For sports fans, Super Bowl LIV was a chance to watch the high-powered offense of the Kansas City Chiefs start slowly but overcome the top-tier defense of the San Francisco 49ers, 31-20, in a much-hyped matchup that was, to steal a line from AT&T, “just okay.”
For pop culture watchers, it was all about listening to Demi Lovato sing one of the most widely-praised renditions of the Star Spangled Banner in Super Bowl history, then hearing two longtime Latin music icons, Jennifer Lopez and Shakira, sing a medley of throwback hits at halftime.
And for the 26 million Americans who wagered an estimated $7 billion on the game, it was a chance to start Monday richer or poorer based on their over-under picks, parlays, and endless prop bets, from the color of Demi’s microphone to that of the Gatorade dumped on the winning coach.
But for marketers, advertisers, and brands across the country and the world, it was mostly about one thing: THE ADS!
With that in mind, here’s a quick breakdown of five of The Cyphers Agency’s favorite spots from last night.
We loved the NFL’s NEXT 100 Ad for its very clever production. It featured the winner of the league’s Next 100 Super Bowl Contest running a football across the country and receiving encouragement from a host of Hall of Famers before delivering what turned out to be the actual game ball to the actual field. As engagement on the NFL’s twitter post attests, much of America loved it too.
Jeep’s Groundhog Day Commercial received all-office approval as well. Put simply, who could not love the combination of Bill Murray (notably in his first-ever national television commercial) + early-90’s classic movie nostalgia + a joyriding groundhog in a seatbelt? Not us, and that would have been the case even if Punxsutawney Phil hadn’t predicted an early spring that morning.
Given their day jobs, our digital team was especially attracted to Facebook’s Ready to Rock Ad. Yes, they happen to love Twisted Sister, but more importantly they love the fact that the social network is recommitting itself to being a social network.
And while those of us who work with Grain Foods Foundation won’t ever be convinced that anything is better than sliced bread, we did enjoy watching Rainn Wilson proceed on a downward spiral in Little Caesar’s Best Thing Since Sliced Bread.
Last but not least, Google’s super-emotional ad, Loretta, resulted in tears instead of laughs but accomplished what all great Super Bowl ads accomplish: it made us remember both it and the product/service that it was promoting on Monday. Most of us even ended up rewatching the ad on YouTube, where we were doubly impressed by Google’s very thorough description of how to try some of Google Assistant’s features yourself.
In short, it was a good night and we’re already looking forward to next year.
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