Super Bowl Sunday is probably the hardest day of the year for fans of the thirty teams that didn’t make it to the big game. So this year, United Airlines decided they would speak directly to them.
The truth is, for all of these fans, the day after the Super Bowl is over, they have just as much chance of seeing their teams in the most watched sports event in the world as anyone else. We encouraged them to believe in that chance immediately by buying a plane ticket to next year’s Super Bowl, right now. Because even if they don’t make it, United won’t charge them a penny to change their flight.
But where this gets really good is our regional ad buy. Most brands have one broad message that they broadcast on a national level, trying to speak to everyone watching at once. Knowing how personal football fandom is, we chose to concentrate on United’s main hub cities and speak directly to those fans, specifically about their team.
Chicago Bears
Denver Broncos
Cleveland Browns
Houston Texans
And, yes, Kansas City Chiefs. Of course, we didn’t know while we were in production that they would actually be in the Super Bowl. But we had good enough sense to shoot two versions because even the winning team starts from zero the day after the Super Bowl is over.
Who better to inspire these fans than ‘Friday Night Lights’ Dillon Panther’s coach, Eric Taylor, played with such incredible emotional power by Emmy Award-winning actor, Kyle Chandler. And who better to pull such a powerful, emotional performance than Oscar-winning ‘Nomadland’ director, Chloe Zhao. The pieces were all there.
We released the six films in the week leading up to Super Bowl Sunday, to let the conversation grow organically. And, boy, did it grow. Along with the usual press stories, we also inspired think pieces, passionate fan praise and local news segments.
Not bad for a relatively affordable regional buy and a few single-shot monologues.
