By Cokey Falkow
SuperBowl XLIX was a game changer – and it had nothing to do with football. No longer do we have to wait for the SuperBowl to see the commercials while the game is on and then it’s over. There are new ways of speaking to an audience, tapping in to their emotions and generating real-time engagment with your audience.
In the ‘old days’ advertising and marketing, a SuperBowl commercial was prized because it had the most eyeballs and the most engaged audience. With the rise of social media and digital public relations, and especially the new advanced listening tools available to us, we can see the traction gained by a brand and see who is doing it right.
It’s not just about impinging or being disruptive, it is about seeing who is sharing your story or commercial and who is out there reacting and taking action because of the brand’s positioning. Positive and negative sentiment can be seen and actions taken immediately, as well as cementing a firm hold on the minds of your customers.
Let’s take a look at McDonalds: Ms. Deborah Wahl, the CMO, used Leo Burnett to create a wonderful new look at the brand. Instead of focusing on food or packaging or any of the usual tricks, they re-invented the “loving it” slogan and used the word “LOVE” to great effect. The spot is clever in many ways and grabs ahold of the hearts and minds of the viewer.
A simple spot shot in a store shows the till operators giving away free products from meals to desserts for actions such as a family hug, a call to their mom telling her she is loved (wipes away tear), and a dance. Joy and loving life is now the selling point and the brand is winning. McDonald’s is giving away select products through Valentine’s day for acts of LOVE. How genius is that? And the bottom line shows it.
Another winner is ALWAYS. And it’s another win for Leo Burnett. This campaign re-invents the term “like a girl” with a solid empowerment message and a nifty hashtag #likeagirl that has been tweeted so much it is creating a groundswell of positive sentiment for a brand that was firmly in female-only territory. Now Dads and family members who care about their daughters, nieces and more are tweeting and Instagramming the hashtag. With over 337,000 mentions, the spot took the lead with social reaction. The video has already has almost 2 million views on YouTube.
While Beer was always a winner and continues to be (BUD grabbed the #1 spot for both men and women -USA today), as well as the lion’s share of Twitter mentions (BrandWatch) at a staggering 197,800.The spot has racked up almost 24 million views on YouTube.
And then there were those smart brands that tapped into SuperBowl fever. Frisky’s Dear Kitten ads have been getting huge response and their Big Game ad is no exception. It’s already has more views than some of the SuperBowl ads (3.6 million) and is being shared liberally on social media.
The game has indeed changed – it takes smart, creative ideas, excellent execution and real-time interaction to win this race.
http://www.spredfast.com/social-marketing-blog/tweets-ads-data-recap-2015-social-super-bowl
