What M&M’s Ads Show About Super Bowl Ads Today

Daniel Wiener-Bronner, CNN

A highly publicized M&M’s Super Bowl commercial that was supposed to clarify the status of the brand’s “spiccandi” that had been put on hold after criticism from right-wing pundits finally aired on Sunday, and it was, well, confusing.

In it, actress and comedian Maya Rudolph tosses handfuls of colorful candy into the air, but instead of M, they are adorned with the letters “Ma” and “I” and an image of Rudolph’s face. Rudolf sings that the candy is now filled with shellfish. In the video, people bite and look disgusted. Near the end, eagle-eyed viewers will see an upset yellow M&M and a red M&M holding a sign that says “HELP!”

The brightly colored anthropomorphic M&M characters have been the subject of talk and criticism from some Green M&M fans after the characters switched shoes from heels to sneakers last year, and again following the International Women’s Day campaign in January featuring women’s candy that sparked cries of “wake up! from right-wing commentators.

The Super Bowl commercial, billed as the end of weeks of “storytelling” drama, left some viewers scratching their heads.

Are M&M’s okay? one man asked on twitter. “Help me understand #mms Clams #SuperBowlAd Seriously help me” the other pleaded. Some thought it was bluntother funny.

Now, as the brand says in a press release, caramels are back. In another short video that aired on Sunday, the characters say in a “press conference” that they’re excited to be back. Chiron says “Together again: M&M’s characters return.”

Those who followed M&M’s advertising strategy closely could understand the narrative: before the ad aired, M&M’s introduced Rudolph as its new spokesperson. In the videos, Rudolph introduced the changes she made to her new role, such as painting her face on candy and replacing “M&M’s” with “Ma&Ya’s”. M&M’s also posted updates, sometimes pessimistic, about unemployed characters: Orange, for example, made a Spotify meditation playlist, Yellow tried to introduce Snickers, and so on.

But if you haven’t been paying attention, the final ad can be dizzying – one risk a brand takes when it uses a week-long campaign before a Super Bowl ad.

Develop advertising strategies

M&M’s pre-campaign may have been one of the toughest, but the brand is not alone. In contrast to years of Super Bowl advertising wars, using social media to tease, preview, and create hype ahead of Super Bowl ads has become a common strategy.

Companies spend millions just on Super Bowl ad space — reportedly more than $7 million for 30-second spots — before investing in the commercials themselves. Online campaigns, sometimes backed up by glossy multi-page print ads like M&M’s, are a way to get the most out of those dollars by getting more people to advertise. Ad previews also give brands a chance to correct course ahead of the big game if they receive negative reviews.

But with so many companies following this script, it’s even harder to break through — to catch viewers by surprise.

Dance competitions and bets

Despite the high cost of Super Bowl advertising, companies are racing to get a seat. This is because so many people are watching the game (last year around 208 million) and some of them are just interested in the ads.

“Whatever you launch during the Super Bowl will automatically grab attention as if it were a scheduled show or entertainment,” said Karen North, a professor of digital social media at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism. “The question is, how do you get attention in particular?”

Social campaigns can make a difference.

Some brands, such as M&M’s, have created complex stories for their characters. Others simply hinted at which celebrities would be featured in their commercials or released teasers. Doritos turned their campaign into a contest by inviting people to enter a TikTok dance competition, with the winner appearing in a Sunday ad. Molson Coors has partnered with DraftKings to allow people to bid on the content of their pre-game ads, raising the stakes for viewers.

The Planters this year before the game showed pieces of roasted Mr. Peanuts, who famously “died” in a 2020 Super Bowl ad before being reborn as a baby, a highly complex and widely criticized campaign in itself.

In addition to encouraging people to watch, campaigns actually take some of the pressure off the ads themselves, according to Tim Calkins, professor of marketing at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

“The Super Bowl is a very messy time,” he said. People are addicted to the game, leave the room, scroll through the phones, chat with their friends. They can turn off the TV before any commercials even air.

Hedging with an online campaign that is itself designed to get people thinking about the brand, “you enter [the Super Bowl] with a much lower risk profile,” Calkins said.

Companies releasing ads in advance can also gauge the public’s reaction. If it’s negative, they can make changes. GoDaddy, for example, pulled a 2015 ad for selling a puppy online after animal rights activists and others criticized the ad, and was able to replace it with another ad.

Everybody do it

The popularity of the strategy means that companies must do even more to stand out.

“Once something works, everyone copies it, and then it doesn’t work as well anymore.” That’s what happened “in the run-up to the Super Bowl,” Calkins said.

In addition, the hype of commercials raises already high expectations, notes Villanova School of Business marketing professor Charles R. Taylor. Disappointing advertising can dampen the rest of the campaign and result in very costly losses.

“If [the ad] by simply blending into the background, it risks undermining your strategy,” he said.

The social campaigns themselves must also be effective. M&M’s got a lot of people talking when they announced they would be suspending their shows. But few people talked about Ma&Ya or about the characters looking for alternative jobs or hobbies.

And the campaign failed to respond to the company’s initial claim that the ads were too polarized, in what many saw as a capitulation to accusations that the brand was too ‘awake’. In a press release, Mars, M&M’s parent company, said it was giving more grants to “life-changing women” than the Women’s Day campaign announced.

“They failed to get us into this story, but they got our attention because of the crisis,” USC Annenberg’s North said of the candy brand’s social campaign. “I’m not sure it’s such a positive move.”

The-CNN-Wire
& © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Company. discovery. All rights reserved.

The post What M&M’s ad shows about the Super Bowl ad first appeared on KION546 today.

Content Source

Dallas Press News – Latest News:
Dallas Local News || Fort Worth Local News | Texas State News || Crime and Safety News || National news || Business News || Health News