Reached via email, Ad Meter editor Rick Suter explained why the commercial was deemed this year’s best. “The ad’s creative found the sweet spot that removes the term ‘our demographic’ and replaces it with ‘the entire audience,’” he explained to MPA. He liked the ad’s various elements in service of the narrative: “Humor, timely twists, mixed with nostalgia,” he wrote. “Adding the classic Barbie toy commercial feel was a nice touch.”
In securing the title of best ad this year, Rocket joined the rarified ranks of advertisers to secure the top honor twice in a row – a feat only Pepsico and Anheuser-Busch had previously achieved – from among the field of 64 companies with Super Bowl ads each year. Its entry last year for Super Bowl LV featured a decidedly different actor in the form of comedian Tracy Morgan illustrating over-the-top scenarios illustrating the pitfalls of approaching major decisions by being just “pretty sure” rather than with certainty. “When you need to be certain about how much you can afford, Rocket can,” a narrator declares after the slide show of hilarity.
It’s hardly Rocket’s first – or, as previously noted, second – rodeo in being featured during the Super Bowl. “We’re fortunate in that this was our fifth time in the Super Bowl with Rocket Mortgage,” Hurbis said. “We launched Rocket Mortgage in the 2016 Super Bowl. It’s easily the biggest decision most brands have during the course of the year. We’re blessed being America’s largest lender, and we have a great story to tell.”
This year’s ad entry was extra ambitious in featuring both Rocket Homes and Rocket Mortgage. The ad does so with a seamless narrative containing the range of plot elements: Exposition; rising action; climax; falling action. And denouement (a fancy word for resolution). While Rocket has its own marketing department, the lender has worked with Highdive Advertising, a full-based creative agency based in Chicago, for three Super Bowl appearances (including this year’s entry).
To be sure, producing a Super Bowl commercial is not inexpensive. Advertisers who booked their slots early paid $6.5 million for 30 seconds, with last-minute placements costing $7.1 million. MPA asked for an idea of the measurable dividends yielded from such a hefty investment.