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Bryan Earnest: Well, hello, it's Brian Ernest and Rachel Holland here on today's Amp Up podcast. We're talking about the super Bowl commercials and all that we saw in the big game. We asked a few experts to recap which brands move the needle. Joining us is Amperages video producers, Bob Waters and Monte Bowden. Welcome guys.

Bob Waters: Hey Brian.

Monte Bowden: Thanks for having us.

Bob Waters: Hi, Rachel.

Rachel Holland: Good morning.

Bryan Earnest: It's great to have you guys join us. I'm sure we'll have lots to talk about with the big game last night. It was. It was a lot of fun, wasn't it?

Bob Waters: It was really fun. Great game too.

Bryan Earnest: Welcome Rachel.

Rachel Holland: Hi, thanks for having me. So we know that there were over a hundred million viewers for a Super Bowl Sunday, so that's pretty wild. It's a lot more than just football. Which is why we brought this crew together. The stakes for brands can be equally as high, right? So a recent statistic report said 43% of viewers watched the game for the ads. So, quick poll for this group. Are you watching the game for the ads or the game?

Monte Bowden: Yes, exactly.

Bob Waters: Mix. Yeah.

Bryan Earnest: Football was good. I have to say. I mean, it was an entertaining game. I hate to see a game kind of end where, well, let's run out the clock and kick a field goal, but it was good, and at least my former partner's happy with the results, so we'll go from there. How about you, Rachel?

Rachel Holland: Well, my shirt that I wore yesterday said beat the other team, so I think it's fair to say that I'm in it for the ads. The snacks, if I'm being honest. But Bob, you've produced big game spots over the years for our clients. No pressure there for you and your team, I'm sure. But talk to us a little bit about the approach, what makes these spots most effective?

Bob Waters: Well, I think the first thing you want to do is you want to stand out from the crowd, right? You want something that is going to draw eyeballs, not necessarily what they're saying, because a lot of people have the sound off sometimes. If you do have the sound on, then obviously you want to reinforce your message, but it's standing out from the crowd because everybody's bringing their A game to this one. Right? So this is the Super Bowl of ads, right? You want your brand to stand out, you want it to stay true to your brand and you also want to kind of separate yourself from your competitors or even the other spot. So that's a lot of what I'm looking for on game, on the Super Bowl.

Monte Bowden: Yeah. So true.

Bryan Earnest: Yes, great points Bob. Monte you've been producing big commercials as well, videos. You've been telling clients stories, brand stories for years. What commercials stood out to you that told a great brand story Monte?

Monte Bowden: Yeah, for a long time we've always joked about, you know, if you want to reach, people, make an impact. Dogs and babies, so my favorite brand story was the Farmer's Dog spot. It was a really nice 60. And just a really goo d story that they told about I think every dog owner, maybe any kind of a pet owner could relate to. And, you know, wanting to let us know that, hey, what you feed your dog matters. We think it does. Anyway, that's what their message was. But just really, it had a great song, the song was Forever. Look it up, Lee Field song. I wouldn't have been able to tell you that, but it just, it captured just the whole messag e really nicely.

And it was a cliffhanger story. Like my, we were sitting there, it was like, oh, is something bad gonna happen to the, no, don't let the dog die. One of my daughters-in-law was with us, they're dog owners. They have a dog, Halle, and they have a new baby, right? And as she watched that, she said, ah, I just love Halle. I love our dog. So it really connected, I think, with their demo. Because I'm sure she's someone who makes buying decisions about what they're gonna feed the dog. And I wouldn't be surprised to see a change in what they're feeding Halle.

So I thought it was a really well told story. Good writing, good tagline. Nothing matters more than more years together. And then with their little tag at the end it was just really succinct and well done.

Bryan Earnest: That's a great example, Monte. I love that spot as well. You know, I love the storytelling. I love that it had humor in it. Everybody's had a dog that just rips stuff apart. tore the chair, the remote that had been chewed up. I mean, everybody has laughed at that. You talk about Dogs and babies. Well, the dog spot was terrific. I think about Amazon too, had a, just a wonderful storytelling spot. That was one of my favorites from a storytelling perspective too.

I love that Amazon really doesn't even have to show their logo. They can just show the smile. Yeah. At the end. And it's Amazon. But when you talk about babies, talk about one that kind of struck out was the E-trade babies. Where I thought, these little guys are so cute, but when you don't have a good script. It just fell flat and I thought, here's a great opportunity to be good storytellers. E-Trade has always done that with the babies.

And yet it just kind of fell flat. We look at the Super Bowl ads for the story they tell, how cool a lot of them are so funny, but did we see anything that really jumped out at us like that was really creative or that there was something that really creatively jumped out at us? Any great examples of that?

Monte Bowden: I think there was one and we just talked about this prior to the recording pre-game commercial for Tresseme. We were talking about how visual, that was with the underwater scenes, and it would, it was kind of a, an a pre-game standout, I think, for me anyway. And just very nicely done visually. I think one of the other standouts that is probably a favorite is just what Disney did, with, kind of cherry picking some of the best Disney, moments in our memories and really packaging that in a way , that says, we're more than who we've been and we have a lot that we can offer you however you connect with Disney. And there are a lot of ways to do that now as evidenced by their spot. Yeah.

Bryan Earnest: Bob, what about you? Anything just creatively you said, wow, that was really cool?

Bob Waters: I was looking for storytelling. Yeah. The whole time, right? Yeah, because , I think that's part of it. And for me, I enjoyed the Google ad about their pixel phone. Because it was right there telling you that you can erase your mistakes if you need to, right. And they did in a, kind of a funny way, but it was really good for their brand because in the phone world, iPhones and Google are going up against each other, but you know about iPhones, you don't know as much about Google.

So I thought that was a great way for them to reinforce, here's a separator for us. It's easily understood. It's in a comical way and it really popped to me as one of the better.

Monte Bowden: Interesting. Right. Cause it's, it was a product explainer, right? Yeah. DexCo n for diabetes had a similar one and it, by comparison, one much more creative than the other.

Bob Waters: Yes. I agree. Yeah. The DexCon spot to me kind of fell flat. It was an explainer, but it did not stand out.

Monte Bowden: We'll give you Nick Jonas, but I don't remember a lot more about it. Right, right, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Celebrity doesn't always trend.

Bob Waters: And there was a lot of celebrities in this Super Bowl, and I thought in a way that was great, but in another way it just, it fell flat because it did not reinforce what the brand was. And that's one of mine that I thought and I've seen the other side of this, I thought the Pepsi ads with Ben Stiller and Steve Martin, they were great from a Ben Stiller and Steve Martin perspective. But was it great for Pepsi where they were like, I'm acting and it's up to you whether I'm actually truly acting or not.

Which I, I don't know if I cared for that. But the movie star or the rockstar ad that I thought did land with celebrities was the workday spot, where they're talking about being a rockstar and then they're actually talking to rock stars. Like, don't say you're a rockstar. We're rock stars so I thought that one was really good from that perspective. And it also brought home like an office situation, which Workday does well.

Monte Bowden: Appeal to a certain demo, right? Those of us who grew up with Billy Idol and Paul Stanley, and Gary Clark Jr. And so forth, that was like, oh, that was a spot for me. Right? And so I appreciated that, knowing that a lot of the spots were not, I was not in, in their demo. Dunkin Donuts, they had high profile actors. Yep. Ben Affleck.

Bryan Earnest: That actually was one of my favorites.

Monte Bowden: Did you like it?

Bob Waters: I did. I really like the simplicity of it. And if my son reminded me that Ben Affleck is a big Dunkin Donuts.

Bryan Earnest: There's a meme about him.

Bob Waters: He's, yeah. Like, that's part of his. Persona. And so for him to be doing that at Dunking Donuts, and I mean, Jennifer Lopez can definitely deliver a line when she pulls up and says, I thought you were going to work today, man. Oh, could you get me a glazed, I mean, it's just like the thought of J Lo eating a donut.

Monte Bowden: But how relatable coming through Covid and seeing celebrities Yeah. In ways that we've never seen them before, because they were a lot more putting themselves out there. And we just, it's connected us, I think, closer. And I think that's maybe why we saw so many celebrity cameo endorsements popping up.

Bryan Earnest: That's a good point. But I think you've also got an interesting thing and that you have to be in on the joke on some of those. So, right, so on the Ben Affleck, you know that there's a dunking meme. If you don't know there's a dunk meme, you don't quite get the joke. I felt that way about the. Popcorners Doritos ad with the Breaking Bad Characters. I loved it because I love Breaking Bad. It was great to see those characters again. Oh my gosh, they're, and it's really good and it's shot like that. But if you don't know Breaking bad, you really don't know the joke. You don't know the third character Tuko who was in it. You would have no idea. So they're just guys eating chips.

Monte Bowden: We talked about that last week before it was coming out. You knew that it was gonna be there. And I'm like, well, I'm not a breaking bad guy. I probably won't get it. I wondered how it would land for you. It sounds like it did well.

Bryan Earnest: I liked it because I love the show. Right. But if you don't love the show, you don't know. And I'm sure there were other spots that I didn't know who these people were, what they were talking about. There are others who do. So I think you have to find, you kind of have to thread that needle of universality, right?

Bob Waters: So does that inside baseball, does that connect you better, connect your brand, make it more relevant with your target audience if you know your target audience, they're gonna know.

I think

Bryan Earnest: it can, but again, it's off-putting, right? Because I'm getting outta that breaking bad commercial about Breaking Bad. I'm not getting the chip. Right? . So I will say the other and I'll, and. Kind of stepped back from celebrities. The other one that I liked, and I don't know if I should like it or not, was the Bud Light ad where Miles Teller and his wife or girlfriend, I don't know if they're married or what, they're dancing to the whole music that we all know of, and I just thought that was a creative take on that. Does it sell beer? I don't know if it does, but it made me happy. It made me laugh a little bit because we all know that hold music. Yeah. Right. It's interminable.

Bob Waters: It seemed memorable with the, uh, the women I was watching the game with. How about you, Rachel? Where did that one land for you?

Rachel Holland: It didn't really land for me. The only alcohol one, well, there were a couple alcohol ones that stood out to me. The Bush light one with Sarah McLaughlin, did that not hit anyone else with the wrong shelter, Sarah. Also that's a Wolf . That one probably stood out to me a little bit more because it was familiar for me. And then there just seemed to be a lot of hype around the Coors Light versus Miller Light commercial leading up to it. And then turns out it was not even an ad for either of those. It was Blue Moon, right? Which they all fall under the same brand. So I thought that was well played. I think that they had a lot of hype leading up to it, and then incorporated another one of their brand as a part of it. So I thought they did a good job there .

Bryan Earnest: Interesting. Interesting. You know for me, a couple of the favorites that I had that I can't pass this up without talking about Caddyshack. I mean, I'm a golfer. And so the whole, I've been waiting ultra ad I thought it had a lot of great celebrity in it, which was fun. Tony Romo, I think if you're watching football, the last couple seasons, his persona and just a charact. I mean, the fact that he played the Bill Marie character was fun. He delivered a line, which was great. He did well. Alex Morgan, big soccer star was part of it. So it was a lot of fun.

That one was a lot of fun. I, I also like the Google Pixel seven, I think for the, to see those real life scenarios of these are the things you could take out of your photo. I mean, I think, very cool. I mean, who's gonna ever forget Binky dad? I mean, I thought Binky dad was fun, but there's probably one more that I think just from a storytelling perspective for me, really did hit home and that was the Jesus ads. There were a couple of them in there. I've been seeing those all the way through football season. They've been in a lot of the games, very striking images all the way through. I thought the final one that they did last night was like, wow, it really kind of grabbed you. What do you guys think? I mean, those, that's a pretty, those are pretty bold to have those in the Super Bowl.

Monte Bowden: Yeah, I think they stood out I thought it was especially interesting how they used black and white imagery in both of their spots. Again, different than a what you were seeing in a lot of other places and how the first spot really felt like a big hug. The second one got uncomfortable, and then it resolved. So I thought they did a nice job of kind of building some tension and being able to deliver a pretty, pretty simple message.

Bob Waters: I think that is a great example of standing out, right? Whether you agree or you even know who is making the spot. Yeah. You don't really quite know. So whatever they're trying to understand, but boy, it really stands out. And i t draws your eyes to the screen and then you want to investigate and you want to check out the website and just see what this is about. So I think it was a good, entry point for a lot of people to, um, to be sucked in, to be drawn in because of that imagery.

Rachel Holland: Bob, I think, oh, sorry Bob. I think that goes. , those ads really play off well. About your comment earlier about not having sound. You know, I was at a Super Bowl party, lots of kids. It was really loud. So some of the commercials I had to go back and watch again. Right. So I could actually hear what they were saying in the message. That one, I mean, you didn't need anything, right? Like the imagery just brought you in. And the whole room just got a little quiet. Very well played. And also it did get me personally to go and search. So I was looking it up today and I think they did a nice job also of incorporating other marketing tactics of a Google search ad hit me right when I search for them , I mean this is a part of a billion dollar campaign, right? I wanted to know like, who paid for this spot? Who is this? So, well played on the, he gets us ads for sure.

Bryan Earnest: So we talk about a lot of the great ads we saw, and there were a lot of fun ones, a lot that made us laugh. What about the fumbles? Which one didn't really land it? Which one played it a little too safe? Monte, you're laughing.

Monte Bowden: This, I don't know if anybody else, got this, T-Mobile, too soon. Olivia Newton-John just passed away and you're gonna. Johnny , her , right? Yeah. Yeah. It was just a little too close to that for me, I mean, it was well produced. The song is great. But I just thought, eh, maybe not, I don't know. I just thought that was the other one. I was really, I'm really like Adam Driver and, I'm sorry, square space. But you disappointed me with that. I just expected to have it be more because you had Adam Driver, it just didn't, I didn't know what that was about.

Bryan Earnest: Right. What does Square Space do?

Monte Bowden: It's a website that makes websites.

Bryan Earnest: Okay. Okay. Sure. All right. What, okay. I seems weird. Bob, we know this is your favorite topic to talk about the ads that really aren't that good..

Bob Waters: I'll just say, and I don't wanna pick on a local commercial, but I did see a typo. Oh, really? In a local commercial. And I thought, this is your chance and there's a typo. And so I immediately think Terrible of your organization. Didn't that go through other sets of eyes? Yeah. Didn't somebody fact check that or not fact check that, but so that one really, oh man, I can't talk about who did that, but it wasn't us. So and then the other one that I thought was, boring to me, I guess was the Jeep ad with their electric vehicle. So I know what they were trying. To show off, but it just was boring to me.

And they had a shaggy song on there and I don't really care for Shaggy, so that was off putting for me as well. And I just don't know what they were doing. But it had a sloth, I mean, it was, yeah, but what, those are cute animals. And then I'm gonna see that in my vehicle. Probably not, but. I don't know.

Bryan Earnest: You know, Bob, if, just to interrupt there, you know, with Jeep, the last couple of years they've done these ads that have been like part of Americana. They've had these great storytelling. They've, you know, they've been one of those that have risen to the top of like, this is one we've really gotta see. And yet this year, Decided to go off script.

Bob Waters: Yeah. And I think the other thing on that is there are some commercials that can be purposefully bad, if you remember them. If you, and there's I have a lot of blank paper on here where I didn't take notes on ads, which means they're probably bad. Yeah. Because I don't remember them, or I don't wanna remember them. Right. So I think there's a way to make a bad spot for you to remember, but if you don't remember that bad spot, that's even worse.

Bryan Earnest: Rachel, what about you? .

Rachel Holland: You know, I'll say, I don't know if it was bad, but maybe I was just disappointed. You know, we talked about a lot of high profile celebrities being in these ads, and I'm a huge Foo Fighters fan . So Dave Girl was in there and he's such an amazing storyteller songwriter. And the Crown Royal, thank you Canada ad just didn't do it for me. So I guess I was a little disappointed in that. But Bradley Cooper with T-Mobile stepped up his game, so it was a wash, it was fine.

Bryan Earnest: So I'm assuming Crown Royal is made in Canada. Is that what they're trying to tell me? I still was unclear on tha, after that ad.

Monte Bowden: Strange. It was one of those that got me thinking so much about what comes from Canada. Yes. I forgot who was that spot for. Right. You know, and I think that happens a lot after the game ends.

Bryan Earnest: You know, for me, I had a couple of them that just were a big swing and a Miss one Budweiser. Where were the Clyde Dales? I mean, so just by not having them, it stuck out to me as like, Hey, what did you do? You didn't do anything. I thought there was an opportunity I'm sorry, Rachel Blue Moon. For me, I kind of went I didn't get it, and maybe it's the fact that I like Coors Light and.

Rachel Holland: All the ad week particles were hitting me up the last two weeks. So, yeah.

Bryan Earnest: So you were waiting for it?

Rachel Holland: I was waiting for it.

Bryan Earnest: Okay. Right. So for me, I think getting caught off guard, I kind of went, I don't, I didn't get it.

Monte Bowden: I don't know if you know, if you don't know that Miller Coors owns Blue Moon. And then you find that out. It's like, oh, they played me Right .

Bryan Earnest: There's a little bit of that. I just got played. Yeah, that's Interesting. That's a great point. Mon. What, let's talk just a little bit about Mr. Peanut. He's been in the Super Bowl for a lot of years, right? I thought clever writing obviously a lot of puns, but Made to be roasted. I thought it was pretty interesting and they got me from the very first line. I know you've got a batch of brownies to ruin. I was it. That was great. That was, I thought that was the best line. That's a great line of the whole. Best writing that was out there. Now the spot itself was kind of fell flat. I thought they could have maybe done a little more with that. , but I liked the concepts and the idea that it was fun.

Rachel Holland: Did you scan the QR code Monty to watch the full ?

Monte Bowden: I'm 56, almost 57 years old. No, . I did

Bryan Earnest: not scan. I'll

Monte Bowden: show you how to do that later. Yeah, if you would be, uh, willing to help me through that, that would be nice.

But I'm sure it was a, I'm sure it was a great experience for those who did. ,

Bryan Earnest: you know, the other ones that just kind of fell flat for me. The Pringles, I get it. You know, you get your hands stuck in the can, but I thought Pringles has always been one of those that's just been like, just killing it so many years.

And I kind of went nice in concept. We've all had that. Mm-hmm. and then it gets executed and you go, that really didn't deliver the way I thought. Mm-hmm. and we were talking about celebrity earlier, and I, I later, I wrote down in my notes, and this is. I couldn't think of who it was for, but the Will Ferrell Ev where I really went, this is a commercial about Will Ferrell.

Mm-hmm. . Yeah. More than it was about. an electric vehicle. I think it was gm, but it really felt more like about Will Ferrell than it did about about the ad. And the other one that just kinda lost me was going down the rabbit hole. It was a little too cerebral to be, people don't really know what to be is yet.

And so for that one to kind of go, I don't quite get it and yet you're gonna take me on. Rabbit hole journey. I

Monte Bowden: thought those rabbits were scary looking . Yeah. I mean it really like, I wouldn't want to go down the rabbit hole of those. Bad bunny, little

Allison.

Bryan Earnest: Bad bunny. Yes, yes.

Rachel Holland: I'm glad my kids were not watching at that point with the Easter Bunny coming right around the corner

Bryan Earnest: here.

Truth, yeah, absolutely. Any other favorites for you, Rachel? Any other spots you want to hit on? ?

Rachel Holland: I don't think so. I mean, I think the two that really hit me were the T-Mobile with Bradley Cooper. I think him and his mom. It, I think it was just hilarious. Um, the John Travolta one didn't hit me as much, and maybe Monty that hits on your point of being too soon, but mm-hmm.

um, that was probably my biggest one. T-Mobile, Bradley Cooper. I mean, how about

Bryan Earnest: you? We all love Bradley Cooper, right? And his mom is priceless. I mean, she was fantastic. She, she made me smile. Bob, what are your thoughts? So,

Bob Waters: I don't know when the Super Bowl commercials really start. Did it start at like noon when the pre-game started or does it start when the kickoff, but I saw one in the, before the game started from McDonald's.

I didn't see it listed in Super Bowl ads, you know, that you see today. But it. Uh, a bit of a, a couple's ad where it had some heart. So it was about knowing your significant other's order at McDonald's and Oh, so they were saying each other's order, and I just thought that was sweet and had a little heart to it, so I really liked that.

And you don't see that a lot. It was, I think they had celebrity couples and then they had non-celebrity couples and it, it just rang a tone for me of heart. Yeah.

Bryan Earnest: You know, I think about the whole day, the whole Super Bowl day. I thought Fox. pretty well. It was full of lots of Fox. Uh, certainly a lot, lot of Fox promos.

Mm-hmm. , um, I I don't know. We, we will have to see who's going to actually watch, uh, the, you know, animal control show. Mm-hmm. that was promoted, uh, heavily. Uh, I thought Fox did very well with it. I think probably the best sponsor of the day was Apple sponsoring the halftime show with mm-hmm. , Beyonce. They didn't have to do anything.

We'll just sponsor Beyonce. Did I really just say Beyonce, Rihanna? I did. I meant Rihanna, , um, but, uh, uh, RI Beyonce. Yeah. Ri Beyonce. Yeah. Rihanna. But, uh, uh, for Apple to sponsor Rihanna on the halftime show, I thought was well played Apple. But uh, you know, um, what's always striking in the Super Bowl is all of a sudden we jump from these big national ads to these local ads.

Right. And I know, Bob, you made a mention about one having a typo and I think about the dollars going into those ads, um, without naming any names, Um, what were the thoughts about our, about local ads? Uh, how do people do? .

Bob Waters: I, I would say from my thought, and it was kinda like the rest of the Super Bowl commercials were underwhelming.

I didn't think they stood out. I saw the typo. Um, and the other ones I immediately forgot. So I didn't think that they were, they were strong, at least in the market I was in. Yeah,

it,

Monte Bowden: you know, it's a, it's a tough environment, um, to put yourself into as a local, regional, uh, advertiser. Um, cuz you're gonna be, Up against, like the best of the best in, in, in this format.

I think it's a really, um, you know, something that as we talk to clients about when and why, uh, you should be doing that. Um, one of the things I have observed when we are working with a client on a big game spot. There's, there's a lot of energy. There's energy here. Mm-hmm. , Mm-hmm. , I think it energizes the client.

Um, so I think there's a value in saying, Hey, let's, let's get in there. Let's do our, let's put our best foot forward. Let's give this a shot and see what might happen. And I think that that does good for the organization. Whether the spot ever lands well or not, you know, time will tell, but I think there's a real, um, um, valuable, uh, exercise in, in just going through that and thinking, what would we.

Bob Waters: Uh, what would our Super Bowl story be? What would our message be? And, and then how would we go about creating that? And, you know, if you produce the spot, great, but there's value in just thinking it through, um, as, as a, uh, local or, or regional, uh, marketer. And, you know, what would our story be? How would we

Bryan Earnest: approach that?

You know, it's a great point, man. And my thought overwhelmingly as I watched local spots was I be true to yourself, be true to your brand. Tell your story, don't step out to do something. So out of character. Yeah. I think it's something to step up mm-hmm. to level up your spot to put a little more attention into that story, but don't overshoot it.

Um, it will, it will really have a difficult time landing it.

Bob Waters: If you don't have a campaign to support that one spot, it's gonna land flat. Right. You have to, it has to be part of a longer term. And I saw a lot of one-offs yesterday that you won't see again. Yeah. And how does that help? Well

Bryan Earnest: into Rachel's great point.

It's gotta be part of an integrated campaign. Mm-hmm. , , the website that you're gonna go to, the social media campaign wrapped around it, all of the other aspects too. It's gotta be a well thought out campaign, so. Great discussion today, everybody. This was great. What a super discussion. You guys are all rock stars,

Thanks . Well, that's it for today's Amp Up podcast. If you like what you've heard on our podcast, please share it. Go to amperage marketing.com. Also, if you get a chance, please rate and review us. We appreciate any feedback. On behalf of all of us at Amperage, thank you. Check in on another podcast and we will help you move the.