Superbowl-ads.com Article Archive

Dockers® brand has created an innovative way to provide consumers with relevant content on their terms. Dockers® and Shazam® have developed an integrated program that allows consumers who watch the new Dockers® “Men Without Pants” TV commercial to use their mobile devices to engage at a deeper level with the brand – a world’s first. Once the ad is “shazamed,” viewers will link directly to a branded-content site. This technology is a major step forward in making TV clickable like digital media.

The new commercial debuts during the Super Bowl XLIV broadcast on February 7 on CBS, the first Dockers commercial to air on the Super Bowl since 2002. Viewers who have Shazam® downloaded on their smartphones can tag the spot and are instantly taken to a branded-content page. On this page, consumers can read about the “Wear the Pants™” campaign, learn about and purchase the “I Wear No Pants” track and more. The ad debut will also include a khaki pant giveaway promotion that can be entered immediately via consumer mobile devices with the Shazam® technology. The commercial continues through 2010 on a variety of shows and networks including NBA on TNT, FX, Comedy Central and the Discovery Channel and will also air online immediately following the Super Bowl debut. The khaki give away runs from February 7 – 15, 2010.

Definition 6, an integrated interactive agency, today announced the launch of the Coca-Cola “Happiness Machine” video. Coca-Cola selected Definition 6 to develop a video for viral distribution that would tie into its recently launched ‘Open Happiness’ global advertising campaign.

“We were looking for a creative way to connect with teens outside of the typical TV commercial or online game,” said A.J. Brustein, Global Senior Brand Manager, Coca-Cola. “We wanted to give them something that would spread a bit of happiness and something they could pass on to their friends to keep the happiness flowing.”
The “Happiness Machine” campaign features a Coca-Cola vending machine transformed to deliver small “doses” of happiness for unsuspecting college students, in the form of everything from flowers and pizza, to 6-foot subs and balloon animals.

He spit up in front of 97.4 million people and “underestimated the creepiness” of a clown he hired, but the 9-month-old in E-Trade’s (ETFC) two Super Bowl ads is a star. Both ads aired late in the game, but ranked 13th and 14th out of 53 game ads with consumers rating the ads in real time for USA TODAY’s annual Super Bowl Ad Meter. Since then, they’ve been two of the most-watched game ads online and finished high in measures of online buzz.

How they made the ads: The crew at agency Grey New York filmed the baby (his name is not being disclosed) sitting in a highchair before a green screen making expressions, mostly in response to his mother. She sat in an adjacent room for the filming and was seen by the baby on a monitor. Added later digitally: the mouth movements of a 5-year-old actor, the voice of a 30-year-old and the keyboard, room items and clown.

comScore (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released the results of its annual Super Bowl post-game survey. The survey of 1,139 U.S. Internet users who watched Super Bowl XLII, which featured the New York Giants’ improbable victory over the previously undefeated New England Patriots, was conducted on February 3-4, 2008. With two large market teams and the Patriots’ quest for a perfect season on the line, the television broadcast averaged a record 97 million viewers throughout the game, making the event even more important than usual for this year’s advertisers.

Anheuser-Busch Reigns as King of Ads

The most popular advertiser during the Super Bowl was Anheuser-Busch, whose commercials for Bud and Bud Light (including comedian Will Ferrell’s offbeat spot) scored well amongst viewers, with nearly half indicating they would most like to see the commercials again. Beverage spots were particularly popular this year, with a large percentage of respondents saying they would also like to see ads for Pepsi (28 percent) and Coca Cola (25 percent) again.

et ready for more Jackie Moon pitches for Bud Light.

The improvisational endorsement from Will Ferrell’s character in New Line Cinema’s release of Semi Pro initially was intended to be an online short. But Anheuser-Busch executives decided to put the ad from DDB, New York and Chicago, on Fox’s Super Bowl telecast during the fourth quarter.

“We agreed with Will’s team a couple weeks ago and ourselves that it would be better for the Super Bowl because it’s an opportunity for a few more jokes; it was a great call,” said Bob Lachky, chief creative officer and evp, global industry development.

Even though the economy is putting the brakes on sales, auto-focused companies still are spending big bucks to drive brand awareness with Super Bowl advertising. Audi, Toyota (TM), General Motors (GM), Hyundai and Cars.com all have in-game ads, which are selling for up to $2.7 million for 30 seconds.

Hyundai did have thoughts about reselling the 60 seconds it bought last fall from game broadcaster Fox, but stayed in.

“We wanted to make sure that it made sense (to keep the time) given the fact that the economy doesn’t look as bright as it did,” Hyundai spokesman Chris Hosford says.

Hyundai, like the other auto companies, sees the Super Bowl as one of the diminishing media opportunities to reach a truly mass audience — and one where the audience watches the ads.

On Sunday, National Basketball Association All-Star guard Dwyane Wade will try to lure Super Bowl viewers into becoming T-Mobile cellphone subscribers.

The ad extends a current series in which Wade tries to get into the “MyFaves” list of former NBA star Charles Barkley. With the “MyFaves” service, T-Mobile subscribers can select five favorite contacts — T-Mobile subscribers or not — and get unlimited calling to them.

Wade says he’s “pumped” to be on the world’s largest advertising stage: “Everyone knows that it’s one of the biggest days to be on TV.”

Anheuser-Busch spent about $2.7M a pop on nine ads in this year’s Super Bowl – with seven of the spots devoted to Bud Light.The lineups are just about set for Super Bowl Sunday – not on the field, but for the glitzy, star-studded TV commercials that will cost close to $3 million apiece.

“The advertisers this year have learned how to do it,” says Walter Guarino, advertising professor at Seton Hall University. “They’ll keep it light and humorous, and I think it will be a real good year.”

Like Eli Manning and Tom Brady on the field, Super Bowl legend Justin Timberlake will lead a team of stars through 63 ad spots with an airtime tab that will run about $175 million.

CareerBuilder.com caused a stir in the advertising world last year when it dropped its longtime agency after its Super Bowl commercial flopped. Marketers switch agencies all the time, but the move was unusual because the same firm had done two previous CareerBuilder Super Bowl ads that were huge hits.

This year, CareerBuilder will be back in action at the big game, with a new agency: the Portland headquarters of Wieden + Kennedy, which also makes commercials for Coca-Cola and Nike. CareerBuilder’s new spots will be closely watched by advertising executives — and not just because of last year’s drama. The site faces a challenge common to companies in many sectors, and the new ad campaign is an effort to address it.

Audi is betting it can rev up its image with a parody of rivals in a Super Bowl commercial backed by a Hollywood-size production budget.

The Volkswagen-owned carmaker is looking to crown itself as the new luxury auto brand. Audi’s first Big Game ad in 20 years features its new $109,000 R8 speed machine. It uses a send-up of an iconic scene from The Godfather to poke fun, without naming names, at luxury car rivals.