2016 Super Bowl Must-See Commercials
February is right around the corner, and as with every year, it brings the culmination of the football season, the Super Bowl. This year seems to be an exciting one as the Denver Broncos face off against the Carolina Panthers in Super Bowl 50. The first Super Bowl to not use Roman Numerals, perhaps because “Super Bowl L” just looks like a horrific typo. Regardless of what you watch the game for, whether it is to cheer on your team, watch the commercials or just eat junk food, you are part of the largest captive audience this national sees on a yearly basis.
As marketers, we are always excited to see the commercials, which this year cost a reported $5 million per 30 seconds. Here are some of our predictions to watch for this year as far as trends in Super Bowl commercials.
The rumblings in the marketing world, as well the insane amount of teasers we are already seeing, indicate that there is going to be a ridiculous amount of celebrity endorsement in the commercials. While it is not uncommon to see a lot of famous actors and celebrities in commercials, this year looks to be a bit heavier in that direction. This is interesting to note for two reasons. First, it is a deviation from a lot of their marketing campaigns from throughout the year. This can cause their branding to become muddled and may in fact decrease their visibility over the span of the year through disassociation. Bud Light looks to do exactly this with two actors that speak to a demographic that is necessarily the demographic for their beer. It will be interesting to see how this single commercial compares to the rest of their campaign.
The second part that is of interest to us is the emphasis on celebrity actors goes against the current marketing trend. In recent years, marketing has shifted away from the idea of celebrities in commercials in an effort to play into consumer’s desires to be an individual. This is not to say that influencers and influencer marketing is not effective. In fact, it is very effective but only within that influencer’s platform. Commercials on the other hand, especially the Super Bowl commercials, are broadcast far and wide and diminish the power of influencers that are outside their realm of power. The film industry is also beginning to catch on to the fact that the new informed consumer is not swayed by actors like they were in the 80’s and 90’s. If this were still the case, Pan would not have been a fiasco and Terminator Genisys would not have been a massive flop. It will be interesting to see if the actor centric ads are successful. Our bet is that they will be easily out shown by commercials that focus on the narrative and creativity rather than the face presented.
This leads us to the next thing that we are looking forward to, the newcomers. Obviously there are many veteran marketers of Super Bowl commercials that will be showing up again this year, which perhaps accounts for the backslide into older patterns of marketing. However, there are a handful of newcomers to this national stage that are going to be looking to make an impact in a big way. We expect these newcomers to be bold, big, and push the boundaries of what is allowable on national television. Expect a lot of huge comedy with unexpected twists, which if anything, will be the most memorable of the ads. Our favorite in the teasers thus far has to be the Marmot brand. We will see if our prediction holds true after the fact, but their teaser alone makes us excited to see the full commercial.
The final thing we will be looking for are the sad commercials and the commercials that are directly referencing the most mocked commercial of last year “but then I died.” There has always been a portion of Super Bowl commercials that go right for the heartstrings. Sometimes it pays off like Budweiser’s Lost Dog commercial and is absolutely brilliant. Other times, like last year, the ad falls flat and is ridiculed mercilessly. It is always a gamble when it comes to this kind of sentimental ad. Regardless of outcome, we enjoy seeing the attempt.
So that’s what we will be doing this Super Bowl Sunday, cheering for our favorite teams, eating wonderfully unhealthy food and paying close attention to all the commercials.
