Monday 8 February 2010

Superbowl 44 ads - winners and losers

I wrote last week about Pepsi and Coke taking different appraoches to their use of social media and specifically about using the Super Bowl as a kick-off point for their respective campaigns.

So although us UK viewers were provided with excellent coverage by the BBC - it was obviously an ad-free environment. So today i had a review of the ads which wounds last night, ads costing c. $ 2 million for a 30 second spot.

With the Oscars, the Superbowl half time ad break is the U.S. creative industry's chance to really shine to an enormous audience live and recorded. And with eye-watering media costs - you'd expect some really great work.

But as ever, there were (in my opinion) winners and losers, saints and sinners. I reviewed the ads here at mashable.com

My clear favorite was from Homeaway.com - renting a home service which seeks to encourage holidayers away from hotels and into peoples rented home.

For me they got it spot on. Great creative idea, good use of celebs, and 30 sec media buy which leads you (and you really do want to see more) that are online to see a short film which Heralds the return of the most infamous family holidaying, the Griswalds of National Lampoon fame . I'm not going to provide a narrative -- just have a look here t0 watch / play more

Google Trends updates has not quite yet for last nights activity, but I'm sure Homeaway.com will see a surge in traffic, plus a boost in awareness and consideration after this campaign kick off.
I also liked Vizio for its interactive enabled ads - they no doubt understood the longer-tail effect and ensured their You Tube version was interactive, creating a deeper experience with this Internet over TV brand
Doritos ran numerous 'crash the superbowl' ads again. Good to see a big idea from 3 years ago (UGC for Superbowl) still going stong.


The losers - well its hard to say this objectively, its more the ads that I found to stand-out because of their poor execution rather than outstanding work around them.

Dr.Pepper Cherry with Kiss...plus a bunch of midgets. Just lame.

Sketchers
...new 'MBT' like show - pretty much looking like a hastily arranged powerpoint create ad for 120 million people to see


And what of Pepsi and Coke? Well Pepsi had the year off to focus on social media, and Coke, well Coke threw money at the problem and invited the Simpsons to create some happiness. Nice enough but somehow left me disappointed.

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