Budweiser and Doritos were the uncontested winners in last night’s Ad Bowl, as measured by USAToday (popularity), Brand Bowl (social media buzz) and Katz Marketing Solutions (effectiveness). Both brands had two exceptional spots (Budweiser: Puppy Love and Hero’s Welcome; Doritos: Cowboy Kid and Time Machine) that nailed all the essentials of great advertising: enhances brand equity, persuasive, resonates with the target audience, compelling main message, brand integral to the story, and the Super Bowl ‘wow’ factor for entertainment. Doritos spots were particularly outstanding – the story line is the quest for the coveted product.
Kudos to several highly effective campaigns that clearly communicated a persuasive sales message (oh – – remember that?) such as Radio Shack (visit our contemporary stores), T-Mobile (no contract carrier), and Volkswagen (durability). These are the companies most likely to reap the best returns on their +$4 million per ad Super Bowl investments.
While the lovable animals remain timeless, increasingly grating are the formulaic ‘sex sells’ ads, sorely lacking in reasons to prefer their brands. Sure, they ‘made ya look,” but we doubt H&M, Oikos, or SodaStream need to run out and up their production forecasts.
Lastly, we applaud two brands’ continued respect for diversity: Cheerios and Coca-Cola. While Coke’s song choice and multilingual approach pushed the edge with some consumers (a fairly low 57% positive sentiment score), it placed an enviable #5 on BrandBowl’s social media ranking with +33,000 tweets.
As for the worst: the cringe worthy attempts to be funny, contemporary and cool. Better luck next year Wonderful Pistachios, GoDaddy, and Beats Music.
Here are the winners (and worst) from three marketing mavens – USAToday’s AdMeter (panel popularity), Pointslocal and Boston.com’s Brand Bowl (twitter volume and sentiment), and Katz Marketing Solutions (effectiveness).
Best:
1. Budweiser (“Puppy Love”)
2. Doritos (“Cowboy Kid”)
3. Budweiser (“Hero’s Welcome”)
4. Doritos (“Time Machine”)
5. Radio Shack (“Phone Call”)
Worst: BudLight “Cool Twist.” Good reminder that great advertising requires risk taking.
Pointslocal and Boston.com’s BrandBowl
1. Budweiser
2. Doritos
3. Cheerios
4. Pepsi
5. Coke
Katz Marketing Solutions
1. Budweiser (“Puppy Love”)
2. Doritos (“Cowboy Kid”)
3. Doritos (“Time Machine”)
4. Cheerios (“Gracie”)
5. Radio Shack (“Phone Call”)
Worst: GoDaddy
Filed under: Advertising Effectiveness, Brand Management, Brand Relevance, Diversity, Integrated Marketing Communication Tagged: ad campaigns, Advertising Effectiveness, Anheuser Busch, Beats Music, brand image, Brand Relevance, BrandBowl, branding, brands, budweiser, cheerios, Coca-Cola, Coke, Doritos, GoDaddy, katz, Katz Marketing, katz marketing solutions, marketing, oikos, Pepsi, Radio Shack, Super Bowl Ads, Super Bowl XLVIII ads, T-Mobile, tammy katz, Volkswagen, Wonderful Pistachios
