Super Bowl Ad Lessons For Video Creators

So ends another year of Super Bowl fun and excitement, and congrats to the Green Bay Packers for a much deserved championship in 2011. I have embedded a few of the top and worst Super Bowl TV commercials of this year, and commented to provide some lessons for video creators.
Viewers seem to like Volkswagen’s “The Force” ad the best. It now has over 21 million views, and with good reason. Video production lesson: use kids to your advantage because viewers love seeing cute kids doing adorable things.
Bridgestone’s “Carma” ad has just over 1 million views on YouTube, but it’s still a lot of fun to watch. Video production lesson: Like kids, animals are very much loved by viewers of all walks of life. Combining a friendly animal with a funny gesture is genius.
Sex sells, but that doesn’t always mean it’s liked in a video. Go Daddy are known as being big Super Bowl spenders year in and year out, and usually do a pretty good job of matching their brand with sex, but in 2011 they failed with “The Contract” ad. Watch the 30 second spot below and see if you can tell me why. Video production lesson: using pretty woman in your videos certainly doesn’t hurt, but make sure you use them effectively to tell a worthwhile story.
Super Bowl commercials have been dominated by car companies over the years, and 2011 was no different. Chrysler had a brilliant one featuring Eminem called “Imported From Detroit” which told both Detroit’s and Chrysler’s stories together. Video production lesson: tap into viewer’s emotions and tell them a powerful yet simple story that they can tell to others to in turn inspire them.
The NFL did a spectacular job of promoting the sport of football, and most importantly celebrating their fans this past weekend with their campaign. It would be interesting to hear how much they spent on getting the rights to the content they used for their “Best Fans Ever” ad. Video production lesson: use objects and people in your video that viewers recognize. Giving viewers a frame of reference will help them remember what they saw, and motivate them to share your video with their friends and family.
It seems with every passing Super Bowl, viewers are getting more and more excited about seeing the new viral ads.
Until that special time comes again in 2012, it’s now your time to shine! Create better quality video entertainment by collaborating with our talented community, be sure to get a Spidvid profile and if you need any help at all just ask!