Ahh, the Super Bowl. The one day a year where the commercials are actually entertaining and the noshes keep coming. And there’s some game, football I think, going on in the background. But the main thing everyone talks up every year is the eye-opening price tag for the commercials. Advertisers are paying as much as 4 million dollars for an ad to run during this year’s game – a 29 percent increase from last year. But, then again, brand awareness from a Super Bowl ad could be 275 percent greater than an ad played during a regularly scheduled program. And this year, companies are getting very creative with who’s in the ads and when they start to run.
That’s right; you don’t have to wait until Super Bowl Sunday to catch these comical commercials featuring celebs like Matthew Broderick in a spin-off of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off for Honda and the ever-whiney Jerry Seinfeld who’ll do anything for a new Acura. Companies such as Honda, Kia, VW and Acura have been teasing audiences with “pre-ads.” Think of them like trailers for Sunday’s main feature-length event. In fact, Acura isn’t even waiting until Sunday. They’ve already premiered their Super Bowl ad, with even an extended version!
The commercial “pre-release” is becoming a growing trend to create buzz around the product and boost viewers. With the popularity of Super Bowl commercials, the ads have gone viral and in turn, are driving consumers to social media sites. Companies upload the ad on their YouTube channel or Facebook page, and we do the rest; sharing or “liking” the content. It’s a very smart marketing strategy on their part and we’re making the advertisers very happy – spreading the company’s message for free, which is what they were hoping for.
It’s not just about a one-time-watch during the Super Bowl anymore; it’s now about watching, and re-watching, and forwarding and tweeting and liking and sharing and so on. Social media has taken Super Bowl ads to a whole other level. Audi’s 60-second spot has already generated 2 million views online and Jerry Seinfeld’s Acura commercial is at 1.2 million views… and counting. The buzz is more viral than pneumonia and kickoff hasn’t even happened yet. I’d call that a social media blitz that’s a touchdown for advertisers.