Super Bowl Ads: Ads With As Much Passion As Games

Timothee Chalamet (Instagram tchalamet)

JAKARTA - The series of events for the LV Super Bowl matches were successfully held on Sunday, February 7 yesterday. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the audience's enthusiasm remains high.

In addition to matches, the Super Bowl event is much awaited by the advertising segment that airs throughout the event. Called Super Bowl ads, this ad segment becomes a new freshness in Super Bowl screenings every year.

With a large number of viewers, companies began competing to get their ad serving slots in the Super Bowl event. This strategy is believed to be able to build public awareness and go viral.

Quoting Sporting News, the cost of advertising in the Super Bowl continues to increase. The first year of the Super Bowl, they only charged 37 thousand US dollars in 1967. But in 2020, the price will be 5.6 million US dollars for 30 seconds.

Every year, there are many subscription brands that never miss serving ads. Among them are Master Lock, Coca Cola, Budweiser, Doritos, Go Daddy, and many others.

Still Relevant

In the midst of high competition for social media ads such as Instagram or TikTok, the struggle for the Super Bowl ads slot continues to this day.

Is advertising on television still relevant? The answer is "still". In 2015, the Super Bowl XLIX show was watched by more than 114 million people in the United States. This is a fantastic tally of numbers and indicates that the American public is looking forward to the Super Bowl and a series of commercials.

Since then, Super Bowl ads have become a cultural phenomenon alongside the game itself.

“There is a symbolic trait about the Super Bowl ad where it is not the same as any other platform. The previous Super Bowl ad was just an advertisement (only). After decades, the ad is like a two-week show," Tim Calkins, professor of marketing at the Kellogg School of Management, told CNN Business.

In 2019, Pepsi's stock increased 0.8 percent after airing an ad entitled "More Than Ok" at Super Bowl LIII. This ad features Steve Carell, Cardi B, and Lil Jon gathering with the message that drinking Pepsi is more than OK. Cardi B's "I Like It" song, which was a hit at that time, could be heard in a Pepsi commercial.

Electronics shop RadioShack saw a share increase about 7 percent after broadcasting a Super Bowl ad in 2014. This ad, titled "They Want Their Store Back", tells the old and new sides of RadioShack. It is known, at that time, RadioShack had a bad period that threatened their company.

Super Bowl commercials become an iconic segment because they present unpredictable stories, quality cinematography, and often even use special effects. In addition, the use of celebrities as cameos in advertisements is something that can attract people's attention.

One of the most recent is a Cadillac ad played by Timothee Chalamet and Winona Ryder. They paid tribute to Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands, released in 1990.

This Cadillac ad is adapted to the plot of the film where Edgar Scissorhands (Chalamet) has the same hands as his father and he cannot move freely. His mother, Kim (Ryder) gives a Cadillac LYRIQ car with hands-free driving technology so that Edgar can drive without using his hands.

It can be concluded that these three advertisements have an interesting story concept with the presence of celebrities who can steal the attention of the artist's fans.

Films Become Commercials

Not only advertising products, but a production house also promotes their latest film through Super Bowl ads. Like showing other advertisements, the production house hopes that the film trailer ad that is shown will bring in material benefits when the film is shown in theaters.

However, considering that it is still in a pandemic situation, many production houses choose to keep promotional meetings for their films. This year, only a few movie trailers that have aired are F9: The Fast Saga, Raya and the Last Dragon, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Coming 2 America.

Another part is the exclusive trailer that premiered at the Super Bowl, namely Nobody and Old, and the trailer for the series The Equalizer and Clarice from CBS.

Many home studios choose not to advertise on Super Bowl LV. The cinema is still closed so they won't advertise if they don't know the exact release.

A little flashback, in 2020, many tentpole movie trailers were broadcast exclusively on the Super Bowl: A Quiet Place II, Sonic the Hedgehog, Top Gun: Maverick, No Time to Die, Black Widow, and Mulan. But one year on, only two films from the above list have been released. The rest had to experience repeated delays.

With all the differences this year, the Super Bowl still managed to sell all the ad slots. Quoting Variety, with a rate of 5.5 million US dollars, advertisers are interested in the Super Bowl broadcast.

Then, the Super Bowl ad is a big investment for the company. Even though it doesn't always produce fantastic profits, sometimes following the Super Bowl interest at least enhances the company's brand image.