If you were part of the 100 million viewers who tuned in to CBS to watch the Super Bowl this year, ask yourself this: Who was the advertiser you saw the most? It’s likely that CBS definitely ranks high in your memory. Not only did CBS receive honors for having the highest-rated ad during the Super Bowl (its Person of Interest ad that aired at 10:31 p.m. EST won a household rating of 47.4, according to Kantar Media), but the network also significantly increased its advertising efforts since the Super Bowl of 2012, with 13 ads for its own programming between kickoff and the first half, compared to last year’s six. Considering that Super Bowl ads were going for about $4 million per 30-second spot, it’s interesting that CBS chose to promote its programming over the several million in direct revenue it could have earned from sponsor ads. But if you look at CBS’ decision beyond immediate ad dollars, you’ll start to wonder why more brands in online video aren’t following suit. Using tune-in ads for their own network, CBS tapped into a giant audience of captivated viewers (some of whom were watching just for the commercials); CBS was able to promote new and existing content, and beyond creating the ads, CBS didn’t have to pay for the extra exposure besides opportunity cost. When you have an engaged audience and the endless possibilities of digital video, why wouldn’t you use the chance to promote yourself?

Online publishers can take a tip from the television networks

TV networks have been capitalizing on tune-in ads for a while now (e.g., Fox, Spike, AMC, and CBS), and they wouldn’t do it if there wasn’t a payoff. CBS’ pay off may not have been immediate (its primetime lineup the following Monday had very little growth when compared with its recent Monday lineup of first-run episodes), but it sure left an impression on viewers who may not have been aware of their full programming lineup. Too bad I can’t watch The Job anymore due to its cancellation, but it certainly caught my eye. (I guess there aren't enough workplace enthusiasts like me out there.) And while there’s no guarantee of a direct correlation, a week after the Super Bowl, Nielsen ratings showed that CBS took 8 of the 10 top spots in ratings for the week ending on Sunday, February 10, knocking out Fox top-ranking shows from a few weeks back. CNBC is another example of a network that does tune-in advertising well. CNBC promotes its nighttime lineup branded “CNBC Prime” throughout the day to audiences who are glued to their screens for stock market news. This comes in the form of linear ads (video-based advertising) and non-linear ads (overlays at the bottom of the screen).

Other than the obvious benefit of advertising with little direct cost, riding the coattails of already popular content makes a lot of sense. So why does it seem that online publishers aren’t tapping in? Too often, ad spots online go unfilled. Unlike broadcasters and cable programmers who must fill advertising slots with ads, online publishers are letting good inventory go to waste by jumping directly to the content when they don’t have an ad. Instead of letting ad spots go empty, wouldn’t it make more sense to use some unsold inventory to encourage the user to stay tuned-in or come back later or visit another related section or property? Advertisers aren’t earning money anyway, so why shouldn’t they get the most out of the view and advertise themselves? Even when they do have enough advertisements to serve during the videos, they should also consider including their own ads in the mix, beyond just the simple bumper.

Use tune-in to promote your cross-platform presence

Tune-in ads can be especially helpful for cross-platform promotions. In the case of television meets internet, if someone on Fox’s website is watching American Idol clips, the network has an option to either earn revenue running a preroll for Coke or to capture a new viewer for Glee on television by running a tune-in ad. Fox already knows the viewer enjoys musical content, and American Idol and Glee aren’t that far off from each other. Yes, Fox might miss out on the initial ad revenue, but building up their audience base for other shows will generate more money down the road. AMC (the cable channel) also seems to understand the value of self promotion. Before I could watch a behind-the-scenes clip for The Walking Dead on its website, I enjoyed an AMC preroll for The Walking Dead video game. I didn’t know there was a video game based on the show, and I’m sure a lot of others who came across that preroll didn’t, either. Sure, AMC didn’t get the money they would have by running a sponsor’s ad, but they will reap delayed benefits when people purchase or buzz about the video game. I’m not implying that publishers should be just like CBS during the Super Bowl and be constantly promoting themselves. Staying revenue positive should always be your first priority, but publishers should also include themselves in promotional mix, especially if they have a presence on multiple platforms.

Rewards worth waiting for

Video is a very lucrative media channel, and publishers should use tune-in advertising at every touch point possible to drive more video viewership. Even when the benefits aren’t always immediate, tune-in ads can significantly reinforce your publishing property and brand. Make sure that the next time your audience is considering watching content – whatever the category – they think of you. This is especially relevant for those publishers who are frequented by search-engine audiences (audiences who end up on your site because they were searching for news, travel tips, recipes, etc.) because they may not have encountered you otherwise. Understandably, today’s video advertising is already difficult to manage, but if there is one more lesson that digital video can adopt from television, it is self-promoting through tune-in advertising.

USA Today’s Ad Meter needs to be brought into the 21^st century. Traditionally, they have focused on a small sample group of viewers to gauge ad performance. This year, in an attempt to update their analysis they opened up that sample group to viewers that registered on their online portal. It was likely an attempt to get a better read of consumer reactions, but with more than 8,000 participants, they still missed the mark.

The inherent flaw in their analysis—the same one they’ve had since the Ad Meter was first published in 1989—is in the way they measure advertisement success. Knowing whether a person “liked” or “disliked” an ad is no way to gauge if it got the job done for the advertiser. USA Today needs to go deeper to understand the winners and losers.

In Networked Insights’ analysis of the Super Bowl ads and celebrities, social data insights revealed a different viewpoint. GoDaddy.com was the #1 most discussed brand during Sunday’s big game. Despite a significant negative reaction from viewers, the data highlights a key to success when it comes to Super Bowl advertising, that controversy pays huge dividends.

It is time we move past antiquated means of collecting consumer information and start utilizing real-time data to uncover more reliable insights. Social data has characteristics that can no longer be ignored. Everyday this unbiased data source grows exponentially and the topics it covers are practically limitless.

Networked Insights is fortunate to work with innovative brands that want to use real-time consumer data from the social web to inform strategic marketing decisions. The reason is simple, traditional research can’t keep pace with the speed of today’s consumer. Progressive marketing professionals are looking for real-time trends and insights they can capitalize on. Perhaps most importantly, they’re looking for accurate information that is available when they need it – when it’s time to make a major decision.

Having the right information is critical to effective marketing. Taking your cues from USA Today’s Ad Meter is proving to be a risky proposition in the digital age. It’s time the unfiltered, boundless voice of the consumer – as expressed across the social web – rule the day. Marrying insights from social data with brand marketing intuition is a fierce combination that de-risks decisions and inspires more consumer-centric advertising.

So, let me say ‘thank you’ to CBS on behalf of the millions (I am betting that there were millions) of consumers who took advantage of the live stream. It certainly provided consumers the flexibility and choice we deserve when it comes to watching the biggest sporting event in the country.

Now, if you were only watching the big game on your tablet that would be fine. You would be very, very happy.

However, I made the mistake of having the television on at the same time as having the live stream on my iPad on my lap (I am sure many others did this as well).

The issue - and I don’t know if it was my connection or the WiFi I was on or if it is a technical limitation of live stream - but the stream to the tablet lagged the television coverage. It was not a short lag, it was considerable. At one stage in the first quarter, I got out the stop watch and timed it. The lag was 21.7 seconds. This was essentially streaming one play behind the live coverage on the television.

This made it impossible to have both the tablet and television on at the same time. And you guessed it, the big screen eventually won.

That said, I did like the fact that you had access to a curated Twitter feed and the commercials that you could play on demand on the tablet.

Perhaps the most exciting innovation was the ability to switch between camera angles at will. It certainly made me feel like I was in control of what I wanted to watch. There was a second or so between the camera angles switching but nothing that marred the experience.

At the risk of looking stupid, the only other thing that I had an issue with was that I could not watch the game on the full screen. Try as I might, I could not find a way of expanding the picture to the full screen. It might be able to be done, but for the life of me I could not figure it out. I am sure someone from CBS will call me out on this.

Overall, I must say I was excited to watch the game on my tablet. We should be able to watch everything on live on tablet. Unfortunately, there are still plenty of live sporting events that are not available. At least there is one network that gets it. Congratulations CBS. Great game!

HOT ACT TO FOLLOW: Mobile marketing gave Madonna a run for her money.

If you were watching Super Bowl 46 (I refuse to use Roman numerals that nobody understands), you know that all of the action was not on the field. That includes the riveting halftime performance by Madonna who showed that at age 53, she's still smoking hot and a great athlete. Just in case you were one of the 157 people that missed the Madonna halftime show during Super Bowl 46, here it is.

Best Buy's advertisement was interesting and showed that it was carrier agnostic and that Best Buy was a great place to shop for the best mobile phone plan for your particular needs.

Watch the Best Buy commercial that shows the inventor of the text message here.

There also was an enormous amount of action, mobile marketing action that is, during the commercials, proving that mobile marketing has now made it to television's biggest event and in a big way.

One of the biggest advertisers this year was Chevy, which has a big television ad campaign and advertisements across other mediums. It is also running a competition through its special Super Bowl iPhone and Android apps, where users who take the trivia quiz in the app can win up to 20 vehicles. But, Chevy wasn't the only one to jump on the mobile bandwagon. A range of companies, including Subway, Coke and Pepsi have either sponsored apps, created apps or tied in with existing apps to extend their Super Bowl campaigns to the palm of viewers' hands.

If you were able to take your eyes off of Danica Patrick and the painted model for a moment, your eyes may have raced over to the QR Code that Go Daddy used in the lower left side of the screen. You may wonder why a QR Code would be included in a visual medium like television. Some have likened television's use of QR Codes to be as silly as putting a QR on the side of a speeding bus. Not so, in the 2010's, however, when the viewer can stop the action on the screen or easily go backwards to scan the QR Code. While it was great to see a QR Code during the Super Bowl, we would have rather seen Go Daddy use a Custom QR Code which has proven to get 2.3 times more scans than an ordinary black and white QR Code.

Watch the Go Daddy commercial with QR Code here.

Of course, Papa John's got a lot of pre-game publicity on this, the biggest pizza buying day of the year. It's pregame coin flip of heads means that every member of Papa John's club will receive an email today on how to redeem the outcome of the coin flip into a free pizza and two liter Pepsi. You can also check it out here and get your free pizza. While this was a great promotion, wouldn't it have been especially cool for winners to immediately get a text message mobile coupon after the coin flip to announce their winning a free pizza. Talk about chatter at the Super Bowl party!

The NFL itself didn't miss out on the mobile marketing party either. It promoted its new NFL fantasy football game. If you text NFL to 69635, fans could win $1 million in the new fantasy football game. Now, it's interesting to be promoting a fantasy football game a full 8 months before most fantasy football leagues will be holding their drafts. No doubt, the NFL intends to reach out to its text message opt-ins in late summer 2012 to encourage them to use the new fantasy football website. Obviously, the NFL recognizes that 19 million Americans play fantasy sports and it can't afford to miss out on this burgeoning market.

Watch the NFL's Fantasy Football commercial with text message marketing here.

According to the Mobile Consumption Survey nearly 40% of respondents used mobile devices in response to TV ads. This included discussing commercials, getting more information about an advertised product, or watching TV ads again. 45% estimated that they would spend 30 minutes or more on their mobile devices during the game. Interestingly, more used their mobiles during the first half than the second half, either exhausted from Madonna's riveting halftime show, the effects of too many beers, or simply a great and exciting conclusion to the game.

Follow Bob Bentz on Google+ or on Twitter @BobBentz.

Super Bowl XLVI...is once again more than a football game, and the social aspect of the game is more than simply breaking Twitter records. This year Super Bowl XLVI will create connections. Viewers are expected to use mobile devices at unmatched levels and the demand for mobile interaction is tremendous.

What is certain? Immediate and direct access to “more” is expected, and brands are challenged to create spectacular interactive experiences

Extraordinary relevance

Promises of brilliant content are certain, but tremendous value is most often created when fans discover, conquer, own, and share stories about who they are and what they know. Creative brands will be prepared to listen, will adapt quickly and respond with authentic messages. So, what is the outcome? Emotional connections, possible when brands nurture dialogues and support the role of people in the process.

How will we connect? Apple shipped over 15 million iPads in Q4 2011

Position a very different kind of strategy

Honda has had great success with the early release of the Ferris Bueller's Day Off big game commercial. The video already has more than 8 million views, great news for Honda as they launch the all-new 2012 CR-V. Still,with almost 60 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute, imagine the possibility for unique opportunities. Enable people to capture original video and celebrate the imagination of people in real-time, as they are watching the game.

…Raison d'être

#GameDayPolarBears

Living, breathing, and ever-changing content. Coca-Cola® has given their Polar Bears permission to throw a Super Bowl Party. While watching the game, the polar bears will be chatting with, so far, more than 18,000 friends. As of now, the popular hosts have only invited a little more than 64,000 friends via Facebook.

Become a resource

Chevy is sponsoring “Road To The #SuperBowl”

Chevy has become a resource for those wanting to track tweets per minute and see who is sharing content in real-time. Chevy has also reached out to Detroit Labs to develop a great mobile app. The Chevy Game Time App offers viewers a chance to interact with exclusive content, get real-time stats, and be a part of the game with live trivia. At this point are we fans or players? Players can win 1 of 20 Chevys and other prizes.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Service…extended brand experience

Xbox LIVE Gold access will be free February 2-5. Xbox wants to make sure that fans experience ESPN via Xbox LIVE. The Super Bowl is ideally targeted and Xbox will extend the brand’s experience with Madden Bowl XVIII! Last night, NFL players and celebrities teamed up in a 3-on-3, playing for the coveted title of Madden NFL 12 champions!

I like this idea, but would love to see real-people also involved. Celebrity overload I guess. During Super Bowl week, the last thing some of us care to see are more celebrities.

Consider the value of social media...Loyalty and Learning. Then add the perception of “people” defining their personal value by what they share. Now consider the passion and true emotion within sporting events. This is only the beginning, the 2012 Olympics are only a few months away. The games will further test brands to create strong resources and enable “my” Olympics.

Super Bowl Goes Mobile viaInteractive Advertising Bureau

With its entry into m-commerce, does American Express - its merchant partnerships and its massive database of customer preferences and purchase behavior - become the ultimate mobile marketing platform?

In the conclusion of our Fall 2011 Mobile Marketing Roundtable, our panelists - Julie Fajgenbaum, vice president of brand marketing and social media for American Express, Jeff Hasen, CMO of mobile marketing firm HipCricket, and Adam Broitman, CEO of digital ad agency Circ.us - talk QR codes and Near Field Communications (NFC) and their (to some, questionable) value to marketing and advertising.

And I ask them to consider the place payment companies like AMEX might hold in the future of mobile marketing.

FALL 2011 MOBILE MARKETING ROUNDTABLE (CONCL): AMEX: the Ultimate Mobile Marketing Platform?

Click Here to Listen to Fall_2011_Mobile_Marketing_Roundtable_Conclusion

(Approx: 5:25)

PLUS: Don't miss the other installments from this exclusive roundtable:

In Part 1 of our Fall Mobile Marketing Roundtable, we talk to Julie Fajgenbaum, VP of Brand Marketing & Social Media for American Express about how AMEX is going social+mobile+commerce.

In Part 2, we talk to Adam Broitman, CEO of Circus about ways this equation will play out over the next five to 10 years (Let's just say the conversation includes NFC embedded in our skin) - and what it means to the world of advertising.

In Part 3, Jeff Hasen, CMO of Seattle-based HipCricket, illustrates the power of this dynamic in campaigns for Ford and Arby's.

In Part 4, Our panelists talk mobile marketing's role in Super Bowl 2012.

You'll be impressed with the results generated - and you'll see how social+mobile+commerce can work seamlessly within fully integrated communications campaigns.

Julie Fajgenbaum, vice president of brand marketing and social media for American Express, joins Jeff Hasen, CMO of mobile marketing firm HipCricket, and Adam Broitman, CEO of digital ad agency Circ.us, in discussing the use of mobile as a response mechanism for spots aired during the big game.

 Along the way, we hear about a largely overlooked role mobile plays regardless of its intentional integration with Super Bowl spots - and we try to get Julie to reveal AMEX's plans for game day.

FALL 2011 MOBILE MARKETING ROUNDTABLE (PT 4): MOBILE MARKETING'S ROLE IN SUPER BOWL 2012

Click Here to Listen to Fall 2011 Mobile Marketing Roundtable (Pt 4)

(Approx: 4:51)

TOMORROW: With converging trends such as they are, doesn't AMEX stand to become one of the world's top social CRM platforms? We'll discuss the prospects - and what it could mean to mobile marketing.

PLUS: Don't miss the other installments from this exclusive roundtable:

In Part 1 of our Fall Mobile Marketing Roundtable, we talk to Julie Fajgenbaum, VP of Brand Marketing & Social Media for American Express about how AMEX is going social+mobile+commerce.

In Part 2, we talk to Adam Broitman, CEO of Circus about ways this equation will play out over the next five to 10 years (Let's just say the conversation includes NFC embedded in our skin) - and what it means to the world of advertising.

In Part 3, Jeff Hasen, CMO of Seattle-based HipCricket, illustrates the power of this dynamic in campaigns for Ford and Arby's.

You'll be impressed with the results generated - and you'll see how social+mobile+commerce can work seamlessly within fully integrated communications campaigns.

 

At least that's the contention of Julie Fajgenbaum, vice president of brand, marketing and social media for American Express, in our Fall 2011 Mobile Marketing Roundtable.

  Joining Fajgenbaum: Adam Broitman, chief ringleader for New York City-based digital marketing agency Circ.us, and Jeff Hasen, chief marketing officer for Seattle-based mobile marketing firm HipCricket - who we'll hear more from over the next few days.

In part one, Fajgenbaum offers insights into AMEX's mobile+social+local strategy, which includes new promotions with Foursquare and Facebook, as well as an initiative with Verizon and Sprint to enable you to make mobile payments using your phone using a prepaid account maintained by AMEX.

As you'll hear, AMEX has adopted "mobile first" design principles - meaning it now designs brand experiences for mobile first, because it will necessarily work on other devices.

Among our questions: What social+local+mobile might mean for AMEX in the next five years - and whether mobile payments spell the end of physical credit cards.

FALL 2011 MOBILE MARKETING ROUNDTABLE PART ONE: AMEX'S MOBILE STRATEGY

Click Here to Listen to: Fall Mobile Marketing Roundtable Part 1

(Approx. 6:45)

Super Bowl 2011

As we slowly crawl out of one of the most devastating recessions in recent history, this year’s Super Bowl may have acted as a bellwether for our economic recovery.  It signaled that a. consumers have regained some buying power b. automakers are recovering and c. advertising is back.

Automakers have been deathly quiet over the past few years, understandably more concerned with improving their balance sheets than creating entertaining advertisements.  But there was a dramatic shift during this year’s Super Bowl, with nine different automotive companies dominating the evening.  Chrysler, who almost completely disappeared from advertising in recent years, was seen throughout the night, spending close to 9 million dollars on an ad starring rap artist, Eminem.  The advertisements themselves ranged from family fun, like Volkswagen’s adorable Darth Vader commercial, to Chrysler’s Glee advertisement, which succeeded in converting a few more “gleeks”. Overall, advertisements were noisy and filled with special affects, working hard to take advantage of the new economic climate.  Two years ago, no one was buying cars, now automakers are so confident in consumer power, they are willing to embark on a new advertising path that includes spending big bucks to shout encouragingly at their target market.

While automakers were taking a big back seat over the past few years, advertising suffered.  But with automakers back on track, so is advertising.  According to our STRATA systems, we’ve already seen advertising purchases up by 15% in 2011, which should continue throughout the year.  Now that major ad buyers are back on board, advertising can take a deep breath and focus on merging powerful new elements, like social media, into their campaigns.

By now, we are all familiar with the “loser” Super Bowl advertisers, we’re looking at you, Groupon and Sketchers; but the chances that these companies were willing to take with advertising speak volumes for the economy.  The creative departments may need some retooling, but advertisers were trying to speak directly to consumer’s wallets this year and effectively drag them back to the mall to purchase essential and non-essential goods.

As a member of the advertising community, I feel confident that the recent Super Bowl is the start of a new age for our industry, and the economy as a whole.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Come Monday morning, we'll get hit with the latest barrage of news stories about how an everyday consumer showed up Madison Avenue with a popular Super Bowl spot. And just like last year and the year before that, the news media will mostly fail to report that the winners of these contests are often professional filmmakers who could have just as easily been the ones hired by ad agencies to create the spots in the first place. See last year's New York Times coverage as just one example of this failure. And this year's USA Today announcement about the Ad Meter winners is another.

I don't blame the brands for the confusion - they open up these contests to all comers, and it stands to reason that the really good entries would win.

But maybe it's time the news media should, perhaps, stop framing these promotions as if it means a ticket to the big time for anyone with a Handicam and Hollywood dreams.

Let's take Doritos annual "Crash The Super Bowl" user-gen contest (which is run by agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners). Past winners like "Live the Flavor" (guy crashes car while eying attractive girl), "Checkout Girl" (cashier and customer raucously bond over Doritos flavors) and "Free Doritos" (co-workers toss a crystal ball into vending machine in order to score some free Doritos, then run into trouble when one of them accidentally throws the ball into their boss's nether regions) all come from professionals - not everyday consumers.

"Live the Flavor" came from Dale Backus and Wes Philips, professional videographers with their own commercial production company. "Checkout Girl" came from Kristin Dehnert, who is an award-winning filmmaker. And Joe and Dave Herbert, the guys behind "Free Doritos" are award-winning videographers with their own independent film studio, called Transit Films, which offers advertising and animation services, among other things. As a result, their entries look great. They're well shot, well cast and well produced. Doritos' own ad agency couldn't have done better.

And that's a conceit that won't wash with consumers for long.

As I recently told National Public Radio, "It's ironic, because the people who actually end up winning these things are the people who could probably build careers in advertising, if they aren't already."

That's not to say the winners have done anything wrong, or that the spots aren't grassroots efforts. Last year's "Underdog," from Joshua Svoboda, who just happens to have been, yes, a creative director at a production company called 5 Point Productions (something the New York Times failed to point out in a story on the spot), reportedly cost only $200 to shoot.

And this year's winners, JD Burningham (described only as a 'part-time web designer by USA Today) and Tess Ortbals - who are actually award-winning filmmakers who run their own commercial production company - only spent about $500.

It's just that the money spent is spent, one could argue, by pros, not just some Schmo shooting a spot in the backyard.

After their big win with "Free Doritos," I talked to the Herbert Brothers about how they created their Ad Meter-topping spot. It's a fun, inspiring conversation - these are great guys who did a phenomenal job. And we hear their perspective on just how consumer-created "consumer-created" really is and what it means for the future of advertising.

It's an refreshing story, one the news media should spotlight - instead of framing these kinds of contests as citizen marketers making hay at Madison Avenue's expense.

Audio Interview - Confessions of a 'Crash The Super Bowl' Winner Pt 1: How We Did It

Audio Interview - Confessions of a 'Crash The Super Bowl' Winner Pt 2: Myth of the 'Consumer-Created' Super Bowl Spot

I don't blame the brands for not clearing up the confusion - they open up these contests to all comers, and it stands to reason that the really good entries would win.

But as I talk about in my new book, THE ON-DEMAND BRAND (out April 21 from AMACOM), maybe it's time the news media should, perhaps, stop framing these promotions as if it means a ticket to the big time for everyday folks.

Let's take Doritos annual "Crash The Super Bowl" user-gen contest (which is run by agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners). Past winners like "Live the Flavor" (guy crashes car while eyeing attractive girl), "Checkout Girl" (cashier and customer raucously bond over Doritos flavors) and "Free Doritos" (co-works throw a crystal ball into vending machine in order to score some free Doritos, then run into trouble when one of them accidentally throws the ball into their boss's nether regions) all come from professionals - not everyday consumers.

"Live the Flavor" came from Dale Backus and Wes Philips, professional videographers with their own commercial production company. "Checkout Girl" came from Kristin Dehnert, who is an award-winning filmmaker. And Joe and Dave Herbert, the guys behind "Free Doritos" are professional videographers with their own independent film studio, called Transit Films, which offers advertising and animation services, among other things. As a result, their entries look great. They're well shot, well cast and well produced. Doritos' own ad agency couldn't have done better.

And that's a conceit that won't wash with consumers for long.

As I recently told National Public Radio, "It's ironic, because the people who actually end up winning these things are the people who could probably build careers in advertising, if they aren't already." 

That's not to say the winners have done anything wrong, or that the spots aren't grassroots efforts - this year's "Underdog," from Joshua Svoboda, who just happens to be, yes, a creative director at a production company called 5 Point Productions (something the Times failed to point out), reportedly cost only $200 to shoot. It's just that the money spent is spent by a pro, not just some Schmo shooting a spot in the backyard.

In the book, I talk to the Herbert brothers and Ben Relles, the guy behind "Barely Political" and the "Obama Girl" videos about this. As Relles puts it, we're really talking about not the longtail of consumer content making it on the web, but, increasingly, the "protail," of pros making stuff that gets the real attention.

Which is fine, and ultimately expected.

But I wish the news media would stop reporting this as citizen marketers making hay at Madison Avenue's expense.

Check out the book here.

And read the Times piece on this year's "consumer-created" Super Bowl spots, here.

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"... Excellent  ..."

 "Through persuasive arguments and q&a's with the major players in advertising, Mathieson makes an excellent case for greater creativity and outside-the-box thinking backed up with solid ideas." – Publishers Weekly

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Super Bowl advertising has, of course, been around since Super Bowl I when the Packers beat the Kansas City Chiefs 35-10.   The first really famous ad was a Noxzema ad featuring Joe Namath and Farrah Fawcett.  As a side note, you've got to check it out – it's a gas.  Joe Namath saying he's "gonna get creamed" and Farrah singing breathlessly.  Aaaaah the 70's!

Over the years the ads have become bigger and more lavish. And, many say it culminated during the dot-com years when companies without a revenue model were spending millions on a 30 second spot.  Maybe no ad exemplified this better than the E*Trade ad that proudly proclaimed that they'd "Wasted $2 Million Bucks".  Ironically, E*Trade is one of the few survivors of that era.

And certainly there's been a shift in the types of companies advertising during the big game.  In the 1990's, the ads were dominated by food and beverage (fast food, snacks, soda and beer predominantly) and into the early 2000's with the tech companies.  And then with the fall of dot-com, movie trailers and car companies were the primary advertisers.  This year Pepsi is withdrawing completely, and given the current state of the auto industry, we'll probably see far fewer automobile commercials.  And, finally, political ads have even made their first foray. 

Whatever, the mix, there are three interesting trends in Super Bowl commercials that I think can take and apply to our own marketing and content strategy.

Merging Content Platforms – Television and Internet

No company has really done this better than Go-Daddy.   For the last few years, the company has featured their "Banned Ads" during the Super Bowl.   They frequently feature scantily clad women in a SFSB (Safe for Super Bowl) commercial – and then invite you to go to GoDaddy.com to see the "unrated" version.

The real lesson here is to ask ourselves how we can leverage our content marketing across different channels.  For example, I recently worked with one client on a strategy to extend their local radio ad buy into a micro-site.

Instead of using a 15 or 20 second radio ad to promote something that would quickly be forgotten – they simply directed people to a micro-site (mobile friendly as well) inviting them to experience much more content.  Plus, by using different sub-domains (which was faster than saying "slash XYZ") in the different DMA's, the client could measure some of the effectiveness of radio that was more difficult before.    

More Creative Content – Not More Efficient Content

Nothing exemplifies Super Bowl ads more than their irreverence.  In fact the cliché about Super Bowl ads are that they are "wasteful" because of their focus on content/brand rather than bottom line results.  But today, more than just the ads themselves, there's the coverage of the ads, and the coverage of the coverage of the ads.   So, in today's Super Bowl ad – you've got to bring something extraordinary to the table.

Consider how this irreverence has really exploded over the years.  Here's a Super Bowl Ad from Masterlock in 1974.  Can you imagine this going viral today?  Compare it to this ad from Pepsi last year.  They both feature violence in a way – but certainly one is much more irreverent.

The lesson here is that there is occasion for our content to be something special – something with a distinct point of view.  Even in today's measurement-mad environment we need to sometimes reach beyond that which will generate a "conversion metric" – and instead drive for something special that will represent our brand in a much more creative way.

Use The Platform As Crowdsourcing Opportunity

Frito Lay has really embraced both of the above trends, while creating a third – in crowdsourcing their creative Super Bowl Ad content.  Doritos has transformed their Super Bowl ad strategy into a contest called the "Crash The Superbowl".  For the last few years, the brand has had "fans" create ads of their own, and then awarded prizes for the top five – and the chance for Super Bowl air-time for the winner.  

Last year, the winning commercial went to two brothers who spent $2,000 on a commercial and walked away with $1 million plus a Super Bowl ad.  And, they also ended up as the top selection in USA Today's Ad Meter focus group ranking the best ads during the big game.

Interestingly, Pepsi, a veteran of Super Bowl advertising has decided to withdraw from this year's game and try a contest of their own - outside of the game - with their Pepsi Refresh Project.

The lesson for us marketers here is that we really *can* enable our fans to create our content for us.  Two things are key here though.  The first is an incentive that's transparent.  Chase learned this the hard way with the recent controversy around their Chase Community campaign.   And, the second is some level of trust in the brand.  You may remember Chevrolet tried this a few years back, and it didn't fare as well. 

So, What's Your Super Bowl Ad Strategy

In the end, very few of us will ever work on creative content that will end up being shown to the type of audience that the Super Bowl provides.  But that doesn't mean we should treat our Content Strategy with any less passion.  In whatever organization we're in, we all have an interesting and distinct story to tell. And, it's up to us to tell it in a way that makes it worth two million bucks.

Enjoy the game….and the ads....

For starters think about what Super Bowl ads are good for, announcing a brand or premiering a big new over the top marketing campaign, essentially making a big splash.  Pepsi on the other hand has taken a different approach; it's "Pepsi Refresh" project will give away 32 grants a month for a year totally $20 million where participants can vote on projects such as "Help free healthcare expand in rural TN" and "Build a new fitness center for all students in Hays, Kansas".

Lauren Hobart, Pepsi's chief marketing officer was quoted in Time magazine saying, "…the Super Bowl just wasn't the right venue because we are really trying to spark a full year movement from the ground up."

Ms. Hobart, in looking for a sustained ongoing dialog, has hit the nail on the head by giving up on the 23 year old Pepsi Super Bowl tradition and embracing social media.  Traditional advertising, and it doesn't get more traditional than a commercial during a football game, sees a spike in brand awareness shortly after a high profile campaign is debuted but needs a constant input of TV buys to maintain that presence in the consumers mind.  Pepsi on the other hand is embracing a bottoms up approach where grassroots activism replaces over the top commercials seeking to create positive brand associations with Pepsi.

Of course for this to be $23 million well spent there are a lot of things that have to go right.  First of all the goal is to create an ongoing dialog where Pepsi is communicating with its advocates and also associating its brand in a new way with the rest of the population of soda drinkers.  Social Media is very good at engaging and creating brand advocates and while these are certainly valuable to have, in order to succeed on a grand scale Pepsi cannot simply rest on small social communities but rather needs a vibrant and ever growing social presence. 

One big thing that needs to happen is that refresheverything.com, the campaign's home site, must utilize the power of existing social networks to spread its message far and wide. The vast majority of brand interactions are not going to happen inside their own dot com but rather out on the social web where real people talk to one another.  A Facebook fan page is often telling in taking an initial look at how seriously a brand is taking the social web, Pepsi Refresh Everything (which seems to replaced the Pepsi corporate fan page) has just over 300,00 fans while Coca-Cola's Facebook page has 4.6 million fans….uh oh.  Twitter tells a different story where Pepsi has 21,000 followers to Coke's 9,000 but much of the story is going to be told in retweets and mentions of the campaign over time.

The big picture here is that if Pepsi focuses on getting traffic and customers to its refresheverything.com website using the power of social media it is making a colossal mistake.  What the soda giant needs to do is engage its customers and advocates where they already are, Facebook, Twitter, Blogs and social communities where the vast majority of interactions take place.  A page view on a corporate web site, while a good thing, simply can't compare in terms of brand building to a customer advocates out on the social web.

• Hyundai showed their take of an ad for the new Genesis Coupe, then urged viewers to go online and "edit your own" version of the spot.
• During the strange conclusion of Cheetos' ad, viewers were asked to "let loose at Cheetos.com." (This is probably the weakest of the tie-ins.)
• Frosted Flakes used their ad time to describe charity work they're doing, and asked viewers to head online and help them decide where they should donate next.
• Vizio (a flatscreen TV manufacturer) concluded their sparse commercial with instructions to go online and enter a contest, "Million Dollar Event."
• And of course, GoDaddy had a couple of borderline PG ads promising extended PG-13 material if you visit them online.

Yes, it's true: in the face of a global economic collapse that is taking down mega-corporation after mega-corporation and causing CEO's everywhere to put posters of Henry Paulson in sexy lingerie up on their office walls even hoary old media institutions like the three million dollars NBC is charging for Super Bowl ads are coming under scrutiny. (It's always worth noting that it does actually cost something to make the spot as well.)

Why is Suzanne's article worth a look? Two reasons.

First, for digital folks it's bracing -- like the aftershave slap on the face in the old commercial -- to realize that traditional people are still having the "should we or shouldn't we?" Super Bowl conversation year after year. Famously, American Express CMO John Hayes has observed that only in television ads does an advertiser pay more and more each year while getting less and less reach for the dollar.

For iconic brands, new car launches (although not GM this year, according to Vranica), movie debuts, beer and cola… sure the big game makes big sense. But a web domain registrar like GoDaddy (famous for its scantily clad and scantily brained spokesmodel) or a GPS navigation device like Garmin seem out of place? (Garmin too is taking a pass this year.)

Second, even in these dismal economic times what the Super Bowl loses might be digital's gain. Three years ago -- when the asking price for a Super Bowl ad was a mere $2.5 Million -- I reached out to a superstar bunch of digital people with a simple question: "What would you do with $2.5 million?" if you could spend that money on something other than one thirty second spot.

While some of them have moved on to new positions, the 2006 list is still impressive, as are their insights:

Brand Marketers

• Ian Beavis, VP Marketing, PR & Product Planning, Kia Motors America
• Kirk Iwanowski, SVP, Marketing, Sundance Channel 
• Gordon Paddison, EVP, Integrated Marketing, New Line Cinema

Agencies

• Reid Carr, President, Red Door Interactive
• Sarah Fay, U.S. President, Isobar 
• Gay Warren Gaddis, President and CEO, T3 (The Think Tank) 
• Jeff Lanctot, VP and GM, Avenue A/Razorfish 
• Elias Plishner, VP of Digital Marketing, Universal McCann 
• Tony Quin, CEO, IQTV 
• John Ragals, Managing Director, 360i
• Doug Schumacher, President/Creative Director, Basement, Inc. 
• Mark Silva, Principal and Founder, Real Branding 
• David L. Smith, CEO, Mediasmith, Inc. 
• Cory Treffiletti, SVP, Engagement Architect, Carat Fusion

Publishers

• Michael Barrett, EVP, AOL Media Networks
• Aaron Cohen, CEO, Bolt Media 
• Cameron Death, Dir., Branded Entertainment & Experiences, Microsoft Corporation 
• Mark Friedler, CEO and co-founder of Gigex, Inc./GameDAILY 
• Peter Horan, CEO, AllBusiness.com 
• Peter Naylor, SVP, Sales, iVillage 
• Matt Wasserlauf, President and CEO, Broadband Enterprises

Technology Providers

• Matt Arkin, SVP Advertising Sales, TACODA
• John Battelle, Founder and Chairman, Federated Media 
• Adam Gerber, VP of Ad Products and Strategy, BrightCove 
• Jeff Weitzman, President and COO, Coupons.com

Thought Leaders

• Andy Sernovitz, President, Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA)
• George Simpson, President, George Simpson Communications 
• Doug Weaver, President, Upstream Group

Check it out!