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In honor of Super Bowl weekend, why not throw it back to where it all began? This will be the 51st year of having the Super Bowl. Its inception came to be due to the ongoing debate as to whether the American Football League or National Football League was more dominant. The NFL had been around for 40 years at this point, but the new and upcoming AFL had gained tremendous popularity. Football fans began to question whether the NFL was better than the AFL. So, on January 15, 1967, the champions of each league met at the Los Angeles Coliseum for the first ever “AFL- NFL World Championship Game”. The Kansas City Chiefs represented the AFL and the Green Bay Packers represented the NFL. The Packers were dominant in a 35-10 victory, which is why the Super Bowl trophy was named after the legendary Green Bay coach, Vince Lombardi.

I’m sure it comes as no surprise to any of us that the Super Bowl is one of the most widely viewed television events of the year. With well over 100 million views each year and rising, a few seconds of air time to advertise has gotten to be pretty valuable to companies, but at what cost?

According to AdAge.com, the price per second of advertising during Super Bowl I in 1967 was $1,333, and just as the popularity of the Super Bowl has risen each year, so has the price of advertising per second. Can you believe that last year, the price per second had risen to $160,000?! That’s $1.6 million for ten seconds! Not to mention the cost of actually producing the advertisement. According to superbowlcommercials.com, the most expensive Super Bowl commercial to produce thus far was Taco Bell’s “Viva Young” in 2013, which cost a whopping $7.6 million to produce. This is not including the cost of airing during the Super Bowl! With a duration of 1:05 minutes, cost to air was over $8 million.

Was it worth it? See the commercial below and decide for yourself. As far as how much revenue it brought to the company? Well, that’s a whole other article!

-Carly Sprinkles

There’s no doubt twitter has become a prominent form of information. Whether it’s a person, business, corporation, or organization, it seems everyone these days has a twitter. It an extremely useful tool to keep consumers up to date on information and current event. But with great power, comes great responsibility. Cinnabon learned this the hard way after legendary actress Carrie Fisher died.

This post was not received well. Many people saw it as inconsiderate, immoral, or trying to profit of a sad situation. Cinnabon’s brand was instantly tarnished due to just just one tweet. It’s safe to assume some one lost their job because of this. This is a reminder of how important it is to think before you tweet. Does this offend anyone? What am I trying to say in this tweet? Can it be taken the wrong way? You don’t get a second chance either, in today’s media once it’s out there you can’t get it back.

This situation got me thinking about the possibilities of live tweeting during the Super Bowl. Many companies do it, so one has to work extra hard to stand out during a time everyone trying to get some press. In 2012, the power in the football stadium, delaying the game for an extended period of time. Oreo, sensing an opportunity tweeted this:

This tweet was well received and retweeted thousands of times. What made made this tweet so good was how timely it was. But how did Oreo get this out so fast? It has become custom for company’s that have a stake in big events to hold a ‘war room’. In this war room, all the major advertising and public relation contributors get together and see how they can market of the given event or situation at hand. This allowed Oreo to make, process and approve the tweet at hand so quickly.

Esurance decided to step up the game in 2014:

This commercial asked people to tweet out a hashtag to win money, which then got the hashtag quickly trending on the Twitter home page. It sent the twitter-verse into a spiraling frenzy. It utilizes multiple media platforms to first send out a message, and then to get people engaged in the brand. It has a likable celebrity in John Krasinski, a big pile of money, and a clever gimmick. The risk associated with it is that fewer people may see it, so the message may fail to take hold.

Overall, twitter can can be a savior or a destroyer when it comes to a companies real time marketing scheme. It important to remain mindful, and to use safe and ethical IMC techniques.

How do you feel about Esurance taking the risk that it did? Have you ever been swept up in Twitter frenzy? What are some instances where tweeting has worked, or instead upset the public?

-John Karcher

Welcome back to a brand new semester of IMC! What a week for us to return, as this Sunday is the biggest advertising day of the year, Super Bowl Sunday. This week we will primarily be looking at different aspects of advertising in relation to the Super Bowl.

Today we are looking at the evolution of Super Bowl Commercials. The first Super Bowl was played in 1967, and according to the American Marketing Association, a 30 second spot cost $42,000. For comparison, the same ad at the 2016 Super Bowl would cost a easy $5 million. It seems a viewership and popularity has come up, so has the prices, which obviously makes sense.

Lets look at a few of the commercials that received extremely positive reactions.

Having Coca-Cola put a smile on the face of a guy called ‘mean’ is clever.  You got a cute kid, you got Coke, and you have a happy 250 pound tackling machine. You couldn’t have a more uplifting commercial. And it obviously worked. This commercial has now been spoofed many times, on television, in movies, and even other Super Bowl commercials.  But what separates this commercial for many other Super Bowl commercials? We have a recognizable and popular figure in Mean Joe Green. You also have an already popular product in Coke. What made this so popular was that it continued the identity Coca-Cola had set up for itself. The phrase “have a Coke and a smile” is very similar to other campaigns Coke has run both before and after this commercial.

The second commercial takes a very different approach.

The purpose of this commercial is different than that of Coke. Apple at this point was not a highly established brand. They were not cranking out multiple products, or have the control and influence they have on today’s market. But they were a technologically advanced company trying to win the personalized computer race. This is simply a lead up to the product reveal, and is done so in the way to gain public interest. It was an appropriate time to use the theme of the commercial, and maintaining mystery is smart for what they were planning to do. Apple was using this commercial to establish their brand. It is now considered one of the greatest Superbowl commercials of all time.

Do you think it’s worth the now $5 million approach to establish the brand, knowing it might not work? What can advertisers now learn from some of theses nostalgic commercials in their own campaigns?  Would you rather advertise for a company with already developed brand, or one without?

-John Karcher

As I sit here, preparing to graduate tomorrow, I can’t help but look back on my college experience. When I came to UNCW four and a half years ago, I wanted to major in computer science. I loved computers and couldn’t imagine doing anything else, but life had other plans. I realized within my first year that the computer science program was not for me, and decided I didn’t want to program the rest of my life. So, I decided to take some business courses and thought that would be the way to go from there.

Yet again, I changed my mind. Once more, I realized I was not going down the right path when I took a few communication courses by chance. In taking those courses, I found that the communication major really catered to my strengths and intrigued me more than any of my business courses. The next semester I immersed myself in communication and it was the best decision I have ever made. With a communication degree from UNCW, I can now go wherever I want in the world, and I intend to do so!

I am looking at going into the field of digital marketing after graduation, or as one of my professors puts it “Big data”, and I couldn’t have found a better career for my skill set. Here I will be able to utilize my computer, business, and communication skills all at the same time. I guess the point I’m really trying to make here is that you just have to go with the flow. By this I mean that had I stayed in computer science or business I never would have had the opportunities that I do now. So thank you UNCW for helping me find my way, and showing me a great time in the process!

– Daniel Walsh

I’ve always wanted to say thank you to my “haters.”  You know who I mean? The people who said I couldn’t do it. But you know what? Every single person I’ve encountered in my two and a half years at UNCW has been welcoming and inspiring on a daily basis. I’ve met so many friends during my time at UNCW, from playing basketball at the recreation center, or walking to class and playing Frogger across College Rd. It has been a wonderful time here and I’ve learned so much. Today I made my last walk down Chancellor’s, dealt with the iPrint system for the last time, and walked to my car in the library lot (where I didn’t get a ticket) for the last time. Each one of these things has been a part of my life for the last couple years and while I will miss them dearly, I am also ready for the next chapter. The blog below this one asked about the dreaded “So what are you doing now?” Guess what? I’m figuring it out, we’re all figuring it out and I’m positive that I will be happy and successful. Don’t let someone tell you to take the first job you find; Find the job that is right for you and can make you happy. A wise man once told me that you know you have a good job when you are pulling up beside the person next to you during your commute and you want to tell them where you are going. That’s the job we should all aspire to find.

But I digress, I did it, we did it, it’s almost done. Saturday’s coming fast and then what do we do Monday? Grind. Keep grinding like you have been for the past however long. If you can make it through this or if you’re in the process of making it through this than don’t quit. Whether you have seven more semesters or one more semester keep working hard and ignore the people who don’t have positive things to say.

F.E.W.I.M

-Doug Bell