The joy of football

The Super Bowl in the USA is the annual championship game of the National Football League and an advertisers’ bonanza and case study in the effectiveness of the current industry theories on influencing consumer behaviour. More than 111 million Americans watch the game, and paying close attention to the commercials in a national pastime. Why? Because the commercials are made to be watched, talked about and hopefully, remembered.
It comes as no surprise that the 2017 Super Bowl ads were awash in “brand purpose” — the theory of the moment. However, when brand purpose was played out in ad after ad during the Super Bowl, the effect became comical, and was quickly turned into satire on television sketch comedy and variety show Saturday Night Live.
The problem was that no one believed each brand purpose-focused ad, which were so carefully developed, tested and woven together with the brand’s mission. Many of the brand purpose-focused ads came across as pandering and disingenuous, and the ones that were beautiful and believable, were not memorable.
Somehow in the race to be purposeful, we’ve lost sight of what motivates or triggers consumer behaviour.
MRI neuro-imagery shows that when evaluating brands, consumers use emotions rather than information, and the emotional response to an ad has a far greater influence on consumer behaviour than ad content. Positive emotions toward a brand have much more influence on consumer loyalty than trust and other judgements based on brand attributes.
It is no wonder that ads focused on humour, fun and joy won the Super Bowl ad game in 2017. If you look back through the history of Super Bowl ads, these are the same feelings that win every time.
When you ask the average American to talk about their favourite Super Bowl ads, you will undoubtedly hear Budweiser mentioned. Through the years, Budweiser has racked up an impressive number of memorable and behaviour-influencing Super Bowl ads.
Clydesdales are synonymous with the Budweiser brand, and since 1986 the company has made smart use of its stable of horses to bring joy and warm fuzzies to consumers through their ads. Depending on how they are used, these immense animals can invoke feelings of awe, nostalgia, adventure and unbridled joy.
And then there is the “original party animal” Spuds MacKenzie. The playboy bull terrier was introduced as the brand ambassador for Bud Light in 1987. While his time in the spotlight was short lived (1987–88), the campaign was credited with helping boost Bud Light sales by 20%.
In discussing the purpose of the campaign, former Bud Light Marketing Director Bob Lachky said “It was meant to be fun.”
Originally published at elephant.md.
