The weeks leading up to The Super Bowl used to be reserved to give teams the optimal amount of rest, and originally, to make sure all the tickets and travel for fans could be in place. Few remember that the original Super Bowls were not close to sellouts, and to get people motivated to travel great distances you needed a little extra time. It wasn’t the be all business destination that it is today.
So now we have two weeks of hype, activation and build out that will give brands and the sport not just a large platform, but a very wide platform that can be so diverse that any possible partner can find his or her niche in the weeks leading to the game in Indianapolis. The game itself has its commercial plays for big bucks, but now we have large scale digital activation plans by companies like Volkswagen, which have kicked in weeks before with lower cost online programs, all leading to their Super Bowl unveiling. We have Matthew Broderick teasing a potential Ferris Bueller remake for 10 seconds also as part of a Honda commercial that will run, and it garners in excess of 2.5 million well timed views. In the middle of this coming week you have National High School Signing Day, which will pull brands to mega-sites like ESPN and Max Preps to debate and examine which of the best high school football players will be going where. You have shows like Jimmy Fallon doing his Late Night Show From Indianapolis for three nights next week, all built around the brands that want to be part of NBC and the Super Bowl this week.
For NBC, their cross platform opportunities both on the network and on the re-launched NBC Sports Network, from the NHL All-Star Game on Sunday through all their shoulder programming, will all give brands who are partnering up for the Super Bowl even more added value. The ROI on the Game will have less to do with just the game this year, and so much more to do with long-lead buzz and eyeballs and programs. It’s no longer about just a sweepstakes, its all about engaging fans in their homes and online when they are not even thinking Super Bowl. It’s not all in your face to watch just the game…it is about being part of every conversation going into the game.
And how does one measure that conversation and effectiveness? There will be the first-ever social media command center. The center will feature a team of strategists and analysts who will monitor the digital fan conversation on platforms that include Facebook and Twitter from a 2,800-square-foot space downtown. The station is slated to open Today and run through the Feb 5 Super Bowl. That measurement will also include all the social goings-on from Sunday’s Pro Bowl, where the NFL will have laptops and other devices around the field so that players can engage with fans during the game, again bring added value to a week which is more about the experience than a football game than it ever has been before.
In many ways the Super Bowl this year will really serve as a litmus test for all that is being and can be done going forward with activation of brands that can really bring in added value and dollars. It is the next step in turning the corner to see how all aspects of digital and social media, tied to a big event, can really move the needle with sales. Those aspects will hopefully then trickle down to other events and properties, all of whom know that digital and social are important but are still doing a little hand wringing over how it actually makes money, and make no mistake, it is all about the dollars. Let the branding games begin.
