This Victoria's Secret spot, which closes with the words "Let the real games begin," ran during the two-minute warning of the fourth quarter. There was a time when an ad pod that late in the Super Bowl was far less desirable than the second or third quarter because blowouts were far more common than they later became. The 1985 game was decided by the second quarter, for example to the detriment of late-game marketers including Apple ("Lemmings").
But the NFL's efforts to achieve parity across the league gradually produced closer contests on Super Bowl Sunday. In 2000, a two-minute-warning spot for Computer.com benefited from a tight contest between the Rams and Titans ("Nephew"). And Victoria's Secret wound up a winner in 2015, when the Seahawks took the Patriots into the final minutes before finally losing on an interception.
And Valentine's Day was, as always on Super Bowl Sunday, right around the corner. So the media buy mades sense. Teleflora had put the same logic behind buys in 2012 ("Valentine's Night"), 2011 ("Help Me Faith"), 2010 ("Mr. Warmth") and 2009 ("Talking Flowers"). "Let the Real Games Begin" was all the same the first Super Bowl ad for Victoria's Secret since 2008.
In a departure from the pre-release synergy that saw many ads premiere on "Today," which like the 2015 game itself was on NBC, this spot aired Jan. 26 during ABC's "Good Morning America." The ad was produced in-house.
BRAND: Victoria's Secret
YEAR: 2015
AGENCY: internal
SUPERBOWL: XLIX
QUARTER AIRED: Q4