Ask someone about the most memorable commercial in Super Bowl history, and they’re likely to cite either Coca-Cola’s 1980 “Mean” Joe Greene spot, in which a kid shares a special moment with his imposing athletic hero, or Apple’s famed 1984 Big Brother spot, which signaled a new era for commercial advertising in the big game. Yet since those dramatic commercials aired more than two decades ago, humor has become the key ingredient in Super Bowl advertising. A poll of 14 top ad agencies conducted by USA Today last year ranked laughter as the most important element in a Super Bowl spot. Many of the game’s most memorable ads, including Budweiser’s frogs, McDonald’s Larry Bird-Michael Jordan hoops game, and just about any Pepsi spot, use humor to deliver their message. A majority of this weekend’s ads will likely appeal to the funny bone, and they’ve been a long time coming. Agencies reject about 90 percent of the ideas pitched for Super Bowl commercials and can take up to a year to plan an ad, according to agency veteran Walter Guarino. Guarino, an advertising professor in Seton Hall University's Master of Arts in strategic communications program and president and managing partner of Insight/SGW, talks to Media Life about the best Super Bowl ads ever, what’s getting big buzz this year, and why bad games can be good for advertisers.
Historically speaking, what type of ads tend to get the best response, humorous, serious, highly targeted?
The best response usually comes from the humorous spots. That's because the Super Bowl game is an automatic reason to have a national party. Whether it's getting together with friends or family (or both), it's the biggest party day of the year. Heaven forbid that the game gets lopsided and dull, the party spirit could dim and fade.
But that won't happen thanks to the ads. They keep the celebratory spirit going and almost act as a failsafe to keeping the party alive.
Therefore, the ads that entertain (and most of those are humorous) do quite well and generate a lot of buzz for an advertiser.
There are exceptions like Coke's Mean Joe Greene, the famous 1984 spot directed by Ridley Scott, the Clydesdale horses spots and others, which, though not humorous, provide some wonderfully emotional entertainment.
The real thing is not so much the recall of the ads as much as remembering the brand. Sounds strange, I know, but people can see a spot over and over and still not remember the sponsor. There are too many of those to comment on, but it's obvious who they are because they're not back again this year.
What have been some of the most successful Super Bowl spots in history?
The most successful Super Bowl spots in history have to be the three I mentioned above, in addition to many Anheuser-Busch spots. They are the king of Super Bowl sponsors, spending the most money and running the most spots.
From the very popular frogs to hiding the Bud Lite spots, they have made people howl with laughter. They pre-test their spots and have a genuine feel for what the mass audience wants to see and hear.
I personally like the Career Builder chimps, but it looks like they lost their momentum. The E*Trade "Monkey" spot where a chimp does the cha cha is also a classic. Doritos had a winner when they showed two guys trying to impress Miss America in a Laundromat.
Pepsi ran a hysterical spot about a guy in the middle of nowhere trying to get a Pepsi vending machine to accept his dollar bill. After trying till sundown, it finally accepted it and he was jubilant only to see the dollar come back out when he pressed his soda choice.
I could go on, but these are some of my favorites, which I know helped build the brands and sales as a result. If you don't do that, the party's over.
If the game is competitive, do people pay more or less attention to the ads? Or does that matter?
When the game is less competitive, people are more likely to pay more attention to the ads.
It sort of goes back to my theory expressed above about keeping the party spirit going. If the game starts out to be a less competitive affair, viewers await the halftime show with a little more appreciation.
Nonetheless, the good commercials get seen and talked about in the end. Now, of course, you can go the internet almost immediately after the game to see a commercial that you may have missed while taking a break during the game.
How long does it take, from start to finish, to create a Super Bowl ad? How many ideas are usually tossed out along the way?
How long it takes to develop a commercial can be 10 months or more in the planning. A lot of the newer spots are created to launch a new campaign for a brand or company that will continue to run. It's the sponsor who creates commercials specifically for the Super Bowl that really has to get going early.
As for the number of ideas, it can be enormous. I would say easily that 90 percent of the ideas get rejected out of hand. Others get rejected by a committee vote and the winners get to the final stage by a process of attrition killing the ideas that get dropped.
When did the Super Bowl start to gain the reputation as a night not just for football but for great ads as well?
It really started with Apple's legendary 1984 blockbuster. It was like a mini-movie with enormous production value and unlike anything seen in the business before. The whole Big Brother concept and the heroine's ability to outrun the Thought Police was so different and engaging that all one could was say "Wow!" when it was over. Just great stuff at the right time.
How do advertisers build buzz for their ads these days?
These days there are so many gimmicks and new ways to build buzz for your commercial. The internet with its YouTube and bloggers and chat rooms and so on is a natural for pre- and post-Bowl publicity.
This year there is a great deal of buzz in two areas. The first is the K-Fed Nationwide commercial, which is controversial and offensive to folks who flip burgers for a living, according to the National Restaurant Association.
The second is what we are referring to in the business as the "Average Joe" spots, which are developed from ideas submitted by the public via contests. There will be three of them (Doritos, Chevy and the NFL).
I will be watching those spots with a great deal of interest to see if this is the beginning of a trend. They all have be winners for that to happen. Two-out-of-three is not enough to say this is a new trend. Right now, it's a gimmick, but I think it's a darn good one at that.
Are there any other ads this year that people are particularly anticipating?
In addition to the "Average Joe" trio, I think the NFL is going to run a commercial that will get a lot of talk. Rumor is that it will have Paris Hilton in the same commercial with Martha Stewart -- enough said.
I will be most interested (as well as a lot of my colleagues) in the Garmin GPS spot, which I think will establish them as king of the mountain in the GPS business.
Of course, I have to end with the Bud Lite series and can't wait to see where they are going to hide the beer next.
