Grading Anheuser-Busch’s Super Bowl marketing, Part II. The company speaks.
Well, there was no argument about the action on the field in last night’s Super Bowl. The Pittsburgh Steelers pulled out a late win over Kurt Warner and the band of underdogs from Arizona.
But who “won” the Super Bowl advertising extravaganza is less clear. Any grading of an ad’s funniness or effectiveness will probably be necessarily subjective. That being said, Lager Heads dives into the numbers here. (If you want to see all the ads, click here).
For ten straight years, Anheuser-Busch had grabbed the top spot in USA Today’s ranking of the most popular Super Bowl commercials. On Sunday, it finally saw its streak end. The brewer came in second and third with a Budweiser commercial starring a Clydesdale rescuing his circus horse girlfriend.
Ad Meter is probably the most prestigious of the Super Bowl wrap-up tallies, although several newspapers and other media outlets have alternative votes.
Frito-Lay came in first in the newspaper’s Ad Meter voting with a Doritos ad featuring an office worker using a crystal ball to free Doritos. About 300 volunteers voting in Virginia and Oregon gave the ad a score of 8.46 on a scale of 0 to 10. (The next-highest ranked commercial, from Anheuser-Busch, was 4/100ths of a point behind).
“You always give congratulations where it’s due,” Bob Lachky, Anheuser-Busch’s chief creative officer, told Lager Heads. But with Anheuser-Busch claiming two of Ad Meter’s top three spots, “I’m very proud, and I think mission accomplished in putting those spots where we did,” he said.
According to Ad Meter, the top five ads and final ratings this year were:
- Frito-Lay Doritos - Crystal ball sees free Doritos - 8.46
- Anheuser-Busch Budweiser - Clydesdale’s romance with circus horse - 8.42
- Anheuser-Busch Budweiser - A Clydesdale can fetch - 8.26
- Bridgestone - Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head take a drive - 7.83
- Frito-Lay Doritos - Superpowers of Doritos’ crunch - 7.79
Lachky and Keith Levy, vice president of marketing for Anheuser-Busch Cos. — now a division of Anheuser-Busch InBev — said Anheuser-Busch also decided to put a Bud Light Lime commercial on the Super Bowl in order to get the beer in front a massive audience. Levy said A-B folks debated whether or not to put the newish beer in the big game. “The strategic importance” of making a big splash won out, he said.
“When you get to the Super Bowl, you really have to try to not change your strategy to win a beauty contest,” Lachky said.
Other pundits had their own take on Anheuser-Busch’s performance. Derek Rucker, a marketing professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, said his school’s Super Bowl grading event — 41 marketing students graded the commercials according to a variety of criteria — ranked Anheuser-Busch’s overall lineup a little lower than usual.
The company’s commercials, aggregated together, usually rank in the “great” category. But this year, the ads were in the “good” range, and the company didn’t quite deliver its typically “very strong” execution, he said.
(The grading criteria at Kellogg’s event includes likeability, remembering what the brand is, and recognizing a reason to use it.) By Kellogg’s measurement, “Bud’s spots were a little below their average,” said Rucker. “Bud is typically in our top five. They did not make it into our top spot this year.”
Rucker said the use of three Clydesdale spots — an all-time high — on the game may have diluted the horse’s effect.
The Anheuser-Busch guys strongly dispute that argument.
In the Clydesdales, Anheuser-Busch has some of the “most-loved corporate symbols” in America, Lachky said. “We’re a very unique company; We’re a very unique brewer. This is the one icon that really does it for us.”
(No Ratings Yet)
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Jeremiah McWilliams is a native Virginian who came to the Post-Dispatch in early 2007 to cover beer and other consumer products. He previously covered manufacturing for the Virginian-Pilot newspaper in Norfolk, Va. He is a graduate of Washington and Lee University. 
How much are ICONs going these days? It’s just a matter of time.
Um, the fact that the Clydesdale adds were cutesy cruddy commercials diluted the horse’s effect. People have come to expect wildly creative and FUNNY commercials from AB. The Clydesdale romance commercial belonged in the Hallmark Bowl, if there were a Hallmark Bowl. The fetch one was mediocre, at best. The first one, where they threw the guy out the window garnered a “what the eff was that?” from the crowd I was in. AB’s commercials were lame this year. Clearly they let the creative people on the staff go before they started making these ads.
I thought the best commercial was the Ed McMahon and MC Hammer Cash for Gold commercial towards the end of the game.
I’m making a prediction that within 2-3 months, Bob Lachky is no longer at Anheuser-Busch InBev. Considering the way they handled their employees, Bob can expect that same treatment for not winning the AdMeter. I really found the employee being thrown out the window truly tasteless, considering the timing of releasing so many employees. What were they thinking???
I agree with the last comment about the timing. Shame on you AB. They threw a lot of good people out the window and they think that will make a funny commercial? This economic crisis is not a joke. AB, the commercials aren’t funny anymore, and the Clydesdales and a cold Bud are no longer American icons.
I think the commercials were right on target. These new guys really get it. Just needed some fresh “younger” blood in marketing, especially the new improved Brand Team. Hats off to the Great American Beer Company! B.P.Group
I watched the spot with the quip about ‘marketing cuts’ with my mouth wide open…just how could the marketing folks at AB be so crassly insensitive to their employees they’ve just let go, or who will inevitably be let go due to the dramatic cut in marketing budgets in the organisation. For sure those smug marketing guys won’t have the luxury of 10 spots next year…or the 30 million to buy the airtime, a resounding failure this year by ab to impress their new owners.
NEW BUDS, I’m guessing you believe the new logo is also a ‘winner’. It had to be a result of ‘younger’ blood (probably done by somebody’s 4 or 5 year old using clip-art to avoid paying a real company)
That was very weak!!!! On Circus commercial, yes it was cute. Let’s not forget, this was a super bowl commercial and not a valentine’s day.
Is that the best InBev can do? The circus ad was good, but sum of the whole, InBev gets a C-.
Carlos Brito doesn’t get it and he doesn’t get my discretionary beer spending.
And NEW BUDS, kids like you make me laugh. Your generation doesn’t believe or practice loyalty and you don’t have much buying power, so any of your so-called gains will be short-lived. Boomers rule.
The best spot was the Ed McMahon/MC Hammer Cash for Gold.
Yes, the clydesdales are a unique symbol, if you dont turn them into fetching dogs or love starved scots! Next will be cartoonesque clydesdale line dancing…give them back their integrity…Ive got a 16mm black and white film of the clydesdale drawn wagon running down the field at sportsman park…with a very young Ed M. toasting a bud at the end….now thats unique!