Super Bowl Media 101

The Super Bowl is one of the few, if only times of the year when television viewers anticipate, look forward to, and pay attention to commercials. TV networks face the daunting task of trying to keep people engaged in the age of online user-generated video sites like YouTube.  And marketers have to worry about how effective TV ads can be when people can simply fast-forward past them with video recorders. This isn’t a big issue for Super Bowl advertisers.

According to TNS Media Intelligence, advertising during the Super Bowl has accounted for over 11 full hours of commercial time throughout the past 20 years. Those 11 hours represent 221 different advertisers, more than 1,400 commercial announcements and translates into $1.72 billion of network advertising sales. The top Super Bowl advertisers over the years have been Anheuser Busch and PepsiCo each at 20 years and General Motors at 15 years.

The cost to place an ad in the Super Bowl has more than quadrupled in the past 20 years; reaching as high as $2.5 million in 2006 for a 30-second unit. CBS has reported over $2.6 million for the 2007 game. 

That’s significant investment for any company to make for a one-time viewing. And in the past, a company had a hard time knowing if it was one that would pay off. Today, however, they can receive measurable results. The number of hits to the company Web site alone should increase significantly if the ad was a success. A popular spot will be picked-up by an Internet user and placed on YouTube. That too, will tell the number of times it has been viewed. Bloggers will discuss it, putting the company or their brand name out for discussion.

Of course, you want positive discussion, so it needs to be a great ad. What makes for a great Super Bowl ad? Ask someone what the most memorable commercial in Super Bowl history is and they are likely to cite either Coca-Cola’s “Mean Joe Green” spot in 1980, or Apple’s famed “Big Brother” spot in 1984. Today’s commercials are being remembered for their humor.

These days there are so many gimmicks and new ways to build buzz for your commercial. With YouTube, bloggers, chat rooms and so on, the Internet is a natural for pre- and post-game publicity.

This year there is a great deal of buzz in two areas. The first is the K-Fed commercial for Nationwide. This insurance company’s commercial has caused controversy because, according to the National Restaurant Association, it’s offensive to folks who flip burgers for a living.

The second is what we are referring to in the business as the "Average Joe" spots. These are commercials developed from ideas submitted by the public via contests. This year there are three of them and the winners will be seen during the big game. The NFL is running one, as is Doritos and long-time advertiser GM. These have generated engagement by the consumer on multiple levels. They are given the freedom to create the message for the brand, but they also allow consumers to have a say in which one is the winner. Doritos posted the top spots on their Web site where viewers would have to go to make their selection.

GM created the “Chevy College Super Bowl Ad Challenge” to get a much sought after demographic for whom the new media is a natural environment to talk about and interact with their brand. In addition, GM showed video mock-ups of the spots each weak on The Early Show.

Of course that doesn’t mean GM is only leaving their brands in the hands of college kids. They also have a 60-second agency produced spot. In addition, they released a 30-second preview on YouTube.

I will be watching those spots with a great deal of interest to see if this is the beginning of a trend. They all have to be winners for that to happen.

Speaking of winners, does anyone remember who won the game?????