111.5 million viewers and millions more after the actual game that had their attention captured by creative and eye-catching commercials for the 2014 Super Bowl. The game itself may not have been as interesting and exciting as fans would have expected, but the commercials definitely stepped up their game to entertain the viewers. Companies incur large expenses to produce the commercials that they place in the Super Bowl commercial time slots for $4,000,000 per 30 seconds and they do it because it works. The commercials are exposed to real-time viewers that amounts to approximately 21.7 percent of the North American population (529 Million). That is a large number of current and potential consumers to market to with clever, meaningful, and memorable commercials. Companies who advertise during the Super Bowl, is historically, rewarded with an increase in brand recognition and higher gross income (Samuelson, 2013). Well-made commercials this year that caught my eyes were the two car commercials for Jaguar and KIA. The commercial for Jaguar was entertaining and used celebrity star influence very well. “Have you ever noticed how in Hollywood movies, all the villains are played by Brits?” the main idea behind the commercial, which marked the car with a bad boy feel, a rebellious side, and power (Power that all villains look for and finds in Jaguar vehicles). This commercial works very well in America which looks for power in an automobile vehicle (Jaguar and Villains). The KIA K900 commercial was a star influenced one as well, Morpheus from the Matrix Trilogy, and its use of concepts from the trilogy was entertaining and recognizable, which made it more memorable. It’s use of music and dialog marked it as a luxury car while the signature matrix explosions and effects helped give it a sense of being powerful; perhaps indestructible (KIA and Morpheus). I can’t speak for other viewers, but these two commercials definitely caught my eyes and improved my image of Jaguar and KIA.

http://www.worldpopulationstatistics.com/north-america-population-2013/

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/super-bowl-2014-ratings-set-new-record/

http://www.cbc.ca/news/community/super-bowl-commercials-2014-s-10-best-1.2520976

http://www.marketplace.org/topics/business/so-do-super-bowl-ads-really-work