Playing the 'Super Bowl' game with advertising

Markets like the UAE are too diverse for Super Bowl-style celebrations of advertising. But the region's ad men say commercials here are getting more creative in entertaining viewers. With gallery.

Panda - Never say no to Panda: This award-winning advert for Panda, an Egyptian dairy brand, depicts a dead-eyed panda reacting angrily to anyone refusing its cheesy products. Panda/YouTube.

The Super Bowl is almost as famous for its multimillion-dollar television commercials as it is for being the annual finale of American football.

Brands paid US$3.5 million (Dh12.8m) per half-minute commercial at this year's game, clocking up millions of dollars more in production fees and payments to A-list actors.

With big bucks came big audience figures. This year's game, played in Indianapolis on February 5, was the most-watched TV show in American history, with more than 117 million watching in the final half hour.

In the Arab world's advertising industry, worth an estimated total of $4 billion annually for all forms of media, no single event comes close to the Super Bowl.

Such a festival of advertising would have to evolve over time, says Kamal Dimachkie, the executive regional managing director of the advertising agency Leo Burnett.

"I don't think if you impose on the region a Super Bowl event that advertising will immediately rise to play the role that it does for the [event] in the US," says Mr Dimachkie, one of the most prominent admen in the Middle East.

"What is interesting about the Super Bowl in the US is that the event, and the advertising punctuating it, has grown organically and evolved over time. This is what you need here," he says.

Despite the lack of a Super Bowl equivalent in the region, more Arab advertising is picking up international award shows such as Cannes Lions. Regional executives point to the growing role of commercials designed to entertain as well as to push products.

Mr Dimachkie tells The National how brands can make their mark in the Arab world, with or without a Super Bowl equivalent.

How important is the Super Bowl to the US advertising?

Life practically comes to a standstill during the Super Bowl. It's something that almost the entire North America looks forward to on an annual basis. And a lot of brands go to tremendous expense in order to make sure they put their best foot forward.

What Super Bowl adverts strike you as being particularly memorable?

Look at Apple's 1984. This ad was developed at a cost of millions, and it was screened only once, at the Super Bowl. Obviously we've all seen it many, many times over the years. But that ad was [shown as a paid-for commercial] only once, and it served its purpose [as] almost a once-in-a-lifetime event. And it was certainly well worth it for Apple and, back then, Steve Jobs [the late co-founder of the company].

Is it right that Super Bowl advertisements get almost as much attention as the game itself?

I'm not surprised. I think it's wonderful for advertising to have such high entertainment value … It's all competing for our attention. We [all] have a limited attention span, and we are going to award our attention to those events, those brands that are most qualified to earn it.

Do you agree that advertising in the Arab world is not talked about in the same way as it is in markets such as the US?

If you look at the average, that's probably [right]. You need to have homogeny and uniformity in culture in order for advertising to play the role that you would expect it to play in places such as the US and UK. But I think within this environment there are major differences. Places like Egypt and Lebanon stand out, in the sense that there is more engagement between advertising and the local population.

Can you give any examples of Middle East advertising that stands out as entertainment in itself?

There are a lot of examples, from clients such as General Motors, du and more recently McDonald's. If you look at a single example, where the communication was really tailored to the event, it is the commercial we developed for Qtel earlier this year for the Arab Games. That was a piece of communication that - though not necessarily amusing or funny - had an entertainment value and message very consistent with the time. It reminded all Arab participants that this is a good time to be an Arab.

Super Bowl advertisements cost millions of dollars a minute. Do Arab brands have high enough budgets to spend on such events?

If you look at why brands pay the premium they do for the Super Bowl, it is because of the return they get. When the economy is not doing so well, every single chief executive is challenged … to demonstrate bottom-line return. Yet if you look at what they do and the amount of money they pour into it, you realise that it is an event they cannot afford to miss. So if the region is capable of producing an event [such as the Super Bowl], then I think you will find that, perhaps slowly but surely brands will make their way into that event and want to be associated with it.

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