37 Brands + 1 Commercial = Epic Advertising
We all know that half of the fun of the Super Bowl is the commercials. Newcastle Brown Ale takes this idea to a whole new level with their ‘Crowdsourced’ Regional Super Bowl spot: Band Of Brands.
We remember the “What’s uuuuuuuupppp” and the time Betty White was tackled. We even remember Mean Joe Greene tossing his jersey. Well, here is another commercial to add to our list of unforgettable Super Bowl advertisements. Introducing Newcastle’s “Band Of Brands”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaqRwWwXau0
Play by play: As you watch this ad you notice that at first it isn’t anything too exciting and you almost closed the window right before the gentleman featured ripped off his pants. As the brands are thrown faster and faster, you think to yourself “Wait, was that a robot? Where did the robot come from?” Once you see the mariachi band you start to chuckle and in the final seconds you realize “Yes. That was epic. Way to go Newcastle”.
Newcastle announced that the ad will only air in one market: Palm Springs, California. This is when we all appreciate the internet for allowing us to not have to live in Palm Springs to witness this momentous event.
Priscilla Flores Dohnert, Brand Director for Newcastle Brown Ale, remarks on this record-setting commercial, “Not only did we create the world’s first crowdfunded Big Game ad, but I’m pretty sure we just made the cheapest Big Game ad ever. By asking other brands to team up with our brand we are making a statement that Big Game advertising should be accessible to everyone, whether they can afford it or not.”
The brands vary from Vanity Fair Napkins to Boost Mobile, Jockey to Krave Jerky… this commercial has it all. Go ahead, watch it again and see if you can spot each of the 37 brands… We couldn’t.
Super Bowl commercials became an industry holy grail in the 1970s. Since then costs have skyrocketed to the millions (at least $4 million!) for a 30-second spot amidst the action. Millions of viewers now consider the commercial to be their primary motive for watching the Super Bowl. Budweiser, Coca-cola and Doritos have been decade-long advertising mainstays during the event, featuring some of the funniest commercials to date. And with 111.5 million viewers for 2014 we should hope so!
The Super Bowl has a special sort of viewership, explains Eric Chemi with Bloomberg Business. Chemi outlines the reasons that the Super Bowl can demand such outlandish price tags:
- Viewers don’t change the channel when a commercial break comes on, compared to any other type of programming. The audience levels for the commercials are actually higher than for the on-field play itself. And we are talking big audience: Last year’s match-up attracted 11.5 million viewers.
- Super Bowl commercials in particular have staying power from all the pre-game and post-game discussions about them.
- The cost-per-viewer (CPVs) is still competitive and in line with normal TV programming.
The combination of the aforementioned points with the ever-rising viewership – which has tripled since the original Super Bowl in 1967 – creates a perfect storm of marketing.
Which Super Bowl commercial was your favorite? Tell me about it with a Tweet @Midphase