Super Bowl Ads: A Comeback Story

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The suspense had gone. On the first play of the second half of Super Bowl 47, the Baltimore Ravens' Jacoby Jones ran 108 yards on a kickoff return to put his team up 28-6 over the San Francisco 49ers. The Lombardi Trophy was as good as home in Maryland.

And for the most part, the efforts from Super Bowl advertisers lacked a certain suspense as well. There were a few wins, to be sure: Hyundai scored points for its entertaining presentation of the benefits of its "turbo" technology. Oreo pleased the crowd with "Whisper Fight." But overall, there were few ads that would spark conversation the next morning. You know when even the beer ads are yawners, it's just an off year for Super Bowl commercials. (Seriously, Budweiser, what was this?) Coca-Cola, whose Super Bowl marketing plans were ambitious by any measure, failed miserably. And Go Daddy remained its repugnant self.

The problem wasn't a lack of production value, or necessarily a lack of execution in some of these less-than-stirring spots. The real problem was an inability to find the common denominator among the audience. Marketers that swung for the fences with humor lost equally big with those who didn't get the joke. The big-budget movie trailers left most over the age of 25 counting the seconds til the spot was over, not counting the days til the film's release.

Then, something truly unexpected happened. The power went out at the MercedesBenz Superdome. And suddenly, the game took on a new vitality. Twitter erupted with quips and theories on the outage, and all at once, everyone was experiencing the same thing. That's when the truly engaging marketing happened.

Oreo took advantage of the scene by reminding its Twitter followers that it doesn't take light to enjoy a cookie.

Audi, whose bravery spot was one of the few bright spots (pun intended) in the first half, couldn't pass up a veiled dig at their competitor, whose namesake was on the darkened venue, with this tweet that promoted a timely feature of its cars.

Even Walgreens, which didn't have a spot in the big game, struck while the iron was hot by reminding followers its stores stock power outage necessities.

It's a technique called newsjacking, and when it's done well, it can earn more buzz than the largest-budget ad. These brands capitalized on the common experience, and inserted their brands into the conversation in an engaging way.

Oddly, everything seemed brighter after the power outage. The 49ers rattled off 17 straight points to make the game interesting again. Marketing seemed to make a comeback too, led by this Dodge Ram spot that is widely being called best in show:

While the production values are exquisite here, it's worth noting that this spot resonates because of the rugged, up-from-the-bootstraps message that is told with unparalleled authority by the late Paul Harvey. That message of self-sufficiency is one that Chrysler wove into its past two Super Bowl spots with wild success, from Clint Eastwood's stirring "Halftime in America" to the memorable "Imported from Detroit" spot featuring Eminem.

In the end, there's a lesson marketers at every level should heed. Huge budgets and elaborate special effects will never cover over marketing that fails to tell a relatable story. It was refreshing to see the brands who executed with this in mind in this year's Super Bowl, and here's wishing more will in the future.

What ads resonated with you? Were there memorable moments I left out? Let me know in the comments.

And now for the rest of the story...

By now, it's a bit of a cliche to say storytelling is the best way to market your brand and product. Decidedly less often do the storytelling advocates tell us how the craft of spinning a good yarn helps consumers engage with a company. Practical application is seldom taught, let alone publicized.

I think part of the reason is that we have so few master storytellers from which to learn these days. The late Paul Harvey was one such master. He used to include in his radio shows a story that turned on a single phrase: "And now, for the rest of the story..." Harvey would give the standard, almost-boring information on a given news item, then impart a deeper level of knowledge to the listener that compelled and engaged them.

The lesson: Sometimes, the untold part of the story is the best part.

It's why many people prefer books to movies. A book allows a reader to fill in the missing aspects - how a character looks, how a voice sounds, how an environment looks, smells and feels. Communications via text or a piece of audio or video are more potent when the audience fills in the blanks. In marketing, it means allowing your customer to fill in the benefits of your product after a brand provides the context.

Such is the brilliance in a new Nissan commercial. Titled, "Enough," the spot chronicles snippets of the life of a rather poor decision-maker. But just before each bad thought turns into a disastrous situation, we hear a car horn signaling the need to stop. The connection is then made to the new feature on Nissan's 2013 Altima models, in which the horn honks when the tires are filled with the proper amount of air.

To be sure, it seems like an odd feature to highlight. It's hard to imagine a customer literally choosing to buy a new Altima because it tells you when the tires are inflated. Until you hear the voiceover, "It's our most advanced Altima yet." And there's the payoff: the audience is now left to fill in the blanks about what other cool features come with the car. The spot's creators hope the audience is compelled to find out what precisely these "advancements" are all about. They're looking to fill in the blanks intentionally left - with wit and humor - by the commercial.

Moreover, it would've been predictable and completely ruinous to then drone on about onboard computers, technical advancements, and a host of other features of the car. Nissan instead chose to focus on just one item, and allowed the audience to assume the rest.

Kudos to Nissan for this understated - but effective - twist on storytelling as marketing. Massive credit to the creators for realizing successful communication is often subtle communication. The "rest of the story" can turn a fairly benign feature into a crucial selling point, and Nissan knew just when to stop.