Right About Now with Ryan Alford - Do Super Bowl Ads Work on You?

Episode Date: February 9, 2021

In this episode on The Radcast, host Ryan Alford is joined by guest Tyler Lewis, the Director of Client Solutions with Neuro-Insight. This is a loaded episode discussing Super Bowl ads and why neurolo...gy is such an important part of the marketing and advertising process.During the episode, guest Tyler Lewis shares with Ryan, Josh Hill, and Mike Weston, how people process information through neuro-analytics. This is a two part episode. Expect the second part next week when Tyler joins us again, dissecting the data from the Super Bowl ads, and if they were effective or not.If you enjoyed this episode of The Radcast, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Subscribe and share the word if you love what we discuss, so we can keep giving you the strategies to achieve radical marketing results! You can follow us on Instagram @the.rad.cast | @radical_results | @ryanalford |Follow Tyler Lewis and Neuro-Insight at www.neuro-insight.com | or on Twitter @neuro_insight If you enjoyed this episode and want to learn more, join Ryan’s newsletter https://ryanalford.com/newsletter/ to get Ferrari level advice daily for FREE.  Learn how to build a 7 figure business from your personal brand by signing up for a FREE introduction to personal branding https://ryanalford.com/personalbranding.  Learn more by visiting our website at www.ryanisright.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel  www.youtube.com/@RightAboutNowwithRyanAlford. 

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 you're listening to the radcast if it's radical we cover it here's your host ryan alford hey guys what's up welcome to the latest edition of the radcast i am joined for a special edition i might say four guests in one uh four in one here on the Radcast. We're bringing all the heat today. You know, it's Super Bowl time. Super Bowl just passed, and we thought no better time to kind of talk about the impact of the Super Bowl, and specifically the impact of neuro in marketing. We're going to get brainy today specifically i'm joined by tyler lewis here he is the director of client solutions am i getting it right tyler yep i'm going to really think through that here on a monday the monday after the super bowl and it's a it's basically a blanketed term for uh arbiter of everything yes i can I can appreciate those, running a company.
Starting point is 00:01:06 I don't ever know. I kid. I'm also joined by Mike Weston, our creative director, and Mr. Josh Hill, our digital marketing manager guru. Extraordinaire. The guy. Ad guy.
Starting point is 00:01:22 Digital media guy. I joke all the time. We struggle with titles as well because, you know, how many hats do I need you to wear? Exactly. There's not enough titles. Appropriate there. But Neuro Insight Company, you know. Tyler, let's start there.
Starting point is 00:01:40 Like, I want, let's explain a little bit about what you do, what Neuro Insight does. Let's knock that out because I think it's cool. It's really interesting what you guys are doing. Let's start there and then we can kind of get into some of it on the Super Bowl. 100% appreciate that. No, so Neuro Insight is a company that specializes in the art of applying neuroscience to understanding how people respond to creative or content and the entire crux of what we do is based off of the fact that whenever we watch something or interact with anything there there's
Starting point is 00:02:13 two different types of processing that happens of content right you have explicit processing of things that you can actually like talk to or respond to being potentially like you know what do you remember this do you like this do you like that or do you dislike something and then there's implicit processing which is which happens in the subconscious and the subconscious is makes up 90% of our human brain processing and it dictates how we it dictates how we respond to things or how we act on things later on. So we're able to look at how the brain is actually responding to things in real time to understand whether or not we're able to communicate effectively the messages that
Starting point is 00:03:00 we're trying to communicate to people. And naturally, people will remember things that are memorable or that are emotionally engaging, but it's important for us to use neuro-based methodologies to understand how people are actually responding to content. So our company measures literally brain response with these head caps of how people's brains are responding to content in real time instead of asking people questions on the back end this is the future like it's like when when i coming up through marketing it was like this is what you know like i can like see
Starting point is 00:03:38 it like in a you know like here's what we might do one day you know like you see flying cars and like in other things it's like one day we're gonna be able to put something on your head and know how you're thinking about it like this is it isn't it yep absolutely i remember i kind of miss qualitative focus groups because you know the snacks were really good yeah i mean nielsen buttons what happened to nielsen buttons i mean yeah can people eat while they have their brain, their brain pad on their brain cap? Qualitative focus groups are very entertaining, but understanding how people are truly processing information is, is, you know, what we're specializing in, like, especially again, because we're going to get a lot of responses of people telling you in a qualitative focus group,
Starting point is 00:04:24 what they think you want to hear in a focus group or understanding of like telling you in a qualitative focus group what they think you want to hear in a focus group or understanding of like you know what they think they want to know but at the same time the subconscious is so much deeper in in driving our future action which is why we exist as a company well if you ask anyone does advertising work on you they all say no exactly those ads don't work on me but i i did like that commercial yeah that's usually what you hear josh what's your perspective on on all this oh man ads work on me i would there was a time i definitely was like absolutely not but now i'm like working in it in the space. I'm like using the algorithm and stuff.
Starting point is 00:05:07 And now I'm like, you know what? I'm going to purposely like trigger my algorithms to show me things so I can buy things. I was like, I want, I want it to work on me. So as we transition, like we wanted to bring Tyler on because, you know, we're going to have a follow-up. This is a two-part episode. we're going to have a follow-up. This is a two-part episode.
Starting point is 00:05:28 Tyler's team is analyzing a lot of the Super Bowl ads and the ones that supposedly ranked high. We're going to find out if they really rank high on our follow-up episode next week. So one and two. But I do want to just get into a little bit of discussing what we thought of the big game. I don't think we're going to get uh marked by the super bowl ron and i joke pre-episode like can we talk about the super
Starting point is 00:05:49 bowl you know and like the trademark or whatever i think uh this is a non-paid uh podcast so uh i think we're good so we can say super bowl we can say super bowl it's not the big game was what i called my bowl of guacamole yes yes yes but uh what was everybody's uh i'll start with you tyler i mean what was your It was what I called my bowl of guacamole that I made. Yes, yes, yes. But what was everybody's – I'll start with you, Tyler. I mean, what was your impression of – hey, look, we're the Radcast. We can talk about whatever the hell we want, like both the game itself and the ads.
Starting point is 00:06:19 Look, I'll tell you what. I think I'm very biased in this response, but I was very happy that Tom Brady was able to pull off what he did at the age of 43. It was a fairly boring game overall. I think the game was, like, done after the first half, but overall, like, was very pumped to see that Tom Brady was able to pull it off. Being from Michigan, have a lot of strong ties to Tom Brady and the University of Michigan in general.
Starting point is 00:06:48 So, you know, I was very happy. It was very cool to see and witness greatness live. You know what I mean? Like this is something that we will never see again in our lifetime. So from a game perspective, great. From an advertising perspective perspective i think people were trying to and trying too hard to um be safe you know what i mean i think that safety was replicated in the number of celebrities that we saw in the advertisements and the the amount of
Starting point is 00:07:20 like slapstick comedy that was also presented because i think we've gotten to a point especially comparing it to like past super bowls we've gotten to a point where everyone is trying to play it very very safe brands are trying to play it very safe that's the reason why we haven't seen um the amount of like super bowl ads being bought as quickly as they used to in the past years for example um last year uh the super Bowl was sold out in November. CBS didn't sell out their Super Bowl ads until the week before the Super Bowl. So brands are playing it very, very, very, very safe.
Starting point is 00:07:56 And they didn't take as many risks as they used to. And that being in taking social stances or taking stances in general on their own like brand ideology people were just trying to make jokes and be entertaining yeah mike what do you think i i wonder how much of that i agree absolutely i think it was one of the lamest years in a long time but i gotta i gotta say i gotta ask all of us how much of that had to do with this 2020 this this crap hole of a year that we just came out of sure right and i thought one of the best spots made light of that uh the bud light seltzer and lemons when life when life deals you lemons you
Starting point is 00:08:37 make lemonade brilliant absolutely i love that but i think a lot of what we saw is a result of the year that we just came out of. Yeah. And continues, frankly. Josh, how did you feel overall? I mean, the game was kind of boring. I kind of zoned out of the football game. Again, after halftime, I was like, yeah, this game's over. The boy Patrick's not having fun anymore.
Starting point is 00:09:02 His line couldn't defend against a group of senior citizens. Definitely not. It was horrible. The whole game, he scrambled everything. I think all four of us could have gotten through that line. Absolutely. I think so. They were pathetic.
Starting point is 00:09:18 I will say watching Patrick, I mean, he was like horizontal, you know, full body. He threw the ball 40 yards. And the guy dropped it. I was like, how do you throw from that angle? His face after that was very telling. And Patrick's like, he's the nicest guy. And that was the most eat shit look you'll ever see out of him.
Starting point is 00:09:43 Like, what the hell? You feel for the guy, man. He was trying to do it all on his own, and you just can't. But I mean, yeah, but like ads-wise, I mean, I was not surprised by like the amount of like nostalgia. But maybe I guess the extent of the nostalgia push was like a little surprising. And it just seemed everyone was kind of trying to do the whole like grab celebs with built-in audiences that's all i was surprised by the amount of social media influencers or like celebs i think culturally we're finally like recognizing youtubers and like tiktokers and stuff as like actual celebrities in the like tv world which is like a lot of times a youtuber is
Starting point is 00:10:22 going to be far more like popular than a like a tv actor or movie actor stuff like that um so that was that was interesting from my perspective because a lot of them kind of had follow-up like social media tactics of like they gave david they gave david dobrik the like mountain dew car like so that was kind of fun but like it felt like everyone was just kind of phoning it in at the same time of like yeah remember the remember when things were good back in the day of these old ads right we're not gonna make any new ones we're not gonna do anything to make things new or exciting or innovative but let's just let's just like get some memories in yeah i thought it was man overall we talked a little pre-episode about that but i it felt safe. It felt like no one really knew what tone to take.
Starting point is 00:11:11 So to Tyler's point, they defaulted to humor, which is never a bad place. We all want to be entertained, which is good. But it just felt flat. There were highlights, and we'll get into some of our favorites here shortly. But it just fell flat. There were highlights, and we'll get into some of our favorites here shortly, but it just fell flat for me. And I don't know if it was a combination of the games and the ads, but it did make me wonder about the strategies of where you fall. And I guess I don't know how much you can dictate.
Starting point is 00:11:39 I know you can choose quarters and things like that. But depending on the spot that you became before or after, I think can sometimes dictate your success because I found myself like when a really shitty ad would run, like one that I wasn't interested in, I kind of tuned out, and then I halfway didn't pay attention to one that was actually pretty good, the next one. Then I'd start, okay, it catches my attention.
Starting point is 00:12:04 I don't know if there's any. My brain would probably tell you something tyler i don't know absolutely no well 100 well that's that's something we've done a lot of research on too is coming from the perspective of understanding context context is so important in how people respond to things because there's flow right if I show you the same advertisement on Facebook versus TV, you're going to have a very different response to it, right? And the same thing applies to an emotional game like the Super Bowl where, you know, you have various like ebbs and flows and some advertisers are going to be lucky enough
Starting point is 00:12:40 to be behind like some big play or touchdown that's going to impact their brand in a certain way whereas like if the game gets boring you know people are going to tune out and have a very different response and this is all dictated by what is influencing how we're responding to things in real time it's almost like you know you asked me about neuroscience on a beach versus neuroscience like in this context we're gonna have very different responses to it like if we're on the beach you're like what the fuck why do you want to talk to me i don't want i don't need you around but if we're in this context you're like more engaged right
Starting point is 00:13:16 so you know that has a massive impact on how people are responding as well and i think the fact that the game was out of hand by the time we got to halfway through the second quarter everybody else who had spent five and a half million dollars on their advertisements beyond the second quarter were screwed over yeah yeah yeah but that's always been true too you know i think about you know one of my favorite ads, and I'm incredibly biased because I'm a huge Springsteen fan, was the spot that he was in for Jeep. And it came in the fourth quarter after a really lousy game, and I was thinking, how many people are going to react to this? Because they didn't see it.
Starting point is 00:14:01 At that point, they'd lost interest in the game, and they'd moved on. Well, I saw where they did the top five searched, and the Jeep ad I think was two or three in searches, but I think it's because nobody saw it because they weren't watching the game at that point. And it was spring standard. Yeah, with that too. And my only issue, it felt contrived to me.
Starting point is 00:14:22 I was like at the time, issue it felt contrived to me like i i was like at the time like i it was like trying to to make a point to make a point or something trying to be somewhat uh in the throes of understanding how people feel and wanting to bring people to get i don't know it just it came contrived to me i don't you know like adwick's take because adwick would setweek said it just kind of rang hollow. Yeah, in a weird way. It was so deep, it was hollow. Or trying to be deep. They were looking at the fulfillments like,
Starting point is 00:14:54 oh, I guess someone needs to do a come-together ad. I guess we'll do that one. Well, it's interesting because Donor wrote that spot. And the head of Jeep marketing had been trying to sell, he's a huge Springsteen fan, I guess, to John Landau, Springsteen's producer, for a long time, and Bruce finally bid on it and loved it. And it was really well written.
Starting point is 00:15:19 It was a smart idea, the middle of the country. But yeah, you're right. It's the Super Bowl. It's commercials. God, as much as I adore and worship Bruce Springsteen, it was kind of disingenuous. Yeah. You know?
Starting point is 00:15:32 They didn't overtly try and sell Jeep, and they did sign off the reunited states of America, but it was a Jeep spot. Yeah. Right. And I don't mind seriousness. My favorite spot last year was the Google spot doing Google Assistant and the old man giving himself the reminders. Loretta.
Starting point is 00:15:57 I thought that was the best ad by like a million miles last year. And it wasn't funny, but it was so, I mean, I was like crying in my seat. I'm in the middle of this. Like, if you can move that emotion in me when I'm watching a football game, I'm munching on nachos, I got barbecue sauce all over my face. You know, like I'm laughing through four other commercials, and then I'm like tearing up in 30 seconds. You've done your job. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:16:16 The one spot that came close, I thought, but I think it got caught up. Yes. Absolutely. Toyota, yeah. Yeah, that was nice. That was nice. I have to confess, confess though i saw the preview of it last week but oh yeah i thought i thought it was a wonderful story i mean the art direction
Starting point is 00:16:31 was wonderful and but i wonder how many people it was really lost on right you know well well i think i think toyota did a good job but they were able to solidify that spot early in the game um before it got out of hand yeah and this was a very unique super bowl too because not only do we have this situation where you know um we have unique times that people are going to talk about within their advertising this is the first super when we're talking about context this is the first Super Bowl where a lot of people can't get together like they used to. Back in the day when we were consulting on Super Bowl ads, it was all about like, look, you've got to tell a visual story. You've got to tell something that doesn't require audio
Starting point is 00:17:16 because 90% of the time people are going to be at a party, probably drinking and probably just with a bunch of friends and you're you're you're going to be drowned out this is the first time that attention was very important and i think the super bowl advertising in this context actually failed at taking advantage of that opportunity to have people's attention because you can actually like take a message and run with it i think the best the best version of that was like some of the social stuff that that happened on the side and and i think that was the coolest part of the super bowl that i want to talk about as well as you know not the ads themselves not the five
Starting point is 00:17:55 and a half million dollars that say anheuser-busch would would would pay for a 30 second spot but it's the social networking that the twitter ads that were released like during during this time that people were retweeting and talking about because people had more time to go on twitter yeah a lot more time to go on social and those were the things that were trending on twitter last night was the things that were social based things that people weren't, weren't served during the Superbowl itself. Yeah. And that's a great point about attention because with COVID you still didn't, you had fewer,
Starting point is 00:18:32 probably there are some idiots out there like on top of each other, but most, most reasonable people were, you know, at smaller gatherings or home. Right. And like me, I mean,
Starting point is 00:18:43 even, even I'm in the ad business and i'm normally paying way more attention probably to the commercials than the average person beyond just the humor of it or whatever the interest level would be i definitely was in a more because i wasn't at a party i wasn't like i was definitely it's a great insight and i i think even it even makes me uh actually think they failed more. I don't know. They had a moment in time to do something bold.
Starting point is 00:19:11 That's where I thought the Jeep was trying to be bold. It was just trying too hard or something. That was what it was. But yeah, missed opportunities. I know, Josh, you picked up on some of the social stuff. Yeah, I mean,
Starting point is 00:19:24 as soon as the game was getting boring i was spending i was watching the commercials but during the game i was scrolling through tiktok and i saw tide had um a bunch of kind of like 200 to like 2 million follower like channels on tiktok like they made their own hoodie with their own face on it and they were getting that dirty, and, like, talking about it, I think they had probably, like, 10 or 15, like, different influencers use that, and I saw, like, David Dobrik had the Mountain Dew car, he gave it away to one of his buddies, and, like, that's, like, a guaranteed, like, five million extra impressions right there, and then people are going to be sharing that too like i think it's the extensions and then like the instagram ads of like clips of the ads that you recognize it when you see it on the tv i think just helps reinforce but it's definitely interesting well well i mean if
Starting point is 00:20:15 you look at so this morning in preparation too was just looking at some of the winners of the super bowl and the winners of the super bowl were not people who paid money to advertise in the super bowl yeah the winners of the super bowl were people who ran social campaigns you know or didn't even like bother to like very very legacy super bowl advertisers who decided not to advertise and just focus on social like budweiser you know had a more of an impact on people's mindset about their brand than the advertisers themselves yep totally well there's when an ad's not an ad yeah right exactly i mean we've seen that before of people who i mean they did as commercials too but like when they went around the super bowl
Starting point is 00:21:05 but didn't actually like the the old spice like look at your man now look at you like now look look back at your man like that was not a super bowl ad it was it ran before super bowl and it ran after but a lot of people remember as that because it was there and then instagram and youtube was really heavy with them too i I think capturing that second screen of what's in your hand during the commercials or during the boring parts of the game. Again, if you're at a party or if you're home alone, you're going to be on your phone way more often either way. What did everybody think of the Reddit execution, the five-second ad?
Starting point is 00:21:40 I think it was great. I think they did a really good job of disrupting because we're sitting here talking about it right now like it had a pretty pretty awesome impact um and the timing was perfect too the in in when we're talking about timing and reddit in general yeah how about the robin hood ad yeah right which was which the robin hood ad was the second to last on the ad meter right you know given given the the recent context of what robin hood has influenced with gamestop right right um what do we think about that i thought they either i i liked that they stayed in in a way, but I hoped that they were going to not be tone deaf,
Starting point is 00:22:27 and they were because they didn't change it. I think that was the spot they were going to run two months ago. It was in the can. I would have done something more organic. I would have either apologized or like, you know, I don't know, but you can't fucking call yourself Robin Hood and be like the feeling. It's like the complete antithesis of what you've positioned yourself.
Starting point is 00:22:53 Right. Trickle-down trading. And instead of just hoping that maybe not enough people know about you and running a general awareness brand spot about how you're Robin Hood is just bullshit. Yeah, they were tone deaf. I think one of the issues too is like Robin Hood would have had to screen lock that pre the issue that we ran into. So they would have had to screen lock that with CBS last week. So one of the things that we're seeing too is like, you know,
Starting point is 00:23:20 they probably had this ad bought already. Then, you know, found themselves in a bowl of shit. And, you know, just like reacted in the best way possible. But, you know, at the same time, like their reaction was not as positive as they could have. You know what? Honestly, not to belabor Springsteen and G, but they just shot that spot last week.
Starting point is 00:23:45 Yeah. You know, Robin Hood could have turned around and done something really, really simple in a very short period of time. Yeah. I would have – they didn't make a gesture or do something just to put your head in the sand and act like it didn't happen, which is essentially what they did. We live in a day and age where you know and i built an agency around it
Starting point is 00:24:06 about this notion of real time the ability to impact and you know the fact that and in tv now like you said the jeep they recorded they they did last week everything like that that capability is here like you can do these things and turn these things around and leverage the insights because this is what's happening is we now have the power to to act upon these things that are happening so quickly and to just not take advantage of that just felt like a complete lost opportunity well i think that's a good point ryan um When we talk about just reactivity and ability to react on these things in general, I don't want to make it way too massive about TV is a dying breed, and you guys do a really good job of taking advantage of social
Starting point is 00:24:58 and taking advantage of being really incredible social marketers on Instagram, on TikTok, et cetera, et cetera. you know being really incredible social marketers on instagram on tiktok etc etc you know as you think about tv and how we advertise on tv one we're losing viewership two you lose reactivity on social you can react immediately right and you know something that happens within you know the week that you have to be the super bowl at like into the super bowl is going to make a massive impact on like how people respond to you and like the example of this is robin hood in general it's like they had to like lock their ad last week um had a very poor response to it whereas on social you can be very more dynamic in the way you ever and you take
Starting point is 00:25:44 advantage of the times because we're in a we're in a point in time where we're adapting every single day to the news that we see and you know we start to think about and this is one thing too that we we have to address is is the super bowl even worth it anymore you know what i mean like we may have reach but do we have actual effectiveness and do we do we actually see roi on this yeah i think uh my i i did an early josh and i did an episode and i effectively called mass marketing dead so i think everyone everyone that listens to to cast no verizon on this uh you know that was a humble plug but no it's like but that's what again the reach is incredible and the awareness you can get i still think there's value i don't know if it the roi pays off but you know you get 10 billion people i mean i don't know what the
Starting point is 00:26:42 numbers exactly are yeah so last night i saw projections of 148 million last year was 98.4 million so yeah i mean you get you get that you get that reach but again you know but you got to use it i think it's still right i think it just goes back more to the execution like it's like it's not enough to just have that reach and throw something up there yeah safer otherwise like and i mean i as much as i hate it and i'm sure everyone did but the oatly thing with the the the guy singing which i think was stupid and bad on purpose you know right but like it i at least respected it for trying to do something different you know in its own way as much as i hated it i hated it i was
Starting point is 00:27:24 about to bring that up but it's like hated it i hated it i was about to bring that up but it's like it's like finally someone is like i was so refreshing because like finally someone is being like yeah we're not gonna be for everyone it's like the my favorite like liquid death water company yeah they sell water and they call themselves liquid death and it's got a skull on the can and it's just like yeah they're not trying to appeal to everyone and it's like yes i respected that more than the jeep spot yeah so what does that tell you i mean you're a republican i mean the only ad too is it was just such a i mean that was also one of the worst rated ads and i think i think when we think about it, it's like, why was that? But also, is being bad also kind of okay for your brand? You know what I mean?
Starting point is 00:28:10 Yes, we're talking about it. Exactly, 100%. How many people are rushing out? If we go back to some of the work that we've done with Pepsi, I know that, for example, we tested the Kendall Jenner ad after they had the big blow up. But one of the things is that, or if we think about politics as well, is negative publicity bad publicity or is it just publicity?
Starting point is 00:28:38 Because the things that we're not going to talk about are the things that are going to be ranked between number five and number 45 in the ad meter things we're going to talk about are ranked you know 65 and below or one through five right yeah and you know i i think you know only being one of them is like maybe was it so bad that it was good and was it a creative like was it actually maybe more effective because it was bad? Is the thing that I'm looking forward to looking into next week. I'm looking forward to it, too. And if I was a betting man, I bet you it tests neurally well.
Starting point is 00:29:16 If I'm phrasing that correctly, Tyler, with my brain analytics. I mean, you're going to notice. I'd be noticing the bottles in the the store like way sooner now like oh yeah you're gonna see it like i think it elevated their brand awareness and it was terrible but i think that i think they were i think it was brilliant i think they knew exactly they knew it was bad yeah part of me when i first saw it i was like oh god this guy just was the ceo and wanted to be in his own spot. And then I watched it a little longer, and I'm like, they know exactly what they're doing right here. They know it's bad, but they want it to be bad.
Starting point is 00:29:58 Well, I know at the little super spreader I was at, everyone kind of stopped. What the? But there was silence finally. It ended. It ended. And then it's like, what the but there was silence finally everyone watched it ended which i think that's my that's my favorite kind of humor is like yeah there's the the self-aware like wayne's world humor or whatever but like i feel like the true humor is where people are like what is happening right now yeah but maybe my brain's broken. Can you scan that, Tyler? Is that a thing we can... We could save you the time and money. It is broken.
Starting point is 00:30:30 But I think one thing to kind of address... There's a couple of things. But the one thing to address, first and foremost, Rocket Mortgage, for the first time, was able to get one and two on the ad meter, which is incredibly... You've never seen that on the ad meter and this is how brands think about the super bowl as well it's like from the clients we've worked
Starting point is 00:30:50 with they want to win the ad meter and the ad meter is like such a forgive my language bullshit like understanding of how things like how people respond to things it's just like do you like it or do you not like it at the end of the day people are not going to remember rocket mortgage tracy morgan is going to get most of the the you know like attribution on this like he's yeah exactly like he's the one who's getting followers today rocket mortgage is not getting anybody new who's going to like get rocket mortgage today you know um so so what i what i heard talking about one and two on the ad meter so i was watching one of the news shows this morning uh full disclosure i do watch television and and they were talking about how they were using rocket mortgage effectively used other influencers other people that are rocket
Starting point is 00:31:46 mortgage influencers ricky fowler to encourage all their millions of followers to go to ad meter and vote for for the tracy morgan ads the response right sure exactly and that's gaming the system and that's how that's how you know people are also going to utilize this as a win for them. But again, that's what comes back to what we do. At the end of the day, if we're using influencers to vote for something, if we're using celebrities to actually try to communicate some sort of emotional response, the celebrity is going to be the person who actually drives impact what we what we can do as a neuroscience company understanding how people
Starting point is 00:32:32 respond to information is if you don't if you don't communicate your brand then you're completely you know you're completely screwed right yep exactly you've got it the moment in time there like just making something that's funny and throwing your logo at the end i just don't think you're getting it done definitely right right absolutely absolutely and and i think that was that was what we saw and what we consistently see in Super Bowl creative is the inability to integrate a brand into your advertising to make your brand affable and, you know, relatable. You know what I mean? I think one of the, one of the best examples of this that I've seen in my work is, you know, last year there was a Colgate ad with Luke Wilson and he was talking about how he had
Starting point is 00:33:26 really bad breath. And that was the whole joke. But what, what people do is they try to create a story. They try to create a film in 30 to 60 seconds and then throw their brain at the end. But at that point, people are already turned off. People are already like, okay, I got the story. I'm done. But I gotta, I gotta'm done. I got to take issue with that for just a moment. And granted, I've been in this business a long, long time. And I've had to forget
Starting point is 00:33:53 everything I knew over the last 25 years just to immerse myself in digital. But I still think people want to be entertained, want to be sucked in. And that's that's i've i always i was taught and i believe that you need to entertain people or inform people draw them in suck them in i think that colgate spot was brilliant because i watched it all the way to
Starting point is 00:34:17 the bloody ankles it was interesting it was fun it was entertaining and rules and youtube about you've got to get your name in there in the first five seconds and blah, blah. I think that's the way to turn people off. Right. No, I agree with you 100%. So there's two things there. And coming from our perspective as well is I hear this all the time, too, because a lot of the insights that we deliver as a company is how do we optimize our advertising a lot of the times it's all about taking advantage of the most impactful scenes in an ad which is not dictated by timing it's not going to be the first five seconds or the last five seconds it's not like the middle 15 whatever it may be you have to find those scenes that people engage with and throw your brain on top of that.
Starting point is 00:35:06 But the problem that we deal with as an industry is humans have become accustomed to being very turned off by advertising. We don't want to be like the normal consumer. We're all advertising folks. We love advertising. It's fun for us, but you know like everybody else Doesn't love that at all. So what we see is we have this thing called conceptual closure where the the last 50 years of advertising if not more Has been very formulaic. It's 27 seconds of advertising or a story, and then you have three seconds of branding.
Starting point is 00:35:49 The brain has been conditioned to shut off right before branding, and people will just not remember what's going on. You have to take advantage of those moments and those elements that are very impactful that allows you to put your brand in the best light. And the formula for advertising needs to change. And that's the thing that we're trying to get to. It needs to change because when you look at data, for example,
Starting point is 00:36:17 like a very simple example of this as well is when people like – there have been many eye-tr tracking studies done when people go onto google when people go onto google they're going to immediately jump to the fourth or fifth search result because they know the first four or five yep our ads and i do that and and and like and this is how we change this and like we've got to be better at brand integration. We've got to be better at telling a story about our brands. Sure, you can use celebrities, but make sure that your celebrities are not taking from your brand itself. Make sure that they're not attention vampires.
Starting point is 00:36:58 And you have to tell a very positive story about your brand that relates to your brand. You can make a sweet, cute viral video that will be fine. And like, you know, people will like engage with it. And like, you might be lucky if your brand is integrated with it. But as a brand itself, as you know, we've changed neurologically as well through one COVID through two quarantines through three, like, you know, over the years being conditioned to this stuff, you have to be able to tell a story that consumers can engage with because the biggest consumer in the world,
Starting point is 00:37:34 the consumers that are going to be able to, like, drive some sort of, like, response are the people who are going to be, like, feel like it's a personal thing to them. And that's why Facebook advertising is really good and that's why facebook advertising is really good that's why instagram advertising is really good is because it's embedded within a very personal space and that's how we can like fix tv advertising is like by driving some sort of personal connection but be dictated by the old Don Draper. Not that old.
Starting point is 00:38:15 The old Don Draper aesthetic, though, which is like, I'm going to pay $5 million to have this really great celebrity. That's not gonna convert anything it's only gonna get drake more listens on spotify it's not gonna make sure that you are selling state farm you know what i mean yeah i thought we saw it a little bit it was the only thing i liked about the wayne's world uh spot but i thought someone was going to be smart enough to do a TikTok ad for the ad. Like using everything that is a TikTok video, not ad, excuse me. But just that whole notion, edited, used, done as TikTok, I think it would have performed well. And I think, because again, the tension spans in there.
Starting point is 00:39:02 And obviously with the brand integrated. I think that's the biggest issue is, yeah, it's great and all. Like the same thing with Rocket Mortgage. Like it was fun and it definitely, they were trying to relate it to the brand. And I get it. It was almost whatever it was, you know, is it almost a parachute or whatever. Trade Tracy Mortgage. Tracy Mortgage.
Starting point is 00:39:25 Yeah. But it's like integrating the brand in a way that keeps interest and holds interest but drives engagement. And I think that's where it failed the most. I feel like there was just this opportunity loss. And I think that's kind of like the game itself. I was like the promise that it was supposed to be. that's kind of like the game itself i was like the promise that it was supposed to be so you know we you you you write talent on on a couple of counts so yes those spots i think we're gonna
Starting point is 00:39:54 all agree with the exception maybe reddit yeah right we're formulaic yeah 25 seconds 45 you know 55 seconds three three to five seconds of branding. Yeah. Right? The other thing we always talk about, and which I still think is effective, is reach and frequency. Yeah. Right? And a lot of these ads are one-offs. You're never really going to see them again
Starting point is 00:40:15 unless it's the 20 greatest Super Bowl spots of all time, Friday before the big game. So what social media and this brave new world gives us is the ability to take that stuff and to showcase it on TikTok and Instagram and, you know, get Tracy Morgan to post. I mean, there's so many venues now to continue the campaign
Starting point is 00:40:41 rather than just one and done. Yeah. But, like, think of... Last thing I'll say, like real fast, like think about like two of my favorite Budweiser spots have ever, but the frogs wise, there's, they're using the name of the brand,
Starting point is 00:40:56 the, the, the frogs going, but why? And then the bud bowl with the bottles with, with the guy calling the announcer of the game, the bottles are playing football against each other. It's like you're using the product.
Starting point is 00:41:08 You're bringing it in. I know that's like straight line, but they were entertaining. So we were having a conversation because we've got a lot of very young people working here, and I asked them if they know what the spot was that kind of kicked off this Super Bowl Sunday commercial, you know, gala. Do you remember what it was? What spot it was? Wait, say that again. So Super Bowl Sunday had its start, this fascination with watching not just you know watching it not just
Starting point is 00:41:45 for the game but also for the commercials yep right what was the iconic brand what was the famous spot that kind of kicked this whole thing i think it was the budweiser clive gels no no i came i guess that same thing tyler uh mike did this to me i guess the exact same thing yeah and it was it was high five 1984 apple oh yes absolutely oh absolutely well i mean i'm dressed like steve jobs today is that a turtleneck you have on i mean shy day shy day created ridley scott directed it it was a freaking epic yes you know and your jaw dropped. I'm an ad nerd. My jaw dropped. Of course.
Starting point is 00:42:29 And it was phenomenal. And it's still a phenomenal spot. Absolutely. Well, also the same thing goes. I think it's a really good point, too. It's like some of these iconic, you know, just things that people people and brands start to you know own for example budweiser this was the first year that they did not advertise in the super bowl which you know goes back to the initial point that we were talking about which is like you know this is a unique super bowl where like ads didn't sell out until the week before right so sam adams did a regional spot in boston and new york like in the northeast using the kleinsdales and showing the kleinsdales like running away from
Starting point is 00:43:15 their their like keeper i don't know yeah exactly but here's the thing it didn't do shit for sam adams to be honest like i think it really does a lot for Budweiser as a brand. And it shows how influential Budweiser is. The fact that Budweiser had a ton of news. I was looking at this before the Super Bowl, too. It wasn't just ad age and ad week that we're talking about Budweiser not advertising for the first time in years, in over 20 years. It was the Detroit News. It was the New York Times.
Starting point is 00:43:53 It was like the Boston Globe. It was the Wall Street Journal, all talking about the fact that Budweiser wasn't advertising. That was very incredible. wasn't advertising that was very that was very incredible and that that goes again it's like you know the the the amount of money that people have like obviously paid for advertising to the super bowl is great obviously but you know social and you know uh acts of like you know investing money elsewhere like budweiser invested their money into uh you know into uh what was it coveted research or something like that vaccinations vaccinations right so so it's like that is what's going to make a bigger impact especially in a year like this and that's why you
Starting point is 00:44:39 have so many brands that have backed out as well but it it was funny. We had our team meeting this morning and I joked to not have been in the Super Bowl between the Seltzers and the Clydesdales being shown on Sam Adams. It sure as hell felt like they were in the Super Bowl. Budweiser. And the PR.
Starting point is 00:44:59 I will say, I told, I joked to someone last week, the impressions if there was anything that could match the impressions they would have gotten buying the Super Bowl, this PR play is probably superseding it. For all the press coverage you just talked about, Tyler, it's got to be in the hundreds of millions of impressions, the PR they've gotten from it. It's part of the brand new world of advertising.
Starting point is 00:45:20 Yeah. Absolutely. And then at the end of the day too it's like what is an impression does an impression actually make an impression which is again like the whole crux of what we do too it's like to bring it back to your own it's like you know sure i can uh blast past this like post on instagram or on tiktok but what we've seen is you know is that actually going to drive some sort of memory encoding response because half the time when i'm on tiktok or on instagram or when any of us are we're just kind of like brain
Starting point is 00:45:51 dead and mindless like what is the best what what's the what's the best platform for us too yeah exactly so as we're kind of rounding out here with this episode, I'll kind of roundtable this one as well. Any kind of final thoughts on where we think Super Bowl ads in general, their impact? We got into that a little bit, but I'll kind of roundtable. Any final thoughts, Josh? Start with you. I definitely could see it being a bigger trend of bringing in more YouTube
Starting point is 00:46:24 celebrities and more i guess social media people i think people are still sleeping on how big youtube is it's like the second most trafficked website period um there's just um like i think there's there's huge like celebrities people with built-in audiences who spend hundreds of dollars a month on merch for a single human you tie them in a brand they're gonna buy from that brand they all have rich parents and stuff like that yeah um i could see that happening a lot more um hopefully a little i think that's a really good point it's like as you think about and sorry to interject but it's like you know it's like as you think about you know one what we've talked about earlier today too is you know the nostalgia
Starting point is 00:47:10 factor like we're bringing in like uh the bill murray's of the world if we're talking about last year's super bowl or the john trolta's right yeah and the the brands that are bringing in current celebrities that are current youtube celebrities that are actually getting more views than anybody else is very, very smart. I think that's a really, really good point, Josh. Definitely. And I can see a lot more music celebrities coming in, too. I mean, we've seen this over the past two years of Cardi B and Travis Scott being some of the biggest celebrities we've had, period. They're just massive, and people are using them a lot more.
Starting point is 00:47:44 I guess it's all the built-in audiences. I'd like to see a little bit smarter use of nostalgia because I'd like to see some new stuff. I don't want to keep dwelling in the past. That's why Hollywood keeps making sequels. Yeah. I keep seeing all those articles of like all the current celebrities just look like old celebrities. They just keep hiring new actors who look like the same people it's kind of freaky i'll show those yeah any final thoughts from you mike yeah you know it's it's the fact that uh yes it took a while to sell out um in terms of media this year but it sold out and it still speaks to the fact that it is it is it is an unofficial American holiday,
Starting point is 00:48:27 and people do tune in to watch not only the game but the spots. I don't think that's going to change. And when it does is the year that my beloved New York Jets are back in the Super Bowl. And I'll probably be dead by then. Definitely. Tyler, any final thoughts I know we're teasing next week we're going to see some of the results
Starting point is 00:48:48 from Neuro Insights studies that you guys are doing on some of those ads but anything as it relates to the Super Bowl or Neuro Analytics 100% first things first the Jets will never make it back to the Super Bowl
Starting point is 00:49:04 that's number one 100%. Well, first things first, the Jets will never make it back to the Super Bowl. That's number one. Hey, you're in my hometown there. Show some respect, young man. Hey, let's go Giants, baby. I'll root blue. I'll root blue, too. But the big thing, I think there's a couple of things. I think, Mike, you brought it up, too. I think there's a couple of things. I think, Mike, you brought it up too.
Starting point is 00:49:29 It's like as sometimes negative as it may sound in maybe like the way we present, like the investment that it takes to, you know, get a Super Bowl ad in. The biggest thing is you've got to make sure that it works, right? And understanding storytelling, understanding how people respond to things is the most important thing, which is what we're going to talk about next week. But in general, understanding the context, understanding how we can actually drive home a brand message is going to be the most important thing as we go forward. Because the Super Bowl is always going to get a ton of viewers. It's always going to be the highest reach. It's always going to be the highest reach. It's always going to be the most expensive.
Starting point is 00:50:09 And the thing that really, really pisses me off is when advertisers spend a ton of money on their ad that's going to be in the Super Bowl, and it doesn't work. It doesn't resonate with people. The ads that work are the ones that actually translate brand message, and that's how you're actually converting customers because otherwise it's just fodder for people to talk about. You know what I mean? So, you know, I, I think at the end of the day, it's like that's what we're trying to do. That's what we do as a company.
Starting point is 00:50:37 It's like, we understand the storytelling. We want to make sure that like your story is being told in the most effective way. And that's what we'll talk about next week. Cool. Tyler, where can everyone find more information on both yourself and Neuro Insights? Sure. So I can be found on LinkedIn via Neuro Insights. So you can find us at Neuro Insights LinkedIn.
Starting point is 00:51:01 Also, my LinkedIn profile is linked to that. So you can find me there. We also have a Twitter and Instagram as well, at neuro underscore insight. So you can find us all over there. Great, man. Really appreciate it. The last thing I'll say, guys,
Starting point is 00:51:19 is I challenge people, if you're listening, it's going to sound self-serving, but be radical. If that was my one disappointment of it all, is let's push the envelope. challenge people if you're listening uh it's going to sound self-serving but be radical like that if that was my one disappointment of it all is like let's push the envelope i know that we live in a cancel culture and i know that it was difficult for brands of of large size to take risks i respect that i understand it as a business owner but we have have to, if I want it, you have to remain vigilant in being creative, being thoughtful, but you've got, we've got to continue to push the envelope and what we do, how we do,
Starting point is 00:51:53 and how we use the power of social media, but bringing all of these things together. So I look forward to looking at the results next week, Tyler, and talking more. I appreciate it, Mike. Appreciate it, Josh. You know where to find us we're at the.rad.cast on Instagram and theradcast.com at any time and we'll see you next time thank you so much yo guys what's up Ryan Alford here thanks so much for listening really appreciate it but do us a favor if you've been enjoying the Radcast you need to share the word with a friend
Starting point is 00:52:22 or anyone else we'd really appreciate it and go leave us a review at apple or spotify do us a solid tell more people leave us some reviews and hey here's the best news of all if you want to work with me directly you want to get your business kicking ass and you want radical or myself involved you can text me directly at 864-729-3680. Don't wait another minute. Let's get your business going. 864-729-3680. We'll see you next time.

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