Are Likes Better than Sales for the Super Bowl Ads?
Many scoff at the price of Super Bowl ads, but it is a singular moment where you can separate yourself from other brands in your category. The ads, like the teams, have won the year-long battle and can relish in the notoriety and fame. As the CMO of US Bank has been quoted for saying, “We anticipate 200 million eyeballs on our brand during the 10 days of festivities.” 
Nielsen states that more than 110 million people will be armchair advertising critics. It’s the one time of year where people really tune in to watch the commercials. Plus, add in online views and social impressions and you have an audience behemoth.
The problem is that we mostly grade ads only on what we like or don’t like. That forces advertisers to steer toward comedy. But does sales follow likability of an ad? I don’t believe you have to like an ad, to be sold. It’s really the difference of sales and entertainment. If I’m not engaged from a potential buyer’s perspective, entertain me and make me laugh. If I am engaged, I want authenticity and insight–and solve an issue I may have.
So, with that said…here are my top commercials I liked: Red Lobster “The Hard Way,” Australia.com, Verizon “All our thanks.com,” Amazon Alexa.
Here are the commercials I think will drive sales: YouTube Live TV, Lindsey Vonn “Olympics,” Tide and all its ads (the cumulative effect was impressive).
Mark Mathis
Mark wrote his first direct-mail fundraising letter in 1981 for the University of Iowa Center for Advancement. The effort raised a few million dollars in undiscovered wills and legacy gifts. From that day forward Mark discovered a love of the big idea that moves the needle.
After 12 years at KWWL, Mark became a business owner as a co-founder of ME&V — rebranded as AMPERAGE in 2015. After 25 years of leading creative teams in video production, graphic design, PR, writing and web development, Mark transitioned out of ownership in 2021. Today he serves in an employee role as special projects consultant.
He is creatively ambidextrous — son of an artist and engineer — and famous for distilling complex ideas down to a few words and a few visuals. Mark is a writer. When he found that many nonprofits struggled with complex branding puzzles, he wrote the book, “NonProfit-NonMarketing .” He also wrote a novel called “Reenactment.”
Mark is an active blogger OneMinuteMarketer® with nearly 1,000 readers each week on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. One of his most popular YouTube videos is on “How to Look Good on Zoom.”
One of Mark’s fondest business memories was being named to INC 500 two times and attending the INC 500 conference with other winners. Mark is considered by some a Civil War expert (and that explains his novel). Mark also served as an adjunct professor in the business and in the communications departments at Wartburg College.
Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa and is currently vice president of the University of Iowa Journalism and Mass Communications Advisory Board.
Mark is married to state Sen. Liz Mathis, and the two love to travel, even when it means being trapped by a volcano in the Czech Republic for three weeks.