Super Bowl fervor is real, right? It may even cross your mind — should my brand consider being a Super Bowl advertiser?
The 2024 Super Bowl featured four spots from my agency, and having led the development of more than ten Super Bowl initiatives for five different brands as chief creative officer, here are some insights I’ve gleaned over the years.
The first question when it comes to considering a Super Bowl investment: What’s my objective? In many cases, the Super Bowl is the perfect scenario to jumpstart results if you have a big, new thing that your brand needs to accomplish. There is no more efficient way in modern marketing to launch a new brand or stand out in a crowded category. In fact, 2021 Kantar research from that year showed that the ads delivered an average return on investment of $4.60 per dollar spent, with many brands in the double digits.
Though other cultural tentpoles like awards shows and the Olympics are also big tune-in moments, they don’t compare in terms of people actively wanting to gather with friends and watch ads. It is the one annual moment when brand marketing can get in front of millions of engaged people.
And comparatively speaking, the Super Bowl wins. The gap between the Super Bowl and an average primetime rating has grown significantly — from a 16x to a 37x ratio in the past 10 years. While the Super Bowl has always been big, it’s increasingly hard to find ways to aggregate such a scaled audience so quickly and easily.
Effectiveness of Super Bowl marketing depends on five key factors:
Knowing “why now?”
The Super Bowl investment is monumental, and the payoff is substantial, but depends on having the right business objective. Think of it as “the moment.” The Super Bowl is a uniquely meaningful and visible way to “meet the moment.”
It’s critical to make a business case for a Super Bowl investment. For Homes.com, which is entering a crowded existing category, we intentionally decided with clients to officially launch the brand during the Super Bowl to capture as much attention as possible and make a big impact when people are receptive to it. Both Homes.com and sister company Apartments.com have a wide audience, so the Super Bowl made perfect sense.
Blanketing the Super Bowl on one day to reach one-third of the country is a solid bet to catapult Homes.com and boost Apartments.com.
Not being afraid of bold, culturally relevant creative.
Brands have an opportunity to create lasting memories. Super Bowl creative must embrace pop culture — relevancy is paramount for this huge, varied audience. Does the creative tap into emotion? Whether humorous or unexpected, the creative idea must rise above the rest. Equally important, does the creative concept have staying power? What will separate it and enable recall again and again?
Having an aggressive strategy across channels.
The creative concept must deliver across platforms — beyond just the spot in the game. Can it perform on social, OOH, display and beyond? Super Bowl marketing must have a 360 approach across channels to have impact and life beyond the fourth quarter.
Aligning on the results.
The agency and client must be in lockstep on achieving agreed-upon outcomes, tracking key metrics, analyzing performance, and pivoting to continuously improve results.
A partnership of trust and respect.
Super Bowl marketers have a lot at stake. Success and business growth are mandatory. These colossal expectations require a solid client-agency relationship built on confidence, transparent communication, collaboration, flexibility, and, above all, respect. I have found that credibility built over time through successful campaigns contributes to a lasting partnership that is essential when navigating the big game.
Let’s face it — there is nothing as exhilarating as creating a winning Super Bowl campaign. It’s incredible to witness client success when the creative lands and leaves an indelible mark for viewers. Which speaks to my fundamental belief that “big brands do big things.” And there is nothing bigger than the Super Bowl.
