Behind the Buzz - digital and interactive advertising and marketing

Monitoring the Superbowl Marketing

by Rachel on January 8th, 2008

The Superbowl is undoubtedly the biggest annual marketing extravaganza in the US, if not the world. This year, all but 2 of the ad slots had gone by early December, 3 months before the game and the last slots are reportedly going for around $3million. But the ad game has changed over the years, it’s not just about releasing the ad and seeing how much mass-media press you can get, there’s a far larger strategy that needs to come into play, with pre-game tease and post-game conversation all driven by Word of Mouth and the web. The Buzz Monitoring companies will be busy tracking activity, both for clients and as a way of showcasing their own work.

Cymphony is one of the companies involved. They are going to be producing reports from Tuesday, with pre-and post-game reports,

providing a quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the media coverage and consumer discussion leading up to and following the game. We will answer questions such as:

• How much coverage is each advertiser generating?
• Which ads are consumers discussing?
• What is the quality and tone of the coverage?
• How does the event impact consumer engagement with the brand?
• How are pre-game promotional strategies influencing discussion?

Cymfony are using a blog to track developments, such as which brands are doing what and which celebrities are getting involved You can also take a look at some of last year’s reports and order this years from their Superbowl pages.

Last year they categorised the advertisers 4 ways and assessed the volume of coverage:

• Play-Action. Announced their ads before Jan 14th. This group earned twice the volume of buzz than the typical advertisers
• Pre-Game Warmup Brands. Announced in the 2 weeks before the game, gicing them a vilume index of 176.
• Kick-off Squad. Announced the weekend of the game, got a volume index of 18
• Bench players. Premiered during the game, getting similar volume of mentions as the Kick-off squad.

All of this indicates that to get the biggest traction, the most conversations, it is no longer to have a great big ad in the game and wait for the water-cooler conversations the next day. The web has changed that, the web allows you to develop interest, with competitions, with early views, with gossip about who stars in the brand before the game and then continue the interest after. There’s little value in the surprise ad from a commitment. You don’t necessarily have to show the ad early, but you need to advertise the fact you’re advertising!

Cymfony advise 3 tactics which I agree with:

• Traditional and social media play complimentary roles. Use all the communication tools that suit you, your brand and the audience, get the message out there. Pre-game coveraged favoured traditional media/PR, post game coveraged was strongest on the web. Providing tools and assets for both channels increased the lifespan of your messages.
• Pre-Game coverages sets up post-game coverage. Having good coverage before translated into good coverage later. Although this was in volume, not always in tone; the actual ad can change the conversation, as Snickers experienced.
• Announce early and promote strongly. The Superbowl is not one day, it’s over a month. Use the time to promote your brand.

Last year, the only thing I watched about the Superbowl was the ads (I’d tried all season to actually understand the game but failed) and this year it will be same. Hopefully there will be some gems that entertain me in there.

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POSTED IN: Advertisments, Buzz Marketing