How do you analyze the popularity of Super Bowl commercials and the companies that produced them? One way is to check the fans and followers that each company has on their Facebook and Twitter accounts. That is exactly what Clickz ,an internet resource for interactive marketing news and information, did to interpret the success of individual commercials and how they relate to brands that own them.
The Super Bowl isn’t just a platform for NFL superstars to show they are the best; it also represents the top competition among brands and their advertisements. Clickz recorded the number of Facebook “fans” and Twitter “followers” for each of the advertisers on February 2, Super Bowl Sunday. Then the site collected data a week later to see what kind of increases took place. Evidence from the research reveals that the Super Bowl ads actually boosted some advertisers’ social media accounts considerably.
According to the research analysis some of the big hitters in the big media dance include HomeAway, Volkswagen, E*Trade and Monster.com. These companies were among half of the Super Bowl advertisers that mentioned their commercials on either their Facebook pages or through their Twitter accounts prior to the game.
“”By incorporating a dedicated Facebook page, Twitter account, and micro-site as part of the ‘Fiddling Beaver’ campaign,” according to Kathy O’Reilly, director of social media for Monster.com, “we were able to engage with folks before Super Bowl Sunday.”
Social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter have been great building blocks to cultivate a larger fan base among the consumers. These websites have built a bridge over the gap that once existed between companies and their consumers. However, what is the return of investment? What kind of sales come out it? This question will be asked until there is a legitimate connection between ‘fans’ of the brand and the purchasing consumers of brand products and services.
-Jesse Bazemore
Exactly, what is the return of the investment. Social media is great for connecting people and everything but is that where the line is drawn? When or how can we actually see dollar signs reflecting off the company’s social media approach.
Not sure why so many experts were amazed to see a huge surge of activity on sites where they had a Super Bowl ad. I mean it’s the Super Bowl. What do you expect? When you have over 100 million people viewing a single channel, of course they are going to flock to the web right after that funny commercial.
But thats the question people are trying to answer. How can we turn these wildly popular social media sites into consumer awareness(which has probably been answered with almost every big corporation having its own social media sites) and how can we turn that awareness into consumer spending.
This is so true. I know that during the superbowl I made a quote from one of the commercials my status on facebook. Obviously that makes that commercial effective, especially because the product name was in the quote. In my opinion the commercials are the best part. Social media is becoming more and more important to businesses not only to advertise, but to find out who likes their product and how they can make it better.
I would say that I agree with your last paragraph that Social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter have been great building blocks to cultivate a larger fan base among the consumers.
Although these are excellent techniques to gather more followers and supporters of your brand,I agree with James, where IS the line drawn? Even though we tend to be characterized as a culture where brands are at the center of our narrative story, are we really going as far as to become a “friend” or “follower” of a brand on a social networking site? If that’s not even slightly weird, then I don’t know what is. Although its an effective marketing strategy, it uncovers a little bit about the extremities of brand obsession which our culture lends itself to.
Everybody knows the big money that companies pay to get their advertisments out to the world on the biggest T.V. viewing day of the year, the super bowl. Beyond that though, these social sites such as facebook and twitter have really made particular companies/products/services more aware to the public by providing them their own pages and providing information. This makes us the consumers more aware of what they are trying to sell because we all generally always on those two sites. Social media has done its job promoting certain products that we all know we are going to purchase.