Car Manufacturers Dominate Super Bowl Advertising

From my ABC News Column

Valuable Share At Stake.

One of the most reliable trends indicating the economy is improving is the growth of car sales. Last year, car sales increased by more than 10%, the best showing for the industry since 2008. American auto makers did well in 2011 as Japanese car makers Toyota and Honda struggled through a major earthquake and a tsunami that crippled manufacturing, hurt inventory and parts availability and left the door open for a resurgence from U.S. automakers. 2012 is setting itself up as a very important year for automakers. Did American car makers do well just because Japanese car makers encountered obstacles beyond their control? Will foreign automakers come back with a vengeance and push U.S. automakers back into the hole they’ve slowly been climbing out of since the U.S. Government had to come to their aid with the bailout of 2008? These questions have put the car industry on the center stage this year. From an advertising perspective, there is no bigger stage than the Super Bowl and automobile manufacturers have purchased almost a third of the spots to be run during the game. In addition, they’ve pulled out the stops on engagement as well developing apps and social media strategies to get consumers to watch the game while interacting with brand using their smartphones, tablets and laptops. Lexus will be advertising during the Super Bowl broadcast for the first time. Volkswagen is using dogs as a variation of its popular Star Wars ad of last year. Hyundai also has decided to go with an animal, in this case a cheetah, in one of three spots it will be running on the big game telecast. Acura has gone deep into its pockets signing celebrities Jerry Seinfied and Jay Leno, Kia is one of two advertisers (the other is Teleflora) using supermodel Adriana Lima. Honda has tapped Matthew Broderick in a bit of Boomer nostalgia reprising his role as Ferris Bueller while Chevy, in arguably the most exhilarating Super Bowl spot makes the car the hero by taking it skydiving and bungee Jumping. Chevy’s other Super Bowl commercial is the only crowdsourced spot for auto-makers. The spot called Happy Grad was the winner of a competition that received 400 scripts and 198 films. The winner Zach Borst received $25,000 for his efforts. In all, 12 auto brands have purchased space on the Super Bowl. So, nearly $100 Million dollars will be spent, not including production or activation to social media and PR by auto makers vying for buyers. Last year, Volkswagen’s take off on Star Wars was the hands-down winner based on recall and likeability. My vote this year goes to the Chevy Sonic because it best captures the attitude of the car buying audience it is targeting in a memorable way.
This year’s crop of Super Bowl car ads have something for everyone as car makers make an appeal for buyers. It’s good to see the auto industry regain some of its swagger. Let’s hope they are still swaggering when the first quarter sales results come in.

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Super Bowl Advertisers Heavy Up on the Social Media

Marketers plan to tee up consumers with spots, then hit them with social media engagement.

I was at a panel discussion a couple of years ago with David Plouffe, campaign manager for President Obama’s 2008 campaign. David said one of the revelations they had during the campaign was that if it wasn’t on video, it didn’t happen. In a similar vein, social media works best when, well, when there is something to be social about and very few things are as social as sports. In fact, 4 of the top ten most tweeted moments have been sports moments and every one of those four beat tweets of Osama Bin Laden’s death and all but one beat the Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami. It should come as no surprise then that the Super Bowl represents for advertisers, not just millions of eyeballs watching the broadcast but also millions of fingers simultaneously sharing their thoughts on Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites. As Social Media matures, advertisers are become savvier in their ability to use it as part of the overall media mix. This year, the Super Bowl gives us a good look at current practices using a combination of traditional and digital media. During this year’s Super Bowl, advertisers will be anticipating that viewers will access the internet while watching the game.
The Super Bowl routinely draws more than 100 million viewers and is the biggest single event stage for advertisers. All seventy spots sold this year going for as much as $4 million for a single commercial. According to the Coca Cola marketing team, at least 60% of Super Bowl viewers are expected to have another screen—smartphone, tablet or laptop—nearby. So naturally, Coke will be planning to engage viewers online. Coke’s TV spots will be directing viewers to CokePolarBear.com, where a couple of the Coke Polar Bears will be watching the Super Bowl each rooting for a different team. Reportedly they will be cheering enthusiastically and also watching the commercials. Should be fun when a Pepsi ad comes on! Visitors to the site will also be able to ask the bears questions. Finally, after the game, visitors will be able to send friends coupons for coke either celebratory or conciliatory depending on your team preference.
GM’s Chevrolet is also motoring grill first into the fray with the Chevy Game Time app. Using the headline: “Don’t Just Watch, Play Along With the Super Bowl” the free app download will allow users to interact socially with trivia questions and polls during the game along with the chance to win 1 of 20 cars and thousands of other prizes being given away. Users can also share the content with people in their social network. In a clever twist, if you registered before January 27th, you were given a unique license plate number. See that plate number on a car in the spot and that means you’ve won it.
Most, if not all of the 35 or so advertisers in this year’s Super Bowl will be trying to send viewers to websites to further engage them. They will be competing with Super Bowl advertisers, advertisers who will be trying to grab viewers from the many who will be online and pretty much everybody else. The power of social media is that it puts the power into the hands of whoever can wrest attention. The Super Bowl itself, for the first time, is setting up a Super Bowl Command Center. A team of social media strategists and technical experts will situate themselves in a 2,800 square foot facility and monitor the conversation on Facebook and Twitter and other social media platforms to interact with the expected 150,000 people who will be in Indianapolis for the game. They will help them find parking, perform other helpful tasks and be on hand in the case of an emergency. As of this writing there are more than 21,000 people already following the command center on Twitter.
It has become clear that the internet can be a very useful marketing tool for advertisers. The trick is to find the right level of engagement for the brand. Consumers, who utilize the second screen generally, are enjoying discussing the event with their chosen network of family, friends and associates and eavesdropping on what others are saying including the rich and famous. The brand that tries to get to intrusive or familiar runs the risk of actually alienating the consumer or worse angering a consumer who can then aim his weapon—his influence—at the brand. In this day and age an influential consumer with an axe to grind can do some damage. I hope that with all of the online excitement, we don’t miss the game!

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