Whether you watch the super bowl for the football, the commercials or the halftime show there's no denying how many people watch and talk about the super bowl after it happens.
Each year I breakdown the super bowl commercials so we can all learn the marketing lessons that these companies pay millions of dollars for! Let's do this!
If you don’t follow me on Instagram, you might not know this about me but I was PUMPED for this year's Super Bowl Halftime Show. And I’m here to tell you that it didn’t disappoint!
Dr. Dre
Snoop Dogg
Mary J Blige
Eminem
Kendrick Lamar
And…..50 Cent literally dropped in too!
>> Click here to watch the entire Halftime Show
Every song immediately brought me back to either high school or college days. It’s amazing how music can do that. I could practically smell the old, dingy cars that my friends and I drove in high school. *Note: we loved all of our dingy cars because it gave us independence AND hilarious stories of breaking down, water leaks in sunroofs and so many more!
In my opinion, the Halftime Show won the Super Bowl this year! No contest!
But the Halftime Show wasn’t the only thing throwin’ it back this year - there were several throwback commercials too!
Jim Carey made a comeback with a Cable Guy commercial
Austin Powers came back in a General Motors ad
And I learned that they are making a show called “Bel Air” – yes, a remake of Fresh Prince of Bel Air
And speaking of commercials, it’s time for my favorite thing! Super Bowl Commercial Breakdown!!!! So let’s do it!
Cost of air time during the Super Bowl:
6.5 million for 30 seconds
Hot Topics In 2022 Super Bowl Commercials:
Cars - from Toyota (a major Super Bowl sponsor) to BMW, there were tons of auto commercials! Several of them were for electric vehicles. The throwback one in this category was General Motors with Austin Powers.
Crypto Currency - whether you like this topic or not, it was a big one during the super bowl. The most notable was Coinbase that used a QR code (more on this further down!)
TV Streaming Services - this was a hot topic for sure! Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max were all in the mix but nothing more than Peacock. NBC’s streaming service is Peacock so it’s no surprise that since they were showing the Super Bowl that we also saw a lot of their streaming service ads too! You gotta promote your own stuff! I get it!
Laughs In 2022 Super Bowl Commercials:
Amazon - they had a commercial about Alexa being a mind reader that was pretty dang funny! It stars Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost who are married in real life and this commercial shows a funny side of them.
Rocket Mortgage - Anna Kendrick and Barbie star in this one and it’s a hilarious take on how crazy the housing market is right now. This one had me giggling! I also learned in this ad that Barbie now has elbows and knees now…I had no clue this happened!
Quickbooks - their ad for entrepreneurs had me laughing for sure! (more on this further down)
Most Creative 2022 Super Bowl Commercial:
Coinbase
That QR code was genius! For a solid 20 seconds all you saw on the screen was a QR code bouncing around the screen. The first words out of my mouth were “look at the QR code makin’ a comeback!”. The first thing out of my hubby’s mouth was “watch this”, then he walked to the TV and opened his camera to see what the QR code took him too. And he wasn’t the only one! So many people did this that the Coinbase website crashed. Now that is an effective ad! And they did one other thing right too – they made sure the QR code hit the corner of the screen. *Shout out to that special episode of The Office where they all see it happen!
Marketing Why: it tapped into curiosity. People wanted to know what the heck the commercial was about. With no brand name, no text, and no indication of what the ad was about, it made LOTS of people curious. Curious enough to take action! That’s the perfect amount of curiosity!!
Most Heartfelt 2022 Super Bowl Commercial:
Cox
They promoted their Hug Project with a special story about two brothers who haven’t seen one another in 20 years. Cox provided them a device that allowed them to feel a hug from the other brother. Amazing! It had everyone watching and secretly wiping away tears for sure.
Marketing Why: it tapped into emotions and helping others. This commercial had absolutely ZERO to do with Cox services. They didn’t promote how fast their internet is or how great their customer service is. They figured out a way to help people and they showcased how the internet can do that. In a time where there are so many hurting people, companies that are willing to invest in giving back to those people will go further than all the fancy features they could list.
Most Applicable 2022 Super Bowl Commercial For Entrepreneurs!
Quickbooks
Oh this was a good one! It combined a fun song (“All I do is win” by DJ Khaled), hilarious delivery (karaoke), and a powerful message (“never lose confidence in how you run your business”). It had us laughing and then ended with the feeling of “yeah!” as an entrepreneur. The message of “Never lose confidence in how you run your business” is a powerful one and one that ALL entrepreneurs need reminders of on a regular basis.
Marketing Why: it tapped into the mindset of their customer. Sure Quickbooks can help anyone with their financial reporting but with an influx of new businesses over the past few years plus the demographics of the super bowl, they knew who to target: Entrepreneurs. From there, they identified a struggle they have: lack of confidence in how they run/grow their business. Yep, every entrepreneur, not just yoga teachers, feel this! And Quickbooks believes this so much that they spent several million dollars to talk about it!
AMANDA MCKINNEY'S 2022 SUPER BOWL COMMERCIAL WINNER:
Google Pixel 6
They 100% win in my book for best commercial. They identified a problem and communicated it brilliantly! If there has ever been a commercial that I could relate my teaching to, this would be it!
Marketing Why: it tapped into the shining light on the problem and then the solution. In.That.Order. It didn’t talk about features, bells and whistles at all. You can tell that this company sat in a room with many different people to identify a true problem of their customers and then figured out how to fix it. In this 30 second commercial they identified the struggle through highlighting specific stories and examples and then shared their solution to the problem. It was so clear, so compelling, so impactful. Winner!
Bonus Marketing Why: it tapped into current events. Google did a phenomenal job at ensuring that everyone watching knows they stand for diversity. They didn’t just show some text on a screen, they invested time, energy and lots of money into identifying a problem that people of color deal with and even more time, energy and money identifying a solution to that problem. Actions speak louder than words and they realized that and took action. And yes, they highlighted this action in a commercial to sell their product as they should! How else would we know the solution to this problem exists?!
Bonus Bonus Marketing Why: it tapped into a narrow focused topic (aka: niche). They didn’t highlight a problem that all people struggle with. They highlighted a problem that people of color struggle with and they called attention to that struggle. They showed examples and you could hear the voices of people sharing their experiences. This immediately brought those people closer to the commercial because they felt “they get me” as they watched. This is the power of niching!
Way to go Google! I’m a super loyal Apple user so to get me to pay attention to a Google phone ad is a biggie. You win! 100% GREAT marketing! Excuse me while I go back to using Google Drive and all my Google products in my business!
