Super Bowl Sunday: Can Brands Still Come Ready to Play Today?

It’s the most wonderful time of the year…well at least in my eyes. But for most of society, it’s the most watched television event of the year, the Super Bowl. With it’s 50th anniversary matchup set in two weeks, people will be on their couches either ready to watch some football, the puppy bowl, or let’s face it, the overly anticipated commercials. It’s ridiculously difficult to secure one of these live spots as a brand, most spending upwards of 5 million. It can make or break your company if you end up with a fantastically funny new campaign, or just flop. The real competition begins here for the marketers. This has been the trend in the Super Bowl era…but a huge dip I believe marketers are about to face is the lack of live television watchers. If you think about it, most people live stream their television shows, and with CBS airing the game people could just get it done. Many of times this takes away from those prime moments these marketers have been waiting all year for, and we will walk into work on Monday morning confused about the Doritos Dogs commercial that everybody is raving about, yet half of you didn’t even watch it – you YouTubed it! Or you wait for the reviews to come out on some blog you follow and catch up on the commercial buzz during your Monday morning cup of coffee. Where has the Super Bowl Commercial magic gone? Has the new “Netflix and Chill” generation ruined any hope for this tradition to succeed past what could be replacing cable, satellite dishes, and other television services all together?

Of course, all social media sites want to stay relevant, and brands include hashtags in their commercials to include the viewers and make things feel more “2016”. But it all just doesn’t feel the same. The marketing strategy has turned. It’s interesting what kinds of markets succeed today because of our technological resources and our live streaming priorities and the lack of our “back to human reality” sense of recognition we used to have. The commercials were something enjoyable, but today sometimes people forget commercials exist. They zip through them on the DVR or just watch the “commercial break” screen stream while a show through an application is televised live.

For the 5th year, Marketing Land is encouraging viewers to participate in the Hashtag Bowl. They’ll break down the strategies, see how pre-game branding does for each company, and score them based on their implementation of hashtags. They’ll track all social media embedding in commercials and see what sites will get the most earnings from these mentions.

Here are a few stats from the past Hashtag Bowls:
2012 – Facebook and Twitter mentioned just eight times each.
2013 – Twitter/Hashtags mentioned in 26 of 52 national ads.
2014 – Hashtags mentioned in 57 percent of national ads, Facebook mentioned five times and Twitter four times.
2015 – Hashtags mentioned in 50 percent of national ads, Facebook most mentioned again.

What’s left for 2016?? You’ll have to watch live…or Monday morning…to find out.

For now, a few teasers! Amy Schumer and Seth Rogen are both big stars – it’s a huge marketing strategy to send out a teaser and hook the viewers to wait and watch what happens with the comedians come Super Bowl Sunday.

This Doritos commercial is hilarious, it reminds this 24/7 phone occupied generation very much active on dating sites and apps like Tinder – this is a great way to target an audience they want to bring back in! Swipe for Doritos!

References:

8 Marketing Lessons from the 2015 Super Bowl Commercials. (2015, February 09). Retrieved January 24, 2016, from http://enveritasgroup.com/2015/02/09/8-marketing-lessons-2015-super-bowl-commercials/

Best and Worst Of Superbowl 2015 Marketing Strategy. (2015, February 2). Retrieved January 24, 2016, from http://www.rohitbhargava.com/2015/02/best-and-worst-of-superbowl-marketing-strategy-2015.html

Gesenhues, A. (2016, January 22). Super Bowl 50 Advertisers: These Brands Are Ready To Play The Commercial Game. Retrieved January 24, 2016, from http://marketingland.com/super-bowl-50-advertisers-these-brands-are-ready-to-play-the-commercial-game-159578

McClane, C. (2014, March 5). Strategic Marketing Techniques in Ads and Commercials. Retrieved January 24, 2016, from http://www.business2community.com/marketing/strategic-marketing-techniques-ads-commercials-0801792#6gWXJDvHXwrat7pE.97

Mcgee, M. (2016, January 11). Game On: The 2016 Marketing Land #HashtagBowl Is Coming Soon. Retrieved January 24, 2016, from http://marketingland.com/2016-marketing-land-hashtagbowl-is-coming-soon-158894