IMC Hawks Blog

Tag: Volkswagen

  • Will The Force Be With You?

          It’s Super Bowl season and we, as viewers, are ready for the stream of entertaining advertisements that keep us occupied between breaks. I’m sure everyone remembers last years buzz worthy Star Wars inspired Volkswagen commercial. How can one not be enamored with a little boy in a movie quality Darth Vader suit that genuinely startles himself by using “the force” to turn on his dad’s new Volkswagen? Beyond all the cuteness, the commercial relays the push-to-start feature that the affordable (and apparently fun) German car has to offer.
         To top its success from the last Super Bowl, Volkswagen has returned with yet another Star Wars inspired ad and the entertainment factor is undeniable. Yet what do barking dogs and Star Wars really have to do with the German automobile company?
         Advertisers take full advantage of the hype surrounding the Super Bowl to create innovative, touching, and entertaining commercials. Companies will pay extraordinary amounts of money to ensure that their commercial is seen by the millions of viewers watching the game. After all, this one time of the year advertisers can assume that almost every single American is tuning in. What company wouldn’t want their product showcased at this time? It’s like a black Friday Christmas sale for advertisers. These companies want to bring attention to their product in anyway possible, even if that means their product isn’t even mentioned until the last three seconds.
         In the Volkswagen ad, the viewer is unaware of the association between Volkswagen and Star Wars until the very end. This proved to be a very strategic move on VW’s part. Last year, companies were able to monitor which commercials made the biggest impact on viewers via Twitter, FaceBook and other popular social platforms. They measured the ad’s success by the number of times it was mentioned in the digital realm and were able to realize what struck a chord with the vast audience. What once seemed to be a hail marry concept of integrating marketing, advertising, and social media, is now an easy field goal for the IMC commercial championship. Volkswagen is betting that we will remember how fond we were of last year’s Star Wars theme and associate those same feelings with their brand this year as well. You can’t go wrong with puppies and kids, right?
    -Alexis Kapczynski, Kacy Cox, Sara Kaloudis, Josh Bowman

  • Social Media and the Super Bowl

    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