Expanding (And Measuring) The Life Cycle Of A Super Bowl Campaign

• Comment (1)
• Recommend (1)
• Tweet
• 

Super Bowl XLVII, which will air on CBS, is just around the corner. Media buyers suggest that CBS is selling its in-game 30-second ad slots at an average cost of $4 million -- a 14% increase from a year ago, and a record high. That means the Super Bowl represents perhaps the biggest investment a marketer may make in a single media property all year (more millions are spent to produce their commercials, apart from air time fees).

What’s an advertiser’s justification for spending so much?

• The Super Bowl offers an unparalleled opportunity to get in front of a broad viewing audience. It draws the kind of viewership (and high TRP rating) that is increasingly rare as more types of media compete for consumer attention
• Unlike regular TV shows, the Super Bowl is almost always watched live –people are far less likely to cut away from the commercials or use a DVR and skip over the ads. In fact, many people tune in to watch the Super Bowl just for the ads alone and aren’t really into the game.
• A memorable commercial could extend an ad’s reach and lifespan far beyond just those watching the game with water-cooler conversations, YouTube and social sharing, brand buzz, media coverage, etc.

Done right, TV Super Bowl ads are a great way to reach a large diverse market, but they can no longer be standalone assets.  In order to achieve the greatest long-tail effect and success from commercials, marketers need to develop fully integrated Super Bowl campaigns that optimize digital channels to support and promote these costly TV ads.  It’s just not as simple as buying high-reach media; the broader ecosystem truly matters.

Historically, Super Bowl ads were a two-day hit. Now they can be a six to eight-week marketing event.  It starts with incorporating a pre-release exposure strategy: for example, a brand releases with ad details, then teaser videos or sneak preview clips, followed by releasing the full commercial and in some cases, extended versions with more content, contests, etc.  Some will use social video, uploading the commercials to YouTube and promoting them through Facebook and Twitter, making it easier for consumers to see, share and discuss the ads.

And it doesn't stop there. Online video has become an increasingly important piece of the marketing mix for any traditional ad campaign, but the stakes are especially high for Super Bowl advertisers. Thanks to posts, uploads and embedded clips, a typical Super Bowl ad will receive millions of views online in the weeks after the big game.  This type of added audience exposure is priceless and there are potentially millions of dollars of earned exposure being gained before and after the ads are aired, on top of the millions of impressions the ads obtain during the actual Super Bowl telecast.

Now that standalone Super Bowl ads have evolved into weeks-long, multichannel, pre/post-game campaigns, there's more to measure to determine the effectiveness/ROI and to justify the cost of the spot.   This can be done using several different methodologies, such as traditional surveys and focus groups, as well as monitoring what people are saying and the sort of buzz the brand has managed to create before, during and after the game. These (media, behavioral, attitudinal, social, etc.) metrics can vary, depending on the purpose of the ads and the marketer's needs.

Like most other measurement questions, there isn’t one standard way to determine the effectiveness and ROI of advertising. To make the most out of their Super Bowl commercials, marketers should look at the whole picture, which means measuring total impact (combining traditional TV and cross-platform paid and earned media metrics) of their multi-faceted Super Bowl video campaign, not only the game-day impact.

• Comment (1)
• Recommend (1)
• Tweet
• 

1 comment on "Expanding (And Measuring) The Life Cycle Of A Super Bowl Campaign".

1. Robert Barrows from R.M. Barrows, Inc. Advertising & Public Relations
   

   commented on: January 23, 2013 at 1:47 a.m.
   Yes there is a way to determine the effectiveness and ROI of advertising. It's an easy-to-use mathematical equation called "The Barrows Popularity Factor." You can read more about it at www.barrows.com. For more information about the math, call Robert Barrows at 650-344-4405.

Leave a Comment