By Alison Law, Marketing and Sales Manager, For Momentum
Unlike any other media or television event, the Super Bowl is all about the ads. Research shows that most of the people viewing last night’s game—at least 75 percent—were tuning in just to watch the commercials. This presents an unprecedented opportunity for advertisers who can afford the $5 million price tag for a 30-second spot. As in past Super Bowls, some advertisers used this opportunity to attach their brand to a cause. Here are four cause related commercials from Super Bowl 50 that captured our attention.
Pantene’s Strong Is Beautiful Campaign featuring NFL “Dad-Dos”
Emphasizing its brand of “Strong Is Beautiful,” Pantene created a series of commercials where NFL players were challenged to give their daughters signature hair styles or “Dad-Dos.” Each ad is sure to plaster a smile on your face within the first three seconds. Pantene posted the ads to YouTube in the week leading up to Super Bowl 50, ensuring that their cause related commercials were attracting eyeballs and media attention (from major outlets like The Today Show and Vogue magazine) well in advance of Sunday’s game. The commercials and a corresponding landing page convey the cause message that daughters who spend quality time with their dads grow up to have more confidence, strength and beauty.
Colgate’s Every Drop Counts Campaign
In this spot, Colgate uses on-screen text to explain that one person wastes four gallons of water each time he leaves the faucet running while brushing his teeth. The little girl who drinks from the sink water in the commercial represents the people around the world that don’t have access to that much clean drinking water in a week. The commercial directs viewers to turn off their faucets and shares the hashtag #EveryDropCounts. A corresponding landing page asks people to pledge to turn off their faucets and share how much water they’ll be saving via social media. You’ll also learn that Colgate is working with The Nature Conservancy, a leading conservation nonprofit, to raise awareness of water issues.
Budweiser’s Give a Damn Campaign featuring Dame Helen Mirren
Toward the end of the Super Bowl, when many people were probably trying to decide whether or not to call it a night at a friend’s party, Budweiser ran its Give a Damn commercial featuring Dame Helen Mirren. In the commercial designed to prevent drunk driving, Mirren characterizes herself as a frank and uncensored Brit before chastising drunk drivers as “short sighted, utterly useless, oxygen wasting human forms of pollution.” Budweiser has committed $1 to safe ride programs, up to $1 million in 2016, for each time someone uses the hashtag #GiveADamn. There’s also a place for people to search for those safe ride programs by typing in their zip codes on the website StandwithBud.com.
SunTrust’s Hold Your Breath Campaign
SunTrust took a much more serious approach in their Hold Your Breath commercial. In the ad, the bank equates the issue of financial stress that plagues 240 million Americans to the feeling of not being able to breath. Viewers were offered hope in the call to action to join SunTrust’s #onUp Movement, which promises to help people transform their financial lives. For each valid email address submitted between now and the end of the year, SunTrust will donate $1 (up to $250,000) to the nonprofit Operation HOPE.
All of the above cause related commercials effectively used emotion to capture the Super Bowl audience’s attention, raising awareness and encouraging loyalty both for their brand and for the cause with which they have aligned. They also integrated their messages via online landing pages, hashtags and social media, stretching their TV dollars to connect with football fans who were watching the streaming version of the game or who were using their mobile devices while watching the game. And of course, there’s nothing like the Monday quarterbacking and water cooler talk to extend the Super Bowl commercials’ reach long after the last piece of confetti is removed from the stadium turf.
