STRATEGIES

Polarizing Brand Messaging Gets More Polarized

Any marketer watching the Super Bowl saw the stark contrast between Jeep and Fiverr’s ads. If you slept through the Big Game like Robinhood’s entire creative team did… 

• Jeep’s ad, titled “The Middle,” featured Bruce Springsteen in the middle of the country explaining how the US needs to become “the RE-United States of America” after a polarizing election season.
• Fiverr’s ad poked fun at former President Trump’s Four Seasons Total Landscaping debacle last year.

So, which worked better? It’s complicated.

Jeep in one corner

Back in November, I wrote a story about why Gap’s election week “unity” post received so much negative feedback. 

• At the time, “middle-of-the-road” messaging didn’t really work—Edelman’s global Spring 2020 Brand Trust survey said US brands are 4x “more likely to gain [consumer] trust than lose it when they ‘take action’” on social issues.

But it might not be that simple anymore: While it’s too soon for any real data on the topic to emerge, there’s a chance consumers are more receptive to brands that choose not to take a stand under President Biden, who ran an entire campaign based on unity. 

For instance, replies to Marketing Brew’s #SuperBrewLV tweet asking which ad users preferred included:

• “Jeep wins because they captured the moment that the US is experiencing right now—Fiverr focused on a quick win for humor rather than the fact that its service is also in need during this time.”—@RoxanaKate
• “The Middle! Told a story, tapped into emotion, relevant to current political environment, and hit on psychological fundamental needs”—@KannonMarketing

And Fiverr in the other

If we’re following the Edelman report’s logic, this commercial should perform better with audiences because it took a side. 

For instance, some respondents to Marketing Brew’s tweet implied they see anti-Trump ads as anti-racist ads, whereas middle ground could mean taking the side of the oppressor.  

• “I’d choose @fiverr’s clever dig at 4 Seasons Landscaping over finding ‘middle ground’ with white supremacy.”—@lauraaoris
• “I really appreciate how Fiverr nodded to a political moment & made it feel light while remaining on brand. I feel like Jeep was trying too hard. Like...wow, y’all really want me to make peace with people who hate me? That’s the call to action?”—@BigDeEnergy

Looking ahead: Maybe, as one Twitter user put it, “if anything can unite the country it's Bruce Springsteen and a Wrangler”…and not a Gap hoodie. 

INFLUENCERS

Celebrity Couples—the Super Bowl Theme We Didn’t See Coming

Ashton and Mila, Gwen and Blake—there was celebrity love in the air in Super Bowl LV's commercials, and I simply needed to know why.

Cheetos: Cheetos worked with Goodby, Silverstein & Partners and celebrity couple Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher to create its pandemic-era spot. The couple and Shaggy remix his famous nostalgic anthem “It Wasn’t Me” while doing the thing couples do when quarantining—eating Cheetos. 

T-Mobile: The wireless brand’s minute-long “Rockstar 5G” ad depicts Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton’s mismatched relationship as a consequence of spotty service. 

Love is #Relatable

These spots were a far cry from the celebs singing “Imagine” from their bajillion dollar mansions at the start of the pandemic. 

Zoom out: Recent research shows that celebrities and macro-influencers are generally viewed as less relatable to consumers than micro- and nano-influencers, reported eMarketer Senior Analyst Jasmine Enberg in August. 

• That’s not to say there’s no value in using celebrities in advertising—judging by the sheer number of them in this year’s Super Bowl ads, they’re clearly an eye-catching way to help brands get noticed. 
• But it is to say that your target audience might appreciate a celebrity cameo more if they’re not, say, sitting on a mountain of cash on a private island while the rest of us struggle through the pandemic. 

My takeaway: While T-Mobile’s spot used a blind date and an “odd couple” to make its celeb stars more relatable, Cheetos’ quarantine play takes the cake for the Super Bowl’s most relatable celebs. What’s more relatable than Cheeto dust fingers?

SPONSORED BY STACKADAPT

Marketers, Start Your Engines

RaceTrac operates over 550 convenience stores, and when they wanted to boost their brand awareness and leave the competition in the rearview, they made sure StackAdapt was in their pit crew.

Here’s a preview of how their successful StackAdapt partnership went down.

RaceTrac wanted to serve their messaging to people who frequent competitive quick service restaurants, convenience stores, and gas stations. All they had to do was tell that to StackAdapt, and StackAdapt started burning rubber with their wide breadth of targeting tactics.

When the dust had settled, StackAdapt helped RaceTrac blow past all their campaign goals, delivering over 4 million impressions, 3 million video views, and an average completion rate of 76%.

Don’t wave the white flag in a competitive digital marketing landscape. See how StackAdapt can get your company’s marketing engines firing on all cylinders, right here.

CAMPAIGNS

That Robinhood Ad Was the Best Spot of the Whole Game

Ha, gotcha. 

Here’s what Marketing Brew’s Twitter community had to say about Robinhood’s decision not to pull its Super Bowl spot after its public fumble in the GameStop controversy. 

Hint: Most respondents saw the ad as Robinhood’s dying breath. 

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Oatly’s Super Bowl spot first ran in Sweden in 2014, where it was promptly banned—the Swedish dairy lobby sued Oatly as a result.
• Rocket Mortgage won both first and second place in USA Today’s 2021 Super Bowl Ad Meter. 
• Magnite agreed to purchase sell-side rival SpotX in a $1.17 billion deal.
• Reddit, unlike Robinhood, made sure its Super Bowl ad nodded to the GameStop fiasco on Wall Street. 

SPONSORED BY ADOBE

Demand campaign planning can be...demanding. Luckily, Adobe has demand gen resources and planning templates at your command—including email planning and budget planning. So when it comes to mapping out quarterly and yearly demand campaigns, you can optimize your time and put your creativity into action. Download Adobe’s templates today.

FRENCH PRESS

Socials: It’s safe to say there was a lot going on yesterday, so check out this roundup of what all the major social media platforms did to celebrate the Super Bowl, in case you didn’t know Twitter from TikTok by the end of last night .  

Images: Bookmark these three Black-owned stock photography sites for all your stock photo needs.

Influencers: Anyone who has tried to find the perfect influencer for their brand knows it’s a long, grueling process…but apparently these five tools can help you hunt.  

Productivity: Why has getting work done gotten so dang hard? For instance, 87% of knowledge workers are working late now that they're WFH. Discover all the stats in Asana’s Anatomy of Work Index report.*

*This is sponsored advertising content

AD ANTIQUES

Vintage Ad Browser

Milky Way’s 1953 football ad is almost more wholesome than DoorDash’s. Almost. 

ICYMI

Catch up on a few Marketing Brew stories you might have missed.

• What HubSpot’s CMO had to say about acquiring The Hustle
• The latest third-party cookie exit strategy, from Google and Kantar
• NBCUniversal announces ONE21 virtual advertiser conference