Super Bowl commercial breaks are typically filled with some of the biggest companies in the world. Automotive titans, CPG giants, and iconic beverage brands are plentiful.
Which makes it all the more interesting that a direct-to-consumer brand, HexClad, will become what it says is the first cookware brand to buy a spot during the Big Game, and one of only a few DTC brands to bet on such a big platform.
HexClad co-founder and CEO Danny Winer says executives at the company began joking about a Super Bowl ad last summer, “but then you start thinking about it, and maybe it’s not as crazy as it sounds.”
“The more we bounced around the idea, we were like, ‘you know what? We’ve gambled a bunch of times on ourselves. Let’s gamble one more time,'” he added.
HexClad has been able to gain marketshare in the crowded cookware space in part by leveraging a social media-focused strategy — at least until now — in conjunction with a high-profile brand ambassador: Celebrity chef (and Fox reality star) Gordon Ramsay.
Ramsay also stars in HexClad’s Super Bowl ad, where he is tasked with having to prepare a meal for a newly-discovered alien species at Area 51 (HexClad pans, it turns out, are made of “top secret alien cooking technology”). The twist? The alien is actually Pete Davidson, playing himself.
“All famous people are aliens,” Davidson quips.
“Gordon was game for this. He loves when he plays up humor, and this definitely has some smiles and chuckles in it, but I think it also really plays well into that this is, for cookware, so technologically advanced,” Winer says.
As for the Davidson cameo: “We had a small list, and Gordon was the one who was like, ‘I want Pete Davidson,'” Winer says. “It wasn’t a hard sell … Pete was a gem, and the two of them on the set, I mean, the only time there was a second take, it was when they were cracking each other up. There was great chemistry.”
That’s not to say there isn’t a social element. Ramsay has been teasing something for weeks, and HexClad plans to continue the social content in the days and weeks after the game.
“We are creating a whole ecosystem around this ad, because we need it to succeed,” Winer says.
Still, the spot is not about selling pans, per se. With 100 million plus viewers and the country’s attention all but guaranteed, HexClad views its Super Bowl debut as an opportunity to introduce itself to millions of people who may not know about the brand.
“If anybody goes into their Super Bowl ad saying, ‘we need a certain ROI on this,’ I think you’re setting yourself up for failure,” Winer says, adding that while the company wants to sell product, it is playing the long game. “We want them to know that even if you’re not ready to buy right now, we make the best quality things for your kitchen, whether it’s a cutting board, whether it’s a Damascus steel knife or pepper mills. And of course, our hero product, the cookware.”
But that reach doesn’t come cheap.
“To pay for this, I’ve got to start driving Ubers on the weekend,” Winer quips.
English (US) ·