Consumers are likely to notice something different when they watch the Super Bowl this Sunday: a series of advertisers they’ve never seen in the game before, many of whom have seen their businesses grow in the last year during the pandemic.
A growing list of newcomers will spend about $ 5.5 million on a 30-second commercial to showcase their stuff. Among them: Robinhood trading app; Fiverr stand-alone work platform; the online food delivery company DoorDash; used car company Vroom; Mercari reseller platform; gardening supplier Scotts Miracle-Gro; employment site Indeed; the online betting company DraftKings; the Chipotle restaurant chain; Kimberly-Clark’s Huggies; and Unilever’s Hellman’s mayonnaise brand. And more will emerge as the game approaches this weekend.
Some major companies, like Coca, Pepsi and Budweiser, are refusing to buy traditional ad time in the game.
Companies that are advertising during this year’s game are at risk from the coronavirus pandemic. Derek Rucker, who teaches advertising strategy at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, said that very serious brands can be perceived as depressing by consumers, but going too far in the other direction can also be counterproductive.
“There is a possibility that if you are so irrelevant and disconnected, consumers will not like it very much,” he said. “The stakes are high and some brands will get it right, and I want to see how they do it.”
Some of the newcomers were useful to domestic consumers during the pandemic. The DoorDash ad, for example, will feature characters from “Vila Sésamo” highlighting items like paper towels (or yes, cookies) that you can deliver. The company last year started offering more convenience items, household supplies and other health and wellness products during the pandemic, when people were trying to limit their trips to the supermarket.
Scotts Miracle-Gro said his Super Bowl ad was designed to build on the momentum he gained during the coronavirus pandemic, CEO Jim Hagedorn told CNBC on Wednesday.
“We got about 20 million new customers at Covid last year, and the goal is to keep them and grow the market,” said Hagedorn in “Power Lunch”.
Hagedorn added that the Super Bowl is a way to reach these people and persuade them to stay.
“The Super Bowl is a great platform for the great types of innovative messaging for a company,” said Jim Nail, chief B2C Marketing analyst. In a year like this, it could mean: “How is the brand relevant in a pandemic-induced world?”
Nail said the fact is on track and hopes that Fiverr will do the same in his ads. The first said that its announcement will highlight the job search journey in a challenging market, when people are facing economic difficulties. Fiverr’s announcement will discuss how small businesses need to move their businesses digitally to survive and how Fiverr freelancers can help.
Gali Arnon, head of marketing at Fiverr, said this was a “landmark year” for the company.
“Worldwide, freelancers [are] joining our platform, because of the situation, because of the pandemic and because of the high unemployment rate worldwide, ”she said.
Mercari’s ad shows a couple receiving two popcorn makers as a gift, then showing how they list one on Mercari and showing it in their new home. “Buy or sell almost everything online from home,” says the narration.
Mercari’s CEO in the United States, John Lagerling, told CNBC that the company began to see an increase in business from the spring blockades.
“People wanted to turn unused things into money, to manage their finances,” he said. On the other hand, they wanted to “blow up” or optimize their spaces while they were at home using second hand items.
In a normal year, people may have turned to Craigslist or old garage sales to find or get rid of old items, but many people were trying to limit contact. And Lagerling said that Mercari was a way for them to do that.
And because of the pandemic, roommates and a real-life couple were included in the ad, rather than strangers pretending to be living together or married. The company worked with Rain the Growth Agency on the ad.
Another newcomer to the Super Bowl, Vroom launched his IPO in 2020 and said he saw huge growth as people chose to buy vehicles online rather than at a dealership. Although the company said it initially saw an interruption in its e-commerce operations because of the pandemic, consumer demand for used vehicles eventually returned to levels prior to Covid due to strong demand for e-commerce and contactless delivery. .
“Particularly in the early stages of the pandemic, some people were physically unable to reach a dealership because some of them had to close for obvious reasons,” said Vroom’s marketing director, Peter Scherr. “We were an interesting, new and innovative alternative that really captured the moment for consumers.”
The spot is part of a campaign with the agency MDC Partners’ Anomaly. The campaign contrasts the company’s offers with the traditional process of going to a dealership.
“There is no bigger stage in the advertising world than the Super Bowl,” said Scherr. “We are excited to reach a mass audience.”
Companies that perform well may very well launch themselves definitively into the minds of American consumers.
“Some of these are companies that grew significantly during the pandemic and are looking to take advantage of that moment and use this great Super Bowl moment as a launching point to reach the next level of brand awareness,” said Lee Newman, CEO of the Interpublic agency. Group MullenLowe US ”Traditionally, the Super Bowl has been a vehicle for making this transition and becoming a household name, and this year will be no different.”
Consumers may be watching more closely than ever for perceived insensitivity or acting very cheerful after a difficult year for the country. Many will likely be wrong to show how they have been and can be valuable at this point, said Anjali Bal, professor of marketing at Babson College.
The themes will involve “this idea of unity, how we are surviving the pandemic, kind of how technology helped us in the pandemic, those kinds of things,” she said.
For those who are out of this year’s Super Bowl, that decision may be a more experienced decision, as brands try to get attention, even if they are not in the game.
Coca said last month that it will not be displaying an in-game ad “to ensure that we are investing in the right resources during these unprecedented times” and while recovering from the financial impact of the pandemic. Pepsi said it is replacing its traditional Super Bowl ad spot with a new campaign to lead the break show with The Weeknd. And Budweiser, which will not run an ad in the Super Bowl for the first time in 37 years, is focusing on promoting vaccine awareness and distribution efforts.
But PepsiCo’s sister brands, including those in the Frito-Lay portfolio like Doritos and Cheetos, are still up for grabs. Likewise, other Anheuser-Busch InBev brands, such as Bud Light and Bud Light Seltzer Lemonade, will have advertisements.
“My perspective is that the headlines are not as drastic as the reality,” said Bill Wise, CEO of advertising software company Mediaocean. Budweiser, for example, is getting a lot of attention for not running an ad, he said. Wise also said that it appears that Bud is increasing its advertising spend before the game, including on digital channels.
“They are complementing this won media with more paid media, only in other types of media [outside] the Super Bowl, “he said.” It could be argued that Budweiser is actually running an omni channel campaign better than anyone right now. “