January 2016 - American Sweepstakes

Super Bowl 50: A quick peak at some of this year’s ads

We got to see some great football last Sunday and watch two teams move on to Super Bowl 50. Payton Manning of the Denver Broncos vs. Tom Brady of the New England Patriots played the first game. However, the Patriots offense just didn’t really show up and Brady was sacked over 20 times. The final score was close, but the Broncos defense really dominated the game and ended up with the “W”. Today it was announced that the Patriots fired their offensive line coach, Dave DeGuglielmo. It was also leaked today that Payton Manning at the end of the game hinted to Bill Belichick, Patriots’ head coach, that he may be retiring.

The next game with Cam Newton and the Panthers really wasn’t much of a game. They defeated the Arizona Cardinals 49-15. So now we have the older, more experienced quarterback, Payton Manning, to play against the young and unstoppable quarterback, Cam Newton, in Super Bowl 50. Let’s hope it’s a good game since the hype is already in full swing.

This year, CBS is charging as much as $5 million for a 30 second Super Bowl ad. Last year, NBC celebrated when approximately 114.4 million people tuned into the 2015 Super Bowl to watch the Seattle Seahawks play the Patriots, making the game the most-watched broadcast in the history of U.S. television. So those that shelled out $4.5 million for a 30 second spot had a win as well. Plus, Katy Perry and her dancing costumed sharks pulled in 118.5 million viewers making it the most watched halftime show in the Super Bowl’s 49 year history.

So what will we see with this year’s ads? Budweiser, one of the game’s main sponsors, already stated that they won’t be back this year with another adorable puppy ad. Last year’s Lost Puppy ad was voted the most favorite of all the spots. Animal lovers need not despair, however, because the beautiful Budweiser Clydesdales will still grace our screens on Super Bowl Sunday. According to Jorn Socquet, U.S. VP of Marketing for Anheuser-Busch, “the Clydesdales are icons of the brand and will most certainly make an appearance.” The puppy ads just don’t sell beer!

Bud Light will be airing a spot featuring Amy Schumer and Seth Rogen who will appear as Bud Light bottle buddies. We’ll be seeing many other famous actors and other stars such as comedic actor T.J. Miller who will star in an ad for Shock Top beer–a spot which he’s recently teased to be the “greatest Super Bowl commercial of all time.” Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler will be “walking this way” for Skittles and website creator Squarespace has hired comic duo Key and Peele. Liam Neeson will be supporting LG Electronics while Christopher Walken will be backing up KIA.

My hometown, Rochester native and soccer star Abby Wambach is expected to make a big splash with her appearance in a new BMW, Mini Cooper ad. The commercial, “Defy Labels,” will launch a six-month long campaign and is meant to help the public look past the “small” and “cute” labels with which the Mini is usually associated. Tennis star Serena Williams and professional skateboarder and actor Tony Hawk will also be featured in two other “Defy Labels” spots. Here’s a look at Abby’s teaser ad:

Super Bowl 50’s half-time show is also expected to be a big hit. Some halftime performers who have performed on the stage of the game previously, Beyoncé and Bruno Mars, are both expected to join Coldplay for the halftime show. “Are you kidding me? It’s the greatest moment of our band’s life. We’re going to give it everything we have,” Coldplay frontman Chris Martin promised in a video interview promoting the show.

So stayed tuned next week for some additional coverage of Super Bowl 50 Advertising and Promotions!

PepsiCo is back with their Game Day Grub Match Contest for SuperBowl 50

Last weekend the road to SuperBowl 50 continued with four great playoff games that left us with four teams in the running. All four where the home teams, unlike the weekend before that made history when all four away teams won.

The Green Bay Packers almost got away with an upset when Aaron Rodgers had two Hail Mary’s as the 4th quarter expired to tie the game and send it to overtime. However, the Cardinals got the ball first, even over a coin flip controversy, and ran the ball down the field to score a touchdown and end the game.

So now we have the New England Patriots heading to Denver to play the Bronco’s, the AFC’s #1 seed. This is the game of the quarterbacks with Brady vs. Manning, and many speculating could be the last time they will ever face each other again. On the NFC side we have the Arizona Cardinals heading to Carolina to play the Panthers, the almost undefeated team on the season (16-1). I’m looking forward to watching some good football this Sunday.

Besides the Dorito’s Crash the Super Bowl Contest, the parent company, PepsiCo, is also returning with its Game Day Grub Match for Super Bowl 50. This contest challenges student chefs to cook up the greatest dish for the “Greatest Day In Football”. This unique cooking competition features students from The Culinary Institute of America, right here in New York state, competing to create the ultimate football food. Part of the requirements is that each dish must incorporate PepsiCo food and beverage products as ingredients.

In addition to the student competition, PepsiCo is giving the general public their chance to share their best dish. This contest just started accepting submissions on January 14 and will continue till game day, February 7. Everyone is invited to submit their own game day dish to Instagram, Twitter of Pinterest using the hashtag #gamedaygrubentry. They need to upload an image of their dish along with a copy description or a link to the recipe. A panel of judges will review all the eligible submission and choose winners based on the following criteria: Presentation of dish, Use of at least 2 PepsiCo products in recipe and Creative use of product.

The Grand Prize winner will receive $1,500 plus a PepsiCo party pack that includes a mix of PepsiCo food and beverage products, as well as a signed cookbook from Anne Burrell, and a Wilson Super Bowl 50 Football. Two Runner-up prizes with each receive $500 as well as a PepsiCo party pack the signed cookbook and a Wilson Super Bowl 50 Football.

PepsiCo’s main objective with this promotion is to increase awareness of their entire food and beverage portfolio that includes includes 22 brands such as Frito-Lay, Gatorade, Pepsi-Cola, Quaker and Tropicana. A list of all their products in featured here on the contest website.

“Great food and football are captivating millions of fans gearing up for Super Bowl 50 — and Game Day Grub Match brings these two things together in a way only PepsiCo can,” said PepsiCo Executive Chef Jody Denton. “Our snacks and beverages have been staples of Super Bowl parties for five decades, and the student chefs from the Culinary Institute of America took game day food to a whole new level.”

Back to the student’s competition, it came down to three teams and after much deliberation among the judges, Claire, Yejin and Joel were selected as the Game Day Grub Match champions for their Doritos Dim Sum Joh. Each of them earned a trip to the San Francisco Bay Area, tickets to Super Bowl 50 and a $5,000 scholarship. Congrats to all these amazing young chefs.

You can visit the Game Day Grub Match website to see the student recipes that were submitted to help inspire you to create you own game day dish for Super Bowl 50. There are also many photos and recipes on the site that have already been submitted by the general public. The image above is one of the first submissions. They make you hungry just looking at them all.

Doritos Crash the Super Bowl Video Contest Final Edition

We had a bit of NFL history in last weekend’s wild-card round. For the first time all four road teams won in the same playoff weekend. All those hometown fans in Washington D.C., Minneapolis, Cincinnati and Houston were disappointed to see their team’s season end. The fans of the Cincinnati Bengals and the Minnesota Vikings thought they had the game in the bag, but fans of both teams had a heartbreaking loss and Vikings fans sat through a bitter cold, minus degrees, game.

So this weekend the Road to Super Bowl 50 continues with 8 teams moving on. Saturday we have the Chiefs at the Patriots first and then the Packers at the Cardinals. On Sunday we get to watch the Seahawks at the Panthers and then the Steelers at the Broncos. So I highly doubt we’ll see a repeat of all road teams winning in the same weekend.

PepsiCo, the parent company of Doritos, is back again for their Annual Crash the Super Bowl Video Contest which is their 10th season. They announced that this will be the last edition of the contest and now my last time writing about it on this blog which I’ve done since 2008.

This year just three finalists videos were chosen which are now posted on the contest website. The public is invited to vote once per day, per device up till Jan. 28.

This year’s contestants have the chance to win $1 million and the opportunity to work with Zack Snyder, director of 300 and Man of Steel, whose latest film, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, will be released next March. The winner will work with Snyder as well as Warner Brothers and DC Comics on an undisclosed future project.

“We’re giving consumers one last shot to make their mark and see their homemade ads air during the Super Bowl broadcast,” Jeff Klein, vice president of marketing at Frito-Lay, said in a statement. “This is truly last call for all of those who not only want a shot at $1 million—but want a chance to jump-start their career in Hollywood.” The winning ad will air during CBS’ Super Bowl 50 telecast on Feb. 7. One Grand Prize winner and the two First Prize winners will all receive a trip to attend Super Bowl 50 and view the game from the Doritos suite.

May the best ad win. I’m always a sucker for any video with dogs. Here on the contest website you can view all the fan ads that have won and aired during the Super Bowl.

Sweepstakes offer chances to win tickets to Super Bowl 50

I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays and Happy New Year. Now that we are into January, as my blogging tradition conditions, I’m going to focus on the football playoff season and the Super Bowl. I will be covering some of the ads and promotional campaigns associated with Super Bowl 50. This year Super Bowl 50 will be hosted on February 7, in the City of Santa Clara at the state-of-the-art Levi’s Stadium, which the bay area hosts claim is the greenest and most technologically advanced professional football stadium in the United States.

Here’s what this year’s playoff picture looks like this year:

If you have been a reader of this blog, you would know that I’m a Buffalo Bills fan and writing about another playoff season that they didn’t make. It was the first year with Rex Ryan as the coach, who promised that we’d make it and then had to eat his words. But on the bright side, it appears we have found a quarterback in Tyrod Taylor and he and Sammy Watkins really connected in the last game of the season in which they ended the Jets playoff hopes.

The Super Bowl has been one of the most watched sporting events and continues to have an enormous amount of marketing associated with it. NBC’s broadcast of last year’s Super Bowl was the most watched program in American television history, surpassing the previous year’s game. So we’ll see if we break that record again.

Last year most of the advertisers followed the trend of the previous year and released their TV spots prior to the actual broadcast of the game. So we expect to see more of that this year. For now here are a few of promotions that are currently still offering a chance to win ticket packages to the game.

SiriusXM’s Super Bowl 50 Sweepstakes is giving their current subscribers a chance to win an opportunity to go to Super Bowl 50. One Grand prize winner will receive round-trip airfare for two to San Francisco, CA, three nights hotel stay and two tickets to Super Bowl 50. This sweepstakes ends on January 25.

Campbell’s Chunky Super Bowl 50 Instant Win Game is giving away ten Grand Prizes that include a 3 night trip for each winner and guest to Super Bowl 50, round trip air transportation, hotel accommodations, a travel stipend for ground transportation, 2 tickets to the game, 2 Super Bowl 50 Gift Bags and $250 spending money. Participants are invited to purchase specialty-marked cans of Campbell’s Chunky soups and look under the lid to see if they are a winner. A no purchase entry is also included on the promotional website.

We are assisting a client with The Shocase Special Teams Sweepstakes which is offering participants a chance to win 2 tickets to Super Bowl 50 along with hotel accommodations. We again are using the Shortstack platform to host the promotional entry form. Shocase’s objective is to create awareness of their professional network for marketers and gain new members.

So what teams will make it to this year’s Super Bowl? Will we see the return of the New England Patriots, or will it be the Denver Broncos who will battle it out with Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers? Or will one of the wild card teams, such as Seattle or Pittsburgh, continue their recent hot streaks and win a division title. We’ll know more after this weekend. Stay tuned for more coverage as the road to the Super Bowl continues.