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4 REASONS WHY PRE-GAME CONTENT IS A WINNING SUPER BOWL STRATEGY

Social media has ushered in a new reality for marketers looking to play in the big game, and it’s allowing brands to create deeper narratives, engage fans earlier on and create greater buzz by releasing teasers and assets online before the event. It’s also sparked a debate over the merits of releasing bits of creative in advance: is this the future of Super Bowl advertising or a tactic that ruins the surprise element of TV’s (and adland’s) biggest night?

1. Because it creates (even more) buzz.

“This is the one time of the year when people want to hear from a marketer. And they’ve made it abundantly clear they want it sooner,” he says. “Why wait for a USA Today poll to tell you you’ve won when tens of millions of YouTube viewers, bloggers, tweeters, journalists and dear aunties on Facebook can say it for you—days before kickoff?”

2. Because it builds social currency.

“By engaging with and rewarding them first, we’re providing [fans] with the chance to build their social currency by being in the know and sharing the teaser and ad with their friends,” says Taco Bell’s Chief Marketing & Innovation Officer, Brian Niccol. “Prereleasing only amplifies what we are doing.”

3. Because it allows for deeper storytelling.

“We don’t set out to make a Super Bowl ad, we set out to tell a great story. We probably look at 50 different ideas for a Super Bowl spot. The criteria we use is, what’s the most original, and what’s the most shareable? Too often advertisers get carried away with crazy spends and production overkill, where simple storytelling often wins the day.” - 

CEO of Deutsch LA, Mike Sheldon @ 12:33 PM  in the Fast Company live chat.

4. Because it works.

A recent whitepaper from online video tracking company Unruly Media titled Unruly’s Social Video Advertising Playbook suggests that taking advantage of the lead-up to the big game yield big results. The report found that for Super Bowl XLVI in 2012, 75% of the top 20 most shared ads were launched before Super Bowl Sunday, and the year’s top four most shared ads were all preceded by teasers.

Want more? Check out Fast Company’s live interactive Q & A with Loren Angelo, GM of Brand Marketing at Audi of America; Mike Sheldon, CEO of Deutsch LA; and Co.Create editor Teressa Iezzi, as they discuss Super Bowl marketing strategy with readers. 

Going on right now! 

[Video: Chasing Coke]

Superbowl Sunday is here and the competition is tight, who will win the advertising battle royal? Join Fast Company’s live interactive chat with experts- Loren Angelo, GM of Brand Marketing at Audi of America; Mike Sheldon, CEO of Deutsch LA; and Co.Create editor Teressa Iezzi, as they discuss Super Bowl marketing strategy with readers. More marketers than ever before have joined in the pre-game actionahead of Super Bowl XLVII, looking to make the most of their investment in one of the last mass audience events in the media world. How do marketers devise their Super Bowl strategy? What are the pros and cons of releasing teasers and original content before the actual game? These questions and more will be addressed by our mini Super Bowl panel of experts and our editors in our live chat today at 12p.m (E.T.). And you can join in the conversation, right here.  

Superbowl Sunday is here and the competition is tight, who will win the advertising battle royal?

Join Fast Company’s live interactive chat with experts- Loren Angelo, GM of Brand Marketing at Audi of America; Mike Sheldon, CEO of Deutsch LA; and Co.Create editor Teressa Iezzi, as they discuss Super Bowl marketing strategy with readers.

More marketers than ever before have joined in the pre-game actionahead of Super Bowl XLVII, looking to make the most of their investment in one of the last mass audience events in the media world.

How do marketers devise their Super Bowl strategy?

What are the pros and cons of releasing teasers and original content before the actual game?

These questions and more will be addressed by our mini Super Bowl panel of experts and our editors in our live chat today at 12p.m (E.T.). And you can join in the conversation, right here.

 

Audi burns vampire culture, demonstrates headlines in Super Bowl ad. (Bonus points for using the track, “Killing Moon” by Echo and The Bunnymen in this spot.)

Audi burns vampire culture, demonstrates headlines in Super Bowl ad. (Bonus points for using the track, “Killing Moon” by Echo and The Bunnymen in this spot.)

Goodbye, semi-tasteless Groupon Super Bowl ad. Groupon CEO Andrew Mason took to the web again Thursday to announce that the group-discount company will be pulling its controversial Super Bowl ads from the airwaves. In theblog post, Mason took personal responsibility for the ads and wrote that they will be replaced by “something less polarizing.” The ads were the creation of Crispin Porter + Bogusky, the Boulder, Colorado-based ad agency that was the subject of a recent Fast Company profile. Five days after critics accused the agency’s ads of trivializing the political struggle in Tibet, Mason has decided the Super Bowl spots went too far. “One thing is clear—our ads offended a lot of people,” he wrote. (A firestorm of commentsfrom Fast Company readers about the commercial certainly confirms this fact.) “We hate that we offended people, and we’re sorry that we did it.” Though Mason did not name Crispin Porter + Bogusky by name in the apology (he mentioned them in an earlier post), he did publicly criticize their work. “If an ad requires an explanation, that means it didn’t work,” Mason said. “Clearly the execution was off and the joke didn’t come through.” Ya blew it. Capiche?

Goodbye, semi-tasteless Groupon Super Bowl ad.

Groupon CEO Andrew Mason took to the web again Thursday to announce that the group-discount company will be pulling its controversial Super Bowl ads from the airwaves. In theblog post, Mason took personal responsibility for the ads and wrote that they will be replaced by “something less polarizing.”

The ads were the creation of Crispin Porter + Bogusky, the Boulder, Colorado-based ad agency that was the subject of a recent Fast Company profile. Five days after critics accused the agency’s ads of trivializing the political struggle in Tibet, Mason has decided the Super Bowl spots went too far.

“One thing is clear—our ads offended a lot of people,” he wrote. (A firestorm of commentsfrom Fast Company readers about the commercial certainly confirms this fact.) “We hate that we offended people, and we’re sorry that we did it.”

Though Mason did not name Crispin Porter + Bogusky by name in the apology (he mentioned them in an earlier post), he did publicly criticize their work. “If an ad requires an explanation, that means it didn’t work,” Mason said. “Clearly the execution was off and the joke didn’t come through.”

Ya blew it. Capiche?

It’s Super Bowl Ad Monday! Check out our look at eTrade’s terrifying baby.

But it was never a sure thing that the eTrade baby would mature into such a phenomenon. In fact, when the idea was first born, the agency behind the spot, Grey New York, wasn’t sure whether it had struck gold, or produced an ad no more appealing than one of its animated baby’s dirty diapers.

“When we first created the baby, we had no idea if it was the dumbest thing we’d ever done or if it was genius,” says Tor Myhren, chief creative officer at Grey. “I was terrified.”

But when the spot debuted during the Patriots-Giants championship, Myhren says it was “impossible not to know” that it was a big hit. Soon, it was one of the most talked-about ads at the water cooler, and had racked up millions of hits on YouTube.

Simply horrifying.

We take you behind the scenes of Chrysler’s widely-acclaimed Super Bowl ad featuring Eminem and his birthplace, Detroit:

The ad was ostensibly for the Chrysler 200, and it roared out from the pack of silliness last night during the third quarter. It did so much so right, offering so many details that showed a real understanding of Motown. Opening shots of factories; interstate road signs to introduce the name “Detroit;” cutting to downtown as the narrator begins to discuss “luxury,” a downtown still resplendent with buildings and architectural detail from a time when Detroit was the richest city in America; straight ahead references to the fact that the city has “been to hell and back”; and finally a ride down Woodward Avenue, ending up outside the beautiful, powerful Fox Theatre, built in 1928, restored in 1988 thanks to the Ilitch family, which also owns the Red Wings and the Tigers. And the tagline, “Imported from Detroit,” is perfect. It blends luxury and quality with Motown pride, while at the same time acknowledging just how much America has wanted to pretend that Detroit is from a different country, an “unAmerican” country that would allow its citizens to live in such despair.

But the biggest choice Wieden + Kennedy and Chrysler made was their choice of spokesmusician. The guy who emerged from that gleaming Chrysler 200 was Eminem, not Kid Rock. Kid Rock is the singer who has been most associated with the revival of the city. His recent 40th birthday concert at Ford Field was a rockfest celebrating the city; he’s sponsored one charitable event after another for Detroit; and he has at least two businesses (“Made in Detroit” clothing and “Badass” Beer) that are local and proud of it.

Great stuff, and if you blow a few paychecks to put a down payment on that new car, we can’t blame you.

Super Bowl Ad Stories: “The Remake,” Featuring LeBron James and Dwight Howard When it comes to the Super Bowl, advertising agencies can spend months brainstorming the perfect ad. For Euro RSCG Chicago’s chief creative officer Jason Peterson, who’s produced four spots for the big game, that means concepting as many as 60 commercial ideas before finding the right one. “There are definitely a different set of parameters for the Super Bowl—expectations are completely different,” he says. “If you don’t create a talked about, cultural hit, then it’s a waste of $3 million.” Peterson says he and his team start with a basic wish list of ideas. “When we sit down to write Super Bowl commercials, we write down three things,” he says. “The first one being monkeys; the second being getting kicked in the nuts; and maybe the third is some outrageous use of the product, a catchphrase line, or one of those clichés, like putting a baby in the commercial.” The ad man is only half-joking. Year and year, commercials are filled with monkeys, crotch-kicks, and talking babies. Why? Because they work. (Read: eTrade baby.) These themes have a long history of success, so why not recycle them for contemporary ads? For Peterson’s spot last year he followed a similar model, using an archetype that’s worked magic in Super Bowl after Super Bowl: The Remake. Taking a classic commercial and refashioning it for a modern audience is a sure way to find success. After creating an all-time hit with Cindy Crawford’s 1992 ad, for example, Pepsi reintroduced the ad years later, playing off nostalgia for the original—with an updated punch-line. Click through to see original spots and their remakes, including the classic Michael Jordan and Larry Bird McDonald’s spot remake featuring LeBron James and Dwight Howard. Related: If you like seeing remakes, check out this series by Kirby Ferguson in which he explores the concept of how Everything is a Remix.

Super Bowl Ad Stories: “The Remake,” Featuring LeBron James and Dwight Howard

When it comes to the Super Bowl, advertising agencies can spend months brainstorming the perfect ad. For Euro RSCG Chicago’s chief creative officer Jason Peterson, who’s produced four spots for the big game, that means concepting as many as 60 commercial ideas before finding the right one.

“There are definitely a different set of parameters for the Super Bowl—expectations are completely different,” he says. “If you don’t create a talked about, cultural hit, then it’s a waste of $3 million.”

Peterson says he and his team start with a basic wish list of ideas. “When we sit down to write Super Bowl commercials, we write down three things,” he says. “The first one being monkeys; the second being getting kicked in the nuts; and maybe the third is some outrageous use of the product, a catchphrase line, or one of those clichés, like putting a baby in the commercial.”

The ad man is only half-joking. Year and year, commercials are filled with monkeys, crotch-kicks, and talking babies. Why? Because they work. (Read: eTrade baby.) These themes have a long history of success, so why not recycle them for contemporary ads?

For Peterson’s spot last year he followed a similar model, using an archetype that’s worked magic in Super Bowl after Super Bowl: The Remake.

Taking a classic commercial and refashioning it for a modern audience is a sure way to find success. After creating an all-time hit with Cindy Crawford’s 1992 ad, for example, Pepsi reintroduced the ad years later, playing off nostalgia for the original—with an updated punch-line.

Click through to see original spots and their remakes, including the classic Michael Jordan and Larry Bird McDonald’s spot remake featuring LeBron James and Dwight Howard.

Related: If you like seeing remakes, check out this series by Kirby Ferguson in which he explores the concept of how Everything is a Remix.