Well…it’s almost here. The big game. The time when it’s great to be in advertising because the whole world is watching to see who delivers the year’s best Super Bowl ad. This year, a 30 second ad in the Super Bowl will cost about $4.5 million. That’s right, $4.5 million or $150,000 per second. When you are paying that much for airtime, your spot better be good.
Since we aren’t actually working on any spots for this year’s game (hopefully that will change next year), I thought it would be fun to have our team vote on their favorite spots throughout the years. With over 100 folks, most under the age of 30, I was interested to see the results because a lot of iconic spots such as Apple’s famous 1984 ad introducing the Mac aired long before a lot of our folks were even born. And, I was not disappointed. The winners are interesting and show that our team places a premium on originality, emotion and humor. Here are the winners:
Third Place – Coke’s Mean Joe Green. This was a surprisingly strong vote getter, just edging out Snickers Betty White commercial. Coke’s iconic spot aired during the 1980 Super Bowl. It was created by McCann-Erickson who won a Clio award for their work. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xffOCZYX6F8.
Second Place – Volkswagen’s The Force. Clearly one of the most memorable TV spots of all time, this iconic ad was created by Donny Deutsch and produced by Lucas Films. Not only was this spot a great success during the Super Bowl, it is on pace to become one of the most-watched viral ads of all times with over 49 million views. http://youtu.be/R55e-uHQna0
First Place – Budweiser Frogs. Leave it to the Brandon crew to pick a weird one as the winner. This was far and away the highest vote getter. This spot first aired in 1995 and was so successful that a study in San Francisco at the time found that children were more likely to recognize the Budweiser frogs than Smokey the Bear.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVcbasIb8lQ
Other top vote getters were:
Snickers Betty White http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4WorCP_D9s
Dodge Ram God Made a Farmer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMw67cBUsQk
Wendy’s Where’s The Beef http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ug75diEyiA0
Budweiser Clydesdales Brotherhood http://youtu.be/T4HV__P2I1I
Pepsi Cindy Crawford https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKN77NjWXxg&feature=youtu.be
What classics will this year’s big game bring us? We’ll find out tonight. And we’ll let you know what we think in the next few days.
In the meantime, let us know what is your favorite Super Bowl ad of all time in the comments below.
Scott Brandon
Chief Executive Officer
With the mind of an entrepreneur and a heart for innovation, Scott has grown The Brandon Agency into a Southeastern powerhouse with over 100 employees in four offices across the U.S. As a highly sought-after strategist and business-minded visionary, he has helped develop and grow brands such as YETI Coolers, Southern Tide, CresCom Bank, Williams Knife Co. and Fish Hippie. Always on the forefront of technology, Scott was the first to develop opt-in email database capture strategies using customer relationship management tools for stronger capture rates on conversions. Although he has an endless passion for marketing, Scott is happiest when he is outdoors hunting and fishing with his family.