Super Bowl Plus 60 Hours: What Do We Think About the Ads Now?
Since this was the year of the Social Super Bowl (or the Not So Social Super Bowl), Media Logic thought it’d be fun to do a (non-scientific and non-representative) analysis of how social media extended and amplified the ads a couple of days out.
We conducted a fast poll of everyone who works here, and then did a fast scan of the tweets and stories respondents pointed us to.
Here’s what we learned.
First, most people either previewed the spots online before the game or in the days after. Even if the Super Bowl wasn’t “social” in the ways predicted, the spots have generated a huge amount of conversation, both online and off since.
By far the most popular ad was Volkswagen’s “Darth Vader”. “Adorable.” “It made me chuckle.” Less popular here but apparently popular based on online chatter were Doritos’ “Pug” and Bridgestone’s “Beaver” (aka “Carma” with a “C”). Advertisers still can’t go wrong with kids and cute animals.
A few Monday morning critics online thought the “Darth Vader” ad was a failure because nobody knew who the spot was for. But everyone we surveyed knew.
The most polarizing spot was Doritos’ “Finger Licking”. The folks around me during the game were stunned silent when it aired (how does one react to a guy suckling another guy’s finger during that macho-fest that is the Super Bowl?). The day after, it was most definitely a love it/hate it thing. But there was no doubt in anybody’s mind what the product was, even if there was some discomfort about what was being communicated.
The most controversial spots were those produced for Groupon, particularly “Tibet” with Timothy Hutton. The immediate reaction was mostly a “huh?” But the apparent casual exploitation of human misery to promote a brand sent thousands of activists online to complain (in the spot Tim says, “The people of Tibet are in trouble. Their very culture is in jeopardy. But they still whip up an amazing fish curry!” Eech!). The backlash drove Groupon’s Founder and Chief Executive Andrew Mason to post a non-apology apology to his blog on Monday. On Tuesday, the controversy itself was exploited, first by the Huffington Post, which linked Groupon’s faux pas to Kenneth Cole’s of the previous week, and second by Lawrence O’Donnell, who criticized the critics. Social ping pong?
At Media Logic, the Groupon spots seems to have left a bad taste in people’s mouths that is only growing more sour as the days go by. Time will tell if Groupon has damaged its brand, or if it will find itself on top in the end, as did Target, Best Buy and Gap, all of whom survived social-driven controversies in 2010.
Perhaps the most interesting phenomenon is the slowly gathering buzz around the 2-minute Chrysler spot featuring Eminem. It seems it took a while for people to chew and digest this opus. But 60 hours after the event, the gritty prideful spot seems to be working its way into the country’s subconscious. It was the most serious spot to air, and a gamble not unlike Apple’s “1984.” It took a few days, but it appears the gamble might be paying off.
Ironically, one of the least loved ads was the one that was most obviously social, the Chevy Cruze “First Date.” The spot, which shows a young man checking his status updates via OnStar to hear the message “best first date ever” posted by the girl he just kissed goodnight, drew derisive laughter in the room I was in. In the days after, that ad barely registered, except in chatter criticizing the brand for not really understanding how Facebook works. Was the girl already a Facebook friend? Wouldn’t the guy have to suffer through 5 FarmVille updates first? Why is he using OnStar, doesn’t he have a smartphone?
The evolution of advertising on (as well as before and after) the Super Bowl demonstrates the meaning and value of marketing for a social world. To quote Eminem, “THIS IS WHAT WE DO.”
The game used to be a once-and-done event. People would talk about the commercials the next day, maybe see a news story. But with rare exceptions, if a spot never ran again, it’d be forgotten. Now, the airing of a spot is merely the kick-off of a campaign that is carried to a marketing score through social networks.
UPDATE: see related article in Advertising Age.
