Posts Tagged ‘Advertising

Making a $3MM commercial work harder

Posted at February 5, 2011 // Advertising, Web

Marketers have long taken an integrated approach to marketing. TV commercials would refer you to the print ad in a health magazine for more information. This was particularly common in the pharmaceutical industry as disclaimers can take up a lot of seconds. Nowaday, internet space is virtually limitless, it’s very common for TV commercials to point viewers to a website. “Learn more at XYZ.com”

But, as the internet is changing the game of Super Bowl advertising, what opportunities have arisen? At $3 million per spot, it’s worthwhile to explore every opportunity!

In the past, Super Bowl commercials have been kept secret till game day. This was to built up mystique, a fascination trigger. But this year, brands have done something different. Some are posting the commercials online well in advance of the game. This has not been done before, and Volkswagen did it. Conventional wisdom would say that this is a bad thing. But the number says differently. The online video has gathered 11 million views since it was posted on February 2.

So, what forces are at work here (no pun intended)? Well, another fascination trigger has been activated: Vice. Volkswagen went ahead and did something that they shouldn’t have done: they revealed their Super Bowl commercial! This gathered a lot of buzz and hype. However, I suspect that this trend would not continue in future games to come. If revealing the Super Bowl commercial ahead of the big game becomes the norm, it’d no longer be buzz-worthy.

A more likely approach that would endure is the route many other brands have decided to go. Posting teasers online. This keeps up the mystique. Builds up the hype. Builds up the buzz. And, it make you look forward to the commercial that much more. From those that have been posted, I found the Snicker one particularly interesting, because it even tells you exactly which quarter the commercial is going to air.

In the world of TiVo, a captive audience was already attractive. A captive audience that actually is looking for your commercial, that’s almost priceless. So, the question becomes, what will be the price of a 30-second ad spot next year?

Check out our week long discussion of Super Bowl here.
Email Subscribers: Volkswagen YouTube link , Snicker YouTube link

“Little Darth Vader Volkswagen Super Bowl Commercial For The Win” and related posts (kbgbabbles.blogspot.com)
Super Bowl Commercials 2011 Preview (tvsquad.com)

Tags : Advertising, Super Bowl advertising, TiVo

We Like Bud Light. Now What?

Posted at February 1, 2011 // Advertising, Web

We’ve had a good look at the viewership of Super Bowl over the last couple of days. One thing we know is that viewership of the game has been evolving. The evolution is happening on a demographic level. It’s happening on a behavioral level. It’s happening on a psychographic level. Now only is the “who” changing, but also they “why” and sometimes “how”.

The sporting event of the year is now the advertising event of the year. It’s an exciting time for advertising, even for the general public, not just marketers. In fact, 18% will look up Super Bowl commercials online or on smart phones on Super Bowl Sunday. So, the internet is definitely playing a role in Super Bowl XLV.

So now, it’s time to turn the discussion from viewers to advertisers. The most anticipated commercials will be those from Anheuser-Busch. In a recent survey, 29% of the respondents is looking forward to Anheuser-Busch commercials. This is because they have debuted crowd favorites year after year. Such consistency builds trust. Such consistency builds expectations. Such consistency builds brands.

But even advertising giants have to adapt to the changing world of marketing.

This year, Bud Light has launched a Facebook effort ahead of the Super Bowl. Tactics included Facebook ads, Facebook apps, and Facebook wall posts with video teaser. It’s a well designed campaign centered around the highly anticipated commercials. Fans are asked to comment on the plot of the commercials based on stills. If the fans guess the plots correctly, Bud Light will release another commercial online.

Bud Light Super Bowl 2011

View more presentations from Jeannie Chan.

I think this is a smart strategy to engage Bud Light fans, and build up top-of-mind awareness for Super Bowl Sunday. After all, you need to stock up on beer for the game!

One of the obvious key performance indicator is how many new “Likes” Bud Light accumulates over the course of the campaign. You have to “Like” Bud Light before you can participant in the game. We see this in many Facebook campaigns. Accumulating “Likes” holds obvious appeal to marketers. We get to feed you content to your Facebook stream. For a brand like Bud Light, engagement these final days ahead of game day could make a huge difference in sales (assuming people are not snowed in). So, this is a good strategy for Bud Light.

However, it remains to be seen how advertisers are going to move beyond accumulating “Likes” and pushing contents. How would we eventually move beyond the framework of push marketing? Maybe one day, big advertisers will be ready to be social in social media. It’s a real forum to dialogue with fans. But for many of us, we are still quite a ways off from figuring out just exactly how do we want to do that…

Email Subscribers: Link to Screenshots of the Bud Light campaign

Bud Light Challenges Facebook Fans To Guess Its Super Bowl Ads (mashable.com)
Featured Facebook Campaigns: Bud Light, Dentyne and New Belgium Brewing (e1evation.com)

Tags : Advertising, Anheuser-Busch, Facebook, Super Bowl, Super Bowl advertising, Television advertisement

Who’s watching the Super Bowl? Part II

Posted at January 31, 2011 // Advertising

As we continue our look into Super Bowl, we further discovers why it’s such a hot venue for advertisers. Based on recent Nielsen report, TV rating for major sporting events over-index on high income households. According to Nielsen, Super Bowl indexed at 128 / 100 for households earning more than $100,000 annually. No wonder that even in this economic environment, a 30-second ad spot still cost upwards of $3 millions!

Last year, the Super Bowl attracted 106.5 million viewers, eclipsing the series finale of M*A*S*H as the most watched TV program in US history. This year shows potential to have even higher ratings. The Steelers and the Green Bay Packers, according to 2010 ratings, commands a high total rating scores. They’ve had a good season, and the post season rating is sure to continue to soar.

Throughout the year, Nielsen observed a surge in ethnic viewership. Hispanic households viewership jumped up 9% compared to a year ago, and African American households up 4% compared to prior year. Such improvement in minority viewership is particularly attractive to advertisers who are trying to tap into this increasingly wealthy demographic.

Another attractive fact about the Super Bowl is the female viewership. Nielsen reports that there is a higher percentage of female viewership in football than any other sports. Many of the women watching this particularly game on Sunday will be watching it specifically for the commercials. This fact is particularly helpful to brands that are targeted to male, but picked up at the store by females. A particularly interesting campaign that target both guys and their ladies is Old Spice, but that’s another post (watch for it on Thursday).

Finally, let’s talk about the weather. Nielsen marked an increase of 8% during the last winter storm that swept the nation. There is another winter storm coming, and it’s slated to hit the east coast by this weekend. This may push Super Bowl viewership even higher.

All in all, Super Bowl not only draws in a large crowd, but the right crowd. No wonder it’s the advertising event of the year!