The Super Bowl LX ad blitz was a giant funds highwire act—from Anthropic’s shot at OpenAI to Woman Gaga’s homage to Mr. Rogers and Dunkin’s nostalgia-fueled celeb fest. Autodesk CMO Dara Treseder breaks down what labored, what didn’t, and what the adverts reveal about the place marketing is headed subsequent. Treseder additionally unpacks the enterprise affect of Unhealthy Bunny’s halftime present, and what it alerts for the NFL and Apple.
That is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response, hosted by former Quick Firm editor-in-chief Robert Safian. From the crew behind the Masters of Scale podcast, Fast Response options candid conversations with at present’s prime enterprise leaders navigating real-time challenges. Subscribe to Fast Response wherever you get your podcasts to make sure you by no means miss an episode.
I’ve to say that the on-field recreation wasn’t a lot of a contest, form of a blowout, however loads of trick performs and Hail Marys within the advert battle. The fee for a 30-second advert this 12 months was someplace between $8 [million] and $10 million to position. You discuss ROMI—return on advertising and marketing funding—what’s worthwhile, what breaks by. Simply fast off the bat, any large winners or losers that jumped out at you?
There have been some large winners. I feel Anthropic was a giant winner this 12 months. Rocket and Pepsi had been large winners this 12 months. So we are able to go into particulars, however off the bat, I might say these had been a few of the large winners this 12 months.
I noticed a number of mentions within the different lists of the Dunkin advert, the “Good Will Dunkin’” spot fronted by Ben Affleck. Does it match on the entire standards that you simply’re taking a look at?
So I assumed that that advert was honest. You noticed a number of insincere use of celeb. The one winners this 12 months from a star standpoint had been the celebrities who acquired paid. Okay? Quite a lot of manufacturers used celebrities in ways in which they actually didn’t want to do this. Over $250 million was spent on celeb placements for these Tremendous Bowl adverts. That’s 1 / 4 of a billion {dollars}.
Wow.
And the ROI was actually not there. Actually, 60% of the Tremendous Bowl adverts this 12 months used celebrities, and plenty of didn’t use them deliberately or use them properly. I feel “Good Will Dunkin’” was the place celeb use made sense. Everyone knows one factor is true about Ben Affleck. He does like a Jennifer, and he does like Dunkin’ Donuts.
And like a few of the extra artsy intellectual adverts, like Emma Stone for Squarespace or Adrien Brody’s TurboTax—kind of purposely overacting. That was efficient or kind of modest?
I feel it was modest. I don’t assume it fairly lower by as properly. I might say that the Squarespace one was easy. Get a site title utilizing Squarespace. Many individuals may need thought of Squarespace to design their web site, however not essentially like, “I’m not even able to design but, however have I gotten my area title but?” That “If emmastone.com is unavailable, woman, what you sitting on? Go get your area title proper now”—that lower by. I even had my child say, “Mommy, ought to I get my area title?” I used to be, like, “Wow, that is slicing by all generations proper now.” We’ve acquired an 8-year-old wanting to determine if he must get his area title or not.
He higher. In any other case, another person goes to get it.
He higher.
Proper. In some methods, one of many easiest adverts to me that kind of lower by was the Levi’s ad, which simply targeted on rear ends.
It labored. It labored. My son was, like, “Are we taking a look at butts? What’s happening right here?” However what? It confirmed that: “Look, each human physique is unique. And whoever you’re, we’ve acquired denims for you.”
The opposite advert that you simply talked about and was additionally a daring shot was Anthropic’s jab at OpenAI. Positively got here in exhausting with their Claude spots. Did they win even earlier than the Tremendous Bowl advert ran?
They received.
As a result of individuals had been speaking about it.
Properly, earlier than the Tremendous Bowl advert ran, they had been speaking about it. Only a few occasions my husband sends me a textual content about an advert. It grabbed lots of people. The adverts had been extremely properly finished. Whenever you additionally take into consideration the 360 technique of, “Hey, we’re going to maximize dialog and ROI,” they completely did that. Whenever you take a shot at one other firm, and the CEO and the CMO of that firm begin to remark, you’ve received since you struck a nerve. Now I feel that the proof will likely be within the pudding. As a result of now, in the event that they begin to convey adverts to their platform, the web won’t forgive.
Sure. It’s a strategic enterprise resolution to play that up. It’s not only a tagline. You bought to reside with it.
You bought to reside with that. You completely need to reside with that.
There have been a number of AI-related adverts. One thing like one in 4 of the adverts I used to be monitoring had been AI. One in all my producers actually appreciated OpenAI’s advert for Codex. One other one hated the Genspark advert, the one with Matthew Broderick, for being tone-deaf about individuals’s worry of AI. All of those adverts round AI. Is it prefer it was a few years in the past, the place all of a sudden each advert appeared prefer it was from a crypto firm? Is that this a bubble? What does all that imply?
I feel the massive image was AI is right here to remain. That was the massive image. The adverts weren’t as spot-on or bull’s-eye as they may have been. So there wasn’t a single AI advert that I might say, aside from the Anthropic advert, that we talked about. It virtually felt like Anthropic was over right here, and all people else was over right here. So there was an enormous hole. So the AI winner was Anthropic, and all people else was both meh and even within the loser class. However generally, the AI adverts, they had been overdone this 12 months.
I might say the overarching theme this 12 months was disappointment. I feel a number of the adverts weren’t that nice. There have been a couple of standout adverts, and we’ve talked about them. And, I feel, a couple of honorable mentions, and we’ve talked about a couple of of them as properly. However the majority of the adverts had been somewhat meh. It’s like, when your company involves you and suggests Bowen Yang, Jon Hamm, and Scarlett Johansson in a spot, your query needs to be: “Why?” And if it’s not clear, possibly don’t do this.
They had been simply attempting to achieve each demographic.
It doesn’t work. Whenever you attempt to communicate to everybody, you communicate to nobody.
In some ways, the largest assertion of the Tremendous Bowl was the halftime show. Unhealthy Bunny, singing in Spanish. On the Tremendous Bowl occasion that I used to be at, some people liked it. Some actually had been postpone. “I don’t perceive what he’s saying.” What was the bigger affect, do you assume?
The most effective advert of the day, of the night time, was Unhealthy Bunny for Unhealthy Bunny. I assumed he did an unimaginable job. And at my Tremendous Bowl occasion, I used to be up. I used to be dancing. I had a good time. Now, there have been additionally individuals at my Tremendous Bowl that had been, like, they weren’t up, they weren’t dancing. And I feel that was reflective. I feel your Tremendous Bowl occasion and my Tremendous Bowl occasion had been reflective of what’s happening on this planet at present. The individuals who didn’t need Unhealthy Bunny there, there was nothing he may have finished to have happy them. So to have tried to please them would have been a failure.
I assumed he was an amazing success as a result of he spoke to the individuals who he wanted to talk to, and he did it in a means that was extremely genuine to them. From an actual life couple getting married, to Woman Gaga performing, to simply the enjoyment. The overwhelming factor was pleasure and unity. He mentioned, “God bless America.” And he mentioned it in English, so all people may perceive that. He had the soccer that mentioned, “Collectively, we’re America.”
However the America he referred to then wasn’t simply the US of America, proper? He referred to the entire nations within the Americas—which once more, turned some individuals off. There’s danger in that.
I assumed what he was saying—and this is perhaps my very own little interpretation—however I assumed he was speaking about all of those individuals come to America, after which they’re American. And that very a lot resonated with me as an immigrant.
I’ll go a step additional and say I assumed it was a win for Apple. I assumed it was a win for the NFL as a result of they’re attempting to be world. These are world brands. And guess what? Who’s world? Unhealthy Bunny is world. Lots of people everywhere in the world love Unhealthy Bunny. The NFL is attempting to go world. You noticed that they had been even exhibiting the watch events. Listed here are individuals watching the NFL in London. They usually’re attempting to be extra world as an establishment.
