Editor’s Note: This post about content marketing lessons from the 2019 Super Bowl ads was originally published on LinkedIn.
What was your favorite super bowl ad?
While I don’t think this year featured the equivalent of Apple’s “1984” ad, or even Volkswagen’s Darth Vader spot from 2012 . But there were standouts worth talking about today.
For me, I teared up when San Diego’s Coach Lynn met the first responders that saved his life 14 years ago. Same same with Microsoft’s We all Win commercial.
About half the households in America watched the game, which unfortunately was won by the Patriots. And brands spend more than a few bucks to be the stage. CBS was selling a 30 second ad for about $5.3 million. Brands also have to pay for the production, including paying for any of those celebrity cameos.
Here are three big themes B2B content marketers can steal from the 2019 Super Bowl ads.
Collaboration
The biggest surprise came with Bud Light’s Game of Thrones teaser. Not only did Bud and HBO have to work together to pull this off, but so did their agencies Wieden+Kennedy New York and Droga5 New York.
What B2B marketers can look for their own collaborations. Do you have a big event planned for later this year? Consider ways you can partner with vendors, event speakers and others on cross promoting the event.
Maybe you and a few other noncompetitive partners are all planning to attend Dreamforce 19. Is there a common theme you can all work together on and leverage your investments and amplify your messaging.
Reuse & repurpose
Another Super Bowl ad being talked about today was Burger King using 37-year-old footage from a documentary of art icon Andy Warhol eating a Whopper.
For content marketers, what assets do you have that can be repurposed into new content? I often talk about turning that eBook into a video and vice versa.
Another idea is to find an old blog post where you made predictions about the future of your industry. Go back and see if you were right, wrong, or somewhere in between.
Inclusion
Perhaps we’re all too tired of the divisiveness and polarization that is pulling us apart. But brands seemed to be more thoughtful about being inclusive in their super bowl ads.
You saw more strong, empowered women in the ads, such as with Serena Williams spot in Bumble. Microsoft’s spot about how its special game controllers enable everyone to plan. And Google told us the most translated words were “Thank You” and “I love you.”
The takeaway for content marketers is to go back and look at the content you have produced over the years. Does your audience see people like themselves reflected in your marketing?
Think about the pronouns you use in your copy, the stock images you use, and even the people you interview for for your podcasts and thought leadership articles (internally and externally)
Summary
What takeaways from the Super Bowl can you apply to your marketing?
One last thought about the super bowl ads. Did you notice all the streaming services advertising on in the big game? Amazon, Netflix and Hulu and even HBO had spots in the show. In this week’s Rethink Marketing podcast, Elle Woulfe from PathFactory talks about how the on-demand B2C economy, like Netflix, is changing consumer expectations for B2B marketing. Check it out.