ILS1
02-06-2006, 04:45 PM
Anheuser-Busch's beer sales might be falling flat, but its Super Bowl advertising certainly isn't.
For a record eighth-consecutive year, the beer kingpin topped all marketers with the top-rated commercial in USA TODAY's exclusive Ad Meter real-time consumer focus group ranking of the Super Bowl commercials. (Chart: How all the ads ranked)
The star of the No. 1 ad: a refrigerator stocked with Bud Light with the ability to disappear to keep unwelcome guests from grabbing the brew. The fridge disappears via a revolving wall that, unbeknownst to the fridge's owner, spins it into the adjoining apartment. (Video: Winning Bud Light ad)
For the guys next door, it becomes the "magic fridge" - an idol to be worshipped.
Another A-B ad finished second: a heart-tugger about a young Clydesdale that dreams of pulling the Budweiser beer wagon. (Video: Budweiser Clydesdale ad)
A-B aired six of the top 10 ads, but had plenty of competition this year. A funny FedEx ad about a cave man trying - but failing - to send the first FedEx delivery via dinosaur finished third. (Video: FedEx cave man ad)
A Sierra Mist ad with comedian Kathy Griffin as an airport security worker who "beeps" to get a passenger's Sierra Mist, finished fourth. (Video: Sierra Mist ad)
A-B led the field without being crass. By some measures, this was the Slightly More Tasteful Bowl. The A-B ads that finished in the top three didn't feature sex, undue violence or locker-room humor.
"In the past, a lot of beer ads were about sex and pretty women," says Carli Weber, 22, a Mesa, Ariz., resident who sells fragrances at a Dillard's department store. "But these are funnier; they reach a broader audience - they reach everybody."
Not that this will get her to drink Bud. The former bartender is a Miller Lite loyalist. "I'll drink that no matter what's advertised," she says. "I don't think people change (brands) easily."
A-B was trying, though. "We listened more closely to our male and female drinkers," says Marlene Coulis, vice president of brand management at Anheuser-Busch. "We're continually raising the bar on humor, and you find you can deliver humor and tell our stories in many different ways."
For ad entertainment, tasteful isn't always better, however. It can also mean, well, slightly boring.
Although this was billed as Super Bowl XL (extra large), beyond the A-B ads, many commercials looked a little small. Small in new ideas. Small in big belly laughs. Small in touching the heart.
Two years after Janet Jackson bared her breast during Super Bowl halftime - and one A-B ad featured a flatulent horse - perhaps the most provocative image to come from Madison Avenue was a naked sheep streaking through a Clydesdale football game for A-B.
Any sex was, at most, suggestive - and not at all visual.
Even the GoDaddy.com commercial, though overtly sexual, actually showed little more than the snapping strap of a buxom woman's tight tank top. The ad t scored poorly with Ad Meter panelists. (Video: GoDaddy.com ad)
An Ameriquest ad showed what appeared to be a partially disrobed woman straddled atop another airplane passenger, but it wasn't what it seemed, and not an inch of inappropriate skin was in view. (Video: Ameriquest ad)
The evening didn't come cheaply for the winners - or losers. Each 30-second time slot cost a record $2.5 million - or $83,333 per second. The cost to air a Super Bowl spot far exceeds the cost to create one - even though some of the special effects-laden ads cost upwards of $1 million to make.
Even then, more than 30 advertisers ponied up.
Perhaps the odds were stacked in A-B's favor. As usual, the beer giant purchased the most ad time. It aired nine ads, including one for the beer industry. That gave it three times more ads than the No. 2 buyer, Pepsi, which aired three spots. Most advertisers purchased only one 30-second slot.
A-B has good reason to advertise on the big game. It remains the nation's biggest brewer, owning 50% of the U.S. beer market. But in 2005, AB's volume sales fell 1.8%, to 101.1 million barrels, and it had an 18% earnings drop, its first annual decline since 1995.
An important Super Bowl first: A purely female-targeted ad for Dove skin products scored unusually high. The result could lead to more marketers targeting female viewers in future Super Bowls.
The Dove commercial promoted self-esteem for young girls who might think they should be thinner, prettier, even blond. The ad scored just outside the Top 10. (Video: Dove ad)
The Dove ad was out of character, in a positive way, for a Super Bowl ad, says Cheryl Levine, 24, a paralegal from Olney, Md. "I think we need more encouragement. Too many people have self-image problems. Why is there so much emphasis on a false notion of what beautiful is?"
Within 10 minutes of the ad airing, 7,000 people logged onto the related website, www.campaignforrealbeauty.com, said Dove marketing head Philippe Harousseau.
Story Link (http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20060206/bs_usatoday/magicfridgeofbudlighticesanadvertisingwin)
For a record eighth-consecutive year, the beer kingpin topped all marketers with the top-rated commercial in USA TODAY's exclusive Ad Meter real-time consumer focus group ranking of the Super Bowl commercials. (Chart: How all the ads ranked)
The star of the No. 1 ad: a refrigerator stocked with Bud Light with the ability to disappear to keep unwelcome guests from grabbing the brew. The fridge disappears via a revolving wall that, unbeknownst to the fridge's owner, spins it into the adjoining apartment. (Video: Winning Bud Light ad)
For the guys next door, it becomes the "magic fridge" - an idol to be worshipped.
Another A-B ad finished second: a heart-tugger about a young Clydesdale that dreams of pulling the Budweiser beer wagon. (Video: Budweiser Clydesdale ad)
A-B aired six of the top 10 ads, but had plenty of competition this year. A funny FedEx ad about a cave man trying - but failing - to send the first FedEx delivery via dinosaur finished third. (Video: FedEx cave man ad)
A Sierra Mist ad with comedian Kathy Griffin as an airport security worker who "beeps" to get a passenger's Sierra Mist, finished fourth. (Video: Sierra Mist ad)
A-B led the field without being crass. By some measures, this was the Slightly More Tasteful Bowl. The A-B ads that finished in the top three didn't feature sex, undue violence or locker-room humor.
"In the past, a lot of beer ads were about sex and pretty women," says Carli Weber, 22, a Mesa, Ariz., resident who sells fragrances at a Dillard's department store. "But these are funnier; they reach a broader audience - they reach everybody."
Not that this will get her to drink Bud. The former bartender is a Miller Lite loyalist. "I'll drink that no matter what's advertised," she says. "I don't think people change (brands) easily."
A-B was trying, though. "We listened more closely to our male and female drinkers," says Marlene Coulis, vice president of brand management at Anheuser-Busch. "We're continually raising the bar on humor, and you find you can deliver humor and tell our stories in many different ways."
For ad entertainment, tasteful isn't always better, however. It can also mean, well, slightly boring.
Although this was billed as Super Bowl XL (extra large), beyond the A-B ads, many commercials looked a little small. Small in new ideas. Small in big belly laughs. Small in touching the heart.
Two years after Janet Jackson bared her breast during Super Bowl halftime - and one A-B ad featured a flatulent horse - perhaps the most provocative image to come from Madison Avenue was a naked sheep streaking through a Clydesdale football game for A-B.
Any sex was, at most, suggestive - and not at all visual.
Even the GoDaddy.com commercial, though overtly sexual, actually showed little more than the snapping strap of a buxom woman's tight tank top. The ad t scored poorly with Ad Meter panelists. (Video: GoDaddy.com ad)
An Ameriquest ad showed what appeared to be a partially disrobed woman straddled atop another airplane passenger, but it wasn't what it seemed, and not an inch of inappropriate skin was in view. (Video: Ameriquest ad)
The evening didn't come cheaply for the winners - or losers. Each 30-second time slot cost a record $2.5 million - or $83,333 per second. The cost to air a Super Bowl spot far exceeds the cost to create one - even though some of the special effects-laden ads cost upwards of $1 million to make.
Even then, more than 30 advertisers ponied up.
Perhaps the odds were stacked in A-B's favor. As usual, the beer giant purchased the most ad time. It aired nine ads, including one for the beer industry. That gave it three times more ads than the No. 2 buyer, Pepsi, which aired three spots. Most advertisers purchased only one 30-second slot.
A-B has good reason to advertise on the big game. It remains the nation's biggest brewer, owning 50% of the U.S. beer market. But in 2005, AB's volume sales fell 1.8%, to 101.1 million barrels, and it had an 18% earnings drop, its first annual decline since 1995.
An important Super Bowl first: A purely female-targeted ad for Dove skin products scored unusually high. The result could lead to more marketers targeting female viewers in future Super Bowls.
The Dove commercial promoted self-esteem for young girls who might think they should be thinner, prettier, even blond. The ad scored just outside the Top 10. (Video: Dove ad)
The Dove ad was out of character, in a positive way, for a Super Bowl ad, says Cheryl Levine, 24, a paralegal from Olney, Md. "I think we need more encouragement. Too many people have self-image problems. Why is there so much emphasis on a false notion of what beautiful is?"
Within 10 minutes of the ad airing, 7,000 people logged onto the related website, www.campaignforrealbeauty.com, said Dove marketing head Philippe Harousseau.
Story Link (http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20060206/bs_usatoday/magicfridgeofbudlighticesanadvertisingwin)