Tag Archives: Super Bowl

Are you one of those people who looks forward to the commercials more than the game? The Super Bowl may be the only live television event that holds us all through the commercial breaks. Mainly thanks to some terrific Super Bowl ad storytelling… something every business needs in its online videos.

I’m not going to breakdown the best and worst ads like others have done. I would, however, like to focus on one company that seems to have one of the best ads year-in and year-out.

Budweiser

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Yes… the King of Beers in many ways is also the King of Super Bowl ads. The thing I love most about the company’s ads is that they typically tell a nice story. In many cases, it’s done with little or no dialog or voice-over.

Budweiser went with a pair of spots for this Super Bowl featuring two subjects meant to tug at our heart-strings… soldiers and puppies.

The puppy ad is the one getting the most attention. It depicts a puppy that seems to spark a friendship with one of Budwesier’s famous Clydesdale horses. It’s only a minute long, but the commercial follows a classic storyline.

• introduction to the characters
• present a conflict
• resolution (happy ending)

The other ad taps Americans’ appreciation for the men and women of our armed forces. The commercial shows a surprise homecoming for one soldier returning to his Florida hometown.

What I like here has less to do with formula and more to do with one aspect of the storytelling. It’s authentic. This was a real American soldier, not some actor. It’s obviously a staged event, but we as an audience figure out early on that the soldier had no idea what was coming. Everyone was in on the surprise but him.

Maybe Time to Reinvent the wheel

Both the ads were well-executed. If I have one criticism, it’s that we’ve seen these ads before. Not only have we seen these ads, they came from the same company… only this year’s crop wasn’t as good.

Budweiser’s best ad last year featured a young Clydesdale that grows-up, leaves home and is reunited with the man who raised him. It’s pretty similar to this year’s puppy ad.

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There’s also my favorite Super Bowl ad of all time. A group of soldiers arriving home at an American airport and getting a standing ovation. I challenge you not to tear-up. Again though… same theme as this year’s soldier spot.

Clearly, Budweiser found a sweet spot and isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel. I get it, but I’d love to see them tackle (pun intended) something new.

Super Bowl Ad Storytelling takeaway

Whether it’s following a storyline formula or capturing authenticity, these are both techniques businesses and organizations can use in their own videos.

Using a formula can help business leaders provide a clear focus for their videos. Authenticity is one of the great storytelling techniques available to each and every company or organization producing videos.

Watch these Super Bowl ads with new eyes and they could inspire ideas for your online video campaigns.

–Tony Gnau

 

I’m not supposed to like Jim Harbaugh, but I do. I’m a Trojan after all. I won’t go into the details because they’re irrelevant here, but suffice to say Harbaugh has few USC admirers after his tenure as Stanford’s head coach.

The reason I’m a Jim Harbaugh fan and was disappointed to see the 49ers Super Bowl comeback fall short is because of what he taught me as a teenager. It’s stuff I carry with me to this day and makes a difference in my business.

Jim taught me to compete

I was a good athlete growing-up, but I wasn’t the best. I supplemented my football training at a place that held classes focused on balance. We performed all sorts of exercises while balancing on beams and balance boards. Among the athletes taking the classes were a few of the Chicago Bears… including a backup quarterback named Jim Harbaugh.

I was the only high school kid in the group. Everyone was else was either a pro athlete or a college athlete looking to go pro. Needless to say, I felt like somewhat of an outsider.

Everyone was nice, but I always felt like they were going easy on me. Everyone accept one guy. You guessed it… Jim Harbaugh.

Jim was always competing, and it didn’t matter if it was against one of his teammates, or Tony Gnau from Lake Park High School.

He also pushed me just as hard as he pushed everyone else. While my balance may have been good, these guys were bigger, stronger and faster in every other respect… and I took a beating.

Jim never let me back down. Whenever he saw my spirits faltering, he was right there in my face encouraging me to keep going. I’ve never forgotten those lessons.

life lesson pays off

Looking back, moments like those helped propel me into Division I college football. On the surface, I wasn’t talented enough to play at USC, yet I played all four years.

Eight years ago I left TV news to start my own business. I had zero business experience. Yet, here I stand today, making a living doing what I love on my own terms.

I don’t want to give you the wrong impression. I don’t owe it all to Jim Harbaugh. There were plenty of people along the way who helped shape my character, most importantly my mom and dad, but he was one of those people.

Believe in yourself and work your butt off. That’s a recipe for success.

–Tony Gnau

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is one of my all-time favorite movies. I can still remember my friend Tom and I going to see it multiple times in the theater.

So… as you might imagine… I was pretty excited when I saw the teaser that hit the internet last week. Apparently I wasn’t the only one. As of writing this, the 10-second video has been viewed on YouTube more than 4.6-million times.

Everyone quickly learned this was teasing an upcoming Super Bowl commercial for Honda, so I was surprised when Honda’s marketing team released the full-length spot online a full week before the game.

Then I saw it and realized it was a smart move because the commercial is just okay.

I think they sort of set themselves up for failure. That teaser created so much buzz, if they would have waited for it to air during the game it would have been a pretty big disappointment.

Might as well release it early and get as much internet play as possible before the game… before it’s surpassed by another commercial everyone falls in love with.

Even if there hadn’t been a teaser released and they simply waited to air it during the Super Bowl, the spot would have gotten some attention on the internet afterwards… but not nearly this much.

Good move. I don’t know if all of this was the original plan, or if Honda’s marketing team changed it on the fly. Either way, it all worked out in the end… just like it always seems to for Ferris.

–Tony Gnau

We all know you can’t please everyone, and yet it’s a big problem with marketing videos. Business leaders that insist on a video that speaks to everyone usually end up with something that appeals to no one.

I thought about this a lot after seeing my favorite Super Bowl ad… “The Force” by Volkswagen. Yes, I am a Star Wars nerd… a devoted fan. It’s hard for me to comprehend, but there are people out there who haven’t seen Star Wars. There are even more who just don’t connect with the iconic series, and I talked with a few of them yesterday who didn’t get the commercial. Not… they didn’t like it. They flat-out didn’t understand it.

So Volkswagen spent all this money on a Super Bowl ad, and it went right over the heads of a bunch of potential car buyers.

Bottom line… who cares. Millions of people do get and love it. Over 17-million hits on YouTube and counting. I’ve never been interested in Volkswagen, but the commercial inspired me to visit the company’s website and check out its cars.

Now, not every company can use Star Wars as a hook. The point is if you have a good idea, run with it… even if it might not appeal to everyone.

I’ll always take a video that has an impact on a devoted audience over one without a soul that doesn’t touch anyone in particular.

Smart marketing it is.

–Tony Gnau