Super Bowl??

One fine morning couple of weeks back during my morning routine, I logged on to Facebook and was confused to see ‘Super Bowl’ on most of my US friend’s status. I know what ‘Super Bowl’ is, but never had an idea about its popularity. What caught my interest is not the sport (I have a repelling effect towards sports, in general) but the advertising. In fact, the research company Nielsen found in 2010 that 51% of the 'Super Bowl' viewers prefer the commercials to the game itself.

Really funny ad featuring Ozzy Osbourne & Justin Bieber!

The ‘Super Bowl’ is often been the most watched broadcast in USA. The day of the ‘Super Bowl’ is a de facto holiday in America. The average cost to advertise for a 30 second spot for the 2013 broadcast was $4 million. The ‘Super Bowl’ commercials had been telecasted since 1970s, but gained popularity since 1984 with the Apple’s Macintosh commercial ‘1984’ directed by Ridley Scott. Budweiser has been advertising the most on the ‘Super Bowl’, more than 25 times since 1998!

The 'USA Today Super Bowl Ad Meter' is a live survey done by 'USA Today' and for the year of 2013, it was won by Budweiser. The Budweiser commercial showed a cute Clydesdale having a reunion with his master after 3 years, which goes to show how the audience is attached towards commercials which are emotional.

If someone wants to reach an audience of more than 160 million and have a big money to spend, then the ‘Super Bowl’ is definitely the right place to start!

A = Apple Inc

In my class last week (after a good Christmas break), my professor spoke about Apple withdrawing its IPhone 4S' from the Apple Stores in China, not due to low demand, but due to the exploitation by other businesses for selling it in the black market at a much higher price to meet the demand of the Chinese market (Wow! Chinese have money). In fact, the 5 Apple Stores in Beijing and Shanghai stopped selling the product. The suspension of selling the IPhone led to a customer throwing eggs, who was already quite irritated by the late launch of the product in China (which was almost after 3 months).

After researching about the I-Phone 4S issue in China, I got diverted towards the advertising used by Apple. They always focused their ads mainly on creativity and thinking outside the box. Their “Think Different” in the nineties and the “Switch” and “iPod people” in the noughties were significant campaigns. “Think Different” by advertising agency TBWA\Chiat\Day titled "Crazy Ones" was a sensation showing the world’s prominent figures who made a difference archiving something that changed the world. “Switch” showed a series 30 seconds video of persons switching from Windows to Max.  “IPod people” had a series of ads that focused on the product rather than the people along with dark silhouetted characters against bright-coloured backgrounds.

 

 

Apple, under the leadership of Steve Jobs did manage to change the company profile. Today most of the creative people and businesses use an Apple computer for their work. The words “Think Different” is still the main aim of Apple. I have an Ipod that was gifted to me by my aunt for Christmas in 2009 and is still my best companion when I move around London. Apple did its work on me by impressing me with its product and I am now saving up to get my first Mac.