Super Bowl Ads Now About Online, TV
February 08, 2010
(SPORTS TECHNOLOGY)
Ah, the Super Bowl. The one televised event where a good chunk of viewers are thankful for the regular programming so they can go to the kitchen and bathroom before the commercials come on.
We don't get to see the ads during the Super Bowl broadcast overseas. We didn't in Istanbul and we know we won't here in New Zealand, as well, so we've been watching the pre-released Super Bowl ads on various Web sites. Our favorite so far is the Audi "Green Police" ad.
Nothing, of course, touches the "Mean" Joe Greene Coca-Cola ad, or the Apple 1984 ad. EDS's (News - Alert) herding cats one comes close, nothing we've seen so far this year challenges them.
It says something about either us or society at large that advertisements are on sites which sell ad space to advertisers to reach people who want to watch a different ad. We prefer to think it says something about society, not just us, that others will TiVo (News - Alert) the ads during the Super Bowl.
And in what is no doubt a sure sign of the apocalypse, Budweiser is offering short previews of its ads on its Web site. That's right - you want to see a full Budweiser advertisement, but they only let you see a 10-second preview of a 30-second ad they made solely for the purpose of you watching it. There are multiple psychology dissertations waiting to be written there.
According to industry observer Julia Boorstin, integrated Web campaigns "can cash in on a 30-second spot for weeks before and after the big game." How so?
"Of the game's 100 million viewers, 40 million will also watch the ads online, and 26 percent of that group plan to share their favorite ads with friends, according to Venables Bell & Partners ad agency," she says, what with all the offering a preview --such as the ones yours truly has been surfing around for - or letting them vote on which wins, "makes them feel invested in the commercial and connected to the brand."
Coca-Cola, Boorstin reports, "says its Web campaigns use its game day ad impact by a factor of three." Coke is now the most popular consumer product page on Facebook (News - Alert), Boorstin said, "boosted by a new philanthropic campaign. Coke gives Facebook users a sneak peak at its Super Bowl ad if users gift virtual cokes to their friends. For each Facebook gift, Coke makes a donation to the Boys and Girls Club charity."
Anheuser-Busch's Bud Facebook page lets you vote on which ad you want to see. Boorstin writes that Budweiser's "also polling its 252 million Facebook fans on how they plan to consume Bud and where they'll watch the game," which we find to be rather odd as the Budweiser page on Facebook has only 255,000 fans, and according to ComScore only 222 million Facebook users overall.
David Sims is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of David’s articles, please visit his columnist page. He also blogs for TMCnet here.
Edited by Amy Tierney
