Marketing's Superbowl

People throw the term super bowl around to describe the greatest, most significant moment in a career, series of events, or a lifetime. The term can appropriately gauge people's expectations and can pump up the excitement. In this case the actual Super Bowl is the super bowl of marketing for that year. The buzz for this year's commercials has already begun but to properly prep ourselves for the big day it helps to understand what has happened in the past with a few stats from last year's game:

• More than 111 million viewers were expected to watch the Super Bowl.
• Advertisers paid an average of $3.5 million for a 30-second commercial.
• According to Nielsen, 51% of people surveyed said they watch the Super Bowl for the commercials
• Nielsen also revealed that 2/3 of TV viewers use their smartphones or tablets to text, tweet, or post to Facebook while watching TV.

Stats courtesy of wearehathway

From these stats its clear to see why marketers place such an importance on their ads for this one particular Sunday. It is estimated that advertisements this year will sell 30 second spots for $4.0 million which is more than double what advertisers paid in the last 12 years. With the increase in social media's presence and its impact on consumers it will be crucial for marketers to incorporate social media to their advertisements.

Some companies have leaked teasers to their advertisements including Bud Light and Godaddy. Bud Light's ad will feature a terribly wigged Arnold Schwarzenegger warming up to play ping-pong and at the end flashes the line "whatever is coming 2.2.14". This builds up the expectations for the ad and creates excitement around the commercials during the game. Godaddy ran a preview on the morning news shows in their typical fashion with a cliffhanger that drives you to their website. This year rather than creating a racy build up the teaser features someone who will notify their company that they are quitting their job. To see who it is you will have to go to their site. This drives traffic to their site which is critical to their business.

These examples show the way to build buzz around a traditional commercial. The best example leading up to this weekend of incorporating social media that I have seen is H&M. Their commercial will feature David Beckham and the teaser they have pushed in traditional media asks consumers to vote for which version of the ad they want to see. Fans can vote to see the commercial end in one of two ways—with Beckham #Covered or #Uncovered.

Not only will consumers be able to choose the ad experience they receive but H&M will get to directly interact with them. Their core customers will self identify and H&M can learn who they are and follow them to better understand what their customer wants. It will be interesting to see the total numbers that come back and to understand if the approach worked to not only rev up excitement but to also help with their advertising moving forward.

Will the Super Bowl ads be the super bowl for these companies? Only Sunday will tell.