One major tradition surrounding the Super Bowl, other than complaining that whatever it was was the worst half-time show ever, is a deep dive into the commercials. Countless ad orgs, commentators, marketing pros and other folks will spend hours upon hours making bests and worsts lists. In any given year, there will be the ads that tug on heart strings, ads that are flat out ridiculous, ads that insult at least three demographic groups and ads that leave us wondering, “OK, what the heck was that?”
Rather than go the traditional way here, let’s make some sense of the ads from the perspective of how media content is supposed to work.
- Define and understand your audience well enough to provide content that caters to the people in it.
- Use specific interest elements to pique and hold the audience members’ attention.
Here is a link to a pretty good running tally of all the ads:
Go through the ads and find the one that you like (or hate) the most and start to analyze based on the key points above:
Audience: Break down the demographics based on who tends to watch the Super Bowl, according to a reliable source you can find online. Then, see what segment of that broader chunk is most likely the target of this ad from that perspective. Then, move into the psychographic elements that you think are at the core of what the target audience members most likely ascribe to in their lives. In short, what values, feelings, connections and more is the ad you picked trying to tap into.
(As for the third element we outline in the book, it’s highly unlikely the geographic element will play a role here, but if you find something, go for it.)
Then, move into the next phase by assessing the interest elements that draw the attention of audience members:
- Fame
- Oddity
- Conflict
- Immediacy
- Impact
As we often note, you won’t be able to catch all five of these in most cases. At least one should be present in any media content. See how many you can find and then assess if those elements are being successfully tapped.
Some of the goals of the ads will work or won’t work because the people making the ads didn’t correctly match elements like “fame” or “impact” with what the target audience knows or understands. (I bring this up, as Amy and I were watching part of the half-time show and when someone came out to sing with Kendrick Lamar, we both asked, “OK, who the heck is that?” We eventually asked our cooler, hipper sister-in-law, who was nice enough not to shame us as part of the process…)
See what you can come up with as part of this analysis, particularly if you thought any given ad really worked or really flopped.
At the very least, it’s a good excuse to watch some videos in class today.
