Consumers will likely notice something different when they tune into the Super Bowl this Sunday: a slew of advertisers they’ve never seen in the game before, many of whom have seen their businesses grow during the pandemic last year.
An ever-growing list of newbies will spend about $ 5.5 million for a 30-second commercial to showcase their stuff. Among them: trading app Robinhood; freelance work platform Fiverr; online food supplier DoorDash; second-hand car company Vroom; resale platform Mercari; gardening supplier Scotts Miracle-Gro; employment website indeed; online gambling company DraftKings; Chipotle restaurant chain; Huggies from Kimberly-Clark; and Hellman’s mayonnaise brand, owned by Unilever. And more will emerge as the game gets closer this weekend.
Some mainstays like Coke, Pepsi, and Budweiser refuse to buy traditional in-game ad time.
Companies advertising during this year’s game are at risk due to the coronavirus pandemic. Derek Rucker, who teaches advertising strategy at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, said brands that are too serious could be seen as a downer by consumers, but going too far in the other direction can also be counterproductive.
“There’s a possibility that if you’re so irrelevant and so disconnected, consumers might not like it,” he said. “The stakes are high and some brands will do well, and I want to see how they do that.”
Some of the newcomers were useful to consumers at home during the pandemic. For example, DoorDash’s ad will feature “Sesame Street” signs highlighting items like paper towels (or yes, cookies) that it can deliver. The company started offering more convenience items, household items and other health and wellness products during the pandemic last year, as people tried to limit their trips to the grocery store.
Scotts Miracle-Gro said the Super Bowl ad is meant to build on the momentum it gained during the coronavirus pandemic, CEO Jim Hagedorn told CNBC on Wednesday.
“We got about 20 million new customers in Covid’s time last year, and the goal is to keep them and grow the market,” Hagedorn said of “Power Lunch.”
Hagedorn added that the Super Bowl is a way to reach those people and convince them to stay.
“The Super Bowl is a great platform for the big, groundbreaking messaging types for a company,” said Jim Nail, lead analyst for B2C Marketing. In a year like this, that could mean, “How is the brand relevant in a pandemic world?”
Nail said Indeed is going this route and expects and Fiverr to do the same in their ads. The former said his place will highlight job search in a challenging market when people face economic distress. Fiverr’s ad discusses how small businesses needed to run their businesses digitally to survive, and how Fiverr freelancers can help.
Gali Arnon, Fiverr’s chief marketing officer, said this is a “milestone year” for the company.
All over the world, freelancers [are] join our platform, because of the situation, because of the pandemic and because of the high unemployment rates around the world, ”she said.
Mercari’s spot shows a couple getting two popcorn manufacturers as gifts, who then show them as they list one on Mercari and then display it in their new home. “Buy or sell almost anything online from home,” says the voice-over.
John Lagerling, Mercari’s US CEO, told CNBC that the company was beginning to see a revival in business, starting in the spring shutdown.
“People wanted to turn unused items into cash and manage their finances,” he said. On the other hand, they wanted to ‘shine or optimize’ their spaces while at home with second-hand items.
In a normal year, people might have turned to Craigslist or old-fashioned garage sales to find or dispose of old items, but many people tried to limit contact. And Lagerling said Mercari was a way for them to do that.
And because of the pandemic, real roommates and a married couple were cast in the ad instead of strangers pretending to be living together or married. The company collaborated with Rain the Growth Agency on the ad.
Another Super Bowl rookie, Vroom launched its IPO in 2020 and said it saw major growth as people chose to shop for vehicles online rather than at a dealer. Although the company said it initially saw disruption to its e-commerce business as a result of the pandemic, consumer demand for used vehicles eventually returned to pre-Covid levels due to strong demand for e-commerce and contactless delivery .
“Particularly in the early stages of the pandemic, some people were physically unable to get to a dealer because some had to close for obvious reasons,” said Peter Scherr, chief marketing officer at Vroom. “We were an interesting alternative and a new and innovative alternative that really captured the moment for consumers.”
The ad is part of a campaign with MDC Partners’ Anomaly agency. The campaign contrasts the company’s offer with the traditional process of going to a dealer.
“There really isn’t a bigger stage in the advertising world than the Super Bowl,” Scherr said. “We are delighted to reach a large audience.”
Companies that perform well can launch themselves into the headspace of US consumers for good.
“Some of these are companies that have grown significantly during the pandemic, and they want to capitalize on that momentum and use this great Super Bowl moment as a jumping-off point to move to the next level of brand awareness,” said Lee Newman, CEO of Interpublic Group agency MullenLowe US ”Traditionally, the Super Bowl has been a means of making that transition to become more of a household name, and this year will be no different.”
Consumers may be paying more attention than ever to perceived insensitivity or acting too cheerfully after a difficult year for the country. Many are likely to be mistaken in showing how valuable they are and can be right now, said Anjali Bal, a marketing professor at Babson College.
Themes will be “this idea of togetherness, how we survive the pandemic, how technology helped us in the pandemic, things like that,” she said.
For those in the Super Bowl this year, that decision could be a PR smart one as brands try to grab attention even when they’re not in the game.
Coke said last month it will not be an in-game spot “to make sure we invest in the right resources in these unprecedented times” and as it was teetering from the financial ramifications of the pandemic. Pepsi said it is replacing its traditional Super Bowl ad space with a new campaign leading into the halftime show with The Weeknd. And Budweiser, which won’t run an in-game Super Bowl ad for the first time in 37 years, is focused on promoting vaccine awareness and distribution efforts.
But PepsiCo siblings, including those in the Frito-Lay portfolio such as Doritos and Cheetos, are still active. Likewise, other Anheuser-Busch InBev brands, such as Bud Light and Bud Light Seltzer Lemonade, will stain.
“My perspective is that the headlines are not as drastic as reality,” said Bill Wise, CEO of ad software company Mediaocean. Budweiser, for example, gets a lot of attention for not posting an ad, he said. Wise also said Bud appears to be increasing his ad spend ahead of the game, including on digital channels.
“They supplement that earned media with more paid media, only in other media types [outside] the Super Bowl, “he said.” You could say that Budweiser is currently running an omnichannel campaign better than anyone. ‘