Brands create pre-pre-game campaign buzz
If you haven’t already seen the “teaser- trailers,” write-ups on the Super Bowl commercials predicting themselves to be the “must-see ad of the year” or promising reunions you’ve been wishing for since the late ’90s, then you haven’t been on the Internet in a while, or you are DVR-ing all of your TV shows. Brands like Doritos even created an ad contest “Crash the Super Bowl”, in which they ask you to vote on which one you want to be shown. Or take Dannon Oikos Greek Yogurt who has been shaking the ad waters for the past week, teasing people with a mini Full-House reunion. Hey, they even have landing pages for their campaigns (I’ll get to that point later).
But is that the best tactic for a brand’s big game advertising plan? It depends. Last year Dodge Ram had a surprise (and refreshing, I might add) “God Made a Farmer” commercial that left everyone engaged and talking about it. Americans pay special attention to advertising in the two-week period before the Super Bowl, so brands are taking advantage of it. Sometimes the teasers can cost just as much as the Super Bowl ads themselves.
#HashtaggedSlogans are taking over
If you are unfamiliar with a hashtag, you should read this first. Hashtags will dominate the commercials at this year’s Super Bowl, and more importantly, Twitter/social media, starting conversations and leaving brands hoping to see their slogans on the “Trending Now” bar. A couple of things have to happen in order for hashtags to work. The hashtag slogan must be #SIMPLE or else no one will tweet with it. If your ad #IsTheLongestHashtagOutThereToShoutOutYourPoint, no one will even bother. But if it’s simple and to the point, you have better chances. Also, the ads must have a storyline or a repetitive theme in order for people to engage with them. If you give people a reason to tweet, they will. Good and bad, you will get coverage.
Ad campaigns find a home online
Most brands have completed their Super Bowl campaigns with a website as a place for those ads to live online. The best I have seen thus far is the Old Spice campaign. I won’t ruin the surprise, but let’s just say they know their target market very well. And that’s one way to get traffic to your site. If you build it for your target audience, they will come. Why leave all the buzz just on social media? Give your fans a place to go to and learn more about what you have to offer.
So are all these campaign efforts actually working? And who will come out on top in the “Advertising Bowl” this year? Let’s pay attention this week to the ads and watch them come Sunday, I’ll be back to tell you what I thought. Let us know what you liked the most!
Oh, and Go Seahawks! (I have to pull for Russell Wilson. I mean, I went to NC State!)