A Snore of a Sunday

The buzz around Sunday's Super Bowl was high. The match-up would be one for the ages. The best offense vs the best defense. The weather was unpredictable and a storm could be headed New Jersey's way. Advertisers were going to make their mark with the most expensive commercial spots in history.

In reality Sunday's Super Bowl was a huge disappointment both on the field and off. The game was a blow out that no one saw coming (see the first snap)

The inclement weather held off and the commercials lacked the luster that typically accompanies the big day. A large number of the commercials revolved around a similar patriotic theme. Others played to winning trends by using animals and humor while Radio Shack took a tested approach using nostalgia and poking fun at themselves.Interestingly, the most memorable commercials and the spots most people are talking about still today were all ads that were aired prior to Sunday's game. Budweiser had a hit with their Puppy/Clydesdale connection released the Wednesday before and Doritos scored big with their customer submitted Time Machine and Cowboy Kid which viewers were allowed to vote for for weeks leading up to Sunday.

H&M's ad that I highlighted last week, ended up with #uncovered taking the viewers' vote. With a search of the hashtag, H&M is dominating the trend and, unlike some other companies in the past who missed the mark with their hastag,s they have definitely used it to their advantage. The ad is being toted as one of the most revealing and racy commercials which is in some peoples eyes is "progress" since it features a man. Definitely a memorable spot for the retailer that garnered a good amount of attention on a slow Sunday.

I think the best use of commercial time to incorporate social media came late in the game when likely, due to the poor play, most viewers had tuned out. The first ad following the game was purchased by Esurance and it claimed their costs were $1.5 million less than the typical slot. Esurance used this to their advantage by encouraging viewers to tweet in their #esurancesavesthirty for a chance to win that saved money. The key here was not only a trending hastag but they required users to follow Esurance online to qualify to win. I also was impressed with the Seinfeld spot. Jerry Seinfeld had been making rounds in traditional media to promote his online show but dismissed the idea he was doing a Super Bowl ad. He didn't necessarily use the expected social media outreach but what I think was most interesting about the approach was incorporating a longer version of the commercial that mirrors an episode of the show. The purpose of the commercial was to drive attention to the show, by taking a winning combination - Jerry Seinfeld and George Costanza - it creates buzz around the commercial and directly points people to the corresponding "episode".

While the commercials were not as buzz worthy this year as in years past they were more exciting than the game itself and overall were the winners on Sunday.