Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Quick Takes Tim Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio. Well, we all
Speaker 1: know there are two reasons people watch the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: One is, of course, the football, but the other one
Speaker 1: the commercials. NBC broadcast the game. It said it sold
Speaker 1: more than seventy of these spots. Some of those Carol
Speaker 1: costs as much as seven million dollars for thirty seconds.
Speaker 1: One of those getting a lot of attention today and
Speaker 1: last night, that Rocket Mortgage at It stars Anna Kendrick
Speaker 1: features a bidding war among barbies. Check it out. Barbie
Speaker 1: really wants this dream house. It's got stunning views and
Speaker 1: a slide. Barbies so cool. And Barbie found out about
Speaker 1: this dream house with an alert from Rocket Holmes. She did, well,
Speaker 1: it's a super competitive market. Everyone wants to buy the dreamhouse. Betty,
Speaker 1: I'll good ten over asking cash Street cause let's tear
Speaker 1: to the studs. Well, there you have that, having her
Speaker 1: financial house in order, That's all I'm gonna say. She
Speaker 1: certainly did. Yeah, I mean you have to in this market, right.
Speaker 1: Someone who knows quite a bit about advertising in the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl is Josh Mandel, President of Advertising at Technicolor
Speaker 1: Creative Studios. Technicolor Creative Studios produced twenty nine of last
Speaker 1: night's Super Bowl commercials, including that one from Rocket Mortgage, Josh,
Speaker 1: how are you very well? Thanks? How are you doing?
Speaker 1: What is the secret to creating a successful Super Bowl ad? Oh?
Speaker 1: I wish I knew. Um. I think that's what brands
Speaker 1: are struggling for every years, to capture the magic of
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl that. I think what we saw this
Speaker 1: year especially was a return to optimism and positivity. Um.
Speaker 1: You'll remember last year the super Bowl, it was right
Speaker 1: in the little of the pandemic and UM, I think
Speaker 1: a lot of brands felt like being easy to address
Speaker 1: the malays that people were feeling. But the super Bowl
Speaker 1: to it's a it's a moment where of celebration. It's
Speaker 1: a moment. I think it's described as our kind of
Speaker 1: last cultural empire momentum in the entertainment space where you've
Speaker 1: got people across demographics and race and gen you're coming
Speaker 1: together at one moment. So it's it's a big moments
Speaker 1: for France to leverage. And even though we you know,
Speaker 1: we see declining here on your um road numbers of
Speaker 1: viewers it's still it's still the best moment in America
Speaker 1: to to reach a big swath of our population. It's
Speaker 1: definitely a come together moment, right and destination viewing and
Speaker 1: you're gonna watch it live. It is an audience like
Speaker 1: no other. Hey, Josh, Having said it, I agree with you.
Speaker 1: I love the optimism, I love the creativity, and to
Speaker 1: be fair, even kind of take away the pandemic year
Speaker 1: or the beginning of the pandemic that I feel like
Speaker 1: the ads over the last few years have gotten And
Speaker 1: forgive me if you've been involved with them, but I've
Speaker 1: gotten uh not as intain entertaining and engaging. And we
Speaker 1: all talk about it in the newsroom, you know after
Speaker 1: the big game. What goes into and what was the
Speaker 1: thinking behind so many of the ads this time around
Speaker 1: in terms of style and who they wanted to target. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well I think you know, there are a couple of
Speaker 1: big trends, uh this go around. There is definitely a
Speaker 1: return to celebrity. I was trying to to create create
Speaker 1: some bang for the buck. So you know, we saw that,
Speaker 1: um the sports figures and the Michaelo bad. We saw
Speaker 1: the actors and the Nissan ad Um star power with
Speaker 1: Amazon and Alexa, so that there's a big swing in
Speaker 1: terms of m brands opening up their paychecks or their
Speaker 1: pocketbooks to U try to get to gain attention. I
Speaker 1: think the other thing was it a younger audience too though?
Speaker 1: Were they trying to go after a younger audience? I think, well,
Speaker 1: I think they're going after you know, you can see
Speaker 1: what the figures that they're using. They're going after as
Speaker 1: big as swath as they can of the population. They
Speaker 1: want to people to two people my age or a
Speaker 1: man at a certain age, but but definitely you know,
Speaker 1: young people as well. Well. I think that the halftime
Speaker 1: show was, you know that not an advertiser thing as
Speaker 1: much as the NFL, but that was an attempt to
Speaker 1: reach a broad audience as well. Yeah, well it does
Speaker 1: feel like I mean, look, I'm an elder what they
Speaker 1: call it, consider an elder millennial, Okay, so closer to forty.
Speaker 1: I had no idea they were elder And I gotta
Speaker 1: tell you, every time I stop at the TV, which
Speaker 1: was you know, for the four hours that I watched,
Speaker 1: the whole time, it was someone who I recognized, whether
Speaker 1: it was the halftime show music from my childhood growing
Speaker 1: up in you know, in southern California, of course, like
Speaker 1: people I was listening to in high school, whether it's Snooper,
Speaker 1: eminem uh. And then you know the actors and actresses
Speaker 1: featured in these felms, in these in these ads, it
Speaker 1: really felt like for the first time that this was
Speaker 1: a Super Bowl that was geared towards someone my age.
Speaker 1: We only have about forty seconds left, but then we're
Speaker 1: gonna come back with you, Josh. Sounds good. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: definitely think, um, you saw what you didn't see is
Speaker 1: probably more the bleeding metge of of where technology and
Speaker 1: social platforms are right now, which is kind of like
Speaker 1: talk styled user generated content. Um, that was a big
Speaker 1: scene three years ago. Some of the brands actually solicited
Speaker 1: ads from from people in the world. So again, I
Speaker 1: think this is a moment where brands wanted to own
Speaker 1: their platform at the Super Bowl. Well, let's get right
Speaker 1: back to our guest, Josh Mandel, president of advertising at
Speaker 1: Technicolor Creative Studios. He joins us on the own from
Speaker 1: Los Angeles. Technicolor Creative Studios produced twenty nine of the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl ads last night, which is just an astounding,
Speaker 1: astounding number. Hey, Josh, Um, really want to know, Josh,
Speaker 1: are you exhausted? I there's a lot of people who
Speaker 1: work in their studios who are very tired right now yet? Okay,
Speaker 1: and when do you when do you start like thinking
Speaker 1: about the next round? Does it start early or does
Speaker 1: it it come like in six months or something? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, it typically picks up around the brand the brands.
Speaker 1: You know that they're going to be in the super
Speaker 1: Bowl for sure, were well start conversations with them in
Speaker 1: September October around the scripts that they're seeing, and then
Speaker 1: when they walk in on an idea, Um, we're typically
Speaker 1: working December and January pretty heavily. Okay, Hey, one we
Speaker 1: gotta know and just ballpark it for us. How much
Speaker 1: are these celebs paid to Hawk products? You know? It
Speaker 1: runs a gamut, right and I think if you're just
Speaker 1: buying star power, you're probably talking millions. Um, But a
Speaker 1: lot of times there's you know, maybe a movie coming
Speaker 1: up or a TV show that they could use a
Speaker 1: little bit of extra energy and getting the celebrity out there.
Speaker 1: So it's definitely a sliding scale depending upon what the
Speaker 1: situation is. But if you see a star in one
Speaker 1: of these spots that you haven't seen maybe in a
Speaker 1: couple of years. Like we're talking like you know, between
Speaker 1: one and ten million dollars for for thirty second or
Speaker 1: sixty second ad. Yeah, I don't like I probably not
Speaker 1: a size ten. But um, if you're if you're talking
Speaker 1: about somebody who's who's definitely got current star power, and um,
Speaker 1: the majority of us watching the spot will be excited
Speaker 1: to see them in it than brands are are are
Speaker 1: plenty enough for that. So like the Toyota, keeping up
Speaker 1: with the Jones is, like, who do you first reach
Speaker 1: out to? Is it Nick Jonas? Like to get him
Speaker 1: on board? Because that ad didn't work unless you got
Speaker 1: them all right or at least or you needed some
Speaker 1: different Jones. Is there are a lot of Jonases Carol, Well,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of jonas is, but you wanted a
Speaker 1: lot of Jonas brothers, famous Jones. If there are a
Speaker 1: lot of a lot of contingencies built in. I've been involved,
Speaker 1: not my current job, but I have been involved with
Speaker 1: ads where we're locking the talent the night before I shoot. So, um,
Speaker 1: you're definitely you're definitely looking at a few different solutions
Speaker 1: based on the creative concept. Um creativity and I feel
Speaker 1: like this latest round of commercials it was really fun
Speaker 1: to watch. And I'll be honest with their seasons, you know,
Speaker 1: where I'm like flipping through them because I'm like, okay,
Speaker 1: not entertaining, not entertaining. Um, a lot of technology and
Speaker 1: you just think about visually what you can do nowadays,
Speaker 1: it's just mind blowing. Um. How do you think about,
Speaker 1: you know, involving technology into ads or is it based
Speaker 1: on what the customer wants or what's that creative process?
Speaker 1: Like Matt, Yeah, I mean our our companies founded on
Speaker 1: using technology in order to bring these these big ideas
Speaker 1: of the streams to life. So UM, I think what
Speaker 1: you're getting into this idea of creativity is Um, it's
Speaker 1: kind of the difference. I say, there's a difference between
Speaker 1: running and out on the Super Bowl and actually making
Speaker 1: a Super Bowl ad. Um. And if you're walking into
Speaker 1: the game with ambition and really wanting to own the moment,
Speaker 1: then then you're gonna come up with concepts and executions
Speaker 1: that require an awful lot of work from a production company.
Speaker 1: You've got usually a named director attached to it, and
Speaker 1: then that's just the VFX company kind of making sure
Speaker 1: that the car that's flying through the air looks real, right. Um.
Speaker 1: I think that's the difference. You can see the difference
Speaker 1: in the brands who who understand the creativity is a
Speaker 1: lot of times the force multiplier in our business. Um,
Speaker 1: it's one thing to spend the money in show up
Speaker 1: on the super Bowl, but if you're not kind of
Speaker 1: owning the moment, then um, then you know your dollars
Speaker 1: have better spend elsewhere. Who writes copy for these uh,
Speaker 1: that's it's sent by the agencies and advertising agencies. So
Speaker 1: they'll come up with the concept and they'll uh script
Speaker 1: it up in uh partnership with the brand. And then
Speaker 1: once they've got to create a concept, that's where we
Speaker 1: get involved. And then what do you guys bring to it?
Speaker 1: So Freaks and Sick, which we worked with Pepsi and
Speaker 1: le Gary Gray and Production Company on the three minute
Speaker 1: teaser for the Half Don Show. So, um, if you
Speaker 1: saw that spot, you'll know that Eminem was in a
Speaker 1: rock battle with his younger self and and the words
Speaker 1: that we're appearing in the air, that's all digital work
Speaker 1: that we're doing in order to bring that to life.
Speaker 1: So that would have been a concept that the agency
Speaker 1: came up with M and M was in a rap
Speaker 1: bottom with himself. And then once we understand what the
Speaker 1: concept is, we step in and say how it can
Speaker 1: be executed and for what level of visual fidelity we
Speaker 1: could pull it off. This time around, social as much
Speaker 1: as linear. Like, you know, we're talking a lot about
Speaker 1: the ads that we saw in the middle of the game,
Speaker 1: but social is a big component of it. How how
Speaker 1: important was social this time around? Well, yeah, I think
Speaker 1: you saw a real split between brands who got their
Speaker 1: work out early as well as brands that we're waiting
Speaker 1: for the moment um and didn't leak it out early.
Speaker 1: I think when you're talking about to a media spend
Speaker 1: and and you guys highlighted that before, that's just the
Speaker 1: media spend of six point five millions of the average.
Speaker 1: Most brands want a average that as much as they can,
Speaker 1: so they'll they'll go out um early, they'll get it
Speaker 1: out on social channels, they'll at least hease it a
Speaker 1: bit and then hopefully, you know, um, if the spots popular,
Speaker 1: then they'll actually carry over for a week or two
Speaker 1: after the Super Bowl. What about when it comes to
Speaker 1: calls to action And you know, we saw a lot
Speaker 1: of QR codes uh in. This one, coin Base had
Speaker 1: a QR code uh in, and of course the Rocket
Speaker 1: Mortgage one had that QR code for stock x uh
Speaker 1: in it as well. Right, Yeah, I mean, the how
Speaker 1: many people are actually utilizing that. I'm sure that the
Speaker 1: my hands were deep in nachos. I'm just gonna tell
Speaker 1: you that I was not pulling out my phone. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the coin Base one probably got some some it was
Speaker 1: just so uh you know, the mystery of what that
Speaker 1: thing was dancing around the screen. I'm sure got a
Speaker 1: lot of reaction to it. Um. But you know, you
Speaker 1: guys will remember a number of years ago, UM few
Speaker 1: R codes were introduced and and flopped pretty quickly. Took
Speaker 1: the pandemic forget catch exactly right. I think it's the
Speaker 1: pandemic and the and the use in restaurants that went
Speaker 1: into a real world, real world use case, and now
Speaker 1: I think we'll be seeing more and more of them. Well,
Speaker 1: what's funny is coin Base after they put out that
Speaker 1: ad um, they crashed. I think during that was like
Speaker 1: trending on social Um. We've got a story that their
Speaker 1: back up after addage reports falling that Super Bowl, So
Speaker 1: it definitely did it can I just ask you that
Speaker 1: Uber eats one Uber Don't eat. How many times did
Speaker 1: you though? Initially played to your group and they're like, wait,
Speaker 1: I don't get it, Like, but it was clever because
Speaker 1: it made us talk about it. But was there folks
Speaker 1: in your you know, focus groups are like what, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure about the development of that. I wasn't
Speaker 1: involved in the front end of it, but uh, look,
Speaker 1: that was another fun one. I think they did some
Speaker 1: great casting totally. The actors that they had in there
Speaker 1: really carried a lot of the story. Hey, listen, just
Speaker 1: got about thirty seconds left. There is there an ad
Speaker 1: you didn't do that? You're like, wow, that was pretty nice.
Speaker 1: Just quickly. I thought that the Dorito's Cheetos ad was fun.
Speaker 1: There was a nice energy to that, and when it
Speaker 1: started to go on longer than the thirty a little surprise.
Speaker 1: But I think they carried the day was that one.
Speaker 1: I know that one was in the top five the animals, right,
Speaker 1: just because it's our own baby. It was really really
Speaker 1: fond of the rocket corner to one that you guys
Speaker 1: played earlier. It's pretty cool. Yeah, it's getting a lot
Speaker 1: of attention today. I gotta tell anytime you put animals
Speaker 1: like talking and acting like humans. UM all in on that.
Speaker 1: I'm just all in Josh, this was fun. Um, good luck.
Speaker 1: I'm sure you're thinking about well at least got a
Speaker 1: few months where we have to think about the next
Speaker 1: round of Super Bowl ads. Josh Mendel present advertising a
Speaker 1: Technicolor Creative Studios. What you and I were in touch
Speaker 1: with the noon, cries the CEO of Mattell. He sent
Speaker 1: us a statement. Barbie was excited to be asked to
Speaker 1: start alongside Anna Kendrick and Rocket Mortages super Bowl ad man.
Speaker 1: Barbie just having a whole other life. Man, I kind
Speaker 1: of love in it.