New Study Affirms Coke Ad Scored Big at Super Bowl
Thursday, 13 March 2008
Super Bowl Sunday was five weeks ago, but marketers are still trying to evaluate just how well their commercials preformed during the game. A new study released this week shows Coca-Cola's Super Bowl ad staring Charlie Brown was the most talked about ad online two weeks after the gridiron matchup, according to Collective Intellect, a company that analyzes blogs to see what people are posting online about products and brands.
The Coke spot, set at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, features Stewie and Underdog balloons fighting over a huge Coke balloon. The two characters bounce around the New York skyline bumping up against office and apartment buildings. The twist: The two are outdone by Charlie Brown, who swoops in and grabs the beverage. The spot cost about $2.3 million to create, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Robin Seidner, the director of marketing for Collective Intellect, says Coke's ad had 350 blog posts the day after the game, while Pepsi's ads had 250 posts. Some ad executives believe the spot has a good shot of winning an award at the Cannes Lions festival, the most prestigious honor in the industry.
It's something new for the Atlanta beverage giant, which has been hampered by a lack of sizzle when it comes to its advertising in the past few years. Coke has struggled to create ads that please the younger set and at the same time don't turn off older consumers.
Creating the spot wasn't easy. Wieden + Kennedy was met with many challenges, including bad weather, being dumped by Bart Simpson, and the mounds of red tape associated with negotiating the rights to use well-known cartoon characters.
Hal Curtis, one of the well-known creative directors at Wieden + Kennedy responsible for crafting the commercial, and Pio Schunker, Coca-Cola's head of creative excellence in North America, talked about the making of the commercial. Below, some excerpts.
WSJ: Were the characters always supposed to be Charlie Brown, Stewie and Underdog?
Mr. Curtis: No, it was originally supposed to be Bart Simpson and Underdog. Bart Simpson's people at Fox loved the spot, but they have some rule that Bart cannot appear with other characters in a spot. So they respectfully declined.
WSJ: So how did Stewie get the nod?
Mr. Curtis: Fox suggested it. And Pio pushed for Stewie.
WSJ: Why did Coke want Stewie?
Mr. Schunker: I tortured Hal about it. The whole point of the commercial was good really wins in the end, so I was looking for a much stronger foil at the end of the commercial. And Stewie was that. He is also culturally relevant for today.
WSJ: Coke has long struggled to create ads that resonate with teens but don't rub older drinkers the wrong way. How much did that issue weigh in you head when dreaming up this spot?
Mr. Curtis: A good story appeals to everyone. And a story that is well told appeals to young and old. Certainly, there are times where we want to skew a message younger, but for this spot that wasn't part of the thinking.
Mr. Schunker: We are at our best when we speak to universal values that appeal to everyone rather than try and skew it to specific segments.
WSJ: What was the most challenging part of making the commercial?
Mr. Curtis: I have made a lot of big television spots over my 20-year career, but I have never been involved in one that was as challenging on so many levels as this one. Just getting the approvals and getting the licensing done were mammoth tasks. Macy's had to approve the spot, the Charlie Brown people had to approve the spot, the Stewie people had to approve the spot and the Underdog folks had to approve the spot. It also was an extensive live-action shoot, but once we were done shooting the film, we were only halfway done, because then we had to animate the balloons.
Mr. Schunker: We were so rushed. Hal had very little time to do a complicated shoot. We had really bad weather in New York and had to pick up the whole shoot and move it to a sound studio at Paramount Studios. So there were three different shoots: one in New York, one in L.A., and all the stuff that happened in the virtual shoot.
WSJ: How long did it take to make the ad?
Mr. Curtis: Just doing the ad's production and postproduction took almost four months.
Mr. Schunker: Hal presented the idea for the commercial at another commercial shoot we were on almost two years ago.
WSJ: At the end of the ad, Charlie Brown is victorious in his attempt to land the Coke. Was that the ad's original ending?
Mr. Curtis: No. When I first described it to Coke, it ended with the Coke bottle puncturing on a flag pole and then we would cut to a shot of Bart Simpson and Underdog floating down, disappointed they didn't get the Coke. But Coke didn't like that and said 'You need to change the ending.'
WSJ: Why did you not like that ending?
Mr. Schunker: We were really looking for work that was positive and expressed optimism. I felt it was such a downer of an ending to have these characters chase the Coke and not get it. I also felt the spot needed a twist. And then Hal came up with adding Charlie Brown.
WSJ: How did you come up with the Charlie Brown ending?
Mr. Curtis: I went home one night and my family asked me how the spot went over during my meeting with Coke. I said 'Well, they love it, but they don't like the ending, and I have been asked to think up a new ending.' My 12-year-old son, Will, said 'Why can't another balloon get it?' I said that is not a bad idea. We started looking at other balloons that are in the parade, and the next logical step was Charlie Brown.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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