The Super Bowl is one of the major payoffs we ad creatives look forward to each year, for obvious reasons. It’s always useful to see what one’s industry peers are up to, and the Super Bowl offers the very best that ad agencies have to offer. With the Seahawks blowout wiping away any gambling worries (for bragging rights only, of course), we had little to distract us from the real reason to watch the game: the commercials. So we’re adding our take on a few of Sunday’s best concepts to the pool of annual articles that break down the state of advertising after the Super Bowl.
After a slew of years when marketing and creative services agencies opted for campaigns that focused heavily on sex appeal, this year’s crop mostly ignored the libido and tugged at the heart instead. Even the normally hyper-sexual Axe Body Spray spot featured couples reuniting in emotional embraces rather than throngs of super models falling at the feet of some average-looking dude. GoDaddy also refrained from selling website domains through sex appeal, choosing instead to feature a puppeteer who used the hosting company to follow her dreams. Going the sweet-and-touching route, however, was just one of the trends agencies embraced this year.
A couple of the best food ad campaigns we saw during the game kept it wholesome with humorous spots. For example, Raj Suri pretty much killed it with the Time Machine that runs on Doritos. The commercial, which reportedly cost a mere $200 to create, won the chip company’s annual Super Bowl commercial contest and the cool $1 million prize that came with it, according to businessinsider.com. Kudos to Mr. Suri for a great piece of creative and a heck of a payday. Also on the funny front, Wonderful Pistachios gave us a peek into the nutty inner workings of a comedic genius, Mr. Stephen Colbert. The company can no doubt expect a rise in sales from the famous Colbert Bump.
Not to be outdone by our brethren in the foodservice marketing game, agencies for tech companies brought the funny as well. In a fairly bold move, RadioShack took shots at itself in the process of unveiling a new, modern image. The spot showcased some of our favorite faces from the ’80s looting the old RadioShack store, clearing the way for a clean, inviting store layout that will better resonate with today’s tech lovers. SquareSpace joined the fun too, bringing some of the best bad on the web to life.
Audi’s ad agency also took a comedic angle with the minute-long “Doberhuahua” spot. It landed on target, in large part due to Sarah McLachlan’s participation. The choice to build suspense with a pre-game teaser that ran a few weeks before the Super Bowl was a sound move, and it had us and a ton of other viewers waiting to see just what had the two “Logan Hills Dog Show” announcers running for cover. The teaser and the extended ad (60 seconds) during the game were part of a smart campaign kickoff that deserves applause.
Bringing things back around to the sweet side, a couple of commercials in particular have gained a lot of attention on social sites and blogs following the Super Bowl. For the first time ever, Microsoft joined the fun with a 60-second Super Bowl ad that shows all the best technology has to offer, culminating with a shot of former NFL player Steve Gleason, who is now battling ALS and uses Microsoft technology to talk to his son. While not quite as emotional, the Budweiser puppy who couldn’t be kept from his pal (a beautiful Clydesdale) was another fan favorite. And many sites are proclaiming the puppy as the big winner of the weekend.
For us, though, it’s hard to top the simplicity and ultra-relatable concept of the Hyundai Genesis ad dubbed “Dad’s Sixth Sense.” Moms and dads alike love the idea of kids counting on always-reliable dad to save them from harm, and we think the creatives behind this campaign found the perfect balance between emotional appeal and light-heartedness.
The 2014 Super Bowl may not have offered much in the way of on-the-field competition, but the ad world cooked up some heavy-hitting concepts to vie for viewers’ attention. We’d say that made it a game worth watching right to the end.
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