Tag / Super Bowl

by drey3113

How Snickers Stole the Superbowl

While many watch the Super Bowl to find out which team will come out on top, others seek to find out which advertisement really wins the game. The advertising world is a ruthless battlefield on game day with each company aiming to make the biggest splash in the consumer market. There must be some secret, some play companies that come out on top make. How does a company like Snickers create one of the longest lasting Super Bowl commercials and win the advertising equivalent of the football trophy? This week’s trade publications in Adweek shed some light on that.

This week in Adweek the Super Bowl is the hot topic with the newest ads, how advertising is evolving and how those in the past were able to succeed in creating a lasting impression. Some say that the ad with the funniest skit or the most emotional story brings home the win, but I’ve discovered that it may not be as simple as making the audience laugh with a boy band singing about the newest chips. Gianfranco Arena and Peter Kain explain how Snickers won the game ten times over in 2010.

Who knew showing an old woman getting tackled would do the trick? Snickers had two main goals for their Super Bowl spot. One was to score high in USA Today’s Ad Meter. The other arguably more important goal was to rejuvenate the brand. They needed something that would not only garner the most attention from the audience but would also establish an identity in the consumer market. While Betty White may not have been the first thing that came to mind when discussing Snickers in 2009, she was able to embody the role of “You’re not you when you’re hungry.” down to a tee. While completely out of her element on the football field being quite a bit far off from the Golden Girls set, she was able to shock the audience by being brought down in typical Super Bowl fashion creating both laughs and a new twist on what hunger really meant.

It was truly enlightening to see how Arena and Kain broke down the methodology of creating the ad. I was amazed discovering how many parts went into creating the Snickers identity other than Betty White getting sacked. It did have a hand in grabbing the attention of the audience though which related to the first step. Starting with a captivating visual moment draws all eyes to the advertisement. From there execution becomes key. The ad may have created a different emotional response had the timing and casting weren’t fleshed out. Also, Arena and Kain emphasized that making the product the hero is essential. Create a problem, in this case hunger, and use the product to solve it by satisfying the need. When a product can satisfy a need while maintaining a unique identity, it is truly successful. The duo said it best. “Just make the most of every second, and you can still be the talk of the game.”

— Darian Arriaga

For more information, take a look at Arena and Kain’s article How Snickers Transformed A Basic Biological Need Into Super Bowl Success Adweek volume 60.

by cassidymizell1

Did Tom Brady Deflate Your Diet?

Photo Courtesy of Julio Cortez via AP

The Super Bowl is one of the biggest days of eating in America. In fact, a conservative estimate suggests that people eat, on average, 2,400 calories from start to finish. Super Bowl spreads are saturated with pizza, wings, dips, and everything for the “big game”. However, research suggest that, for some people, the binging does not end on Sunday.

This week in The Salt, Maria Godoy explores a study by Rachel Herz of Brown University that suggests that the team people root for affects how they eat the day after the game.

People who cheered for the losing team are more likely to continue eating unhealthily the following day.  Herz says that the negative emotions people have after a team loses causes them to turn towards foods that trigger endorphins. “Foods that are high fat and high carbohydrate give you dopamine and endorphins and serotonin. And it’s dopamine, in particular, that’s the reward-and-pleasure neurotransmitter. And endorphins actually soothe our pain, both physically and mentally. The higher in fat the food is, the more endorphins you’re going to experience with that.”

Inversely, people whose favorite team won actually make healthier choices on the Monday after the Super Bowl. These people tend to have an adrenaline rush that keeps them from feeling hungry. In Herz words, “It’s akin to when you’re really excited — like when you’re in love, or you’re so excited about what’s going on you sort of forget to eat. From a neuro-chemical perspective, your body is actually feeling the sort of high that you feel like you don’t even need food, so your appetite is reduced.”

So if you blew your diet this week, you can always blame Tom Brady.

-CEM

For more information, check Maria Godoy’s article, “Game Brain Science: How Your Super Bowl Team Plays Can Sway What You Eat”.

For more in food news, check The Salt by NPR.

by camronlunn

This Week in Sports Media

This week in Sports media

This being the week after the Super Bowl, many insights and topics were discussed in the big game. From technology used to enhance viewer experience to the multitude of shows that were stationed in Atlanta just to be in the vicinity of the Super Bowl. All through the game was not up to the general standard of the last few, there are still many insights and takeaways that can be made from the year’s most widely viewed television event. Here are a few articles that give some of the best information.

In the article “CBS’ telecast: Voices make the best of a Super Bowl with little material” David J. Halberstam broke down the ups and downs of the broadcast of the Super Bowl. Halberstam starts out by talking about the horrendous human pile up after the end of the game. Halberstam stated his empathy toward the onfield reporter and her post-game struggles “Poor Tracy. She faded from the picture and her voice was muted. For a while, I wondered whether she got crushed amid the pandemonium.” (Halberstam, para 3) He later gives his opinions about the two broadcasters and even comments on a few ads.

The broadcast of the Super Bowl was lacking and that was only because the game was also lacking. Tony Romo was unable to be as stellar as he usually is since there were only 16 points combined. The hundred people pile up just to get a post-game interview also put even more of a damper on what was an utterly forgettable Super Bowl. The article could have also used a few more statistics like Nielsen Ratings to help readers comprehend the overall audience loss that occurred as the game got progressively less entertaining.