Last year, Droga5 gained a lot of attention for Newcastle with its “If We Made It” digital campaign for the brand. So when the agency crashed Doritos “Crash the Super Bowl” campaign with its “Chores” effort, it was clear that it was likely just the beginning of the agency’s latest campaign leading up to the big game. Now Droga5 has launched a more substantial effort, relying on a deadpan delivery from Aubrey Plaza to call on other brands to join forces with Newcastle to purchase a Super Bowl ad.
After a quick dig at big game advertising in general, and Chrysler’s ridiculous Super Bowl spot last year in particular, Plaza jumps to the pitch in typically deadpan fashion. The gist is that Newcastle wants in on the big game, but is looking for partners (whose logos and brands would also be featured in the ad), or as Plaza puts it, “Instead of blowing Newcastle’s marketing budget, let’s team up to blow all of our marketing budgets.”
It’s worth noting that, the four million dollar ad Newcastle is enlisting other parties to go in on, would not be nationally broadcast. Since Anheuser-Busch is the exclusive beer advertiser during the event, the best a rival brand can hope for is to buy time on NBC’s local affiliates.
Charles van Es, head of marketing for Heineken USA (whose brand portfolio includes Newcastle), told The New York Times: “We don’t have the money to advertise the normal way, so we found a clever way around it. With the whole world going to crowdsourcing these days, we figured we could crowdsource an ad.”
But the ad, like last year’s “If We Made It,” is mostly about starting a conversation. “You don’t need the dinosaur channels like television anymore,” van Es added. “We’re in a new age. You can use digital and get the same buzz.”