At cj Advertising, many of us love football. But ALL of us are bat$h!t crazy about advertising. So for ad nerds like us, this Sunday’s big game is like…well… the Super Bowl. The innovative commercials serve as creative inspiration and remind us of television’s place atop the advertising throne. Need proof? Consider that CBS sold out their inventory of spots weeks ago at an average of $3.7 million dollars a pop!
As the Niners and Ravens prepare to duke it out on the gridiron, get your commercial game face on by checking out Advertising Age’s complete breakdown of the creative and marketing strategies for all of the big spenders.
If you’re in a rush, here are a few of our favs:
- Anheuser-Busch InBev storms in double-fisted with a hefty four and a half minute ad buy. 90 seconds will promote the release of two new, high-alcohol beers: Budweiser Black Crown and Beck’s Sapphire. A concurrent twitter campaign is already underway inviting followers to name the Clydesdale foal seen in this spot.
- AXE’s first-ever Super Bowl commercial is ready for launch… literally. To promote the new AXE Apollo brand, the company is hosting a sweepstakes that will send 23 winners on a private space craft. Destination? You guessed it, space! The already-released spot is a taut love triangle about a heroic lifeguard who gets outclassed by an astronaut.
- Coca-Cola will spend its 60 seconds to quench your thirst for control. Titled “Mirage,” the spot shows three factions—badlanders, cowboys, and showgirls racing through the desert in pursuit of a bottle of Coke. Viewers can vote online to determine the winner and thus, the 30-second spot to air following the game.
- Doritos’ “Crash the Super Bowl” contest is back for the seventh year in a row. The public was invited to produce and submit their own Doritos commercials in hopes they’ll air after the game. Doritos devotees have already voted to decide which of the finalists gets to “crash” the Super Bowl. The winner also gets the chance to work with director Michael Bay on the next “Transformers” sequel. If you ask us, he could use the help.
- Kia, who made quite a splash with their 2012 dream sequence commercial, is back with another bundle of joy to sell the Kia Sorento. This 75-second online version of “Space Babies” begins with a little boy asking the age-old question, “Dad, where do babies come from?” His father’s answer is simultaneously absurd and awesome.
- Paramount Pictures (Viacom) will use a standard 30-second trailer to preview “Star Trek Into Darkness.” But the real excitement for trekkers is the movie app available on iTunes and Google Play. App users can unlock surprises about the film by running the app during the Super Bowl commercial. Registering for the app makes fans eligible to win a trip to the U.S movie premiere.
This Sunday, here’s to hoping the TV commercials are as impressive as the cost of putting ’em on the air.
Oh, and go Niners!
Photo insert from Flickr by David Reber’s Hammer Photography
