For its 2020 Super Bowl commercial, Discover is splitting its 30-seconds into two separate 15-second commercials that feature a number of familiar faces. The two ads will run during the same commercial break, but won’t be directly back-to-back.
Speaking to Ad Week, Ryan Scully, Discover’s SVP of brand, media, and consumer insights, said that the spot is a “fun way to get consumers attention.”
He added, “Having an ad run in between them allows for both ads to have their own moment while working together to tell our story.”
The spot features classic clips from films and TV shows like Mean Girls, Ted, 30 Rock, Old School, and more. The “yes” spot shows a bunch of characters responding positively to the question, “Do you take Discover?” The “no” spot, meanwhile, features clips from School of Rock, Clueless, Trains, Planes and Automobiles and Austin Powers.
This Marks Discover’s First Appearance in the Super Bowl Since 2015
The last time Discover made an appearance in the Super Bowl was 2015. Both the company’s ads will air during the fourth quarter of the game. Ad Age writes, “The dual commercials will cover a ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ dynamic to demonstrate Discover’s acceptance rate at most stores and lack of annual fee, according to a spokeswoman.
VP President of US Cards at Discover, Julie Loeger, said in a statement, “We will leverage the Yes/No dynamic in a fun and memorable way, by using a wide range of popular movie and television characters, and some user-generated content.”
Discover Worked With the Martin Agency for This Year’s Commercial
This year, Discover worked with The Martin Agency on the commercial.
The advertising agency is based in Richmond, Virginia, and has worked with Geico, BWW, Doordash, Sling TV, Purina, Oreo, and Warner Bros.
Ad Age reports that the cost of a 30-second commercial spot for this year’s Super Bowl was $5.6 million. Last year’s game drew in more than 98.2 million viewers, and tonight’s is expected to rake in over 100 million.
While most commercials run will run 30-seconds, others will last 60-seconds.
In their recent article, Digital Trends put Smaht Park for Hyundai and Whassup Again for Budweiser and Uber at the top of their list of “the best Super Bowl commercials of 2020 so far.”
The former features Chris Evans, John Krasinski, and Rachel Dratch practicing their Boston accents in a hilarious bit about the Hyundai Sonata which features Remote Smart Parking Assistant.
In the latter, an old commercial gets a new twist with a home of smart devices being featured in the 60-second ad.
This isn’t to say that all this year’s commercials are planning on bringing the humor– Budweiser’s “Typical American” ad shows scenes of Americans doing, well, what Americans do– the ad shows a firefighter fighting a fire and a serviceman returning home to surprise his dad.
Tonight, the San Francisco 49ers will face off against the Kansas City Chiefs. Be sure to tune in at 3:30pm PT, 6:30pm ET.
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