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Budweiser Does It Again
For years, Super Bowl eyes have been trained to watch for the Budweiser beer commercials. Between the Clydesdales, singing frogs and other fun campaigns, they have found a winning formula, and the 2014 Super Bowl brought another big winner to the table: Puppy Love, created by Anamoly. How could the beer company top its past efforts that included those beautiful Clydesdales? Pair them with an adorable puppy and create a storyline illustrating the unbreakable bond between a puppy and his Clydesdale friend. In fact, the spot is actually a continuation from last year’s Brotherhood commercial, which showed a similarly powerful bond between a Clydesdale and his trainer—the same actor who came back in this year’s commercial and was also in charge of the ranch’s puppies. At the end of the spot, viewers are left wondering how Bud will continue the story next year.
At first thought, a warm and fuzzy beer commercial might be surprising. After all, do you think the “manly men” demographic of Bud drinkers will really be touched by the relationship between a Clydesdale and its puppy BFF? Surprisingly, the answer is yes. According to Ad Meter, among adults aged 35-54 making $75,000-$100,000, it ranked No.1 amongst both men and women. However, it did perform a bit stronger among women. But remembering who the purchasers are in the household—wives, girlfriends, etc.—puts this into perspective, and is a good reason behind the touchy-feely sentiments of the commercial.
As has been the case in the past few years, the commercial was released on YouTube about a week prior to the Big Game, and went viral almost immediately. In the first two days online, it racked up a quick 23 million views and nearly 400,000 social shares, proving the power of social media once again. That number grew to 1.3 million shares following the game, making it the sixth most shared Super Bowl commercial of all time. And as all good media campaigns do these days, there was a complementary hashtag, the clever and double-entendre, #BestBuds. The spot was also featured in a number of television roundup stories about the upcoming commercials on morning shows like The Today Show and Good Morning America, and was heavily supported by Fox Sports. In the United States alone, it appeared 75 times on national TV channels and 1,200 times on local broadcast. So what does all this pre-game “leakage” mean for the commercials and the brands behind them? It drastically increases their reach and presumably, their ROI.
When all was said and done, the campaign was said to have “won” the Super Bowl by a number of media outlets, such as AdAge and USA Today’s consumer-judgedAd Meter. It’s hard to argue with 190 million total impressions. Give it one more with your click:
