The Real Winners of the Super Bowl

Good morning & surprise - it’s not Friday!

I just couldn’t not comment on that good old American institution, the Super Bowl. After spending many years overseas it was a bit fun to catch the game in real time and hang out for Taylor Swift sightings. And the ads! The Super Bowl is special for brands because it’s a culmination of culture: sports, musicians, internet trends - all coming together in one brief, shiny moment. Having a voice in this conversation can have an outside effect on a brand’s fame and relevance, if used wisely.

Three hot takes from me: broadcasters, meme accounts, and the best play of the game, by CeraVe 👇

Hot take #1 📈 The real winners were the broadcasters. Thanks to the Swift effect, viewership is expected top last year’s all-time high. But in news I didn’t see coming, Nickelodeon aired an alternate broadcast of the game for “lovers of slime and a really good sports time,” which is frankly, kind of a genius move.

Hot take #2 🎨 The real entertainment was all off the field: I’ll be honest, I don’t know enough about football to be glued to the game. I was glued to Art But Make it Sports throughout the game, a meme account run by LJ Rader, a self-taught art aficionado who matches moments in sports with art from memory. His coverage of the game was as good as the game.

Hot take #3 - CeraVe won the Super Bowl before it started. CeraVe’s a relatively banal drugstore skincare brand. The CeraVe ad is unhinged. But CeraVe didn’t just run a great ad, they ran a campaign: for weeks there’s been internet chatter about CeraVe & Michael Cera in a did-he-or-didn’t-he collab with the brand.

How it played out:

• Jan 22 - Papparazi shots of Michael Cera carrying bags of CeraVe lotion start showing up online, in Page Six and People Mag

• Jan 23 - Influencers start posting unboxing videos of CeraVe

• Jan 26 - Podcaster Bobbi Althoff interviews Michael Cera, who walks off the set when asked if he is behind the brand

• Jan 27 - Apology videos come out from influencers to clear up confusion about whether Cera was behind CeraVe

• Jan 29 - CeraVe releases a statement denying claims of Michael Cera’s involvement

• February 7 - CeraVe releases a microsite (iamcerave.com) and teaser ad, which turned out to be the Super Bowl ad

The CeraVe campaign isn’t just an ad, it’s a campaign.

From the pap photos, to the apology videos, to the unhinged ad: all touchpoints work in service of the idea. What if Michael Cera was the visionary behind CeraVe? The ad itself is hilarious: the narwhal! the soundtrack! the voiceover! But the real magic is the careful coordination of the chatter leading up to the campaign leveraging the Very Online behavior of apology videos, decoding rumors, and unboxing videos to get (what feels like) everyone talking about CeraVe before the ad even aired. Even then, you don’t have to be a Very Online Person to appreciate the ad itself - it works on multiple levels.

What I’m most interested in: is this the first chapter in a CeraVe / Michael Cera story, or will it be a one-off ad? I’m hoping for the latter.

What makes the CeraVe campaign work is that it entertains (critical!) and invites people to participate in the gag - and the payoff is worth it. Remember: emotion = stronger memories, which is what you want when you’re building a brand.

That’s all for today!

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