It’s been reported that, on average, companies spent $3.5 million for a 30-second spot during Sunday’s Super Bowl, reaching a TV audience estimated at more than 100 million viewers. While TV is the main channel for Super Bowl ads more advertisers are incorporating digital elements into their spots and using digital to make the ads go viral – extending beyond viewers who are simply watching during the game.
Last year, consumers and advertisers shared Super Bowl ads over YouTube – making them more viral than traditional advertising. This year, retailers and brands incorporated digital elements by adding mobile apps so consumers could interact with a campaign or play a game that ties back to the advertised product. For example, the PepsiCo “Star Wars” campaign has limited edition bottles and a “Star Wars” mobile game. Others used social media channels and online contests to create hype around their ad, such as Doritos’ “Crash the Super Bowl.”
This week at the iMedia Brand Summit, I spoke about new strategies these advertisers can implement in the coming days and weeks to extend the life of their lofty investment and reach buyers. In order to extend the reach, accuracy and effectiveness of TV spots, advertisers should look to online video ads.
Let’s take for example Volkswagen’s “The Dog Strikes Back” ad, which features a portly pooch who sheds some pounds to chase the new Beetle down the street. Looking at the traditional marketing funnel, the Super Bowl commercial brought about Targeted Awareness – national awareness of the Volkswagen brand for all Volkswagen buyers. By reusing this asset digitally and localizing the campaign to only those neighborhoods across the country that are likely intenders of the new Volkswagen Beetle (based on demographics, point of sale data and billions of other data sources), brands achieve Targeted Engagement. Finally, by delivering these ads online to only those highly targeted potential buyers within an 8 mile radius of a Volkswagen dealership, you have Targeted Action.
This, of course, is just one example of how brands and retailers can bring a successful national TV spot into different channels that are more targeted and have a distinct call to action. By targeting both pre-roll and in-banner video ads at a local level, marketers can ensure that those consumers most interested in a product and most able to buy it see the ad. Online video advertising has quickly become a highly engaging way for retailers and brands to reach their audiences, resulting in increased store (or, in the VW example, dealership) traffic.
Have you or your clients re-used your national TV campaign assets online? How about at the neighborhood-level? We’d love to hear from you in the comments section below.
