Feelgood Pfizer Knocks Out Category Conventions
Pfizer
Knock Out
Pfizer used the Super Bowl to promote its ambitious cancer research mission – 8 breakthroughs in the fight against cancer by 2030. It’s a wonderful goal, but that’s not what makes it our Super Bowl Ad Of The Week. It’s the way Pfizer presented its goals that makes it a surprising – and stellar – ad.
The fact of the matter is, pharma commercials like this struggle to perform well with viewers. The average Test Your Ad Star Rating for a Pharma brand image commercial is only 2.2-Stars, below the US average for all ads aired. It’s rare that reminding people of what ails them triggers positive emotion.
Pfizer’s commercial handily beats that average. The ad shows a young kid who’s a cancer survivor – he rings the bell to show he’s beaten cancer and then goes on a victory parade through the streets, soundtracked by LL Cool J’s legendary “Mama Said Knock You Out”. After his romp across town the kid gets home to his own mama, the music switches gear to a ballad version of the song, and the two share a heart-warming reunion. At the end Pfizer reveals itself as the brand, pledging to knock cancer out and make those eight big breakthroughs.
The ad gets a 4.4-Star Rating on Test Your Ad, two whole Star Ratings above the category average. It also came 8th in our Top 10 of all Super Bowl ads this year. That’s an exceptional achievement for a pharma ad, especially in a super competitive year where the average Super Bowl ad score hit 3-Stars for the first time.
But there’s one thing this ad achieved which is even more remarkable.
Even when healthcare ads do drive a positive response – for instance emphasising successes and fightback against disease, like this one does – there’s a risk of them falling into the “worthy but dull” trap. They’re inspiring but not always entertaining.
And as we know from System1’s Cost Of Dull report, dullness costs money. Making an ad with high Neutrality – a large number of viewers who leave it feeling nothing – leaves brands in the position of needing to spend 6 or 7 times more in order to get the same results as a low-Neutrality ad.
When we ran the “Cost Of Dull” analysis across every single Super Bowl ad we found a result that wasn’t dull at all. Pfizer’s “Knock Out” scored the lowest Neutrality of any Super Bowl ad. It made most people happy, several surprised and a handful sad. But only 19% of viewers were left Neutral – fewer than any other commercial on Sunday night.
That’s a major and unexpected win for a pharma ad, especially on a night where every brand is going all-out to entertain viewers. What makes Pfizer’s ad so exciting?
The secret is the way it defies category conventions. People expect a heartwarming ad about cancer care and recovery, and in the end Pfizer gave them one. But on the way they got something a lot more unusual – a swaggering ad about beating cancer full of movement and life. It’s the pivot between those two feelings that makes “Knock Out” so hopeful and memorable, and makes it officially the most interesting ad of the night.
“Pfizer uses System1 for all of our ads now. Having the standardized approach with really clear benchmarks linked to ROI, that allows us to understand how our various ads are performing against themselves, but also how they’re performing against other benchmarks, has been extremely useful.”
Susan Rienow, Global Chief Marketing Officer Pfizer
Our How to Win the Super Bowl report is filled with our top creative effectiveness tips that marketers can apply during the game and beyond. You can also catch our in-depth webinar analysis of the ads which aired during the biggest game.
