It’s no longer just about “the spot,” the Super Bowl spot that is. It’s about how marketers are using that spot to take advantage of the expanding opportunities digital and mobile platforms are offering to extend the excitement and sharing of the spot far beyond just the 3-hour game.
David Burfeind, chief knowledge officer at The VIA Agency, a full-service marketing, advertising and digital agency, shares his thoughts on how to get it right.
CM: How can in-game advertisers best use the second screen to augment their buy beyond the game?
BURFEIND: Marketers should focus on how to extend the conversation and allow people to further interact with the brand. They should also ask themselves whether their use of digital media during the Super Bowl is complimentary to their in-game advertisements or redundant. Increasingly, the goal is to use the second screen to make the spot communal, conversational and participatory.
CM: Where should brands direct users of second screens?
BURFEIND: Marketers are still spending a lot of time experimenting: what’s the right way to use the second screen? Where should I send people: to the store, the website, Facebook? Twitter has emerged as the platform of choice to send people to continue the conversation.
CM: How can marketers not in the game leverage the second screen to insert themselves into the mix?
BURFEIND: Those who have mastered that have figured out a way to have just as much of a presence as those who buy a spot. It’s not about augmenting, it’s about establishing a presence. You have to figure out a way to be quick and clever enough to have an opinion during the game that isn’t forced and is a natural fit for your brand. Oreo’s blackout tweet a few years ago is a great example. Who’s going to nail it this year? Who’s going to be the one? Someone is going to be working hard and investing a lot of time and resources to have that real time moment so they can be the focus of the conversation.
CM: The Oreo brand does so much interaction, what do you suggest?
BURFEIND: The importance of creating interactive content with incentives and rewards is a natural part of marketing, and second screens are another way that happens. For example, fantasy football players consume seven times more NFL-related media than fans who don’t play. Last year, we saw Esurance reinforce their brand position with a Super Bowl spot around a Twitter sweepstakes. Some 200,000 entries came in within the first minute after the spot aired. This year, I expect to see more brands trying to figure out a way to make marketing more participatory, and incentives and rewards can play a big part in that.
CM: What other brands are getting it right?
BURFEIND: Newcastle gets a lot of recognition. Often times, the second screen is really the first screen for them. They’re exploiting that as their medium of choice. [Newcastle Brown Ale is recruiting other brands to chip in to a collaborative “Super Bowl” ad to help offset the gigantic costs of a typical Game Day ad. If the campaign, “Band of Brands,” is successful, the ad will show 20 or 30 brands and run online and in some local NBC markets.] It’s like being in the game without being in the game at all. It’s smart and creatively well-done, and it resonates with the audience they’re going after.
CM: What is the next step?
BURFEIND: For those who produce a spot that is liked and shared, the question then becomes: What has that done for them in the subsequent 12 months? How did that campaign contribute to whatever business objectives they have and the growth of the company? And if you’re going to make a big bold promise, you have to be operationally ready to deliver. RadioShack did such a good job last year of enticing viewers and attracting investors in a self-aware and self-deprecating way. It made a bold promise to shed its outdated image, and people were ready to believe. Its Super Bowl spot did a great job of capturing the imagination and enticing people to give the brand a second chance, but they didn’t deliver. Now, unfortunately, they’re preparing bankruptcy and shutting stores.
CM: If you had to give one final piece of advice, what would it be?
BURFEIND: Rather than taking the existing creative and putting that across all the digital platforms and social extensions, you need to be thought about in a way other than just repurposing existing content. For those that get it right, the payoff is great.
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