The most anticipated final on the sports calendar was broadcasted on February 7th 2021 at the Raymond Charles stadium in Tampa, Florida.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers took victory against the Kansas City Chiefs with Tom Brady winning his 7th Superbowl championship. However (along with all sporting events currently) this year’s NFL was far from normal. Though the stadium was permitted a live audience of 25,000 socially-distanced fans, cut-outs of 30,000 fans were also fixed to seats to create the illusion of a full house.
The drama of Superbowl 55 was the gift that kept giving, the audience in the stadium and at home throughout the country and the world were not short of being entertained. From a streaker to live poetry and performances from some of the biggest stars (with some even paying to perform). We also cannot forget the memes that followed on Twitter and Instagram.
Advertising spots for the big game usually goes like hot cakes but like many other things, it suffered the effects of the pandemic. It took the CBS network, 2 more months than usual to officially sell out spots at a $5.5 million price tag for a 30 second spot. This year’s game, showed between 80-100 ads and advertising time totalled 50 minutes. The adverts ranged from the weird to the wonderfully and somewhat confusing. From a “fairy godmayo” to Bud Light Avengers and even John Travolta on TikTok. We have complied the top 5 that were the topic of discussion on social:
They’ve been on everyone’s lips and google search, Reddit chose a 5 second ad slot to celebrate what was the most unexpected financial shakeup-up to start the year – the Gamestop vs Wallstreet.
Amazon’s Alexa
The company that undoubtably continues to win despite the pandemic. Alexa came to life in the form of Michael B Jordan, the possibilities of AI are endless.
Squarespace – Working 5 to 9
The script was flipped on Dolly Parton’s classic hit song, directed by Oscar winner Damien Chazelle, the website building platform chose to encourage entrepreneurs to pursue their passions.
Rockstar energy drink
Rapper Lil Baby encourages hustlers to follow their dreams with Rockstar energy.
#FinishStrong – Ford
“Soon we’ll be what we were – touching, loving, living” – Ford showed support to the ongoing pandemic efforts and the fight against coronavirus whilst encouraging viewers to donate towards PPE for underserved communities and designing of new products to protect from the virus.
As the pandemic continues, more brands and partners of sporting events must look to weird and more wonderful ways to connect to their audiences.
The beauty of reactive Marketing, is it allows fluidity to the approach to do exactly that.
