Pre- and Post-Game Campaigns join Traditional Game-Day Spots at Super Bowl XLVIII

The Super Bowl traditionally attracts two kinds of viewers—those watching the game and those watching the commercials. Marketing professionals aim their efforts at the latter but this year, there was a new twist to the equation.

Companies have been teasing their Super Bowl commercials for a few years now but for the first time, YouTube offered not only a glimpse at seven teasers but also three full-length Super Bowl commercials weeks before the actual game took place.

According to The Verge, YouTube users watched Super Bowl commercials more than 80 million times before the game even aired in 2013—a total of 256 million views.

Viewers were taking to Facebook and Twitter as early as January 11 to share Jaguar’s #GoodtoBeBad spot and SodaStream’s commercial and then on January 14 to share and discuss Axe Body Spray’s #KissforPeace commercial.

So what kind of impact did this have on the overall effectiveness of Super Bowl ads the day of the event?

Let’s discuss.

According to Variety, this year’s 30-second ad spots were going for about $4 million. The estimated viewership for the event was more than 108 million.

Budweiser reportedly spent $30 million on its game-day spots, including its Puppy Love commercial, which it released on YouTube Jan. 29. The early-release strategy paid off, garnering more than 30 million views prior to the game and has reached more than 41 million to-date. The brand also saw success with its pre-Super Bowl “Stay in the Game” campaign.

To ensure that everyone watching Super Bowl XLVIII had a game plan for celebrating responsibly, Zeno and Bud Light worked to execute the campaign, a multi-tiered program featuring Pro Football Hall of Famer and NFL All-Time sack leader Bruce Smith.

Before arriving in New York, Bruce filmed a PSA on the brand's behalf, reflecting on his own DUI arrest and encouraging others to make smarter decisions when choosing to drink.

Once on the ground in NY, Bruce executed a number of interviews with local and national media, both on Radio Row and following an exclusive Bud Light press conference on the USS Intrepid with Bud Light VP Rob McCarthy and VP of CSR for Anheuser-Busch Kathy Casso.

Views of the digitally led PSA, featured on the brand's YouTube and Facebook channels, as well as widespread media coverage demonstrated that Bruce's message resonated and encouraged others to stay safe and smart on football's biggest day.

To celebrate Super Bowl XLVIII, Zeno Group – alongside NFL Women’s Apparel  and Macy’s Herald Square – unveiled the season’s hottest “big game” day looks during a consumer fashion show hosted at the world's biggest NFL shop, a 36,000 square foot space on Macy's 4th floor with interactive space providing fans a chance to shop for their favorite team's merchandise and memorabilia.

Emceed by TV personality, Deion Sanders, and the NFL’s Creative Fashion Director, Phillip Bloch, consumers and media were on the front line to experience all of the exclusive looks blending fashion with football.

A range of famous faces hit the runway, including actress and singer China Anne McClain, E! reporter, Alicia Quarles, NFL Network’s Molly Qerim, as well as former Seattle Seahawks QB, Matt Hasselbeck, and Sander himself.

Fifth Third Bank and Carter and Zeno Group also launched a campaign pre-Super Bowl aimed at drive donations for cancer research through its collaboration with Stand Up To Cancer.

The company capitalized on the large media audience in New York leading up to Super Bowl Sunday to help spread the word about the new “Pay to the Order Of” campaign with the help of ESPN NFL studio analyst Cris Carter, whose best friend is fighting cancer.

Carter walked Radio Row conducting interviews with national Sirius radio program XXXXX and ESPN local affiliates in key Fifth Third Bank markets. 

Fifth Third Bank utilized social to take the campaign a step further, offering to donate $1 to Stand Up to Cancer for every eligible use of the hashtag #PayToTheOrderOf” on Twitter and Instagram by those sharing stories and photos of who they’re fighting for.

This is just one example of the many companies that opted to use social instead of traditional paid spots before/during the game. Social campaigns made big impressions with sports fans, proving spending millions on a 30-second spot isn’t the only way to stretch your marketing reach, as proved by Oreo in 2013 with their simple yet effective Twitter campaign “Dunk in the Dark,” spurred by a power outage and a very quick response by their marketing department.

This year brands attempted to go the social route, using hashtags and live tweeting during the game.

(Image courtesy Twitter.com)

Zeno Group client Monster Products also inserted themselves into the conversation with pre-game and real-time tweets as well as photos from the locker rooms, resulting in more than a quarter million reached on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The social efforts however, didn’t end with the game.

Zeno Group ran a program to benefit those #StuckInNY due to the cancelled flights with free Wi-Fi courtesy @Gogo. Monster Products is also offering a free set of Monster24k headphones when users submit their version of a Marshawn Lynch SB dance.

To kick off the brand’s year-long “Go For Greatness” campaign, Pizza Hut headed to the Big Apple to host live auditions to find unique talent to star in a series of new commercials. Pro football personality Trey Wingo and NFL quarterback Cam Newton joined team Pizza Hut to engage fans near Times Square and make respective appearances on Radio Row as brand ambassadors. Cam Newton also went for greatness in his own right by stopping by the Times Square Pizza Hut to make pizzas for consumers and talk to media at the store. The result: top national and local media placements and one of the brand’s busiest days of the year.

Marketing Land held its third annual #Hashtagbowl and reviewed 54 ads for their inclusion of hashtags in this year’s Super Bowl ad campaign. These were the results:

• Hashtags: 31 total, 57% of ads overall
• Facebook: 5 total, 9% of ads overall
• Twitter: 4 total, 7% of ads overall
• YouTube: 3 total, 6% of ads overall
• Shazam: 2 total, 4% of ads overall
• URLs: 22 total, 41% of ads overall

Both Instagram and Google+ were locked out of this year’s marketing efforts during the game, the website said.

Real-time marketing on Twitter saw a large increase compared to 2013’s numbers, according to Marketing Land’s graph, shown here.

Twitter reports that approximately 58 percent of the national ads during the game featured a hashtag, compared to 50 percent last year.

Of course, a hashtag is just a hashtag until your audience uses, promotes and owns it through engagement.

So what does this all tell us about the trends in marketing during one of the year’s most effective time for advertising? Simply put, be where your audience will be.

Sure, a strategically placed television ad may do the trick and garner massive reach (unless you were unlucky to place your ad near the end of a dud of a game …) but more and more the role of social reinforces being at the “right place at the right time.”