Who will win the battle of the brands?
I joined the 100 million or so other people watching the Super Bowl last night and, like everyone else, had some opinions on the ads in the big game. This year was a bit different for us as a company because its the first time we’ve had clients in the Super Bowl (we work with .CO, Audi and VW, but didn’t work on their Super Bowl presence). While, there were clearly some winners in my book (Chrysler, VW, Audi, Best Buy, Doritos, Pepsi Max, LivingSocial, .CO, Eminem), I found a few things equally perplexing. So, naturally, as the game progressed, I sat surrounded by a room full of people, laptop in hand, tweeting my opinions to #brandbowl and trying to keep my wife, a Steelers fan, from freaking out. Without further adieu, here are some of my quick reactions:
- Everywhere I looked in the weeks leading up to the game, I read something about how brands were going all out in the digital space this year to extend their investment. I was quite surprised when I found lots of brands simply linking to their Super Bowl commercials on their home pages and not doing a whole lot else. Its almost like its 1999 again for many brands. I suspect this is because there has been a concerted effort to bring the brand experience to the platforms where customers already are (i.e. Facebook), but I wonder if some brands have gone too far with this and missed out on bigger opportunities for those curious consumers that happen upon their branded sites. I’ll be keeping my eye on this over the next week or so as I’m sure a lot more will develop online in the next few days.
- I LOVED the epic Chrysler spot and the ‘Imported from Detroit’ line. In a game that flat out had too many car commercials, I think this one will have the most lasting impact. Halfway through the spot, I tweeted “Eminem makes two super bowl appearances. Feeling pretty good about the Chrysler spot though. I’d root for Detroit #brandbowl” Having watched the spot again, I feel the exact same way. It might not be perfect, but it made me feel more than just entertained, which was largely how I felt the rest of the game. Within minutes of the ad ending, a great friend from Michigan called me and said with a bit of crack in his voice, “Wow. That Chrysler ad was awesome. No one has ever shown Detroit like that.” Awesome!
- Contrary to the opinions of my colleague, I think LivingSocial won the the group buying war over Groupon. I thought LivingSocial told a great story that was directly tied to the product benefits and was entertaining too. To me, that’s what’s needed at this point since they are trying get people like my parents to sign up in order to grow their customer base. The Groupon ads honestly went over my head and just came across as offensive on first view. They work better for me after watching them a second time and digging in a little deeper on their site, but I entirely missed the fact that there is an actual social good tied into their campaign, as did everyone watching with me in my living room and most of my friends based on an informal straw poll.
- VW seemed to be a big winner in my living room with the Darth Vader spot getting a whole lot of “cute” comments and the new Beetle spot hooking people with its soundtrack. The Darth Vader spot to me is the best work yet for the brand as it attempts to become more mainstream in America. The :60 version of it is amazing and has already received 13,000,000+ views on YouTube. It’ll be interesting to see how this work extends online for VW in the coming weeks. (Disclosure Reminder: Pappas works for VW)
- The first E-trade baby ad was memorable, but the second one seemed rather forgettable. I think this campaign is running out of steam and I’m not sure E-trade is going to get the same results that the talking baby has delivered in the past. And, a quick look at the rest of their online presence revealed that there really isn’t much of an online component to these ads (Nothing on the etrade.com, Facebook seems to drive voting for the ad and still has the BabyMail application, which is entertaining, but a bit dated). Feedback in my living room was largely along the same lines.
- Stella! Stella! Man, the Stella ad was right on strategy, tone and everything for the brand, but it was just the WRONG venue. I had the pleasure of being around the Stella work a few years back and saw some fantastic work get done under the ‘Reassuringly Expensive’ campaign. I thought the ad was beautifully shot and Adrian Brody was great, but it just doesn’t belong in the Super Bowl. If the brand managers over at Stella and A-B want to grab a broader audience, they’re going to have to look long and hard at the brand positioning. But, I don’t think they should do that. I think it would have played much better in an environment like The Academy Awards, etc., just not football.
- Audi really showed up to play this year with a well thought out launch of the A8 and hugely entertaining spot in the big game. With a program that included an on-air teaser beginning a few weeks ago, leaked videos featuring none other than Kenny G, an online contest beginning tomorrow and the inclusion of the twitter hashtag #ProgressIs in the on air spot itself, Audi seemed to be the most buttoned up of all brands to me. The “Release the Hounds” spot and Luxury Prison campaign is right on point for Audi’s progressive luxury strategy and shows how the brand can stretch and show its sense of humor. PS: My Dad now wants an A8. (Disclosure Reminder: Pappas works for Audi).
- This year GoDaddy created a ‘co-branded’ ad for our client, .CO, in which they revealed Joan Rivers as the new GoDaddy.co girl in completely over the top fashion, as is the GoDaddy way. It seems as if the public is generally tired of the GoDaddy approach in the Super Bowl, giving it a negative sentiment rating in the #brandbowl and clearly not knowing how to react in my living room. However, GoDaddy’s strategy of controversy can’t be argued with because it produces results year in and year out. At the end of the game, they were in 8th place in the #brandbowl and we suspect their online traffic numbers are going through the roof as consumers clamor to watch behind the scenes videos from the Joan shoot and stock up on their new .CO domain names (we hope!). (Disclosure Reminder: Pappas works for .CO).
Those are my initial thoughts. More to come later this week.