Guest commentary: How Super Bowl ads can establish positive brand ties

Every year, the Super Bowl brings an action-packed lineup of ads to our screens, many of which come from leading automakers intent on promoting the latest models. Are they speeding toward brand building or crashing under the weight of high expectations?

According to System1’s Test Your Ad database, most commercials in most categories aren’t exactly stellar. In fact, half of all video ads score just one star in terms of effectiveness on a five-star scale (highest possible score: 5.9 stars). Yet when looking at the average scores for auto ads aired during the Super Bowl year on year, we see a pattern of strong performance. In 2020, auto ads in the Super Bowl averaged 3.1 stars. In 2021, they averaged 2.6 stars. In 2022, they increased to an average of 2.9 stars.

We know that the most effective advertising inspires an emotional response from viewers.

Who can forget Volkswagen’s now infamous Darth Vader spot during the 2011 Super Bowl? Car ads shown during the big game are great examples of how to make witty, memorable and effective work.

Auto manufacturers must aim to carry this momentum throughout their work year-round. After all, a car is one of the biggest purchases people make (and more than likely, a decision that’s only made every few years, if that). Thus, it’s imperative that marketers help consumers build long-lasting, positive brand associations. So, what are the insights that can keep the category running like a well-oiled machine?

Risk-averse mentalities can lead to conservative ads. There’s been significant innovation on the sales end of the pipeline — think digital showrooms, virtual test drives and car deliveries — and that type of thinking needs to be incorporated at the brand-building stage, too.

There’s sufficient evidence that entertainment is good for brand-building and business growth. Chevrolet’s 2022 “Walter the Cat” sequel scored 4.9 stars and offers the unexpected — a cat that behaves like a dog and outshines the owner’s truck. Fun, frivolous and yet also impactful.

Meanwhile, Kia’s ad for the 2022 Super Bowl, “Robo Dog,” scored an impressive 4.8 stars by telling an engaging story about a robotic dog chasing after Kia’s electric vehicle. The soundtrack, “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” was the perfect fit for the ad, which created sadness and then expertly resolved those feelings with happiness by the ad’s conclusion.

For every exciting Super Bowl car ad, there are many airing at other points of the year that feel a bit too generic — top-down shots of mountain and forest roads, close-ups of wheels and interiors, and so on. There are so many cliches to choose from that in 2018 Lexus had AI script a car ad and the computer still managed to outscore 70 percent of the System1 database. You read that right — it ditched the creative team and still snagged a decent score.

Toyota’s 2021 and 2022 spots, which coincided with the company’s sponsorship of the Summer Olympics and Winter Olympics, respectively, deviate from the traditional formula. Rather than putting a car at the center of the action, the brand focuses on inspirational athletes Jessica Long and Brian and Robin McKeever. The emotionally engaging storytelling positions Toyota for long-term market share growth and both ads also score incredibly well on brand recognition, proving that breaking car ad stereotypes can be effective.

Car brand ads are often feature-led — meant to highlight capabilities like electric engines, on-board driver assistance and other technological advances. Brands want to spotlight the latest and greatest functionalities, but ads that focus too much on features leave little room for storytelling and emotion (the thing that matters most when it comes to long-term sales potential).

Jeep’s 2020 Super Bowl ad ditches the “voiceover narrating features” approach and instead pulls in cultural references from the movie Groundhog Day. Viewers see Bill Murray’s character, Phil, having fun taking the groundhog for a ride in his vehicle, day after day.

It comes away with an exceptional 5.2-star score and the top spot in System1’s ranking of Super Bowl ads that year.

If you do have a stellar feature to promote, consider leveraging humor to showcase your capabilities, like Hyundai did with its 2020 “Smaht Pahk” ad featuring Boston natives John Krasinski, Chris Evans and Rachel Dratch. It scored 3.4 stars, representing good potential for long-term market share growth.