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From the campus of the University of
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Pennsylvania Wharton School, this is
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Marketing Matters on Business Radio.
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Hello and welcome. You're listening to
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Marketing Matters here on Business Radio
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Series XM 132. I'm Barbara Kahn, the
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Patty and Jay H. Baker Professor of
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Marketing, and I'm joined by my co-host
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Americus Reed, the Whitney M. Young Jr.
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Professor of Marketing and the brand
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identity theorist. And today we're going
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to recap our 2024 Super Bowl
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commercials. Americus, did you see any
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of them? I loved it all. Yeah, okay,
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Barbara, you got to tell me your top
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commercial. Tell it Tell it to me. I'll
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give you mine first, okay? Dunkin'
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Donuts. Oh, that one was great.
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I loved it, and here's why. I think
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there's so But first of all, one of the
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big trends is that there were tons of
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celebrities jam-packed into these ads. I
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think the the ones that really stood out
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tried to really just really saturate
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with lots and lots of celebrity. But I
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loved it because Ben Affleck has been
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sort of blasted in the news about being
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this sort of low-energy guy. He's not
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fun. He doesn't seem to have fun when
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he's with J. Lo, and I thought that
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attempt to really sort of make fun of
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himself was actually pretty cool. And
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then just have, you know, Tom Brady
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there and Matt Damon and Fat Joe and J.
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Lo, and they're sort of all in this
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mode, and he's really He really went in
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on that. And so I really appreciated
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that from a humor perspective. Yeah, you
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know, I don't do favorites. I usually do
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the ones I don't like. That's just my
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personality.
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That's But I got to say, Barbara, that's
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so on brand for you. I should I tell you
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the one that
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I DIDN'T
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I MOST NEGATIVE ABOUT? I did not love
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the Dove one. Okay. Because I did not
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like the fact that here's this big
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sporting event, and we're really
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interested in female athletes, and we're
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showing this video of little girls
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falling. And I understand that wasn't
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the point. The point was that they're
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resilient and they can pick up from
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falls, and it was a body image, body
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confidence ad, and I get what Dove was
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saying, but the this rule of fact of
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watching these powerful athletes in the
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Super Bowl do incredibly athletic
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things. And then watching these little
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girls fall? Oh, wow.
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like that juxtaposition, and it really
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bothered me that they did something like
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that. So even though I applaud them for
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what they're trying to do,
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I I felt like in context it wasn't the
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right place for Interesting. Well, we're
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going to need a guru to step in and help
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us out, you know, really unpack all of
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this stuff. What do we got from them? So
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enough of what we think, right? Let's
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bring in someone who knows what they're
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talking about. So we have as our guest
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today Jameson Fleming, who's Adweek's
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managing editor of marketing and
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agencies, and he focuses on the business
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of marketing. And he Have you watched
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every single ad, Jameson?
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I have probably watched every ad about
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10 times over
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10 or 8 years since I've been doing
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this. Okay, so forget about what we
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There's nothing that slips by me these
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days. Well, let me ask you then. We gave
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you two ads that are pretty well-known,
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prominent ads that a lot of hype before
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and will likely have a lot of hype
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after.
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Um it was a hit and a miss in our in our
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definitions. Um Americus gave you a hit
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in Dunkin' Donuts. I gave you what I
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thought was a miss in Dove. What is your
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feeling about those two ads?
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So I liked both of those ads. Uh I I
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tend to not love celebrity-heavy ads,
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but Dunkin', because they made it very
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much an ensemble,
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uh and it felt like everybody played a
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key part and everybody was memorable
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from that ad, because you're going to
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remember Tom Brady and J. Lo. And I
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mean, Matt Damon is what made that ad
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work with, you know, his punchlines. And
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then Ben Affleck's, you know,
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performance is also extremely strong. Uh
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and so I thought that one worked
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extremely well because it was a true
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ensemble performance where nobody really
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stood out over anybody else, and it was
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just a fun ad. With Dove, uh you know,
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we really liked that ad. I totally get
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where you're coming from in terms of
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that juxtaposition, but I think what
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Dove was really trying to say is, you
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know, if we if we support little girls
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and teenage girls as they come up
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through sports, and we help them
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overcome some of the issues that they
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face, like they're not going to get
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knocked down as, you know, as they do in
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the beginning of the ad. And so I like
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the overall message.
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the message.
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get where you're coming from in terms
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of, yeah, it does kind of look weird to
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like have girls getting knocked down,
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uh you know, in this kind of context.
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Yeah, no, I definitely like the message,
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and I applaud their messages over the
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years. They're We definitely use them
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as, you know, role model ads for for
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position of women. I just
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It just did It just didn't land good on
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you.
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work right for me in in this setting.
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You know, there was a Talking about
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celebrity, there was another ad set that
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came up a lot that had a lot of
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celebrities, and I think it was what you
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were talking about, not the best use of
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uh celebrities, which was the home.com
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ads. Um did you have a reaction to those
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ads?
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Yeah, the homes.com and, you know, even
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the apartments.com ad with Jeff
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Goldblum, I thought they landed
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decently. Um you know, because there
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were so many, some of them I think did
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better than the others. Like I think the
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the 30-second one where they're in the
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salon was pretty hysterical, but, you
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know, the 60-second one where they
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introduced the campaign was was fine. I
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think Jeff Goldblum at the end kind of
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saves that one. And I think he also kind
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of saves the apartments.com ad because
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the writing that one was okay, but Jeff
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Goldblum's just such a, you know, good
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performer that you know, it overall
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feels like a good ad, but
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uh yeah, it was kind of interesting to
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see, you know, one brand like that go so
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heavy with, you know, two and a half
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minutes of airtime across two brands and
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four commercials was a pretty bold move
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by, you know, a brand that isn't a
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traditional big-time advertiser.
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So another one who's not a traditional
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advertising. This one I thought did
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really well, actually, and I think it's
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very interesting what they were doing.
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Americus and I were talking about it
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last night. We watched a lot of these
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together. You actually had a party.
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Watching watching ads, watching the
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game. So one I thought was very
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interesting interesting brand is Poppi.
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Poppi. What it And that came in at the
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last minute. It's, you know, the new age
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beverage. What did you think about that?
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Yeah, the Poppi commercial is
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interesting because
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you know, the copywriting in it is
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really strong, and it the the strategy
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behind it is great of they were
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basically telling 100 100-plus million
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people that the new age of soda begins
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today, and that new age is us. Right.
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Right. It's It's a really strong message
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and a bold claim, and I I'm going to
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imagine their short-term sales are going
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to go through the roof of people wanting
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to try this beverage. I didn't love all
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the imagery. Like at the beginning of
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the ad, it's kind of comparing Poppi to
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some of the most monumental achievements
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in human history.
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Yeah, that's a bit of a stretch. I
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thought that was a bit much, but I
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thought the overall kind of positioning
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that they put out there was really
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fascinating. And if you're going to kind
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of try to change an entire category,
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what better way to do it than in front
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of 100 million people? And let me just
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Sorry, let me just say really quickly,
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Barbara, because I was talking to some
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folks in our cohort, and they were like,
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Poppi, Temu, what is this stuff? When I
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was walking my daughter to school today,
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They all know.
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They all know.
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I was going to say that Poppi ad is a
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big hit already on TikTok.
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And you said it's really for this
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younger crowd in this TikTok generation,
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right? And also, it's going to follow up
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with a very strong online follow-up. So
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they're going to use this to get more
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awareness. They already have pretty much
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awareness, and then they're going to
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follow up with a pretty detailed
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strategy online on Amazon and on their
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social media. So uh they're crazy like a
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fox kind of brand, you know?
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And the idea that they I think they last
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minute I think I read in one of your
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stories that they last minute got the
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spot. They weren't They weren't sure
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they were going to do it. Do you know
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anything about that? Like it wasn't
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preplanned so much?
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No, they haven't talked to us much about
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the strategy. It's conver- conversation
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one of our reporters is going to most
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likely have with them this week to
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better understand it. But I mean, the
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other thing I want to point out with
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that was they were really smart in terms
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of how they spent their money. They
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could have bought 30 seconds, got
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celebrities, and had the total cost of
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the ad come out to the equivalent of
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probably two you know, a full minute of
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airtime. But because they did something
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that, you know, was definitely low
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budget, they were able to buy a full
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minute and really stretch their you
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know, their budget way further than if
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they had gone a celebrity route with a,
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you know, a big-time ad agency that
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would have had a huge So it was a really
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economical use of their money, too,
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which was pretty impressive. You know,
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talking about celebrities, I don't think
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there's anybody bigger than Queen
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Beyoncé.
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So what did you think about Verizon's
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strategy and the way they introduced
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her? First of all, Barbara, are you on
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Are you a Verizon customer?
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What?
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No.
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Yeah, I'm trying to think. No, I'm AT&T.
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What are you? I'm Verizon, yeah. Do you
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think that we were reacting to it
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differently? I I just I It was just a
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hypothesis that I had, Barbara. I loved
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her ad. I loved her ad as well. I don't
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love Verizon that much. It's more or
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less kind of, you You know what the
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right answer is about Beyoncé. I do know
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what the right answer is. It's I know
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what to say very clearly, cuz the
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Beyhive will come after you. But yes,
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but it it was very interesting. What
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were your thoughts on that specific
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commercial, Barbara? Well, they also did
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breadcrumbs on it. So they They didn't
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really Like the Dove commercial, for
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example, I saw before the Super Bowl.
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But I don't think you could see all the
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Beyoncé stuff before, and she made big
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announcements, and she used it to get
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her own, you know, music out there and
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what her announcements were and the
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brand.
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And I was looking forward to seeing
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that. And I thought the breadcrumb kind
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of strategy really worked for me. So I
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thought it was a great ad. But Jameson,
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what did you think?
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Yeah, I mean, we we ranked it very
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highly at Adweek.
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You know, we we were under the in
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We were under
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We kind of thought there was going to be
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announcing a residency in Las Vegas and
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so we were kind of surprised when it was
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you know hinting at new music at the end
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which you know like 20 minutes after the
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ad aired you know she announced that
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there was going to be new music coming
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but from a business standpoint with
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Verizon it was a very smart play cuz a
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they kind of left the breadcrumbs out
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there as you said like the first teaser
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there was six references to Beyoncé the
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second teaser there's one very obvious
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reference to Beyoncé and so you know
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something is coming her fans are
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starting to get excited cuz they're
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going to get some kind of Beyoncé
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announcement last night and you know
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Verizon did deliver the ad itself was
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pretty fun
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you know Verizon and Beyoncé have worked
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together in the past on different
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initiatives and so for Verizon I thought
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it was extremely smart to continue to
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tie themselves to Beyoncé because other
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than Taylor Swift there is no
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other person on the planet right now
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than Beyoncé so
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you know it was really smart if you're
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not going to get Taylor Swift
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get yourself on the Beyoncé train.
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Yep yep absolutely. Jameson Fleming
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Adweek's managing editor of marketing
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joining us on this special post Super
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Bowl game show. Jameson I have to ask
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you a question you as well Barbara
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in terms of contrasting ads
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Jesus
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I I I just I I was thrown off I mean the
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the washing the feet thing I mean the
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imagery was beautiful but I just it was
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weird man I mean the at the you know
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risk of sounding sacrilegious Jameson
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what did you think about the Jesus ads?
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To their credit they went with a
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positive message this year last year
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they had a very divisive ad that very
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much played on the left-wing versus
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right-wing cultural war type stuff going
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on in this country and I thought it was
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arguably one of the worst ads that have
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brought in the Super Bowl this year they
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at least went with a very you know
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strong message and to their so I'll give
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them credit for that but yeah in terms
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of it being in the Super Bowl
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I don't know it just feels so out of
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place I I might gravitate towards stand
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up for Jewish hate from
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the foundation to combat anti-semitism
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that was much more about you know if you
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see hate say something and it was all
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hate you don't even realize that this is
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you know targeted towards one specific
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group until the final couple seconds of
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the ad so I thought that was a much
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better message and much more effective
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message cuz it really you know raised
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all people up as opposed to just one
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specific group.
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So you keep alluding to this list you
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guys have like what's on the top of the
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list what are you what are your three
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best ads?
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Yeah so we we went with Sarah V as our
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number one overall ad
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I was just about to ask you about that
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one.
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Yeah so that was interesting because it
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was one of the most brilliant lead up
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campaigns that we've seen in the last
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half decade for the Super Bowl but they
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did all this influencer work like
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Verizon they left all these breadcrumbs
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of like this feels like it's going to
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end in a Super Bowl ad but nobody knew
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for sure or if this was just kind of
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like an influencer play that they were
00:12:56
working with and so we'd never seen
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anything like that that a brand do and
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so it culminates the 30 second ad was
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good but the longer cut is one of the
00:13:07
best ads that we've seen in a long time
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and so even though the 30 second didn't
00:13:12
live up to the you know full minute 16
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version of it we still thought the
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overall campaign made it you know the
00:13:17
best ad in the game the second one was
00:13:20
the Paramount Plus entertainment a
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mountain of entertainment and that's a
00:13:24
campaign that they've been running for a
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handful of years
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and we thought this one was just the
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best version of it
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you know you put in Creed Patrick
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Stewart
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you know Arnold from Hey Arnold and then
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the punchline at the end with Peppa Pig
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where they're looking for a pigskin is
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just too good and then the final final
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one in our top three was
00:13:45
State Farm
00:13:47
that was a late buy in the game as well
00:13:49
State Farm had initially said we're not
00:13:50
going to advertise
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Highdive their agency came to them with
00:13:54
this great concept and they shot it they
00:13:56
made it and they said we're going to be
00:13:57
in the Super Bowl and they delivered you
00:14:00
know absolutely hysterical spot spot
00:14:02
with Arnold Schwarzenegger with kind of
00:14:04
the twist ending with Danny DeVito to
00:14:06
throw back to twins days and it was just
00:14:08
really well done. Yeah that was one of
00:14:11
your favorites too wasn't it Barbara?
00:14:12
very very funny for me and I think that
00:14:14
it's super interesting in the sense that
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to your point Jameson talk a little bit
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about this because when you lean in on a
00:14:19
specific cultural nostalgic moment
00:14:23
that's a bit of a risk because if you
00:14:25
don't if you don't know the history of
00:14:26
say for example a Christopher Walken or
00:14:28
Arnold Schwarzenegger or the Danny
00:14:30
DeVito Arnold Schwarzenegger
00:14:32
relationship you're not going to get it
00:14:33
and I think Barbara you were saying like
00:14:34
it just didn't land because you didn't
00:14:36
have that context so talk a little bit
00:14:38
about that Jameson the idea of leaning
00:14:40
in on some really powerful cultural
00:14:42
moment and the risk of some people just
00:14:45
not getting it because they're just not
00:14:46
aware of that cultural iconic context.
00:14:49
a number of ads that were
00:14:51
harkening back to something you need to
00:14:53
know to get it. What are your thoughts
00:14:54
on this Jameson?
00:14:56
Yeah it's a bit of a risk but it also is
00:14:59
if you do the right cultural references
00:15:01
it's one of those things that you know
00:15:03
it's one of those if you know you know
00:15:05
and that is so valuable for brands right
00:15:07
now if you can tap into a community and
00:15:10
kind of trigger that if you know you
00:15:11
know response from people it's going to
00:15:13
go over really well what was really
00:15:14
smart about the State Farm ad was you
00:15:18
didn't really need to know what twins
00:15:20
was to enjoy that because it's only the
00:15:23
last you know seven seconds of the ad
00:15:26
and even if you don't know that the two
00:15:28
of them were in an ad or in a movie
00:15:30
together just the juxtaposition of
00:15:32
Arnold Schwarzenegger next Danny DeVito
00:15:34
is funny in of itself and so they were
00:15:37
really smart that they didn't go all in
00:15:39
on twins and that you get 50 seconds of
00:15:41
Arnold Schwarzenegger saying neighbor
00:15:44
over and over again and saying labor and
00:15:46
like all of those jokes and they land
00:15:47
really well but it is it is risky cuz
00:15:50
like a couple years ago Verizon did a
00:15:52
Cable Guy reference
00:15:54
Cable Guy wasn't even that popular when
00:15:56
it came out and so
00:15:58
someone like me who's in my mid-30s like
00:16:00
I had never seen Cable Guy I didn't get
00:16:02
that reference
00:16:04
and I think you know it is very risky
00:16:06
you have to be very smart about what
00:16:08
kind of IP you're going to play off of.
00:16:10
Interesting. So what about the
00:16:11
traditional ads that we usually see like
00:16:13
you know Bud and Volkswagen the car ads
00:16:15
and what do you think about the
00:16:16
Budweiser ads or the Volkswagen ads or
00:16:19
BMW Yeah BMW well I think we talked
00:16:22
about BMW.
00:16:23
Christopher Walken.
00:16:23
Yeah but BMW and
00:16:26
say Bud and Bud Light.
00:16:29
Yeah I mean the it was interesting the
00:16:31
Anheuser-Busch portfolio and even the
00:16:33
whole beer portfolio if you look at
00:16:35
Coors Light bringing back the silver
00:16:37
bullet train I thought a lot of those
00:16:39
generally fell flat I mean Michelob
00:16:41
spent God knows how much money on Lionel
00:16:44
Messi to kick a football or kick a
00:16:47
soccer ball at the beach and Budweiser I
00:16:50
mean it was a fine ad you know I think
00:16:52
it's probably the best ad with the
00:16:53
Clydesdales since puppy love a decade
00:16:55
ago And it ended the same way as puppy
00:16:57
love.
00:16:58
Yeah I mean it panders to a very
00:17:00
specific audience who loves that kind of
00:17:02
nostalgic play it's overall going to do
00:17:04
well but like is that going to sell beer
00:17:06
in this day and age
00:17:07
Well you got to remember they're trying
00:17:09
to un-sell controversy and get back to
00:17:12
sell beer you know so like maybe what
00:17:15
you're saying is exactly what they were
00:17:16
going for let's like cut the controversy
00:17:19
a little go back to what we used to do.
00:17:21
Interesting and I will say Messi is a
00:17:23
much better kicker than Gronk. Yeah yeah
00:17:25
yeah that yeah. So I think it's time for
00:17:28
FanDuel to probably retire the kicker
00:17:30
dynasty.
00:17:31
So that that's an interesting question
00:17:33
though I wanted to ask we were talking
00:17:34
about that last night so we know what's
00:17:36
a 30 seconds or a minute is 7 million I
00:17:38
mean it's very expensive to buy time on
00:17:40
Super Bowl right? And then when you pay
00:17:43
for all those
00:17:44
celebrities they do they charge their
00:17:46
full price or like I mean how much does
00:17:48
it cost to get all those celebrities? I
00:17:51
mean it's expensive I mean if it's a
00:17:53
true A-list celebrity like my guess for
00:17:56
Messi was he was probably north of 8
00:17:59
million and that's just kind of my own
00:18:02
speculation but my guess is that's
00:18:03
probably about what he was
00:18:06
and when you get to some of the lesser
00:18:07
celebrities you're looking three to five
00:18:09
million and then kind of
00:18:11
you
00:18:12
it's a lot of money and so when you look
00:18:13
at
00:18:15
it's 15 million dollars on air time but
00:18:17
that's celebrity it's crazy. Yeah that's
00:18:19
what I was wondering cuz when you hear
00:18:21
about how expensive a Super Bowl ad is
00:18:23
it's just buying the time it's not the
00:18:25
production value and then you have you
00:18:27
feature all these celebrities they can't
00:18:29
come cheap.
00:18:30
Yep and the game itself I mean we're
00:18:31
talking about you know $7,000 tickets
00:18:33
right?
00:18:34
Yeah well and that Travis Kelce spent a
00:18:36
million dollars on his suite for his
00:18:39
family and Taylor's family which he told
00:18:41
us over and over wasn't worth the
00:18:44
Yeah.
00:18:47
So so okay so those were your top three
00:18:49
which ones do you think really failed?
00:18:51
Or let's let's just say which ones were
00:18:52
challenged.
00:18:53
Okay
00:18:54
okay. Barbara I got to I got to lift
00:18:56
your spirits I'm going to have you more
00:18:57
optimistic.
00:18:58
Which ones didn't land as well as they
00:19:00
might have?
00:19:02
Yeah I mean there's kind of like two
00:19:03
different buckets to that there's like
00:19:05
the advertisers that you know have low
00:19:07
budget ads like CrowdStrike and Bass Pro
00:19:11
Shops and the ones who aren't trying to
00:19:14
just like wow you like they have a
00:19:15
specific purpose in the game and by the
00:19:17
fact that they keep coming back like it
00:19:19
must be working for them Skechers is
00:19:21
another one then there's the the ones
00:19:23
that are like the high budget brands
00:19:25
that do seem like they were really
00:19:27
trying to you know win over consumers
00:19:29
and fell flat Oreo was one of those for
00:19:32
me where you know they were trying to
00:19:34
make you know twisting happen where yeah
00:19:36
consumers twist Oreos but they don't
00:19:38
make decisions off of them and they were
00:19:39
trying to make that happen as a as a
00:19:42
thing that just didn't resonate with me
00:19:44
Uber Eats I struggled with because I
00:19:46
just didn't think the jokes were good
00:19:48
for the most part Uh, and they even had
00:19:50
to edit their ad at the last second
00:19:52
because they had a a peanut somebody
00:19:54
having a peanut reaction not remembering
00:19:56
that it was peanut peanut butter. And so
00:19:59
all the food allergy networks went after
00:20:01
Uber Eats like how dare you do this? So
00:20:03
they had to edit their ad at the last
00:20:04
second. They got bad press for that.
00:20:07
Uh, and so it's like those kind of ads
00:20:09
where you know they were high budget and
00:20:11
then they just they didn't work.
00:20:14
Uh, those to me are the fails of the
00:20:15
night because if you've got a
00:20:17
CrowdStrike or some of these lesser
00:20:18
brands who were just happy to be there
00:20:20
and have a specific reason like I'm not
00:20:22
going to yell at them for having a bad
00:20:24
ad. Interesting. Interesting. Let me get
00:20:26
really quick Jameson let me get your
00:20:28
thoughts on uh, halftime show. What were
00:20:30
your thoughts on that? I mean Usher was
00:20:32
a Usher it would appeared Barbara in
00:20:34
some of the ads. And so but it's really
00:20:36
really hard to come out there and be
00:20:38
phenomenal during the halftime
00:20:41
halftime performance. What were your
00:20:42
thoughts Jameson on that as a as a
00:20:43
marketing opportunity as a you know
00:20:45
opportunity to to elevate things like
00:20:47
that.
00:20:49
Yeah, I didn't really come away from the
00:20:50
halftime performance thinking like oh I
00:20:52
need to go check out like what Usher is
00:20:55
up to. Like last year was Rihanna. Well
00:20:57
she was awesome. She was my favorite.
00:20:59
You would have to Google what with
00:21:00
Rihanna after that performance. Usher
00:21:03
and all the guests that he had on there
00:21:05
you know Alicia Keys and I forget who
00:21:07
the other musicians were off the top of
00:21:08
my head. You know it didn't you didn't
00:21:10
come away going like oh man I'm going to
00:21:12
go listen to some Usher this week. And
00:21:15
so it didn't feel like the walk down
00:21:17
memory lane that maybe we thought we
00:21:19
were going to get with Usher because he
00:21:21
was such a strong presence for the
00:21:23
2000s. And it just I don't know I just
00:21:26
didn't come across that way and I feel
00:21:27
like the social reaction was generally
00:21:29
the same of you know it was a fine show
00:21:31
but you didn't come away going like oh
00:21:33
man Usher like I forgot about him. He's
00:21:36
great.
00:21:36
Interesting.
00:21:37
So I was just going to say Barbara
00:21:38
really quickly here's a question for you
00:21:40
trivia question. Who sponsored the
00:21:42
halftime performance? A brand sponsored
00:21:46
the halftime performance. What brand was
00:21:48
that? Do you remember?
00:21:50
Was it Apple Music?
00:21:51
Apple yes. Isn't that something? I was
00:21:53
we were having this conversation it was
00:21:54
like oh yeah it was Apple. It that that
00:21:57
might have been a miss quite honestly
00:21:58
right? What are your thoughts?
00:22:00
Kaylin but I only knew it because I knew
00:22:02
it.
00:22:02
Yeah yeah right right. So interesting
00:22:04
because Apple is really you know a
00:22:06
prominent brand that's out there and you
00:22:08
you expect them to do like phenomenal
00:22:09
things. I mean they had that
00:22:11
very famous 1984
00:22:14
classic you know think different Super
00:22:16
Bowl commercial directed by Ridley Scott
00:22:17
and so on and so forth. So you always
00:22:19
expect them to be at the top of the
00:22:21
entertainment spectrum in terms of you
00:22:22
know showing up at these sorts of
00:22:24
events. So that was a little bit
00:22:25
interesting as well. Didn't you? And and
00:22:27
you know Las Vegas and that whole thing
00:22:29
we talked a lot about that before the
00:22:30
started with the sphere and they kept
00:22:32
showing pictures of the sphere. What was
00:22:34
your take on how did the sphere play
00:22:36
into any of this? Did you have any Yeah,
00:22:38
what are your thoughts Jameson on the
00:22:39
sphere?
00:22:40
Yeah, I mean it seems like a great brand
00:22:43
play during events. For how much they
00:22:46
charge on it regularly I don't feel like
00:22:49
it's probably a great brand investment
00:22:50
when there's not a big event going on
00:22:52
but Las Vegas definitely proved itself
00:22:53
to be the ideal location for brands to
00:22:56
have a Super Bowl because they were
00:22:57
activating all the way up and down the
00:22:59
strip with huge impressive
00:23:02
uh, you know activations like we really
00:23:05
haven't seen at a Super Bowl. And so I
00:23:08
if it was up to brands they would
00:23:09
probably want the Super Bowl back in
00:23:11
Vegas as often as the NFL is willing to
00:23:13
do it.
00:23:14
And you know another thing that people
00:23:15
sometimes forget to ask about what about
00:23:17
the football?
00:23:20
Oh yeah there was a football game too.
00:23:21
the first half of the game was
00:23:22
relatively boring. The second half of
00:23:24
the game was
00:23:25
awesome. And what about the placement of
00:23:28
the ads? The ones who got Did you track
00:23:30
like the ones who were later in the game
00:23:32
and earlier in the game and how that
00:23:33
worked out for
00:23:35
for the success of the ad placement
00:23:37
within the game? It's interesting cuz
00:23:39
it's such a gamble on when you where you
00:23:41
place your ad because you're guaranteed
00:23:44
high viewership in the first half and
00:23:45
then the second half you really don't
00:23:47
know. And then this had the ad in
00:23:50
wrinkle overtime where brands will offer
00:23:52
the opportunity sort of on the spot
00:23:54
do you want an overtime spot?
00:23:56
Oh that's interesting.
00:23:58
And so we only saw one brand out of
00:24:01
those five ads that were was in the game
00:24:03
and that was State Farm cut down their
00:24:04
60 into a 30 second. The other four
00:24:07
brands were either pregame or not at
00:24:09
all. So you had Discover which was a
00:24:10
pregame ad.
00:24:12
There was I think a cereal brand that
00:24:15
was one of those ads and then I think
00:24:16
you had two movie trailers from
00:24:18
Universal that were not during the game.
00:24:20
It's a Universal you know essentially
00:24:22
upped their spend by 15 million dollars
00:24:23
to show two more trailers in overtime.
00:24:27
And so CBS walked away with an extra 35
00:24:29
million dollars in ad revenue. That's
00:24:31
super interesting cuz I was thinking it
00:24:33
was a very long game.
00:24:35
And then we were thinking went into
00:24:36
overtime. I read I think that there's
00:24:38
only two Super Bowl games that went into
00:24:40
overtime so you don't predict that's
00:24:41
going to happen. Plus that was such an
00:24:44
exciting conclusion. So you have
00:24:46
everybody watching that with intensity.
00:24:48
interesting Barbara two tailed
00:24:50
hypothesis. If it's close and you're in
00:24:52
the game are you distracted from the
00:24:54
commercials?
00:24:54
No you need the relief. Are you kidding
00:24:56
me? You are so tense. Like what is going
00:24:59
to happen to Travis Kelce? That is what
00:25:01
you're worried about. Fair enough but if
00:25:03
I'm bored I'm like I don't know it's
00:25:04
like okay the ads let me at least pay
00:25:06
attention to the ads right? But you're
00:25:07
saying that that is it's a it goes up.
00:25:10
research about that you know? Like if
00:25:12
you get that relief it helps with the
00:25:14
intensity.
00:25:15
I personally think those ads at the end
00:25:17
got really good placement. And if they
00:25:18
had to make the money you know the
00:25:20
decision last minute that's pretty
00:25:22
interesting.
00:25:24
So and so how does that work? They just
00:25:26
decide and then they run it like
00:25:28
somebody's making a split second
00:25:29
decision like that. Is that what you're
00:25:31
saying actually happened Jameson?
00:25:33
Um, so some brands in advance may raise
00:25:36
their hand and say like hey if the game
00:25:38
goes to overtime we're in. But CBS will
00:25:41
off also give brands an opportunity to
00:25:44
say like hey we could be headed to
00:25:45
overtime anybody interested in buying.
00:25:48
So I know Discover was one of those
00:25:50
brands that they had an opportunity in
00:25:51
the fourth quarter where CBS came to
00:25:53
them because they had already had a
00:25:54
pregame ad and said hey do you want to
00:25:57
go in overtime? And I would guess
00:26:00
because Discover went pregame they
00:26:02
probably got a saw good response to
00:26:05
their ad and said like hey people liked
00:26:07
our ad let's go for it it's going to be
00:26:08
worth the 7 million to do it. So
00:26:10
so the price so the price doesn't change
00:26:12
Jameson. Is that correct? Is actually
00:26:14
cuz I could imagine you know I guess if
00:26:16
you're if you're asked to do it and you
00:26:18
haven't been sort you haven't raised
00:26:19
your hand I guess they could charge more
00:26:21
to a certain extent right? But you're
00:26:23
saying you get that locked in price no
00:26:24
matter what. You just get first right to
00:26:26
refusal if you if you've already said
00:26:28
hey I'm interested in being potentially
00:26:30
putting an ad in the overtime part. Is
00:26:32
that correct?
00:26:33
Uh, from our knowledge yes CBS has never
00:26:36
outright said that like it's 7 million
00:26:38
dollars but based off of previous
00:26:40
reporting work we've done we're pretty
00:26:42
confident that you get
00:26:44
somewhere around that rate. You know it
00:26:46
might be give or take a couple hundred
00:26:48
thousand dollars either way but it you
00:26:49
know it's basically the same rate as you
00:26:51
get in the game. You know Jameson thank
00:26:53
you so much for joining us today and
00:26:55
where can our listeners go to keep up
00:26:57
with you?
00:26:59
Yeah, just go to adweek.com.
00:27:01
We cover the Super Bowl in and out and
00:27:03
then the other 360 days of the year.
00:27:07
You know we're the most read publication
00:27:08
for advertising media and marketing. So
00:27:10
we cover
00:27:13
You do a good job Jameson. Yeah, you're
00:27:15
the Patrick Mahomes of advertising
00:27:17
gurus.
00:27:18
Thank you very much for being on our
00:27:19
show and helping us debrief the Super
00:27:21
Bowl. We're going to take a short break
00:27:24
and up next is Allison Griffin State
00:27:26
Farm's head of marketing. This is
00:27:28
Marketing Matters Business Radio
00:27:30
SiriusXM 132.
00:27:33
Welcome back to Marketing Matters here
00:27:35
on Business Radio SiriusXM 132. I'm
00:27:38
Barbara Kahn the Patty and J.H. Baker
00:27:41
Professor of Marketing I'm joined by my
00:27:42
co-host Americus Reed the Whitney M.
00:27:45
Young Jr. Professor of Marketing and the
00:27:47
Brand Identity Theorist. And today we
00:27:50
are talking about the marketing
00:27:51
highlights from the 2024 Super 2024
00:27:54
Super Bowl.
00:27:55
Super Bowl 58 Barbara. 58 yeah. And now
00:27:59
it's time as you just heard for our
00:28:00
spotlight segment and who we want to
00:28:02
spotlight in this this is a special
00:28:04
moment for us is the State Farm
00:28:07
advertising campaign because they did
00:28:09
something pretty iconic and we'd like to
00:28:11
unpack what happened there. Before you
00:28:12
jump in Barbara can I just say this? You
00:28:13
ready for me? Okay.
00:28:14
Like a good neighba State Farm is there.
00:28:17
Okay that wasn't my best Swartzenegger
00:28:19
but you get the It was close absolutely
00:28:21
close. So that was the ad it was that
00:28:24
was the movie as he set it up on who's
00:28:28
uh, Jimmy Fallon's show. And to talk
00:28:30
about this and the idea and whether or
00:28:32
not it went over but I think it did go
00:28:33
over yes was Allison Griffin who's State
00:28:36
Farm's head of marketing. Welcome to our
00:28:39
show Allison. Thank you for being here.
00:28:41
Uh, thank you so much for having me.
00:28:43
It's a truly my pleasure. So let's in
00:28:45
case anybody didn't see it which is like
00:28:47
what planet are they on? But let's just
00:28:50
assume. Why don't you just debrief very
00:28:52
quickly what the ad was and then we can
00:28:54
unpack the campaign and what how you
00:28:56
decided to do it cuz it was really an
00:28:59
unusual ad and an unusual idea.
00:29:03
Yeah, thanks so much. So it was a 60
00:29:05
second spot that appeared to start out
00:29:07
like a movie where action hero Agent
00:29:11
State Farm Arnold Schwarzenegger is
00:29:13
saving puppies and says like a good
00:29:15
neighba
00:29:18
State Farm is there. And then you
00:29:20
realize cut cut a director then says hey
00:29:23
Arnold it's neighbor. I'm hearing
00:29:25
neighba. And it then proceeds for 60
00:29:28
seconds different scenarios
00:29:32
saving from a house fire a lady in labor
00:29:35
from a an explosion in a factory a
00:29:38
helicopter scene so several
00:29:41
quintessential action hero spots where
00:29:43
over and over Agent State Farm is saying
00:29:46
"neighbor"
00:29:48
sort of incorrectly. And
00:29:51
and then the twist at the end is the
00:29:53
script change comes in and Agent State
00:29:56
Farm is actually replaced by an
00:29:58
additional Agent State Farm in the form
00:30:00
of Danny DeVito who delivers the line
00:30:03
the iconic line perfectly and at the end
00:30:07
Arnold says Danny, "You're a
00:30:09
backstabber."
00:30:11
So,
00:30:13
"I'm a backstabber."
00:30:15
Fantastic.
00:30:16
Yeah, it was great. So, like there was a
00:30:18
lot to this ad. Like you started off
00:30:20
with having Arnold joining Jimmy Fallon
00:30:23
to break the news and I watched that
00:30:24
bit. That was hysterical. So, like did
00:30:28
that come after the fact or that was all
00:30:29
part of the campaign or like how did you
00:30:31
build this whole thing up?
00:30:33
So, I'll I'll kind of take two steps
00:30:35
back and I promise we'll get to the
00:30:37
Fallon activation part of it.
00:30:40
You know, so like any good marketer you
00:30:44
have a brief and this year our brief was
00:30:48
solely cemented around our slogan like a
00:30:52
good neighbor State Farm is there.
00:30:54
Several years ago when we were trying to
00:30:56
sort of catapult the asset Jake from
00:30:59
State Farm, we also had a linear
00:31:01
television Super Bowl ad where Drake
00:31:05
from State Farm iconically delivered a
00:31:08
line and that we saw and learned that
00:31:11
that
00:31:13
Super Bowl execution kind of cemented
00:31:16
the visibility of Jake from State Farm
00:31:19
reinvigorating that brand asset and we
00:31:22
could then build over time from that
00:31:24
moment.
00:31:26
So, we want to do is this cultural
00:31:27
moment to do the same for our slogan.
00:31:30
Yeah, and this let me I want to jump in
00:31:31
really quickly Allison because this is
00:31:33
something I want to get your feedback in
00:31:34
on Allison and you two Barbara. The
00:31:36
notion of the category. We're talking
00:31:38
about insurance and so it's not
00:31:40
something you can see and touch. It's
00:31:42
kind of a different product category,
00:31:43
right? You don't really know you you
00:31:45
don't really want to buy it but you know
00:31:46
you need it and so the way you market
00:31:49
that kind of a product is going to be
00:31:51
completely different. You need
00:31:53
a different way to connect with people
00:31:55
and is this part of the strategy here?
00:31:57
what you're saying. I agree and that's
00:31:58
what Allison is saying. With insurance
00:32:00
you the slogan is very meaningful.
00:32:02
Very meaningful.
00:32:03
And the idea of doing an ad which is
00:32:05
what I think she's saying about that
00:32:06
slogan which is speaking to the unique
00:32:09
selling proposition of the of the brand
00:32:13
is a very interesting strategy.
00:32:15
Yeah, so we are under no delusion that
00:32:18
anyone in the country cares at all about
00:32:21
the category of insurance.
00:32:24
Let alone I'll say Gen Z, Millennials,
00:32:27
younger Millennials, right? Their
00:32:29
attention is is hard to catch. They are
00:32:33
distracted across all the different
00:32:35
avenues and platforms where their
00:32:37
attention is being, you know, sought
00:32:39
after and again insurance isn't a
00:32:42
category that they'll stop and go, "I
00:32:44
wonder what the insurance category is
00:32:46
doing today." And so in order to set
00:32:49
yourself apart, you know, humor is one
00:32:51
that most of the category uses today.
00:32:54
You can see it pretty much across the
00:32:56
board but being relevant, so Jake from
00:33:00
State Farm is one way we've become more
00:33:02
and more relevant where he is the
00:33:04
personification of what it means to be a
00:33:07
good neighbor. He's not a pitchman, he
00:33:08
doesn't sell anything. He's just a good
00:33:11
neighbor. And then the slogan like a
00:33:14
good neighbor State Farm is there and
00:33:15
the jingle
00:33:16
associated with it is really important
00:33:19
and for young people today and you guys,
00:33:22
you know, sitting with college students
00:33:23
more
00:33:24
often every day than I am,
00:33:27
you know this better than I do but being
00:33:29
able to break through and a brand to
00:33:31
share its purpose and its meaning
00:33:33
matters more and more today.
00:33:36
And so
00:33:37
celebrating just the words like a good
00:33:40
neighbor and then from here we will
00:33:42
catapult into well, what does that mean?
00:33:44
Yeah, that's what I was going to say.
00:33:46
That's interesting because what you're
00:33:48
doing in this ad is making the slogan
00:33:51
literally more familiar but you're not
00:33:53
digging into the meaning of it because
00:33:55
the execution of this ad isn't really
00:33:57
about the meaning. Whereas with the Jake
00:33:59
campaign it was about the meaning of
00:34:01
what Jake was. Here it's really about
00:34:03
familiarity of the slogan.
00:34:06
I'll say both things. We did have the
00:34:08
the deliverer of the line is Agent State
00:34:12
Farm, the superhero who is there
00:34:15
[Laughter]
00:34:18
I'll say a little bit there is a little
00:34:20
bit in there by design but but to the
00:34:23
point our goal for this year going into
00:34:25
2024 is to continue to unpack that
00:34:28
meaning. So,
00:34:30
I mean look, we know that the jingle is
00:34:32
iconic. I mean it's not unknown today,
00:34:35
right? People know it. And but we want
00:34:39
to reintroduce it to those who may not
00:34:41
realize or pay attention and to the
00:34:44
point that you just stated, we want to
00:34:46
continue to create meaning for it
00:34:47
throughout the year. And so for us
00:34:49
taking a step back, the brief was around
00:34:52
the iconic slogan
00:34:54
making it
00:34:56
famous. So, then the creative and now
00:34:59
this is getting to I know your question
00:35:00
was Jimmy Fallon but the creative for us
00:35:03
and every year if you want to later talk
00:35:05
about what we did in 2021, 22, 23 and
00:35:09
and then now 24, there was a lead up in
00:35:11
how we came to get here.
00:35:12
did want to talk about that but
00:35:16
For this one though, where where we are
00:35:20
is how do we cement it and then create
00:35:23
meaning and so the creative drove the
00:35:26
celebrity. So, I know there's a lot of
00:35:28
talk in Super Bowl ads of cost and
00:35:31
celebrities and do you need celebrities
00:35:33
and all of that and
00:35:36
Yes, our feeling is that you the best
00:35:40
creative is one where it couldn't just
00:35:42
swap out oh well we'll approach this
00:35:44
celebrity and if she can't do it we'll
00:35:46
go to her and if she can't do it we'll
00:35:48
go to this person down the line.
00:35:50
If Arnold wasn't available or willing
00:35:54
this spot would not have been
00:35:56
what
00:35:59
Okay. No, that's a that's a fantastic
00:36:01
got the brief, we got the celebrity.
00:36:04
Yeah. So, now so then we had we were
00:36:06
like, all right, well if we've got
00:36:08
Arnold and we always had the creative
00:36:10
was always around an action hero and
00:36:12
Agent State Farm because we've got
00:36:14
nearly 20,000 independent contractor
00:36:17
State Farm agents across the country and
00:36:19
they're in communities in every zip code
00:36:21
here in the United States and they are
00:36:24
doing these superhero type things for
00:36:27
their communities every day. So, there
00:36:29
was like that notion of who are we? What
00:36:31
do we mean? How do we, you know, get
00:36:34
Arnold to to demonstrate this
00:36:36
superhero-ness
00:36:38
to lean into what do we mean that we can
00:36:40
impact for the rest of the year and so
00:36:42
how do we make the most interest around
00:36:44
a spot if we're going to make the
00:36:46
investment and if we're going to spend
00:36:49
the time and energy to do a spot, then
00:36:51
what's the surround? And the surround
00:36:54
including
00:36:55
Jimmy Fallon was hey, let's for fun
00:36:59
launch a pretend trailer. So, we started
00:37:01
several weeks ago and said movie.
00:37:05
Then and we said nothing about it. We
00:37:07
had an IMDb page. We had Arnold
00:37:10
Schwarzenegger and Jake were caught by
00:37:13
the paparazzi working out at Gold's Gym
00:37:16
in Los Angeles. And really got paparazzi
00:37:20
photos of them there which was part of
00:37:22
it, right? That the two of them are
00:37:24
working on a movie. And then
00:37:27
and then slowly but surely thinking
00:37:29
about well, what would a movie star do
00:37:31
if they truly were launching a new
00:37:33
movie, they would go on Jimmy Fallon.
00:37:36
And I'll pause here around Jimmy Fallon
00:37:38
and say he's not just a celebrity we
00:37:43
hired to be one of our current spots. He
00:37:45
currently is in a service campaign
00:37:47
around our jingle.
00:37:49
He shows up when someone says, "Are you
00:37:51
joking?" three times.
00:37:54
coming.
00:37:55
So, he's not around this topic because
00:37:58
of that. We are working with him in a
00:38:01
deeper collaboration and we have Jimmy
00:38:04
in the writing room with us. And so that
00:38:07
was way before this spot, this
00:38:10
particular spot. And so when we
00:38:13
solidified the spot and when we knew
00:38:16
what we were doing, we said, "Hey Jimmy,
00:38:19
you know,
00:38:20
what do you think and help us come up
00:38:23
with a spot?"
00:38:25
Oh, so that's a much bigger deal about
00:38:27
Jimmy. That's why you you held off for a
00:38:29
second because the Jimmy Fallon point is
00:38:31
a much bigger point. We were talking
00:38:33
about humor that doesn't work. I mean
00:38:34
one of the best ways to mitigate that is
00:38:35
to hire really good comedy writers like
00:38:38
Jimmy Fallon and work with these most,
00:38:40
you know, creative people.
00:38:41
in pro he's good at improv so that he
00:38:43
can go with something and he can take it
00:38:45
and move it in interesting ways. And
00:38:47
that makes it very interesting to then
00:38:49
have Arnold come on his show. I mean I
00:38:51
didn't know all that backstory. That's
00:38:53
really interesting.
00:38:55
Yeah, and it was fun. So, we worked with
00:38:57
NBC and Jimmy Fallon
00:39:00
of course and Arnold's team and and Jake
00:39:01
from State Farm. So, we had two segments
00:39:03
on the the Tonight Show with Jimmy
00:39:05
Fallon. One was the typical Arnold at
00:39:07
the desk and he's, let's say, hawking
00:39:10
his new movie
00:39:11
and Jimmy was such a great a great
00:39:14
support in how we rolled that part out.
00:39:17
And then in addition, they did one of
00:39:19
those game that the Tonight Show does
00:39:22
with some celebrities where they play a
00:39:24
game in the you know, the second segment
00:39:26
and we brought Jake from State Farm out
00:39:28
and if you watch that spot and noticed
00:39:31
the roots were playing our jingle subtly
00:39:34
in the background.
00:39:36
So, as you're talking through this, this
00:39:38
is like a lot more depth than I
00:39:40
expected. It you know, even in the Jimmy
00:39:42
Fallon question. Well, so was that
00:39:44
considered a paid ad or was that I mean,
00:39:46
did you have to pay to do that or how
00:39:48
did that work?
00:39:49
No. That's beautiful.
00:39:51
The other thing that I think is super
00:39:53
interesting Allison is this idea of
00:39:54
Barbara and I talk about it all the
00:39:56
time. How the storytelling part, the
00:39:59
narrative piece, and entertaining
00:40:00
people. And you know, a story that runs
00:40:03
through various different threads is
00:40:05
very different when the when the
00:40:07
promotional piece stops becoming the
00:40:09
promotional thing necessarily and it's
00:40:11
more entertainment and creative and
00:40:12
entertainment first and then oh by the
00:40:14
way it it creates a connection of
00:40:16
resonance for your brand potentially.
00:40:18
Can you talk about that? We've talked
00:40:19
about this Barbara flipping the sort of
00:40:21
script if you will. It It sounds like
00:40:23
that was the strategy here. Is that
00:40:24
correct Allison? Yeah, 100% and that and
00:40:27
that was where we were like this 360 on
00:40:30
steroids that you know, everything from
00:40:33
the movie page and the paparazzi moment
00:40:35
and creating a movie poster. Oh, we had
00:40:37
a theme song by the way. A very very
00:40:40
popular TikToker Lauren Gray wrote the
00:40:44
score as any action movie would have. Of
00:40:47
course. Of course. A big bond. Right?
00:40:50
You've got a a big famous score. And so
00:40:52
so we did that and then of course there
00:40:55
was a concentric circle of internet
00:40:57
influencers that would do get ready with
00:41:00
me videos of lifestyle of we're going to
00:41:04
the premiere. So we had a red carpet
00:41:05
event. Wow.
00:41:07
So smart. Oh my god. It's very deep.
00:41:08
Yeah. Yeah. It kept going. And then the
00:41:11
other the other way to get more and more
00:41:14
again more of the Gen Z younger
00:41:16
audiences interested is we also
00:41:19
contracted with very talented internet
00:41:23
influencers who were artists all in
00:41:26
different genres. Like painting. Wow.
00:41:31
Models, figures.
00:41:33
Um songs, dancers.
00:41:36
Wow. You know, so there were I think 13.
00:41:39
We We could get the exact number here if
00:41:42
we need the exact number but it was
00:41:43
about 13 to 15 influencers who were all
00:41:46
also driving excitement and interest
00:41:49
around Agent State Farm. Again, without
00:41:51
anybody knowing that the actual joke um
00:41:54
was Neighba over and over.
00:41:56
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right? Yeah. So they
00:41:58
were just sort of riffing on superhero
00:42:01
and an agent being a hero. So it was
00:42:03
subtly another way that our um meaning
00:42:08
was being interpreted to wider and wider
00:42:12
audiences in the lead-up to the actual
00:42:14
spot.
00:42:15
I like about this in addition to what
00:42:16
you're saying and in how it's building
00:42:18
up this whole narrative and what and
00:42:20
what America's been saying also but what
00:42:22
I like about it is you don't put all the
00:42:24
weight on the commercial. Right. So if
00:42:26
the commercial doesn't land which is
00:42:28
possible, you know, you might think it's
00:42:30
funny but maybe in the moment when it
00:42:31
plays it's not that funny. You have all
00:42:34
this other stuff going. So you have it
00:42:37
invested all this money in one spot and
00:42:40
then it falls flat which we were just
00:42:42
talking about. That happened to some
00:42:43
brands. Their ads just didn't hit. You
00:42:45
don't have that problem because you have
00:42:47
so much else going on. And anything that
00:42:51
happens that hits
00:42:52
creativity.
00:42:53
Yeah, it's going to promote the slogan
00:42:55
which is what your point is. So you
00:42:58
can't lose.
00:42:59
I'll add one more layer here. This is so
00:43:01
appropriate that it's it's insurance.
00:43:03
It's
00:43:04
so appropriate. Yeah, risk averse. It's
00:43:07
well thought out. It's It's going to be
00:43:08
there for protection no matter what.
00:43:10
Absolutely. Yeah. Exactly right. We are
00:43:12
not going to get caught flat-footed.
00:43:14
Yes.
00:43:15
That's so funny. The other concentric
00:43:17
circle is our agents. And and you know,
00:43:20
I I never underestimate the power of
00:43:23
those 20,000 independent contractors
00:43:26
because what we did also in advance was
00:43:29
prepare social content and heads-up and
00:43:33
excitement for what was going to happen
00:43:35
so they weren't caught off guard out in
00:43:37
a community somewhere.
00:43:39
And they were ready en masse to attack
00:43:43
the internet with their social posts and
00:43:46
promotions and leaning into Agent
00:43:48
Immediately.
00:43:49
State Farm. Right. And that was yet
00:43:51
another way
00:43:52
what I was saying Poppy was doing also.
00:43:54
You have so it's a multi-pronged uh
00:43:57
campaign. You don't just have the Super
00:43:59
Bowl
00:44:00
commercial. You have all this stuff
00:44:02
around it. So let's switch gears just a
00:44:04
little cuz you mentioned this and I'm
00:44:05
curious. So the historic State Farm ads
00:44:08
were pretty interesting too and quite
00:44:11
different from this. So can you talk
00:44:12
about the campaign that happened before
00:44:15
and a little bit a little bit background
00:44:17
like you're giving on this campaign
00:44:18
about those previous campaigns?
00:44:21
Sure. So last year we did a TikTok. So
00:44:22
the last two years actually we did
00:44:24
TikToks and I'll and I'll back up to
00:44:25
tell you why. So So the one before that
00:44:27
was Drake from State Farm that we
00:44:29
already talked about. That was to launch
00:44:31
the asset Jake from State Farm and and
00:44:33
start to cement it. Great. Check. Did it
00:44:35
and he's become a cultural icon if I may
00:44:38
Right.
00:44:39
Um
00:44:40
So then the next year we had So we
00:44:44
always look at the business conditions,
00:44:46
the market, what's going on, what do we
00:44:48
need, what are we looking to achieve
00:44:50
when we think about the Super Bowl and
00:44:52
that year after Drake from State Farm
00:44:55
and the launching of that asset Jake was
00:44:58
we put Jake from State Farm on TikTok as
00:45:01
an influencer. He's over 1 million
00:45:03
followers today. Oh wow. He's getting
00:45:06
pretty big actually already. Um and at
00:45:09
that time we put him on in the month of
00:45:12
November and of course the Super Bowl
00:45:13
would be the following February and we
00:45:16
thought we've got to more than a linear
00:45:20
spot on television, we need to drum up
00:45:22
the interest and excitement around the
00:45:24
TikTok account. So we did a contest
00:45:26
where somebody could win being in a
00:45:28
commercial with Jake and that was the
00:45:32
goal. So it wasn't about we have to be
00:45:35
on television this year. It was about
00:45:37
make that TikTok platform uh You know.
00:45:40
Create awareness and make it relevant.
00:45:42
So that was that year. I'll pause.
00:45:44
Should I keep going? Yeah, keep going.
00:45:46
Yeah.
00:45:47
Just making sure. Okay. So then the next
00:45:49
year so we had a lot of success with
00:45:51
TikTok and Jake's following grew quite a
00:45:53
bit then and we've since continued to
00:45:55
get smarter and smarter about that asset
00:45:58
and about that platform. Um so it
00:46:00
continues to grow but then the next year
00:46:03
of course the question comes up, "Hey,
00:46:04
are we going to do a Super Bowl ad this
00:46:06
year?" And what we knew was we had
00:46:09
stadium naming rights last year. It was
00:46:12
the Super Bowl was at State Farm
00:46:14
Stadium. And we were thinking to
00:46:16
ourselves well, I don't need to buy a 30
00:46:18
or 60 second spot on television. My
00:46:20
brand's going to be on television for 4
00:46:22
hours. So we aren't aware of brands
00:46:27
leaning into stadium naming rights in a
00:46:29
way we did last year. So as you know, a
00:46:32
typical or at least last year
00:46:34
viewing for the Super Bowl is about 110
00:46:37
million people and we had the naming
00:46:40
rights. Um so we're like, "Okay, that's
00:46:42
good. How do we create interest in the
00:46:46
brand but do it on TikTok again to drive
00:46:49
Jake and again to be creative and think
00:46:51
out of the box. And again, the creative
00:46:53
drives the execution.
00:46:55
Because we had naming rights, there was
00:46:57
the biggest TikToker at the time Khaby
00:46:59
Lame and he very famously
00:47:01
Yes. shrugs. I He speaks zero so I'm
00:47:04
hoping in a podcast this is coming off.
00:47:06
Imagine me going Yes. Yes.
00:47:09
Yes. But we had an activation on TikTok
00:47:12
that said "We don't need to go to the
00:47:15
big game. The big game has come to us."
00:47:17
Ooh. pointing at the stadium logo. Wow.
00:47:21
And that TikTok got 220
00:47:26
million views Wow.
00:47:29
And so we thought that was a really good
00:47:32
compliment And Allison Griffin State
00:47:35
Farm's head of marketing, this is
00:47:36
unbelievable. And so that that was a mic
00:47:38
that was so that was a flex.
00:47:41
So I I just I'm not I you know, it's
00:47:42
hard I'm thinking insurance. Why are you
00:47:44
all so cool at State Farm? Why are you
00:47:47
so good at what at this? This is
00:47:49
incredible. It's like this is so
00:47:50
amazing. Like how do you come up with
00:47:52
these ideas and in and like make sure
00:47:54
that they're so deep and so well thought
00:47:56
out and so well executed? I mean, how
00:47:58
does this happen?
00:48:00
So we've done a lot, you know, we've
00:48:02
refreshed our brand in 2020. Um and new
00:48:06
you know, the leadership of the company
00:48:07
was on a march toward making the brand
00:48:11
cool and setting ourselves apart because
00:48:13
listen uh it's a tough category. It's
00:48:16
competitive. We actually have the
00:48:18
smallest of the budgets of our
00:48:20
competitors in the market um which is
00:48:23
well known and documented not sharing
00:48:24
anything
00:48:26
private there. And so in order to punch
00:48:29
above our weight and in order to
00:48:31
resonate especially with younger and
00:48:33
younger audiences cuz look, we all know
00:48:35
any global marketer, not just the US,
00:48:37
not just insurance there's a tsunami of
00:48:39
wallets in young millennials, Gen Zs,
00:48:42
and now even Gen Alphas coming that the
00:48:44
world has never seen. Yes. And they are
00:48:47
a tough audience to reach. We know that
00:48:50
having a great State Farm app can't just
00:48:52
compare to another
00:48:54
in insurance industry app. It's that the
00:48:57
standard is Amazon or Apple or things.
00:49:00
We're smart enough to know that the
00:49:03
global market is dictating attention
00:49:07
where people are paying attention and if
00:49:09
we need to set ourselves apart, we've
00:49:11
got to be innovative and cutting edge.
00:49:13
And our whole mission is to create the
00:49:15
conditions over time that allows us to
00:49:18
take advantage of things like the Mama
00:49:21
Kelsey moment. Ooh. Well, that was what
00:49:23
I was going to ask you because you had
00:49:25
in your old ads Andy Reid and Pat
00:49:27
Mahomes and all that in your old But how
00:49:30
did all that play into it? Because those
00:49:32
ads were very different what you're
00:49:33
talking about. They seemed almost hokey.
00:49:35
Like Andy Reid's not that good an actor,
00:49:37
you know what I mean? So, like it was a
00:49:39
very
00:49:39
Andy Reid is lovable. So, what we do is
00:49:41
contextually relevant ads. So, that's
00:49:43
not our general market ad. We only play
00:49:46
the um football ads in football. So,
00:49:49
he's known there, he played there. We
00:49:51
only play the NBA ads in NBA play.
00:49:55
Target marketing.
00:49:57
And then we have general market is where
00:50:00
you'll see someone like a Jimmy Fallon
00:50:02
or a Ludacris That's genius. or Jake
00:50:05
from State Farm or just the
00:50:07
representation of an agent and no
00:50:08
celebrity. 100%. So, the point is you'll
00:50:11
never ever see an Andy Reid ad outside
00:50:15
of the football context, no matter what.
00:50:17
That's that's smart. And I love the
00:50:19
idea, Barbara, the point is that, you
00:50:20
know, all of this investment right now
00:50:22
for these younger people, at some point
00:50:24
they're going to say, "Hmm, I I guess I
00:50:25
need some insurance." What's going to be
00:50:26
popping in their mind at that moment?
00:50:28
It'll be It'll be there. IT'S GOING TO
00:50:30
BE THERE, MAN.
00:50:31
That's a top of the funnel strategy.
00:50:33
But, that's interesting because I didn't
00:50:34
realize it was a local ad because, of
00:50:36
course, Andy Reid was in the Super Bowl.
00:50:38
So, he became a national figure.
00:50:41
Um so, I thought Well, and we were we
00:50:42
were so fortunate. Um we had Travis
00:50:45
Kelce in an ad before any of this Taylor
00:50:47
Swift came up. Um you know, we filmed
00:50:49
those last summer, the Mahomes in
00:50:51
MaAuto. And so, that was an interesting,
00:50:55
you know, again, create the conditions
00:50:57
to which you could take advantage of a
00:50:59
moment in the moment. And but look, it
00:51:02
takes a lot of intestinal fortitude and
00:51:04
go and take a risk like that, especially
00:51:07
in the insurance category where we are
00:51:09
in the risk business. Exactly.
00:51:12
Exactly. Well
00:51:13
thing to do is taking big risks, but um
00:51:16
but creating those those moments. And
00:51:18
so, when um Taylor Swift showed up to
00:51:21
Travis's game, 1 week later we had Jake
00:51:23
from State Farm in the stands, but not
00:51:25
at a Chiefs game, of course, famously at
00:51:28
an Eagles game supporting
00:51:31
the other brother.
00:51:32
There you have it.
00:51:33
Right. And that is like the biggest
00:51:35
story. People are talking about that
00:51:36
Kelce story is the biggest story in the
00:51:39
our cultural moment. Well, Allison,
00:51:41
thank you so much for joining us today.
00:51:43
And so, now that you've told us this
00:51:45
deep deep marketing strategy, where can
00:51:48
our listeners go to follow what you're
00:51:49
doing and everything that's going on at
00:51:51
State Farm?
00:51:53
Oh gosh, I'm on LinkedIn and um I love
00:51:56
talking about marketing. So,
00:51:58
do. Well, you're very good at it.
00:51:59
And you're excellent at it. Well, thank
00:52:01
you. And I love the 360 campaign. It's
00:52:04
great. Yeah.
00:52:05
Well, thank you.
00:52:07
And this year we're excited about
00:52:09
continuing to lean into our jingle.
00:52:10
You'll see more and more and fun
00:52:13
activations around the actual notes are
00:52:16
coming soon to a to a commercial near
00:52:19
you. Oh, that's very cool. Uh well,
00:52:21
that's all we have time for today. We'd
00:52:23
like to thank our producers Dan Simpkins
00:52:25
and Dana Cash. We're here every
00:52:27
Wednesday from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. Eastern
00:52:29
Time. And we replay our show several
00:52:31
times throughout the week. This has been
00:52:33
Marketing Matters. I'm Barbara Corcoran
00:52:35
here with America's Read Business Radio
00:52:37
SiriusXM 132.
00:52:40
[Music]
