This year’s Super Bowl commercials can make viewers thirsty for more.
That’s because some well-known favorites like Coke and Budweiser won’t compete for attention with multimillion-dollar in-game ads when the Kansas City Chiefs face off against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for Super Bowl LV on Feb. 7. In fact, beverage manufacturers Anheuser-Busch ABI,
Coca-Cola KO,
and PepsiCo PEP,
all cast their star players from in-game commercials during this already unprecedented pandemic NFL championship. Car manufacturer Hyundai HYMTF,
and avocados from Mexico are also sitting out this Super Bowl – making room for newbies like Chipotle CMG,
By Dash DASH,
and Huggies to compete in the big leagues with their very first Super Bowl spots.
So why are so many all-star brands skipping one of the most watched television events of the year? Their parent companies claim they are shaking up their playbooks for a variety of reasons, such as reassigning their ad spend to COVID-19 relief, or re-evaluating the best way to use those millions as the pandemic is a massive human and financial toll continues to take.
This week, Anheuser-Busch announced it is abandoning its traditional in-game Super Bowl airtime, and plans to use that money instead to support awareness of COVID-19 vaccines. While the company would not give an exact amount, a spokesperson told MarketWatch that the total donation to vaccination and awareness will equal the cost of advertising in the Super Bowl, calling it a “multimillion dollar stake.” That figure could be about $ 5 million or more like ViacomCBS VIAC,
is reportedly seeking about $ 5.5 million to $ 5.6 million for 30 second Super Bowl spots.
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This will be the first Super Bowl in 37 years without an in-game Budweiser commercial. And it’s the first time in 20 years that neither Coke nor Pepsi have bought an in-game Super Bowl ad for their major brands.
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But it should be noted that Budweiser will still be producing a digital Super Bowl spot that will be promoted online. And AB InBev’s other brands, including Bud Light and Michelob ULTRA, are still featured in national in-game Super Bowl commercials.
In a similar move, while PepsiCo didn’t buy a traditional 30-second spot for its signature Pepsi soda, it has bought six other ads for Mountain Dew and its Frito-Lay products. And it chooses to double up on the Pepsi Super Bowl Halftime Show starring The Weeknd this year, instead … which is basically a 12-minute Pepsi commercial anyway.
Coca-Cola Co., Hyundai and Avocados of Mexico, on the other hand, all say they are taking time out from in-game ads this year to do some housework.
Coke has cut spending and products after the pandemic largely shut down the restaurants, bars, movie theaters, and stadiums that would normally boost sales of its drinks around the world. The company announced last month it would cut 2,200 jobs worldwide, including 1,200 in the US.
“The Coca-Cola Company has made the decision to exit the Big Game this year. This difficult choice was made to ensure that we invest in the right resources in these unprecedented times, ”a company spokesperson told MarketWatch by email. “We toast to our fellow brands with an ice-cold cola from the sidelines.” While the company wouldn’t share how much money it will save by sidelining its marquee soda brand from a Super Bowl spot, Coke spent $ 10 million on commercials placed in Fox’s 2020 broadcast of Super Bowl LIV, according to Global Insight. Kantar analysis agency.
On the other hand, avocados from Mexico have enjoyed record sales as more Americans cook at home. The company sold 2.1 billion pounds of avocados in the US this fiscal year and expects to sell 2.3 billion pounds in 2021. But Ad Age reports that CEO Alvaro Lugue recently told trade publication The Packer that the company is also “ using this year as a year to reinvent ourselves and do some things differently before coming back to the Super Bowl in 2022. ”
A Hyundai spokesman also told Ad Age that it was withdrawing from this year’s Super Bowl “based on marketing priorities, the timing of upcoming vehicle launches, and where we felt it was best to allocate our marketing resources.” But they added, “We’ll be back for sure.”
Many other factors also play a role.
Most companies start planning and creating their Super Bowl ads in the summer before the big game. But or even there to become a Super Bowl in 2021 was still in the air until recently, drastically shortening the turnaround time for coming up with commercials worth millions of dollars. “I don’t think all of their ducks lined up to bring that out creatively,” said Satya Menon, who leads the return on investment practice at Kantar. She told MarketWatch that many brands have probably thought about whether it was better to enter the game with “a half-hearted ad, or is it better to just sit it out?”
“I think some companies have played it that way,” she said.
In addition, the tense and divisive social and political landscape of the past year has likely prompted companies to pause for a moment. “People are very careful about what emotional tonality they should bring,” Menon said, anticipating that the ads going up this year will embrace humor to ease the tension. “There is a bit of ‘let’s be careful in this environment’ that may also have played a part in the decision to skip this year’s Super Bowl.
CBS announced that it had only just sold out of commercial stock for Super Bowl LV on January 27, just about a week and a half before the game. Meanwhile, Fox reported that its Super Bowl 2020 ad inventory was sold out by November 2019.
In addition, last year’s Super Bowl, which about a month before the US began enforcing economic shutdowns to slow the spread of COVID-19, brought in a record $ 450 million in ad revenue, Kantar reported. Anheuser-Busch was the largest publisher. , followed by Procter & Gamble and PepsiCo. Coke and Hyundai were also among the top 10 Super Bowl advertisers last year. And all four have all withheld ads this year.
In fact, this will be the first Super Bowl in 37 years without an in-game Budweiser commercial. And it’s the first time in 20 years that neither Coke nor Pepsi have bought an in-game Super Bowl ad for their major brands.
But Menon noted that these absences could turn into power games. Sam Adams, for example, spoofed the Budweiser Clydesdales in his own Super Bowl commercial … which has caused even more buzz around Bud tapping this year. Their absence is perhaps as striking as their presence. People think about why they are not there and talk about what they really did, which is a PSA, ”she said. “I think they played a really smart game.”
And this has also made room for newbies like food delivery service DoorDash, online marketplace Mercari, and online freelance platform Fiverr, who have taken advantage of people spending more time at home to make their mark by entering their own Super Bowl ads for the first time. . The KMB, owned by Kimberly-Clark,
Huggies will also air the first-ever diaper commercial during a Super Bowl with its second-quarter spot featuring babies born on game day.
“A lot of e-commerce players are coming in,” Menon added. “And they really get a lot for their money in creating awareness for their brands and what they actually do.”
Since Americans are likely to catch the game at home with just a few family members this year, as many bars and restaurants remain closed and the pandemic rages on, advertisers may have a more captive audience than ever. After all, smaller Super Bowl viewing parties probably means a noisy bar or a house full of screaming friends and family will not for a change to drown out what’s happening on the screen.
“There could be even more focus this year on what’s going on in the ads,” Menon said. “This is actually a great opportunity that I think that brands that are withdrawing are losing.”