Performance Communications | January 28, 2016
The Super Bowl, which reaches its landmark 50th running on Sunday, Feb 7, has cemented its place as one of the biggest, most spectacular sporting events on the global calendar.
While football (of the American version) hasn’t always been the pinnacle of sports in the US – until as recently as the mid-1950s, baseball and basketball were held in far superior regard by the American public – football now dominates US sports entertainment culture and the Super Bowl is its shining light.
With a global audience of 167 million viewers for last year’s contest between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks – the Super Bowl makes up the top 21 broadcasts of all time on US television – the event is not just a sporting spectacle.
As well as some standout moments on the field, the Super Bowl offers sponsors and advertisers a unique opportunity to reach a vast global audience in one hit. Indeed, Super Bowl TV ads have become an event in their own right, with huge anticipation, previews and a cult following. That said, it’s not cheap – the average cost of a 30-second TV ad to be aired during the Super Bowl broadcast increased 75% in the space of 10 years and reached an average of $4.2 million in 2014. The ‘Big Show’ has come a long way since its first running in 1967, when my beloved Green Bay Packers triumphed and a relatively meagre 50 million viewers tuned in.
As we approach the landmark 50th anniversary, here’s our top 10 Super Bowl moments, from both a sporting and a commercial point of view:
10. The Tackle
With the Rams leading 23-16 in the final minutes of Super Bowl XXXIV, the Tennessee Titans, led by quarterback Steve McNair, almost did the unthinkable and tipped the game on its head. Leading his team down to the 10-yard line with just six seconds left, McNair then hit Kevin Dyson on a slant pass at the three-yard line. Dyson lunged for the end zone in the dying seconds but was stopped just half a yard shy thanks to a last-ditch tackle by St Louis linebacker, Mike Jones.
9. The Superbowl ad
To a cult following, the Super Bowl TV ad has almost superceded the game itself – adverts get bigger, more elaborate and more expensive every year. But it was all started by none other than Apple. The company’s “1984” ad, aired just once during Super Bowl XVIII, was directed by Ridley Scott and introduced the Apple Macintosh personal computer for the very first time.
8. The guarantee
Three days before Super Bowl III, New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath declared in a media interview that, despite being major 18-point underdogs to the Baltimore Colts that “We’re going to win, I guarantee it…”; he kept that promise and the Jets triumphed and, as Namath walked off the field, he raised his finger to the Colts fans, presumably signalling his team’s #1 status and becoming the NFL’s first true icon.
7. The wardrobe malfunction
Believe it or not, the term ‘wardrobe malfunction’ only entered our lexicon on February 1, 2004 when Justin Timberlake exposed Janet Jackson’s breast during the Superbowl XXXVIII halftime show on CBS. The broadcaster got slapped with a $550,000 fine for the incident but there is no doubt that it became the most talked-about moment of the event.
6. The kick
The New England Patriots and St Louis Rams were locked in a 17-17 tie as the clock wound down in Super Bowl XXXVI. Smug quarterback, Tom Brady, drove his Patriots down the field and kicker Adam Vinatieri nailed a 48-yard field goal to win the game as time expired. It remains the only time that a Super Bowl has ever been decided by the final play of the game.
5. The Disney link
In the US, if you’re a pro athlete who’s won a championship or indeed, if you’re simply a legend in your own lunchtime, you get to shout the immortal catchphrase “I’m going to Disney World!”; the first to do so was New York Giants quarterback, Phil Simms, after winning Super Bowl XXI. The idea was that of Disney CEO, Michael Eisner, who was one of the first to tap into the growing phenomenon of the Super Bowl and paid Simms $75,000 for the ad.
4. The Montana Magic
Trailing 16-13 with just 39 seconds left of Super Bowl XXII, legendary San Francisco 49ers quarterback Joe Montana led his team down the field but couldn’t find his primary receiver, Roger Craig. However, a deft adjustment to find John Taylor breaking free into the end zone produced one of the most iconic passes in Super Bowl history, and a victory for the Californian team. The touchdown remains the latest to decide the game in all of the Super Bowls.
3. The miss
Super Bowl XXV may be the most dramatic in the game’s history. The New York Giants were leading 20-19 as the clock wound down but Buffalo Bills quarterback Jim Kelly drove his team to the 29-yard line. Bills kicker Scott Norwood had a chance to win the game, with a 47-yard kick attempt, but the ball sailed wide to the right of the uprights and the Bills lost the game. Buffalo would go on to reach another three Super Bowls but they would never get closer to winning one than this.
2. Lights out
In one of the most embarrassing moments for the storied NFL, a power outage at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans caused the lights to go out on Super Bowl XLVIII and a 34-minute delay ensued. Officially, the Baltimore Ravens won the game but, for many in the PR/marketing industry, this Super Bowl was really won by Oreo, whose quick-thinking ad agency produced a simple ad showing an Oreo biscuit and some darkness, with the tag line “Power out? No problem – you can still dunk in the dark”. The resulting tweet went ballistic and was re-tweeted some 15,000 times in the space of two days. Other brands seized the ‘Blackout Bowl’ opportunity too, including Audi which took the chance to burn Superdome sponsor Mercedes by tweeting that it would send some LEDs to the stadium. But, no matter how good the game was, this Super Bowl truly proved what an opportunity the event is for marketers – during the blackout, there were 231,500 tweets a minute, compared with 183,000 a minute when the Ravens sealed the deal.
1. The catch
For all the business importance that the Super Bowl now carries, it’s the action on the field that really counts to the football purists, and you don’t get any better clutch play than David Tyree’s circus catch in Super Bowl XLII, which kept the New York Giants’ dream alive. With NYG quarterback, Eli Manning, facing a blitz from the New England defense, he somehow avoided being tackled and got the ball out to a tightly-covered Tyree. In a leaping grab, with defenders all over him, Tyree leapt for the catch and trapped the ball with one hand against his helmet, before gaining full possession at the New England 25-yard line. Two plays later, the Giants scored the winning touchdown and prevented the Patriots from completing what would have been a famous unbeaten season.
