How ‘Saturday Night Live’ Convinced Advertisers to “Let Go Some of the Control” for Season 50
Brand marketers are a conservative bunch. Relentlessly on message, and careful when it comes to dispensing brand equity, CMOs and marketing executives like to have a say on the final cut, to use Hollywood parlance, when it comes to their advertising messages.
For Saturday Night Live’s 50th season, however, a handful were willing to put their brands in Lorne Michaels’ hands.
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NBCUniversal ad sales chief Mark Marshall was joined by several SNL sponsors for a panel during New York Advertising Week, exploring just how NBC incorporated the marketing messages into the broadcasts and online in a way that is authentic to the show … without terrifying the brand managers.
“We’ve been very protective about, how do we let brands get close to this IP, because occasionally — and some of you have been on phone calls with me — the brands become the butt of the joke, occasionally,” Mark Marshall said. “So we had to be very careful of how we did this, but we’re so thankful to the four up here, as well as Capital One as our partners.”
Marshall was joined in the conversation by Maybelline executive Jessie Feinstein, Volkswagen marketing executive Jennifer Clayton, T-Mobile executive Kari Marshall and Allstate marketing exec Dave Marsey, with Morning Joe and Sunday Today’s Willie Geist moderating.
Marshall actually said he had to turn away some interested sponsors for the 50th season, because he knew that their brands would not be the right fit.
“I give credit to all of them, because this is not an easy one going into. You don’t have the same creative control, you’re going to lean on the show in a different way. I had many people … who said that they wanted to be partners and I said they couldn’t, we typically in the sales group don’t say that,” Marshall said. “So I love that these people signed up because their brand has the right tone that could live with this.”
In the case of Allstate, the partnership includes an upcoming digital short from the team at Please Don’t Destroy, one that will feature the “Mayhem” character (played by Dean Winters) in an upcoming episode.
“For Allstate, we try to fit well into an existing experience or environment,” Marsey said. “And SNL, especially 50, was the right opportunity to make a leap and try something new, and put ourselves in a position where we were a little uncomfortable in a good way.”
“Lorne and the whole team have leaned in in terms of, how do we make sure the brands are included in what we’re doing?” Marshall said. “We feel unbelievably lucky that they’ve partnered with us, and they’ve let go some of the control, because that’s when SNL is at its best, is when you allow them to do what they do best.”
Other activations include Volkswagen giving college football viewers a sneak peak at SNL‘s dress rehearsal and T-Mobile sponsoring behind-the-scenes content. The brands have also leveraged castmembers like Chloe Fineman and former castmembers like Vanessa Bayer in spots.
But it helps when a brand is willing to lean in and embrace the joke.
“We’re willing to be the butt of everyone’s jokes, too. It’s very easy to make fun of makeup,” Feinstein said. “Maybelline is a brand that’s not only born in New York, but it has a wink. It has a personality.
“Looking to be culturally relevant in that moment is very hard today, especially in makeup, which moves at the speed of TikTok,” she added. “So a trend today might not be a trend next Thursday.”
It speaks to a “communal viewing experience,” as Marshall says, one that people can watch live on TV, on Peacock the next day, or in bits and pieces on social.
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