In case you've been living under a
rock and didn't know, the NFL season kicks off tonight with the Denver Broncos hosting the defending Super Bowl champs, the Baltimore Ravens. Kontera, a content marketing platform, recently did some
research in preparation for the season. The company shared some of that data with Online Media Daily, focusing on the value of fantasy
football and real-time marketing.
"If you're a social or real-time marketer targeting NFL fans, you should be talking fantasy as well," Assaf Henkin, Kontera's co-founder told
OMD.
But tonight, brands won't just be talking fantasy football. They will be trying to emulate Oreo and get a piece of that real-time marketing pie. I can feel it.
I had the chance to speak briefly with Ammiel Kamon, EVP of marketing & mobile at Kontera, about real-time marketing as it relates to football, and he gave some great insight into the
last football game that was played -- the Super Bowl. "What the research very clearly showed was that the [brands] that only bought air time and advertised during the game -- that did not work," he
said, adding that "it's not like it flopped or was terrible," but it wasn't at the same level as the dynamic campaigns.
What Kamon noticed was that the brands that developed a story
beforehand and amplified it during and after the game were the ones that succeeded. So who are we going to see try to amplify something tonight? Kontera is going to be keeping an eye out for Pepsi,
Bud Light, Microsoft, Marriott, Verizon, Campbell Soup, Visa, Bridgestone, Tide, Gillette, Old Spice, and Chevrolet.
Why Chevy? Because Advertising Age reported this morning that the company "has bought every second of commercial time during the first
hour" of tonight's SportsCenter telecast "to present its own version of a media roadblock."
Chevy is going the "paid domination" route, to use Kamon's words, but I'm still curious
about the real-time marketing efforts along the lines of Oreo at the Super Bowl. It has to happen tonight, right? Kamon thinks so.
"I think it has to be a real thing that's
happening that people are getting into," Kamon argued. "It has to be a real trend and they [the brands] have to be in it early." He also said, in what I believe to be a sad but true reality, "As a
marketer now, if you aren't trying it you're kind of not doing your job." It's sad because I just know some brands are going to try to make a "moment" out of nothing.
Let's be
honest...a blackout during the Super Bowl?!? Does it get any wonkier than that? When you start near the top, there aren't many places to go but down. But Kamon pointed out that there are some
lesser-known trends happening that specific brands could latch on to if they know where to look.
"I've had comments about how awesome it is that the football season is kicking off
on Rosh Hashanah - the Jewish new year," he said. That's not something that every brand is going to jump on, but it's an example that there are certainly some possibilities out there for brands to
target specific audiences and reach specific people. Mostly, though, I expected brands to keep it strictly to what's happening in relation to the game. No matter who gets targeted tonight, the
advertising tech of today is going to play a huge role.
Kamon noted that during this game a year ago, marketers "had to move heaven and earth" to get something promoted on Twitter
and around the Web. "Now an agile newsroom can say, 'You know what? This is happening. I saw the reaction to my last tweet and I can amplify it.'" Kamon said that the ability to amplify content in
near real-time did not exist a year ago, and for that reason -- and because it has proven to be an effective tactic in the past -- we are going to see more of it.
Kamon's
prediction for tonight? Someone is going to fumble three times and a car company is going to promote a tweet about their new car being able to get that player out of the stadium fast.
My prediction for tonight? Tide will have something about removing stains after the first player gets a little scuffed up.
What are your predictions?