Hall Media attended this year’s PAMA Super Bowl Smackdown at Dave and Buster’s in Philly. We sat through the top ten commercials, according to SpotBowl.com (one of many lists out there) and the comments of panelists Mike Malo of the Philadelphia Eagles, Chris Williams, CMO of Bill Me Later, commercial composer Wendell Hanes and Marvin Davis, the founder of Mode Enterprises.
The top 10 spots were a disappointing cull from an even more disappointing year, but we tried to make sense of what it all meant given the state of the economy and the consumer mindset this year.
There are only 2 reasons to pay $30 million for a slot on the Super Bowl:
1. You’ve got a new product or idea so big that you want to launch it to the most eyeballs possible (97.5m viewers this year — the most watched Super Bowl ever) and take advantage of the after-buzz.
Sadly, nobody’s launching anything in this economy. Too risky.
2. You want to tie into the game and bask in the glow of an All-American tradition. (In spite of what some say, the audience tunes in to watch the Super Bowl — not the commercials.)
As the Eagles’ Mike Malo pointed out, NOT ONE of the top 10 paid any deference to football. We might as well have been watching Wimbledon Tennis.
So what did America vote for? Lots of “safe” tradition, laid on by Bud’s 3 Clydesdale and Coke’s 2 “Open Happiness” spots. Add in Pedigree’s “Get a Dog” and fully 60% of the list were warm, fuzzy, “Comfort Commercials”. Somethng to turn to in tough times.
Although Pedigree gets extra points from us for having a good web tie-in. Over 2 million have watched the online videos or downloaded iPhone barks — which means 2 million bowls of dog food donated to shelters. But $30 mil for a public service campaign? How much dog food would that buy?
We had a couple of favorites that didn’t make the list: Alex Baldwin taking over the world with hulu.com, and Hyundai taking on the high-end European and Japanese automakers — and winning. Not great. But good and gutsy.
To check out the favorites and contenders for yourself, visit SpotBowl.com!
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