In 2000, a now defunct IT company called Electronic Data Systems bought an ad in the Super Bowl. The spot, conceived by creative agency Fallon, imagined what the life of a literal cat herder might look like.
Bill Clinton, who was president at the time, called the spot (which was for a former presidential campaign rival’s company) his favorite commercial of the game that year. “This was before celebrities, or even presidents, commented on things like that,” Greg Hahn, co-founder and chief creative officer at Mischief USA, told Marketing Brew.
It was Hahn’s first Super Bowl ad, so seeing the president comment on something he’d worked on was “surreal.” But also a stark reminder that the tens of millions of other people who watched it probably had an opinion as well.
“We get that in advertising a lot, but it’s usually just ad people that are critical. Now it’s your third-grade teacher,” said Hahn, who’s also worked on Super Bowl ads for brands like Snickers and Mountain Dew.
Of course, that’s what makes the Super Bowl unique—historically, football’s biggest game has also become known as the one time of year where people actually want to see ads. Or at least, they aren’t as quick to tune them out. And each year, brands spend more and more money (and hire more and more celebrities) in hopes of making a splash that day.
For these reasons, working on a Super Bowl campaign can be a pretty unique experience for creatives compared to the work they typically do.
“The expectations are just very different. Everything is turned up to 11 every step of the way,” Stefan Copiz, a creative director at Goodby Silverstein & Partners, who worked on the Cheetos Super Bowl spot last year, told us.
Eye on the ball
For some, the pressure starts before the work even begins.
“It’s a huge opportunity for a client to see something on probably the largest stage, and so they will look at options of agencies and teams to see what is their favorite,” explained Sofia Rosell, senior writer at Gut, who’s worked on Super Bowl ads for Kraft Heinz and Budweiser. “You’re really hoping you’re going to be the one that gets chosen.”
Hahn said talks typically start in the late summer, giving clients and agencies enough time to plan and execute once the ball gets rolling. But he said that can be a double-edged sword. “Don’t waste your bullets at the beginning, because it’s a long fight. So you have to have a lot of ideas and be ready for a long game.”
Or, as Rosell puts it, “creative endurance” is crucial. “I cannot stress that enough. You need creative endurance to make a Super Bowl campaign, because you will have obstacles along the way,” she said. “You need to be able to pivot when they say, ‘We need more product,’ or, ‘We can't say this.’”
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It doesn’t help that Super Bowl ads don’t really stand alone anymore. Commercials are often “teased” in the weeks leading up to the game, and agencies must now craft elaborate social or “second-screen” strategies to bolster the in-game spot. It can all be a bit exhausting.
Matthew Woodhams-Roberts, executive creative director at Special Group US, the agency that worked on the Uber Eats Super Bowl ad last year, described it as putting together pieces of a giant puzzle.
“It’s a very intense, grinding experience of trying to basically pack a year’s worth of content into a single event,” he said.
Copiz agreed. “Today, there are so many more pieces that surround the spot itself. The narrative of the integrated campaign and its rollout have become very sophisticated. And you need to be more breakthrough than ever to get noticed.”
🎶 I always feel like somebody’s watching me 🎶
Because the stakes are so high—$6.5 million for a mere 30 seconds of air time is no joke—Rosell said “there’s a lot of people that are involved in the Super Bowl that might not be involved in your day-to-day campaigns that you’re working on.”
That can often mean more approvals, more opinions, more layers, and more second-guessing.
“Casting callbacks are way more scrutinized than usual. Seeing a first cut has us on pins and needles. The mix probably gets revisited 10 times. And we inevitably keep asking ourselves if we maxed out every last bit of humor,” Copiz elaborated.
Woodhams-Roberts said there are more hoops to jump through, making the process “more painful” compared with your run-of-the-mill campaigns. But it (hopefully) pays off.
“It’s one of those things where you know it’s going to hurt, but then you also know that it’s quite rewarding. And the creative that you get out of it is usually big and fun,” he shared.
Once the game is all said and done, companies have various ways of measuring the success of their ads. Sales are the obvious end goal, but marketers can also look at things like brand metrics, consumer polls, and the USA Today Ad Meter.
Naturally, creatives typically want to know if people actually, you know, liked the commercial they worked on. But trying to find out isn’t always the best idea, warned Hahn. “You have to have a thick skin to do a Super Bowl spot because everyone’s a critic the next morning,” Hahn said. “I would recommend to anyone who does a Super Bowl spot: Don’t read the comments.”