Super Bowl 50 Branding Goes Guerrilla

While Broncos fans celebrate and Panthers fans find comfortable holes to crawl in until next season, the rest of the country has been hot on deciphering which Super Bowl commercials were good, bad and ugly. However the chips fall, the adage, “Any publicity is good publicity,” will still rock most marketers to sleep at night — and, doubly so, if the exposure comes at a moment of maximum exposure like right after the game ends.

So, curious then that two high-profile faces of Super Bowl 50 are now seeing themselves tied to some guerrilla, or even clandestine, marketing tactics.

First is the curious case of now two-time Super Bowl champion Peyton Manning’s post-game comments. As soon as the final seconds ticked off the clock, reporters rushed the field as they usually do, and one from CBS got the chance to ask the NFL’s all-time passing leader what he planned to do after winning what was likely the final game of his career in the league’s championship. Manning’s answer?

“I’m going to drink a lot of Budweiser tonight, Tracy. I promise you that.”

And then, minutes later, at a post-game press conference, he reiterated his concern for “how soon I can get a Bud Light in my mouth.”

And then, the morning after the game, on “CBS This Morning,” he confessed, “I’ve had a few Budweisers, and it’s been a special night.”

The mind immediately goes to paid product placements and under-the-table endorsements, but Lisa Weser, head of marketing for Anheuser-Busch, tweeted shortly after Manning’s comments that Budweiser had no idea the Denver quarterback was planning on name dropping it several times that night and once the morning after. That means free advertising on a night when screen time can’t possibly come at a higher premium; in fact, Apex Marketing Group estimated that Manning’s first Budweiser name-drop earned the brand $1.3 million in recognition value alone, with a total $13.9 million in unsolicited publicity before Manning’s victory fever wore off.

However, Manning was known for picking his spots with pinpoint accuracy during his soon-to-be-over career, and it appears as if the jackhammer of brand recognition wasn’t employed solely for Budweiser’s benefit after all. Harry Schuhmacher, publisher of the trade magazine Beer Business Daily, confirmed to the Chicago Tribune that Manning holds a stake in two Anheuser-Busch distributor groups based in Louisiana, and since it’s against NFL rules for active players to endorse alcoholic products, Manning’s near-certain exit from the league frees him to be his own best pitch man.

That and his undying love for his other fellow business partner: Papa John’s CEO John Schnatter.

But the celebrity brand affairs weren’t limited to the gridiron alone. The argument could be made that the biggest star at Levi’s Stadium on Sunday (Feb. 7) wasn’t a football player at all but halftime show headliner Beyoncé. The former Destiny’s Child and current Destiny’s Adult released a new single by the name of “Formation” to coincide with her midgame performance with Coldplay and Bruno Mars. However, when fans caught hold of one of Bey’s lyrics about bringing her beau to Red Lobster as a reward for a, ahem, “job well done,” they did take trips to their local Red Lobster in turn — leading to a 33 percent spike in Super Bowl Sunday sales compared to last year, CNN reported.

Red Lobster again denied all involvement, and it’s admittedly harder to imagine Beyoncé being swayed by Red Lobster’s money than it is Manning and Anheuser-Busch. However, with brands more desperate than ever to get their messages stuck in customers’ heads — Mountain Dew’s shock-style PuppyMonkeyBaby ad being a particularly poignant example — securing official or unofficial celebrity endorsements might be the new way of breaking through the Super Bowl white noise.

Of course, the jaded guest at everybody’s Super Bowl party would politely point out that this is nothing new at all. Not since Disney put up $75,000 for the victorious quarterback of Super XXI to grab a microphone on the field, stare straight into the camera and shout, “I’m going to Disney World!”