Honestly, I don’t know what was worse: the Super Bowl, the commercials or the halftime show. The only reason I continued watching the game was for the handful of suspicious, 10-second clips that hinted of a big reveal sometime later during the game. After searching online, I learned these were covert advertisements for the reboot of Fox’s hit show ’24’ for this May. The network didn’t join the parade of sharing their ads prior to the big game, although they did tell Variety that something big was coming – which most people weren’t aware of.
Fox, airing the Super Bowl, was given about four to five minutes of air time to promote their network and shows. The short clips they aired to tease ’24’ were interesting, but wow, could they have been more effective! The teasers barely included the signature ’24’ clock sound – it was almost impossible to connect them to the show. When the full trailer aired towards the end of the game, it included the Twitter hashtag #JackisBack (Jack Bauer is the show’s main character played by Kiefer Sutherland). Fox should’ve added that hashtag to EVERY teaser video, which I feel would have helped generate a significant amount of buzz.
’24’ made a splash during the Super Bowl, which was not terribly difficult, given how pathetic some of the commercials were. There were certainly a few standouts (shown below), while most were over-the-top obnoxious, failing to connect to the brands message. I get it – an audience of 111 million viewers – it’s a huge opportunity to be seen. But ads still need to be effective and resonate with the audience, especially their target market. What we’ve seen over the past few years is nothing more than many companies taking the outrageous route to get noticed. It’s the good ones that stick around for awhile and people remain discussing. The others? I’d argue they have minimal impact over more hyper-targeted marketing.
Leading in order of my favorite Super Bowl commercials is the return of Jack Bauer and ’24’, relying on the element of surprise to reintroduce the show. I also intentionally wrote this article a few days after the big game to see what I’d remember.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fo4_r5RlBII
Maserati? It wouldn’t surprise me if most Americans were unfamiliar with this Italian automaker. And I bet most people didn’t know that Maserati jointly developed an engine with Ferrari, which both companies use in certain vehicles. That aside, their commercial early on in the game was powerful and caught my attention. I thought was far superior to Jaguar’s ad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmpiwU50f5w
The Budweiser clydesdale puppy ad. Need I say more? It was super cute and very American for the foreign-owned company.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQB7QRyF4p4
“The 80’s called, they want their store back.” Let’s see if Radio Shack can make this stick. As an avid fan of the 80’s, I loved seeing the plethora of icons entering and trashing the store. What’s better is that Radio Shack was actually poking fun at themselves, indicating they know something needs to change at their store. Let’s see if it does.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbTVOEVy6p4
Kia, which has had Super Bowl spots in recent years (the Motely Crue one was great!), is getting into the larger luxury car market, something that’s hardly synonymous with the brand. To help, they had Morpheus from ‘The Matrix’ to sell the car. It was certainly entertaining, but is it enough to make people connect luxury to Kia? Doubtful. That will take a lot of time and marketing dollars.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVmILC_jd8k
And that’s a wrap! Hopefully next year’s Super Bowl will involve the Chicago Bears and more entertainment (not by Bruno Mars, of course!).
Click here for a recap of the 2013 Super Bowl.
