What made Hero decide to run an existing ad rather than create a new one for the Super Bowl?
The ad ran on connected TV starting in the second quarter of 2023. We knew we already had winning creative and this was our opportunity to showcase it on a bigger stage. It was more efficient for us to run something that we knew was a great ad than start from scratch and recreate the wheel.
What inspired the story in the ad?
In this “Pimple, Meet Your Mighty Patch” series we have three spots covering various moments in peoples’ lives where the unfortunate pimple comes up. They are “Zitcation,” “Pop Me” and “Date.” We thought it’d be fun to personify the pimple and show how the Mighty Patch can knock them out. The results and engagement have been off the charts.
Obviously, it’s early, but what has the response been like to the ad thus far?
We don’t have the results yet but we did see a spike on Amazon during the spot, which is super exciting. Anecdotally, I personally got tons of texts and messages from friends who saw the ad. I know the rest of the team also received a lot of messages saying they saw the ad. The eyeballs are there, for sure.
How did the team decide that now was the time to experiment with a Super Bowl ad?
It was our first-ever TV ad during the Super Bowl. We started doing more brand awareness in 2023 and it is a continued goal to increase overall awareness of Hero in 2024. We had extra budget towards the end of 2023 and … Sculley had the brilliant idea to try some focused buys during Super Bowl to show our ad on a bigger level outside our main target audiences and in the two key markets where we have strong sales—New York and Minneapolis.
What are your thoughts on DTC brands running Super Bowl ads in general?
It depends on where the brand is in its lifecycle and what the marketing goals are. During the DTC boom, there was probably too much money spent on awareness that didn’t perform or convert. Hero only started spending on awareness in year six of the brand and we had our first focused Super Bowl ad in year seven. It made sense for us because the awareness building is a key priority and we now have national distribution. There is a time and place for it. For us, that time is now.