Green Bay won the game, but who won the Super Bowl ad contest?
The Green Bay Packers have won Super Bowl XLV but the real winners are still to emerge, as television viewers and marketing gurus will choose their favourite commercials of the telecast.
Fox aired the game and charged about USD $3 million for 30 seconds of ad time during the football final. While that kind of advertising budget puts a Super Bowl spot out of reach for many businesses, some find it pays in dividends.
Last year, vacation rental website Homeaway.com launched its first Super Bowl ad. Helped perhaps by its cast – Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo seemingly reprising their National Lampoon movie roles – the company reported that visits to its website spiked and the company recouped 60 to 70 percent of the cost of the commercial.
For years, many viewers have found that the advertisements are just as big of a draw as the football game. It’s a marketer’s dream. This year, all 68 ad spots sold out in October. (Last year, some slots remained until six days before kickoff.) Some companies launch campaigns, others offer giveaways, some use cute animals to sell their wares and others rely on celebrity endorsements. Sometimes they become classics and sometimes their age shows after a few years. Will this year’s Volkswagen/Darth Vader ad become a classic or will it fade as others have?
Cases in point: Some insurance-related Super Bowl spots from the past 35 years.
In 1976, New York Life created a Super Bowl ad that meshed football with the message that women can benefit from life insurance, too:
In 1979, Allstate’s split-screen commercial conveys the importance of mortgage protection insurance. Things weren’t so flashy then:
In 1989, Continental made good use of a jingle, though the rhyming scheme is somewhat suspect:
In 1987, Allstate let its customers know how 1986 was:
In 1999, The Hartford cashed in on the animals-in-advertising craze and examined the perils of kangaroos:
In 2005, State Farm rolled out the first of its True Stories campaign ads, including this one:
Did you watch this year’s game? What did you think of the commercials? Check back to this blog post as I’ll update it with video, whenever possible, especially if you leave a Comment about your favourite spot!
-Julie.
I find it amazing to read how after the ads were aired, traffic on company websites were immediately up as high as 200+%. Social media rules!
Some great ads this year, but no real ‘classics’ jumped out for me like other years.