Consumers are likely to notice something different when they tune in to the Super Bowl this Sunday: a plethora of advertisers they had never seen before in the game, many of whom saw their business grow over the past year during the pandemic.
A growing list of newcomers will spend about $ 5.5 million on a 30-second ad to show off their stuff. Among them: the Robinhood trading app; Fiverr self-employed platform; online food distribution company DoorDash; Vroom used vehicle company; Mercari resale platform; gardening provider Scotts Miracle-Gro; employment website Effectively; the online betting company DraftKings; the Chipotle restaurant chain; Kimberly-Clark Huggies; and the mayonnaise brand Hellman’s, owned by Unilever. And more will come out as the game approaches this weekend.
Some major pillars, such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Budweiser, are rejecting the purchase of traditional ad time in the game.
Companies that advertise during this year’s game face a risk due to the coronavirus pandemic. Derek Rucker, who teaches advertising strategy classes at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, said brands that are too serious could be perceived as a decline by consumers, but going too far in the other direction could also be counterproductive.
“There’s a possibility that if you’re so irrelevant and so disconnected, consumers don’t really like it,” he said. “The stakes are high and some brands will do well, and I want to see how they handle it.”
Some of the newcomers were helpful to home consumers during the pandemic. The DoorDash ad, for example, will feature “Sesame Street” characters highlighting items such as paper towels (or yes, cookies) they can deliver. The company last year began offering more comfort items, household items and other health and wellness products during the pandemic, when people tried to limit trips to the grocery store.
Scotts Miracle-Gro said its Super Bowl announcement is based on the momentum it gained during the coronavirus pandemic, executive director Jim Hagedorn told CNBC on Wednesday.
“Last year we got about 20 million new customers at Covid, and the goal is to keep them and grow the market,” Hagedorn told Power Lunch.
Hagedorn added that the Super Bowl is a way to reach out to these people and persuade them to stay.
“The Super Bowl is a great platform for large, advanced messaging for a company,” said Jim Nail, senior analyst at B2C Marketing. In a year like this, this could mean, “How is the relevant brand in a pandemic-induced world?”
Nail said Indeed is following this route and expects Fiverr to do the same in its ads. The former said his site will highlight the job search journey in a challenging market when people face financial problems. The Fiverr announcement will talk about how small businesses have needed to digitally pivot their businesses to survive and how self-employed Fiverr could help.
Fiverr’s chief marketing officer Gali Arnon said this has been a “benchmark year” for the company.
“All over the world, self-employed [are] joining our platform, for the situation, for the pandemic and for the high unemployment rate around the world, ”he said.
Mercari’s spot shows a couple receiving two popcorn makers as gifts, who then show how they list one at Mercari and show it to their new home. “Buy or sell almost anything online from home,” the voice-over says.
Mercari’s U.S. CEO John Lagerling told CNBC that the company began experiencing an increase in business from the spring closings.
“People wanted to turn unused things into cash, manage their finances,” he said. On the other hand, they wanted to “delete or optimize” the spaces while they were at home with second-hand items.
In a normal year, people may have resorted to Craigslist or old-fashioned garage sales to find or get rid of old items, but many people tried to limit contact. And Lagerling said Mercari was a way to do it.
And because of the pandemic, real-life roommates and a real-life couple were aired on the ad instead of strangers making them live together or married. The company worked with Rain the Growth Agency on the ad.
Another Super Bowl rookie, Vroom launched his IPO in 2020 and said he experienced great growth as people opted to buy vehicles online instead of at a dealership. Although the company said it initially saw its e-commerce operations disrupted due to the pandemic, consumer demand for used vehicles eventually returned to pre-Covid levels due to strong e-commerce demand and contactless delivery.
“Particularly in the early stages of the pandemic, some people physically couldn’t reach a dealership because some of them had to close for obvious reasons,” said Vroom’s head of marketing, Peter Scherr. “We were an interesting, new and innovative alternative that really captured the moment for consumers.”
The spot is part of a campaign with MDC Partners’ Anomaly agency. The campaign confronts the company’s offerings with the traditional process of going to a dealership.
“There really isn’t a bigger stage in the world of advertising than the Super Bowl,” Scherr said. “We’re excited to reach a massive audience.”
Companies that work well can definitely launch into the space of American consumers.
“Some of these are companies that have grown significantly during the pandemic and want to take that momentum and use this big moment of the Super Bowl as a launching pad to reach the next level of brand awareness,” said Lee Newman, CEO of MullenLowe US Interpublic Group agency “Traditionally, the Super Bowl has been a vehicle to make this transition to becoming a better known name and this year will be no different.”
Consumers may be looking closer than ever at the perception of insensitivity or acting too cheerful after a difficult year for the country. Many are likely to be wrong in showing how they have been and can be valuable right now, said Anjali Bal, a professor of marketing at Babson College.
The issues will involve “this idea of coexistence, how we will survive the pandemic, how technology has helped us in the pandemic, this kind of thing,” he said.
For those participating in this year’s Super Bowl, this decision may be smart as brands try to get attention even if they don’t participate.
Coca-Cola said last month that it will not run any place within the game “to ensure we invest in the right resources during these unprecedented times” and as it would stem from the financial impact of the pandemic. Pepsi said it will replace its traditional Super Bowl advertising space with a new campaign that will lead to its show at the break with The Weeknd. And Budweiser, which will not be releasing a Super Bowl ad in the game for the first time in 37 years, is focused on promoting vaccine awareness and distribution efforts.
But PepsiCo’s sibling brands, including those in Frito-Lay’s portfolio, such as Doritos and Cheetos, continue to operate. Similarly, other Anheuser-Busch InBev brands such as Bud Light and Bud Light Seltzer Lemonade will publish sites.
“My perspective is that headlines aren’t as drastic as reality,” said Bill Wise, CEO of advertising software company Mediaocean. Budweiser, for example, is drawing attention to not posting any ads, he said. Wise also said it looks like Bud is increasing pre-game advertising spending, including digital channels.
“They are complementing those means earned with other means of payment, only in other types of means [outside] the Super Bowl, “he said.” It could be argued that Budweiser is running an omni-channel campaign better than anyone right now. “