• by Max Kalehoff , February 4, 2014

Super Bowl XXXIV, played on Jan. 30, 2000, was often referred to as the Dot-Com Bowl, with over a dozen Internet companies advertising in the big game. While most of these high-flying pioneers are gone, they accelerated an important trend in the advertising business: sophisticated integration between the Internet and conventional television.

Advertisers then used the coveted television ad slots primarily to drive traffic to their websites, while attempting to earn publicity and credibility as mainstream businesses. Thanks to social media, the ads morphed into intricately multilayered, multimedia campaigns with beginnings long before the game, and endings long after.

Most noticeable now are advertisers capitalizing on Super Bowl anticipation and buzz to drive large audiences to their commercials online days before they televise during the game. For example, as of 12 p.m. EST on Super Bowl Sunday, over 30 commercials had at least one million views, while two advertisers tracked 10 million YouTube views of their spots. Most notably, Budweiser’s “Puppy Love” had just over 33 million views on YouTube, after launching only a few days prior. Hyundai’s “Nice” accrued nearly 12 million views.

This trend prompts some key questions:  How long will it be before a new Super Bowl commercial gets more views online in the days before the big game versus live television during the game? How much brand impact do active online views of commercials at this scale have, versus passive ones on conventional television?

I bet it won’t be too long before we find out.

What do you think?