Leaders of the advertising pack
Amazon’s Alexa emerges as the breakout star for Super Bowl LII. Take a look at all the rankings.
Amazon won USA TODAY’s 30th Ad Meter with a Super Bowl commercial starring Alexa, the virtual voice on the company’s Echo devices. She knows she won. Just ask her.
“Of course, by her nature, Alexa’s personality is humble, so if she could blush … we’re pretty sure she would,” said Michael Boychuk, Amazon’s executive creative director.
Ad Meter, presented by Kia, is a ranking of ads based on consumer ratings. Boychuk, who led Amazon’s Super Bowl campaign, responded by email.
“We went from script to spot in just a few months,” he said, riffing off a concept that started with the notion that people who use the Echo device are increasingly drawn to Alexa’s personality. “We felt that the Super Bowl was the perfect time to play off that customer insight and to portray Alexa in the uniquely human situation of losing her voice.”
The conceit of the ad is that celebrities try to fill in for Alexa. Chef Gordon Ramsay, rapper Cardi B and actors Rebel Wilson and Sir Anthony Hopkins each give it a go.
“As we built our concept of the ad, we brainstormed the celebs who might try and fail to ‘replace’ Alexa,” Boychuk said. The ones chosen were selected to resonate with different age ranges and demographics.
“We felt each of these celebrities brought something different to the table — both from a humor perspective but also from a skill set perspective,” Boychuk said. “For example, we know customers like to use Alexa in the kitchen — so we wanted to make sure we cast an over-the-top chef.”
Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is a celebrity himself and has a cameo in the ad. And Alexa herself is something of a celebrity by now, more so since the Super
Bowl. “We don’t think of her that way,” Boychuk said, “but it was fun to get her involved.”
The ad didn’t say how she lost her voice. Boychuk said if you ask Alexa if she were sick, her answer is: “I came down with a case of the acting bug, but I’ve got it out of my system … for now.”
Boychuk said had you asked her plans for the Super Bowl, her answer was: “I’ll be watching the game and trying to calm the butterflies in my circuits. I’m 10% nervous to be on TV and 90% SUPER EXCITED!”
Ad meter’s second-place spot went to the NFL for a two-stepping touchdown celebration as a spot-on parody of the Patrick Swayze-Jennifer Grey dance scene from the 1987 movie Dirty Dancing. Alexa ranked first among Ad Meter’s male respondents, and the TD dance ranked first among females.
Ads this year cost an average north of $5 million for 30 seconds, according to NBC. Ads cost $40,000 for the first Super Bowl in 1967 — before the game was even called that — which is roughly $300,000 adjusted for inflation. But advertisers are willing to pay the price because the Super Bowl offers one of the last places to find a mass audience watching an event live, commercials and all.
Kantar Media’s preliminary estimate of in-game ad expenditures this year is $414 million, second behind last year’s game, which was the first Super Bowl to go into overtime. There were 49 minutes, 35 seconds of commercial time — accounting for 22% of the broadcast — from paying sponsors, the NFL and NBC Universal. Anheuser-Busch InBev and Fiat Chrysler Automotive had 4 minutes of ad time, most of any companies, followed by Toyota Motor with 3 minutes and Amazon with 2 minutes, 30 seconds.
❚ How the NFL filmed the “Dirty Dancing” ad, 5C