America is a diverse place, with a wide diversity of opinions on what it means to be an American. As Coke is quickly finding out. The brand's touching It's Beautiful Super Bowl spot, which featured a multiethnic cast of characters singing America the Beautiful in English and lots of other languages, didn't go over well with some viewers.
Esurance is doing a fun little stunt tonight that should get some attention. The online insurance company has bought the first commercial slot after the the final whistle of the Super Bowl. The company says that cost $1.5 million less than running an in-game execution—and it's using the ad to announce a Twitter sweepstakes in which it will give that money away to a lucky viewer who tweets the hashtag #EsuranceSave30.
Veteran sales executive Keith Lorizio is out at Microsoft. The company has not provided a reason for his ouster. But according to sources, Lorizio's departure was not voluntary, and was immediate. Lorizio has been with Microsoft since 2006. Microsoft issued the following statement: "We can confirm that Keith Lorizio, vp of U.S. sales for Microsoft Advertising, is no longer with the company. Barry Dougan, gm of global specialist sales, will assume interim leadership of the U.S. ad sales organization while we conduct a rigorous and thoughtful search for a permanent replacement.
Everyone has an opinion on the Super Bowl commercials. Now, you have a place where can grade every one of them—with a single click. Adweek is launching a special site for Sunday's Super Bowl where we will be giving each spot a letter grade (from A+ to F) shortly after it airs. And we'll be asking you to do the same. You'll be able to see all the commercials in one place, too. The submissions will be averaged to give an overall reader grade, which will sit right next to Adweek's official grade—so you'll be able to see how much you as a group enjoyed each ad, versus how much we did.
Most businesses can only dream of growing big enough one day to advertise in the Super Bowl. So when an 18-month-old startup finds itself running an ad in the game for free, there's no playbook to plan what happens next. Game maker GoldieBlox recently won Intuit's "Small Business Big Game" promotion, which promised a 30-second ad valued at $4 million in this Sunday's Super Bowl.
Pepsi famously dialed back its volume of TV ads for this year's Super Bowl to focus on its sponsorship of the halftime show. Here's the ad from Mekanism that will run right before the halftime show begins. It shows New York City springing to life with music, with its landmarks serving as instruments. NYC is such a rich, inspiring place for this kind of approach. Nothing revolutionary, but a nice little opening number for Bruno Mars.
The King of Beers also rules the Super Bowl. According to Nielsen, Anheuser-Busch was the top spender in the last five Super Bowls, ponying up $149 million between 2009-2013. That the maker of Budweiser and Bud Light is the biggest backer of the NFL championship tilt isn’t at all surprising; on average, the brewer scoops up four-and-a-half minutes of airtime, mixing it up with 30- and 60-second executions.
Lorde is a humble, homegrown New Zealand star, and she's taken out a full-page ad in the New Zealand Herald to make sure everyone back home knows she hasn't forgotten that.
As those $4 million, 30-second ads flash across flatscreen TVs this Super Bowl Sunday, brands that bet big on the final NFL game of the season will be more focused on what is happening on millions of small smartphone, tablet and laptop screens across the nation.
