Last year, in what we affectionately called, “The Year of the Rookie,” the Super Bowl advertising field was awash with first-time advertisers. This year, things got off to a slower start, but as Game Day draws near, more advertisers are daring to get their feet wet and join the playing field.
This morning, we learned of two new Super Bowl advertisers: Bai and SoFi
Both are little known brands, hoping to use the biggest advertising platform in the world to gain name-recognition and vastly increase their user base. While $5 million may seem like a hefty price to pay for a 30-second ad, particularly for a smaller company, the Super Bowl offers one of the only ways to flaunt what you’ve got before a captive audience of more than 100 million people. When else, after all, are people so assuredly interested in the ads, often more than the game itself?
Meet Bai and SoFi - Big Game Virgins
Bai Promises That “None of This Makes Sense”
Bai drinks are made from the fruit of the coffee tree. Unlike the coffee we drink, which is made from the seed or the coffee bean, the fruit-based drink is entirely caffeine free. What’s more, Bai is packed with healthy antioxidants and has only 5 little calories. Sounds kinda too good to be true, doesn’t it?
That’s why Bai admits in their tagline that “None of this makes sense.” In fact, you might argue that their choice to spend $5 million on a Super Bowl ad also makes no sense at all. Either way, they’re hoping that after Super Bowl Sunday Americans will know who they are. According to the company’s Chief Creative Officer, Chad Portas, “While you often see many long-established brands taking advantage of the most-watched broadcast in television, you also see emerging brands, like Bai, using it as a way to introduce themselves to new consumers.”
While Chad wasn’t forthcoming with other details about what Bai is mixing up for their Game Day ad slot, their TV commercial definitely made us laugh. Will this awkward bride show up on Game Day? We’ll find out soon enough!
Nothing Like Financial Planning Between Beers
SoFi, otherwise known as Social Finance Inc., is joining several other financial companies in the Super Bowl advertising field. Apparently, like TurboTax and SunTrust Banks, they hope that the Super Bowl Sunday crowd will remember some of their financial advice between mouthfuls of Doritos and gulps of Bud Light.
SoFi #SuperBowl 50 Ad Announced: Social Finance Inc. (SoFi) is taking the plunge and will run its first Super Bowl… https://t.co/s2AD3OW6BB
— I4U News (@i4unews) January 26, 2016
SoFi is hoping for a major boost in brand awareness from their Super Bowl ad campaign. So high are their hopes, in fact, that they have a whopping 20% of their advertising budget on their Big Game ad.
Their Super Bowl campaign is designed to help customers imagine a world without banks. Their key message is, “Don’t Bank. SoFi.” Before the Super Bowl kickoff on February 7th, 2016, SoFi is releasing a series of 7 ads to help us start imaging their post-bank world.
Catch the first one here:
What does SoFi do?
Based in Silicon Valley, SoFi offers lending services such as student load refinancing, personal loans and mortgages, but instead of relying on traditional methods like FICO scores to assess clients, they take into consideration other factors such as employment history. According to i4u, “SoFi offers individual and institutional investors the ability to create positive social impact on the communities they care about while earning compelling rates of return.”
