Monster bets on game for comeback
Headphone maker shells out millions for 60-second spot
Monster Products hopes to engineer a comeback of its own during Sunday’s Super Bowl LII telecast.
The South San Francisco consumer electronics maker will air its first Super Bowl commercial — indeed, its first TV ad of any kind — during the fourth quarter of the NFL championship game between the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles.
The 60-second spot will star rapper Iggy Azalea, who will debut her new single, “Savior,” featuring fellow rapper Quavo. The ad will also have appearances by Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry, country singer Big Kenny, rapper Yo Gotti, “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” regular Jonathan Cheban and former boy band baritone Joey Fatone.
Considering that NBC is reportedly charging more than $5 million for just 30 seconds of airtime, Monster Products has put a lot of money on the line to convince viewers it has rebounded from a disastrous 2014 divorce with the Beats by Dre headphone line.
“This is really our coming-out party after the Beats debacle, putting us back on the map,” said CEO and founder Noel Lee.
Monster Products has struggled since the dissolution of its partnership with Beats Electronics co-founders Jimmy Iovine and Andre “Dr. Dre” Young three years ago. A clause in the contract eventually forced Monster to turn over the intellectual property it used for the Beats by Dre headphones to Beats Electronics. Apple bought Beats for $3.2 billion in 2014, after Monster had been cut out of the partnership.
The Super Bowl perennially draws TV’s biggest audience — more than 110 million viewers — and Monster is using the chance to tout its revamped lineup of headphones, earbuds and other audio products.
The commercial is the first big public marketing push since the company bought the rights to rename Candlestick Park as Monster Park in 2004. The company, then called Monster Cable Products and based in Brisbane, paid the San Francisco 49ers $6 million for the fouryear naming rights deal, only slightly more than it’s paying now for one minute of Super Bowl airtime. After the deal ended in 2008, the name reverted to Candlestick Park, which was eventually torn down.
Lee said the ad starts with YouTube star RiceGum, who has 9.3 million subscribers, portraying a younger version of Lee in a subway station listening to Azalea sing, but realizing the audio shortcomings of the free earbuds that come with smartphones and tablets.
The young Lee then goes back to his lab to try to re-create the live performance sound and comes out with new headphones. It’s very loosely based on Lee’s own story — he started the company in 1978 in a Richmond District garage to create better speaker wires.
Lee called it a “big budget” ad but declined to say how much it cost to produce. The spot is also the first ad to come from the NBCUniversal Content Innovation Agency, which is owned by Comcast.
“It’s expensive, but it’s worth every penny,” he said. “There’s no doubt that it is a risk, but that’s what you do in business, you take certain risks.”
It also has to differentiate itself from the online jobs board Monster.com, which has advertised during past Super Bowls, and other products like Monster Energy drinks.
“We want to say this is Monster the audio company,” Lee said.
Monster Products will be trying to stand out among dozens of farbetter known advertisers, from AnheuserBusch to Wendy’s.
Monster won’t have the only consumer electronics pitch in the fourth quarter. Retail giant Amazon has a 90-second spot with celebrities like Gordon Ramsay, Rebel Wilson, Cardi B, Anthony Hopkins and Jeff Bezos helping Echo’s computer voice assistant Alexa, who has lost her “voice.”
Other Bay Area companies with Super Bowl spots include San Francisco’s Airbnb and SoFi, Mountain View’s Google and Intuit, Intel of Santa Clara and Netflix of Los Gatos, according to AdAge.
One big, splashy Super Bowl commercial has proved effective in building a brand. More than three decades later, the advertising industry still talks about “1984,” Apple’s Super Bowl XVIII ad that introduced the Macintosh computer.
Ira Kalb, assistant professor of clinical marketing at the USC Marshall School of Business, said companies like Monster “can reach a bigger audience ... for less doing a sustained effort, not one shot, on social media,” Kalb said in an email.
Monster plans to post a longer version of its spot on YouTube after the game.
Kalb said there’s a danger in using too many celebrities.
“The entertainment value may not make the benefits of the product clear,” he said. “When celebs are used, customers often remember them and forget the product.”
Still, it wouldn’t be a Super Bowl without celebrities in ads. Cindy Crawford will reprise a memorable 1992 Super Bowl spot for Pepsi. The beverage maker will also feature Peter Dinklage and Morgan Freeman in linked ads for new versions of Doritos and Mountain Dew.
In a Pringles ad, actor-comedian Bill Hader has a snack on set and introduces a made-up practice dubbed “flavor stacking,” in which the actor stacks together different Pringles varieties.
M&M’s has released a teaser showing Danny DeVito dressed as an M&M being dunked in chocolate.
And Squarespace hired a bearded Keanu Reeves and sat him by a campfire to tout its Web hosting services.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.