The Super Bowl is advertising’s biggest stage—and an expensive one, at that.

This year, it cost advertisers up to $7 million for 30 seconds to appear in the national broadcast, and that’s just to get it on the air. These days, Super Bowl advertisers are often encouraged to shell out for a celebrity, but not someone who could outshine the brand. The ad is expected to meet other requirements, like getting people’s attention, keeping it, and encouraging them to act. Maybe it should make them laugh. Maybe it should make them cry. In other words, it’s got to be perfect. Better not mess it up.

“The pressure on the marketing team that’s behind it all is huge,” Kerry Benson, creative solutions lead at Kantar, told Marketing Brew. “There’s just a lot at stake. It gets highly scrutinized by not just consumers, with things like the USA Today [Ad Meter]...We all know that the Super Bowl isn’t just a 30-second ad anymore; it’s a campaign in and of itself.”

There’s no guarantee a Super Bowl ad will exceed—or even meet—consumer expectations, but we asked a few Super Bowl ad experts what tactics they have seen lead to success, and which ones they think are more likely to flop.

(Not so) secret sauce: Generally speaking, it’s hard—but not impossible—to go wrong combining star power with humor, according to Jason Harris, co-founder and CEO of creative agency Mekanism, which has worked on about a dozen Super Bowl ads. Kantar’s Benson concurred, adding that in any given year, about 70% of Super Bowl ads feature celebrities.

Rick Suter, a senior content strategist at Gannett and editor of USA Today’s Ad Meter, said “SNL power,” aka working with people who are famous and funny, has proven effective since the early days of the Ad Meter. The first-ever win in 1989, for instance, went to an American Express ad that starred comedians Jon Lovitz and Dana Carvey.

But brands run the risk of being forgotten if they’re overshadowed by stars, Benson said. To minimize that possibility, she said advertisers could consider casting celebs who have authentic connections to their brands.

Continue reading here.—AM

Here’s a mind-boggling stat: 92% of brands are struggling to differentiate themselves in a crowded market, according to Frontify research.

Put that stat to the test when you play a round of Spot the Brand, a new interactive game from Frontify. With the clock ticking, your job is to pick out as many brands as possible in a busy, beautifully drawn scene.

What’s the message here? Well, if you’re not actively investing in your brand, you’re bound to get lost in the crowd. On the other hand, some best-in-class brands are so iconic, they’re easy to spot in a scene—even out of context.

Are you up to the challenge? You’ve got five minutes to find 50 brands. See how many you can catch.

For the first time, an ad agency has agreed to a settlement over its role in the opioid crisis.

Publicis Health, a branch of the advertising holding company Publicis Groupe, has agreed to pay $350 million to settle claims brought by attorneys general from around the country that it engaged in “predatory and deceptive marketing strategies” while working for Purdue Pharma to promote the prescription of opioids, including OxyContin, Butrans, and Hysingla, according to a statement released by New York Attorney General Letitia James’s office.

The AG’s office alleged that Publicis Health “was responsible for creating advertisements and materials…that promoted OxyContin as safe and unable to be abused” in campaigns that it developed with Purdue between 2010 and 2019.

At the center of the complaint is Purdue’s “Evolve to Excellence” campaign, developed by McKinsey & Company and implemented by Publicis, according to the AG’s statement, which alleges that it “targeted the doctors who prescribed the most OxyContin and flooded them with sales calls and marketing.”

McKinsey previously agreed to a $573 million settlement in 2021 over its work marketing opioids for pharmaceutical companies, including Purdue.

As part of the settlement, Publicis Health has agreed to pay the $350 million within 60 days and will be prohibited from accepting future contracts or engagements that involve the sale or marketing of opioids.

Read more here.—KH, QS

The cat’s out of the bag: Hellmann’s joined the early wave of brands releasing their Super Bowl ads weeks ahead of the game. For its fourth year in the Super Bowl, the brand included two Saturday Night Live alums, a furry friend, and its usual messaging about preventing food waste.

This year, Hellmann’s is leaning into some tried-and-true strategies to capture viewers’ attention: comedians, cats, and humor. In other ways, though, the brand’s marketing team thought outside the box (or the home).

“Over the years, we have really optimized our strategy in terms of thinking about the Big Game as a total campaign in phases,” Chris Symmes, senior marketing director for Unilever North America’s dressings portfolio, which includes Hellmann’s, told Marketing Brew. “This is a bit of a departure from our very first year when we were new to everything, still getting our bearings.”

Kate-y cat: Hellmann’s 30-second ad, which will air in the second quarter of the game, stars Kate McKinnon and cat actor Chipmunk, who plays the role of “Mayo Cat,” a cat who can say (or, rather, meow) the word “mayo.”

“When we realized that ‘meow’ and ‘mayo’ were somewhat interchangeable, it sparked this creative idea for us to feature a cat as a way to deliver our message,” Symmes said.

Keep reading here.—AM

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Find ’em all: Play Frontify’s Spot the Brand game and locate the brands in a busy scene. You’ve got five minutes—see how easy (or hard) it is to find all 50.*

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Executive moves across the industry.

• Jay Askinasi, formerly of Publicis, is set to be the next head of ad sales at Roku, Business Insider reported.
• Steve Sturges is Paycom’s new CMO.
• Zaid Al-Qassab is leaving his role as CMO of Channel 4 at the end of March. The British TV broadcaster, which airs shows like The Great British Bake Off, is planning to cut 18% of its workforce, per Marketing Week.