‘It’s wedding season’ – and a few of our other fave commercials right now

Crissy Lintner

We all have our favorite advertising campaigns, and one of my favorites right now is SouthwestAirlines’ “Wedding Season.” This is a continuation of the fall’s campaign of the same name, featuring the same dancing gal at multiple different weddings (touting Southwest’s fare sale). But, what makes an ad campaign great? In this particular campaign, it’s the humor and strategy. The creative geniuses behind Southwest’s Wedding Season campaign developed something around what is a very true reality for many women (and men) right now – wedding after wedding after wedding in city after city after city. They achieved a fun campaign that resonates in a fun way and that some experts think might lead to the eventual marriage of the dancing girl (considering she caught the bouquet in this one). We will see what Southwest comes up with next!

What other campaigns are we loving and watching closely? Here are a few of our faves and why we love them!

The Sonic Guys:

Yes, they’ve been around awhile (a long while), but they still make us chuckle. Kerri sent her favorite one running right now.

The Sonic Guys: Tax Day

And Sarah L. added this to our beloved Sonic Guys series.

United Healthcare: Our Song

Ali and Chelsey both shared this one, which I hadn’t seen yet. We love how funny it is, but what a great way to tie in the message of their Virtual Clinics (which is exactly what they want you to take away from the commercial).

Android: Friends fur-ever

You can never go wrong with animals, right? Intern Brooke shared this one – and oodelally, it’s a cutie. The message? You don’t have to follow the same trends as everyone else. Be unique.

Samuel Adams Boston Lager:“History Channel: Sons of Liberty”

Sarah B. shared this one and all its wit. What a great tie-in to pop culture and the history of the brewery (and its namesake).

Lowe’s: Fitted Sheets

We’ve all been there - nothing is more frustrating than folding a fitted sheet, and the folks at Lowe’s have tapped into that very thing with their “Fitted Sheets” commercial. Relevant and still hitting home the original message (Lowe’s can help you DIY anything and leave you feeling empowered), it’s a great mixture of humor and branding. 

Subaru: Loyalty and Backseat

I have to agree with Courtney – the Subaru commercials are pretty wonderful. They showcase the brand as a feeling: love. And they humanize their brand in a very effective way. Their commercials show their commitment to safety and loyalty as a reliable and trusted vehicle. And none is as sweet as this particular commercial.

Allstate: Mayhem

And as Kelli said, “I find that most commercials annoy me way more than they are great, but I do have a renewed love for Mayhem ever since the most awesome campaign ever with the Mayhem Sale at the Sugar Bowl.” I have to agree – that was a great campaign bringing home the point that, well, if you’re not home, your stuff isn’t necessarily safe! Really, Kelli likes all of Mayhem, so check out the series on the Allstate YouTube account here.

Do you have a favorite campaign right now? Go share on our Facebook page!

Sugar Bowl Allstate Mayhem Advertising Campaign

Kelli Brignac

During college football season, my husband and I watched the Allstate Sugar Bowl game between Ohio State (excuse me, THE Ohio State) and Alabama. As an LSU fan, you’ll have to forgive me if I really did not care about it. But I digress. The point is, I watched the game because I’m a fan of college football. And as it turned out, the game was absolutely not the best thing happening in that broadcast. The best thing was a commercial featuring “Mayhem” from Allstate.

I’ve been recording live TV for five years, so I don’t watch nearly as many commercials as I used to. But live sports are one of the places where commercials still reach me. I’m familiar with Mayhem, but Allstate took this series of ads just one step further – from familiarity into awesomeness.

The series depicted Mayhem as a burglar who learned via social media that Matt and Shannon (actually a real couple) were going out of town to the Sugar Bowl game. While they were live-tweeting from the Superdome, Mayhem was selling all their stuff online for really cheap prices.

The first couple of times the commercial ran, I thought it was funny. Then, I logged on to the site and realized I could actually buy things. AND I WANTED THEM. I tried to buy a storage bench I needed for my own house, a TV because it was so cheap and, eventually, laundry detergent just so I could say I got SOMETHING from the Mayhem Sale. (I failed.) Even though the game was technically a “good” one, it seemed a lot more people were tweeting about Mayhem than about the score.

So, was the campaign just a lucky success, or is it something we can replicate? You’ll need to think through a few things.

1.    Your brand has to be familiar.

Allstate has put a lot of money into its marketing over the last several years. Allstate sponsors field goal nets at several colleges, is the title sponsor of the Sugar Bowl and has been running Mayhem commercials for the last couple of years. It’s also one of the largest insurers in the country. People know Allstate. If Allstate runs an ad without once saying “insurance,” most of the people who see it would still get it. Bottom line, if you’re brand new, don’t try to pull off something like this right away.

2.    Know your consumer.

This type of engaging campaign is not for every brand. If you have a very small audience, it may not be worth your money. And if your audience is children younger than 7, they probably aren’t going to be able to make the decision to engage at all. You have to meet your audience where they are.

3.    Think it through.

One reason I failed to purchase anything from the Mayhem Sale was because their website could not handle the traffic. By the second quarter of the game, it would barely load. And in the third quarter, when I finally clicked buy on the laundry detergent, it timed out, and I lost my purchase. Allstate played it off about as well as they could by having Mayhem tweet about how it wouldn’t be fun if the website worked, but it was still frustrating for a lot of people. All the pieces have to work together if you want the whole campaign to be a success.

4.    You might have to spend.

Allstate spent a ton of money on this. I don’t know exactly how much, but between the Sugar Bowl sponsorship, untold minutes of airtime, the replica of Matt and Shannon’s house (yes, they did), the replicas of all their stuff and the website, it added up. Does that mean you can’t pull off something excellent without breaking the bank? No. But that just sends us back to No. 3 – think it through.

5.    You can’t force viral.

No matter how awesome something actually is, there are no guarantees. Just because you spent a ton of money does not mean you’ll get a million hits on your website. Just because the idea was good doesn’t mean other people will love it. Still, a well-planned campaign should produce results. It’s important to decide what you want those results to be when you plan your campaign.

Which Super Bowl ad was your favorite?

Lauren Hannaford

Whether you paid attention to the Super Bowl game or not, you’ve probably seen this year’s ads a time or two by now. Despite the outcome of Super Bowl XLVIII, this year’s ads made us laugh, tugged on our emotions, left us thinking “what did that even mean?” and prompted millions to jump on Twitter and swiftly tweet #EsuranceSave30. What was your favorite ad? Here’s a recap of the Obsidian crew’s favorite spots. 

Loren Dean: My favorite was Budweiser’s “A Hero’s Welcome”

Kim- The Audi Doberhuahua commercial!

Ephiphany- I’m going with U2 and Bank of America’s ad “Invisible.” It promoted three types of organizations at the same time!

Lauren: I “awwwwed” 100 times during Budweiser’s Puppy Love and A Hero’s Welcome ads. I thought Esurance’s ad after the game was the most clever and creative, and incorporated the best social media element. I also really liked Coca-Cola’s America is Beautiful. I think people deeply misunderstood it. 

Bianca- The Doritos cowboy kid was definitely my favorite!

Kerri- My favorite was definitely Bud Light’s “Ian’s Up for Anything” ad

Ali- I thought the Heinz Ketchup one was cute since they celebrated what everyone knows about their ketchup: it's hard to get out of the glass bottles and makes funny noises in the plastic squeeze ones. 

Tiffany- Doritos cowboy kid!

Thomas: I thought radioshack had the best commercial during the Super Bowl from a branding perspective. It quickly got my attention, along with anyone else who grew up in the ‘80s, with tons of pop culture references. But, once the montage featuring Alf, Hulk Hogan and the California Raisins ended, they were able to speak to the new direction the company is going for in its stores. Just as significant, they unveiled a branding change going from RadioShack to radioshack along with a new cleaner font.

Sarah: Puppy Love by Budweiser! 

Katie: My favorite had to be Love Hurts by Turbo Tax.

Kelli: Budweiser, as usual, had some of the best, most well-rounded ads. They never disappoint. I actually really liked T-Mobile's #nocontract campaign. I thought it was funny how they played off Tim Tebow's lack of a contract. And I was legitimately talking about it with a friend today who was fed up with her carrier! 

Crissy: I was on the road during the Super Bowl this year, but I got a good laugh from USA Today’s Joe Namath-inspired logo.