SuperBowl Ad Blog

Game Over

This year, the game was better than the ads. Again. You want to know why? The marketing landscape has changed dramatically. There will be no ads as good as 1984 because there are no more secrets that remain a secret are told once and never told again.

Blogs usurped the buzz around the bowl this year. You could head online and find out the latest about any and all ads. We created buzz bigger than 1984 for ads that never stood a chance.

Volvo did it right. Online and offline every element supported the larger campaign. Volvo even bought keywords on Feedster around "super bowl" + ad. The marketers were smarter this year and cashed in on the buzz pre-game using very integrated campaigns. You can read more about the theory here. But the bottom line is that this cycle is creating more buzz before the game and making it simply impossible for the creative to live up to the expectations.

Goofus and Gallant

And the winners are:

Goofus: GoDaddy. Go Away.

Gallant: Bud. They introduced new products, made us laugh, promoted designated driving and thanked our troops. They own the Bowl for a reason. We expect a lot from them annually and they did not dissappoint.

Two-Minute Warning

The game is over and so are the commercials really.

Emerald Nuts

You try and analyze the strategy around Emerald Nuts decision to run the ad in the fourth quarter.

No one will be expecting a new, good ad at that point. We'll save the best for last and have a better shot at making the water cooler conversations. Bud will kill us in first half, not to mention the rest of the food item ads.

OK, I am with you so far. You even had a wonderful concept in your ad. But it was poorly executed. The premise of the ad was too complicated to explain easily and as a result, it was tough to identify with the ad.

Maybe it is my male-bashing on the brain again that is kicking in. But here is another example of it.

Group Thing Priceless for Mastercard

Coincidence that Visa and Mastercard rounded up groups of nostalgic favorites to sell their interest-laden plastic?

Well, Mastercard did it right. The ad mascots help you connect with specific emotions tied to those harmless, household brands. And the ad rocked.

Nationwide Needs to do Homework

Nationwide should have checked Hammer's endorsement schedule before hiring him, or worked a clause into his contract.

The Nationwide Hammer ad was hilarious. But I thought it was going to be a Lay's ad since I saw him in the first quarter selling chips. And I think he might have even had on the same outfit!

So snaps to Nationwide on the concept, but do your homework next time!

Miniature, movies and motor vehicles

VCast. I do not follow the stars highlighted so the joke was done after Kid Rock walked down the red carpet. Sorry! I suspect it will submerge in the murky middle.

It felt like preview from hell night too. Is it me, or where there more movie trailers this year?

Ridgeline looks much better the second time around with more car features highlighted.

But the electric car has all the energy this year when it comes to car ads.

The Toyota Prius "wheels running in place" ad was great/ The script really supported the visuals well, not to mention the marketing campaign Toyota has in place right now. The ad was smart.

The good car ads this year were the more pedestrian ones quite frankly. Sometimes less is more?

ED Ads

I do not like the ED ads. But Cialis wins a prize for taking the high road and making the ad cute, not suggestive cute.

It all has to do with choice of music and models. They pulled it off. But thumbs down on that darn bathtub sunset shot at the end of the ad. Make it go away.

Careermonsterbuildermonster

I'll bet you a month of Starbucks that if you ask people tomorrow which online job site ran the ad during the super bowl, they will say monster.

Since Yahoo bought hotjobs, Yahoo has been the dominate brand with the others taking a distant second and third.

Careerbuilder took a gamble and I credit them for the strategy. But the creative sucked and there was no focus on differentiating themselves from Monster. As a result, whether you liked ads or not, Careerbuilder loses.

Of the three, I only liked the middle ad with the whoopee cushion. Whoever said there would be no fart jokes this year was full of hot air.

Ameriquest wins me over

I'm seeing the forest for the trees now on Ameriquest.

The first ad was plain old funny, but I bemoaned no connection to the brand. Well, the halftime sponsorship and the second half ad corrected any issues i had previously and I can simply say they were funny.

Well done Ameriquest.