The first Super Bowl to be broadcast in high definition aired in 2000 and, despite the fanfare, that year produced only a few HD ads, including a film trailer. In subsequent years, advertisers continued to show little interest in the medium, citing reasons such as the small number of HD sets in the market and the lack of a quantifiable audience. But this year, for Super Bowl XXXIX pitting the New England Patriots against the Philadelphia Eagles in Jacksonville, Fla., it looks like high definition may gain some notable and much needed yardage in the commercial advertising world.
Reporting a significant shift in his business since a year ago, colorist Stefan Sonnenfeld, who is president of Company 3 in Santa Monica and New York, told SHOOT that about half of his commercial assignments being considered for the Big Game–he estimates seven or eight spots–will be delivered in HD.
Most of those HD assignments were shot in 35mm film–which is a high definition medium–and transferred to HD video for post and distribution. Sonnenfeld also color corrected what may be the first planned Super Bowl ad from a major advertiser to be lensed in high definition video. That landmark ad is Cadillac’s “Elope,” directed by Antony Hoffman of bicoastal/international @radical.media for chemistri, Troy, Mich., and Leo Burnett USA, Chicago.
Sonnenfeld–who has been advising clients about HD–said he expects that there will be much more HD advertising in 2005, and explained that the tide seems to have turned due to an increase in HDTV set penetration, HD cable, and a general awareness of the medium. He added that a growing number of his clients are now taking advantage of what the technology has to offer.
Trend Setting
Sonnenfeld is not alone in this belief. “If you look at the way HDTVs are selling and their [more affordable] price points, it seems like advertisers will start finishing in HD,” said Josh Denberg, “Elope” creative director/copywriter from Leo Burnett. “I would hope the Super Bowl this year would be a great arena for people to see HD.”
Indeed, HD has been growing in consumer popularity as well as in available content. This year, Fox–which had lagged behind the other three major networks in HD content–is scheduled to broadcast Super Bowl XXXIX on Feb. 6 in 720p, the network’s format of choice. It has actually been airing a significant amount of HD NFL football all season, along with other major events and much primetime programming.
Now, viewers of the HD Super Bowl broadcast may finally get to enjoy some HD-produced advertising during the commercial breaks. “It makes sense,” said Denberg of creating HD advertising. “It’s been a tragic waste to see these beautiful sporting events, and when you cut to commercial it looks regular again.”
The aforementioned “Elope” features a young couple sneaking off in one of their parents’ Cadillac to get married. Roberto Schaefer, who was the DP on Finding Neverland, shot the commercial on location in Los Angeles using Sony’s 24p HD camera, as well as a HDV camera.
“It was Antony’s idea to shoot in HD because we were shooting day for night, and Antony brought in Roberto,” Denberg reported, adding that Schaefer had already been working with digital cameras.
Sonnenfeld, who was the digital intermediate colorist on Collateral, as well as several other recent features including After The Sunset, was sought after to color correct the spot.
Using a da Vinci, Sonnenfeld color corrected the day-for-night footage and brought out the backgrounds in the shots.
The footage was delivered in HDCAM to The Filmworkers Club, Chicago. Producer Dan Walsh of The Filmworkers Club reported that compositing and finishing were completed in HD by Rob Churchill, who worked on Discreet’s Fire in HD, and Heidi Anderson, who worked on Discreet’s Inferno in HD. The work was posted and delivered in HD D5. Matthew Wood of The Whitehouse’s Chicago office edited the spot.
“We hope it stands out,” said Paul Hirsch, Leo Burnett’s creative director/art director for Cadillac “People will be watching the game and the quality of the commercials will match the quality of the [program]– It’s to our benefit.
“I think there will be a rise in HD spots,” he added. “That’s where the medium is going. The message is fitting the medium. The industry is starting to get familiar with HD.”
Sonnenfeld reported that among his other HD-posted and -distributed spots planned for the Super Bowl are work for Olympus via Richmond, Va.’s The Martin Agency, directed by Dave Meyers of @radical.media and edited by Chris Davis of bicoastal/international Outpost Digital; Emerald Nuts, edited by Haines Hall of Spot Welders, Venice, Calif., for Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco; and Ameriquest from DDB Los Angeles. Ameriquest is sponsoring the halftime show while Olympus is launching its m:robe 500, a digital music player with a built-in digital camera. This is Olympus’ first Super Bowl appearance since ’81.
CREATIVE PROSPECTS
While the developments on the HD front break new ground, there’s some skepticism as to whether this year’s batch of Super Bowl spots will be breakthrough from a creative standpoint. A prime school of thought is that with the ’04 Super Bowl’s Janet Jackson halftime show debacle still fresh in the country’s memory, advertisers may go out of their way to take a safety-first, conservative approach.
On the flip side, though, industry folk harbor hope that last year’s Super Bowl experience will cause agencies and clients to move away from sophomoric, at times borderline bathroom humor and instead adopt more thoughtful, clever, conceptual, story-driven means to convey their messages.
Indeed it behooves advertisers to take their best creative shot given the average price for a 30-second time slot during the Big Game. FOX is fetching an average of $2.4 million for each :30 buy, which is $100,000 more than the average paid for last year’s Super Bowl telecast on CBS.
The ever-escalating Super Sunday price tag is fueled by several key dynamics, including the premium placed on a mega-TV event in today’s era of audience fragmentation. The Super Bowl bucks what has otherwise been the network trend–steady erosion of viewership virtually across the board in programming.
Further spurring on media buyers is the much-publicized TV falloff in male viewers in the coveted 18-to-34-year-old range. This has advertisers seeking surefire means to reach this prized demographic, the surest fire of all being the Super Bowl.
At the same time, the Super Bowl is becoming increasingly attractive to those seeking a female audience. For example, CIBA Vision, the eye care unit of pharmaceuticals/consumer health company Novartis, is running a commercial during the Big Game to promote its O2OPTIX contact lenses, with women being the prime target.
“We know that female professional football fans are on the rise, and almost as many women as men will be tuning in on Super Bowl Sunday,” related Karen Gough, CIBA Vision’s president of the Americas.
According to figures cited by CIBA Vision, nearly half of the 89 million viewers who tuned into last year’s Super Bowl were women. That represents 44 percent more than the number of women who watched the ’04 Academy Awards telecast, long coveted as the most powerful magnet for female eyeballs.
Of course, for all Big Game advertisers, there’s that other extraordinary dynamic: a genuine audience appetite for the commercials. While more than half of all Americans watch the Super Bowl telecast, several studies have found that a high percentage of those viewers tune in for the TV spots rather than the football. And even the football aficionados pay special attention to the ads.
LINEUP CARD
Per usual, during this 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 might emerge during the Super Bowl telecast.
Anheuser-Busch continues its tradition as a marquee Super Bowl participant, holding five minutes of commercial time. Budweiser, Bud Light and perhaps Michelob will be promoted. Anheuser-Busch is sticking to its modus operandi of recent years, producing a number of prospective ads and waiting in some cases just prior to Super Sunday to choose which will air and from what agencies, including DDB Chicago, DDB New York, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco, Hill Holliday Connors Cosmopulos, Boston, and TBWA/Chiat/Day, Los Angeles.
For example, SHOOT heard that Joe Pytka of Venice, Calif.-based PYTKA is directing a Budweiser spot for DDB Chicago. Also, director Brett Morgen of bicoastal Anonymous Content may have a Bud ad for DDB Chicago surface during the Big Game. Ditto for director Albert Kodagolian of Tate USA, Santa Monica. Word is that Kathryn Bigelow of Independent Media, Santa Monica, could have a Bud Light ad in the offing via TBWA/Chiat/Day, Los Angeles. Bryan Buckley of bicoastal/international Hungry Man might also figure in the Anheuser-Busch equation with work for Hill Holliday Connors Cosmopulos, Boston. Director John Immesoete of Backyard Productions, Venice, Calif., and Chicago, has a couple of Bud Light spots in Super Bowl contention, out of DDB Chicago. Immesoete, a former group creative director at DDB Chicago, contributed to the writing of the commercials via Backyard sister shop Seed. And Tim Godsall of Biscuit Filmworks is rumored to have a Budweiser spot in the running for the Super Bowl via DDB New York.
BBDO New York remains a perennial Super Sunday player. This year, the ad shop is turning out commercials for Federal Express, PepsiCo and Visa. The FedEx spot features actor Burt Reynolds.
Pytka has directed a Pepsi job for BBDO, which could air on Super Sunday. A Big Game mainstay over the years, Pytka has also helmed a couple of Super Bowl ads for Diet Pepsi–but not via BBDO. The Diet Pepsi agency this time around is DDB New York.
Also figuring in the Pepsi mix is TBWA/Chiat/Day, Los Angeles, with a commercial for a Pepsi/Apple iTunes promotion. Meanwhile Frito-Lay has a humorous spot on tap featuring M.C. Hammer. Slated to run during the second quarter of the game, the Frito-Lay ad was directed by Spike Lee of 40 Acres And A Mule Filmworks, Brooklyn, for Spike DDB, New York. Stitch, New York, led by senior digital effects artist Fred Ruckel, is handling visual effects and finishing; Rob Watzke of Red Car–with bases in Santa Monica, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas and Buenos Aires–is the editor.
Truck rollouts will also leave tracks on the Super Bowl ad landscape. American Honda Motors has two spots running during the game to promote its first pickup truck, the Ridgeline. Erich Joiner of bicoastal Tool of North America is believed to be the director on the Ridgeline fare for Rubin Postaer and Associates, Santa Monica.
Lincoln Mercury also has a truck to promote–the luxury Mark LT. A :30 for the LT is slated to run during the game’s first half. Word is that Tarsem of @radical.media directed the commercial for Young & Rubicam Detroit in Dearborn, Mich.
Though it’s a far cry from ’00 when dot-com advertisers took up 20 percent of the ad slots on Super Bowl XXXIV, this year’s Big Game will have some new dot-com participants. CareerBuilder.com will run two :30s , out of Cramer-Krasselt, Chicago. And Godaddy.com is scheduled for a :30 during the first quarter of the game, via The Ad Store, New York. Hungry Man’s Buckley directed the CareerBuilder and Godaddy ads.
The choice of Buckley has a dash of irony when historical perspective is taken into account. In ’01, Buckley directed the memorable E*Trade spot, which played off of the dot-com bust, with a monkey traversing what had become a vast Internet wasteland. That tongue-in-cheek commercial, out of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco, in a sense earmarked the transition from the dot-com Super Bowl of ’00 to the “not-com” bowl of ’01. Now four years later, Buckley has helmed spots for two dot-com newcomers to the Big Game.
The aforementioned spot from CIBA Vision, another Super Bowl newcomer, was directed by Jim Sonzero via bicoastal/international Believe Media for Grey Worldwide, New York. Charlie Johnston of bicoastal Lost Planet edited the spot, which features visual effects by Method, Santa Monica.
Also making their Big Game debuts are: Volvo Cars of North America via Euro RSCG MVBMS, New York; Cosentino USA’s Silestone natural quartz surfacing out of Freed Advertising, Sugar Land, Texas; and credit card issuer MBNA for agency The Helm, New York. Volvo has launched a Web site, Boldlygo.com, to support its first Super Sunday ad initiative, which promotes the XC90 V8 SUV. The Cosentino spot features ex-pro athletes Dennis Rodman, Jim McMahon and William “Refrigerator” Perry, as well as football Hall of Fame player and former coach Mike Ditka. And singer Gladys Knight is in the MBNA commercial.
Among the other Super Sunday advertisers are McIlhenny Company’s Tabasco sauce with a commercial entitled “Tan Lines” directed by Keith Rose of bicoastal Velocity @Crossroads for DDB Dallas; McDonald’s via DDB Chicago; Subway from Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco; and Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. and Buena Vista Pictures with spots promoting theatrical releases.
Unilever is slated to run a :30 during the Big Game for Degree antiperspirant. Joe Public of bicoastal HSI directed the spot for Lowe, New York.
Some additional possibilities that could emerge on Super Sunday include adidas directed by Spike Jonze of bicoastal/international MJZ for TBWA/Chiat/Day, San Francisco; NFL/United Way work directed by Neil Tardio, Jr., of bicoastal Go Film for Young & Rubicam, New York; Nationwide Insurance helmed by Frank Todaro of bicoastal Moxie Pictures for Temerlin McClain, Dallas; Verizon directed by Tom Routson of Tool of North America for McCann-Erickson, New York; and Cingular helmed by Scott Hicks via Independent Media for BBDO New York.