The Pepsi Smash Super Bowl Bash concert is staged in the Big Game’s host city the Friday night before the NFL championship. Jerry O’Connell, Fergie, Fall Out Boy and FOX Sports and the New York Giants’ Michael Strahan are just a few of the celebs and artists VH1 has worked with through the years. As a football fan, this has been a particularly gratifying promotion to ideate upon with Pepsi and the NFL. One of my favorite memories was shooting about 17 possible talent combinations that had yet-to-be-locked for the concert the year that Jerry O’Connell starred. The head of VH1 Music and Talent was literally texting me throughout the shoot! Fall Out Boy was obviously in, but Jerry was a sport after having had a string of sleepless nights due to twin daughters that wife Rebecca Romijn had recently given birth to (thus the conceit of the on-air spot)!
Working with the VH1 Digital and Social teams, extras from all the shoots (and the spots themselves) were used as pre-roll and ancillary content that populated various platforms. To create additional buzz for the event, #superbowlbash was enthusiastically employed by various artists and NFL players that were attending Super Bowl Week, and a custom Facebook page and VH1 microsite also fed fans’ insatiable appetite for music and football! One of the things I am most proud of is the strong relationship built with the NFL, and namely its talented Marketing and Promotions VP, Tracy Perlman. Though it’s very uncommon for the NFL to allow networks or advertisers to use their mark or graphic look, let alone say the words Super Bowl in a spot, the NFL granted gratis permission for VH1 to do so, which is a testament to a great partnership.