Tap here to watch EWU’s Super Bowl commercial

When I wrote my Super Bowl LX review, I scrutinized the commercials. However, except for a brief mention, I didn’t say much about the ad that meant the most to me during the big game.

Perhaps my relative silence was due to conflict of interest because the commercial I watched/appreciated the most was that of my employer. I am referring to the Eastern Washington University spot that ran three times during the Super Bowl broadcast.

The Super Bowl commercial that I enjoyed the most was the one we did! This is the opening screen for the spot we created in a very short period of time.

This academic year at EWU has been special because our university president accepted a marketing proposal my team submitted. Because of her willingness to move forward with the plan, our marketing program was significantly funded with the resources needed to do some pretty cool things. While our brand marketing strategy is digital-first, that doesn’t mean we turn a blind eye to traditional advertising. And because we haven’t lost faith in the power of traditional advertising, we did just about the coolest things you can do with it—we decided to run an ad during the Super Bowl.

Thanks to our decision to pay for a lot of TV inventory up front in the early fall, we were allotted local spots to run during the Super Bowl. The plan was to run our brand anthem commercial during our moment in the sun but then something remarkable happened that scraped those plans.

When Championship Sunday concluded and the teams for the Super Bowl were decided, there was something that had any Eastern Washington University fan beaming from ear-to-ear: The Seattle Seahawks (Cooper Kupp) and New England Patriots (Efton Chism III) each had an EWU alumnus playing on their teams.

Our University Relations and athletics departments did everything possible to celebrate/market that two Eagles were playing in the Super Bowl. From flyers to stories to website banners to a watch party, we had it covered.

But what about that Super Bowl spot?

We knew creating an entirely new spot that was Super Bowl-worthy in less than two weeks would be extremely difficult. So we decided to hedge our bets. Our team worked with our marketing agency to create a social media video that was focused on our brand identity as the region’s polytechnic while infusing Cooper and Efton to make our hands-on promise quite literal. Although the plan was to use it solely on social media, we knew it might have greater potential.

Our spot was 100% on-brand with our identity as “the region’s polytechnic” but at the same time it infused the timeliness of two of our alumni playing in the Super Bowl.

When the video was finished, there was no doubt it was too good for just social. Working with our media buyer, we were able to swap out our brand anthem commercial for our new Super Bowl masterpiece.

The spot premiered during pre-game just moments before kickoff. It was then shown during the actual game at the beginning of the fourth quarter. It then had an encore showing as the Seattle Seahawks celebrated with the Lombardi Trophy.

Another screenshot from the commercials shows the point when Efton Chism III was introduced.

The reaction to the commercial was overwhelming pride. The EWU community was amazed just by the fact that we pulled off a Super Bowl spot in the first place. But to make it timely and aligned with our brand positioning as the region’s polytechnic? There was no doubt about it…we had scored a touchdown.

Even though it was just broadcast locally, running an ad during the Super Bowl was probably one of the most exciting things I have done in my career. Thanks to my talented team and our partners at idfive for making it happen. Don’t Blink.