Though it is still short of the ultimate goal line, HD is slated to gain significant yardage during Super Bowl XL in Detroit, being telecast by ABC on Feb. 5.
Yet while HD gets closer to prominence on Super Sunday, some say the Big Game is uncomfortably close to the Winter Olympics in terms of scheduling, spurring some advertisers to pull out of the former and invest in the latter. The Winter Games begin five days after the Super Bowl and run through Feb. 26 in Torino, Italy.
Nonetheless a number of Super Bowl advertising mainstays remain, including Anheuser-Busch (A-B), General Motors, PepsiCo and Federal Express. A-B has been the exclusive beer category advertiser on the Big Game for 18 years and continues as the event’s biggest advertiser with a reported total of ten :30 time slots.
And while there may be a few more Super Sunday time slots open at this late juncture than would normally be available, ABC is certainly cashing in, fetching an average of $2.5 million per :30 seconds of ad time. That figure, if it holds, will represent an all-time high, exceeding last year’s average of $2.4 million on FOX.
HD
The Super Bowl has aired in HD since 2000. During the first several years, those watching the Big Game on HD sets might have been struck by the diminished picture quality–and borders–of most spots as compared to the high-resolution display of the game itself. Aside from a few ads shown in HD, including some feature film trailers, advertisers showed minimal interest in the medium, citing reasons such as the small number of HD sets in the marketplace and the lack of a quantifiable audience.
However, hi def took a major Super Sunday upturn last year with some 10 minutes worth of ads shown in HD. And electronics retailers are heavily promoting HD sets leading up to the Big Game and the Winter Olympics. At the end of ’05, it was estimated that about 16 million U.S. households had at least one HD-capable TV set.
ABC’s sales department reportedly projects that more than half of the Super Bowl spots this year will be shown in HD. A-B and Federal Express are among the major clients slated to go HD.
The call to HD action is all the more compelling for the Super Bowl, an event in which an inordinately high percentage of viewers actually look forward to seeing the commercials. Monday morning quarterbacking will include water cooler talk not only about the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Seattle Seahawks, but also about the best and worst ads on the game, so it behooves advertisers to put their best foot forward visually.
WINTER GAMES
Visa and McDonald’s advertised in the ’05 Super Bowl. This year they opted to instead put their ad bucks into the Winter Olympics. A prime lure for Visa was the opportunity to be the official credit card of the Winter Games.
Thirty seconds of ad time on the Olympics is running around $750,000. Some point out that multiple ads over two weeks during the major sports showcase can be more conducive to brand building than the one-shot thrust of a Super Bowl commercial. Another contention is that it’s a most attractive proposition to align a brand with the Olympic spirit, particularly as the drama of the competition plays out over 17 days. Furthermore, the Winter Games arguably draws more upscale viewers than the Super Bowl.
Still the sheer numbers–and water cooler interest–generated by the Super Bowl are unsurpassed, which means the two events can profitably co-exist within a mere five days of each other. Historical context bears this out when looking back on the ’02 Winter Games when that year’s Super Bowl still held its own during a time of profound uncertainty.
That ’02 Super Bowl came in the aftermath of 9/11. In fact, the NFL to canceled its slate of regular season games on Sept. 16, ’01 due to 9/11, which pushed the Super Bowl a week later to Feb. 3, just five days prior to the beginning of the ’02 Winter Olympics. The patriotic theme inherently woven into Olympic fabric made it in many industry eyes a more attractive ad buy than the Super Bowl. Furthermore, with so much scrutiny on Super Bowl advertising, there was heightened creative angst in ’02 due to 9/11. Would humor be inappropriate after the tragedy? Would an American flag-waving strategy appear exploitive? While the ’02 crop of Super Bowl ads played largely safety-first from a creative standpoint, the Big Game still proved successful for FOX that year.
LINEUP CARD
Per usual during their pre-pre-game juncture, many advertisers, agencies, production houses, post shops and other support services are reticent about their Super Bowl projects. In some cases, secrecy has been heightened as clients don’t want to tip their ad hands and their strategies. Nonetheless, through the industry grapevine and other circuitous routes, SHOOT garnered details and a number of credits for some of what emerge during the Super Bowl telecast.
The advertiser that arguably made the biggest splash last year–Ameriquest with its clever, darkly humored spots (“Dinner,” “Mini-Mart”) directed by Craig Gillespie of bicoastal/international MJZ for DDB Los Angeles–will be back with two more commercials this Super Sunday. Gillespie again directed the ads for DDB. It’s a tough act to follow for all involved–“Dinner” and “Mini-Mart” earned Gillespie a Directors Guild of America (DGA) Award nomination this year as best spot director of ’05.
Speaking of the DGA Award for commercials, the director who’s won it three times, more than anyone else, Joe Pytka of Venice, Calif.-based PYTKA, once again figures prominently on Super Sunday. He’s directed four Diet Pepsi spots for DDB New York, some or all of which might gain Big Game exposure. Pytka has also helmed a Disney ad for Leo Burnett USA, Chicago, which could emerge on the Super Bowl.
Pytka additionally figures in the A-B derby, in which several agencies have spots in the running for Super Bowl consideration. In some cases A-B won’t decide which spots to run until right before the Big Game weekend. Pytka has directed a Budweiser ad for DDB Chicago, which is a candidate for Big Game inclusion. Among others in the running to be in A-B’s five minutes of Super Bowl airtime are directors Tom Routson of bicoastal Tool of North America for a Bud Light commercial via DDB Chicago. Ditto for director Phil Joanou of MJZ.
BBDO New York, another perennial Super Bowl player, again is well represented, with ads for FedEx, and Procter & Gamble’s Gillette Fusion razor. Word is that the latter was directed by Michael Karbelnikoff of bicoastal HKM Productions. Energy BBDO, Chicago, also has a Big Game :30 slated for Bayer’s Aleve, starring Leonard Nimoy, and directed by Jeff Gorman of bicoastal Sandwick Films.
And BBDO New York client Pizza Hut again has the ad slot prior to Super Bowl kickoff. The spot is believed to be another starring Jessica Simpson and the Muppets, directed by Steve Chase of Santa Monica-headquartered Reactor Films.
Also scheduled is a commercial for ESPN’s mobile phone service that delivers ESPN-branded sports content. Word is that the director of this ambitious ad is Jake Scott of bicoastal/international RSA for Arnold Worldwide, Boston.
Emerald, the snack nut brand of Diamond Foods, returns to the Super Bowl after making its Big Game debut last year. This time around, Emerald is expanding its acrostics or “letter game” approach. Initially identifying offbeat characters with the initials “E” and “N” who enjoy Emerald Nuts, now that letter play has grown to E-M-E-R-A-L-D-N-U-T-S. For example, in late December, a spot premiered that featured Eccentric Matadors Exercising Religiously And Littering Do Not Use The Steamroller. In that vein, a new Super Bowl ad will debut via Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco, directed by Jim Hosking of bicoastal/international Partizan. This ad, incidentally, will also air during the Winter Olympics coverage.
Automotive clients will again be prevalent on Super Sunday. General Motors’ is running a Cadillac :60 promoting the ’07 Escalade, via Leo Burnett, Detroit. Jeffery Plansker of bicoastal Supply and Demand directed that spot, “Chrome Couture,” which positions Escalade with the elements of fashion, beauty and glamour.
Ford has several ads for consideration to fill its :30 Big Game slot, via J. Walter Thompson, Detroit. Among the candidates is work directed by Toby Phillips of Chicago-headquartered Story. And word is that Toyota has a bilingual ad (English and Spanish) set for the Big Game; the commercial from Hispanic ad agency Conill, New York, will introduce the new hybrid Camry for ’07.
Halftime show sponsor Sprint also has spots slated for the second and third quarters of the game. Several commercials from TBWA/Chiat/Day, New York, are in the running for the Big Game slots, including one produced by bicoastal/international Hungry Man and entailing effects/animation work from Rhythm & Hues, Los Angeles.
Nationwide Insurance has a :30 directed by Kinka Usher of House of Usher Films, Santa Monica, for TM Advertising, Irving, Tx.
Returning to the Super Bowl after an 11-year absence is Burger King with what’s believed to be some football-oriented fare featuring the King via Crispin Porter+Bogusky, Miami.
On the dot-com front, there’s a confirmed return advertiser–and another who would like to return if its ad gains clearance from ABC and the NFL. The latter advertiser is GoDaddy.com, which created a stir with last year’s Super Bowl spot from The Ad Store, New York. In that spot, a buxom model testifying at a congressional hearing parodies the prior year’s Super Bowl halftime show clothing malfunction in which one of Janet Jackson’s breasts was briefly exposed.
Meanwhile the dot-com company definitely running during the upcoming Big Game is CareerBuilder.com from Kramer Crasselt, Chicago, which made a splash last year with its monkeys-in-the-workplace scenario. For the second straight year, Bryan Buckley of Hungry Man directed the Super Bowl fare for CareerBuilder.com.
Among other work that could emerge during the Super Bowl are spots for such clients as Unilever’s Dove via Ogilvy & Mather, Chicago; Coca-Cola energy drink Vault directed by Baker Smith of Santa Monica-based harvest for Publicis, New York; Subway from McCarthy Mambro & Bertino, Boston; American Home Health from Ronin Advertising, Coconut Beach, Fla.; and movie ads from such studios as Buena Vista Pictures, New Line Cinema, Warner Bros., and Sony Pictures.
