It’s that time of year again when brands throw an obscene amount of their yearly ad budgets into one of the most popular sporting events of the year.
That’s right – I’m talking about the NFL Super Bowl. Prepare to be bombarded with ads featuring a hot tub full of skittles, some heart-warming puppy love stories, and avocados – yes, you heard correctly, a whole advert about avocados.
The average rate for a 30-second ad broadcast during the Super Bowl game has increased by 75% during the past decade and reached $4.2m in 2014, according to Kantar Media. Forbes has reported that this year, a 60 second spot will only cost you a pretty jaw-dropping $8m.
Here at M&M Global, we’ve chosen our six favourite teaser/full ads that have appeared so far in the run up to February 1. Check them out below:
Wix.com
Web development platform Wix.com will take its place as one of the newbies at this year’s event, airing its first ever Super Bowl ad. It has been building up the hype in preparation for the big game using the hashtag #itsthateasy. And yes, the lack of that much-needed apostrophe makes us uncomfortable too.
Painful punctuation aside, the hashtag has been used to promote how easy their website building platform is. The ad campaign features a collection of former NFL greats including Franco Harris, Terrell Owens and Emmitt Smith. Each retired player has moved on to a new career (unfortunately fictional) and is trying to get their new business off the ground.
Here’s one of our favourites featuring Emmitt Smith’s old-fashioned dance club:
Skittles
Another newbie to the world of Super Bowl ads, Skittles has created its first ever commercial for the game featuring another former NFL legend, Kurt Warner.
According to the teaser, the Skittles team and Warner are already waiting in the car park of the University of Phoenix stadium where the game will take place. It looks like they’re having a huge party, which includes a hot tub full of Skittles. Nobody could have expected less from this crazy brand.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gj_Dqkpzv1g
Avocados from Mexico
Yep, a whole advert about avocados. Over $4m is being spent on promoting a fruit – or is it a vegetable? The actual name of the company is ‘Avocados from Mexico’ and its ads are quite funny, so we’re looking forward to seeing how it uses its moment in the spotlight. Take a look at one of its recent football/avocado themed ads:
TurboTax
Last year, tax software business TurboTax released a humorous ad for the Super Bowl titled ‘Love Hurts’ that compared watching a losing Super Bowl game to a painfully sad prom date. This year its back with another humorous ad called ‘Where’s Janet.’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHYWRgGrcps
Loctite
Okay, so we’ve seen sweets, tax software and even avocados – but glue? Adhesive giant Loctite has spent most of its ad budget this year on a 30 second Super Bowl spot and, although we’re not sure what to expect just yet, it will have something to do with its less-than-year-old #WinAtGlue campaign that includes this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMMr9EMZX7U
Yes, we feel a little bit speechless after that as well.
Budweiser
Okay – I love puppies just as much as the nest person, but I didn’t see what all the fuss was about during Anheuser-Busch’s Budweiser ad titled ‘Puppy Love’.
If you haven’t seen it, it’s a love/friendship story about a puppy, a horse, and a couple. I’ve heard stories of people crying after watching it. Maybe this makes me heartless, but I’m waiting to see if this year’s follow up ad has more success at tugging my heartstrings. Here’s last year’s ad:
