In the lead up the Super Bowl, savvy advertisers are launching cross-media campaigns to build anticipation for their 30 second TV spots. More than ever before, internet and mobile technologies are being used to generate pre and post Super Bowl attention – much of it centered around gossip and user-generated media. Here’re a few of the new trends we’ve spotted:

Made-For-YouTube
This is the first year that advertisers have made commercials to be exclusively released as viral videos on YouTube. Interestingly, many of these made-for-youtube spots seem to copy user-generated video techniques and make references to other online phenomena. Meez.com, for example, is featuring an avatar’s experience of the Super Bowl, whereas Technorati is using clips from cult-pop film the Big Lebowski.

Mobile Promos
Anheuser-Busch, Pizza Hut, and Emerald Nuts are among another group of advertisers using mobile promotions to generate buzz. Anheuser-Busch has set up an American Idol-esq voting system, in which viewers will be encouraged to rate commercials via phone, and register to see a “secret commercial”. Pizza Hut asks users to find a secret code in its pre-game ad, and text it to “The Hut” for a chance to win a number of prizes. Emerald Nuts is offering free ring tones.

Scavenger Hunt Advertising
Many advertisers are promoting “secret” commercials, banned commercials, hidden codes, or other mystery content that viewers can find online. As destination points, these ‘Scavenger Hunt Ads’ are powerful vehicles for viral buzz.

User-Generated and Reality Advertising
Perhaps the most significant new trend is the use of advertising space as a stage for user-generated content and mini “reality” dramas. Doritos will run a winning user-generated ad from its auctioned herself on ebay for a date to the super bowl. Advertisers are lining up to sponsor the author of MySuperProposal.com, a man who wants to propose to his fiance in one of the Super Bowl’s 30 second spots. Finally, pregnant Bears fan Jennifer Gordon is taking bids from advertisers to have their logo printed on her belly at the game.

There are two underlying threads that pervade each new type of cross-media advertising. First, the ads all include some participatory element. Users must take overt action to participate in the ad viewing or voting process, thus re-positioning the ad as entertainment and encouraging brand attachment. Second, the ads all create a storyline rather than a punchline. By creating a sense of ongoing saga, marketers encouraged repeat interaction with a brand – most of which, happens online. For that reason, search has become an essential part of every marketing campaign, the evidence of which is already showing up in paid search results. Check out the Google sidebar for search term “superbowl ads”:

Each of these text ads tap into an element of gossip, drama, or serialization to encourage click throughs.

We’ll be covering this and other trends from this year’s Super Bowl in our 3rd annual Search Marketing Scorecard.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 2nd, 2007 at 7:30 am and is filed under Advertising: Distribution, Advertising: Offline, Advertising: Online, Conferences & Events, Media Convergence, Search: Innovations, Search: Video, SEM: Ad Creative, Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.