All posts tagged Super Bowl

Talk about a Thriller…

The current logo of Fox Television

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I have never really understood why Americans sing God Bless America before sporting events. It’s kinda Stephen Baldwin to the Star Bangled Banner’s Alec – related but not nearly as important in the grand scheme of things.

Well, Glee’s Lea Michelle (who I always want to call Michelle Lea) sang it the other night at that football game. Fair enough. Until you think about it.

It wasn’t a song.
It wasn’t a pre-game ritual.
It was an ad.

The game’s broadcaster, Fox, was airing a special episode of Glee immediately following the game and Michele’s presence certainly helped promote the show.

Fox sells content to advertisers. That’s their business. That’s their product. The more viewers they get, the more they charge advertisers and the more money they make. So Michele’s presence was nothing more than a carefully orchestrated in-game commercial to get as many Super Bowl viewers to hang around for the post-game Thriller Glee-fest.

And you know what? I love it.

Somehow, Fox managed to create a 360, integrated campaign that featured branded content, an experiential event, unofficial sponsorship, credible in-game mentions, and traditional 30 second spots leading up to the big product launch… um….I mean.. show.

Most importantly, it worked.

Glee scored 27 million viewers for the episode. That’s the most ever.

There’s a lot that us ad folk can learn from the networks. They get it. They created a Thriller and brilliantly got people to buy.
My only question: What were the Link scores?

Tune in tomorrow when I’ll address Rogers media presence in Canada. Here’s a hint: I don’t think they’re evil.

 

Be Proud of Canadian Advertising.

Image representing Google as depicted in Crunc...

Image via CrunchBase

Canadian Super Bowl Advertising. It’s not lame.

Coast to coast, the Super Sunday commercials are debated, discussed, and dissed. As much I participate in critiquing the ads aired, there’s one annual collective Canadian statement I don’t agree with:

“The Canadian advertising is lame.”

I like the American ads as much as the next Joe Canadian – I actually muted the game and watched the US spots on Youtube – but it doesn’t mean that Canadian advertising is worse than American advertising. We’re lucky to have some of the best creative minds in the world living and working right here in our home and native land.  

No, it’s not about talent. It’s not about ability. It’s about money.

With ten times the population and the budgets to match, our American counterparts can afford to deliver spots with insane production values that are created exclusively for that one event and the audience it attracts. A brief that targeted is bound to create brilliant work. And it has. Some of the best commercials of all time – Apple’s “1984”, Budweiser’s “9/11 Tribute” and Google’s “Parisian Love” – were aired only once and that was during the Super Bowl.

North of the border, we just can’t do that.

There aren’t many Canadian clients who can invest a significant portion of their budget for one big spot created exclusively for one big night. And if you tuned in last night, you experienced what that means.

It means we get pretty good commercials that we’ve probably seen before or new ones that were produced in the US and customized for our market by changing “.com” to “.ca”. Even the select few that are specifically created for CTV’s Super Bowl feed (Thanks, TD) are done with modest budgets and a lot less fanfare.

We don’t blow our budgets on one big party. We’re Canadian. We’re responsible. And sometimes, that’s better in the long run. Right, Fannie Mae?