Adobe's Super Bowl Spot Will Definitely Resonate with 'Gambling' CMOs

Today, Adobe launched a new video ad campaign ahead of the Super Bowl, “The Gambler”, a spot targeting marketers. The spot, debuting in the U.S., U.K., and Germany, is directed by feature film director J.C. Chandor (A Most Violent Year, All is Lost, Margin Call), and asks marketers: “Do you know what your marketing is doing?”

The 60-second spot opens with two guys sitting in a dive bar watching the Super Bowl – one looks like looks a low-life gambler, the other looks like a nervous businessman (CMO). The “gambler” asks how much the CMO is in for – assuming he’s betting on the big game. The CMO says $4 million and the gambler is stunned. The CMO tells his story to the gambler about how he should have ‘looked at the data’ before going all-in, but he was excited and had to get it in on the Super Bowl. The CMO continues saying that it’s not even his money and some people will be very unhappy if things don’t pay off. The gambler asks about the bet, and the CMO points to the TV and says, “See that cream cheese ad? That’s my commercial.” We cut to the entire bar looking at the TV and view the reactions of the bar patrons as they watch the commercial, wincing at the thought of how much money the CMO wasted on a terrible ad. Feeling bad for the CMO, the gambler tells the bartender to get the CMO another drink.”

Adobe created this campaign with its ad agency, Goodby Silverstein & Partners (GS&P). The satiric ad addresses marketers and how they need to ‘look at the data’ to gain meaningful insights before blindly launching an ad campaign and throwing money at it – or it could miss the mark.  

“The idea behind this ad came from the fact that marketers are obsessed with Super Bowl advertising – discussing, debating, and even dissecting the ads that end up on the screen during the big game,” said Alex Amado, vice president of experience marketing, Adobe. “We’re executing a cross-channel media strategy to reach our target audience of senior marketers with this ad, and we’re reminding them to ‘look at the data’ before running any big marketing plays – otherwise it’s just a gamble.”

Simon Bruyn, copywriter at GS&P, commented “We all know how expensive the Super Bowl has become for advertisers, yet so often brands still buy up media without understanding if it actually makes sense for them. Given the high stakes, we wanted to remind marketers that Adobe Marketing Cloud empowers them to make informed decisions.” 

The spot will be featured across digital properties aligning with Super Bowl advertising content, organic and paid social media placements (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube), and national/local U.S. market TV placements during late night talk shows including Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Saturday Night Live, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.