As brand fanatics, the Monday after the Super Bowl is an event on its own for us here at Addison Whitney. We love branding, and the Super Bowl commercials are the biggest stage for brands to get their message out, and give them an opportunity to make a lasting brand impact.
Since we knew that there would be countless conversations reacting to how well the brands accomplished this feat, we decided to provide a forum for these discussions to take place, as well as give the participants a chance to look at the ads from a branding perspective, something Addison Whitney specializes in.
In the first of what is expected to be many lunchtime discussion sessions, a group of Addison Whitney brand fanatics gathered to discuss how Super Bowl commercials had impact on branding.
Six specific brands were identified as good representatives of the types of brand who have the potential to have the most impact from a Super Bowl ad, and their commercials from this year’s game were used as the ad reference.
Our first step was to identify how we feel about the brands prior to viewing the ads – as in, if we were to be asked about these brands last week, what would we say?
For each brand, five brand characteristics were identified – Target Audience, Functional Benefits, Emotional Benefits, Tone and Brand Elements. Each section gave a deeper picture into who the brands are to us, and where were see them fitting into the brand landscape.
Participants filled out what came to mind for each of the targeted brands when they were asked to identify these characteristics, giving a foundational look at where the brands stood in the minds of most consumers, and where the starting point was for each of their Super Bowl commercials.
Of the characteristics, Target Audience and Emotional Benefits were singled out as the two that seemed to drive most Super Bowl advertising, and the two that had the largest potential brand impact.
Following this pre-ad discussion, the commercials from each of the brands were viewed to provide reference for the next stage of the discussion.
In a new twist to the normal commercial reaction discussion, in addition to discussing the commercial themselves, we looked at how the commercials tied back into the brands and if they effected any of the characteristics that were 
identified pre-viewing.
It is often an overlooked aspect of Super Bowl advertising, where much of the attention is paid to what ads performed the best on that one night in a vacuum where they were only competing against the next 30-second spot, is how the ads are part of a larger branding strategy for the companies.
For instance, our brand discussion examined how the Weight Watchers commercial signaled a new direction in their branding, moving away from the normal and established strategy to a strategy that was more direct and targeted at a new audience set.
Stay tuned in the next couple of weeks for a number of in-depth perspectives and analysis on these questions and more on how brands use such a high-profile platform and how those actions impact brand strategy!
Addison Whitney is a global branding firm with a passion for building strong brands. We specialize in verbal and visual branding, brand strategy and market research.
To learn more about Addison Whitney, visit our website at www.AddisonWhitney.com, or contact us here.