Matt Britton breaks down Super Bowl ads with Maria Bartiromo, calling out Nationwide's heavy-handed spot while praising humor and nostalgia. Loctite spent 4.5 million dollars on a single ad and went from 3,000 Twitter followers to unexpected viral success. The game hit a 49.7 overnight rating.
Questions this video answers
49.7 overnight rating
Four and a half million dollars
50% of all commercials
About 3,000 followers
Nationwide
Last night. But really, what struck you in terms of the ads? A lot of people watched for the ads. There were a lot of hits, but I think there were a few misses.
Funny. Yeah. This year the buzz isn't so much about the hits, but the misses. And the big miss that everyone's talking about this morning is nationwide. They run a spot, basically, to put it bluntly, about children dying at a young age. People were, they were shocked. Consumers when they, when that was kill on the super buzz kill, putting it lightly, consumers were just totally shocked because the story, when it started in the spot, you didn't really know it was going. And then when it actually reveale, people like, what? And it just shows that, you know, even if it is a great message and even if it's a great conversation to start, there's a time and place for everything. And those are not conversations that parents want to have with their kids on Super Bowl Sunday when they're trying to drink and have fun at parties.
I mean, this is about branding. This is about marketing. This is about getting consumers to buy into your message.
It is.
And while it is an important message that they were trying to communicate. Not the venue.
Not the venue. And other brands too, tried to play into emotion. You had Microsoft, you had Toyota having very inspirational messages, but humor and celebrity sort of is the proven formula. And during a venue like the super bowl, again, these inspirational messages, these emotional messages, it's really not the right venue for it. Also, what I think a lot of brands don't realize is that the super bowl is watched in groups at parties, and often the audio isn't able to be heard. So highly visual spots, ones that are showing hashtags. 50% of all commercials this year showed hashtags are ones that often can work well as well.
Yeah, that's, that's a really good point of pulling up the story on the, on the Super Bowl. And basically what you're talking about is NBC Sports PR has announced that the Patriots super bowl win over the Seahawks last night delivered a 49.7 overnight rating, the highest in Super Bowl.
Unbelievable.
What are the ramifications for an ad that misses the mark when you've got that many people watching? I mean, they actually go against the company. Does it. Could it actually be real damaging?
Yeah, I mean, I don't know how much damage is going to be on nationwide. I think one of the ramifications in terms of the industry as the ad agency could get fired, who actually produces the ad, but it's a huge opportunity. You had a brand Like Loctite, a little known brand that makes glue, spent their entire year's advertising budget on a TV spot. Four and a half million dollars. And actually they nailed it. It was a hysterical ad. It was about kind of a bunch of lovable losers. The backdrop was an awesome sort of hip hop slash EDM song. And they nailed it. So, you know, it's a big risk. And companies like Loctite, they're rolling the dice, you know, for one night and seeing how it works. And we'll see how that translates to sales. Question.
We're looking at the ad right now. I love this for a second. Loctite glue saved our marriage.
What's that?
What's the timeliness on this? Do they get an immediate bump in business, do you think?
You know, it's crazy. I actually looked up Locktite on Twitter after the spot ran. They only have 3,000 followers, so they actually haven't even really invested in social media. And you know, I think a big strategy for brands when they run a Super bowl spot is not so much marketing to the consumers, but marketing through them. You want the consumer to take that spot, take how they impact it, and go out and tweet about it or talk about it on Facebook so they can get that earned reach and that scale that can last far beyond the game. And Loctite didn't have a big social media presence before the game and now they're trying to kind of take the buzz that was created, the catalyst of the spot and try to get people to talk about Glue, of all things.
Isn't that funny? I'm looking for Lockt right now to see if actually the number of it.
Wasn'T spiking that much last night. It's interesting because there wasn't really a call to action for consumers to go follow it after the actual.
What else did you like? What was your second favorite?
I liked Fiat. A lot of people talked about Fiat. Yeah, it wasn't Viagra because they couldn't say it was. Viagra was a Viagra looking pill that bounced around Italy and ended up in a Fiat. And all of a sudden it looked more powerful and performance oriented. I think that's the sort of stuff that works. It's funny. It has a good story. It speaks to the audience. We saw a lot of nostalgia last night. So a big hit was Bud Light's ad where a guy kind of found himself in a real life PAC game.
That was cute.
Yeah. So there's a. Yeah.
And the whole generational thing of Pac Man. I think it speaks to the people who are watching the Super Bowl. Also, like I grew up with Pac Man, I love you.
Right. It speaks to Gen X. Speaks to Gen. Yes. The boomer. So it's cross generational, what you found. Snickers had a great spot with the Brady Bunch, which was cool. Again, nostalgia. So we saw nostalgia this year. We saw emotion, we saw humor, and we saw some celebrity stuff. T Mobile had a an ad that kind of got Luke Gorm response with Kim Kardashian that ran as well.
All good ways to resonate with the consumer. Matt, always not absolutely great to be here on this. Thank you so much. Matt Britton joining us. Chief executive officer.
