The ads during the Super Bowl get as much hype as the game. This year during the game advertisers are looking for ways to get viewers to interact while watching.
According to TBO.com, "Nielsen recently published a study that found Apple iPad owners keep their tablets in their laps about 70 percent of the time as they watch TV, which represents 30 percent of the time they use the tablets."
So if you have your tablet or smart phone close by advertisers want to prompt some interaction. How effective are the ads towards building brand awareness and generating sales? How do the ads tie into the coverage? And will people at Super Bowl parties actually participate while in a crowd, or while drinking a cold Bud Light?
For this week's assignment see what type of interactive prompt during Super Bowl coverage gets your attention or the attention of the people at your party.
Comment some of your observations here and we'll talk about them in class. Include links.
More background: Super Bowl Advertisers Go After 2nd Screens
And in another sign that marketers are trying to engage viewers over social media web sites: USA Today's Ad Meter, which ranks the popularity of ads, is for the first time allowing viewers to vote for their favorite spot on Facebook.
"This year, we're seeing a whole new level of social media activity for Super Bowl advertisers," said Tim Calkins, clinical professor of marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
This is the first year that advertisers have tapped into the growing number of users of iPhones and other smartphones during the Super Bowl. In its ads, domain-name hosting site Godaddy.com will feature a QR code, a black and white two-dimensional code that people can scan by putting their smartphones up to the TV so they can go to the company's website. This is a first for a Super Bowl ad.
Contest for Best Super Bowl Ad Takes Place on the Sofa
Enjoying Super Bowl ads has never required much effort. Sit back, grab a beer and enjoy the experience. This year, though, that party is over. Marketers are asking consumers to come armed with their technological devices and be prepared to interact with the commercials they see on the screen.
Super Bowl 2012: Everything You Need to Know About Watching It Online
Shows: The Most-Shared 2012 Super Bowl Ad Teasers So Far
As a Patriots fan, the end of the Super Bowl was definitely disappointing, but the ads were really interesting, Most of them went to great lengths to both promote and use social media in their content. Even before the Super Bowl started, online news outlets had been discussing the fact that Matthew Broderick for example would be doing his own commercial for Honda, so that certainly generate some hype for their commercials. But the biggest thing I noticed in the commercials was the use of Twitter hashtags. Budweiser featured a cute commercial when a dog named “Wego” that brings people beer when they say “Here We Go.” At the end of the commercial, they included the hashtag #herewego . Other examples I noticed of Twitter hashtags were #MakeItAPlatinum for Bud Light Platinum, and #SoLongVampires for a commercial for Audi with headlines that melt vampires. They were definitely trying to get people talking about their products through Twitter.
ReplyDeleteUsed Facebook to ask users what their favorite Super Bowl commercial was. Lots of responses. https://www.facebook.com/myfoxdc
ReplyDeleteReally enjoyed the commercial for car headlights involving vampires. The vampire was driving to a bonfire that featured other vampires and the lights (which are "as bright as day") kill all of his vampire friends. At the end, the commercial states #vampire, which was a hash tag from Twitter. It represents a new way to advertise.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed watching the commercials in this year’s Super Bowl! There were too many good ones to pick a favorite, but I did see a lot of use of social media. The first thing I noticed was the Audi commercial hash-tagging vampires at the end. Twitter was instrumental in this game. Every news organization had a tweet about the game or the commercials. The Washington Post tweeted about Betty White after the commercial for ‘The Voice’ aired. The tweet linked to a blog about all the Super Bowl commercials that was updated as they aired (see link below). Another commercial featured a promo to join a live chat with Angie Groff after the game. I saw a lot of people tweeting during the game and looking up information about commercials that caught their eye. I also noticed the trends on Twitter this morning, post- Super Bowl. The morning shows all talked about the best and worst commercials and revealed results that viewers voted on during the game. The use of social media allowed the game to be interactive for viewers at home, and I think it was very effective.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/early-lead/post/super-bowl-ads-2012-liveblogging-the-games-best-commercials/2012/02/05/gIQABkjTsQ_blog.html
Before I saw the Super Bowl, I read the articles about how it was expected for advertisers to capitalize on social media outlets. According to the readings, this was going to be the year when Super Bowl advertisers were going to go far and beyond to reach out to the many viewers who were going to be connected to the web while watching the game. Perhaps, my expectations were really high, but I was disappointed with the level of social interactivity promoted by advertisers.
ReplyDeleteOnly two commercials jumped out as evidence that advertisers were trying to significantly capitalize on social media and on the viewers’ internet connectivity. The first was Geico, which not only created a funny and catchy commercial, but also encouraged viewers to use their smartphones to connect to Geico’s website. To accomplish this, Geico utilized around the last 10 seconds of the commercial to include shots of a “user” accessing Geico’s website through his/her smartphone. I think that this strategy was successful because sometimes it is necessary to be graphically obvious when telling viewers to visit the advertiser’s website. Here’s a link of the ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8ZDV3fvaXM&feature=related
Another example of a successful campaign to attract viewers was evident in a commercial by godaddy.com. In this commercial, godaddy.com put up a barcode during the totality of the commercial for viewers to scan with their smartphones. From all the commercials that I saw during the total duration of the Super Bowl, this was the only ad that put up a barcode. I think that this was successful because the novelty of the barcode scanner application attracts many young viewers to scan their barcodes. This guides them directly to godaddy.com. Hence, increasing online traffic and, consequently, profits. Here’s a link of the ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WjYH8KuOao&feature=relmfu
The other advertisers mentioned their websites, facebook or twitter addresses at the end of the ad, for less than 3 seconds and in small size text. I think this was not enough.
Does anyone else agree that commercials this year were a little disappointing? I usually look forward to them because they're notably funnier or more clever than your regular run-of-the-mill commercial. But this year, other than a few stand-outs, most ads weren't all that impressive. I can't help but wonder whether that could be partially attributed to advertisers' reliance on catching viewers' attention with social media ploys. People are increasingly wrapped up in their gadgets — see the statistics above about tablet use during TV viewing — and advertisers know it. Maybe they hoped that riding on this wave of interest would make their commercials memorable. It makes sense — if advertisers can capitalize on this obsession with social media and new technology by building their ad concepts around it, why would they waste resources by spending excessive time and effort on coming up with commercials that are truly compelling outside of the tech elements? By incorporating Twitter hashtags, Facebook "Like" logos, or the scannable codes into their ads, it's almost like they are outsourcing the marketing responsibilities. Commercials that do employ social media references are ahead of the competition. They appeal to more people (especially the critical target audiences: young people who use more technology than the older demographic) because they automatically expand their penetration into the market further than advertisers who only rely on the actual TV viewers.
ReplyDeleteThe people I watched the Super Bowl with actually illustrated this trend. Those in the room who are middle-aged commented on the commercials just as they have for years. They made note of the most clever schemes and compared them to years' past while commenting on the absurd price of the prime time slot. The younger ones, however, did have their smartphones out, their tablets turned on and their eyes peeled for opportunities to interact with the company. They even used tablets to search on Youtube for videos of commercials that had just been shown. For one member of the party, a 20-year-old who doesn't watch football but does collect the latest and greatest tablet/phone/you name it, the Super Bowl was about one thing: the social media references. He waited for one particular commercial:a Motorola ad promoting the new phone he was lovingly clutching after just receiving it as a birthday present. For him, the the game was truly all about the commercials — he truly would not have watched it had he not wanted to see all the different ways he could comment, share and Tweet about the commercials. For him, the links to social media were the only things allowing him to actually enjoy and participate in the game.
DeleteInteresting links: http://marketingland.com/final-score-social-networks-superbowl-5396
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/business/2012/02/super-bowl-ads-that-scored-in-social-media/
As everyone else noted, I enjoyed seeing the Twitter integration into the theme of the advertisements, most notably Audi's vampire commercial. Facebook was also used to extend the life of an ad, as in Samsung's Galaxy Note spot which told viewers "the party continues" on their Facebook page. However, I still think many of these social media appeals were treated as novelties, and have not yet reached a full-force implementation that interacts directly with people's smartphones, tablets, and laptops. I would like to see the capabilities of an app like Yahoo's IntoNow, which listens to and identifies TV shows, be integrated into the advertising experience (if one so chose).
ReplyDeleteAnother aspect of the social media influence on advertising is not just in the ads themselves, but, as Professor Murphy showed on the MyFoxDC Facebook page, the facilitation of people discussing them. I found USA Today's Super Bowl AdMeter (http://www.usatoday.com/superbowl46/admeter.htm), which accumulated ad ratings using user input from a Facebook plugin, to be a really cool way for people to discuss the ads and, as the advertiser hopes, have a longer-lasting effect.
Unfortunatley I was stuck working during the Super Bowl. I work in a restaurant with no TV's... which means for a super slow night. So to cure my boredom by facebooking. I figured since I couldn't watch the Super Bowl, I would talk about what I saw as a social media viewer with out actually seeing what was going on. The only commercial that I saw make a few different people's statuses was the Ferris Buller advertisement. I didn't see any other references to the commercials through out the game.
ReplyDeleteI have gone through some of the different commercials since then and have seen some of the same trends. I have seen a use of different hash tags and I have also seen barcodes, which can be scanned with a smart phone to take you directly to their website etc.
I know people having been ragging on the Super Bowl commercials this year, but I actually found most of them rather funny. Many of these advertisements used Twitter in their commercials. For example, an Audi commercial was advertising the bright headlights on one of its new models, by using strong light as it would kill vampires. At the end of the commercial, the hashtag "#solongvampires" appeared on the screen. Also, after a Bug Light commercial that incorporated a rescue dog, the hashtag "#herewego" appeared on the screen. But even before the game started, hashtags for #SB46 and #SuperBowlXLVI began trending on Twitter. I was constantly in tune to Twitter during the halftime show, where I noticed that several of my followers tweeted their reactions to Madonna's performance.
ReplyDeleteI think the use of social media before and during this year's Super Bowl was awesome. Let's face it, most of us were watching the game with a computer on our laps, making it easy to check out those tweets and fb apps.
ReplyDeleteI particularly loved the Doritos "Crash the Super Bowl" contest, which asked customers to make their own ads and then allowed voters to cast their votes online. The winner then aired during the TV broadcast. The dog-ransom commercial was genius! You could go right to the contest website, http://www.crashthesuperbowl.com/#/?finalist=10925, and vote for which commercial you liked best.
I also thought that Coca Cola had a very innovative approach to their use of social media during and after the game via Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube. If you went to www.CokePolarBear.com, it directed you to the Coca Cola Youtube channel, and you could watch the bears reacting to the game as it played out. One bear wore a red scarf for the Giants and the other a blue and grey scarf for the Patriots, as the two mascots alternated raising their hands, cheering, etc. depending on who was winning. On the site, you could also send a "congrats Coke" or a "cheer up Coke" to a friend via Facebook app. The Super Bowl proved that social media is an awesome way to interact with other people watching a much anticipated game world wide.
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ReplyDeleteI too, unfortunately, was not able to watch the Super Bowl because of work. Since there were no TVs around, I relied on the Twitter and Facebook apps on my phone to get updates on the game. On Twitter, people were using hashtags such as #Superbowl, #SB46, #SuperBowlXLVI, #Giants, and #Patriots, which made it easier for me to keep updated with the game. I also saw updates about people's favorite commercial and the Madonna performance. When I got home, I watched the commercials on Youtube. Like many of my classmates pointed out, at the end of most of the commercials there was a hashtag then a word. For example, the Bud Light commercial had "#herewego." Facebook took the most frequently used noun and put all related news feed updates under that category. For example, People were talking about Madonna's performance and posting videos of the half-time that all appeared on top of my news feed under a sentence "John Smith and 10 other of your friends posted about "Madonna."
ReplyDeleteUntil this assignment, I had never really noticed the massive amount of Internet callouts advertisers and TV stations use. I don't think that anyone watching at a party really would take out their smartphones or iDevices to check out a Facebook page or website on the spot, but I do think some commercials were strategically enigmatic so that people would be curious as to what the commercial was actually about and keep it in the back of their mind to check out the hashtag or Facebook page later. For example, the H&M commercial featuring (a nearly-naked) David Beckham caused many people I watched the game with to question if they were actually selling anything at all.
ReplyDeleteI noticed that many people had watched some of the Superbowl commercials ahead of time, on Youtube or other websites. The people I watched it with could recognize that this Doritos commercial, http://www.crashthesuperbowl.com/#/?finalist=10925, was fan-made.
No one really noticed any interactive commercials that could be used with a smartphone, but it would have been interesting if anyone did notice. However, I did notice that many of the commercials showed the Facebook logo so that people would start talking about the product or movie (ex. http://www.facebook.com/theloraxmovie and http://www.facebook.com/digiorno), or liking it online. On the Digiorno Facebook page, I noticed that they prompted Facebook users to respond about the game.
During the Super Bowl, there were two instances of viewer interaction that really stood out, somewhat because of their raciness. The commercials for GoDaddy.com encouraged viewers to go onto their website because their full commercials were too risqué for television. In addition to this, these commercials also had the phone scan symbol so that viewers could aim their smartphones at the television and that symbol would bring them to another website. (Please forgive my terminology since I don’t have a smartphone). In addition to this, the David Beckham H&M commercial had a hash tag for Twitter at the bottom that said #davidbeckhamforhm. While I may not have caught all the interactive commercials, after the Super Bowl I went to USA Today’s website because they have the rankings of all the commercials the next day, and have each commercial to watch again. Even USA Today chose to make their commercial ranking page interactive for its users and linked it to various social networks. As a user, if you clicked on any of the commercials to watch, it first linked you to your Facebook account to post your favorite commercial to your wall. So it seems quite evident that there is a strong connection in today’s society between all aspects of technology, whether it be television, the internet or phones, and we are bombarded in our every day lives to constantly stay connected
ReplyDeleteAmerica's favorite sporting event is also the most important day for commercials. The Super Bowl ads have taken on a life of their own. Now more than ever, it is important to not only entertain, but tease the viewer/potential consumer into going to your website or start a conversation utilizing a hashtag on Twitter or Facebook. As many have already said, it started off with a bang with Audi's vampire commercial and the #solongvampires. The Doritos commercial with the dogs was also very effective and encouraged viewers to go to a website and vote on their favorite ad. I think what was really interesting was that after almost every commercial, there were just as many tweets as about the action during the game. In fact, the key to making a good commercial seemed to be about creating buzz, but not peaking interest until the viewer takes a second step and does a little product search/research on their own. GoDaddy utilizes this technique as well as anyone (although they probably should do something new at this point). Either way, sports and especially events like the Super Bowl have become about fan interaction and companies have taken notice.
ReplyDeleteI've never paid much attention to football except for the Superbowl, which is a holiday of sorts in my circle of family and friends. It's funny how everything works in reverse--usually, people chat and talk during commercials and are silent during the show, but during the Superbowl it's the opposite. People tend to shout and curse and cheer during the game and watch the commercials intently, which was helpful when completing this assignment!
ReplyDeleteI noticed Bud Lite Plantinum and Audi were most overt in their appeals to social media. Both developed their own hashtags (#makeitplatinum and #solongvampires, respectively). I wasn't on Twitter at the time so I couldn't see if they were "trending" or not, but regardless it was interesting to see that companies intended their ads to live on, so to speak, in the micro-blogosphere even after the commercial aired. Also interesting--neither company had their product or name explicitly in the hashtag, perhaps in an attempt to disguise any related Tweets as purely advertisement.
Lastly, the NFL itself was requesting people to text them and other companies had references to smartphones and other social networking sites (most notably, the Best Buy commercial). My friends without smartphones joked that the "dumb phone era" was coming to an end and soon it would be inevitable that everyone is glued to their touchscreen phones. I used to laugh with them, but now I wonder how much longer data-less cell phones will be sold in stores.
The commercial I like the most is actually about a smartphone: the Samsung Galaxy.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgfknZidYq0&feature=player_embedded
In this ad, Samsung directly attacks Apple, showing iPhone users bored and tense as they wait in line for a performance. The Samsung Galaxy then turns everything into a huge party and brings the performance to them (cue "A Thing Called Love" by The Darkness). They relied heavily on their video camera technology by showing users videoing themselves or others around them. At the end, they kept the party theme alive by flashing "The party continues at facebook.com/samsungmobileusa." I really liked how they integrated the commercial's theme and celebratory feel into the social media advertisement instead of just flashing the website without any context.
As I watched the super bowl this year I was surprised that NBC and the NFL didn’t make better use of social media and online live feeds. At the beginning of the show it was mentioned that for the first time ever NBC would be streaming the game live online and from then on every 15 minutes or so, the nbc.com graphic would appear in the lower right hand corner of the screen. The NFL also mentioned their website, which would alternate with the nbc.com logo on the lower right hand side of the screen for the majority of the game. I think that both the NFL and NBC could have done a better job of incorporating their websites, Twitter feeds and Facebook pages into the program to make the game more interactive for viewers.
ReplyDeleteThe commercials on the other hand used social media and their websites much more during the broadcast. Almost every commercial including Toyota and the NBC show “Is He Awake” put up their websites at the end of their commercials prompting viewers to learn more by visiting the sites. The “Is He Awake” show website, isheawake.com, leads directly to their Facebook page that you can like and comment on. It also links to the NBC website, Twitter and a YouTube account. Other commercials, like the ones for Go Daddy, used the smart phone code you can scan that will take you directly to the Go Daddy website. Audi also prompted social media interaction when they asked viewers to tweet #solongvampires.
I think that overall, the demographic that the super bowl attracts played a huge part in how social media and online content were incorporated into the broadcast. For the most part I think that NBC anticipated that the majority of the viewers would be middle-aged males, who generally are not as well versed in social media. On the other hand, polls show that it is typically a younger audience who tunes in to watch all of the elaborate commercials. In this regard it makes sense that the commercials would have made more use of online content and social media than the actual broadcast its self.
Before I saw the Super Bowl, I read the articles about how it was expected for advertisers to capitalize on social media outlets. According to the readings, this was going to be the year when Super Bowl advertisers were going to go far and beyond to reach out to the many viewers who were going to be connected to the web while watching the game. Perhaps, my expectations were really high, but I was disappointed with the level of social interactivity promoted by advertisers.
ReplyDeleteOnly two commercials jumped out as evidence that advertisers were trying to significantly capitalize on social media and on the viewers’ internet connectivity. The first was Geico, which not only created a funny and catchy commercial, but also encouraged viewers to use their smartphones to connect to Geico’s website. To accomplish this, Geico utilized around the last 10 seconds of the commercial to include shots of a “user” accessing Geico’s website through his/her smartphone. I think that this strategy was successful because sometimes it is necessary to be graphically obvious when telling viewers to visit the advertiser’s website. Here’s a link of the ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8ZDV3fvaXM&feature=related
Another example of a successful campaign to attract viewers was evident in a commercial by godaddy.com. In this commercial, godaddy.com put up a barcode during the totality of the commercial for viewers to scan with their smartphones. From all the commercials that I saw during the total duration of the Super Bowl, this was the only ad that put up a barcode. I think that this was successful because the novelty of the barcode scanner application attracts many young viewers to scan their barcodes. This guides them directly to godaddy.com. Hence, increasing online traffic and, consequently, profits. Here’s a link of the ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WjYH8KuOao&feature=relmfu
The rest of advertisers mentioned their websites, facebook or twitter addresses at the end of the ad and for less than 3 seconds. I think this was not enough.
For my work I did a blog post on all car commercials that were going to be shown during the Super Bowl, so I wasn't too excited to watch them all.
ReplyDeleteI read the article Mr. Murphy posted on this blog and had expected a great amount of different ways people were trying to advertise. Aside from the hashtags, facebook pages and such I didn't see too many creative devices to grab our attention. I had expected much more than it really was.
I had expected a lot of QR Codes and such but I actually didn't notice any. I didn't really feel compelled to go on any website because of the commercials. I didn't think it was extraordinarily much.
Because I had already seen all car commercials I knew of Audi's #solongvampires hashtag, which I thought was funny and different. Interestingly enough I had seen a lot of critique of this ad on motorauthority.com, which I imagine has a similar audience to the Super Bowl watchers. motorauthority, however, said that it wouldn't appeal to anyone but 15-year old girls. I think they were probably wrong.
Looking at the Super Bowl commercials this year, there was a lot of online mentioning in many different ways. Some commercials just showed pretty basic URLs, like the Sketchers, Chevy and Hyndai ads. Other were more elaborate, like Suziki and Pepsi, that didn’t just give a basic URL, but instead modified it to fit their ad. Suzuki showed kizashikicks.com at the end of it’s commercial, playing off of the model of the car. In GoDaddy’s commercial, they featured a QR Code, and according to a GoDaddy press release, the QR code that drove record mobile traffic to their site, despite the fact that it was not a commercial most people liked.
ReplyDeleteMany companies also sent viewers to Facebook. Companies like Budweiser, Bridgestone and Metlife, utilized the social network in their ads.
Hash tags also were popular this year as many of the movie commercials featured them at the end. The Audi commercial with the vampires also had the hashtag of #SoLongVampires to keep the conversation going on their ad.
Overall, companies are trying to get people more involved with their ads. Not only that, they also want their ads to be continued to be talked about after it airs and by using hashtags and QR codes the companies can even track how many people are responding.