When brand impact is magnified through celebrity: Touchdowns and fumbles in Super Bowl advertising
Neuro-Insight scientist and analyst Felicity Bigelow, PhD, outlines how brands can make the most of celebrity collaborations to have long lasting impact.
Sport helps us to form relationships with others and to feel emotionally, socially, and psychologically connected.
It is therefore not surprising that more than 200 million+ individuals tuned in to watch the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LVII on February 12.
Interestingly, the entertainment and hype surrounding the Super Bowl extends beyond the athletic prowess displayed on the football field. A recent study (Economist/You Gov Poll, 2022) found that 27% of Super Bowl viewers consider the commercials to be their favourite part of the championship event, rather than the game itself. Importantly, this interest continues after the Super Bowl, with brand-related conversations increasing by 22% during the following week (Lovett et al., 2019).
In other words, we see something special in Super Bowl advertisements. This is also reflected in brand performance. Brands that successfully optimise creative and innovative content can effectively position itself for an ongoing campaign throughout 2023. Conversely, brands that miss the mark will be faced with negative ROI and brand perception. It is therefore no surprise that competition and glory extend to branding campaigns.
Whilst the Super Bowl provides a platform for global brand awareness, advertisements need to appeal and be relevant to a wide range of consumers and reflect the broader community. Brands have often appealed to personal relevance by casting celebrities within the advertisement. As a result, we have seen a dramatic increase in star-studded Super Bowl commercials in recent years.
However, celebrities are not the only ingredient required for brand campaign success. Instead, the success of an advertisement is entirely dependent upon understanding how individuals process and engage with the content. Frustratingly for marketers, the vast majority of consumer decisions are made subconsciously. So what separates the winning brand-celebrity pairings from those left bruised and battered?
Positive brand impact: When celebrity pairings optimise nostalgia and humor
There has been a shift over the past decade for brands to embrace story-driven campaigns that step outside the comfort zone. In an increasingly saturated market, brands have the opportunity to differentiate themselves through effective celebrity brand alignment.
Evoking nostalgia and humor through congruent brand-talent alignment has been a successful brand strategy. Nostalgia can tap into strong personal engagement and emotional sentimentality to help captivate the viewer. We see this in the 2018 Google Assistant – Home Alone Again Super Bowl commercial. The voice-commanded assistant pairs perfectly with Macaulay Culkin reprising his role as Kevin McAllister from the iconic 1990 film Home Alone. This commercial successfully tapped into elements of nostalgia by recreating key scenes from the movie with playful humor (see Figure 1).
Figure 1
Iconic Home Alone Scenes from 1990 and 2018 used to evoke nostalgia and humor
Neuro-Insight revisited Home Alone Again to illustrate the correlation between the sensitivity of our metrics and consumer behaviour. An analysis by AdAge’s Acuity Ads revealed that Google’s Home Alone Again campaign was the most viewed holiday ad of 2018. This was reflected in Neuro-Insight results demonstrating strong memory encoding, engagement, and emotional intensity during final branding, with results peaking above the 50th percentile benchmark (see Figure 2).
Figure 2
Strong engagement, emotional intensity, and peak memory encoding during final branding
Overall, this means that the McAllister-Google pairing generated a significantly memorable, personally relevant, and engaging Super Bowl advertisement.
Touchdown: Congruent brand-talent pairs that evoke nostalgia and humor
2023 outlook: It will be interesting to see how Rakuten’s Super Bowl advertisement will fare this year. The savvy shopping app pairs with Alicia Silverstone reprising her role as stylish Cher Horowitz from the iconic mid 1990’s film Clueless (as shown in Figure 3). This commercial utilises a similar strategy to the Google Assistant – Home Alone Again advertisement. Specifically, it builds on brand-celebrity congruency to leverage elements of nostalgia and humor.
Figure 3
Iconic Clueless Scenes from 1995 and 2023 used to evoke nostalgia and humor
Negative brand impact: When celebrity-brand pairings fail to land
Celebrity-brand pairings are great when they work, but there are instances when the pairing is incongruent and distracts from the message. Neuro-Insight revisited Progressive Insurance’s commercial during the 2020 Super Bowl to illustrate the nuanced sensitivity of our metrics.
The campaign begins with a couple discussing insurance with an agent in their living room. In an unexpected move, the advertisement cut to a half-time show within the commercial to showcase US rock band Smash Mouth playing their iconic song ‘All Star’, before abruptly returning to the insurance details. The couple then question where the snack being eaten by the insurance representative is from, as shown in Figure 4. Rather than acknowledging humor through nostalgia and celebrity, the viewer is left confused. Given that insurance campaigns are largely built on trust, this is a major concern for Progressive.
Figure 4
Viewer uncertainty is amplified by the confusion of onscreen characters
The lack of congruency with the 1990-2000s rock band and the insurance company is stark. In a bid to be personally relevant and engaging to the wider viewership, some brand campaigns have failed to effectively include celebrities within their message. Instead of capitalizing on the nostalgia of Smash Mouth, the insurance campaign is left feeling disjointed and confusing.
This disjointed pairing is reflected in weak memory encoding, personal relevance, and emotion during final branding, with average memory encoding performing at the 2nd percentile benchmark (see Figure 5). In other words, this commercial fails to optimise the relationship between celebrity and nostalgia to strengthen its brand message. Instead, it just leaves us confused, and therefore less likely for branding to be encoded in memory.
Figure 5
Ineffective engagement, emotional intensity, and memory encoding during final branding
Overall, this means that the Smash Mouth – Progressive pairing failed to generate a significantly memorable, personally relevant, and engaging Super Bowl advertisement.
Fumble: Incongruent brand-talent pairs that miss the mark on humor and nostalgia
What do these insights say about the Australian landscape?
The Super Bowl effectively illustrates how brands can optimise position and awareness through a sporting event. Brands that outperform their competitors by effectively conveying their message in a sporting championship stand to benefit enormously. As illustrated by the Super Bowl, the opportunity for Australian brands to capitalize on national sporting events in 2023 through congruent celebrity-brand alignment is immense. However, determining the campaign effectiveness can be counterintuitive, as what works for one brand campaign might not work for another.
Australian brands can capitalise on content clarity to maximise campaign impact by firstly ensuring compatibility between talent and brand message. Following this congruency between brand and talent, campaigns can build on personal relevance and emotional intensity to create memorable branding.
Understanding the drivers of subconscious consumer behaviour is crucial for the unique Australian market. This will allow for brands to play on nostalgia and the dry irreverence of Aussie humor for effective brand positioning. We are a country that celebrates sport for its determination, sentimentality, strategic brilliance, and community. Neuro-Insight believes that Australian brand campaigns should be a part of this celebration too.
Felicity Bigelow, PhD, is a scientist and analyst at Neuro-Insight.
Nice one Flick!
User ID not verified.