The Super Bowl is one of the most highly anticipated days of the year for the advertising world. The commercials that air during the big game draw almost as much attention as the game itself. Last year, over 111 million people tuned in to watch the Giants beat the Patriots, making it the most watched televised program in U.S. history. That number is expected to rise this year. There are several lessons that small businesses can learn from observing these commercials.
Consistency Matters
Coca Cola has advertised during the Super Bowl for decades (Spending 61 million since 2002 alone). From their legendary Mean Joe Greene’s jersey toss commercial 34 years ago, Coke has excelled at communicating a consistent message. What can small businesses learn from Coke’s example? Small businesses need to clearly communicate their message and stick to it across all of their marketing channels and promotions. By staying consistent, a small business can establish credibility and improve their reputation as well as brand name recognition. Coke has become the number one international brand by constantly communicating messages and diversifying the ways that these messages reach customers as well as potential customers.
Engagement and Interaction
Budweiser, Audi and Taco Bell all have one thing in common – their commercials during this year’s Super Bowl will all have some form of social media/interaction element for viewers. These companies are seeking to attract viewers – “potential customers” to do more than just watch the ad on TV. They want them to engage with their brands by voting, sharing, or discussing an element of their commercials. We will be seeing much more of this in the years to come as TV becomes more interactive and on-demand focused. If a small business expects to be able to compete in today’s market, it need to be interacting with its clients and prospects. A small business should look at and evaluate its social media strategy to see if it is actively engaging viewers and followers. This type of engagement strengths and enriches brand relationships. Success will be achieved if this element is part of the social media strategy. Small business should look to the ads in the Super Bowl for ideas and ways that social media activities can engage and reach full potential providing them with previously elusive ROI.
Controversy
Controversy may not be that bad. Small business can learn from viewing the Super Bowl commercials. Controversy gets people talking. Last year Chrysler aired a commercial with Clint Eastwood about the rebirth of Detroit. The message was interpreted by many to be an announcement about how the country was rebounding. Many saw this commercial as an “endorsement” of the economic policies of President Obama. The commercial aired in the early stages of the 2012 presidential election. No matter what the message was intended to say, what people interpreted it to be or not, the media across the nation and world were talking about it. This commercial was the most talked about of the XLVI Super Bowl. Small businesses need to understand that that even bad press gets people talking. If a business is unfortunate enough to find itself in a crisis situation, it needs to have a strategy prepared in advance to deal with moving past the incident. However, some incidents, if they are minor and do not impact sales directly, may actually help a business get its name out. There is no indication that this commercial helped or hurt Chrysler but the company’s name was part of thousands of stories.
It is clear that the Super Bowl is more than just a football game. It is an advertiser’s biggest platform to reach the most people in a select time frame. Super Bowl commercials offer important points for small businesses to take away. Since controversy gets people talking, communicating a clear and consistent message across all media channels is crucial. Interact with your present and potential clients through social media campaigns. If you’re not engaging customers, you are losing them.
This article is provided by Bill Corbett, Jr., President of Corbett Public Relations, Inc., a leading media relations, social media and personal branding consulting firm. For more information go to corbettpr.com or to his blog corbettprblog.com. He can be reached at wjcorbett@corbettpr.com.
Sources:
http://247wallst.com/2012/02/01/the-eight-brands-that-wasted-the-most-on-the-super-bowl/2/
http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/02/million-people-watched-super-bowl-113632.html
http://business.time.com/2013/01/30/5-top-trends-for-2013-super-bowl-commercials/
http://www.nbcnews.com/business/super-bowl-ads-its-go-viral-or-go-home-1C8119016
Hi Bill,
I like your choice of image for this post. I have to admit the the Giants/Patriots game was one of the most exciting I have ever seen. Eli Manning must have had some angels catching for him.
As a ‘typical’ woman, I am not really a Superbowl fan unless the Jets or Giants play. I imagine most of the commercials are geared to men. I am not much of a TV watcher due to the poorer and poorer quality of shows on network TV. In addition, I do not buy things because of commercials, the rare times that I inadvertently see them before I manage to change the channel.