SuperBowlAdvertisers.com

GoDaddy Starting to Stir Things Up

GoDaddy CEO Bob Parsons speaks with Fox Business about his controversial Super Bowl advertising strategies. The interview contains some behind the scenes footage of the upcoming ad, although the ad has not yet been accepted by Fox.  In fact, five of their ad concepts have already been rejected by Fox standards and practices due to "poor taste".

Last year, ABC rejected 13 of GoDaddy's ads before accepting the "everybody wants to work in marketing" ad.  Even though the ad ran once during the game, it was pulled from the second airing planned for later in the game.

For someone who doesn't believe that pre-game ad promotion pays off, Bob Parsons is a master at stirring up media coverage and word-of-mouth.

Nissan Considering a Different Kind of Super Bowl Ad Buy

Nissan is planning to run an ad during the Super Bowl broadcast, but they won’t buy it from Fox.  AdAge reports that Nissan is considering a large buy with local Fox affiliate stations across the country.  These local affiliates are allotted a certain amount of time per hour by the networks to run their own ads and promotions.

Obviously, Nissan is doing this to got in the game without paying the $2.7 to $3 million premium for the time.  But, how much will this save them, and will avoiding the network get them as much bang (as in media coverage and water cooler discussion) for their buck?  To address these questions, I asked an expert.  Jon Swallen, the SVP of Research here at TNS, was kind enough to spend a few minutes with me to discuss this.

What is Nissan’s strategy here?

“By purchasing time on local Fox stations, Nissan has the opportunity to be associated with the Super Bowl while at same time limiting the geographic distribution of its ad message to a select list of high-value markets. Nissan has much smaller sales volume than Detroit Big 3 or Toyota or Honda and its sales, I suspect, have a strong geographic skew.  Spot TV allows Nissan to reduce waste - an important consideration when the price tag for a network spot is in the $2.5-$3 million range.”

How much money will they save?

“Well, the sum of purchasing time on EVERY Fox station would exceed the cost of purchasing a spot on the network. By controlling the list of markets where they buy time, Nissan can ensure that the total out-of-pocket cost of its spot market buys would be less than the price of a network spot.”

Can they build a comparable audience by piecing together individual markets?

“Of course not. The network's audience is the sum of every local Fox affilliate carrying the game and with a spot market buy, Nissan would only get a fraction of the total. But if Nissan believes that a viewer in Market X is more valuable than a viewer in Market Y, they'll willingly forgo paying (wasted) money to reach all the Market Ys, even if it means paying a higher CPM to reach just the Market Xs. “

Nissan is taking a Moneyball approach here.  Forego the inefficient mass market with premium costs driven upward by competitors with deeper pockets, and invest in a series of niche buys targeting only their most desirable markets.  They benefit from the high-profile association with the Super Bowl while gaining efficiencies by only paying for the audiences that are valuable to them.

Only time will tell if this can drive the all-important word of mouth that can be gained by a Super Bowl ad. Watch for our reports throughout January and after the game to see how they rate.

By the way, Nissan’s ad is expected to be for the Murano crossover SUV.

More Movie News

Variety reports that the Fox, Disney, New Line, and Warner Bros movie studios will join Sony Pictures, Paramount and Universal as advertisers in the upcoming Super Bowl. That’s 7 of the top movie studios, which is 5 more than we had last year.  The big draw? The Ryan Seacreast pre-game red carpet and the Myspace profile pages.

Interestingly, many of the studios have not indicated which films will be promoted.  Variety says that with all the film competition this year, studios may not want to show their hand to the other studios.  Studios may also be negotiating with the filmmakers about which movies are best for a Super Bowl audience.

Here’s a summary of what we know:

Disney – none confirmed
Fox – none confirmed
New Line “Semi-Pro” (in conjunction with Budweiser)
Paramount  “Iron Man”
Sony Pictures “Hancock” and “You Don’t Mess with the Zohan”
Universal – none confirmed
Warner Bros – none confirmed

If you want to guess which films the studios are considering, check out the upcoming release date schedule on Movieweb.

Variety has some interesting facts for you movie buffs. Fox was the first studio to purchase a Super Bowl ad for a film in 1996. The movie was Independence Day and it turned out to be a monster success. Other successes included Armegeddon, "The Matrix" and "War of the Worlds." 

Incidentally, one of the all-time Super Bowl movie ad failures was just last year. The Lionsgate film “Pride” earned only $7 million in the US.

It seems like going intergalactic is the key to Super Bowl movie success.

Doritos Announces the 10 Song Finalists

Visit the Doritos Crash the Super Bowl Myspace site and view the 10 songs chosen as finalists in this year's Super Bowl contest.  If you are not familiar with this contest, Doritos is reaching out to the public to find an "original song that is, like Doritos tortilla chips, inspired by the musician's passion and creativity based on his or her own bold or intense experiences".  The winning song will win a record contract and be made into a video for Doritos' Super Bowl ad.

Here are the 10 songs selected as finalists by the Doritos judges:

    1.  Barra Libre of New York, NY: "Disco Naked"
    2.  Blind Fury of Camden, SC:  "My Nature"
    3.  Dominic Castillo and the Rock Savants of Portland, OR: "Keep You Around"
    4.  Gina Cutillo of Coram, NY: "The Blame"
    5.  Kina Grannis of Austin, TX: "Message from Your Heart"
    6.  Landon Austin of Dallas, TX: "Waitin"
    7.  Metafore of Boca Raton, FL: "Nah Mean"
    8.  Nivla featuring P. Oberoi of New York, NY: "Be Easy (Koi Naa)"
    9.  One False Move of Brick, NJ: "$2 Fare"
    10. Playback of Boxford, MA: "Just Breathe Girl"

These songs span the music spectrum - hip hop, acoustic, soul, boy band funk, punk and hard rock.  In short, there's something here for everyone.  Except country, no Chesney wannabes here.

Cast your vote for these songs on the site until Dec 31. The 3 with the most votes will then be selected as finalists. Voting on the final 3 will begin on Jan 7 and continue until Jan 27. Frito-Lay’s agency will create a music video of all three finalists and the winning song will air during the game... and receive a record contract Interscope Geffen A&M Records.

The site also provides voters with a "custom badge" for each performer that can be added to any site or blog to promote the performer... and the contest. Pretty smart.

I voted for Gina Cutillo.  You?

Is Chevy Backing Out?

Edmunds InsideLine is reporting that GM is backing off their commitment to run a Chevrolet ad in this year's game.  GM said back in November that they will only run one ad this year.  This is down from the three ads they ran last year, including one for a popular user-generated ad contest.

A Chevrolet spokesperson told InsideLine that they will probably run an ad during pre-game show instead.

Pepsi Ad Brings Justin Timberlake Back to the Super Bowl

Can you believe it’s been four years since the terms “wardrobe malfunction” and “nipplegate” entered our language?   Justin Timberlake is coming back to the Super Bowl, this time he’s starring in one of the new Pepsi commercials.

Pictures like this one show Justin doing a series of stunts for the spot. For his sake, lets hope there isn’t some sort of malfunction this time around.

In other Super Bowl celebrity news, the blog The Popcrunch Show is saying that Paris Hilton and her pizza deliveryman boyfriend will appear in a Pizza Hut Super Bowl ad.   We’ll call this a rumor until we can find references from another source.

The celebrity factor was a great success for Nationwide last year. Our analysis of last year’s game found that Nationwide was the most discussed advertiser before the game. An abstract of that report is available for free on our website.

Coca-Cola Considering a Comeback

Citing a source “familiar with the situation”, Ad Age is reporting that Coca-Cola is considering running ads in the Super Bowl again this year.  Coca-Cola ran 2 spots in last year’s game after sitting out the previous 8 years. During that 8 year period, Coke ran their ads prior to the game and let Pepsi dominate the in-game broadcast. There have been no comments from the company about this year's plan.

It seems odd that they haven’t made a decision at this point. Fox has reported that only two spots remain and there is speculation that they’ll be holding onto these spots until much closer to game time.  Adweek reports that demand for the last spots has pushed the costs close to $3 million for 30 seconds.

Is Coke loading it guns for a new cola war? As you know, Pepsi is in this year with what will be a very high profile campaign to give away 1 billion MP3 downloads on the newly launched Amazon mp3 site.

Audi Shifts Gears and Revs Up for the Super Bowl

Audi is back in the Super Bowl for the first time in 20 years. Why the dramatic change in strategy?  Audi is starting a major initiative to position itself as a top-tier luxury brand and they see the Super Bowl as the best way to get there.

"It's time for us to not only let the experts and aficionados know about Audi; we want America to know about Audi," Audi’s CMO Scott Keogh told AdWeek.

To accomplish this, Audi will feature its $100,000+ roadster R8 in a 60 second ad that is intended to "grab into the heart and soul of the American struggle and the American entertainment business." Audi calls the R8 "our ultimate execution".  Check out the film on their microsite, this is one serious automobile. 

To add to the excitement, Audi only plans to run this ad once. They’ll run teaser across online video sites with subtle messages and hints to build anticipation, but don’t expect to see too much.  Here’s more from Scott Keogh:

“We are going to keep our cards close to the vest until Super Bowl day actually arrives, because I think we have a dramatic message”

"I don't see any benefit to let this concept out of the bottle at this stage. I think it's something that is impactful and powerful and we want to get that 'Wow' factor during the Super Bowl."

"We want this to explode on the Web and get people talking,"

With all that Audi expects from this ad, the ad creative better be something pretty special.  By “keeping their cards close to their vest” and holding so much back before the game, they are missing out on the best media opportunities.  In our analysis of last year’s game, we’ve found that found that media coverage and social media discussions of Super Bowl ads drops off quickly after the game. The advertisers that leveraged the media the most before the game got the most traction in the media afterwards.  For more on this analysis, you can download the abstract on our site for free.

In a related note, Toyota has also announced that they’ll be returning to the game. A Toyota spokesperson told Adweek that it will probably be for either the Sequoia SUV or the Tundra.   Chevrolet and Hyundai have already announced ads.

3 More Movie Ads Announced

The NY Post has been a great source for breaking Super Bowl ad news this week.  This time they have news from Paramount and Sony Pictures.

Paramount has announced an ad for “Iron Man” with Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow.  Iron Man is the big screen adaptation of the Marvel Comics hero. It is due in theaters May 2, 2008.

Movie blogs are buzzing about the possibility that Paramount will debut the trailer for the much anticipated Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Chrystal Skull.

Sony Pictures will be running ads for the upcoming releases “Hancock” with Will Smith and “You Don’t Mess with Zohan” with Adam Sandler. "Zohan" will be out in June and "Hancock" is expected in July.

We also know that Universal will be advertising, but no film titles have been announced.

Fox claims there will be 15 movie ads this year, and we only know 3 at this point. So there are many more to come.

Hershey's Ad to Feature Carmen Electra

Perhaps hoping to recreate some of the stir Nationwide created last year with Kevin Federline, Hershey's announced their participation in the 2008 Super Bowl with an ad featuring celebrity Carmen Electra. The NY Post is reporting that Hersheys has entered into a $400,000 endorsement contract with Electra. The actress is best known for her role on Baywatch and as a Playboy model. 

Nationwide’s use of Kevin Federline last year showed how effective a controversial celebrity can be for a brand.  Their ad featured K-Fed reminiscing about his rap career while working at a fast food restaurant.  Nationwide promoted the ad heavily and released the ad on the website weeks before the game.  The National Restaurant Workers Association issued a complaint stating that the ad "would give the impression that working in a restaurant is demeaning and unpleasant." 

The resulting media coverage and social media discussions made Nationwide the most discussed advertiser before the game. An abstract of that report is available for free on our website.

There are no details available about any plans Hershey's might have to promote Electra before the game.