Jonathan Ogle, Infinite’s principal and founder, recently was asked to speak on radio stations across the country to share his insights about this year’s Super Bowl advertisements. Listen to one of his interview on WBAP or read the transcript below to learn more about some of this year’s advertising highlights.
WBAP Interview
Ernie
You’re talking 20 WBAP It’s Ernie and Monty.
We’re gonna talk a little bit about the Super Bowl last night, of course.
One of the things people enjoy about the Super Bowl and I hear people talking about it all the time, is the commercial advertisement.
Monty
Yeah, alright, we’re gonna talk to Jonathan Ogle here in a moment. He’s a nationally known marketing expert, and he’s the Founder and Principal at the Infinite Agency.
They’ve helped build some of the largest brands in the country, including Budweiser, Bud Light, ESPN, Pizza Hut, Caesars Entertainment. Jonathan, thank you so much for your patience. We appreciate you joining us on W.B.A. P.
Jonathan
Hey, thank you so much for having me. Glad to be here.
Monty
I guess I’m just gonna start with an overall on the Super Bowl last night. Who do you think hit it out of the park and as far as advertisers go?
Jonathan
Well, I mean it was, it all depends on who you are. You know, I had dog lovers loving The Farmer’s Dog commercial, my kids were excited about the new Indiana Jones release coming out, but you know it was funny to me, as you know, T-Mobile right away had my mom laughing and I missed the next two commercials because she was laughing at Bradley Cooper’s mom, giving him critique. So I mean it all depends on who you’re targeting. But I thought the way that they played off attention knowing that a mother and son would probably be in the room together—I thought, they did a pretty good job. But I had a couple of favorites.
What were yours?
Monty
I actually, I kinda like that one because it reminded me of a commercial I tried to do with my mother years ago and she kept hamming it up and I kept, “no mom just read the line” and what ended up happening is there was a tag line and it was just me and my mother bickering back and forth.
Jonathan
That’s really funny actually. I think they played well on that.
You know, one of the ones that I thought was really great, they did a great job, was Tubi. Tubi first kind of had the rabbits and it’s kind of weird, and you’re like what is this? But at least it gave you some brand recognition and then their next ad, they kind of did the thing where they took over the screen and everybody was yelling, who’s sitting on the remote?! We’re trying to watch the Super Bowl! That to me was a really well done ad to try to make people think something different was going on. They did a good job.
Ernie
I did that. I was sitting over there like, “what are you doing over there, the games on?” And he was like, “what are you talking about, I’m not touching the remote?”
Monty
I did too! I was like, “did I turn the Roku on?”
Ernie
It really threw me off.
I actually like the Rockstar Workday ad, but it’s only because I liked all the rock stars that were in it.
Jonathan
I keep hearing that. People really, really resonated with that ad. It’s funny because everybody uses that terminology. So they really did well because of the relevance of it.
Monty
Yeah, that’s right. Jonathan, let me ask you something. I mean, these companies spend a fortune to get on the Super Bowl. They probably spend a fortune on some of these performers to be in their commercials. Do they get their money back?
Jonathan
I mean you’ve got to sell a lot of Doritos—that is a lot of beer and Doritos to sell. You know, $7 million for 30 seconds. That’s not a 60 second spot, that’s a 30 second spot. That’s a lot of money. But you know, I think that these brands are trying to make a splash, a brand I like to remind people about is Go Daddy. Nobody had heard of Go Daddy before they started advertising on the Super Bowl and it really changed the way that people viewed their brand. So it can definitely do wonders for some of these brands that are putting their money on the big stage.
Monty
I’m glad they put some money into these commercials. How about doing that the rest of the year? So we don’t watch the rotten stuff we get.
Jonathan
I know, I know. I hate seeing the same commercials over and over. But yeah, we’ll see how that plays out.
You know, one of the ones that I think got a lot of talk was, of course, the Jesus rebrand ad, “He Gets Us.” That kind of made our living room pause for a second on both of their commercials and I think that we’ll see more of them in the future, which is kind of an interesting change of pace for advertisersing on the Super Bowl.
Ernie
Yeah, I did too. I saw that a few times and I wondered, I don’t know what that organization is.
Jonathan
Well, you have to go check it out. It’s interesting that they were allowed to be on the Super Bowl. I think that sometimes, the NFL committee has done a good job of keeping out advertisers that are political. But I think the message was hopeful. I think they’re just trying to get people plugged back into knowing who Jesus is versus what he gets branded by through Christians. So, I think that was a very interesting take and their content itself points at making you think.
Monty
Yeah, well, definitely takin’ in that cash. I’m sure it had something to do with their decision.
Jonathan, we’ll have you back. Thank you so much for coming on.
Jonathan
All right, thank you so much.
Monty
Alright. We appreciate it.
