The marketer that typically buys the most commercial time during the Super Bowl each year has ambitious plans for the game this year, which include pitches for two new products.
Anheuser-Busch, the division of Anheuser-Busch InBev that is usually the biggest advertiser on the Super Bowl, is buying four and a half minutes of commercial time from CBS, which will broadcast Super Bowl XLVII on Feb. 3.
Neither Anheuser-Busch nor CBS will discuss the purchase price. Estimates are that each 30-second spot in the game is going for an average of $3.7 million to $3.8 million, with some, according to CBS, costing more than $4 million apiece.
Anheuser-Busch also pays a fee to be the exclusive beer sponsor during each Super Bowl. That is why viewers do not see other beer brands during the game nationally; some brewers will try to circumvent that by buying spots during station breaks on local stations.
And Anheuser-Busch is also spending additional money with CBS to run commercials during the live streaming of the game, which the network plans to offer at cbssports.com.
All the commercials shown during the broadcast of the game, including those from Anheuser-Busch, will be available on demand in the player immediately after they appear on TV. There will also be some online-only ads that will not turn up on television.
The four and a half minutes that Anheuser-Busch is buying during the game is the same amount of time that it purchased last year, for Super Bowl XLVI. And like last year, the company intends to run six commercials in those four and a half minutes.
The lineup of products, however, will be different this year. Last year, Anheuser-Busch ran two commercials for a new beer, Bud Light Platinum; two commercials for Budweiser; and two commercials for Bud Light.
This time around, there will be one commercial for Budweiser, two for Bud Light and three for two new beers: Budweiser Black Crown, which is to be pitched in two commercials, and Beck’s Sapphire, which will get one spot.
It can be risky to try to introduce products during the Super Bowl because of all the marketing clamor on Super Bowl Sunday. Partying viewers, for instance, may be distracted and not paying full attention to the spots. So some marketers prefer to run commercials for brands that are already familiar.
But the decision last year to introduce Bud Light Platinum during Super Bowl XLVI paid off “extraordinarily,” Paul D. Chibe, vice president for United States marketing at Anheuser-Busch in St. Louis, said in an interview on Thursday in Midtown Manhattan.
“We achieved our awareness objectives much more quickly than we anticipated,” Mr. Chibe said, through the Super Bowl spots and a social media campaign that complemented those commercials, which included the hashtag #MakeItPlatinum.
The fact that so many people tuning in the Super Bowl “are there to watch the commercials” makes it a unique place for introducing products, Mr. Chibe said, particularly beers, given that the game was “the largest beer occasion” last year.
As a result, “we have a special relevance in the game,” he added.
Mr. Chibe declined to discuss the six commercials in detail, describing them as still in production. He did, however, share some information about them.
The commercial for Budweiser, being created by a New York agency, Anomaly, that is part of MDC Partners, will run 60 seconds and feature the brand’s well-known Clydesdales.
The plot is centered on “a young Clydesdale horse and its relationships,” Mr. Chibe said, and is in the “heartwarming” vein.
The two commercials for Bud Light, each 60 seconds, are being created by another New York agency, Translation. They will serve as the culmination of a campaign, which has run during the 2012-13 football season, that is centered on the superstitious behavior of fans who will “do anything for their team to win,” Mr. Chibe said.
The two spots will be based in New Orleans, he added, where Super Bowl XLVII is to be played, and be “Super Bowl-centric.”
The two commercials for Budweiser Black Crown, each 30 seconds, are also being created by Anomaly. A hashtag, #TasteThis, is being disseminated as part of the social media campaign that will accompany the commercials, Mr. Chibe said.
Finally, the commercial for Beck’s Sapphire, also 30 seconds long, is being created by a London agency, Mother. The approach will reflect how the brand is being “launched with the name of a rare jewel,” Mr. Chibe said, and treated “like a jeweler would launch a rare jewelry brand.”
The commercial will be “visually different,” Mr. Chibe promised, as viewers will “see that sapphire glow” and the black Beck’s Sapphire bottle.
“It’s going to be cool,” he added. “We expect it to break through.”
Anheuser-Busch has long been a Super Bowl mainstay along with movie studios like Disney, Paramount and Universal and marketers that include Coca-Cola, GoDaddy, Hyundai, Mars, PepsiCo, Toyota and Volkswagen.
Article source: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/11/anheuser-busch-will-tout-two-new-products-in-super-bowl-xlvii-ads/?partner=rss&emc=rss
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