A new face in the Super Bowl advertising battlefield
Image source: Visual China
Known as the "American Spring Festival Gala", the Super Bowl has always been an important occasion for traditional industries such as beer, snacks, and automobiles to carry out "advertising blitzkrieg". And this year, some new faces have joined the fight.
The Los Angeles Rams had a Hollywood-style ending. In the just-concluded 56th NFL (Professional Football League) Super Bowl, the home-playing Rams made a comeback in the fourth quarter to beat the Cincinnati Tigers 23-20 to win their second Super Bowl title in team history — the team's second victory since 1999 and its first title for the city since moving from St. Louis to Los Angeles in 2016.
In addition to the team's victory, Super Bowl advertising is also the focus of attention of brands and the public, and the former is more than bloody in order to expose. NBC, which broadcast the Super Bowl live, said it had sold all of its Super Bowl slots in early February, while some 30-second ads sold for a record $7 million. By comparison, in the inaugural Super Bowl in 1967, an ad sold for an average of $37,500.
Known as the "American Spring Festival Gala", the Super Bowl has always been an important occasion for traditional industries such as beer, snacks, and automobiles to carry out "advertising blitzkrieg", and advertisers who joined the battlefield this year include crypto asset companies, electric vehicle manufacturers, and new faces such as medical technology company Hollogic and e-commerce platform Lotte.
According to NBC, more than 30 new brands advertised at the Super Bowl and accounted for 40% of the event's total advertising volume. So, what ads will remain in the audience's memory, and then give birth to the effect that the advertiser wants to achieve?
01
Crypto companies are "arrogant":
Spend $14 million on a 60-second ad
Over the past year, crypto asset companies have invested heavily in sponsoring various sports teams and sports venues, and their advertising investment in the Super Bowl is still "arrogant". In the first section of the competition, Coinbase released a "strange" advertisement: against a black background, a QR code that constantly changed colors jumped on the screen, looking like an old-time DVD screensaver. If the viewer scans the QR code, they will be directed to Coinbase's official website for membership registration, and new members who successfully registered before this Tuesday will receive a $15 bitcoin reward and a chance to win a prize worth $3 million. Some media outlets said Coinbase paid $14 million for the 60-second ad.
"Our goal is to bring 1 billion people into the crypto economy," Kate Rouch, Coinbase's CMO (chief marketing officer), said in a statement. "The crypto industry is about having everyone involved, not the traditional winner-take-all. We believe that the best way to learn about the crypto industry is to try it, which is why we're launching the biggest giveaway in the company's history, allowing all new customers to start their crypto journey. ”
As the game progressed, ads for FTX and Crypto.com were released. The former reviewed major innovations in human history, including wheels, forks, light bulbs, rockets, and portable music, and said the crypto industry would be the next historic turning point; the latter showed NBA star LeBron James' "teaser" for 2003: in the future there will be wireless headphones, and movies will be played through mobile phones and electric cars.
Linli Xu, a marketing professor at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota, thinks it's interesting that the ad reflects a debate similar to the dot-com bubble of 2000. "If the goal of advertising is to raise awareness of the crypto industry, then it's a smart strategy, but if you want to push people to use cryptocurrencies, then they should educate consumers more about security and fraud." After all, from the perspective of performance, the content of the advertisement is very important.
Tom Morton, global chief strategy officer at international advertising agency R/GA, said that if crypto brands want to be accepted by mainstream society and become big companies like in the traditional financial industry, they will have a lot more work to do at the Super Bowl than other advertisers. "They're going to legitimize the industry ... So we'll see Coinbase trying to pull new ones, while other companies are vying for brand recognition. For the crypto industry, the biggest leverage at the moment is still FOMO (fear of missing out). ”
02
Electric car bayonets are red:
Polestar "spit" Tesla
In addition to the crypto industry, electric vehicle manufacturers, which are becoming increasingly competitive, also hope to gain more consumer attention. Last year, GM aired an ad at the Super Bowl starring Will Ferrell and Awkwafina; this year, the company unveiled an ad for "Ace Spy, in which Dr. Mike Myers plays Dr. Evil," whose biggest "enemy" is climate change.
Deborah Wahl, Global Chief Marketing Officer of GM, said: "Many social pioneers and young people are very concerned about climate change, and our role in this process is to help achieve an all-electric world. ”
In addition, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Salma Hayek, who starred in "The Eternals", played the retired god of ancient Greece in the BMW advertisement, and the two were once again "full of electricity" due to the "birth" of the BMW iX.
Nissan, Toyota, Kia and Polestar also released their own ads. Although Polestar is not yet a popular electric vehicle brand, Volvo and Geely are still trying to promote it. In its first Super Bowl ad, Polestar skipped the traditional melodrama, adopted an apparent minimalist style, and made an "indirect blow" to Tesla and Volkswagen in the film.
PoleStar No Compromise advertisement
The 30-second ad, titled "No Compromise," is primarily about the selling point of Polestar, especially its first all-electric model, the Polestar 2. Photos of Polar Star 2 appear with "No" written on it, followed by "dieselgate" and "conquering Mars" — referring to Volkswagen's emissions scandal and Elon Musk's obsession with SpaceX, respectively — as well as "empty promises" and "greenwashing."
In a statement, Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath said: "The Super Bowl is an iconic event and I am delighted to bring The Polestar's message to so many viewers. We are a young and ambitious brand that believes in "no compromise" in terms of design language, sustainability efforts, and car performance, and we want to share this philosophy in this ad. This is the best place to further increase the visibility of our brand in the United States and beyond. ”
It is worth mentioning that Wallbox, a Barcelona electric car charging company that has been on the market for less than a year, also played its own Super Bowl advertisement, and the advertisement starred in a real-life survivor of lightning strikes. "Basically all people who are considering buying a car will at least consider buying an electric car. The Super Bowl has brought an audience not only to automakers, but also to our products, and we feel that now is the best time to make our debut. Barra Calixto, Wallbox's chief marketing officer, said.
03
NFT into a new marketing tool:
No ads are better than ads
Since last year's hit, NFTs have also become a publicity tool for advertisers at the Super Bowl. Kia turned the "Robo Dog" she advertised into an NFT to raise money for the Petfinder Foundation, a nonprofit animal organization. In its promotion for its new zero-carb beer Bud Light Next, Bud Light has sold out 12,722 NFTs for $399 each and comes with glasses that the brand has partnered with Nouns DAO. Plus, Budweiser offers those who promote giveaway messages on Twitter the chance to win the "classic bottle and can" NFT, while the NFL and ticketing site Ticketmaster even turned each Super Bowl ticket into an NFT.
The robot dog in kia's ad
NFL stars like Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers have been promoting cryptocurrencies, while legendary quarterback Eli Manning is promoting "edible" NFTs. In "The Today Show" earlier this month, Manning said, "When you're eating chicken wings, if you scan a picture of a chicken wing bone, you get what's called Bone Coin." Whoever has the most bone coins wins the NFT. This is a real-life BFT, but also a digital BFT, but also an edible NFT. ”
Even if some crypto industry brands didn't buy Super Bowl slots, they gained exposure from the crypto boom at the event: blockchain platforms Tezos and Dapper Labs, which work on Super Bowl-related NFT developments, and Cryptokittties and NBA Top Shot, the companies behind popular NFTs. Of course, this crypto spree is also indispensable to Meta, which showed off its Quest virtual reality headset in the Super Bowl advertisement.
Miller Lite, an American light beer brand, did not advertise in the Super Bowl, but instead created a virtual bar in the 3D virtual world of Decentraland. The virtual bar, which opened on Feb. 7, features virtual beer, virtual darts and billiards, as well as a virtual snap booth, and its new "ads" are broadcast inside the bar instead of on television.
For brands, NFTs herald a new marketing strategy for the new era. He has realized that he does not have to compete for the attention of the audience through the Super Bowl's 30-second advertising slot or live advertising slot, but can obtain attention through innovative marketing methods and lower costs, and create the effect of "not in reality, but actually in the field".
Take State Farm, a well-known insurance company in the United States, for example. The brand was in the spotlight for its first Super Bowl ad in 2021 that included rugby stars Patrick Mahomes and Aaron Rodgers. But this year, State Farm decided not to buy a space, but instead launched a TikTok challenge among fans, with the winner of the challenge as the company's future advertising protagonist.
Through this kind of campaign, brands encourage fans to interact with them before the Super Bowl starts, which gives fans a stronger sense of direct engagement and a chance to win something, whether it's an advertising starring opportunity or a Super Bowl ticket. Another benefit of this approach is that brands can reach younger audiences on TikTok and Instagram and connect with them. ■
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