Here's how companies are strengthening their brand with Super Bowl ads

Aaron Goldman, Mediaocean Chief Marketing Officer joins Yahoo Finance Live to break down the best and worst Super Bowl ads this year.

Video Transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING]

TONI PETERSSON: (SINGING) It's like milk, but made for humans. It's like milk, but made for humans. Wow. Wow. No cow. No, no, no. Wow, wow, no cow.

JULIE HYMAN: That sort of terrible, sort of oddly catching Oatly commercial that played during the Super Bowl last night, it was actually made seven years ago for Oatly. But Sweden then banned the commercial under protest from the dairy lobby-- fun fact. So they resurfaced it now.

But let's talk about Super Bowl commercials and the sort of ecosystem surrounding them. Aaron Goldman is joining us now. He's the chief marketing officer at Media Ocean, which does ad tech. And Aaron, you know, what's interesting about the Oatly commercial-- and it's on various lists of bad commercials-- the company is already selling a T-shirt that says, "I totally hated that Oatly commercial," or something along those lines.

Which speaks to sort of one of these themes in advertising, particularly Super Bowl advertising, that it's not just about the ad, right? It's about this whole system around the ad and the sort of earned media around the ad, that we're now talking about it and they're selling T-shirts and this whole situation. So how important is that to these brands?

AARON GOLDMAN: It's super important-- pun intended. $5.5 million for a Super Bowl ad. For you to really get your money's worth, it has to be part of an omnichannel strategy. And it's not just the 30 seconds that aired during the game. It's what happens before, during, and after the game, and sometimes even ends up on T-shirts.

BRIAN SOZZI: What did you what did you think about Vroom's several commercials they had in there? So I'm just looking at the stock. It has continued to rally, I think because of their-- because of these commercials. How do you think it went off?

AARON GOLDMAN: I think it overall-- it played great. Again, the old adage in PR is, you know, there's no such thing as bad press. And so, some people are going to like that spot, some people aren't. But the more you get people to talk about it, the bigger the halo effect is. If we look at some of the comparisons and measure-- if you think about your own behavior watching the game, you've got the remote in one hand, your phone in the other, and/or maybe Cheetos or buffalo wings, hopefully not too messy.

But when you have that kind of surround sound experience as a brand to kind of break through across the multiple screens, that's your biggest opportunity to capture that attention and win the hearts and minds.

A few examples that jumped out in thinking about brands that were in the game and not, Budweiser very famously decided to sit out the game for their flagship brand, so no Clydesdales, whereas Bud Light kind of went all in. Bud Light Legends, they brought all their characters from Super Bowls past. And what you saw then on social media was a lift in engagement for Bud Light compared to the week before that was higher than what Budweiser was doing.

Another example is Robinhood, which had been all over social media for, really, the entire month of January, and if we can compare the engagement for Robinhood on social media for Super Bowl Sunday versus the average for January, it was 140%-- 147% higher on Super Bowl Sunday. And so you can really see that bump that you get when you get people that's such a captive audience that's so hard to find these days.

MYLES UDLAND: You know, Aaron, you talk about how a brand needs to have a strategy to take it beyond just whatever they showed yesterday. I'm curious what goes into the thinking of-- we were noting this morning. We were like, well, I guess we all know Paramount Plus exists. I mean, they're in the same commercial three different times throughout the game. But what's the strategy behind, hey, let's just spend, I guess-- what's the math on that-- $16 and 1/2 million and just throw it out there and see what happens.

AARON GOLDMAN: Well, I think, you know, we know the streaming space is super hot right now. It's one of the kind of permanent disruptions that's happened through the course of the pandemic. And so, now all these platforms kind of vying for eyeballs and wallets. And there's only so much money that can go around between the streaming platforms when you start to think about how much consumers are paying. And so, there's a lot of upside if you can capture that attention, and what better canvas for storytelling, especially for a content rich platform like a Paramount Plus, than the Super Bowl and the audience?

In a lot of ways, the impact of Super Bowl and the aspect of commercials, a lot of people tune in for the commercials. And especially in a time right now where we're not at bars, we're hopefully not having a lot of people over for Super Bowl parties, you can really actually pay attention without the distraction. And then you get that water cooler effect. It's everybody chatting about what they saw. And ultimately, then, for the brand, thinking about how they can capture that momentum and continue it through the rest of the year.

MYLES UDLAND: Well, and then, on the other side, we have Reddit, which forces you to use DVR, basically. I guess, at this point, in, like, advertising culture, how much should we expect brands to work within the medium of TV, as one that can be rewound, fast-forwarded, paused, and sort of have this self awareness around how they fit in? Because, again, if you didn't pause it, this ad essentially didn't exist.

AARON GOLDMAN: Yeah, and right, it's another great example of the technological impact. If you think about the way that they played it and if you did get a chance to pause it or see the many screenshots that were posted online and to social media, they sort of joked that they spent their entire marketing budget on those five seconds. And of course, let's hope that's not the case for everything we've just talked about in terms of beating an omnichannel and omnipresent evergreen strategy.

But it is one that you can take advantage of. Cheetos was another example. They had a partnership with Snap, and so if you used your phone and held up the Snapchat app during any spot during the commercial, then that would unlock a bag to get-- unlock a code to get a free bag. And so, a lot of different ways you're starting to see of people are creating that 3D experience so that you can find ways to take what was normally a broadcast one-way medium and turn it into a true interactive medium.

And again, going back to justifying the $5.5 million for 30 seconds, once you can start to tie in actions that happen as a direct response result of your ad, you can really start to gain that holy grail of attribution.

JULIE HYMAN: Did you have a favorite ad?

AARON GOLDMAN: Personally, I really liked-- speaking of 3D, I liked flat Matthew, Matthew McConaughey, for Doritos. I thought it was clever. I think we all needed a laugh this year probably more than ever. And they provided that. But importantly, it wasn't just a cheap laugh. It actually reinforced some of the brand attributes and the idea that this 3D chip-- and so, when Matthew kind of slinks in to the vending machine and then turns into 3D and of course, can't get out, you get the laugh, but you also get the brand association with it.

JULIE HYMAN: Gotcha. All right, Aaron, thanks so much. Aaron Goldman is Media Ocean CMO.