Kickstart Your Week
Kickstart Your Week is the weekly podcast for small business owners and marketers who want practical momentum, not just motivation.
Hosted by the team at Kickstart Collective, a marketing agency based in Wilmington, NC, this short-form show delivers honest conversations, smart marketing insights, and real-world business strategies to help you move your business forward every single week.
From local SEO and messaging that actually resonates… to consistency over intensity, mindset shifts, and knowing when to pivot, we break down the habits and decisions that help businesses grow sustainably.
Each episode is designed to be actionable, conversational, and easy to implement because building a business doesn’t require hustle culture. It requires clarity, consistency, and the courage to take the next right step.
Whether you’re refining your marketing, resetting your goals, or navigating growth, Kickstart Your Week will help you focus on what matters and build momentum that lasts.
New episodes drop weekly.
Let’s get to work.
Kickstart Your Week
EP25 - Minisode: Breaking Down This Year's Super Bowl Commercials
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Join us as we breakdown some of our favorite Super Bowl ads from this year. This episode pulls back the curtain on big-brand maneuvers, revealing how they can be scaled for small and medium-sized businesses. From the importance of generating pre-launch buzz to the clever use of witty humor, this episode can help you with creating content that's not just seen but felt. We dive deep into some of the common themes from this year's big game, covering everything from big celebrities to dark humor and nostalgia.
We analyze how brands can create memorable moments with giveaways and how these initiatives can evoke a wide range of reactions. Whether you're crafting your first campaign or looking to refine your approach, we hope these breakdowns give your marketing efforts that championship edge.
Didn't see one of the Super Bowl ads we talked about?
Check out these links to watch along:
Michael Cerave
Paramount + "Football Shaped Head"
DoorDash Promo Code
Can't B Broken "Beyonce"
Game Time Glow "Cetaphil"
Jennifer Aniston and David Schwimmer Forget "Uber Eats"
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Meet your hosts and learn more about Kickstart Collective at kickstartcollective.co
Kickstart Collective is a creative marketing agency based in Wilmington, NC. We offer our clients a creative advantage through creative content and marketing strategies.
Super Bowl Ad Lessons for Businesses
Speaker 1Welcome to the Two Can Talks podcast brought to you by Kickstart Collective. Join us as we talk to local Wilmington business owners about what has led to their successes, challenges and more. No question is off limits as we bounce from topic to topic.
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Speaker 1Welcome back to Two Can Talks, Luke. It's been a while.
Speaker 3Thanks. Since I last left here, I have developed a cold.
Speaker 1Awesome, yeah, congratulations.
Speaker 3Sorry everyone that has to listen to me talk today.
Speaker 1And just sniffle into the mic.
Speaker 3I'm not going to sniffle into the mic. You actually want to probably listen to what we're talking about, so I will be courteous, cool.
Speaker 1Well, today we're going to talk about what people can learn from Super Bowl ads, and by people, I mean small business owners, medium-sized businesses, just from a strategy standpoint, and all that. What can you take from what these big brands are doing on a massive scale and apply it to your business in order to make your campaign successful?
Speaker 3So, First thing is you've got to date someone from the Chiefs. Then you get all the airtime you want. Your brand blows up.
Speaker 1Or does his brand blow up because he dates her?
Speaker 3Who really knows?
Speaker 1But we weren't going to talk about this. But great segue to a thought, the oh shoot, See, and this is one of those things where We'll talk about this we're being your ad being memorable, but your brand maybe not being as memorable as the message of the ad. There's a disconnect. But there was an ad. It was for a skincare company.
Speaker 3And it wasn't Cerevi.
Speaker 1No, I can't remember. Well, not besides points, that's what we're talking about. Point made, but their whole ad spot was on how the stat who really loved football and his teenage daughter who loved Taylor Swift, how they bonded, that's nice over Travis and Taylor and her getting airtime during the games and how she never cared about watching football.
Speaker 1But she just wanted to see Taylor Swift's face, yeah, and he Got it isn't Got it connecting with his daughter, but it was like it was a real father-daughter out of New York that was in the ad. But then a bunch of other people jumped on and were sharing and talking about, yeah, me and my daughter bonded over this or like. So it's kind of cool.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 1And then they jumped on that brand. I'll look it up and see what company it was, but it was relevant, it was memorable. And then you know just the brand part it was skincare. I remember that.
Speaker 3This is why Josh should have his mic set up back there so he could Google it and tell us. Vr Jamie.
Speaker 1If you could hack into my text messages me and Alyssa were texting about it.
Speaker 3Well, yeah, it's not that. It is very pertinent to this.
Speaker 1It is part of the conversation.
Speaker 3Grandness game of what we're doing. But yeah.
Speaker 1So I think we can go two directions. How do you want to start? Do you want to start by pulling out the few ads we pre-picked to talk about, or do you want to talk about the kind of main talking points of what's sort of the ads?
Speaker 3Yeah, let's do that.
Speaker 1Okay, yes, you're right. Yep, see a fill.
Speaker 3See to fill.
Speaker 1See to fill. They're that moisturizer Another classic. All right, let's start with Paramount Plus. This ad.
Speaker 3Give everyone a synopsis, for the people that don't remember.
Speaker 1Okay, we'll also put a link to them in the show notes, so if you want to watch it, you can. But so this ad had a host of celebrities. There was a football player who was famous.
Speaker 3Most notably, though, out of all the celebrities, was Hay Arnold.
Speaker 1Hay Arnold was in it Football player Tua, tua, tua. Yeah, on the doffins.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 1See, I didn't know who that was, but I knew who Drew Barrymore was. So they had a host of celebrities across different genres and age ranges, which is good, because their target audience, ultimately, is pretty broad.
Speaker 3Everyone watches a Super Bowl.
Speaker 1Everyone. So, yeah, let's back up onto why this works as a strategy idea. So we, being married in one household, you signed us up for the free trial.
Speaker 3For Paramount Plus. For Paramount Plus, because we don't have any other way to watch the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1Yes, we're cable cutters. Yep, so we signed up for that. In 30 days They'll start charging for your subscription, so not us.
Speaker 1We don't remember to get them, but I would say your average person hopefully for them signed up to watch the Super Bowl and then you're getting ads for said streaming service being Paramount Plus. That is showing kind of a broad range of the different shows they have. They're the celebrities and the characters and whatever. So just from a pure strategy standpoint, I think that was smart and then more detailed. So basically it's the football player not my target demo trying to throw something up to like their Paramount, like actual real mountain situation in order for them to climb out of this valley or whatever they're in, and he can't get it to the top and they're like, oh, if we had a real football. And then said other celebrity yes, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3I think Josh should be over here having this conversation said to me, because I don't remember people's names and yeah, anyways, they were like if only we had something shaped like a football.
Speaker 1and hey, arnold, football shaped head, kid character.
Speaker 3Does Paramount now own the rights to stream Nickelodeon stuff? I?
Speaker 1must I think yeah, I mean so that, yeah, the general consensus though I was getting to the point and they jumped into like dark humor as of, like the actual football player was like I'm not going to throw a kid, and then the Star Trek guy was like I'll do it. And so they throw a Arnold. It still doesn't work. And then they're like, oh, if only we had pig skin and it cut to Peppa Pig.
Speaker 3Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1And anyways, they jumped, they hit on humor, they had a host of celebrities.
Speaker 3Well, they really touched all the different people that may have had their eyes on this and given them a reason to stick around for more than just the seven day free trial, exactly. That's what they were trying to do.
Speaker 1That's what they were trying to do and they probably worked on. A lot of people did work on us, but here we are talking about it. So if you like Paramount Plus and you signed up, keep it.
Speaker 3Or you like this, but your reminder to cancel If they keep coming back with the Yellowstone, maybe we'll sign back up.
Speaker 1So interesting? Fun fact probably not actually. This is actually not fun, but interesting fact they did announce Paramount a few days after the Super Bowl that they are moving ahead with like a huge layoff. So that sucks.
Speaker 3They had to pay for that ad.
Speaker 1And all those celebrities. But you know they hit on dark humor, they hit on lots of targets. So, Luke, how would you say a small business can? What can they learn from Paramount Plus's ad?
Speaker 3Oh man.
Speaker 1I'm going to drink some coffee while you talk.
Speaker 3That's a difficult one, honestly, because Typically as a small business, we're trying to get people to focus on their niche and in this specific example, they tried to cast the widest net they could cast by touching every different potential target demo.
Speaker 1But, if you think about it, the actual target demo for this is the people that are paying for Target demo, correct?
Speaker 3The target demo is probably a mother between like 32 and 46, if I had to guess, based on what they were trying to put out there.
Speaker 1But they hit on nostalgia.
Speaker 3They did hit on the nostalgia which the 30-somethings would know about. But I think the main thing that you, as a small business, you can learn from is I mean, it was pretty funny.
Speaker 1Yeah, it's happening in the humor.
Speaker 3And people remember picking up hey Arnold and using him as a football. Yes, I think. I don't know, that's what I, if I you're like what do you? Remember from the Paramount commercial, the guy picked up a human and threw him like a football.
Speaker 1A human cartoon character.
Speaker 3A cartoon character.
Speaker 1But yeah. So I would say I would agree kind of the humor aspect, but then making that humor relevant to your target audience and you want something that is memorable and that might mean you have to take a risk and make an ad about pretending to throw a kid.
Speaker 3I saw that risky.
Speaker 1No, we've thrown worse. We've thrown worse.
Speaker 3Yeah, we threw one of our cameras.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, I asked about how so.
Speaker 3That's my. Don't worry about it, that's my thing.
Speaker 1Y'all can talk about that in the next two can talks when we talk about video production. Perfect, the next many. So we'll save that camera Like a note for you. Okay.
Speaker 3Well, you go on to the next one.
Speaker 1Next one.
Speaker 3I'm tired of talking about Paramount. Sure, you are After. They did their layoff.
Speaker 1Well, that was just on social media, who knows. Okay, I mean, it seemed real, I don't know.
Speaker 3I didn't do that. Probably not real, probably dogging them for no reason.
Speaker 1Maybe. Okay, sarah V, do you know what that is?
Speaker 3I'm not only because you told me right before we started.
Speaker 1So Sarah V Long time moisturizer skincare situation. You could probably use some. They did their ad spot with Michael Sarah, who is a celebrity. The whole premise of that ad was like they're the perfect Partnership and he's cause that's what he was trying to sell.
Speaker 1That's like his pitch, because his name Last name is Sarah. So this ad and the reason I Well, I mean again it tapped into humor. It's kind of lighthearted and funny, but he, before the Super Bowl, was like teasing out different things related to the ad and so it created buzz online about like is he doing a commercial with them? And then they capitalize on their actual Super Bowl ad spot and when you're paying, you know $7 million for a 30 second ad spot, you should really get your money's worth and get as much. I mean, I don't love when they release their ads before the Super Bowl because I think that kills some of it.
Speaker 3Does that happen?
Speaker 1Oh yeah, A bunch of companies release their ads before the Super Bowl. Where are you Like? Where have you?
Speaker 3been I. You know I try to not. Yeah, when it comes to. When it comes to looking at ads before the Super Bowl, I like to be surprised. Yes.
Speaker 1Same, but they, I think, did a good job, using his celebrity nests to tease out the fact that something was coming without you know this is true influencer marketing right here.
Speaker 3That's a really expensive influencer.
Speaker 1I would say more of like a celebrity spokesperson.
Speaker 3But still if he's teasing it out beforehand. Um so on his own account.
Speaker 1Yes, so, from a small business standpoint, thoughts on teasing.
Speaker 3You just got to partner with your local celebrities.
Speaker 1No, I mean not from, I mean there are taking applications. Luke gets paid from Instagram.
Speaker 3Nope.
Speaker 1Awkward pause. Um, he does Um, but that's a secret, right?
Speaker 3Not anymore.
Speaker 1Okay, anywho, the fact of building momentum and leaking for a better phrase like a pre launch or something like that, not day of your launching something, I mean sometimes that works and you can have them enough momentum, but trying to build some attention before your launch of your product or a service or business or something.
Speaker 3I have questions for you on this, because I don't I'm not familiar with Sarah V. I have great skin, so I don't really need much as far as your hands, peel off and chunks. That's a medical condition. It's not. The doctor told me it was.
Speaker 1Maybe you should get some Sarah V and moisturize your hands.
Speaker 3Maybe but a Sarah V 10, do they tend to market towards a certain audience?
Speaker 1It's like really it's like a CVS, like but is it like for older people?
Speaker 3younger people doesn't mean.
Speaker 1I think it's pretty across the board.
Speaker 3It seems to me that they were just wanting some relevance.
Speaker 1Yeah, no, I think that's true, yeah.
Speaker 3If you're teaming up with Michael Sarah.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 3And he's starting to push stuff out before to kind of build some buzz.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 3I think some people thought that he was actually part of the company starting a skincare company.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 3And I think that would also be hilarious.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 3But that didn't happen.
Speaker 1No.
Speaker 3He's just in there, this spokesperson.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, I think relevance is important. I think. I mean, I guess, when we're talking to potential clients or clients and there is something they're trying to launch or something new, we start with okay, what are ways we can build an email list or like, start teasing things out to get leads or people who are interested, so that when you are ready to launch, we have a captured audience to launch it to? Obviously, that's not exactly what they're doing in this situation, but I think on a kind of a micro scale, especially for small businesses, you're not putting an ad out to 120 million people. So how do we get you a captive audience before you're ready to launch, so that you're not launching to your 20 Instagram followers?
Speaker 3I think also, if and no offense Sarah V, your brand is much bigger than anything I've ever done. But if you're not aware of who Sarah V is or what they do, but you're attaching yourself to a popular celebrity like Michael Sarah, when you see a Sarah V commercial pop up, maybe you're not going to be as quick to walk and grab some more of that Buffalo chicken dip that everyone makes at the Super Bowl and actually sit there and watch it. So, with them attaching themselves to Michael Sarah beforehand and then seeing Sarah V pop up on TV, they're like oh.
Speaker 3I want to watch this to see what's funny what is?
Speaker 1he going to do.
Speaker 3As opposed to just be like Sarah V, we make skincare products.
Speaker 2I mean because of the end of the day you want to be memorable.
Speaker 3but it seems like they went for getting the buy-in on the front end, which is smart because now you have someone maybe even looking forward to seeing this ad at the Super Bowl and, if not, maybe coming across some of those posts beforehand and being like, oh, I'm going to stick around and watch this because I know Michael Sarah is funny and maybe something will be funny. And it was funny.
Speaker 1Yeah, and I think yeah, they actually executed on the ad, which was cool, cool. So all that to say from them.
Speaker 3Congratulations, Sarah B.
Speaker 1Do something before your launch to capture an audience or build some buzz so that you have some momentum going into your launch. That would be the core piece of advice for small business owners. Just to summarize that oh gosh what.
Speaker 3I feel a sneeze coming. Oh no, it's coming down the pipe. I'll let you know.
Speaker 1All right, mixed emotions from both of us on this. I know because we sat on the couch together watching the Super Bowl. What Door dash.
Speaker 3Oh, great idea. Terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible execution.
Speaker 1No no, no, no, no, no, no. That's not fair.
Speaker 3I hated it. Yes, you did as soon as you like. I thought the idea was awesome.
Speaker 1Okay, but let's talk about before I'm not sure right now. So from a strategy standpoint, I think it was brilliant. Was it annoying?
Speaker 3Yes, can we explain the thing for people?
Speaker 1So their concept, their ad from Door Dash was they gave away a prize from every single ad in the Super Bowl. So there was like three cars, there was like the Pluto commercial. They gave away a couch and a sack of potatoes.
Speaker 3They gave away some M&Ms, I think 60 pounds of mayonnaise.
Speaker 1Two of those cars, yeah, so so much mayonnaise, so many mayonnaise, so much mayonnaise, so much. The homeless ad was funny too, with Kate McKinnon and the cat Mayo cat.
Speaker 3Anywho, that was the idea.
Speaker 1Yes.
Speaker 3They're giving away one thing from every ad in the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1So and then?
Speaker 3yes.
Speaker 1Yes, so basically they had a landing, so they had their ad that played in the end of the Super Bowl and there was a promo code in it. You get the promo code. We'll talk about that in a second. While it was kind of annoying. You go to their landing page, you enter in the promo code, you're entered to win. I was on Instagram scrolling during the sports part of the Super Bowl because the actual Super Bowl, part of the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1The marketing person in me was there for the ads and, let's be honest, half time.
Speaker 3Quite a production.
Speaker 1Great production.
Speaker 3I'll show you a meme later.
Speaker 1Of what?
Speaker 3I'll show you a meme later.
Speaker 1Me, are you trying to tell us?
Speaker 3Of both of you, if you want to see it.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 3Continue.
Speaker 1Anywho. So while scrolling I got an ad for DoorDash about the giveaway before we even like saw the commercial. So I, you know clicked through on the ad, went to the landing page, saw that there was going to be and they did have, like the. It wasn't live until after the ad aired on TV, but they had the YouTube like player right above where you entered the promo code so you could pause and enter in the code. Anyways, I saved it so I could go back later and I sent it to Luke.
Speaker 3I was looking forward to winning three cars. Yeah, I could use.
Speaker 1I could use a new car. Me Josh went to listen I could all use cars. That would have been a great thing for us to win, anyways. So yeah, we talked about it as as the Super. Bowl was playing.
Speaker 3That's a cool idea, yeah, awesome. I can't believe they're giving away mayonnaise like stuff like that In a sack of potatoes.
Speaker 1Yeah, so you get to the ad and if you guys watch this the Super Bowl it starts. It's like Door dash promo code. I mean it's probably five or six words kind of long, but then it goes into like roller coaster. Well, there's like an ellipses, like duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, and then it goes. We'll link it in the show notes. And that's all of the promo code. It's extremely long.
Speaker 3Honestly kind of ripped off Mountain Dew. Yeah, I remember.
Speaker 1So the thing with the Mountain Dew ad, which I think is interesting compared to what they did, the Mountain Dew sweepstakes was open for like multiple days after the Super Bowl. This closed that night because I went Monday. When I came into work I was like just looking up Super Bowl stuff and I looked on Reddit because the entire someone posted the promo code on Reddit, obviously.
Speaker 3But they entered it, I assume. Yeah, I would hope.
Speaker 1Yeah, and so then I went back to the post because you know I had saved it on Instagram so I could go back, but it was closed and I was like dang it. I do appreciate it.
Speaker 3Dang it. Of course you're not going to get it. Someone's already put it in. Was it the first person, or was it just?
Speaker 1I think it was just a drawing, like whoever put it in Mountain Dews was the first. Hmm, interesting. Maybe that's why it was open for so long.
Speaker 3Well, because I don't know if you remember watching it, I think me and someone tried to look through it and it was just literally the most.
Speaker 1It's obnoxious.
Speaker 3There's no way.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 3There was like 400 different like screens yeah, different screens, and every single one had like hundreds of mountain.
Speaker 1How many mountain dew bottles were shown in this ad? And turn that for a chance to win something crazy. So I do appreciate the fact that they closed it that night instead of dragging it out like Mountain Dew.
Speaker 3Um it just took someone that much time.
Speaker 1Yeah, the Mountain Dew one. Yeah, what I don't appreciate is how annoying it was. Yeah, it was a little much, I think, but someone won um, which is cool. So then they get publicity with the winner and that whole story, um they're gonna be on the hook for a tax bill. Yeah, they are. They're gonna be selling them cars.
Speaker 3They can probably honestly sell like a car and I think it was like $400,000 worth of winnings. Oh, what's that? So that's like about $200,000. About 200 K in taxes.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 3Tax time is coming up folks.
Speaker 1This is your friendly reminder Um don't win a sweepstakes, um or do Okay. So, besides the fact that the code was a little bit annoying a little much, people still entered. They still won. What I think is cool about this ad one, a giveaway is always gonna get you attention. So, even as a small business, as long as it's good, I mean don't make it something stupid, but as long as it's like a pretty decent giveaway.
Speaker 3Don't give away $10.
Speaker 1No.
Speaker 3I mean you could.
Speaker 1You could.
Speaker 3But a lot of people aren't gonna be stoked on one $10 gift card.
Speaker 1Yeah, unless.
Speaker 3Nope.
Speaker 1I don't know, I want like a $10,. They know a coffee shop. I'd be like sweet, I'm gonna go get a coffee and a treat.
Speaker 3We get a coffee.
Speaker 1Yeah, a coffee. Anyways, giveaways are gonna generate buzz and attention and engagement, which is great for a brand. But what I like from what they did again, it was like a multi-channel. So they were running ads, they had the TV spot and then they're taking you to their.
Speaker 3They're running digital ads, like social ads.
Speaker 1Yes, they're running social ads.
Speaker 3For all those, the scrollers that can't watch football.
Speaker 1The game was great. I watched a decent amount of it, but that's also. I also put the kids down during the actual game.
Speaker 3You know that's it the rest.
Speaker 1I watched and it was great. They did a great job. Go sports. Anyways, they're running social media ads. They had the TV spot and then they're driving people to a landing page where I think they captured email addresses. I assume they have to capture some. Yeah, they had to have captured their personal information.
Speaker 3A lot of them know you won.
Speaker 1Yeah, so they're creating hello, they're creating a leads list and I am sure I haven't really clicked around enough, but anyone that's landed on that landing page, they're cookies, so then they can continue to retarget you with ads and if you have the app like they're tracking, you may know.
Speaker 3I wonder if anyone that is listening to this actually entered. Entered.
Speaker 1Ooh, let us know.
Speaker 3You did, let us know and then, if you did, let us know how many times you've been emailed afterwards, because I'm sure they're sending out promo codes left and right now.
Speaker 1Oh yeah.
Speaker 3So let us know about that. We did not do it because I did not feel like spending multiple hours reading a promo code.
Speaker 1Yeah, a lot of people have tried. I think it would tell you, like, what percentage of it you got correct to, which is kind of cool.
Speaker 3That's kind of cool, but like also.
Speaker 1Cool technology.
Speaker 3Jeez, that's a lot of stuff to do during the Super Bowl, trying to see. Well, it was at the end when they went over time. When they were over time.
Speaker 1So, anyways, summarize that multi-channeled doing something again you're building awareness for your main launcher attraction and then you're capturing leads that you can then retarget, email, whatever, to get to a actual conversion. Again, downloading an app and ordering a meal is really all they're going for, so it's not that crazy. I do think it's funny, though, in terms of like, add and creative the Uber Eats ad I thought like in terms of a concept and creative.
Speaker 3I don't really remember that one. What?
Speaker 1It was the one with, so it was for Uber Eats and it was like you have to forget something in order to remember, cause they're like oh, I always forget. I can order like office supplies off of Uber Eats. So I had Jennifer Aniston and David.
Speaker 3Schrumer.
Speaker 1Ross Schrumer, whatever Schrumer Schrumer.
Speaker 3Ross, they had Ross.
Speaker 1And she was like, yes, like couldn't remember. They had Victoria Beckham, yeah, david Beckham, but then they also had like a guy in like office scenes, so like non-celebrity, like things that were just like funny. So I thought that creative on that one was way better, just in terms of an ad.
Speaker 3Yeah, but they didn't give away $400,000 worth of stuff. No, of mayonnaise, of mayonnaise.
Speaker 1I didn't know getting mayonnaise memories.
Speaker 3I can't believe they gave away $400,000 worth of mayonnaise.
Speaker 1Yeah, just spreading falsities. Yeah, so I think in terms of ads we're talking about, I think that was the bulk of it, but generally speaking, this year's Super Bowl ads hit mostly on humor and nostalgia. Even like the age range of the celebrities, it was more like millennial to Gen Z. Is that our parents?
Speaker 3I don't remember.
Speaker 1Gen C, the one older than the millennial. Is that the younger Gen Z's? I might be Gen Z, oh then not you, that's the odd one. Millennials to Boomers, I forget the middle generation, whatever they're called, but the celebrities were more that age bracket. So what are small businesses? Just from the overall theme, because I get a little bit more into this than you do, but the Super Bowl and kind of the ads and the creative that you see there, it kind of drives typically the rest of the calendar year of where brands grow on a creative standpoint, so like people weren't really hitting on hot topics, they weren't. It wasn't like emotional heartstrings like you've seen in the past with some brands, like pretty much everyone hit on just humor and certain different degrees.
Speaker 3Except for Budweiser and the.
Speaker 1Jesus commercials.
Speaker 3Well, yeah, the story commercials, what? Yeah, jesus, I don't know what those are called. Do you remember? I remember them, but I don't know what they're called. Yeah, those are the only two emotional ones, yeah. There was one trunk, one where they. There was one where they Like. This little girl was in the trunk for her brand.
Speaker 1Oh yeah, I think it was Kia. That one was cute, the little girl.
Speaker 3Yep, when they drove up, did the ice skating rink in the backyard.
Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses
Speaker 1Yeah, that one was good. Yes, yeah. Yeah, that was a good one, yeah. And then I think about the stat was like 60 plus of the ads use celebrities and then like 30% use multiple celebrities in their ads.
Speaker 3So you don't have an option to not use celebrities. Do they use a celebrity or multiple?
Speaker 1celebrities, but you had, like We'll talk about that in a second. But okay, humor and nostalgia, setting the tone for that's kind of what you're going to see this year in marketing in general, like from bigger brands. I think, from just what I've read and looked at, like it's an election year. People don't want more drama, they don't need more heartstrings, please. So brands are kind of going a different direction to Brands. Bigger brands and companies are going a different direction than they do some other years, where it is more emotional ads Great so.
Speaker 3Please do that. Don't tell me what to think with your ad.
Speaker 1Yeah, like no one wants to hit on hot topics, no one wants to be dramatic and like, at this point in the year, make a stand as a brand.
Speaker 3Just tell me what you sell and why I should buy it.
Speaker 1And make it funny. Maybe, Okay so.
Speaker 3I like, I like funny.
Speaker 1Yes, apparently most of America does this year, I think they always have, I think they always have. Yeah.
Speaker 3I think people just I think there was a lot of brands that got captured and feeling like they had to say things in the past few years.
Speaker 1So yeah, which is fine, but my point I don't think it's fine my point and where I'm trying to guide you in this conversation.
Speaker 3I have my own brain in here.
Speaker 1Yeah, this is why you should definitely always do podcasts with your spouse From the standpoint of hitting on humor and or nostalgia for small businesses, and you're more on the video side of things like what is your advice or what would be your takeaway for small businesses or medium size Wilmington businesses, let's say, of any size you have a takeaway.
Speaker 3Yeah, this is the best take, this is like the best thing I can draw. Like everyone, sit there for a second and just think like one of the most memorable movies you went and watched when you were in high school. Guarantee you, most of them are comedies. People remember stuff that makes them laugh because when you're laughing you're happy. Yeah, I mean, you do remember sad things too, but you know, I would say a vast majority of people when they're thinking about content they've watched over the past and you know content is a newer word. Yeah, but like movies, tv shows, like there's always a thread of funny in there, and not always, but most of the time there's a thread of funny in there that makes stuff memorable. Like when you're quoting movies from your childhood, you're not quoting like Braveheart. I mean, actually some people do quote Braveheart, but that's just strictly a freedom thing which continue to quote that. But you know a lot of times when you're quoting stuff you're quoting stupid, like Napoleon Dynamite stuff or you know any kind of funny comedy from from back in the day.
Speaker 1So to that point that, all that to say, it needs to be relevant to your target audience not just you as a business owner.
Speaker 3But even if it is relevant to just you as a business owner, if it makes people laugh, they're going to remember it If it makes, but you have to figure out what makes people laugh.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, okay, that's fair.
Speaker 3I know.
Speaker 1Yeah, so I think making making it memorable and making it memorable to your target audience, but then making sure your brand like your brand has to be remembered in there, not just your ad. Correct, and I'll use Beyonce's ad and I'm calling it Beyonce's ad because it's not Verizon's ad. It was definitely Beyonce's ad, in my personal opinion. I'm sure you could Google it and experts would disagree, but her whole thing was like the Verizon Internet, like even Beyonce can't break the Internet, right, but all I remembered was Beyonce. And then, right after that commercial aired, or Super Bowl night, she dropped new music. I'm like genius on your side to like use your celebrity in this ad.
Speaker 3They paid me to do this and then I dropped music, got him yeah.
Speaker 1Yeah, well, she did, she dropped stuff with the Grammys, but yeah. It was a Verizon ad. But when I was thinking through ads I was like that Beyonce ad was good and I was like Beyonce didn't run an ad in the Super Bowl. What brand was it for? Oh, yeah, which the break the Internet. It's a good connection, but I don't know.
Speaker 3I think she capitalized it on us Must be a great connection if she didn't break the Internet.
Speaker 1That was the point of the ad. You got him honey.
Speaker 3You said, good connection. I know that was just fine on the words.
Speaker 1Yeah yeah, you tied it back to the actual company that ran the ad. Not to say that ad wasn't successful. I just think it was great for Beyonce.
Speaker 3It was a good concept.
Speaker 1Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3Because if you think of who could break the Internet, Beyonce and Kim K. I don't know about that.
Speaker 1Oh, I need Alyssa in here. I should have heard you this with me. Nah, you know who?
Speaker 3would break the Internet Hands down. Kanye for sure he could break the Internet.
Speaker 1Yeah, I think having Beyonce in your ad as a celebrity was a better brand move than Kanye at the moment. I don't know.
Speaker 3I had a gone straight Kanye, and then the Internet would have broke. Well, that's the thing Verizon couldn't have, because he would have broken the Internet.
Speaker 1Yeah, but not in a way your brand wants to be remembered.
Speaker 3It would have been broken.
Speaker 1That whole strategy would have broken right there. But I think to that point also, having Beyonce in your ad makes a statement on the level of your company is anyways because you're not getting Beyonce just in any brand of mill brand.
Speaker 3That's the level of where you don't say status, you say status Okay, we have a high status.
Speaker 1Yes, sir, cool. I'm just looking through my notes to see if there's anything else I want to talk about. Yeah, I think, at the end of the day, knowing your target audience, making sure that ad is relevant to them, is important. I think we are in the prime generation age range for Super Bowl commercials just because our generation currently has buying power in the market and we're still watching the Super Bowl where you know.
Speaker 3Not falling asleep at eight o'clock, although I'd like to Not just there for the party.
Speaker 1I'm there for the ads, you're there for the game. So yeah, we didn't go to a party this year. We didn't, we stayed home.
Speaker 3We stayed at our house First time ever. I've not gone to a Super Bowl party in my life.
Speaker 1Yeah, wow, you're in my name.
Speaker 3So are you? Well, it was great, though. We made steaks and watched a Super Bowl.
Speaker 1Yeah, we ate dinner after the kids went to bed on the couch it was nice.
Speaker 3Yeah, check a glass of wine.
Speaker 1Watch the Super Bowl, watch the ads, you mean.
Speaker 3Watch the Super Bowl yeah. Yeah, be funny, that's the takeaway Be funny this year.
Speaker 1Humor 2024 humor Stalja being memorable but making shorts relevant to your audience and your brand, and your brand is ultimately remembered. And then this obviously is geared towards like one super event of night of advertising. But the brands that I think are going to succeed and see like an actual ROI are the ones that are playing it out beyond one night. You know, you don't know.
Speaker 3I mean, I'm just thinking, I don't know how to speak to ROI on when it comes to spending seven plus million.
Speaker 1Well, these braids On just ad spot plus, whatever the budget production. That was that Uber Eats ad with.
Speaker 3Ross and Rachel.
Speaker 1Ross, rachel, victoria Beckham, david Beckham, jelly Roll. I think that was all the celebrities. Anyways, that ad budget celebrity.
Speaker 3That's what I'm saying. I can't really. If you have that ad budget, give us a call.
Speaker 1We are really funny.
Speaker 3We can make some funny stuff.
Speaker 1But just thinking like, thinking it through in terms of, like, how are you going to extend? Like, if you're, we can pick on mess hall because they're easy to pick on for this, for us, like, there is not in that way. But like, look at, like with the outer banks, like spoof campaign from last summer, obviously that video and launching that video was the main attraction, if you will. But then playing it out through, you know, coming in to get the t-shirt and then the giveaway, and just like different avenues, like obviously you can post that video and it's funny and it's going to get attention, but then what are you actually doing to convert customers or to capture leads? Like? You need to think it through a step further. Just throwing out like a funny ad or sending out a really good, it needs to be part of a plan.
Speaker 1It needs to be part of a strategy.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 1Have a strategy. Um sweet, is there anything else?
Speaker 2No you want to talk about nothing else.
Speaker 1Nothing else you talk about, just Super Bowl.
Speaker 3In general, life in general. No, now's your chance. I hope next year it's not the chiefs in the Super Bowl again, were they in it last year or something They've? Been they what had four wins? What is it? Third win, third three yeah.
Speaker 1Are they like the new Patriots or people are going to start hating them for winning? Yeah, who is Taylor the new Giselle? Because that was another level Is she, I wonder. Her net worth is higher than his. It has to be so much higher?
Speaker 3Well, who's net worth is as high as well?
Speaker 1It was like that, beyonce maybe Absolutely. She's just been around longer. She makes that in your sleep she probably makes that.
Speaker 3Yeah, in a in in one section of a tour. Yeah.
Speaker 1We don't know if those are facts you can Google them for yourself but maybe facts, probably facts.
Speaker 3Google. No, we have nothing else to say. Cool, other than be funny this year.
Speaker 1Yeah, thanks for tuning in to this mini. So I don't know, was even many or did?
Speaker 3It's pretty long.
Speaker 1It was pretty long.
Speaker 3Thanks for tuning in to this almost regular episode of two can talks.
Speaker 1Bye, bye. Thanks for tuning in to another episode of two can talks brought to you by kickstart collective. If you loved this episode, be sure to subscribe wherever you watch podcast and follow kickstart collective on Instagram at kickstart collective.