En Europe, mid-February rhymes with the return of the Champions League. In the United States, it’s time for Super Bowl 2023 (February 13) and its big halftime show, which will be provided by Rihanna this year. But who says Super Bowl, also says festival for the brands, which will do their fat cabbage on the advertisements. In 2023, there will be no promos for cryptocurrencies on the screens, but beers, chips and a bit of mystery around M&M’s candies, caught in the American cultural battle.
A remake of Breaking Bad to sell crisps, or a pastiche of Squid Gamethe result of a Netflix/General Motors collaboration, to praise the manufacturer’s electric vehicles: as every year, the first extracts from the dozens of short films broadcast during the final of the American football championship have flourished on the Internet.
Despite very high and still rising prices – 6 to 7 million dollars per 30 seconds, ten times more than for the United States-England match at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar – Fox Sports has filled up on advertisers.
Last year, NBC generated $578 million in advertising revenue during the game, up $143.8 million from the previous Super Bowl, according to estimates by research firm Kantar.
“The spot is very expensive, but what event offers you 100 million people who see your ad at the same time? points out Derek Rucker, professor of marketing at Northwestern University (Illinois). “Not only do you have the numbers, but it’s consumers actively watching and talking about the ads” before and after the Super Bowl, he adds.
No controversy
The final between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles will still be an unmissable event on Sunday for many American homes, a pretext for reunions with friends and family, both for the match and for its halftime show – assured this year by global superstar Rihanna – and her ads.
Some marked their era, such as the spot produced by Ridley Scott for Apple 39 years ago, to set up the new Macintosh as the anti-“Big Brother” of the 1984 by George Orwell. For a brand, “being at the Super Bowl goes far beyond the Super Bowl,” sums up Derek Rucker.
Thus, the M&M’s confectioner, caught in a new episode of American cultural battles, is expected at the turn. On January 24, he announced that he was putting his famous candy characters of all colors on “pause”, in response to new attacks from a section of the conservative right which considers newcomers politicized and “woke”, in particular purple, symbol of support for the LGBTQ community. But this decline was also interpreted as a way to better introduce the brand’s new muse, comedian Maya Rudolph, for the Super Bowl spot.
However, according to Andrew Frank, an analyst at Gartner, nothing spectacular should be expected, as brands are looking for “light messages” rather than sulphurous messages on the themes of inclusion and diversity, in a context of very strong polarization. between Democrats and Republicans. “I think brands want to get away from all the toxicity around culture wars,” he predicts.
Exclusivity
In recent years, topics such as food waste or domestic violence have been discussed, “but these are issues on which everyone is comfortable”, notes Derek Rucker.
According to him, the economic context can modify the landscape of the sectors which go to the Super Bowl, but not the overall demand. Coming into force last year, with several spots, cryptocurrency platforms have completely disappeared this year.
After the bankruptcy of FTX and the indictment for fraud of its former boss Sam Bankman-Fried, “it is the right time for them to take a break”, judge Andrew Frank. But the market, supported by the new economy, was also boosted by the end of historical exclusivity in the beer sector for Anheuser-Busch, the parent company of Budweiser, paving the way for many brands this year. “We can expect to see a lot of brands attacking leisure spending with light messages of entertainment and escape”, despite the backdrop of inflation and fears of recession, urges the Gartner analyst. With an innuendo that he summarizes as follows: “It’s fine, you don’t need to be so careful with your spending. »