What do consumers think of Amazon & Google’s Super Bowl ads? | Campaign Spotlight

You know you’re a marketer when the most exciting thing about the Super Bowl is the ads. 

Every year, brands spend millions to get their hands on a Super Bowl ad spot – and 2020 was no different. This year, we saw some standout campaigns from brands across the board, and some of the very best came from tech giants. 

Amazon and Google’s 2020 Super Bowl ads both focused on their respective voice-activated AI products – the Amazon Alexa and the Google Assistant – thanks in part to the explosion of voice technology (and Google’s infamous struggle in the hardware market). But even though both brands were pushing very similar products, their approaches couldn’t have been more different. 

Which angle was the better choice? To get the low-down on what people thought of Amazon and Google’s 2020 Super Bowl ads, we used the Attest platform to ask 700 working-age US consumers (350 for each ad) for their thoughts. Check out the results to see which ad won out.

Amazon’s 2020 Super Bowl ad: ‘Before Alexa’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RF9t2rFmTVE

Amazon is known for whipping up funny, tongue-in-cheek Super Bowl ads, packed full of celebrity appearances. This year was no different. Featuring Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi, the ad is a funny trip through history – a collection of different scenarios that might’ve happened before the Amazon Alexa came along to make all of our lives easier. At least, that’s what Amazon was going for – but do consumers think they hit the mark?

How did consumers describe the advert?

The majority of consumers seem onboard with the ad’s playful theme. 55% of them described it as ‘fun’, 47% said it was ‘memorable’, and 38.1% also called it ‘original’. Very few said it was ‘boring’ – only 3.4% of the 350 US residents we surveyed. 

Which of the following words would you use to describe Amazon’s advert?

Did it get people talking?

One of the many hallmarks of a good ad is how much of a buzz it creates – so we asked consumers whether they’d chat about Amazon’s Super Bowl ad with their friends. The answer was, overwhelmingly, yes. 34.7% said they’d be ‘likely’ to discuss it, and a further 31.2% said they’d be ‘very likely’. 10.9% said they’d be ‘unlikely’ or ‘very unlikely’ to drop it into a conversation. Not bad for a piece of advertising. 

How likely are you to discuss or share this advert with friends?

Are people more likely to buy after watching the advert?

How much did Amazon’s ad sway consumer’s opinions when it comes to buying Amazon products? While 44.6% said their mind is unchanged, a whopping 28.9% said they’re now much more likely to buy Amazon’s products after watching the ad. On top of that, only 2% said they’d be less likely to buy after seeing the ad.

After seeing this advert are you more or less likely to buy Amazon’s products?

Overall, how did people rate it? 

It’s good news for Amazon – the majority of consumers gave the ad a four out of five (42.9%), closely followed by five out of five (32.9%). Only 2.3% gave the ad a rock-bottom rating of one. 

How many stars would you give this advert out of five?

What did they like most?

What did they like least?

Google’s 2020 Super Bowl ad: ‘Loretta’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xSxXiHwMrg&t=1s

Prepare yourself for a tearjerker. Google’s ad couldn’t be further away from the fantasticalness of Amazon’s. It’s the story of an elderly man who lost his wife, and uses his Google Assistant to remember all of the small things about her. It’s simple, it cleverly highlights a feature of Google Assistant that often goes unused, and it sure does tug at the heartstrings. But did consumers resonate with the story? 

How did consumers describe the advert?

One thing’s for sure – most consumers won’t be forgetting this one in a hurry. 46.7% of those we surveyed described the ad as ‘memorable’, closely followed by ‘heartwarming’ (42.4%). On the flip side, 5.5% thought it was ‘corny’ – and that’s a risk you run when you pull together an ad designed to evoke emotion. 

Which of the following words would you use to describe Google’s advert?

Did it get people talking?

Would consumers take it upon themselves to share Google’s ad with their friends? Was it memorable enough to come up in conversation? The answer is yes – 36.3% said they were ‘likely’ to discuss the ad with friends, and 32.3% said they were ‘very likely’. 11.9% said they were ‘unlikely’ or ‘very unlikely’ – a whole 1% more than Amazon’s ad. 

How likely are you to discuss or share this advert with friends?

Are people more likely to buy after watching the advert?

Did this tearjerker of an ad give people a hankering to get their wallets out? 39.4% reported no change, but 57% of people said they were ‘slightly more likely’ or ‘much more likely’ to buy Google’s products after seeing their Super Bowl ad. Interestingly, 3.6% of people said they were less likely to buy after the ad – that’s more than Amazon’s 2%, but perhaps to be expected due to the ad’s emotional content. 

After seeing this advert are you more or less likely to buy Google’s products?

Overall, how did people rate it? 

It’s in this area that Google have really knocked it out of the park. 41.8% of people gave the ad the best possible score, rating it a five out of five. That was closely followed by a solid four, with 33% rating it just shy of perfect. On the other end of the scale, 2.7% of respondents gave it the worst possible rating of one out of five. 

How many stars would you give this advert out of five?

What did they like most?

What did they like least?

TL;DR

• Amazon and Google both chose to highlight their voice assistant products in their Super Bowl ads this year, but took wildly different approaches in doing it
• Amazon’s ad was most likely to be described as ‘fun’, while Google’s was most likely to be described as ‘memorable’ 
• More people said they’d discuss or share the Amazon ad with their friends than the Google ad
• Amazon’s ad seemed to have more of an effect on actual purchasing behavior – more consumers said they’d be more likely to buy Amazon products after seeing the ad than Google 
• The majority of people gave Google’s ad a perfect score of five out of five. For Amazon, the majority gave it a four out of five

Ads, huh? There are so many of the things. And making them isn’t cheap. How do brands like Amazon and Google produce super creative ads, nab expensive ad spots, and know it’s all worth the money? The secret is good creative testing! Check out our Complete Guide to Creative Testing to get the details on how you should be testing your creative, and make sure you’re producing the ads that will make a lasting impact: