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from the campus of the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School this is marketing matters on Business
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Radio hello and welcome you're listening to marketing matters here on Business
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Radio SiriusXM 132 I'm Barbara Khan the Patty and JH Baker professor of marketing and I'm joined by my co-host
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Americus Reed the Whitney M Young Junior professor of marketing and the brand identity theorist hello American I am so
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excited we are marketers and one of the things we do is promotion and advertising and we are on the precipice
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of one of the biggest moments every year that is of course the Super Bowl the combatants have been decided and now
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it's all about what sort of Brands products Services organizations are going to get in on this action so this
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will be exciting to talk about what have we got on the program today yes of course today we're going to talk Super
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Bowl Super Bowl Super Bowl because it is the biggest thing from a marketing point
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of view and and there's some football too um but really it is about advertising it's about the hype it's
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about the stories it's about the podcast it's about everything that's going on
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and it's particularly exciting because it's in Las Vegas so there's even more
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stuff to talk about from a marketing point and in order to do justice to this fantastic title we have got the
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editorinchief of AD age on our show Janine poi uh who is here and she uh the G has the T-shirt to prove she is the
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guru she is all things advertising yes so Janine thank you so much for being on the show and helping us discuss Super
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Bowl 2024 thank you for having me happy Super Bowl commercial week exactly so tell us a little bit
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about like how exciting it is to be at ad age during the Super Bowl week we've
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been gearing up for this really since uh the holidays uh getting ready for Super
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Bowl season there's a lot that goes into it over at ad AG as you can imagine
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waiting to see all the spots and getting them in and getting to review Those ads
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and pinpoint the trends that will be big and the celebrities that'll be buzzing
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and all of that it's it's a lot of fun but a lot goes into it so tell us a
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little like what your role is do so do you get the I mean so all of us can see some of the ads before the game and
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that's kind of part of the hype do you get it even before that do you have a
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relationship with these agencies or I mean how what tell us a little bit about behind the scenes what happens when
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you're really in the business yeah come this Saturday if I haven't seen all of
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the ads that will be airing on Sunday I'll definitely have wake up in nightmares so yes we we typically get to
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see all of the ads before they run we come up with our ad review which will uh hit right after the game sort of
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evaluate every single ad National ad that ran in the game so we get we get an inside look but I think even more so
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what makes it unique is like the layers of how these commercials are made like the strategy that goes on to thinking
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about like what are the creative tones for this year's you know game what are
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sort of the new emerging Tech that's being added to Super Bowl ads how do they pick what celebrities are going to
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be in the game like all of the fun stuff of how they pull off big game commercials is really like what we're
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doing at it oh that's so that's so cool but let me just jump in real quick
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because I want you to follow up really quickly on something uh and that is it sounds like you and the gurus get
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together and you watch the ads and you analyze them what are the how do you come up with a score what are these
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Dimensions that you use to figure out well this one is did really well or this one I mean talk talk us through the
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evaluation process that's going to be the output of the results of this is what we thought about these ads from
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your group I mean at the very basic level we are like no one El everyone else and that we're just like on slack
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immediately after we SL ad who's ad celebrity do you know that one it's a
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lot of fun we all look forward to doing this but then we do take into account a lot of different things sort of things
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that we've seen of what has worked well in the past what types of ads you know
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have one ad meter in the past what types of a creative are unique and different a
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lot of times in any given year you'll see some of the same like tropes or things kind of emerge sometimes it blurs
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and it's hard to distinguish one ad from another in some years what stands out
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right like what looks different in see of you know about 60 to 65 commercials that will air in the game which ones of
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those really resonate and stand out which one you walk away and you not only have a message and a story but also kind
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of know like what are they selling like what is the product what is the brand message and kind of can point the brand
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to the commercial and be able to identify that and remember that those are some of the things that we're really
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thinking about is we evaluate whether or not a commercial is a hit orst you're
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making me so excited there's so many I wish listeners could see Barber's face
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right now so excited because it's a lot of things to talk about I mean I let me
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say the fact that it's in Las Vegas and Taylor Swift for later let's talk a
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little bit about what you just said because I think one of the trends you noticed and from your historic
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perspective is that typically um the ads are like beer commerci alcohol beer or or cars and I know that one of the
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trends you talked about was that those are down a little bit do you want to talk a little bit about that you know
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from what you're saying the trend analysis and your historic perspective about the types of ads that run and what
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we're seeing this year we definitely are starting to see a ship for sure like you
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said it was beer snack foods cars those were like the big categories historically in the Super Bowl
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interestingly we definitely see especially as more women watch the game and we know that it's almost an even
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5050 split in women and men watching the Super Bowl so increasingly over the last
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couple of years you see like Beauty Brands coming in Dove is back in this year advertised yeah for the first time
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nationally in the Super Bowl you're definitely seeing more female Centric brands or commercials with more female
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Centric messaging uh the lead characters in the commercial being women just leaning into that because really the the
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division in terms of who's watching is very close to 50/50 and then not to bring the Taylor Swift in part but for
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sure we're going to see the swifties in the game this year so you're definitely
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seeing a change in the types of Brands this year one of the big categories is actually candy and sweets not an unusual
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category but they're in in a very big way this year which is interesting they
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definitely come to the Super Bowl with much more light-hearted type commercials making people laugh having sort of that
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comfort and Feelgood feeling uh so well that is one category the candy we're
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calling it a little bit of the candy Bowl here uh that you'll see Reese's Oro
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so much to talk about oh my God you're just getting me so excited so let's talk
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about candy I mean I mean we can talk we can talk about beer too I want to talk a
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little bit about beer because I want to get your reaction on that bud commercial
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um but before we get to beer which is more historic let's talk about what you
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just mentioned which is candy and cookies and the sweet category so you're seeing M&M's is back um right and Oreos
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and both of them have always done really creative things what do you think about
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there ad yeah so you know I think the the KY ones are interesting I think one of the risks with that many different
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kinds of Suites in the game is like not seeing uh distinguishing themselves one from another I think you know with Oreo
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you're seeing Chris Jenner in the spot and uh they're doing this play on like
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the idea of twisting an Oreo which everyone does you know and using that as like making a choice so if B twists and
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the you know cream is on one side or another you make this or this Choice sort of like a heads or taals scenario
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and they're playing off of that idea you know they're interesting because I think
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what people really associate oreo with in the Super Bowl if you remember is the dunk in the dark
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tweet that was really something and they really helped originate this idea of like real time social media buzz and
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jumping in in the moment in the game of like capturing people's attention like
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jumping into a cultural moment and so they originated that right and I think that adds itself to a little bit of
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intrigue of like what they might do more even on social media U than necessarily
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like what their in-game ad will be interestingly enough I think that's true for a lot of Brands I think everyone
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would be paying attention to not only what we see you know watching in the game but then like how do they take this
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off the TV online whether it's X Twitter you know Instagram Tik Tok in particular
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this year like how does that translate to social media so that's what I think
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like some of the other interesting things will that's interesting because that Oreo thing really you could could
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see how it translate very well to social media and stuff whenever I do that with
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my Oreos it's never as neat and clean as it is on theirs you have to practice I can totally see that Oreo
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twisting is is in not as good and then the other idea you were talking about is a change in Celebrity so Chris Jenna
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Jenner that's not a traditional one typically in these Super Bowl ads you see a lot of football players or Sports
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athletes and in the going back to the alcohol one which is more you know traditional I think in the michelo ultra
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campaign you see Dan Marino I mean that's a pretty sophisticated football fan Who would know necessarily I don't
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think the swifties know who Dan Marino is you know so like that's much more of
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a true traditionally traditional ad right right yeah look I think a lot of them celebrities in general obviously
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have always been like an incredibly critical part of Super Bowl ads you know historically you do see a lot of like
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famous faces that most people will know that is no different this year you're
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still going to see that I mean you have Christopher Walkin for BMW Arnold Schwarzenegger is going to be in a State
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Farm Ed you know these are some major celebrities with a lot of clout that will be in superow commercials but then
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you'll also see on top of that some lesser known uh faces that you know star
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uh for Star we have ice spice who is a rapper um who actual music sort of uh bubbled up on Tik Tok she be uh starring
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in the star commercial um you saw in the Nerds a teaser Addison Ray who's been
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also big on Tik Tok being she was in that um so there are different types of celebrities I think ultimately like when
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you're looking at a brand who's paying s million for 30 seconds of airtime they
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really want to reach as many people and connect with as many people across Generations as possible so we're
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actually seeing a lot of brand sort of like double up on the number of celebrities in their ads right so it's
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not enough to just have one celebrity one big celebrity in the ad you'll have
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cameos right like you have may one star in the spot but you'll have some cameos
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of others sort of come in to sort of touch on all of the different demographics and generations to bring
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everyone in so everyone who's watching the commercial can say oh I knew someone
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or some yeah that's in in that Michelob ults you not only have Dan Marino who's
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probably not as well known and only football I mean football fans know him for sure but then you have liess and
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yeah and and Jason sakis how do you say his name something like that yeah yeah right whatever um but like he's Ted
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lasso that's how I know him exactly 100% 100% um and so that it just to your
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point is a very broad audience bace somebody will know one of those the international people know the Soccer
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Star the football people know the football star and everybody else will know Ted lasso
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Janine POI editor and chief for ad AG speaking with us she's the guru and has
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been studying studying and analyzing the advertising for the Super Bowl question
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Barbara I remember a time I remember one Super Bowl where a lot of the ads were like purpose-driven and dealing with
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issues Janine is that out the window now are people like listen I don't want to
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hear about anything that has to do with World politics or social impact this is Sunday it's the swifties I want to see
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Taylor Swift I want to have fun I want to see grank try to kick a extra point are are are people done with that I mean
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is this the moment where please stay out of let me add to what Americans are saying and ask you in particular to talk
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about Budweiser there because that's an example of a misstep in uh some purpose-driven marketing and now they're
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back to the kale dog combination um so just that's a specific concrete example
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of what the more General Trend that Americus is noting yeah I mean there was definitely times where we saw more
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purpose-driven leading into things that could be either controversial or divisive I don't think
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we'll see anything as politic leaning in for politics that's for sure like you're
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not really going to see any brand come in with a message that can like split the nation but what it's not completely
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devoid of any sort of like social good Purpose Driven marketing uh two in particular Google and Dove will have
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spots that sort of touch on this Dove is uh using its commercial to promote girls
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in sports so it's working with Nike on a program um where they are pushing to
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help keep girls young girls um who they say typically drop out of sports by age about 14 due to a low body confidence to
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help promote keeping girls in sports so that's definitely more of a purpose-driven
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positive message to your point it doesn't divide people that's yeah it's not something that
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people are go in there and like not support girls in sports right right another one is Google is using its
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commercial to promote a Google pixel a feature on there that helps visually impaired people take pictures again
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who's gonna be against visually impaired right so the the way their approach to
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this was really interesting they actually the entire spot is shot through the lens of if you were visually
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impaired so like interesting way and definitely gonna be one that stands out right because it'll look different than
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everything else in the game but they're definitely not um Dove and Google like
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lighthearted funny Whimsical like these are definitely mysterious in tone and nature and wasn't there also isn't there
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an anti-Semitism ad that yeah there's a there's a PSA for an anti-Semitism ad there's also H Jesus is
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back right wow if you guys remember from wait a minute when started last year I get the okay
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get the memo wow is back Jesus Is Back even that ad is not a divisive ad it's
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supposed to bring in it's supposed to be a bring unite people together type of AD
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it's not a politically Jesus one interestingly I think last year there was a little bit more concern going into
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the game that there would be like some polarizing messages this year it's all
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about like Love Thy Neighbor so like treat people well um you know so we'll see what those look like okay so let's
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just talk about the elephant in the room um let's talk about Taylor Swift are de
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are there going to be Travis Kels I mean in most football games like one out of two is a Travis Kel as far as I is that
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Gonna Be True in the Super Bowl too yeah right now we actually have not seen any
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commercials yet that feature Travis Kelce that said I think just the momentum around Taylor Swift and Travis
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Kelsey will be felt from the brand side during the game I know that there are lots of agencies right now working on
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behalf of their clients thinking about and planning for what Our Brands going to do on social to lean into that moment
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of there are plenty of so-called War rooms Gathering all of the different imagery that they can find and prepping
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fun little on liners that they can use on Super Bowl Sunday on X and on you know Instagram and all of that um to
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lean into the moment so meme Factory the meme Factory for sure is working overtime this week kind of think about
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like how do brandley n to tellers I remember a time Barbara and Janine where you know they would cut to the at the
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end of the game and they would ask the winning quarterback hey you just won the Super Bowl what are you gonna do and I'm
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going to Disneyland you know so maybe it'll be I'm going to the Taylor Swift
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concert I don't know but uh I think it's interesting yeah right all of this but
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you made a good point barara which is like how do we create and you can comment on this Janine like relatable I
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think is a big authentic this are the words I keep hearing relatable and connect and resonating with people so
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I'm assuming that the the ad AG gurus have like a relatability connection resonance sort of analysis that goes
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along with this what's your can you share with us like the the what the what
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is one of the ads that is like the top it's bubbling to the top right now that
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you're saying hey this one we believe with good high probabilistic likelihood
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is going to be a big hit can you can you point to one that we can expect you know
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unfortunately not yet it's a little too soon to get like a full read on that
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what I will say is we did do a survey with Harris poll about like what do people want from Super Bowl ads and
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probably not surprising to anyone like humor does bubble up to the top of like what people want from Super Bowl ads uh
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which is interesting I think I do think you know people want to enjoy themselves
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they want to laugh um they want to like be in on the joke and I think that's
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probably like the hardest part we were having this like de debate a little bit internally this morning uh the BMW
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Christopher Walkin ad is out today and we were watching that and I thought it was funny and enjoyed it and you know I
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made the comment to one of my colleagues of like I wonder if you don't know who
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Christopher Walkin is the spot is so beholden on the idea of people imitating Christopher Walkin that if you don't get
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it like if you didn't know that joke or know how people imitate him it would be
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hard for you to like find that amusing and bring it in so it really does I do think that for the most part still Super
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Bowl advertisers are trying to reach the broadest demographic possible but as we
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think about all of this and definitely something that we've been thinking a lot
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about at ad age is like the Gen Z demograph yeah that's what I was G to ask you it's a massively growing
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demographic we've seen just a ton of interests like from our audience around
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like how do you more authentically connect with the Gen Z where do you you know relate to them and I still think a
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lot of that is not going to happen on the TV but that's where brands are going
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to be thinking like off TV to online of how do they then take take those messages that maybe they don't know the
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celebrity in the spot or maybe it's something that they weren't even born
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when it was you know a concept but that you could take it offline and then make that ad relevant to the
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audience where they engaging right like that that's where they're watching yeah
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that let let me double down on that a little because not just in the Super Bowl in general I teach marketing 101
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here and so I teach freshmen and they're 18 so they're like really maybe even
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getting closer to gener a alpha and when I ask them what do you think of advertising or linear advertising
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they're not big fans you know that isn't the way they think of advertising so
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this is one of the big remaining linear advertising world so from your perspective at ad age what do you think
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is the way gen Z is looking at ads and thinking about this kind of thing and you started to talk about it yeah like
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let's just take some couple recent things that have happened outside of Super Bowl look at Stanley's the Stanley
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tum water tumblers and then look at I don't know if you're famili with the
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brand drunk elephant but they've been all over on Tik Tok because of how young
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gen Alpha girls are going to Sephora to buy drunk elephant products and it's a
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massive social media Trend that like increased drunk elephant sales and when you look at Stanley and how all of its
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momentum came from social media and you look at drunk elephant this beauty brand
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that like during the holidays was like the top of like 10y old girls wish lists interesting you just see you it's
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evident how this generation is finding Brands engaging with Brands and that is really on Tik Tok and on social so I
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think that you're right like the ads that are made for TV are going to continue to look like the ads that are
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made for TV because that audience is different than the ones on Tik Tok and how they're engaging with Brands there
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but I think what will be smart what smart Brands will do is they'll do both right they'll find a way to like appeal
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to the audience that is watching traditionally and that's where they're going to get their you know commercials
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and connect with Brands and then find ways to also in the same breath connect with the younger audiences on social and
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that's why I think Taylor Swift is interesting because she is bringing in Bridge on people who are not that
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interested in football frankly you know I mean the new audience that she's bringing are very young female not
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football oriented but they do like the hype they like the excitement something fun is going on and if you can create it
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in the social Med media World um I think there's incredible opportunity so it'd
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be interesting to see like you're saying people sitting in the war rooms and
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exactly what creativity will come out of that event uh and I think it's more and
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more important as you think about the younger population here absolutely so when we're talking also about the
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uniqueness of this Super Bowl the other thing that's interesting is Las Vegas um
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so and the sphere and have you thought anything about what all what's going on
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in town and the fact that it's in Los Vegas and how that changes things oh for
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sure I mean I think the sphere is a really interesting opportunity for Brands ones that will definitely see
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play out over the course of this week and on Super Bowl Sunday I think there are some opportunities for Brands to you
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know buy into the sphere and have like an added boost to what they're doing you
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know on TV um Las Vegas in particular on the ground uh some of the events that are taking place and opportunities to
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connect with people in person I think are really interesting I think this does make it a little bit more unique than
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perhaps other Super Bowls and I I'll be interested to even see during the game
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when they cut away from the stadium like do you see a shot where you can get see
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some brands in there that like kind of adds a little bit more bang for the buck if like you zoom out and there are there
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are some brands in cool and unique ways um on the sphere so yeah that would be very cool they do that when the EOS
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played when the Eagles played in the Super Bowl and they cut away they showed the the the skyline of Philadelphia all
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dressed in green you know but that's not quite the same thing as Las Vegas and
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The Spar you know and what they can do with that so that would really be an interesting kind of thing we definitely
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should see stuff like that that will be very cool um absolutely um and so one of
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the other things I was thinking about is in Super Bowl we not only see the hype running up to the game but then we see a
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lot of hype after the game and a lot of evaluations um and you you weigh in this
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is what to your point bar this is the important part right how how long be extended and discussed in the word of
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mouth space right yeah so you know you were saying some of it's going to be game time decision in the war rooms and
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things but what do you anticipates gonna happen following the Super Bowl um to Hype up things yeah you know what's
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interesting it's really a before during and maybe a day or two after I have found over like recent years that people
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move on really quickly so might be a little bit of buzz after obviously if something really pops the night of the
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game if there's some like major social Buzz we'll hear about it for the next
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few days but just as quickly something else will come in the news cycle right and it'll uh sort of go away so I think
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capitalizing it is really like the couple of days this week right game day and then probably the Monday or Tuesday
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after are the big moments we really do see a drop off after that interest I think people but you might remember last
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year didn't Rihanna announce her pregnancy it was it was less of been an announc but that generated hype after
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the Super Bowl quite a while I mean so you it's an opportunity to create an event like that and to do something you
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know would you anticipate anything like that possibly happening because she got incredible um who is the halftime
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entertainment this year Usher Usher is Usher right okay he's actually in at least one Super Bowl ad making a little
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Cameo the BMW one I I expect we'll see him pop up in various places too with
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Brands because it is an opportunity with all those eyeballs to create some kind of news like Rihanna who's a brilliant
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marketer let's just say her beauty blew up it was already blowing up but then it
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was but she took advantage of it and do things like that so somebody who's smart
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can do something along the lines of of that you know and this opportunity and then give it a life you know to your
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point maybe it's not natural given but if it's newsworthy they'll be able to
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give it a life after the after the Super Bowl I think but then we moved very quickly into um Valentine's Day
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yeah the next marketing event to over commercialize is is going to happen as well well tenine uh it's really
00:25:35
wonderful for you to come on the show and talk about this and talk about uh the big day and everything that you're
00:25:41
you and your team bring to to advertising and understanding advertising so where can our listeners
00:25:47
go to keep up with you yes so we're actually going to be on Instagram live all night of the Super Bowl with
00:25:53
commentaries we'll be live all night and you can pop in their come join us come
00:25:58
chat with us tell us what you like tell us what you don't like um and you can
00:26:02
hear our commentary and then all of our coverage you could watch the ads watch the teasers keep up with all the trends
00:26:09
at adage.com Superbowl wow that's fantastic thank you very much thanks Janine we're gonna take
00:26:15
a short break up next it's Andrew snade who's the Executive Vice President of
00:26:20
marketing at FanDuel so we'll have a different way of looking at the Super Bowl this is marketing manners Business
00:26:27
Radio SiriusXM 132 hello welcome back to marketing matters here on Business Radio SiriusXM
00:26:37
132 I'm Barbara Khan the Patty and JH Baker professor of marketing and I'm
00:26:41
joined by my co-host America Reed the Whitney M Young Junior professor of marketing and the brand identity
00:26:48
theorist and today on our Spotlight section we are talking about 2024 Super Bowl marketing oh yes and we're really
00:26:58
excited to have a very interesting guest to talk about this from an interesting perspective we have as our guest Andrew
00:27:05
snade who's the Executive Vice President of marketing at Fan duel hello hello
00:27:13
thanks for having me excellent so Americus and I were talking about this we know what FanDuel is um and I imagine
00:27:20
tons of people do but I also imagine some people don't because it's kind of a
00:27:25
new idea so can you before we talk a little bit about you and your your most recent marketing and what you're doing
00:27:30
for this Super Bowl tell us about what FanDuel is and your Revenue model and like it's history sure uh FanDuel is a
00:27:41
relatively new brand we're Innovative Sports Tech entertainment company that
00:27:47
changes the way customers are engaging with sports we're America's number one
00:27:52
sports book online uh we also offer an exciting Casino progam uh product and we started as a daily
00:28:01
fantasy sports brand so we're relatively new as legalized sports betting continues to expand throughout America
00:28:10
we're excited to be the number one and excited for ways in which people can actively get involved with the sports
00:28:16
they love so so let me back up a bunch of what you said so fantasy football that is that that's how you started
00:28:23
right is that right that is how we started yes and so what that means is like a bunch of different different
00:28:27
people play Fantasy Football and and they need some way to like figure out what the statistics are and how things
00:28:34
are working and who was but money and is that how you got involved kind of doing
00:28:39
that kind of stuff yeah we started uh as daily fantasy sports so rather than having a season long commitment to your
00:28:47
team which is how a lot of people enjoy uh fantasy sports it was an opportunity to play peer-to-peer against others just
00:28:56
perhaps on a Sunday against each other in football so that's how we started and
00:29:01
then when sports betting was legalized in 2018 we had a natural audience of folks that wanted to participate and it
00:29:10
gave us a great head start that we've turned into leadership in sports betting
00:29:15
now when you say it's legalized it's not legal everywhere right it's a state byst
00:29:19
state kind of thing and you're in a certain number of states I think like we
00:29:24
are now legalized for sports betting in 21 states so there's still lots of opportunity as more and more States look
00:29:31
to expand and make this experience legalized and controlled and taxed and so how's your Revenue do you make money
00:29:39
on the bets you make money on Advertising you make money on sponsorship we primarily make money on
00:29:46
uh the bets so the opportunity for folks to put a bet together and on average people should be doing this as a form of
00:29:55
entertainment because not unlike brick and mortar casinos the house is likely to
00:30:01
win and the opportunity is there that if you enjoy a $ five wager on tonight's
00:30:07
basketball game uh it's worth it whether you win or lose you just have a lot more
00:30:12
fun on the edge of your seed sharing for the outcomes that you hope occur let me
00:30:17
ask you this Andrew because I think you're pointing to something that's kind
00:30:19
of an interesting conceptual issue for the brand of sports betting more generally and that's the idea of you
00:30:26
know creating a more creating a a less stigmatized view of the entertainment piece and it sounds like that you all at
00:30:35
FanDuel were very cognizant of the fact that there may be some potential negative baggage about the gambling it
00:30:41
has a sort of like a bookie and a lone shark and all of this stuff that we see in the movies and so to create like an
00:30:47
opportunity but still maintain a kind of positive social impact as you bring this
00:30:51
entertainment to fans that was something that was built in initially to the strategy it sounds like is that correct
00:30:57
yeah for sure we want to make sure that we're seeing uh genuinely we want to help
00:31:02
people and we want to do this in a trusted way so for sure people want to have fun with sports betting the
00:31:09
excitement of enjoying Sports more and we need to do that in a context of us earning the trust of our customers and
00:31:16
society that we will do this in the right way so we actively monitor responsible play we're really eager to
00:31:24
make sure that we treat our customers data with extreme care um and so there's a lot that comes
00:31:30
with building a brand that is uh in a category that's become newly regulated
00:31:36
so I'm curious about your relationship with say the NFL or the baseball league
00:31:41
or what so first of all if you start with fantasy and I don't know that much
00:31:44
about it but my son is Abid to it and it really changed his watching behavior let's look at football for example so he
00:31:52
has his own personal teams of course he loves the Eagles he was brought up he's
00:31:55
a dolphins fan too and dolphins so he has two teams to start with but now that he's in fantasy he has a bunch of teams
00:32:03
so like in his living room he has like four TV sets because he has to be watching all of these different games
00:32:10
because he not only has his personal rooting interest but then he has you know the fantasy rooting interest and so
00:32:17
my guess is this has been great for football or for baseball or for any of this stuff but I'm just wondering you
00:32:23
Amicus and I were talking about it beforehand there's some ethical issues on you know gambling and the teams and
00:32:29
the players and you know there's some issues there so I I I want I I imagine
00:32:34
this is positive from the NFL's point of view but I'm curious if you can kind of
00:32:39
unpack some of the complexities of the relationship yeah so we're fortunate to
00:32:45
be an official partner of the NBA of the NFL and other leagues um first to the core question I
00:32:54
also have an 18-year-old son who loves his family fantasy football league and I watch him practicing to understand how
00:33:02
he takes stats and makes it work to try to make his team better that's very different than what we do so we have a
00:33:10
you must be 21 years old and you have to have banking information and Social Security information to prove your an of
00:33:19
AG customer to participate in our real money gaming products so they're different um the relation ship with the
00:33:28
leagues uh is one where we want to make sure that we're building this the right
00:33:32
way so for example we just created uh an education series with our partners at the NBA on what more we can do to make
00:33:40
sure that people understand how to spot people that need help oh interesting what to do about it um and with the NFL
00:33:49
you can imagine as there you know whether it's uh a season long fantasy or daily game games it's more ways to be
00:33:59
enjoying the sport even if the outcome becomes uh obvious that it is a very lopsided game there still lots of
00:34:07
reasons to keep watching so it's a relationship where we both want to build this the right way yeah that's a really
00:34:15
interesting point because a lot of times when we talked about Sports Marketing you would talk if your team was winning
00:34:21
you know it was easy to put to Market and if your team was losing it was kind of harder to Market for example in the
00:34:28
NBA here in Philadelphia MB just got injured that's like a really big issue for basketball here in the city and my
00:34:37
son has seasoned tickets to that and all of a sudden those tickets are worth less
00:34:40
you know so but this is a way like you're saying to stay engaged yeah to stay engaged and that's a very
00:34:48
interesting just from a theoretical marketing point of view a way to make the game more interesting without having
00:34:54
to just rely on the winning and losing seasons that's really fascinating can
00:34:59
you talk a little bit more about that yeah there are times when I remind everyone on our team that the core of
00:35:06
what we're selling is Entertainment Tonight so for example in your philly 76ers example you
00:35:16
know the ability to put a $ five parlay on tonight's game for are they going to
00:35:21
beat the spread what's maybe they're going to hit the over and and be would have gotten more
00:35:27
than six rebounds now you're actively watching the game leaning in and caring
00:35:33
about it in much more depth yes and you may or may not hit that $5 parlay that maybe would turn into
00:35:41
$40 but even if you lose you've enjoyed your $5 entertainment that night maybe
00:35:47
more than the risk you would have placed on renting a movie on Amazon for five bucks interesting that's really so like
00:35:54
what does that do you know so what does that do for competition what what does it do to the players knowing that I mean
00:36:01
I think it's positive I think anything that keeps the engagement up sounds like
00:36:05
it's good for the sport and the players and everything especially like in this
00:36:09
example where it's pretty sad for the Sixers that inde that's like a really
00:36:13
big deal and now you're talking about keeping that game interesting yeah that
00:36:19
I think that's interesting does it have an effect on the on the players or I
00:36:23
mean there's a reason why they can't gamble you know so so how does all that
00:36:27
work have you thought about that well it's important for the Integrity of the
00:36:31
game that there's very clear rules from each of the sports for how they want to
00:36:37
make sure that this is managed with their players and so we're happy to work
00:36:41
with them on that and make sure that whatever rules they want we're we're
00:36:45
delivering uh and I in general uh you know the opportunity is there for us to bring into the spotlight what previously
00:36:54
was in the shadows and make sure that you know the that this is regulated well that people that need help can get help
00:37:03
and that it is taxed uh for the benefit of the state interesting yeah that's a
00:37:08
good point because it's not like this didn't go on anyway you're just like
00:37:12
bringing it open and actually making it positive and creating like a a positive impact on things super interesting
00:37:19
Andrew snade EVP of marketing for FanDuel joining us here on this uh special Super Bowl edition of marketing
00:37:25
matters question for you how do you come up Andrew with the things with that will
00:37:30
be parlayed that will be um contested in a in a game like how does this is there
00:37:35
a how does this happen where it's like where do the opportunities and the menu
00:37:40
of possible things that I could put that $5 on where does that come from is that
00:37:44
generated from some you know some analysis of the most popular kinds of things within a game within a team how
00:37:49
do you all figure out that those kinds of analytics yeah that's a great question so first we're a regulated
00:37:55
sports book which means that we can only offer what the state uh allows us to be
00:38:00
able to make as a market so things like uh offering a five doll wager on whether
00:38:07
Travis Kelce will propose to something very interesting but it's not an on the
00:38:15
field wow that's a money maker man it's too bad but we can offer the things that
00:38:22
we know people are interested so for example we know right now that the uh most uh likely outcome well what the
00:38:31
betters have decided is most likely to occur is that Travis Kelsey will get a touchdown that's our most uh popular
00:38:38
prop BET right now interesting and you can bet anything from will it be the first touchdown will a running back
00:38:46
yards that's awesome yeah some states are different and allow on the field action to include the color of Gatorade
00:38:53
and oh wow heads or tails but for the most part it's about the play between the whistles interesting I mean there's
00:39:01
an interesting Dynamic right because imagine if you're on the other team you're on the defense and you and you
00:39:06
know like hey we it's something here I gotta stop Travis Kelce here with which
00:39:10
they're trying to do anyway it changes his behavior that's exactly what I was
00:39:14
wondering if you know if certain things are I mean and that's the reason why
00:39:18
players can't bet because it'll change their behavior and they're supposed to
00:39:22
be motivated by the competition that's right interesting but it was stuff that
00:39:26
was going on anyway so now it's going on in a more of a regulated controlled
00:39:30
manner right right right for the Super Bowl we'll have over 600 different markets that we offer and for the most
00:39:37
part it's all about whether or not the player who's trying to achieve those
00:39:42
things will get them so it lines up with them wanting to do their job at their best yes have the opportunity to bet
00:39:51
whether they think they'll occur or think they won't occur so uh the players
00:39:57
just can get after doing their job and this could be corre and as long as it's
00:40:01
constructive like that like in the ID example I think can also be a motivator 100% so you know you even though maybe
00:40:08
the Sixers won't win without embiid that I don't really say that I know they can win without embiid but you
00:40:14
can also motivate other kind of behavior on the court um you know right which people might bet on and it could be
00:40:22
positive even if it's not necessarily for the win so I'm curious like from a
00:40:28
marketing point of view this is marketing matters here on sirusxm Business Radio powered by the wooden
00:40:35
School the Super Bowl's got to be for everybody it's got to be an important
00:40:40
marketing opportunity but for you it's got to be a particularly important marketing opportunity so before you tell
00:40:46
us about your your particular or specific campaigns how do you view this as an opportunity what did you do to get
00:40:52
ready and what are you hoping to achieve from any kind of affili ilation with the
00:40:57
Super Bowl yeah I think the difference for uh for FanDuel versus all other brands is a stark one we are actually a
00:41:06
part of the game as opposed to an Advertiser during the game where our product is central for our customers and
00:41:14
the experience that they have on Super Bowl Sunday so we wanted to make sure that in whatever way we bring uh the
00:41:21
marketing to life in this moment we don't advertise on the game the way any other category a cpg a car company and
00:41:30
others could participate we wanted to be an important part of Super Bowl Sunday which is why we created the campaign
00:41:39
that we've called the kick of Destiny and this is the second year of the campaign with our sequel yes Rob
00:41:46
gronowski four time Super Bowl champion has the opportunity to redeem yes last year and an opportunity in a
00:41:57
live spot right before kickoff uh to uh make the opportunity for everyone that picks correctly they can pick if you
00:42:07
miss they can pick if he'll make and if they pick correctly they share in $10
00:42:11
million of winnings wow so how did you pick I mean he's pretty well he's Tom
00:42:16
Brady's friend right that yeah you can say say that much they are they are candre yeah yeah they make history
00:42:23
together so obviously anybody real football player I mean football fan knows him um but how how did you pick
00:42:30
him and why did you pick him and I mean he's not a kicker right so like that's
00:42:35
exactly why we picked exactly so when we first introduced this to him he looked across
00:42:41
the table at me and said but Andrew I catch I don't kick that's why it's interesting for
00:42:48
everyone interesting this is often an Overlook part of the game it's usually a
00:42:52
dramatic finishing moment of the game as a kick y and it's he's now got a big
00:42:58
appreciation for the mental toughness that it takes in that moment and then just how hard it is to consistently kick
00:43:04
a ball straight and long yes he took it very seriously trained he's training
00:43:10
terrible when he started he would get one out of every 20 kicks correct we oh man this is gonna look terrible but we
00:43:20
got him a trainer yeah can't take the athlete uh away from the competition he
00:43:25
got really focused on make sure that he could put up a respectful attempt and was so eager to bring it back this year
00:43:33
that's amazing we saw him practicing with random objects on the Jimmy Fallon
00:43:36
show that was fantastic he did pretty well so he he's into it now this is like
00:43:41
a big deal there's and it's it's going the kick is gonna happen before the game
00:43:45
Andrew or yeah so this year we've made it that we actually have two ads okay
00:43:50
the first is the live event of him kicking and it's going to happen right after the The Anthem and right before
00:43:58
the coin toss wow and then in the we have to quickly addit together depending on the result the version of our spot if
00:44:07
he makes versus the version of our spot ify all right that's cool we have a 42
00:44:12
second edit window to get that done and get it up as our ad in the second quarter wow because last year we had
00:44:19
just enough hair gray of a live ad why don't we also add yeah is like a pit stop at NASCAR or
00:44:28
form I mean it's like it's got to happen so fast right Andrew it's G to be pretty
00:44:31
cool yeah so we have to and just like them it's preparation and practice so interesting we have to have the Masters
00:44:38
ready and we do full game time rehearsals Wednesday and Friday this week to make sure we got that's
00:44:43
incredible now Andrew how many how many people will be watching at that moment when the when the when the Super Bowl
00:44:50
starts well the it's we I'm interested to see whether or not the Taylor Swift
00:44:56
effect takes the numbers up beyond what has been there previously we know that our core audience is there and all of
00:45:03
the people that still have an opportunity and haven't yet decided to try out a sports book are watching in
00:45:10
total there's probably 110 to 120 million eyeballs on both the kick itself and just before half time the
00:45:20
opportunity for us to put the celebration on whatever the result was wow that's incredible the Super Bowl is
00:45:26
so amazing right Barbara and just in terms of the number of eyeballs in that moment like tuned in and like really
00:45:31
paying attention well and one of the things that's interesting about this year's Super Bowl is that it's in Las
00:45:36
Vegas yeah um and the fact that that is the gambling capital of the world and there had been some resistance to having
00:45:42
it in Las Vegas in the past because it's always been somewhat of an uneasy relationship between gambling and Sports
00:45:48
for the reasons we were talking about so the fact you were talking about two things that make this different one is
00:45:52
that Las Vegas really does make it different and there's a lot the sphere and all these other stuff that's going
00:45:58
on in that environment and the other thing really is Taylor Swift you know and what the Swift these are gonna do so
00:46:05
um have you you know you started to talk about that but what do you think about that is in terms of what it does to the
00:46:12
business and you know football or sports or the idea of making it more of an entertainment kind of thing um what is
00:46:20
your personal feeling about that even if it may not affect your business uh feeling or maybe it does I don't know no
00:46:27
we well we already see that Travis Kelce is the most popular prop bet person so I
00:46:32
don't think it's surprising that that might be more than just his amazing
00:46:36
football play correct um obviously it's about expanding the reach and if you're
00:46:43
the NFL there's not much more you can expand so they kind of have gotten quite
00:46:48
lucky with the fact that incremental audience is going to turn in that may not have otherwise watched everyone that
00:46:56
loves football is clearly there right and there's going to be an even bigger
00:47:00
audience that comes with it so somehow the NFL goes from number one to even more number one I think but you know
00:47:07
this idea of celebrity isn't totally new I mean Tom Brady had kind of a famous
00:47:11
wife as well or you know partner um so you know how is it different do you think it's different what's happening
00:47:19
with Taylor Swift and what happened with Tom Brady was pretty big celebrity you know and it was it wasn't culturally
00:47:24
iconic I may I'm Mis misreading it but if it feels like it this is this is a
00:47:29
moment that is such more has so much more scale Barber would you say that's correct in your uh analysis that's what
00:47:35
I'm seeing too the the just the magnitude this path has been there's been other famous celebrities dating
00:47:42
quarterbacks and players in past this just takes the biggest pop icon in the world multiplies it by the biggest
00:47:50
sporting moment in the world and yeah it's like it really is what's going to happen
00:47:57
but if you see all the little videos of all the swifties like they still don't
00:48:01
understand football they don't need to understand like Andrew said that they're
00:48:05
gonna be entertained that's all that matters they don't get exactly what's
00:48:09
going on and of course here in Philly you know we have our own little twist on it with Jason Kelsey and that's raised
00:48:14
up the um the visibility of his own daughters and his wife um and it really has a lot of uh uh other effects besides
00:48:24
just what happens on the on the field so you said you talked a little bit about how Bandu started I'm curious what your
00:48:31
personal relationship is to the company and how you got involved in this and what you bring to the party yeah yeah so
00:48:39
I've been here for three years and in FanDuel time that's a really long time we we're a 3,000 person company now
00:48:49
it was probably only about 600 when I started um the my background is cpg I started at craft uh then I went into the
00:48:59
beer world and I managed the Budweiser brand globally during my time there yeah uh
00:49:08
and sort of the parallels exist how do you build a brand well and entertainment brand well in a regulated world that
00:49:15
made a lot of sense for me to be able to enjoy this next step into the world of FanDuel well now that you have Budweiser
00:49:23
um history let's ask you tin a bit about that bud campaign I don't know if you've
00:49:27
seen what the ads are that they're going to do for the Super Bowl but they're
00:49:30
going back to traditional branding and trying to get away from all the controversy I mean just informally do
00:49:37
you have any reaction to that and what all the controversy that went around budlight and I am personally really
00:49:45
proud of what they're putting in this year but I have a unique perspective that they're bringing back one of the
00:49:51
ads that I'm very proud to have been part of building which is the puppy love
00:49:56
spot where the the end of the Budweiser at includes the the dog back licking uh the Clydesdale and that was a was an
00:50:05
amazing moment in my career 10 years ago so I'm excited to back oh that's
00:50:09
interesting because I looked at the um ad I looked at the ad and that is exactly how it ends again so they're
00:50:15
really trying to bring back let's get rid of all this controversy we did in the meantime and let's go back to what
00:50:20
our brand is known for your work Andrew is Evergreen congratulations sir thank no and I do think it's wise to try to
00:50:28
you know I I celebrate the same mindset thinking about Super Bowl Sunday is different and it's a day for us to move
00:50:36
past selling and to genuinely be a part of the entertainment for the day with America and I know my ex- colleagues at
00:50:45
and Heiser Bush think of it similarly and you know it is genuinely an opportunity for them to reconnect and
00:50:53
remind people about the tradition that bud was or plays on Super Bowl Sunday and the role that it can have in
00:50:58
people's lives got it well that's pretty good well Andrew thank you so much for
00:51:03
joining us today so where can our listeners go to follow you and everything that's going on at Fan D duel
00:51:09
and if they want to get involved in this bedding and all that other stuff can you
00:51:12
give us some detail on how they can do that yeah well I guess first the ability to make your pick if Rob's going to make
00:51:21
or Miss it's a free pick you download the app you don't have to at anything
00:51:25
you can make a free pick it's the easiest way to have a first step into the world of sports
00:51:31
betting and uh please enjoy Super Bowl Sunday we're pleased to be a part of it
00:51:38
and we look forward to the moment excellent well that's exciting thank you very much for joining us
00:51:44
today well that's all we have time for today and we'd like to thank our producers Deon Simpkins and Dana cash
00:51:51
we're here every Wednesday from 5: to 6:00 p.m. eastern time and we replay our
00:51:56
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00:52:03
if you go to knowledge at Wharton um and in the podcast Tab and you'll see our
00:52:08
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00:52:17
programming thank you all for listening today we'll be back next week till then
00:52:22
this has been marketing matters I'm Barbara con here with America's Reed
00:52:26
business radio Sirius XM 132