Post-Super Bowl Advertising Analysis

We are here to provide you with a few post-Super Bowl thoughts. First, we have a couple of ideas for in-class activities you could use to foster discussion and learning in your classrooms. Next, we offer links to some of the best analysis of the 2024 Super Bowl ads. I am not an advertising expert, so I like to link you to analysis by those who are. My own personal observations were that this year’s ads were mostly “meh.” What did you think?

I find that discussions of Super Bowl ads can work any time of the semester. The week after the Super Bowl most of us are not covering advertising but bringing them back later in the semester still works well. Students remember the best ads and you have the benefit of all these experts out there commenting on the advertising.

Super Bowl advertising has the obvious link to coverage of the topic of media. But you can also ask students what they think are the advertising objectives, copy thrust (“what the words and illustrations should communicate” as we call it in Essentials of Marketing), and the potential measures of success. All are important topics in advertising and Promotion. You may also have some good examples of IMC as advertisers use social media to amplify the effects of their advertising.

In-Class Activities

Doing in-class activities has several benefits, including:

• Motivation: Students are more motivated to learn when they see how the concepts they are learning are applied in the real world.
• Critical Thinking: Students apply marketing theories to real-world examples, enhancing their critical thinking skills.
• Strategic Awareness: Analyzing the strategic underpinnings of high-profile ads helps students understand the complexity of marketing decisions.
• Creativity and Innovation: By critiquing and suggesting improvements, students exercise creativity and innovation.
• Real-World Application: These activities bridge classroom learning with real-world marketing, preparing students for future marketing challenges.

These activities not only make the learning process interactive but also help students grasp the intricacies of advertising and marketing strategies used in one of the most high-stakes advertising arenas: the Super Bowl.

ChatGPT is pretty good at designing creative in-class activities, so I turned to the AI to see hwat it would come up with, asking it for a bunch of ideas for in-class activities for discussing Super Bowl ads. I took two of the better ones and describe them below. If you are looking for more ideas, as ChatGPT yourself.

Activity Idea 1: Ad Critique and Analysis

Learning Objectives:

• To understand the elements of effective advertising.
• To analyze the emotional and rational appeals used in Super Bowl ads.
• To evaluate the alignment between the ad content and the brand’s positioning.

Activity:

• Divide students into small groups.
• Assign each group a different Super Bowl ad to watch.
• Groups will critique their assigned ad based on criteria such as creativity, emotional appeal, brand message clarity, target audience relevance, and call to action.
• Each group presents their analysis, highlighting what they believe makes the ad effective or ineffective.

Activity Idea 2: The Marketing Strategy Behind the Ad

Learning Objectives:

• To comprehend the strategic planning process for Super Bowl ads.
• To identify the marketing objectives behind selected ads (e.g., brand awareness, product launch, rebranding).
• To understand the role of consumer behavior insights in shaping advertising strategies.

Activity:

• Show a selection of Super Bowl ads from different years or industries.
• Ask students to identify the probable marketing objectives for each ad.
• Discuss as a class how each ad’s strategy might have been informed by consumer behavior insights, competitive positioning, and market trends.
• Encourage debate on whether the ads could be considered successful in achieving their marketing objectives, supported by rationale.

Links to Ads and Professional Analysis

The Internet offers plenty of online advertising critics. Here are a few that I found to be most credible. Note that some of these may require subscriptions (I tried to use “gift” links where possible, but they may or may not work for you). These links also include links to YouTube versions of the ads so you can review them yourself or show them in class.

• “The Super Bowl Ads Ranked,” New York Times
• “Super Bowl 2024 ads recap: DoorDash, DunKings, Beyoncé and the most-talked about commercials,” CNBC
• “An Average Super Bowl Ad Packs In More Celebrities Than Ever. When Is Enough Enough?” Adweek
• “These Brands Drove the Strongest Consumer Engagement in the Super Bowl, According to EDO,” Adweek
• “Celebrity-Packed Super Bowl Ads Won the Game Within the Game, Surveys Show,” Wall Street Journal

Add more fun and learning in your marketing class with Super Bowl 24 ads and activities.