With the growth of social media and social sharing, Super Bowl advertising has become its own sport – a competition between top brands to bring home the coveted title of “most shared.” Websites will be collecting votes from viewers on which commercial they liked best. Others are already making predictions on the winners and losers. And, in an effort to undercut and intimidate competition, many of the advertisers have released teasers for their commercials.
Others have already released the commercials online, because why not? People are so eager to see the new crop of creative and hilarious Super Bowl ads that they’re seeking them out, and the videos are already racking up views on YouTube.
For small to medium businesses, getting your ad to play during the Super Bowl is probably way out of your league. But there are always lessons to be learned from watching the greats at work. By which I mean watching their commercials.
The Innovators
H&M – This multinational clothing company will be introducing us into some kind of futuristic capitalist utopia by allowing ad viewers to buy underwear with their TV remote. I’m serious.
Of course, this will only be possible with certain versions of the Samsung smart TVs. If you have one of those and David Beckham appears on your screen during the Super Bowl, you’ll be able to create a small window on your screen while the ad plays where you can directly purchase some undershirts. Science!
Carmax – The used car dealer has already released a full ad which will run on the Super Bowl. It’s nothing special, but they’re engaging people online simply by releasing an addition 30 second ad that will not play during the game, which celebrates Animal Planet’s yearly Puppy Bowl by recreating the ad with puppies.
Intuit – While these tax software makers will be running an ad, it won’t be about Intuit. These guys ran a contest for small businesses, with the grand prize being a 30-second Super Bowl ad. This is similar to the contest that Doritos has been doing for years, but instead of being a user-generated ad about Doritos, it’s a small business-generated ad about their small business. A B2B twist on an effective formula.
One of the finalists is a company called Poop National Dairy Compost. I know who I’m rooting for.
Most Anticipated
Wonderful Pistachios – Wonderful has managed to land Comedy Central favorite Stephen Colbert, in full character, as their spokesperson. In his words, “two professional football teams will be playing a game in honor of my first Wonderful Pistachios commercial.” Great teaser, or the greatest teaser?
Toyota – Their teaser starts with Terry Crews, builds up suspense, and ends with a Muppet in the back seat. How can you not be curious?
M&M’s – Mars released a teaser for their new M&M’s ad in which the yellow M&M character is knocked out and dragged away by a mysterious figure, who puts a ransom note-style card in front of the camera with just the Super Bowl date written. Apparently this has something to do with the “Year of the Peanut.” Intriguing!
Newbies
SquareSpace – The website builder platform will be making its first Super Bowl appearance this year, starting off with a teaser that appears to depict a man trapped in a terrifying real-life version of the Internet. Hopefully he doesn’t come across any trolls.
Heinz – Despite being a pretty huge company, Heinz hasn’t had a Super Bowl commercial in 16 years, so they’re at least newbies in the world of social media-driven Super Bowl ads. They haven’t released a teaser, but the company describes the commercial as one that will “highlight the belief that when someone picks up a bottle of Heinz Ketchup, they’re triggering all the happy memories they’ve experienced over the years where Heinz was present.” Sounds like quite the commercial.
What ads are you most looking forward to? Or are you one of those who only watch the Super Bowl for the football game?