A Hail Mary pass: how to win the ads at the Super Bowl
Steve Kalb is SVP, director of video investments at MullenLowe Mediahub. Here, he offers an insight into what happens behind the scenes in the run up to the Super Bowl.
Super Bowl is 240 minutes of guaranteed attention, guaranteed scrutiny and guaranteed social commentary. With an average of 114 million sets of eyes on the game, plus pre/post match analysis and hype, this unique media window has become a focal point for brands with global players such as Volkswagen, Budweiser and Coca Cola competing to gain their Unfair Share of Attention.
When you think of this billion-dollar window, and the big Super Bowl advertisers like Budweiser that show up every year with multiple spots – or even those with a single spot – one of the key behind the scenes strategies, after deciding to purchase those costly spots, is negotiating where they will run. Timing can be everything.
It is no accident that Bud claims the big post kick-off spot each year and is always the first Super Bowl ad seen within the game. For our clients we like to advise the spot coming right after the first Budweiser spot, as interest in ads are at an all-time high at the beginning of the game. Let’s think like a challenger and hijack the one time you might actually prefer a B position versus an A position, to come second rather than first.
But what about those one-off advertisers? The ones that seem to come and go each year? What is their strategy all about? We had the opportunity to find out a few years back when one of our clients – an emerging internet brand heard that their main competitor and arch nemesis purchased the last ad in in Super Bowl XLV, along with a pre game spot. Since there was a battle for market share raging on between the two, we had to counter this move.
We contacted the TV network and uncovered where the competitor’s spots would be airing in the pre-game and asked if there were any units available after that time, but as close to kick-off as possible. As luck would have it we were able to negotiate a 30-second spot to air at approximately 6:20pm, right before the pre-game show ended and right before the kick-off. Perfect.
Strategically this move allowed us to pay half the cost of an in-game spot, position ourselves well after our competitor’s pre-game ad would air, and then run ours at the heightened launch of the Big Game.
On game night we were all glued to our sets, more anxious about our own playbook than the big game itself. As customary, we informed the client that the spot would air around 6:20pm, although it could shift slightly because of the live nature of the game.
At the 6:20pm break, our ad did not air, nor did it air at 6:22pm, not even at 6:25pm…our client started texting me… “??”, my boss started texting me…"#@%#?!*". Christina Aguilera started belting out The Star Spangled Banner. How did the network miss running our spot?!
And then it happened…
Christina finished up The Star Spangled Banner, the announcer came on and said, “stay tuned for Super Bowl XLV”, and then our spot ran, followed by a quick network promo, and then the kick-off.
Score! A Hail Mary pass that landed in the most coveted pre-game position you could get. Those extra minutes added millions of additional viewers to our estimates…and about five years to our lives. Our clients were thrilled, our challenger approach paid off and after the initial numbers came in from their site traffic the next day, we got our next project assignment…"What can we do at the Academy Awards this month?"
That was a whole different ball game…