Ah the Super Bowl 2025. The Philadelphia Eagles v Kansas City Chiefs…Taylor was in attendance as was the president. As my sister lives outside Philadelphia, I was supporting the Eagles…”Go Birds!“.
Aside from the football, The Super Bowl ads are always my favourite and I love to see them, write about them and study them. I am constantly amazed at the price of them – the cost of the ads or commercials if you prefer to call them that, continues to rise year on year.
Could it be the Taylor effect? Or just in general, but the cost of a 30 second advertisement was said to be around $8 million, the most expensive in super bowl history.
So they should be good, right?
And there were 80 Super Bowl ads spots – making an eye watering revenue of $640 million! I don’t why but the shovel sellers during the gold rush springs to mind!!
A word of caution…
I mentor and train small business owners and talk about the need to get a return on your marketing asap. Small business owners don’t have the luxury of waiting to get a return, they need a response from their advertising. And that’s the difference between small business advertising and big brand advertising. These adverts are big brand advertising. It’s okay for them not to get an immediate return.
Take Mountain Dew for example, they’d have to sell 1.6 million bottles of Mountain Dew, assuming a bottle is $5. This is the return on advertising that small business owners ought to think about, and typically not the thinking of the ad agency or marketing dept in Mountain Dew offices. (And that’s not taking into the account the cost of making the ad, the ad agency fee and the small fortune that Seal must have asked for to become a Seal!).
So if you’re a small business owner reading this and watching the commercials, learn from the story-telling, the emotions, the themes…and apply that to your direct response advertising.
Themes
Lets take a look at some of the themes that we can take from. And of course, it is a US game so the themes may be US based but none the less, I’ve chosen the ones that have a global interest.
This year, the ads were mostly safe. Some were creative, funny, nostalgia and yes, there were ads that created a sprinkling of controversy.
Over 80 ads were played so I can’t mention them all, but here’s a good start. Let’s dive into the standout commercials that had us laughing, crying, and everything in between.
Hellman’s Mayo – A total Nostalgic Delight?
Nostalgia would definitely be the theme for this advert. Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal reunited to recreate their iconic “When Harry Met Sally” scene, this time with a mayonnaise twist. The ad is definitely aimed at evoking nostalgia and humour, reminding us of the timelessness of both the film and the brand…with a young Gen Z actor filling the spot at the very end – ‘I want what she’s having’ making it relevant to younger generation.
Google Pixel – A tug at the Heartstrings
In a heart-warming narrative, a father is using his phone to help prepare for an interview. It’s using AI to help with performance..something I believe in especially with my book, ‘Marketing Made Easier with ChatGPT’.
This ad follows a father who takes inspiration from his best job ever. It’s definitely emotionally led – playing on emotions of love, family, and the bittersweet passage of time. As a daughter, it definitely left me misty-eyed about my Dad.
Pfizer – A Triumphant Tale
Pfizer made over $63 billion last year, reflecting a 7% year over year operational growth. With those revenues, $8 million for 30 seconds is short change. Pharmaceuticals typically get a bad rap for the profits they make, but when you see the result of the work it’s chemists, quality control executives and manufacturing do, it’s heart-warming…because to the people who work in pharma, it’s not all about the profits.
Pfizer’s commercial showcases a young cancer survivor celebrating his victory, set to LL Cool J’s “Mama Said Knock You Out.” This ad celebrates resilience and triumph over adversity, and puts into perspective what it’s all about.
Mountain Dew – The oddest of the odd
I know I mentioned it above in terms of returns so I had to add it in. But it is the oddest of the odd. That’s all I can say! I think it’s supposed to be funny, mixed with nostalgia of Seal’s song ‘Kiss from a Rose’ but I’m just not sure. You have to watch it yourself, that’s all I can say!
Stella Artois – Simply Fun
“There’s two Davids – one had to be Other David.”
Some ads don’t have to have a theme of nostalgia, controversy, comedy, heartwarming, tear-jerking….some ads are just fun.
David Beckham finds out he has a twin in the US – ‘other David’. There’s so much to this ad – the parents, the ‘other David’, the buffalo wings. David Beckham goes to meet his twin and tries to find common ground. It’s a fun ad, especially with the Ben Affleck mention at the end.
Nike – Celebrating Female Athletes
While still significant, Nike’s global market share for shoes and clothes has dropped to 16.4% in 2024. It has a new CEO and it will be interesting to watch the strategic direction they are going to take.
I’ll hold my hand up and say I’m all for any brand that supports women in sport. As a mother of a sporty little lady and a LGFA coach, we need to address, collectively, why girls drop out of sport, encourage them to stay in and be on a par with their male equivalents when it comes to facilities, resources, basics and then news coverage and sponsorship.
For this year their ‘So Win’ ad, it features a montage of US sports greats like WNBA powerhouses Caitlin Clark, A’ja Wilson and Sabrina Ionescu, Olympic gold medallist gymnast Jordan Chiles, track and field star Sha’Carri Richardson, and current world No. 1 tennis pro Aryna Sabalenka. There are montages of moments in their careers….with the underlining message of what women have to put up and still rise up. It’s uplifting to those who are interested.
Squarespace – Donkeytastic
Last week I heard that Barry Keoghan was involved in the ad for Squarespace, helping Donkey (from The Banshees of Inisherin) create a website of his own so I was excited to see it. It’s not quite the ad that I expected. It has the usual picturesque backdrop of old rural Ireland and sentences that don’t necessarily make sense….what some may have said about The Banshees!
It shows how people can make websites based on their services – a simple ad. However I think you need to see the extended version for it to make more sense.
These ads showcase the power of storytelling in marketing, each of them eliciting a range of emotions and reactions. As small business owners, as I said above, there’s a lot to learn from these campaigns. Marketing is more than advertising…it’s really the last stage of communication. Understanding your audience, your audience’s emotions, thinking creatively, playing to your strengths are all obvious in these ads.
Take inspiration for your next campaign to create ones that resonate and captivate.
