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Which Super Bowl ad was the best of the bunch, and which ad deserves a slap? In this special Super Bowl Campaign Review, Mumbrella invites two of the industry’s most senior creative and strategist to critique some of the world’s biggest ads and rate them out of 10.

Brand: Bud Light x Game of Thrones
Agency: Droga5
The Verdict: A brilliant collaboration – the best of the bunch

Frank Morabito, ECD, Spinach, says:

“I haven’t seen every ad from this year’s Superbowl, but this Bud Light HBO amalgam must be the best ad of the telecast. Talk about plot twist. It’s deliciously deceitful and so fulfilling. Particularly, as I understand it, other Bud Light ads had screened earlier in the night. It’s a brilliant collaboration, Bud Light kills off the corny Bud Light Knight character and HBO announces the final Game of Thrones season in devastating style.”

Rating: 20 – 10 points each

Brand: Amazon Alexa
Agency: Lucky Generals
The Verdict: Ticks box after box with long-term branding potential

Morabito says:

“Nothing unexpected about the strategy or the creative construct of this Superbowl ad. And that’s precisely why, as our American friends would say, it’s so damn good. This Amazon ad just keeps ticking box after box. Simple premise? Tick. Surprising cameos? Tick. Good jokes? Tick. Of the moment music track? Tick. Reward for watching? Tick. It’s a great example of doing the basic things right. Of course, a big budget helps, but many have squandered bigger.”

Rating: 8/10

Brand: Google
Agency: Creative Labs
The Verdict: The verdict is still out

Morabito says:

“Bi ene zar surtalchilgaany talaar bükhniig üzen yaddag. According to Google Translate that’s Mongolian for, ‘I hate everything about this ad’. It was so sickeningly saccharin and contrived I had an overwhelming desire to brush my teeth immediately after watching it. From the moment you see the first few scenes and hear the opening words of the schmaltzy script you just know how it’s going to end. As they say in Lithuania, ‘koks svaistymas’.”

Rating: 1/10

Brand: Turkish Airlines
Agency: Anomaly
The Verdict: Truly cinematic but its point is unclear

Morabito says:

“The thinking goes, let’s create a beautiful six-minute ‘film’ with an intriguing storyline that sells Turkish Airlines by selling the stunning city of Istanbul. Oh, and we’ll get Ridley Scott to direct it. Brilliant, job done, another bottle of Dom anyone? This ad is truly cinematic in every way, and that’s why it lost me way before quarter time. Come to think of it, quarter time breaks would have been welcome relief. But wait, perhaps the extended running time was intended to make a genius observation about the nature of Gridiron, that is, why does 60 minutes of game time take over three hours to play? Nah, it’s not that clever.”

Rating: 4/10

Brand: Audi
Agency: Venables Bell & Partners
The Verdict: An unexpected and funny twist but lacked strong insights

Morabito says:

“This ad begins by looking like it’s from the Google Translate cookbook, but then it flips the recipe on its head. Until that moment, it’s all pretty pictures, dramatic music, big hugs and shiny new metal. The twist is unexpected and funny. I certainly didn’t see it coming and it put a real half-smile on my face. The supers at the end complete the story, but extra points go to the petit tagline that makes a big claim, ‘Electric has gone Audi’.”

Rating: 7/10

Australian creatives weigh in on favourite Super Bowl ads

This article appeared first on Adnews.

The Super Bowl didn’t fail to deliver on big ads yesterday, with the biggest brands from Pepsi to Amazon taking part.

The themes this year was robophobia, female-empowerment and diversity.

Amazon featured Harrison Ford with an Alexa that didn’t work, Pringles had a depressed Alexa-like device, meanwhile TurboTax created what could be the creepiest Super Bowl ad with a human-like doll that wants to do taxes.

T-Mobile had people talking on Twitter with its ad that offered customers free Taco Bell and The Washington Post advertised for the first time during the big game, taking out a spot that went for over a minute to advocate for press freedom.

Google and Microsoft were the biggest tearjerkers of the day. Google rolled out an ad showing how it helps veterans find work, while Microsoft’s ad featured children with disabilities talking about how technology empowers them.

Emotional intelligence company Realeyes looked at the emotional response of the ads and found M&M’s spot featuring Christina Applegate was the most engaging.

In second was Bubly’s ad with Michael Bublé, followed by Mint Mobile and Dietz & Watson which both came in third.

To track how people responded to the ads globally, Twitter created five categories to rank brands.

The #MVP winner, the brand with the highest percentage of all brand-related tweets during the game, was Planters.

The #Blitz winner, the highest level of tweets per minute during Super Bowl night, was Bud Light and Game of Thrones.

The #Quarterback winner, the tweet that spurred the most retweets during the game, was Marvel Studios.

The #Interception winner, the brand that captured the highest share of conversations without running a TV ad, was Frank.

And finally, the #VideoViews winner, the brand with the most viewed Tweet, was Verizon.

AdNews gathered creatives across the industry for their thoughts on the best ads.

Brand: Hyundai/Walmart

Jacqui Paterson, Senior Creative, Spinach says:

I personally hate watching sport, but I love watching Super Bowl ads. This year was love/hate for me. My top two both featured cars, but in totally different ways. ‘Hyundai ‘Elevator’ stars Jason Bateman as a lift attendant with a gag for every floor. His dry delivery kept me smiling to the end. Extra points for the “Back it up Captain Colon” gag.

Equal first is Walmart’s ‘Famous Cars’, perfectly executed from concept and music to end tag. My least favourite was Stella Artois. Digging up Carrie and the Dude might be nostalgic, but also a wasted opportunity to create something new and unique.