Michelle's E-Marketing Blog

Each year marketers and non-marketers alike eagerly await the arrival of Super Bowl Sunday to watch what are supposed to be the best of the best in commercials. (Oh and apparently some people watch it for football…) And they better be good, because companies are willing to pay upwards of 3 million of dollars to show you these ads for often only 30 seconds. However, as the as the percentage of total ad spending that goes towards online advertising continues to increase with more and more people active online, the way many firms go about Super Bowl advertising changes.

This year Audi managed to secure one of the coveted Super Bowl spots before they sold out in October. Their ad will contain a hashtag so that it can reach beyond TV and on to Twitter. If the ad resonates with enough viewers it could create an online buzz as well, making those millions of dollars even more worthwhile. Audi is not alone, “more than ever, marketers who enter the Super Bowl are taking part in a multi-week buzz contest rather than a onetime showing of their ad”. Surprisingly, this was not a popular idea in 2009 or 2010 when E-Trade was the only Super Bowl advertiser to even mention Facebook or Twitter in its ad. However, I think there is potential for integrating social media with Super Bowl ads to be greatly effective, especially since according to a recent survey from Lightspeed Research, nearly 2/3 of viewers 18-34 who plan to watch the Super Bowl will also make use of a smartphone. With smartphone in hand a hashtag on the screen may prompt us to tweet when we may not otherwise think to do so.

Reference: Marketers Suit up With Twitter, Facebook for ‘Social Bowl’

As an aside, remember how perfect that Google ad was last year?