I just can’t get past the singing babies during
Super Bowl 50. In my opinion, it was so smart! I could care less what the NFL
was trying to “sell me!” Here’s the commercial:
And, of course, I had to share the long 3:07
version:
In analyzing the commercials and really looking
at who truly stepped out of their comfort zone and didn’t just preach about
their product, I feel the Pantene #DadDo took the cake.
Author David Meerman Scott equated social media
to a cocktail party. You don’t interrupt people at a cocktail party to talk up
products by using “coercion techniques to make a sale” (Scott, pg. 58). Instead
you join the party (pg. 58). That is exactly what the above commercials did
this year during Super Bowl 50.
One thing I noticed this year, is besides
Pantene, most commercials didn’t use social media in their advertisements,
expect maybe for a short hashtag, like at the end of USA Today’s first place
winner, “Hyundai’s First Date" (Woodyard, 2016). You only saw a brief hashtag at the end:
#HyundaiSuperBowl.
What really seemed to stand out this year was
exactly what USA Today said, “Make ‘em laugh” (Woodyard, 2016).
The commercials sure mentioned their products,
but in such a subtle way. You knew the Hyundai commercial was about a car, but
you almost forgot about it because it was so funny and you started thinking
about first dates. Pantene never even mentioned their product, only with small
hints. Oh, and the Super Bowl Babies ad, I think it was about the NFL?!
What these three advertisements did is GET PEOPLE
TALKING! Exactly what companies should be doing! Author Dave Kerpen of “Likeable Media” says marketing can’t be solely about the brand anymore, he
said, “more than anything, you have to get your customers talking, or you have
to get involved in their already ongoing conversation” (Kerpen, pg.46-47).
Hyundai did an excellent job of taking the story
off-air. If you look at their Twitter account, @Hyundai, they have turned the
advertisement in to gifs and memes and they respond to most customers with funny
sayings and hashtags. A great example of “continuing the conversation” with one
funny ad.
To me, one company who really stood out was Jeep.
As AdWeek reported this week, they took home the Super Clio prize for best ad
during the Super Bowl. As AdWeek puts it, “’Portraits’ features
the faces, both famous and obscure, of folks with various connections to the
brand” (Gianatasio, 2016). The take away from that sentence was "CONNECTIONS TO THE BRAND!" They got it! They connected and then engaged.
This commercial wasn’t about Jeep, but the people in a Jeep. The end of the ad says, “We
don’t make Jeep, You do.” You almost forget this is a car commercial. They didn’t
push the great reasons for a Jeep or the features; instead they hit the
consumer emotionally. The
conversation definitely spilled over on to social media. As of this post, the
video @Jeep on Twitter has more than 8,000 likes. It is simple, and yet,
people responded. This shows that a great saying and clever advertisement, not pushing the product, can get results. I'd love to see how sales do the rest of this month. Companies need to remember what Author David Meerman Scott highlights in this book, enjoy the cocktail party.
References:
Gianatasio, D. (2016, February 8). Jeep's 'Portraits' Wins Super Clio for
Best Ad of the Big Game. Retrieved February 10, 2016, from http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/jeeps-portrtaits-wins-super-clio-best-ad-big-game-169537
Kerpen, D. (2015). Likeable Social Media. (2nd
ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill Education.
Scott, D.M.
(2015). The New Rules of Marketing & PR. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley
& Sons, Inc.
Woodyard, C. (2016,
February 08). Hyundai's 'First Date' wins USA TODAY's Super Bowl Ad Meter.
Retrieved February 10, 2016, from http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2016/02/07/super-bowl-ad-meter-picks-winner/79886286/
Hi Allison! Great examples! If I didn't see the Superbowl Babies ad featured a couple days before on a morning news show, it would have taken me a few minutes to make the connections. I absolutely LOVED the Jeep Commercial! It stopped me in my tracks and made me watch it. I was so into the photographs, I hardly noticed the Jeep in every few shots. It was such a subtle addition to promote Jeep, but the ad was,like you said, about the people "in" a Jeep. David Meerman Scott talks a lot about Buyer Personas in The New Rules. Scott says buyer persona is essentially a representative of a type of buyer that you have identified as having a specific interest in your organization or product (p. 164). In a 60-second commercial Jeep was able to celebrates Jeep’s blue-collar roots and how it’s done everything from haul troops from battle to haul groceries from Whole Foods (Garrett, 2016).
ReplyDeleteEven more interesting were the agency's (and Jeep's) thoughts for the design of the ad. Sean Reynolds, global creative director of Iris Worldwide said “We thought about how wouldn’t it be interesting to build a spot so it worked really beautifully in portrait mode on a tablet or a mobile” (Garrett, 2015). To me, this shows they were thinking beyond the 60-second Superbowl spot to create something that would last across platforms.
Great observation about the lack of social media use - I specifically looked for it at the end of the Jeep ad and was surprised they did not use it at all.
Garrett, Jenna. (2016, February 8). Why Jeep’s $10M Super Bowl Ad Only Used a Third of the Screen. Wired. http://www.wired.com/2016/02/jeep-portrait-super-bowl-ad/
Scott, D.M. (2015). The New Rules of Marketing & PR. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Trista,
DeleteInteresting response you found from the global creative director of Iris Worldwide. They really thought about engaging and they thought about how people watch ads and how they connect. Portraits show up great on mobile devices! That ad, to me, is one where, like you said, they used the buy persona model. They thought about who buys a Jeep and how to get to them emotionally, without making it feel like a car commercial and the normal "rugged Jeep" feel. I'm interested to see how many more likes this commercial gets now that it is out that it has won an award?! Thanks for sharing your insight! Great question and insight this week to lead us to our answers!
The Jeep ad is so incredible! I'm surprised I didn't hear my social circles talking about it. I agree, the truly impactful ads, especially car commercials, are ones that focus less on the product and more on the people who use the product, what it says about their lifestyle, and how it helps them live their lives.
ReplyDeleteCars, more than anything besides potentially clothes, are the biggest product you choose to tell people at a glance about your personality. It's part of why Lincoln has lost so much ground to Cadillac as the presidential choice; they failed to update their image to resonate with current car buyers. And why so many wealthy millennials are buying more imported cars than locally made--because most American builders are still toting the car's functions and features rather than the personal effect.
Sami,
DeleteYou are right about the Jeep commercial! I too didn't hear anything about it. I watched the Super Bowl, but I didn't see it, and nothing else really jumped out at me, until I went back and re-watched the commercials for this assignment! I find it interesting that car commercials used to be only about the product and not about the people. Now, it's all about something people who they could be in the car and engaging them in conversations outside of the television!
There was zero connection back to social media or even their website with that ad...but if you take a look at their Twitter account (https://twitter.com/Jeep?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^author) it's a focal point to the page. They are even asking you to share #MyJeepStory. It was interesting that they didn't connect that better with the ad. I feel like it would have had more people talking!
DeleteAlison - Great post and analysis on the branding and social efforts of these companies. I want to applaud Pantene for their big win during the big game. I'm definitely in their demographic, but honestly have never given them much of a second thought. Not only did the ad emotionally connect to the consumer but I believe worked to reach a demographic that Pantene frequently under serves - African American. While I think anyone with a strong dad in their lives (be it their own or their husbands or adult sons) can relate to the message and the ads, there was something special in the promotion of a majority African American dads and kids. Hair is such a cultural topic within that community and plays a much more significant role in every day life, so to show strong black male figures bonding with their children, while playing with their hair I think was significant in it's message in particular to that audience.
ReplyDeleteOne additional note on the digital aspects of the campaign though is I feel it wasn't taken far enough. No, there wasn't a ton of social push, but I don't think really has to happen as much anymore as consumers are going to inevitably be social whether you give them a hashtag or not. They used the football player's social accounts to interact further and give an inside look at the commercials, but what was lacking for me was Pantene encouraging others to show off their Dad Dos. Outside of the videos not much was posted by them and it seems as if it's a missed opportunity to continue the conversation. They could have created a series of mall spots, encouraging Dads to give their daughters a new hairstyle and found ways to incorporate that online. Additionally they could have gone further within their own website to drive people to digitally engage. When you click on the link under Dad Do it gives you the option to select products for your very own Dad Do style, however it just lists a bunch of products. There is no segmentation by hair type or hair issue. Clearly they don't expect the dads to go to the site and look for product, but a bit more of an interactive experience would have engaged the consumer further and deeper.
A great ad, with great consumer targeting and a well thought-out message that resonated with consumers on a personal level, but fell a little short for me on social. Yes, we're mostly sound bites and one time visitors to brand pages, but in this instance I could have been engaged further and they just missed turning a great ad into a great social experience.
Colleen,
DeleteReally interesting points about how the Pantene commercial fell flat after it aired. I didn't realize their website didn't really help push the message. It seems silly that if a Dad wanted help and went to the Pantene website and couldn't find information on what to buy for his daughter, then the commercial didn't really work. Sure, more people are talking about Pantene, but it can't just be about a commercial. That is disappointing that they didn't take it one step further and really make the online experience better for Dads. I like your idea of them asking Dads at a mall to do their daughters' hair! That would have been really engaging. Or ask men to send in videos of them doing their daughter's hair at home! Create more of a hashtag, get the idea moving long past a $5 million Super Bowl ad. Great thoughts!
Great points, all. For me, Jeep definitely resonated more than Pantene. I find (and I may simply be overly cynical) that some attempts to connect without a heavy brand "ad" ring hollow for me. Why? Because it feels like a thinly veiled attempt (i.e. the Pantene logo predominately behind the dads and kid) to market, as opposed to upfront marketing. It may be generational--I am in my late 30s so very accustomed to straight advertising which anyone can see through. Sometimes the subtle attempts at marketing, if not positioned perfectly, feel even more disingenuous than a straight sales pitch, to me. I thought Jeep did it really well. They truly focused on the faces, the stories, the people. Jeep was there, but in a subtle, classy way that left me thinking of them (for the first time) as a classy, patriotic company.
ReplyDeleteDo others sometimes find the storytelling of social media marketing rings forced and less appealing? I'd be interested to know.
I hear your point about subtle marking and how it can be a little disingenuous. I, however, like it a little bit. I don't like ads and what they are selling me to be shoved down my throat. I like to know that you are selling me something and that you are there, but not make the ad solely about that product. I agree with you, though, that I don't know what the ad is about and have to then search for what product this is and why they are not being upfront with me. I don't like when I feel tricked in to believing or buying something, only to find out it is a marketing stunt! I did like Jeep's ad because I thought they told me what their product was, made me feel something, and took it a step further with social media, but not too much! Thanks for sharing your thoughts! What other ads do you think did what Pantene did?
Delete