As the Ravens claimed their victory Sunday night, viewers couldn’t help but notice that there seemed to be some other winners at Super Bowl XLVII; Beyonce, the Budweiser Clydesdales, and the guy who made out with Bar Refaeli all come to mind. However, it was clear there was a new player in town when it came to Super Bowl advertising: social media. While social media efforts previously played a role in advertisers’ master plans for the big game, Super Bowl XLVII was the first year where digital media was an essential tool in strengthening the impact of their commercials.
“This year, we’re really seeing it go to a totally new level where marketers are making social networking a core part of their Super Bowl efforts. There’s a recognition among big businesses that social media is the new marketplace that they’ve got to be part of the conversation,” said Glen Gilmore, a social media strategist and professor of digital marketing at Rutgers University.
A buzz-worthy commercial is key to inspire people to take their opinions online, sharing them through Facebook, Twitter and more. “The No. 1 benefit to something like this is that your consumers actually become your billboards,” says Ann Mukherjee, Sr. Vice-President, Frito-Lay North America. “They’re the ones who become the ambassadors, who talk about the integrity and authenticity of the brand.” Many companies like Doritos, Volkswagen and Coca-Cola invited their customers to vote on their commercials, download ringtones and enter to win competitions, all to engage their customers on a more personal level and generate as much hype as possible.
The benefits of using social media in advertising don’t stop there; with social media (and Twitter in particular), companies can immediately evaluate the efficacy of their efforts. “You’ll know immediately if your ad has any sort of success by whether or not it’s trending on Twitter. Twitter is a boon for advertisers in the respect that they can see in real time if that ad is working, what people are saying and of course Twitter’s top trending lists right to the right on the homepage of Twitter show you what’s working and what’s not,” says Peter Shankman, CEO of Geek Factory.
At Promoboxx, we couldn’t agree more that social media amplifies a brand’s national marketing campaign. That’s why we worked with one of our clients on their Super Bowl initiatives and engaged their individual retailers by encouraging them to share the campaign on all of their local online channels. By allowing retailers to co-brand the content, the Super Bowl campaign was able to touch down at a local level and generate even more views. Plus, the retailers were thrilled to be a part of such a big event like the Super Bowl… a win-win for everyone.
