We all know the Super Bowl is the pinnacle of advertising and one of the biggest moments of the year for brand marketing – but at ENGINE Mischief, we’re much more interested in the ads that are winning attention in the earned space – and why.
So, we’ve picked out our four favourite earned-first Super Bowl ads and shared how they’ve grabbed attention through those three all-important pillars –
MILLER LITE
PERSONAL: The ad taps into the insight that people who drink Miller Lite care about calories, even if it’s only an additional one
SURPRISING: No one would expect a URL that long and in print media as opposed to across digital channels
EMOTIONAL: The silliness of the concept and cheekiness of the competitiveness makes you laugh
EARNING ATTENTION: The ridiculously long URL, coupled with the fact it’s apparently a calorie-burning URL, has taken it into the earned space, winning attention from FOX News and the New York Post
SCOTT & MIRACLE-GRO
PERSONAL: Taps into families spending time together in lockdown and more time in the garden – leveraging the news agenda but with a focus on the positive
SURPRISING: You wouldn’t expect a brand in what’s perceived as quite a dull space to enlist such big names for its ad
EMOTIONAL: Reminiscent of Grease “omg John Travolta can still do the grease moves!”
EARNING ATTENTION: John Travolta recreating his Grease moves with his daughter has gained attention across earned media, including Mail Online and NME
AMAZON ALEXA
PERSONAL: The ad literally brings the personal connections we have with our voice assistants to life and highlights our dependence on them as part of the everyday
SURPRISING: ‘Sexiest Man Alive’ title-holder, Michael B Jordan, becoming the embodiment of something so many of us have in our homes. Also great to see a man as the eye candy in an advert, when it’s usually a woman
EMOTIONAL: Makes you laugh and drives an emotive connection with the piece of technology
EARNING ATTENTION: Michael’s current relevance within the news agenda has led to talkability across the likes of Good Housekeeping and The Verge
CHEETOS
PERSONAL: It taps into the very real and relatable argument of many households around fighting over our favourite snacks
SURPRISING: You wouldn’t expect Mila and Ashton in an ad for a crisp brand with Shaggy – but it works!
EMOTIONAL: The ad is reminiscent of the early noughties due to the inclusion of “It wasn’t me”, and the revised lyrics make you laugh
EARNING ATTENTION: The coming together of two Hollywood actors and an iconic music artist has earned the attention of titles such as Mail Online and Delish.com, putting the brand into spaces it wouldn’t usually drive so much talkability in
To find out more about how ENGINE Mischief is engineered to win in the Attention Rebellion era, email greg.jones@mischiefpr.com
