The Method To The Madness of Superbowl Ads

The Superbowl is one of the most-watched events in history. Each year, over 100 million Americans tune in to watch the iconic event, and they don’t just do it for the love of the sport…

In fact, for millions of viewers, the event is less so about the two teams, or the sport of football, than it is about the colossus half-time concert and infamous commercials (or as we say in the UK, adverts). 

So whilst the Superbowl is a career-moment for all the players on the field… it’s also a Marketing Superbowl of sorts for those working on the adverts. 

The pressure on companies to knock their ad out of the park is always unbelievably high because….

• A 30 sec Superbowl ad will cost a company a minimum of $5 million per slot. 

• Work on Superbowl ads begins in late spring, just months after the last one (around 10 months prior to the big event). 

• With the huge investment involved, companies will often want to introduce a new product or campaign 

• On average, a Superbowl ad can get you a brand lift of 12%, and for the best, brands have seen a brand recognition boost of 36%. 

So, what is the method behind the madness? 

Whats the secret recipe to Superbowl success?

What do the best ones have in common? Well…

Firstly, they must be entertaining. The ad viewer must be engaged.

They must be attention grabbing. With the slots being so short, in such a convoluted space, the ad needs to capture the attention of the viewer straight away. 

Of course, it also needs to tell a good story. Just like any other great advert. 

It must also evoke emotion. Whether its making people laugh, cry, or anything in between, the best superbowl ads have evoked some emotion in the viewer. 

All the best ads are also unique. They’re often shocking, unpredictable and a breathe of creative fresh air. 

But what if you don’t have 5 million? (Don’t worry, we don’t either!) Worry not, because any good superbowl ad has all the ingredients you need to create a great marketing campaign on any scale.

Let’s break down this Volkswagen 2011 ad and see how you could apply it to your campaigns:

So, what does this ad have? And how can you use it on your campaigns?

Entertaining Story-telling: 

Volkswagen’s main goal is to put a smile on the viewer’s face. There’s no conversation, no language needed. Instead, the presence of the child/parent relationship, some basic storytelling mixed with pop culture referencing creates a universal sensation of relatability. So if you’re stuck on where to start on your campaign, start with a storyboard that spells out your idea and proceed to fill the blanks. Or, even better, if you’re really not sure where to start. Why not start with your goal and work backwards? You can find out more about how to do that here. 

Magic first, product second: 

Volkswagen know better than to put a car in your face and just tell you to buy it. They understand that at the core of any good ad or campaign is a “moment of magic” that comes before the product. However, what Volkswagen did is use their product, the car, as a conduit for that moment of magic. They place the product at the centre of the story, but never as the protagonist. Think about how you can form a narrative around your product, use the story to elevate your product in people’s mind, and then find the perfect way to execute it. If you want to learn more about working your product into a campaign story, click here. 

Give it word-of-mouth potential:

This Volkswagen ad was talked about online, and offline, for weeks on end in the aftermath of its airing. People wanted to talk about it for obvious reasons; the idea, its execution, and the clever use of the Star Wars reference. But how can you get people to talk about your campaign for you? Make it relatable, unique and evoke some emotion. Getting people to talk about your campaign is all about the tactics you draw up beforehand. People won’t talk about it if you don’t execute the marketing plan in the right way. To learn about how to develop your PR tactics from the experts, click here. 

Superbowl ads are some of the most viewed, most important and most revered marketing campaigns in the world, so they are a great template to draw from for your own campaigns, no matter how small. If you’re struggling to get started on your first campaign, why not start learning today via a free trial of PR Shop here.

Welcome to PR Shop

Many agencies will have people think that PR and social media are complicated but it’s just not true.  With a little training to understand the basics of why and how, any marketer or business owner can deliver an effective campaign that will grow their business and connect with their audience.

Media relations, product launches, effective social ad campaigns and influencer engagement are easy to execute once you know the tricks of the trade.

Don’t get us wrong, we know that we have honed our skills over our 40 years of collective PR, digital marketing and social media experience and we know exactly how to create the very best, award-winning campaigns by trial and error more than anything else.

But we aren’t afraid to share our knowledge and experience.

PR Shop was born out of a lockdown idea to help small businesses learn how to make the very most of their PR and social media campaigns.  We had seen so many start-ups beginning to thrive in the ever changing world of Covid and many enquired about campaigns but didn’t have the budget just yet.

So we thought, we have time and we are doing a lot of lockdown learning, so why not create our own course that is designed specifically for start-ups and small businesses to teach owners and marketeers the tricks of our trade…

Three months, a lot of video takes, one far too fast autocue and many many powerpoint documents later - we have PR Shop.

It has seven modules that will take you through all of the basics from strategy and planning to delivery and measurement.  There’s no jargon, no over-complicated theory, it’s usable techniques that you could apply right now.  

Each module explores and explains a simple process with sample documents and case studies to show exactly why a campaign could work for you. For example, media relations will show you how to choose which media to target, how to write a press release and how to pitch your product or service to them.  As I said, it’s not rocket science, but you don’t know what you don’t know.

What’s more, even though PR Shop is an online course, it’s supported by a team of eight PR and social media professionals from Down at the Social who will be on hand to help you along the way. Our dedicated Facebook group enables peer to peer learning or you can get in touch with us directly with any questions or even to bounce ideas off us.  We won’t be able to help telling you what we think and throwing some more ideas into the mix.

Get started on your free trial now, you can follow our journey and let us know how we can improve your experience via our social media channels:

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