• by Les Luchter , February 6, 2023

With the Super Bowl this coming weekend and March Madness approaching, Bayer Aspirin has declared itself the “Official Sponsor of Fans’ Hearts.”

A TV spot, in :30 and :15 versions, tells viewers that “heart attack risk can more than double when your home team plays,” with video showing still images of nervous and excited fans and audio featuring three real sports announcers intoning nail-biting, heart-pounding game moments.

Perhaps no fans are more at risk this week than those in Philadelphia and Kansas City, and Bayer will run its :30 message in both markets during Sunday’s Super Bowl telecast on Fox.

With the game “one of the biggest moments in sports each year — that also coincides with American Heart Month — we thought it was a prime opportunity to share our message about heart health and risk factors,” Jeff Jarrett, North America chief marketing officer, Bayer Consumer Health, tells Marketing Daily.

Both iterations of the spot suggest that fans visit CheckYourHeartRisks.com, where they’ll find Bayer’s recently launched tool that determines the user’s risk for developing cardiovascular disease over the next 10 years. The longer spot also includes the line, “Keep your heart in the game.”

Unlike a previous campaign highlighted on the website of Twelvenote, Bayer’s earned media/social media agency, the new spot does not mention the regimen of taking a Bayer aspirin once a day.

Instead, it’s part of what Jarrett calls the brand’s “long-standing commitment to elevating awareness and education about heart health and risk factors," urging that consumers "speak to their doctor or healthcare professional about their heart health.”

The new campaign follows last year’s partnership with singer/actor Leslie Odom Jr. and his wife, singer/actress Nicolette Robinson, on “Your Heart Isn’t Just Yours.” That campaign celebrated heart attack survivors and their second chances at life, and included “Second Chance,” a song the couple created to the rhythm of Robinson’s heart-attack-survivor father’s heartbeat.

Both  lengths of the “Official Sponsor of Fans’ Hearts” spot premiere Monday: the :15 nationally on FS1 and FS2, and the :30 during pre-game shows on regional sports networks (RSNs).

After Monday, the :30 will also run on NBC and Bally Sports RSNs in Atlanta, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Los Angeles, and Miami/Fort Lauderdale, and the :15 on Bally connected TV (CTV).

Bayer is also using the RSNs for media integrations: On the NBC networks, “there will be a variation of on-air heart monitoring and post-game recaps highlighting the talent’s reaction to big moments in the game, fan reaction highlights, and a special Heart Health Month feature,” Jarrett says.

The Bally Sports networks, he adds, will feature “a variety of in-game sponsored features and a vignette segment that will feature fan reactions to game highlights.”

The entire campaign, which will run through at least June, also includes digital video on NBC Sports and PlayFly, national programmatic ads for both display and CTV, and a partnership with Transmit for live in-game streaming ad placement.

Additional content featuring cardiovascular experts, fans and others are also on tap over the coming months. 

In addition to Twelvenote’s work on the campaign, creative is from Energy BBDO, media is handled both in-house and by EssenceMediacom, and infuencer marketing by Linqia.