• by James Macdonald , February 3, 2012

The Super Bowl, with its enormous TV viewing figures and national reach, as well as growing global significance, offers brands a great opportunity to build awareness. That opportunity has created some of the world’s most valuable TV advertising inventory. In fact, 2012 Super Bowl TV ads are projected to cost $3.5 million for a 30 second spot, up 17% from last year. Consumer habits, however, are changing, and changing fast.

The increasing penetration of smartphones means that people are introducing a second screen to the living-room experience.  As eyeballs shift to smartphones and tablet devices in increasing numbers, so too do advertising dollars. Research from technology analyst firm Gartner shows mobile advertising is predicted to grow from $2 billion today to $20 billion by 2015 on a global basis.

With all its amazing “hoopla” and extravagance, the Super Bowl is a great example of how informed marketers are grabbing the eyeballs that TV previously owned. A recent survey by Harris Interactive shows that 60% of mobile phone users also plan to use and view their phone while watching the game.

The research shows this will be particularly true during advertising breaks and the halftime show, when brands are really looking to make their impact felt. So how should marketers react to this trend?

Simply, they need to think beyond TV. It’s no longer a simple game of who has the best TV commercials, as other communications channels increased their relevance and consumer impact.  

Despite mobile advertising accounting for a greater percentage of brand spend today, this year also marks a milestone where, from a marketer’s perspective, TV and mobile devices are actually converging. Rich media creative experiences, delivered on a mobile device, enable brands to compliment and further engage audiences on the touchscreen.

The unique interactive characteristics of mobile technology and their ability to track hard metrics and softer metrics linked to engagement, delivers a compelling alternative to TV advertising for brands. For consumers, this means mobile ads now incorporate a broad, creative and engaging selection of added value content, including video, gamification and a lot more interactivity.

Several mobile ad networks are already creating and delivering this type of rich media mobile campaign on a global scale for a range of companies. These changes in creative possibilities are driving large consumer brands to increase mobile budgets in order to offer engaging experiences and drive more awareness across target audiences. There is now a real shift toward brands syncing up their Super Bowl mobile, online and traditional ad campaigns with consistent creative -- that just makes sense in an era where consumers could be, and often are, in all three places at once.

As a global mobile advertising company, we’ve seen great brand interest in running mobile ad campaigns during the game; this year looks like the first touchscreen Super Bowl. In fact, Verizon wireless, for the first time, will live stream the game over mobile devices, amplifying the kind of traffic mobile will witness as more people view results, get news and browse online during the game.