STRONGBRANDS    Professor Tim Calkins, Kellogg School of Management

Super Bowl 50 is one month away. This is a stressful time for Super Bowl marketers. They are finalizing plans for the event, and the stakes are high. A successful Super Bowl effort can propel a brand and a career; a weak effort can damage both. Once again, I’ll be leading the Kellogg Super Bowl […]

The 2015 Super Bowl featured serious, emotional advertising. While the event usually tends to skew more towards humor, this year the laughs were in short supply. Overall the advertising was strong. Marketers are clearly focusing on creating spots that will resonate broadly and build both sales and the brand. Still, this year had its highs […]

McDonald’s won the 2015 Kellogg Super Bowl Advertising Review. Almost 70 Kellogg MBA students reviewed all the spots and put McDonald’s at the top of the list. Here are the grades. I will publish a full analysis later today. Grade: A McDonald’s Always Budweiser and Bud Light Clash of Clans Coke Fiat Grade: B Avocados […]

Today I’ll be tweeting during the Super Bowl, commenting on the ads and the Kellogg Super Bowl Advertising Review. You can follow me: @timothycalkins Many and perhaps all of the advertisers will be commenting on Twitter as well, hoping to engage people and get as much impact as possible from their Super Bowl investment. They […]

One of the most difficult things for a Super Bowl advertiser to get right is linkage. It isn’t enough to develop a clever commercial that stands out and is memorable. You have to link the creative idea to the brand. If linkage isn’t strong, the ad simply won’t work very well. People will remember the […]

The Super Bowl reflects American society. This year, the American population is working through issues related to gender. Super Bowl advertisers study the U.S. population for months, trying to understand what is significant and what people are thinking about. They then develop ads that build on and reflect these insights. The ads you see on the Super […]

Earlier this week Professor Derek Rucker and I wrote an article for Fortune highlighting four Super Bowl spots that never should have run. GoDaddy was about to secure a second spot on that list, setting up next year’s article on five spots that never should have run. Yesterday afternoon, however, GoDaddy pulled its ad. The company […]

GoDaddy just released its Super Bowl spot featuring Buddy the very cute puppy. There is just one problem. People seem to hate it. A few early comments from You Tube: “If you don’t remove this video I will cancel all my websites and business and go elsewhere.” “How dare you depict breeders who love and […]

Every once in a while you see a marketer make it all look easy. The advertising delivers a benefit. The communication generates interest. People respond. This week, Victoria’s Secret provides an example. The brand is making all the right moves as it heads into the Super Bowl. Let’s review some of the brand’s recent activity. […]

We now know who will be playing in the Super Bowl on February 1. It should be a good game. We don’t know much about the more interesting part of the event: the advertising. The Super Bowl advertising hype is just beginning. To date, only a few advertisers have rolled out their pre-game campaigns. Skittles released a […]

Carnival will be advertising on the 2015 Super Bowl. The move makes sense; Carnival Corporation is by far the world’s largest cruise company and wants to get people in the U.S. excited about taking a trip. This a good time for such a message; the economy is getting better and people have money to spend. […]

GoDaddy announced last week that it will be advertising on the Super Bowl again in 2015. The announcement was not a surprise; GoDaddy has used the Super Bowl effectively to build its brand over the past decade. This will be its 11th appearance. GoDaddy also announced that its Super Bowl ad will feature a cute […]