Felicity’s Weekly Reads #3: The Marketing Madness of Super Bowl Sunday

Every year, advertisers, public relations professionals and social media specialists – to name a few – get a workout building momentum leading up to Super Bowl Sunday. Every year the stakes get higher as the ads come out earlier and this year appear to be slightly…more sentimental? Facebook and Twitter are prepared to do battle for the attention of viewers while one journalist asks whether we should blame social media for some of the advertising oddities that almost seem normal by now.

Raising The Bar For Super Bowl Marketers.
The cost to advertise during the Super Bowl has gone up steadily, reaching a whooping $4 million for a 30 second spot in 2014. Although we often spend a great deal of time discussing the big winners, it’s important to note that paying for a place at the table doesn’t guarantee an advertiser will see success. Between marketers who are relative unknowns, such as Weather-Tech, to institutions who’ve been part of the Super Bowl for years, like Budweiser, one thing they share in common is the high stakes across the board.
[New York Times]

Where My Ladies At? Watching The Game.
In the last few years, we’ve seen awareness of just how many women are actively engaged with the Super Bowl – including all the social media conversations before, during and after the game. This year, there was a noticeable shift in how some brands chose to campaign – with puppies, ponies, romance and parenting taking center stage for several (some quite surprising) brands. Can sentimentality do a better job selling than sex?
[Canada.com]

The Real-Time Battle Between Facebook and Twitter.
There’s no doubt social media giants Facebook and Twitter are engaged in a daily dual for mindshare – but the battle heats up during events as big as the Super Bowl. Both can effectively host real-time discussions but will the brevity of Twitter win out over Facebook’s 5x larger audience? It will be interesting to see how all of the features both companies rolled out over the last year impact their success during this year’s big game.
[Reuters]

Super Bowl Ads are Weird and The Internet Is To Blame.
Every day of the year allows for new opportunities to distract ourselves and waste a bit of time watching funny, bizarre or straight up weird videos online. No wonder Super Bowl advertisers have to keep things interesting and think outside of the traditional confines of what we used to expect from advertising. Are we becoming too weird though and at what point does an attempt to become the next Internet meme detract from the brand’s message?
[NBC News]

Posted on: February 1st, 2014 by

Is wellbeing washed up?

Thank you for requesting our white paper.

How can I take my brand’s wellbeing story from languishing to flourishing?

Thank you for requesting our checklist.