As Etsy seeks to distinguish itself as a destination for gifts year-round, it makes sense that the marketer would choose to highlight the biggest gift of all time at the biggest advertising event of the year.

The online marketplace will make its Super Bowl debut with a 30-second spot highlighting its new Gift Mode tool in the third quarter of the game on Feb. 11.

The “Thank you, France” commercial was created with Etsy’s creative agency Orchard. It takes a light-hearted approach to history by imagining what might have happened when America received the Statue of Liberty in 1881 from France to commemorate the two countries’ Revolutionary War alliance.

By using Etsy’s gifting tool, which the brand unveiled last week, American politicians were able to quickly choose a thoughtful reciprocal gift for France that incorporates cultural elements such as mimes and cheese.

Etsy began planning its Super Bowl debut six months ago, according to Brad Minor, VP of global brand marketing and communications at the Brooklyn, New York-based company.

“We wanted to make sure we showed up in a way that was bold and unmissable,” he said, noting that the game’s mid-February timing lined up with the brand’s strategy for messaging, which is to disrupt the notion that Etsy only equals holiday. “When you think gifting and Etsy, your mind probably goes to warm chicken-noodle soup-holiday season, and a lot of our marketing does align Etsy with holiday, but we wanted to reinforce the idea that gifting is a year-round always-on opportunity.”

Half of Etsy’s gifting sales are unrelated to religious holidays such as Christmas—many are for birthdays or thank you gifts, Minor said.

Avoiding gift panic

Orchard, which Etsy began working with on creative duties last June, has been along for the entire Super Bowl ride. Etsy works with Ocean Media on media duties.

David Kolbusz, chief creative officer at Orchard, said the agency wanted to dig into real behavioral insights around gifting for this campaign—particularly the negative ones, where people struggle to come up with gift ideas and begin to panic in the process.

“You know the feeling when you buy something because you’re like, ‘I don’t know what to do. I guess I’ll buy this.’ And then a better idea hits you later,” he said. “Or in the case [of the Super Bowl spot], that annoying thing where you weren’t expecting a gift, a gift comes, it’s really fucking good, and you’re like, ‘Shit, I’m going to have to reciprocate.’”

Etsy’s Gift Mode makes things easier by carving up the recipient’s psychographic profile and interests, so “you actually only need to know a little bit about a person to get them something pretty good,” Kolbusz said.

The Statue of Liberty idea dramatizes this in an entertaining way, on a grand scale, in a way that’s patriotic, even if cartoonishly so. “There’s an Americanness [to the Super Bowl] that made this spot feel appropriate for the occasion,” Kolbusz said. “And it’s about as far from French as you can get.”

In exploring the music, the agency originally paired “The Star-Spangled Banner” in the American section with “La Marseillaise,” France’s national anthem, in the French section. “But more people found Offenbach’s ‘Can Can’ more recognizably French,” said Kolbusz. “So we’re now recommending France change their national anthem.”

Andreas Nilsson was brought in to direct and nailed the period-piece vibe of late-19th century America, Kolbusz said.

“Andreas’ vision was fantastic,” he said. “He wanted to make it beautiful and sumptuous and lamplit, but at the same time really juicing the comedy. It was also structurally very complicated because there’s a lot of information to get across, both in terms of comprehension of product and how the narrative unfolds.”

Kolbusz himself was even cast as one of several mimes in the spot, but his performance didn’t make the final cut.

Here is an extended :45 cut of the spot:

The Super Bowl commercial is slated to air immediately after the halftime show.

“We aren’t normally a brand that lives in the football sphere, and we wanted to make sure we chose a spot and time that reflected the broadest audience possible,” Minor said, noting that around halftime is a “sweet spot” for the brand’s new messaging.

Delivering gift ideas

While Etsy saw sales skyrocket during coronavirus pandemic lockdowns, the marketplace has more recently been looking to continue its momentum with new programs such as Gift Mode. By using AI, along with some human curation, the tool is able to narrow down gift ideas to a few categories and then drill down to more specific options depending on how the user makes selections.

“It’s going from 100 million to a few categories to a few ideas,” Minor said, noting that early anecdotal feedback since Gift Mode’s Jan. 24 introduction has been positive.

Etsy also announced last week that it will be partnering with Drew Barrymore as its first chief gifting officer, a collaboration that includes integrations with Barrymore’s TV show.

The company will run a longer 45-second version of the Super Bowl TV spot on digital channels and will continue to run the campaign through the spring. Other marketing could include messaging around last-minute gifts or the recipient experience. The brand’s marketing push will also include working with influencers, a Times Square out-of-home takeover, Hulu ad takeovers and taking part in the Nasdaq bell-ringing.

“Linear gets a lot of the sparkle but we’re full funnel in terms of how we are approaching this,” Minor said.

In its recent fiscal third quarter ended Sept. 30, Etsy reported a 7% rise in revenue to $636.3 million, alongside net income of $87.9 million. The company has done some restructuring. In December, Etsy laid off 11% of its workforce and announced the departure of former Chief Marketing Officer Ryan Scott.