The Super Bowl and the Power of Shared Cultural Moments đ
The Super Bowl took place this past Sunday.
Did you watch it?
Once a year, the best of the best brands square off in an intense competition. Who is going to stand out? Who will be the talk of the Monday morning digital water cooler? Itâs modern head-to-head competition at its best.
Also, I understand that a football game was played between the ads. But letâs stay focused on whatâs important... the commercials, of course!
Sundayâs broadcast drew a whopping 113 million viewers, making it the third most-watched TV show of all time.
30 seconds of ad time cost an average of $7 million, prompting plenty of reactions to how anyone could spend that kind of money on a single ad. Especially when one considers that $7 million is just the cost for the ad time and does not include production or the often months-long campaigns filled with content and promotion surrounding the big game day spots.
âThe Super Bowl ads on Sunday promoted an unusual mix of alcohol brands, gambling and Jesus,â the Wall Street Journal put it on Monday morning.
Why would any brand spend that kind of money?
Letâs unpack that, and Iâm going to try to draw out some lessons that leaders can learn and apply, even if we donât have $7 million to drop on a Super Bowl spot.
The lack of shared cultural moments
I remember watching the 1996 Olympics almost every night when I was a kid. That was the year of the second Dream Team. The year Kerri Strug vaulted with an injured ankle, landing on one foot, winning the first womenâs team gold medal for the US. But just as much as the memory of those events, I remember going to school and talking about it with classmates. At church. At the dinner table. It was a part of the national consciousness for two weeks in July.
Today, the Olympics are streamed. There isnât one primetime broadcast each night that we all tune in to watch. No, there are thousands of hours of coverage across dozens of outlets, and all are streamable, whether live, a week, or a month later. As a result, the Olympics arenât what they used to be as a shared cultural moment in our national consciousness.
Today, there are precious few moments where we as a society get together to experience a single event simultaneously. There is a name for this today - appointment television.
Appointment Television
Television programming that people make time to watch at the time of its original broadcast because they have a strong desire to see what will happen or be done or said. (Merriam-Webster)
In the age of the internet, with the explosion of choice, the proliferation of content, and the watch-whenever nature of streaming means that there are fewer moments in life that everyone experiences at the same time.
The power of shared cultural moments
The Super Bowl is one of our last national shared cultural moments. We saw that on Sunday when 113 million people tuned in simultaneously to share an experience.
Viewed through this lens, it might start to make more sense why brands invest so heavily in one of the only times of the year that captures the better part of the countryâs attention.
Then add to that the fact that Super Bowl ads have become a cultural institution. What other television or film event can you think of where viewers look forward to and intentionally stop and pay attention during commercial breaks?
Then add on to that the conversations that Super Bowl ads generate.
đĄ Takeaway: Look at the calendar. What are the shared cultural moments in your world, your industry? For example, if you are a church or a nonprofit, that might be a holiday like Easter or Christmas. On the other hand, if you are a business, that might be a key time of the year. Once you identify those moments, how can you tap into them in such a way that puts your cause into the conversation?
Leveraging moments into longer-term engagement
Not only do a disproportionate number of viewers actually pay attention to the ads in the Super Bowl, but the volume of discourse in the days and weeks leading up to and after the big game means that brands get to be in the public conversation in a way they arenât typically the rest of the year.
At what other time do people proactively watch ads and then talk about them for weeks??
Super Bowl Marketing Has a Real Problem: Too Many Ads, and Not Enough Campaigns (AdAge)
In this way, advertising in the Super Bowl becomes more than a cost-effective way to get in front of 113 million viewers. Itâs a level of engagement that doesnât exist at virtually any other time of the year.
A friend of mine, Jon Lee, knows a thing or two about leveraging moments for long-term engagement.
Did you see the #HeGetsUs ads in the first and fourth quarters?
Jon is the brand principal at LERMA/, the creative agency behind the spots. In the days following the game, the most mentioned advertiser, by far, has been He Gets Us. No matter what your take is, itâs undeniable that the campaign has generated massive amounts of discussion.
Jon and the He Gets Us team have cultivated the campaign for more than a year. In this way, the Super Bowl becomes a punctuated moment to catalyze the conversation to new heights. But itâs not about the ad. Itâs about an ongoing conversation.
My co-host and I interviewed Jon about the He Gets Us campaign a few months back.
Super Bowl, He Gets Us, and Challenger Brands. (Purpose & Profit Podcast)
đĄ Takeaway: Donât focus on just the cultural moment. Leverage that moment to create a build-up to the moment and an ongoing conversation after. For example, if you are a nonprofit, donât just run a campaign on Giving Tuesday â start days, even weeks ahead of time, and create a dialogue that lasts after the day is done.
The strength of tapping into emotion
If you look at the top-performing Super Bowl ads, one common theme is they evoke strong emotions.
Laughter.
Nostalgia.
Love.
Anger.
Fear.
He Gets Us tapped into love and anger. T-Mobile tapped into nostalgia. The Farmerâs Dog tapped into a combination of love and nostalgia. PopCorners tapped into laughter and nostalgia.
đĄ Takeaway: How can you tap into emotion in an authentic, memorable way? Donât think about your emotions, but tapping into the emotions of your potential donors, customers, and prospects.
The Super Bowl, He Gets Us, and Challenger Brands
If youâd like to hear more of the backstory behind He Gets Us and the power of challenger brands in todayâs world, tune into the latest Purpose & Profit Podcast episode, where we interview Jon Lee.
Until next week⊠Surfs Up! đ
- Dave
About the Author | Dave Raley
Consultant, speaker, and writer Dave Raley is the founder of Imago Consulting, a firm that helps non-profits and businesses create profitable growth through sustainable innovation. Heâs the author of a weekly trendspotting report called The Wave Report, and the co-founder of the Purpose & Profit Podcast â a show about the ideas at the intersection of nonprofit causes and for-profit brands.
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