Part-Time MBA student, Maria Massad, fills us in on the insights and frameworks she learned through Superbowl ads at a recent Kilts Center for Marketing event.
The Super Bowl is one of the biggest events of the year for marketers. With commercials designed to be larger-than-life with multimillion-dollar budgets and celebrity endorsements peppering the screen, the Super Bowl gives advertisers attention they wouldn’t receive otherwise. Even though this event happens just once a year, there are many storytelling lessons to be had here. The learnings from dissecting how the marketing industry ideates, strategizes, and executes Super Bowl ads are timeless and applicable to any marketing campaign.
As a marketing professional, it’s my job to tell compelling stories about products that compel buyers to action so the company can grow profitably and make a positive difference in consumers’ lives. I currently work at G2, a tech startup, and my role is to refresh the brand, content, and campaigns for our SaaS management platform, G2 Track. At the moment, a Super Bowl ad is probably not in the cards for increasing awareness of this tool (though never say never), but the structures and frameworks we discussed at the event “Deconstructing the Big Event,” hosted by the full-time Marketing Group and the Kilts Center for Marketing, are applicable to any marketer’s work.
During the event, Julie Rubin, ’15, Marketing Director, Audience Strategy & Activation at PepsiCo, spoke to the group about her experiences creating memorable Super Bowl ads for PepsiCo. She stressed the importance of devising a powerful hook for the audience to generate buzz across social platforms and media. We then discussed specific Super Bowl ads with marketing professor Christopher Krohn, ’97, and assessed their effectiveness at building their brand’s positioning. Did the ad reinforce or reposition the brand image to a mass audience? How did the ad power a social or even viral campaign? Would the ad’s target demographic enjoy and remember the ad?
The main theme from both speakers was that deeply understanding customer psychology and motivations is key to creating a moment that will resonate emotionally. These emotions aren’t as simple as happy or sad. “Awe is one of the most powerful emotions you can generate as a marketer,” Krohn said. Showing how much better life can be with a product, and tying that to an emotional payoff can ground any advertisement and launch it to success online. In the brand and messaging that I’m crafting for G2 Track, I’ll be sure to tap into buyers’ emotions and target the ‘aha!’ moment in our overarching story to improve market awareness, increase memorability, and achieve our company objectives.
I’m looking forward to next year’s discussion of Super Bowl ads to learn new storytelling techniques that leave an audience captivated and hooked on trying the product. I would recommend the event to any student interested in upping their game (pun intended) in storytelling, creative ad execution, and branding, in addition to those looking to transition to a career in entertainment or sports.
Evening MBA Student
Maria Massad