Invitation to Super Bowl Smackdown: Crowning of the Ad

With Super Bowl 53 around the corner, it’s time to talk about what really matters to millions of marketers across the nation: the commercials. As the Patriots and Rams battle it out on the biggest stage in the NFL, big named companies are also ready to fight for our attention. Big brands like Doritos, Budweiser, and Pepsi are all gearing up to put their best foot forward to be among the best and most memorable commercials this year. After all, CBS is selling their covenant thirty-second commercial slots for an average of five million dollars.

Although we can’t quite predict all of the ads we are going to see February 3rd, we can take a look into last year to see what commercials we’re still thinking about a year later. Check out these fan favorite from Super Bowl 52 that will get you excited for the commercials to come.

 

1. Dilly Dilly – Bud Light

The series of Bud Light commercials rolled out during the 2017 football season and continued its success during last year’s Super Bowl. A Game of Thrones universe and a catchphrase that spread like wildfire helped to create one of the most memorable commercials of the 2018 Super Bowl. While Philadelphia fans lived by Dilly Dilly, other cities weren’t big fans. Regardless of how fans felt, touchdowns are still greeted with shouts of Dilly Dilly from the stands.

 

2. Alexa Loses Her Voice – Amazon

After Amazon’s Alexa loses her voice, CEO Jeff Bezos is forced to kick into a hilarious plan B to keep Alexa working in households across the nation. His backup Alexa voices included celebrities Gordon Ramsay, Cardi B, and Rebel Wilson. These hilarious cameos highlighted the outrageous personalities of these celebrities and how users of Alexa reacted to the voice change. It will be interesting to see how Bezos tops this ad in the coming Super Bowl.

 

3. Touchdown Celebrations to Come – NFL

The NFL has always had some memorable commercials including the recent “Get Ready for the NFL Playoffs” which has been played more times than you can count during the recent weeks. But who can forget last year’s commercial featuring Eli Manning and his less than graceful touchdown celebration? You can’t help but laugh watching Manning and Odell Beckham Jr. practice an elaborate touchdown celebration dance. (Yes, they even complete the dance number with the iconic Dirty Dancing lift)

 

4. Good Odds – Toyota

With the Super Bowl aligning with the time of the 2018 Winter Olympics, Toyota produced a tear-jerking, memorable ad centered around the Canadian Alpine skier, Lauren Woolstencroft. Instead of focusing on the performance of their vehicles, Toyota took you through the hardships Woolstencroft faced to get to where she is today caused by her missing limbs. The advertisement poses a powerful message of accomplishing your impossible, no matter the circumstances.

 

5. Stand By You – Budweiser

Perhaps the most emotional advertisement of Super Bowl 52 came from Budweiser’s “Stand By You” commercial. The 60-second advertisement shows the Budweiser brand giving back to places across the nation that were impacted by natural disasters including Texas, California, Puerto Rico, and Florida. The entire commercial is filmed only using Budweiser employees to convey the reality of their story. According to Ricardo Marquez, VP of marketing, the Cartersville brewery site has provided more than 79 million cans of clean drinking water to devastated cities in the past 30 years.

With so many great ads from Super Bowl 52, we can’t wait to see what is in store for the 2019 Super Bowl. AdWeek is already starting to track what we are going to be seeing in the coming weeks. Big celebrities are lined up including Chance the Rapper, Serena Williams, and Kristin Chenoweth.

Are you a super fan of the Super Bowl commercials? We invite you to join us on February 6th for our annual Super Bowl Smackdown! We’ll be debating the best and worst commercials of Super Bowl 53 during an expert panel discussion. So gear up for the biggest day of the advertising year, and get ready to engage, vote, and debate on your favorites of the year!