A Pepsi promotion for the Super Bowl halftime show starring Beyonce.(Photo: Pepsi)
Super Bowl XLVII will be overflowing with beverage promotions, with
Anheuser-Busch InBev the latest drink maker to unveil its Big Game ad
plans.
The beer giant said Thursday that it will tout existing
brands Budweiser and Bud Light, as well as introduce new brews such as
Beck's Sapphire and Budweiser Black Crown.
MORE: Super Bowl ads cost record $4M, CBS says
Other
beverage-product advertisers include soft-drink giants Coca-?Cola and
PepsiCo, packaged-goods company Kraft, touting its water flavoring MiO
brand and home soda-making machine seller SodaStream.
The
attention paid to the Big Game itself -- as well as the mass-audience
awareness of its advertising tie-ins -- make the Super Bowl an ideal
venue to promote such products, says John Sicher, publisher of trade
publicationBeverage Digest. "The Super Bowl presents a unique opportunity to get consumer brands in front of a large and attentive audience."
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Most
of the beverages will leverage the splashy game ads with Super Bowl
tie-ins via social media and in-store promotions. With some 30-second ad
slots selling for more than $4 million, the marketers want to be sure
to squeeze out every bit of bang for those bucks.
Two of them,
Pepsi and A-B, who both are major National Football League sponsors, are
combining their brand power for joint retail displays. Pepsi's soft
drinks, as well as its snack chips such as Doritos, will be touted
alongside A-B's brews in stores.
"Beer, chips and pop ... they are
the foundations of a Super Bowl party," says Paul Chibe, vice president
of A-B's U.S. marketing.
Coke and MiO haven't provided details on
their ad themes. SodaStream will have a humorous commercial that
promotes sustainability and takes a jab at conventional bottle and can
soft-drink marketers.
Pepsi will run a 30-second ad for its
mid-calorie soft drink Pepsi Next, and also have a 30-second promotion
that helps to introduce the half-time performance by Beyoncé Knowles.
Pepsi
is soliciting consumer photos to use in that commercial and has
received about 54,000 submissions. Just about 300 to 500 will be used in
the actual ad, however.
On Thursday, A-B provided some fresh
details on its game day ad plans. The brewer, which is the Super Bowl's
exclusive beer advertiser, will have four minutes and 30-seconds of ad
time.
It will run two ads for Bud Light under its ongoing
"superstitious" theme, which highlights the wacky actions fans take to
bring about good luck for their favored team. A-B will also have two
ads for Black Crown and one ad for Sapphire.
The brewer will also
feature its Clydesdale horses on the Feb. 3 game. Chibe says that ad,
which centers on a Clydesdale foal, will tug on viewers' heartstrings.
"I expect people to smile, but to also have a tear in the corner of
their eyes, too," he says.
USA Today