Clever Creative: A Super Bowl-d Move

In today’s “Clever Creative,” the Southern California Honda Dealers are giving people a new reason to pay attention to Super Bowl commercials. However, this ad is not some gimmick to get you to look out for their spot during the game because they won’t have one. The SoCal Honda Dealers are asking you to watch other companies’ commercials because they’ll be raising money every time there is a cliche in one of them. See a baby, puppy or hipster in a Super Bowl ad, and that means anywhere between $1,000 – $20,000 will be donated to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. Check out SoCal Honda’s Super Bowl-d move:

Why our GEMites liked this Clever Creative:

Simply put, this ad is genius! They decided to do some clever advertising before the Super Bowl that will have people thinking of them during other companies’ commercials. We know that come this Sunday, we’ll be looking out for these cliches in the ads for the enjoyment of playing along, and to see how much money SoCal Honda Dealers can raise. The best part about their creative is that they paid normal prices for the ads and don’t have to shell out the whopping $5 million needed for a 30-second spot this year. You can even play along by going to their website, which in turn helps donate more!

The business is essentially using the money they could have put towards a regional Super Bowl spot and using it for a much better cause: charity. In today’s society, people expect companies to be socially responsible. This ad for So Cal Honda Dealers is killing two birds with one stone by effectively keeping their company at the top of people’s minds during other companies’ Super Bowl commercials and doing their philanthropic part in the community.

Why our fellow creatives should like this:

As we mentioned, ads this year are $5 million for 30-seconds; but are they actually worth it? Yes, they get you a massive amount of exposure to audiences, and if they’re good enough, they can get major buzz and free publicity. However, that doesn’t mean it will help a company’s sales or that they are even reaching the right audiences. In fact, according to Advertising Age, 80% of Super Bowl ads don’t help sales.

We think our fellow creatives should like this ad because SoCal Honda Dealers realized how ineffective the ads could be, and instead came up with something that could cut through the ad clutter of the Super Bowl (a.k.a. The Advertising Wars) in advance. At the end of the night, people can hardly remember what company had which advertisement. By advertising two weeks in advance and leading up to the big game, this company will have shown the ad to customers more than three times already, which is the supposed number of times a person needs to see something before it sticks in their head. This puts the folks at SoCal Honda ahead of the competition, and on top of that, their ad encourages people watching the Super Bowl commercials to think of them while doing so.

Finally, this ad acts as a wake-up call to everyone in the advertising industry, and you should appreciate that. If a company can outline each cliche we will definitely see in the string of Super Bowl ads, then you know it’s time to revamp them. The ad’s Super Bowl-d move in calling out the predictability of Super Bowl spots, should be a piece of advice that all advertisers take to heart.

Let us know what you think, and be on the lookout for next week’s installment of Clever Creative!

If you’re looking for some clever creative of your own, feel free to contact us.

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• Clever Creative
• Super Bowl
• Honda