Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Super Bowl XLVI – Why to watch and what to look for


 by Mike Kelley

The AFC and NFC Championship games are over and the teams for Super Bowl XLVI are set. Now, advertisers hope they won’t be in similar conversations as Billy Cundiff and Kyle Williams are today. To make sure they aren’t considered a “fail” and top news for the wrong reason they must go a traditional route. For the 3.5 million dollars on average for 30 second spot they have to be following the numbers right? For some…not exactly.

For those of us who aren’t all that excited about a Super Bowl “rematch” there has to be something more, and luckily there is.

THIS YEAR’S FIRST
Breaking ground this year is the first Super Bowl social media command center in history. This is expected to be a start of a tradition and be around for years to come, but what exactly is it for? This command center will be running from Monday to Super Bowl Sunday and will mainly track fan conversation on Facebook and Twitter. This command center will used advanced search tools and analytics to reach out to fans and become a social media concierge. Fans will be prompted with directions, parking areas, recommended attractions and anything else they seem to need. Best of all, Tweets like “where is a good parking spot” aren’t needed because the command center will pick up on posting as simple as “parking sucks”.

SHAZAM!
No not Captain Marvel, the app that is available for IOS, Android, Blackberry, and more. Shazam has slowly been making their way from just finding out what song is playing to becoming a link for advertisers to use when their commercials are being aired. This Super Bowl 1/3 of all ads will be recognized by Shazam and will direct viewers to more content and deals. Full details aren’t yet disclosed as far as which commercials will be “Shazam-able”, but using the app on applicable commercials can snag you anything from recipes to free song downloads. Current campaigns using Shazam have seen a 350% increase in social engagement and during the Super Bowl companies will undoubtedly see an increase in Facebook fans and Twitter followers.

SHOWING SOME SKIN
Ads this Super Bowl are expected to be even racier than before. GoDaddy.com is leading the way (shocker!) featuring the well known GoDaddy girls body painting their newest member to promote companies. Kia is reportedly in the mix and Doritos is waiting on consumer voting to decide which route their ad will be going. H&M Clothing is also expected to show David Beckham in his underwear to promote their merchandise.

So suggestive ads with partial nudity must be popular, right? Actually, viewers like ads with clothed talent 10% more than those without. Kids and animals actually top the list of what people want to see. Sketchers is going the safe route replacing last year’s sweaty Kim Kardashian with a Bulldog, and Volkswagen is keeping the Star Wars theme, but switching to singing dogs instead of a little boy.

So the question is, why go more provocative? Does sex really sell during the Super Bowl? Looking back at history, showing some skin may not be all that bad of an idea. Victoria Secret’s 1999 spot featuring strutting lingerie models is considered by Steve Jobs to be stepping stone to current Internet usage. This commercial had such an impact at a time when the Internet was not that popular of a trend that over 1 million viewers went to the Victoria Secret site causing it to crash. Viewers may enjoy animals, but will the Sketchers’ Bulldog produce more media impact than the 1.6 billion impressions Kim Kardashian ditching her trainer for Shape-Ups did last year?

In all, Super Bowl XVLI may be a great football game and considering the markets of the teams involved should produce a lot of revenue across the board. Even if you don’t care for the Patriots or Giants, there is still a little something for everyone this year. Test out the command center with some posts, have Shazam handy to see what will be in store, and decide for yourself: skin or no skin.

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