Supa Dupa Super Bowl Brands, Part 3

Shanita Akintonde:

Hey, marketing maestros. I'm back. Welcome to another very special edition of my Marketing Insights Podcast series, this one entitled Super Duper Super Bowl Brands, Part Trio. I'm Shanita Akintonde, professor, author, career coach and marketing shero. And today, we're going to conduct a replay, a rewind, a revisit of Super Bowl 2025. So whether you are a diehard fan or just here for the snacks, one thing is certain, this ain't just a football game conversation, it's a marketing masterpiece, mini masterclass. With millions of viewers tuning in, this is not just about touchdowns, it's about tapping into audiences, understanding consumer behavior, and maximizing brand impact.

For this episode of my Marketing Insights Podcast, again, entitled Super Duper Super Bowl Brands, Part Trio. I have drilled them down to seven tips, I'm calling them touchdown tips, and in this episode, I'm going to give you all seven that I have identified. How apropos as we're fast approaching St. Patty's Day. Get it? Lucky number seven, St. Patrick, at least I think that's how that works. Any hoo, back to the podcast.

Here is touchdown tip number one, know your audience. Ooh-wee, child. I should probably be doing a tune to Roberta Flack since we just lost her in the last couple of days, but I can't think of any of her songs right off the top of my head. But here is about knowing your audience is what I want to share. You know that this is my go-to point in a majority of, if not all of my podcasts, right marketing maestros? So the Super Bowl conversation, of course, is not going to be any different.

The Super Bowl consistently draws on over 100 million viewers making it the most watched television event of the year. According to Nielsen, the 2023 Super Bowl saw 115.1 million viewers across various platforms, and that gender breakdown was approximately 52% male and 48% female. So this division or segmentation of audiences means that advertisers must craft messages that resonate broadly while also appealing to specific segments.

Let me rephrase that slightly differently. As advertisers, marketing maestros, they have to know when to hold them and know when to fold them because when you are talking to audiences, whether male or female, whether they are children or adults, the key is to know who you're talking to, what the right message for them is going to be, at the right time. I also call it aperture, right message, right person, right time.

Moving on to touchdown tip number two, viewership trends over the past five years, as I keep reiterating, has increased. So Super Bowl viewership has experienced notable shifts in the past five years in primarily a good way. So while it saw a dip in 2019 down to 98.2 million, I mean, still, that's a lot of folk, right, they've rebounded. And as I mentioned a minute ago, the 2023 Super Bowl was a showcase, not only of athletic agility, but advertising heaven because for advertisers, this increase in viewership can be attributed to a few things. I know they probably want to take credit, and I shouldn't say they because I'm an advertiser too, we may want to take credit solely for the rise of the viewership because we know people tune in to see the Super Bowl ads.

However, what it probably most poignantly points to is the rise of streaming platforms, a more digitally engaged audience and the need for more innovative marketing tactics as a result. In other words, let me put some Professor Shanita sauce on this, you can't give the same old, same old, especially in the digital world. With less than six seconds on average to give someone's attention and for you not to be repetitive and give the same old, same old in terms of what people have already seen like I just did in that sentence because I said same old, same old twice, the idea is to be more innovative than that and to be creative in what you come up with to keep your audience, not only engaged, but informed and in some cases, entertained. So advertising aficionados are answering that call and have expanded the game's reach beyond traditional cable television.

Additionally, younger demographics, younger folk, like many of you listening to this podcast, you are consuming the Super Bowl in new ways too, which includes, in addition to mobile streaming, which is big, social media interactions play a big part as well. So as for some, social engagement around Super Bowl ads has grown over 60%, and not just for some, for all because that number includes most folks viewing the Super Bowl. That engagement has grown by over 60%, and that's according to a site called Sprout Social.

So what that means, marketing maestros, is that the digital platforms are now a key player themselves. So not only are the football players playing in this game, these digital platforms are key players as well, and that's on the game day because they're making that game day experience that much more unique, special, engaged, et cetera.

So you all know I have two sons, Jimmy and Anthony, hey, boys or young men, they both rely on digital platforms to access the majority of their media, which included, this year, the Super Bowl, and they are obviously not alone. Many of you, myself included, will watch it maybe on mainstream TV, but I had my phone and my laptop next to me all at the same time because I was looking at what social media was saying, I was downloading certain things that I saw online when it came up, and then I was watching it on the regular boob tube.

So all of this is occurring for some folks simultaneously, which brings me to touchdown point number three, still tracking on Super Duper Super Bowl Brands, Part Trio, the power of storytelling. This is another fave of mine. Through my company, ShanitaSpeaks, LLC, I teach individuals and brands how to be better storytellers, how to tell better stories about themselves and/or their businesses and brands. Data shows that emotional storytelling leads to stronger brand recall. Well, duh, because you don't want to give people something in stats and data, tell them a story, connect with those hearts.

It's that 80/20 principle that I talk about in a lot of my podcasts. 80% of what consumers are going to do is based on what? What's that marketing maestro's? Oh yes, you've been listening, emotion, 20% is intellect. So based on that, if you tell them a story, that's going to connect in a whole new way.

Advertisers leaned heavily into humor, nostalgia and heartwarming narratives this year to capture attention. Why? Because a well-told story sticks. I did a podcast, I don't think I called it Sticking Power, I gave it another name. Oh, you all, don't kill me on this because I'm usually able to rattle off all the 52-plus podcasts I've done in the past eight years I've been working with McGraw Hill, last podcast, I erroneously said five years, it's been eight years, but it's like a good time. Who's counting? But the point being, the name of the podcast I recall giving you this information on was not called Sticking Power, but I talk about sticking power in that podcast. I believe it's AEIOU, The Language of Brands part one or part two, so go back and take a listen.

Research from the Journal of Advertising Research further indicates that ads with a compelling narrative lead to a 22% increase in consumer engagement compared to standard product-focused ads. So consumer engagement, sticking power, humor and nostalgia and heartwarming narratives, you mix that all up in a bowl of gumbo since we're close to the Mardi Gras time, thought I'd bring in some gumbo here, that is going to increase your consumer's engagement, it's going to make those ads stand out, particularly those that are product-focused.

Which leads to touchdown tip number four. Now, if you're tracking with me, stay with me marketing maestros. I told you I have seven in total that I'm going to give you in this episode, if we're coming up to number four, we're beyond the halfway point now. So if you're not taking notes, you may want to start to do so. I'm going to blitz through these last three, give you a recap and send you on your happy way.

Touchdown tip number four is the digital playbook. Superbowl commercials don't just live on TV, they dominate digital platforms. So if you notice, I'm dominating this podcast discussing digital platforms, and that is because I want to reiterate, that's the shift. Brands that paired their high-priced TV spots with multi-platform social media engagement saw the biggest returns. And so, when you look at it from that perspective, digital is not an option.

If you are a college student right now listening to this podcast, take as many digital media, social media courses that you can. If you are a graduate, you can go back and take some courses. There are lots of certifications offered. I'm on the board of the American Marketing Association, Chicago chapter. I'm on the board of the Chicago Advertising Federation, Chicago chapter. I know those two organizations, in particular, have certificate programs and/or workshops, keynote speakers, trainers that come in and will offer you courses in one day even. Go to those websites, check them out, ama.org, aaf.org or caf.org and look them up. They didn't pay me to say that, but I'm giving you that information for free.99. Check it out, it's important that you keep yourselves abreast. And also seasoned professionals, if I didn't say that, you all can take advantage of this as well.

Touchdown tip number five is product category trends. So let's pause. Product categories, for those who are not familiar with this terminology, is when you take a specific grouping of products, say gym shoes or sneakers, soda or pop, depending on what you call it based on where you live, detergent to wash your clothes, any of those kinds of categories, underneath them will have specific brands associated with them. I do an exercise in class where I ask my students to say, what brands come top of mind when I give them the different product categories? I think I've mentioned that point in previous podcasts as well. So when you look at it from that perspective, you have the product category trends that are going to lend themselves to the specificity of certain brands.

So when we talk about it in relation to this year's Super Bowl, it can be drilled down to the following product categories. Food and beverage brands which maintain their stronghold using humor and a lot of celebrity endorsements. Food and beverage brands go hand in hand with celebrity endorsements, they like that a lot, that's their method of choice, in many cases, to stay top of mind. You have an automotive brand category, which are cars, vehicles, trucks, et cetera. They lean, this year, more into the futuristic technology, electric vehicles, for example. And that led to what we'll call sustainable messaging.

Let me pause here and unpack what I mean by sustainable messaging. I've talked in the past also about the product life cycle. There are four stages in the product life cycle, intro, growth, maturity, decline. When you look at products, brands, services that are in the sustainability messaging phase, they're most likely also mature brands, that's because they've been around for a while. They're not trying to impress you out of the gate with their bells and whistles because at that point, you already know who they are. So by sustainability messaging, they're trying to reinforce their brand, have it be something about reinforcing brand loyalty and making sure that consumers remember them. So they want to stay top of mind. In those cases, they, for example, may only show or share branding type ads with no price points or anything listed because they've been around for a while.

As I'm saying that, I think that deserves its own podcast where I can really elaborate on that because that's one of my wheelhouses. If you can't tell, I can go real deep on that one, but I won't for this podcast, Super Duper Super Bowl Brands, Part Trio, because I want to stay focused on what I'm saying now, which is breaking down the product categories from this year's Super Bowl.

So moving on, the next one is tech and telecom. These were companies that leveraged their airtime to introduce AI-driven innovations like 5G advancements and other things. I know AI has been around for a while, but if you're like me, I am finding myself totally immersed, in a good way, I was going to say a great way, I guess I can say a great way. I'm just in tune to it. It's very fascinating to me. I'm impressed by the advances being made, not only in our industry of media, but in medicine.

I recently had the honor of facilitating a workshop, which is what I also do outside of this wonderful podcast. I am a trainer and keynote speaker and workshop facilitator. And this one was on healthcare and where AI is going in that arena. And I was just amazed at the medical advancements being made through AI.

So I mentioned before, I'm going to talk more about AI on this platform and how it affects us as marketers, but just on a global landscape, across many different forms of communication, as I mentioned, healthcare, media, it's just awesome. That's another opportunity for you listeners, if you're still in school and your campus is offering you any opportunities to study AI in any form or fashion, do it, if you're out of school and/or season, do it as well. It's phenomenal and it's the trend of the future.

Okay, a couple of more, and I will round out these product categories. Financial services use storytelling and real life testimonials to foster trust. So with financial services, this industry, to me, has come a long way from back in the '80s and even the '90s in terms of their ability to tap into characters that we all know. I won't say names of brands in this podcast, if you notice, I'm not doing that, but there are several brands that come to mind that have characters whose names rhyme with Joe that use their characters to help tell their story about the financial services that they offer, which is really a way to connect with audiences.

And last but not least, health and wellness. I just mentioned health and wellness a moment ago, I probably should have saved my little spiel until I got to this point, but we're family, marketing maestros, I just say things when they come to me. But in this category, there was an increase in representation with more brands highlighting both mental and physical well-being, which is another shift. The holistic view of people, the holistic view of consumers is now what's more mainframe these days, whereas before, we didn't talk as much about mental health as we do today. I think post-pandemic in particular, this is one of the things, in a good way, that has sussed out of that.

So in closing on this portion, all of these categories reflect shifts in consumers' interests and/or economic trends, which reinforce the importance of listening to what our audiences truly care about. That goes back to number one, when I said at the top, touchdown tip number one, know your consumer, not only know, but listen to them.

All right, bringing up the rear, touchdown tip number six, the halftime halo effect. You all know what the halo effect is, I've talked about this in previous podcasts as well, but just to remind you, or if you're a first-time listener, shame on you, but go back and listen to the other episodes, the halo effect is reminiscent of an angel wearing a halo, and like an angel's halo-ridden head, a halo emanates light from it and it shines down on what's around it. So when you look at brands, the halo effect would mean that if you are co-branded with a different brand or a sister brand, for example, you all choose one another so that that light emanates in a positive way off of both of you.

So the halftime show in this sense isn't just entertainment, what it has arisen to, what it has been positioned to be or has positioned itself to be is an advertising multiplier. According to another source called Statista or Statista, halftime viewership spikes by an average of 8%. What that means is that brands that align their messaging with the halftime performance benefit from a huge audience boost, and that's putting it mildly. This engagement continues well after the show and post-event searches, social conversations on social media, blah, blah, blah, extend the brand's impact beyond game day.

And I'm going to add something to that, it's even pre-event chatter because depending on who the artist is going to be performing at the halftime, those conversations begin well before. That's the anticipation, the buildup, the buzz, which I also talk about. And yes, it's all good.

So marketing maestros, take notes, this Super Bowl, again, isn't just about football, these touchdown tips I'm giving you aren't just about data points, it's about storytelling tips, audience connection pointers, and making the most of every impression. And so, when I say these things to you, it's not about just seeing you on this podcast, it's about seeing you on the field, in this case, the Super Bowl field.

So to wrap up, here's touchdown Super Duper Super Bowl tip number seven, the purr-purpose-driven advertising. I was going to try to purr, but I cut myself off because that sounded a little weird. More than ever, brands are using their ad dollars to stand for something. Consumers are no longer satisfied with passive marketing. We have to walk it like we talk it as brands, whether that's stand-up brands, brands that think outside of the box, all the other things that I've talked to you all about in previous podcasts, they need brands that take a stand, align with their values and actively contribute to social progress. Purpose-driven advertising isn't just a trend, it's a necessity. And this, again, is something that comes from listening to the audiences.

Consumers today, hey, vote with their wallets, they're more likely to support brands that share their values. And so, when you look at purpose-driven advertising, that fosters emotional connections too, it builds trust and it ensures that marketing efforts, especially yours and mine, are going to extend beyond just selling products. Hey, what they're going to do, they're going to create a movement, a movement, marketing maestros, just like I try to do with you in each and every one of these podcasts.

So to recast what I said to you today, because I never want to take up too much time, I just want to take enough time to drop some nuggets on you so that you can dip them in some sauce and go on about your day tasting on these munchy, tasty treats. Super Duper Super Bowl Brand trend number one was when I talked to you about knowing your audience. That was touchdown tip number one.

Touchdown tip number two, the viewership trends over the past five years, and I told you, despite it taking a dip in 2019, it's rebounded, and what you need to do to ensure that you remain on top.

Touchdown tip number three focuses on the power of story and what we as marketing maestros can do to ensure that our stories resonate with our audiences.

The next touchdown tip that I gave you was product category trends. I defined what product categories are. I broke it down according to what we saw at this year's Super Bowl and what stood out in terms of the differences or shifts made by some of those brands.

Touchdown tip number six, the halo effect regarding the halftime show and how we can learn from that and how it's been a masterful move by the Super Bowl franchise and what we as marketers can learn from that.

And last but not least, touchdown tip number seven, the power of purpose-driven advertising. And that consumers are not just buying stuff to buy it, we are voting with our wallets and likely to support brands that share values.

And so, I hope that was helpful to you. I'm always excited to bring you my insights, my thoughts, my research-driven points, so it's not just all coming from the mind of your favorite podcasting professor, but I'm also bringing you some data points based on research and other tips that I have found anecdotally.

So thank you for joining me on this very special edition of my Marketing Insights Podcast series, Super Duper Super Bowl Brands, Part Trio. Until next time, which will be our best time, remember your brand's best days might just be around the corner. This is Shanita Akintonde signing off.

If you enjoyed this podcast, which I hope y'all did, please like, share and subscribe on Stitcher, iTunes, Google Play, or wherever your favorite podcasts can be found. And connect with me on LinkedIn at Professor Shanita Akintonde or follow me on Twitter at _shanitaspeaks, that would be follow me on Twitter at _shanitaspeaks. Bye-bye.