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Each week Grey brings you five important things happening in the world of social and digital media.
This round table panel covers platform updates, creative inspiration, stories in the news, and more.
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welcome to the five things this week in Social this is the Webby award-winning podcast that
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looks at five stories from social data content AI Ecom and Tech to give you something smart to say
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when you're asked what event is the Super Bowl of advertising well it's obviously the Super Bowl of
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advertising if you're a marketer an Advertiser a Creator or anyone who makes a living by using
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social platforms then you are going to want to keep listening because today we are breaking
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down the five biggest Trends we learned from watching analyzing and roller skating our way
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through Super Bowl 58 the only TV program more watched than the 2024 Super Bowl was the 1969
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moon landing broadcast the quote unquote big game was watched on CBS Paramount plus and Nickelodeon
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to a whopping 123 million viewers according to neelen a 7% year-over-year increase from last year
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the game was in Las Vegas it was a spectacle for fans and non fans alike between Usher's halftime
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show and SpongeBob's kid-friendly broadcast tons of celebrities stunts a Streaker ads and somewhere
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in there was an exciting football game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco
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49ers there was literally something for everyone including Beyonce fans we are here to break down
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the trends that we saw at gray that were the most exciting to us it's going to be a fun
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show we have a firsttimer on the Pod joining me for a very special one-on-one conversation from
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Gray its brand strategist Mijal Bucshbaum hello Mijal welcome to show hi Joey thank you I'm very
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excited to be here we're so excited to have you question for you what is your favorite Super Bowl
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food do you like the wings the chili the nachos that's a great question I have to go with wings
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it's a classic and then if you put Wings in a dip even better so good so good well I'm Joey
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skillo and this year I made a great turkey chili that I was very proud of okay here are the five
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things or rather the five Trends we should take away from Super Bowl 58 Mahal is going to break
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down first how brands are tapping into scarcity and second how the use of two celebrities is
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better than one one next we'll dive into the weird fever dream that sort of ruled the day number four
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mascots they never die and number five how could we have this conversation without discussing the
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Taylor Swift of it all did you really think we weren't going to mention Taylor and Travis all
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right friends let's get into it we've got so much to dive into Mahal kick us off with brands that
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are tapping into scarcity yeah I thought that this was a really interesting theme and Trope that we
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kept seeing in a couple of different ads this year we were just seeing brands that were tapping into
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good old human psychology so we saw that people were positioning their products as being scarce
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in whatever environment they was living in to really Drive interest among consumers so we
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know that scarcity drives urgency in consumers by associating the product with something that
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everyone really wants and something that you need to get your hands on before it sells out so
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it does create this illusion of something that is valuable and highly sought after that if you're a
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consumer you should also want the best example I think that we saw this year was the Doritos
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Damas spot with Jenna Orga from the teaser to the actual Super Bowl spot we saw the scarcity
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theme come up again and again with the teaser we were seeing that there were no bags left of the
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product in stores and then during the actual spot we just saw this like silly little theme of people
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fighting over the last bag so really playing into that another example that we saw this year
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was Mel of ultra that used Messi to chap into this theme so we see that Messi asks for Mel of
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ultra it runs out and I thought that was really interesting was that they had the bartender ask
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oh do you want another beer and Messi refuses so that was a really great way that the brand
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was able to position themselves as something with no alternative it's either Michelob Ultra
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or no beer at all yeah I think that's really interesting you know the Doritos ad was great
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I like Doritos just as much as the next guy but I'm not the person who runs out and grabs like
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the newest one but these actually looked really good and interesting so they they really did a
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good job of of bringing that one through do you think you know specifically in the Doritos add
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that this scarcity idea maybe Taps into a little bit of of fear I mean it was only a few years
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ago that people were fighting over the last R of toilet paper during covid so do you think there's
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some connection there do you think that's what the advertisers were going for totally I think
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that we can't deny that consumers have seen scarcity play out in different ways for the
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past couple of years I'm not going to say that this is a covid Trope but maybe it does have a
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little bit of its early days in Co we saw people you know back in 2020 fighting for toilet paper
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rules and then as a result of covid we then had other ways that scarcity played out with supply
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chain issues with you know people not being able to get cars because they couldn't get the chips in
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it and then I think that what we're seeing today in the modern day scarcity is when pro products
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are blowing up on Tik Tok and then it's impossible to get them because they sell out so consumers are
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very very familiar with not being able to get their hands- on products and it does really
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accentuate the fact that it's a beloved product yeah I love the idea of treating a bag of Doritos
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like a supreme drop you know like only certain people can get this or there's only one bag left
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all right well that's great what a cool Trend that you guys found there all right let's dive into our
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second one because it's number two two celebrities are better than one why don't you talk to us about
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how many celebrities were in all these spots there were a lot this year a whopping 56% of Brands were
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featuring celebrities in their spot a little over a half which is really crazy I think that every
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year we are seeing an increase in celebrities that are being used and it's no longer just having one
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celebrity in your spot it's really a star studded cast which is a new kind of invention that we're
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seeing in the Super Bowl ads so ads are really prioritizing integrating celebs naturally and
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creating an authentic spot for them to play in so that it doesn't just seem like you're having
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a celebrity for the sake of having a star in your spot I think that what Sarah ve did this year was
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really interesting by including Michael Sarah in their in their commercial obviously I don't
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think that Michael Sarah is known as a celebrity with the most Supple or moisturized skin but his
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last name literally has the brand in the name so I thought that this was a really interesting way
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that they were able to authentically tie in these two celebrities and brands in a way that felt
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interesting to Consumers yeah it's interesting you brought up the Michael Sarah spot it I
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thought it was really creative but not just the actual spot but all of the leadup around it like
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seeing him in a in a Brooklyn Bodega right buying the product or writing his name on the product it
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sort of felt a little reminiscent I think it was one or maybe two years ago with Michael bé doing
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the same thing with the bubbly but for some reason this one felt like it hit a little it sort of hit
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more on culture and people tended to gravitate towards it a little bit more but going back to
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having multiple celebrities I'm curious what what do you think is the secret is having more than
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one celebrity in a spot is that does that make the spot successful does that hit home for you did it
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work in some spots better than other spots right obviously everyone's talking about the Duncan
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ad that was like had it seemed like every shot had a celebrity in it versus like the Michelob bad
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that you mentioned that had a few random cameos what what works better for you in your mind when
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it comes to using celebrities yeah you can't deny Brands really put their money into celebrities
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with Duncan Paramount elf they all went for a lot of celebrities but I don't think that necessarily
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throwing your money into celebrities is always successful I think that you really need to be a
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part of the cultural Zeitgeist and understand what is happening around culture and that will lead how
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you should involve your celebrity into your Brands advertising so for example even Helman Mayo for
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example had a really great way of integrating a couple of celebrities into their spot and
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then referencing specifically how Pete Davidson was allegedly dating this celebrity cat and then
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they had a break up very quickly obviously Pete Davidson fans know that he might date around and
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have a lot of short-term relationships and thus that makes a lot of sense for them and it's just
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a little funny nod that I think gave them a lot of props with the fandoms so all to say you can have
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a lot of celebrities if you don't use them in the way that is maybe appropriate maybe natural maybe
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authentic it's not going to land yeah yeah well I mean we love celebrities in spots but this year
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it did seem like there were it was it was sort of turned up a notch all right let's let's dive into
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our third thing we're just like moving right along here this is great so another theme that
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you found across all of the Super Bowl Trends was Brand's diving into this sort of fever dream of
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some sort of reality or weird reality why don't you talk to us about that one I think that what
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seems like the line share of these ads to be frank leaning weird which I think is a spot to do it if
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you're going to be trying these wacky story lines the Super Bowl is the place to do it and I think
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that consumers are prepped to watch these ads in a way that is more interesting than a typical spot
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that is running throughout the year people want to be intrigued and people want to be pulled in
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by interesting stories and so anything from as I said earlier cats becoming super Superstars and
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dating Pete Davidson to Dan Levy breaking Windows of the homestock Cal office with a giant champagne
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cork or maybe Reese's fans smashing through walls in Anger there were a lot of wacky ads this year
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which I think a lot of us got some laughs out of so we might be seeing although there is still a
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space for them and we still saw them and some of them were big Winners maybe some brands are
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trying to lean away from those heartfelt emotional ads that have been ropes in the forever forever
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we've always seen these very heartfelt ads and we saw them again this year but I do think that the
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majority were a little bit more on the wacky side which which were some of your favorites I really
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loved the Pluto TV spot they had couch potatoes to represent couch potatoes so they brought consumers
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into a field where they were harvesting couch potatoes and all of these people dressed up in
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literal potato outfits were just talking about their favorite spots and I thought it brought
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a really fun American Pride aspect to something that is usually viewed as negative just sitting on
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the couch watching TV but they brought this whole like Americana feeling to it that was really cool
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yeah I ironically after the Super Bowl maybe not directly because of the ad but we we did
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download the Pluto app because there was a movie we wanted to watch and it is really cool it's kind
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of cool to watch TV again just like whatever's on you just watch yeah so good on Pluto that's
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awesome I'm curious with all this like weird stuff that was happening do you think do you
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think us as viewers are more primed for that kind of content because of things that we've seen on
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social media do you think that trickles into our viewing pleasure and that's why we're getting so
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weird Super Bowl ads have always been weird but now it seems like it's a little bit more I don't
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know just like a it's it's less shocking but we still like it absolutely I think that social media
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has completely changed how we see stories and the stories we find intriguing and even our ability
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to pay attention for prolonged periods of time so I think that a lot of these advertisers are are
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trying to obviously because the spot is very short and you need to get your point across quickly but
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also because attention spans are now very short we want to make sure that we are packing a punch very
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quickly and I think that also because of social media we're seeing that new things are humorous
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and new things are funny and it's really fun because I think it's giving advertisers a lot of
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room to play and and new ways to maybe try to tell stories that they might not have been empowered to
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do so before they can now try new things because social media is really giving us the ability to
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tell stories in a way that might not have been accepted traditionally if that makes sense oh it
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totally does absolutely does I think it's great all right let's move on to to number four and
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let's talk about mascots because it is a football game after all football teams have mascots of
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course but so to Brands so tell us about how the mascots never die so mascots as we know are just
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recognizable assets that Brands were not shying away from at all this year and as I said before
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with limited time to create memorability during a Super Bowl spot it's really important that Brands
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can create create association with themselves as quickly as possible and for a lot of them
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mascots are a really great way to do that so I think that a great moment this year was Mr P and
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Pringles so as we all know Mr P is the mascot with the mustache on all of the Pringles cans
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and what Pringles did was anthropomorphize Mr Pete into the Beloved Chris Pratt so so they had this
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really great storyline about him kind of getting confused with Mr P and all of the things that came
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along with that and that was a really cool way that they used their mascot which is something
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that we all know and that has become a part of their capital and really really really used it
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as an asset and used it to their advantage and then this led them to an entire social activation
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and a social campaign where users were prompted to find Mr P with the hash I see Mr P and then
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share it on social and so pretty much they were just asking people to look throughout their real
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world life and see if they could find anything maybe it was a crack in the pavement that looked
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like a man with a mustache like the typical Mr P mascot that we see so that was a really
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fun way that mascots were involved this year in ads that's great that Pringle spot I thought was
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great but maybe I'm a little biased gray did work with Pringles on that spot they're they've been
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a client of ours and we've done some Super Bowl spots with them before but objectively I did not
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work on the spot I loved it I loved seeing Chris Pratt in that role I'm a big fan of his from his
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work on going all the way back to parks and wreck and then of course Guardians of the Galaxy and
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whatnot so I thought it was great uh I'm curious do you know what reaction fans give whenever a
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brand doesn't use one of their mascots what have we seen in the past years when say a brand move
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tries to move away from some sort of mascot or brand identity yeah we've seen this happen
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a couple of times in past year specifically for example Budweiser decided to step away from the
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Clyde stales last year during their Super Bowl ad and their there was an uproar everyone was like
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where are the Beloved horses like where are they and so this year their spot centered completely
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around it and I think that specifically was great for them to show that they were listening that
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they are tapped into what their consumers are saying about them and they gave the people what
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they wanted which I think is the most important thing M&M's did this too by last year saying
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that their mascots were going to take a Hiatus their spokes candy as they call them and then
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of course they brought them back and this year we saw them in their spot where they deserve to
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be in a Super Bowl ad back with whatever Footwear they're wearing exactly we love those M&M's okay
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before we get to our fifth and final thing here I want to just say that this Trends report that
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you all put out had more than five things in it quite a few more if we could because we have to
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end with talking about Taylor Swift do you just want to quickly mention what the other two trends
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that you all found were yeah the other Trends we found was past campaign callback so pretty
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much we're seeing that some brands are choosing to instead of concepting an entire new ad they
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are building larger ecosystems that will continue coming up as the years go on in their Super Bowl
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ads so we're not saying that they're going to do it for a third year we're seeing that some
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of these brands are saying hey this was a success the people loved it let's do it again or let's do
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it in a different way that's interesting yeah and we saw that what from the kick of Destiny coming
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back and the E Trade babies were there any others that jumped out to you yeah Duncan bringing back
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Ben Affleck I thought was another great example of that yeah and then what was the other Trend
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that we found found the last Trend we saw was about sweep Stakes so a couple of different
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brands decided to try to do some sort of giveaway some sort of sweep Stakes but we saw that they're
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doing them in different ways that are a little bit more interesting than just enter to win for
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example door Dash giving away everything that was advertised during the Super Bowl was an extremely
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creative very cool very interesting way to do a giveaway that didn't just lean on giving away
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money or anything of that sort another thing that I did that I thought was really great was really
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making sure that they were there was a reason for them to do that they were trying to communicate
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that door Dash is for more than just ordering food you can order tens of thousands of other
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things and that was a really cool way to Showcase all of the different capabilities on the platform
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yeah I thought that was a great ad I thought it was a great campaign I don't know if anyone has
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won I haven't heard but um what a great what a I love when Brands work with other brands I think
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being in the industry we sort of understand how complex that can be and so I just thought kudos
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to Door Dash I just thought that whole idea everything you said it was just really really
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smart okay friends time to get into our fifth and final thing how could we talk about the Super Bowl
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without talking about the Taylor Swift of it all I mean some may say that she stole the show some
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may say she stole the season but I'm curious what do you say Mahal thank you for asking Joey that's
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a great question yeah let's be honest Taylor Swift has stolen the year everything has been
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Taylor which is really interesting when it comes to sports which is something that maybe a lot of
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us had never Associated her with but obviously her new relationship to Travis Kelce has completely
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changed that so before the Super Bowl social media was saturated with speculations on is she going to
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make the Super Bowl or not as we know she had a show the previous day in Tokyo and so fans were
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very concerned if she was going to be able to make it to the loss of Vegas Super Bowl in time
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but then there was also talk about people betting on how many times she was going to make a cameo on
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screen during the game so she was everywhere you cannot Escape Taylor Swift and Swift's
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influence really increased viewership among 12 to 17-year-old girls during the early NFL season by
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a whopping 53% so you really can't deny that she had a true effect on all things Super Bowl related
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beginning on the earlier sides of the Season by bringing a whole new viewership to the NFL and
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we believe that this is what likely influenced that ails ad and what they decided to develop
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by bringing a quote unquote singer in they didn't have an official partnership with Taylor Swift but
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they were making some very obessive references to her and Travis Kelsey but during their spot they
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kind of showed how there was this relationship being bridged between a father and a daughter
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by being able to watch the football game together which was a really interesting thing that we saw
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in general happening on social by people saying that you know they could watch the football game
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with their fathers what we've seen not just at the Super Bowl but throughout this entire season
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is that there's no denying the sup there's no denying the Taylor Swift effect there's only one
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Taylor Swift right there's only one NFL and she's not gonna what we learn from this is not going to
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be a recipe or a textbook or a master class in what every brand can do I think to Travis and
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Jason Kelce they've got a podcast that skyrocketed in the charts because of Travis dating Taylor I
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don't think this podcast will be as lucky unless somebody on the show starts dating Taylor Swift
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or somebody like Taylor Swift so these things are going to be really hard to recreate but I
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guess my question for you is what can Brands take away what is the takeaway this what we
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learned from watching Taylor Swift interact with the NFL and just being an icon this entire
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season I think that what BR can take away is the halo effect that she she has on so many Brands
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just by associating herself with them or seeing how Brands can tap into the culture that she has
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created around herself so for example Taylor wore a pair of sheer text tights to the AFC
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Championship Game immediately after that happened the product sold out immediately immediately and
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so I think that understanding that some sometimes it's just sheer luck no pun intended of maybe the
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Celeb already likes your product and it's going to have really great business effect but also
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if you understand Taylor and everything that's happening around her and what seemingly Ranch
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means then you can tap into it and you can have a lot of success on social and being able to speak
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about these celebrities and how they might relate to your product is a way that Brands can win quick
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and win easy on social but obviously with the warning of you can't seem gimmicky you want to
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be authentic you want to do it in a way that really makes your product shine and it doesn't
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just feel like a money grab or it doesn't seem like a place that your brand doesn't belong yeah
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so pay close attention to what is going on and the zeist and if you don't understand it it's
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probably not best for your brand to post it those are all great Trends great insights really awesome
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conversation Mahal thank you so much for joining us today thank you for having me Joey this is so
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fun yeah of course we're gonna have you back for sure okay well that does it for us if you don't
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already be sure to follow us share us review us like us or write to us with your questions
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comments concerns points of interest or complaints or just send us a thing you want us to discuss
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you can do all of that by emailing us at podcast gray.com connect with us on SP Spotify by sharing
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your thoughts on the show just for the Q&A field this week we have this week we have a whole crew
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to thank for helping us build this Trends report the team includes Gabrielle Marshon Claire heaps
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Samantha Fischer Jean Donahue Gabriella Mercier Gabriella Mercier shyen rinsky Emily Rizzo Montana
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Allen Brianna hunt will Leonard Alex black with special thanks to Ari Santana and of course Our
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Guest today Mahal bookbound Mahal like I said let's make it a thing this podcast is produced
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by Samantha Geller and Jayda Hinds postproduction by Amanda Fuentes guy rosemarin Kyle St aath and
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Ned Martin at grmarc parkk Studios the five things is hosted and executive produced by me
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Joey skillo you can now listen to this show on YouTube look for us at famously effective
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we'll be posting our episodes there and of course you can listen to us on all of the podcast apps
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a quick program note here the five things will be released every other week moving forward if
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you haven't subscribed to our newsletter you can do that in the show notes and that is it
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for us this week listener thank you and as always please be social grey is a global creative agency
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whose mission is putting famously effective ideas into the world check out more at grey.com