Superbowl 2022: When CPG meets Hollywood

As CPG and Retail enthusiasts, we were extra excited about this year’s Superbowl. Why? Firstly, with over 100 million people tuned in, Superbowl is a consumer company’s most significant opportunity for creating awareness and buzz around their brand. Secondly, we are excited because this year’s finalists- Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals, represented cities that stand for what Superbowl stands for us- entertainment and ads. Of course, Los Angeles is the world’s capital of entertainment, and Cincinnati is home to P&G, the largest advertiser in the world. Lastly, we were excited to track how the brands’ reflection of consumer behavior at the time of the second Superbowl of the pandemic matched up with our own longitudinal study that aims to measure changes in consumer mindset over the course of the pandemic.

And so, we set out on our little ad-venture to capture the Pandemic 2.0 themes.

But first, let’s rewind to Pandemic 1.0

Last year was all about marketing to an audience feeling stressed out from a year-long pandemic and political division. Brands were equally stressed out with their messaging strategy trying to take a cautious approach in striking a balance between going too far vs. playing it safe. Like Pepsi and Coke, some companies decided to stay out, while some, like Anheuser Busch, directed their ad spend to create vaccine awareness. The rest that went with airing their ads chose to reflect the zeitgeist of the time by showing people wearing masks, practicing social distancing, or even on video calls. Overall in Superbowl 2021, the brands stuck to a tone ranging from somber and reflective to subtly humorous (e.g., 2020 was a lemon of a year) without overdoing the covid theme.

Fast-forwarding to today

In stark contrast to last year, tonight’s Superbowl ads were a lot more adventurous with embracing humor, almost to the extent of being borderline controversial. They struck a cheerful, positive, and optimistic tone, focusing on an active lifestyle, health, wellness, and sustainability. Some ads tried to divert our attention from the current to focus on the future. In terms of shifts in consumer behavior that we set out to capture, we saw them captured in four broad themes.

Theme 1: People want to laugh again

Humor is back. Brand’s didn’t seem to fear going too far this year. Below are our favorite ads that captured the theme.

• Everyone is a VIP: Sam’s Club, in their first Superbowl commercial, promoted their ‘Scan & Go’ feature in which Kevin Hart mistakenly believes he is getting a VIP treatment only to realize everyone is being treated the same
• Uber Don’t Eats: Uber Eats came up with a hilarious ad where Jennifer Coolidge (Stifler’s mom from American Pie), Gwyneth Paltrow, and Trevor Noah are confused to see Uber Eats delivering non-food items like makeup, deodorant, and a candle- yet they go ahead and eat them anyway
• What-if Alexa could read minds: Amazon poked fun at themselves through their Alexa ad featuring real-life couple Scarlett Johansson and SNL star Colin Jost that proceeds to examine the pitfalls of what the couple’s interactions would be like if Alexa were indeed a mind reader
• Mask or no mask: Hormel’s Planters made light of divisions in America over a relatively minor difference of opinion: do you eat mixed nuts one at a time or mixed together by the handful?

Theme 2: We can recover and get back stronger

Consumers get it that the pandemic is still not over. We are still seeing supply chain disruptions, inflation, and labor shortages. But they don’t want to let that stop them from getting up and moving forward. Some of the below ads captured that sentiment well.

• In the land of brave, down doesn’t mean out: Budweiser, after a year of sitting it out, came back with an inspirational message of strength and resilience through the Clydesdale that gallops bravely despite being wounded
• Who ‘wants’ a job: Though Coca-Cola continued to opt-out for a second consecutive year, one of their regional bottlers, Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages, aired a regional ad appealing to people to apply for their 200 odd job openings. Given how the CPG industry lost over $19B in revenues due to supply chain disruptions and labor shortages last year, this year might be the first year in the history of the Superbowl to feature a job ad.

Theme 3: We want to get back to an active, healthier, and a sustainable lifestyle

After Omicron flopping at the box office, consumer confidence seems to have soared. They are willing to venture out more while still caring for health and wellness, their’s as well as the planet. Following ads captured the theme best.

• Get back to traveling: Booking.com and Turkish Airlines Pangea debuted on Superbowl, giving us hopes of being able to travel again.
• Beer and bowl: Michelob ran three ads where they promoted an active lifestyle by connecting beer and sports to a sport where they naturally come together- in bowling
• Strength comes in many forms: Danone featured the football legend Delon ‘Coach Prime’ Sanders, his football quarterback son Shedeur Sanders and his mother, pitting ‘Oikos Triple Zero with 15g of protein’ father against the ‘Oikos Pro with 20g of protein’ son in a competition to see who is the strongest, only to see the mom win in a surprise ending
• Holy e-guacamole: Avocados from Mexico aired an interesting ad set in ancient Role with their anachronistically placed avocados finding multiple uses, including on Caesar’s salad. At the same time, they leveraged digital media to drive omnichannel activation with QR codes and shoppable ads on retail media
• Coconut water can cure hangovers: As a challenger brand that couldn’t afford to pay $6.5M for a 30-second spot, Vita Coco showed that they could still compete in the mean world. Taking advantage of the fact that Americans drink 112 million gallons of beer on Superbowl night, they launched a “Hangover Shop” on all major delivery platforms selling hangover recovery kits containing their coconut water (of course!) and Advil, among other things.
• Watch your waste: Unilever’s mayo brand Hellman’s featured former linebacker-now-coach Jerod Mayo and SNL’s Pete Davidson in inspiring people to “tackle” food waste by finding uses for leftover food

Theme 4: Enough of today, let’s shift our attention to the future

Finally, consumers want something to look forward to. They want to look forward to a future that promises many possibilities. We saw brands embrace that theme in some of the below ads.

• The future is electric: BMW, General Motors, Kia, and Nissan showcased their electric cars with BMW featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger as Zeus, the Greek God of lightening, and Nissan featuring Schitt’s Creek’s star Eugene Levy flying a Nissan Z.
• The future is cryptic: Crypto companies like FTX trading and Crypto.com barged into the Superbowl ad showdown to amplify the buzz around the much-talked-about cryptocurrencies. FTX even gave away free bitcoins equal to the exact time in EST at which the ad runs in the game. Coinbase created some buzz by showing a floating QR code for the entire 60 seconds
• The future is animatronic: Sam Adams ad featured a Boston Dynamics robot fetching a beer for “your cousin from Boston”
• The future is metaverse: In an attempt to get young drinkers interested in their newly launched zero carb beer, Bud Light Next portrayed people escaping boring situations, such as a bad date, into the metaverse

Final words

With several macro factors constantly pushing consumer behavior changes, CPG companies need to follow it real-time to take advantage of the opportunity it presents and avoid getting disrupted by smaller and nimbler players. Superbowl ads provide a unique view into how the CMOs are tapping into those insights to create the top-of-funnel brand awareness and demand. It will be interesting to see how those themes translate to downstream functions like innovation, sourcing, manufacturing, supply chain, and sales. We hope to get our answers from the Consumer Analysts Group of New York’s CAGNY 2022 conference later this month. Stay tuned.

Oh, and congratulations, Rams. Along with the consumers, you won the Superbowl too.