A few years ago Sonos made a splash with an ad during the Super Bowl. This year it is Monster's turn. The California-based cable giant is shelling out millions for a 60-second TV spot during Super Bowl LII that will depict the life of founder Noel Lee. The ad, which just for ad time is $10 million (NBC is charging $5 million for 30-second ads), features an array of music artists, frompop. rock, country and hip hop.
The ad is titled “You Deserve Better” and features the song “Savior” from Grammy-winning pop star Iggy Azalea. The commercial serves as the launch of Monster's new headphones and speakers under the marketing campaign slogan “MonsterTakeover 2018.”
Those products have been in development for three years following the nasty breakup followed by lawsuits between Monster and Beats. Monster engineered the Beats line for its partners rapper Dr. Dre and Interscope Records CEO Jimmy Iovine. Monster split ways with the duo back in 2012 after HTC Corporation of Taiwan bought 50.1 percent of Beats for $306 million. Beats was subsequently sold to Apple for $3 billion.
SEE RELATED: Monster's Noel Lee 'Glad' Apple Purchased Beats
The 60-second spot is based on the real-life story of Monster founder and audio engineer Noel Lee – “highlighting his lifelong quest to bring better music sound to the world,” according to a press release.
Set in New York City, the spot follows the young Lee, living in a drab, uninspiring world where people listen to music using only the plain ear buds that come with their phones. Inspired by a beautiful singing voice he hears on the subway, Lee returns to his garage workshop where he creates Monster – his groundbreaking audio company.
The workshop scene highlights Noel Lee’s career of cable and power products that litter the table. The rich history of Monster’s products are highlighted, but the advanced new products are rocked with celebrity talent in the video.
In addition to Azalea, Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry, chart-topping hip hop icon Yo Gotti, Big & Rich country star Big Kenny, singer, dancer, actor and TV personality Joey Fatone, songwriter/producer Poo-Bear, reality TV star and entrepreneur Jonathan Cheban, and radio host/TV personality Charlamagne tha God and DJ Irie appear in the ad.
YouTube Star RiceGum Plays Lee
Musical artist and YouTube star RiceGum plays the young “Head Monster” Noel Lee. Lee and Monster COO Fred Khalilian appear as themselves at the end of the spot.
It’s expected that the Monster’s Super Bowl ad will have over 100 million viewers, with another 100+ million views from a follow-up longer version YouTube spot. Worldwide viewership is anticipated in excess of 300 million people. The spot was produced by the NBCUniversal Content Innovation Agency.
“This Super Bowl ad is an incredible honor for me – a guy who started out 39 years ago in a garage with not much more than my passion for music and my belief that by utilizing technology and innovation I could create products and solutions for delivering better music listening experiences,” says Lee.
According to the press relesae, the Iggy Azalea song “Savior” is the perfect theme of young Lee, “who is driven to bring the sound and emotion of 'live' music in a way that no one else had done it.”
