The Super Bowl Ad People Watched for Hours While the Super Bowl Was On

One of the many ways we can recognize the bright and burgeoning future of advertising in the present is in the work of Anomaly, Ad Age's 2017 Agency of the Year. As former advertising executive Alex Bogusky has said, "Being a great company [that makes a great product] is the new brand." Anomaly brings this assertion to life. They're redefining what good advertising can be and what it can do. And sometimes it's hilarious.

Anomaly is helping the build-your-own website platform Squarespace vividly enter cultural consciousness in an engaging, inspiring way. One aspect of their strategy involves using “cultural tentpole moments” like the Super Bowl to support a fully integrated marketing campaign across all channels. Anomaly's approach to the Super Bowl in 2016 started from scratch by not doing a Super Bowl spot at all and instead orchestrated a kind of media planning that had never been done before. 

The result? Beloved comedians Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele provided unauthorized commentary throughout the game on a Squarespace-hosted livestream as aspiring Atlanta sportscasters Lee and Morris, characters the comedians were allowed to create themselves. The result gathered elements from diverse industries, brought about a leap in value that made competition irrelevant and streamlined costs (or at least made the costs more “accountable”). These are the elements of what is sometimes called a blue ocean strategy because when you play in unexplored waters there's no blood in the water, that is, no direct competition.

This particular blue ocean strategy was characterized by humor, collaboration and risk taking. It provided an elegant solution to some of media planning’s greatest challenges: increased competition, fragmented audiences, a decline in the impact of traditional media and the increasing discrepancy between the rising costs of media without assurances of a return on investment.

The humor, collaboration and risk-taking were tied together in ways that highlighted how what Squarespace was offering was an event far beyond the scope of a conventional ad. Since the commentary was unauthorized Key and Peele had to not only improvise for hours, but also do so without mentioning any Super Bowl trademarks including, “Super Bowl” itself, the names of the teams and any of the player’s names. The risk was real: Squarespace could’ve lost a lot of money if Key and Peele made mistakes and this reality was part of the humor the duo played into.

The trust-filled collaboration included other relevant guests as well. Not all of these collaborators were human. Improvising with a herd of mini pigs was another potential risk that made for great humor. “The Pigskin Bowl” was scheduled just before the Halftime Show so people could tune in beforehand, one of many effective media planning decisions.

The overarching media planning decision to “advertise” during the Super Bowl by hosting a livestream was part of a broader and multi-layered strategy. This Super Bowl component took advantage of the event’s cultural resonance, but instead of relying on reaching millions of Super Bowl viewers for a few moments Anomaly instead worked to extensively engage thousands of people for many moments, and in a way directly relevant to the brand. After all, Squarespace literally hosted the event using their product.

Lately a 30 second Super Bowl ad costs $5 million. Squarespace spent $4.5 million on this campaign. Some people’s attention was captured for the full three and a half hours, and that’s not counting the additional attention spent interacting with the characters over social media. Given the quality of attention and opportunity for engagement Anomaly redefined what return on investment can mean for a brand during the Super Bowl.

The livestream is an example of Anomaly’s devotion to connecting brands and people in ways that are more credible and engaging than conventional advertising. Anomaly set up an experience of the Squarespace brand that went beyond the product itself while simultaneously featuring the platform in a credible way that was essential to the creative execution.

One major contributor to the humor and overall success of the event was Key and Peele’s enthusiasm. This was on purpose. Squarespace wanted to draw attention to how a beautifully designed website could be created to play to people’s passions. This message was made clear in the fun teasers Anomaly created to hype the event. Ultimately, Squarespace was able to allow people to experience that message in a way that simultaneously gave people hours of entertainment in return for our attention. 

This is the future of advertising: the kind of experience we look forward to without even realizing it—the kind of experience that makes us say, “Really?!” and “But of course!” at the same time. The best advertising doesn’t just talk about being great anymore, it contributes to the greatness.

And now, my gift to you: