Celebrities Swarming Super Bowl ads
Under pressure to catch viewer attention, several advertisers are using multiple celebrities in their Super Bowl commercials
One celebrity is no longer enough for Super Bowl advertisers.
Big Game commercials are becoming a team sport, too. In an era when Super Bowl marketers are paying $4 million for each 30 seconds of broadcast time, the advertisers are working every angle to get viewers to pay attention. It's arguably the world's biggest ad stage, with up to 110 million TV viewers expected — plus many millions more oglers via social media.
Some advertisers believe it's no longer possible to stand out with just one celebrity. Several are now widening the field to two, three, four — or more.
Dannon and Jaguar each have three celebrities in their ads. Anheuser-Busch has four, , including Arnold Schwarzenegger — and a rock band. Speaking of rock bands, U2 will perform its new song Invisible in a fund-raising ad sponsored by Bank of America for (RED) to fight AIDS. Toyota's celebrity, former NFL player turned actor, Terry Crews , is teamed with a car full of Muppets. And on Friday, Hyundai is expected to name two celebrities who will star in one of its Super Bowl ads.
"In most cases, it's just the theory that if one is good, two or three are better," says Noreen Jenney Laffey, president of Celebrity Endorsement Network.
Call it the shotgun approach. The Super Bowl audience is so massive that it includes every conceivable demographic, says Darcy Bouzeos, founder of DLB, a sports and entertainment marketing firm. "Using multiple celebrities helps a brand appeal to a more diverse audience." The strategy also helps create a "wow" factor, says Bouzeos. "The audience may be impressed by the shear star power connected to the brand."
