Today is Super Bowl Sunday, and as someone who previously worked in the advertising industry, this day is just as important for brands and their agencies as it is to the NFL and the teams themselves. Since the 1984 Apple spot premiered during this same broadcast, the Super Bowl has been the launch pad for new spots for iconic brands such as Pepsi, Budweiser, Fed Ex, and more. This week, however, the Epicenter blog at Wired.com addresses the growing trend of placing "Super Bowl ads" online. As author Chris Snyder writes, "Some of America's biggest brands are experimenting with viral ads, user-generated ads, online remixes, and web-only versions that are too hot for TV." The article cites Doritos, which is launching an ad online that consists purely of user-generated content. In fact, I have an old high school friend who entered the Doritos contest and was urging us to vote for her ad through Facebook.
The question is, why might major brands, who have major budgets to match, explore less-tested media formats online vs. running their traditional television spot? In my opinion there are several reasons. First, from a business standpoint, the cost of running a "Super Bowl" spot online to accompany a spot on TV is a huge money saver. Instead of running 3 or 4 $3MM 30-second spots during the broadcast, a brand like Doritos can run one $3MM spot and refer viewers to expand their experience online, a medium that is significantly cheaper. Second is the opportunity to increase viewership of the ads after the actual Super Bowl broadcast - the free press effect. Having spots online, whether agency or user created, means that viewers can send the spots to friends, post them on Facebook pages, etc, ultimately extending the reach of the spot beyond the day after the game. Finally, there is a creative benefit to online content. As the article cites, some brands use the web to promote ads that would not be approved by network censors. Agencies can go a little bit further with the concept of their ad, which ultimately creates more buzz when launched, gets more PR attention for the brand, and hopefully for that brand, improves all the right recall metrics.
I do not think that online ads will ever usurp the status of the Super Bowl ad. Rather, I expect that they will become part of a more integrated Super Bowl campaign that combines the television spot with various forms of online media to better extend the reach and duration of that original spot. Probably one of the better examples of this so far is Etrade, also mentioned in the article, who is airing outtakes of their Super Bowl spot online. It will be interesting to see how this integration evolves as broadband further penetrates American homes, allowing these intricate web productions to reach more and more people.
- Jennifer Rogers
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