TV

What to Expect from Super Bowl LV’s Commercials

Every time I see a first-time brand join the ranks of Super Bowl LV ad buys, I do a tiny fist pump inside my tiny apartment.

In October, when Avocados from Mexico became the first Super Bowl commercial regular to publicly drop out, I predicted we’d see “different types of brands (ahem, Postmates) [hopping] on board.”

• That was partially due to smaller brands like Headspace making TV ad debuts last spring, when TV inventory prices began to fall during the pandemic’s early grip on US life. 
• And I’ll admit last month when that story broke about uncertainty around the Super Bowl actually driving ad prices up, I worried my original prediction would fall flat. 

But as of the week before the Big Game, when CBS recently declared its inventory “virtually sold out,” I’m pleased to say I was right to begin with—kind of. Chipotle, DoorDash, Fiverr, Hellmann’s, Indeed, Scotts Miracle-Gro, Vroom, and DraftKings are all first-time advertisers this year. 

Why it matters: Super Bowl LV doesn’t have an uncommon number of first time advertisers, but it does have a unique origin story for them. 

What’s driving Super Bowl debuts?

So if low ad rates aren’t the reason for this onslaught of first-time Super Bowl advertisers like I thought they’d be, what is? Turns out, it’s our old friend nemesis Covid-19.

• Many of the brands listed above just so happened to thrive during the pandemic.
• Think fast casual and delivery (Chipotle, DoorDash), e-commerce (Vroom), services for job seekers (Indeed, Fiverr), and even home improvement brands (Scotts Miracle-Gro, Hellmann’s). Don’t tell me mayonnaise hasn’t improved your home. 

Final accounting on my predictions: The new Super Bowl faces aren't small brands snapping up cut-rate deals, but instead pandemic winners.

Looking ahead: So many first timers at once + Super Bowl mainstays like Hyundai, Pepsi, Coke, and Budweiser opting out = potential for the newbies to alter Big Game commercial genre tropes for years to come. For instance, without mainstay themes like Budweiser’s Clydesdales, there’s room for new traditions to form. 

SOCIAL MEDIA

Facebook Shoots its Shot with Advertisers Post Boycott

There’s a chance you’ve heard that, last week, Facebook became more brand safe, or that the social media giant will soon let you choose your own adventure as an advertiser. Sound familiar? Here’s the TL;DR: 

• Facebook is planning on building and testing this little tool called “topic exclusion” throughout 2021.  
• Topic exclusion = tools that let advertisers exclude their ads from running near whatever topics/types of posts they deem unsafe on Facebook’s newsfeed.
• So for instance, if an advertiser selected “death” as a topic to exclude, their ad wouldn’t run next to a death announcement or obituary on the newsfeed. But it also might not appear next to my story about the death of third-party cookies…RIP.

Big : Facebook’s topic exclusion tools are still in the early stages of development, but they could appeal to advertisers after a crisis-filled 2020 on Facebook. 

Controversy ahead: Popular brand safety tech that’s recently become controversial also blocks broad topics...just like FB’s topic exclusion tools will. Critics say there is “no evidence” that this sentiment-based approach helps brands. 

SPONSORED BY ORACLE NETSUITE

In Pursuit of the Perfect Order

If you’re a merchant, you know the perfect order will knock customers' socks off. We can see it now: the ultimate omnichannel experience of "buy anywhere, fulfill anywhere, and return anywhere." 

How we long for it, dear reader. If only we knew how to achieve the perfect...oh, you can actually just read Oracle NetSuite’s “Achieving the Perfect Order” white paper. Apparently, it includes such juicy details as how to:

• Centralize order management to provide a superior customer experience.
• Gain inventory visibility to avoid steep costs, dwindling profits, and damaged customer loyalty.
• Coordinate fulfillment locations and providers to keep processes moving quickly and smoothly.

There you have it, reader. Go ahead and achieve that perfect order by downloading Oracle NetSuite’s white paper here.

STRATEGIES

(Meal) Prepping for Sunday’s Super Bowl

The Super Bowl means many marketers will create live, timely content this week. But in the eleventh hour, Bowl creativity could run dry. 

That’s why we’re sharing the following stats from Roku on what your audience might be snacking on during the game. Bookmark this article for content inspo when you’re fresh out of football jokes late Sunday night.

What: 24% of Roku users are likely to order takeout from a third-party app during the game. Plus, 82% of Roku users have heard of Grubhub and DoorDash, and 78% have heard of Uber Eats.

Who: Football fans between the ages of 25 and 34 represent 44% of those likely to order Seamless for a single slice of pizza. 

When: Roku predicts Super Bowl LV’s audience will consume the following snicky snacks—chips and dip (71%), chicken wings (63%), and pizza (48%). 

+1 for restaurant marketers: According to Gaurav Shirole, director of ad measurement at Roku, “Food and restaurant marketers should consider ramping up awareness…like through a QR code experience to unlock a delivery promotion, or use omnichannel strategies ahead of game day to ensure homebound and hungry streamers know their order options.”

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Everlane hired its first CMO—Nike’s Sophie Bambuck.
• The Richards Group laid off nearly 15% of its staff, a few months after racist remarks from its founder went public. 
• Facebook’s daily active usage has stalled in the US, despite growth in other areas.
• Robinhood’s TV spend rose dramatically year over year, which its marketing team may or may not regret post-GameStop debacle.

SPONSORED BY ASANA

Work about work is the worst. Ever feel like you spend over half your day talking about work, switching between apps, or following up on email threads you can hardly follow anymore? You’re not alone. The work management gurus at Asana recently delved deeper into why knowledge workers in the US end up wasting 61% of their time on work about work. Read their Anatomy of Work Index report right here. 

FRENCH PRESS

Marketing tips to make you fancy

Video: Did you like our recent Vimeo article? If you did (fingers crossed), you’ll love these four tips for generating leads with your videos...c/o Vimeo. 

LinkedIn: These six tips, conveniently situated in a pretty little infographic, will help you measure LinkedIn campaign performance.

SEO: When you notice a dip in your organic search rankings, keep calm and take the following 10 steps.

B2B: If you’re fresh out of creative lead gen strategies, check out these eight unconventional ways to generate quality B2B sales leads. 

CRM: Marketing automation software like HubSpot’s Marketing Hub helps you create and deliver personalized experiences and brings the power of CRM data to the center of everything you do.*

*This is sponsored advertising content

AD ANTIQUES

Vintage Ad Browser

In honor of the east coast’s weekend snowstorm, here's a 1954 Life Savers ad. Just look at them, floating down a frozen stream for an absolutely insane five cents.  

ICYMI

Catch up on a few Marketing Brew stories you might have missed.

• Quizlet partnered with TikTok for education integration
• Patrón partnered with The Marcus Graham Project for D&I hiring
• And Walmart…wait for it…partnered with The Trade Desk