Broken Marketing by Anvara - Week 4

Welcome to Broken Marketing

Welcome to the 4th weekly edition of Broken Marketing by Anvara, where we discuss marketing that breaks.

For those of you that are new here, we’re Nick and Andrei, the co-founders of Anvara. We’ve included you here because one way or another we’re connected. We’re happy to have you a part of the Anvara family. 

Liquid Death Joins the Super Bowl Party

Last year around Super Bowl Season, Liquid Death pulled off one of our favorite marketing stunts - we talked about it in week 1. They made a listing on eBay for the “Biggest Ad Ever” - selling ad space on 500,000 cases of their water cans. 200 million people walk into their retail partners weekly. That’s a lot of eyeballs on their product, and yes, a lot of ad space. Coinbase won the auction for $500k under leadership of then CMO Kate Rouch (who is now CMO of OpenAI).

Liquid Death’s stunt was a satire of Super Bowl ads. A Super Bowl ad costs $7 million for 30 seconds. On average, ~123 million people watch the Super Bowl, and their attention is divided by the other 45 (as of now) brands at the big game. Liquid Death pulled off a stunt that didn’t cost them a dollar, or 7 million - they made $500k - and generated hundreds of millions of social media impressions. Genius. Andy Pearson and team, if you’re reading this, well done.

But this year, Liquid Death is getting in on the Super Bowl, announcing an ad of their own. We know nothing about the creative, but their in house creative team, Death Machine, is likely to blow it out of the water as they have in the past. The Super Bowl is an opportunity to flex your creative muscles, and ads that wow get tons more impressions online, so let’s see how this plays out.

We still believe ads on products are a killer opportunity. If you’re creative with your media, you can get consumer attention where they aren’t used to it - and they’re way more likely to remember you when you’re the only one there - as opposed to bundled up with 38484930 other brands on social media.

Not to plug but you can buy ads on water cases, coffee sleeves, and other unique places on anvara.com. Or you can sell them (Andy).

Doritos Lets Fans Crash the Super Bowl

Doritos is letting fans make its Super Bowl commercial for the first time in a decade. After reviewing thousands of entries, the top three finalists—"Abduction," "Barbershop," and "Charades"—have been selected. Fans can vote for their favorite at DoritosCrash.com until January 28, with the winning ad airing during the big game and its creators receiving a $1 million prize and a trip to the Super Bowl. 

The marketing team at Doritos is either really lazy and ran out of ideas, or this is a great use of user-generated content. It’s working either way. They got thousands of entries and hundreds of millions of impressions by tapping into the creativity of the people. This revival not only taps into nostalgia (they did this from 2006 to 2016) but also leverages UGC to deeply engage their audience. By empowering consumers to become creators, Doritos turns its fans into brand ambassadors, generating authentic buzz and reinforcing the brand's image as fun and innovative. Harness the power of your audience to create marketing that truly resonates.

Watch the final 3 contestants (and vote if you want) here: https://www.doritoscrash.com/

There’s a lot that can be learned from Doritos here. Not everyone has $1 million and a Super Bowl ad slot to engage their audience— fine. But by engaging your audience in your marketing, through contests, prizes, and interactive content, you can multiply the reach of your campaign. Create something for your audience to do, something they can win. This gets people excited, unleashes their creativity, and has a higher chance of making your campaign go viral than whatever ad your team can come up with. Power to the people (and Doritos).

This week’s news

Here’s a brief update on marketing news from this week:

• Meta is testing out ads on Threads. They’re starting with a small group of brands, including Louis Vuitton, testing image ads in user feeds in the U.S. and Japan. With over 300 million monthly active users, Threads is gaining traction as an alternative to X (570 million monthly active users), though its recent shift away from fact-checking moderation to a community notes system has raised concerns about brand safety. To address this, Meta is offering an inventory filter, allowing advertisers to control the sensitivity of content near their ads, as seen on Instagram and Facebook. Threads ads can integrate with broader campaigns across Meta’s platforms, making it a key component of brands' larger advertising strategies.

• Havas expands into sports marketing. Havas has acquired CA Sports, a Spanish agency specializing in sports sponsorship and business development. This move, following Havas' recent spin-off from Vivendi, integrates CA Sports into Havas Play, enhancing its sports marketing presence in Spain. Founder and CEO Cinto Ajram will continue to lead the agency, retaining a minority stake. Sports are becoming an increasingly important part of brand strategies to build credibility. You can buy sports sponsorships on anvara.com.

• It’s Super Bowl Season. That’s right, $7 million 30 second TV slots are back. Here’s the list of 45 brands we know will be there so far, with 13 brands at the super bowl for the first time: Angel Soft, Coffee mate, Hims & Hers, Liquid Death, Michelob Ultra, Nerds, Novartis, Rocket Cos., Tubi, Bosch, Bud Light, Budweiser, Cirkul, Coors Light, Fetch, NerdWallet, Uber Eats, Homes.com, GoDaddy, Hellmann’s, Instacart, MSC Cruises, Meta, Ram, Stella Artois, Taco Bell, Little Caesars, Pringles, Häagen-Dazs, Reese’s, Squarespace, WeatherTech, Doritos, Duracell, Booking.com, FanDuel, DoorDash, Lay’s, TurboTax, Mountain Dew, Totino’s Pizza Rolls, Ritz, Jeep, Dove, Skechers.

That’s all for this week. Happy Wednesday and remember, fortune favors the brave.

What’s Anvara?

Anvara is a first-of-its-kind platform that connects brands with premium real-world advertising opportunities like live event sponsorship, sports marketing, and guerilla marketing. With a focus on innovation, AI, and advanced measurement, Anvara makes it easier for brands to create memorable real-world experiences and measure their ROI. For more information, visit https://www.anvara.com/.

Quote of the week

“Stay hungry. Stay Foolish.” - Steve Jobs