader', they seem to have forgotten to consider who they are, how to communicate it, and why that matters.
Losing the Plot
FCA, the parent company of Jeep and Ram, clearly demonstrated that the right hand had no idea what the left hand was doing within or across their brands.Ram ran a somber, manifesto-like spot using a recording of Martin Luther King Jr, and espousing the idea of service as the highest human ideal. Ram also ran a slapstick, pun-driven ad showing Vikings making the long trek over land and sea to Minneapolis, only to turn around when they realize that the football Vikings are not in the Super Bowl. How one brand could deliver two more disparate messages in one program is beyond comprehension. If Ram was going for the highest ratings in audience confusion, they might be on to something.
If that wasn't bad enough, Jeep ran 3 ads that were equally as confusing. While not as pretentious as the Ram ad, 'The Road' was also manifesto-like in its delivery. Another ad starred Jeff Goldblum in a Jurassic Park flashback where his Jeep helps him outsmart a dinosaur. But the pièce de résistance was their 'Anti Manifesto' ad, that could been seen as dissing both 'The Road' and the Ram Service ad! My hair hurts just thinking about how this could have happened!
They weren't the only brands to miss the mark. Bud Light was high on epic production, but low on expected laughs; Coke chose to muddle it's usually simple message of inclusion with a lesson in brand architecture; And Diet Coke was trying so hard to be what it wasn't that it was excruciatingly painful to watch.
How the Underdog Won
So what worked well?It might help to revisit the granddaddy of all Super Bowl ads, 1984. Apple took a simple brand truth -- that it was for people who think differently -- and brought it to life in an extraordinary fashion that broke through the clutter. While the line 'think different' did not appear until 1997, that brand narrative began with 1984.
This year, while several brands, including Amazon, Australian Tourism and Doritos managed to deliver fun stuff, what brand did this the best? Well, perhaps it's appropriate that in a Super Bowl in which the underdog won, it was not a car brand, nor a beer brand, nor a soft drink brand, but rather, a detergent brand. Detergent -- a category that should be as entertaining and interesting as watching paint dry. P&G's Tide took a simple brand idea 'the absence of stains' and brought it to life in an entertaining, tongue-in-cheek, effective way. They even managed to give a knowing wink to other famous advertising campaigns, including those of other P&G brands. Moreover, this story likely has legs beyond the Super Bowl. Tide has begun a brand narrative that could very well rival that of the Energizer Bunny in its longevity, while having seemingly limitless possibilities to extend that narrative across media channels.
So instead of starting with the goal of being the next Darth Vader ad in shares and likes, perhaps brands should start by looking inward again to find the simple truth that lives within their brand, and tell the most fantastic story about that truth. In doing so, they will earn not just shares and likes, but they will also earn long-term brand value.
