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As I write this, I'm now over three hours removed from the end of Super Bowl XLVIII, and I'm still on hold with the NFL to find out how I get refunded for the time I spent watching that game. Granted, if you're a Seattle Seahawks fan, you're in heaven right now, but if you're a fan of the Denver Broncos, competition, or digital/mobile/social marketing, you are disgruntled to say the least.
Not only did the game leave a lot to be desired, but this year's #AdBowl also felt like it took several steps backwards--at least where consumer interaction was concerned. Indeed, it was apropos that Prince was the guest star on the post-Super Bowl New Girl because a lot of the ads could have run in 1999 and no one would have known the difference.
Where to begin... Let's start with the analysis. This is my second year dissecting the calls-to-action online, mobile, social, and otherwise of every Super Bowl commercial from 6pm ET through the final commercial break after the end of the game. If you want to review my analysis from 2013, you can catch it here with the 2013 infographic here. As for this year's game:
Removing those FOX and NFL promos from the mix, 89 paid commercials ran in my market (Cleveland) during the Super Bowl. That's up slightly from the 83 that ran during the CBS broadcast last year. Here's the breakdown in how those commercials sought to engage viewers digitally compared to 2013's numbers.
The observable trends that jump out at me include:
I could say that I'm shocked, but as I wrote about in my book AUDIENCE: Marketing in the Age of Subscribers, Fans & Followers, there is a fundamental and structural disconnect between the brand advertising and digital marketing departments in most big brands. To often, the teams tasked with producing Super Bowl ads are working in a vacuum in which branding is primary goal and creativity is your primary weapon.
It simply should not be this way. If you're going to pay a purported $4 to $4.5 million for 30 seconds of Super Bowl viewers' attention, then you must do more than brand--you must create a moment that resonates and a means to capture immediate consumer interest and convert it either into a sale or permission to engage with a consumer in the future.
Of this year's Super Bowl advertisers, only a few did this:
Of these examples, not one brand walked away with their own, proprietary database of subscribers (email, SMS, YouTube), fans (Facebook), or followers (Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, etc.). This is a problem. The Super Bowl is supposed to be the showcase event of our marketing and advertising creativity, and the best we can muster is a hashtag that's on-screen for less than a second?!?
And did everyone forget that over 70% of the viewing public at home has a mobile device within reach? Where were the creative mobile calls to action? The stop-you-in-your-tracks demand to engage now before the opportunity passes? They didn't come because brands are clinging to the outdated notion that 30 seconds of Super Bowl attention is enough to create a memory that triggers some positive consumer action later. SPOILER ALERT: It's not. Guess where consumers go when your commercial's CTA isn't effective? It's one word and rhymes with "oogle."
That's right, in my estimation, Google won Super Bowl XLVIII because all of those consumers with a passing recollection of "that car with that kid and the thing" are going to turn to the search box for recall. This is less of an issue with a CPG brand like Doritos who can win the day with consistent humor (its annual "Crash the Super Bowl" ads seldom disappoint), but it is definitely an issue with bigger ticket items (like luxury automobiles) that could have built a direct, proprietary audience on the back of their ads had they simply asked interested viewers to "subscribe to learn more at X website." Instead, they'll likely be paying for viewers again in the form of paid search advertising to capture their interest.
Rather than beat this dead horse, I'll wrap with my advice for next year's Super Bowl advertisers (and every advertiser this year):
Speaking of hashtags, I'll end this year's post as I did last year's, with a laundry list of the hashtags deployed by brands in their 2014 Super Bowl ads. Can you identify the brand behind the hashtag? If they strike you as odd or less than memorable, imagine how they struck the average consumer who doesn't eat, sleep, and breathe this stuff--or stay tuned into 43-8 blowouts when there are better things to be doing.
In short, this year's Super Bowl commercials were by and large a step backwards for brands -- at least when it comes to leveraging the power of digital, mobile, and social. We can and should do better using our paid media to drive traffic to our owned media as well as growth in our subscribers, fans, and followers across all channels. Let's hope that Super Bowl XLIX proves to be better in that regard all around.
And I'll save you from my annual optimist's pronouncement that my beloved Cleveland Browns will be in that Super Bowl. Heck, I'll be happy to go a season without firing a head coach.
