Hasta La Creative!

When Butterfinger Brand Manager Jeremy Vandervoet wanted to make a splash for the biggest product debut in the candy bar’s 90-year history — Butterfinger Peanut Butter Cups — he knew exactly where to go: the Super Bowl.

“We went to the CEO and management team for incremental advertising dollars to fund it and — literally — they approved it within five minutes,” he said. “We wanted to buy an ad [in the game] to have credibility, to show that we really believe in [the product] and to generate big and broad awareness.”

For many brands, the Super Bowl is hardly a no-brainer. Rather, it just might be the most expensive and high-risk decision in all of advertising. For every success story — think Chrysler’s “Imported From Detroit” launched in the 2011 game — there’s a high-profile flop like Groupon’s much-criticized ad that same year making light of the plight of Tibet. “The Super Bowl is either the most economical, smart, risk-free thing you can do or the worst mess you can get yourself into,” said David Lubars, chairman and chief creative officer for BBDO North America, who has worked on Super Bowl ads for 14 years.

Continue reading at AdAge.com