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New Digital Hub to Drive Voting and Increase Consumer Engagement

USA TODAY is expanding its Super Bowl Ad Meter program for 2013 to include a new online voting platform that will increase the Ad Meter panel vote to thousands. To kickoff the expanded USA TODAY platform, the 25th annual Super Bowl Ad Meter winner will be chosen by a larger than ever panel though a password-protected microsite developed by USA TODAY.

New for 2013 – ads will be counted from the coin toss to the end of regulation play – including ads that air during halftime. The winning ad will be announced on USATODAY.com after the game on Sunday, February 3, 2013 and appear in the newspaper on Monday, February 4, 2013.

Leading up to the 2013 Super Bowl, USA TODAY’s Ad Meter coverage will now include a larger online hub where consumers can engage with daily content. New features include: The Ad Meter Ultimate Countdown, a ranking past champions of the USA TODAY Super Bowl Ad Meter era; Ad Meter First Look, offering instant reviews and analysis as marketers pre-release their Super Bowl ads and teasers; and an Ad Meter social sentiment meter, covering all the news, trends and social chatter related to the Super Bowl ads.

After the game, consumers will be able to see how the panelists voted in new categories such as best use of a celebrity and best use of an animal. Additionally, consumers can view the ads and add their own opinions by giving them a thumbs up or thumbs down. To learn more or to register to participate in the exclusive voting panel, go to admeter.usatoday.com.

With the development of USA TODAY’s new voting platform, Ad Meter will become a broader franchise for USA TODAY to include multiple sports, entertainment and lifestyle events. Ad Meter’s expanded platform will also serve as a valuable marketing tool for brands that advertise during the game.

USA TODAY created the Super Bowl Ad Meter in 1989 to gauge consumers’ opinions about television’s most expensive commercials. Ad Meter results have long been the industry-leading tool used to measure public opinion surrounding Super Bowl ads. In 2013, Ad Meter will increase its digital presence and capabilities as part of the overall digital expansion of USA TODAY.

USA TODAY is a multi-platform news and information media company. Founded in 1982, USA TODAY’s mission is to serve as a forum for better understanding and unity to help make the USA truly one nation. Through its unique visual storytelling, USA TODAY delivers high-quality and engaging content across print, digital, social and video platforms. An innovator of news and information, USA TODAY reflects the pulse of the nation and serves as the host of the American conversation – today, tomorrow and for decades to follow. USA TODAY, the nation’s number one newspaper in print circulation with an average of nearly 1.8 million daily, and USATODAY.com, an award-winning newspaper website launched in 1995, reach a combined 6.6 million readers daily. USA TODAY is a leader in mobile applications with more than 16 million downloads on mobile devices. USA TODAY is owned by Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI).

For at least one brand, the road to the Super Bowl advertising derby comes through and leads to New Orleans. This week in the French Quarter, Mercedes-Benz is shooting a 60-second Super Bowl commercial to air during the game’s fourth quarter.

The spot, which will introduce the new CLA sedan, features pop star Usher, Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Kate Upton and another famous face to be revealed during the commercial, which may or may not be released online before the game. A substantial social media campaign and “teaser” spots will serve as prelude to the commercial, the tone of which will be foreshadowed on a billboard to be unveiled this weekend near the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. The outdoor ad’s copy: “One temptation no Saint can resist. Introducing the CLA. Coming in 2013.”

At a Thursday (Nov. 29) shoot for the commercial, directed by Dante Ariola and produced by the New York City-based Merkley+Partners ad agency, atmospheric scenes were captured of a barking Doberman named Cletus and a table-full of children considering a huge ice-cream sundae. Other details are closely held secrets for now, but the theme of the ad is “a tongue-in-cheek depiction of how far a person might — or might not — go to get their heart’s desire,” according to published reports. Segments of the commercial have already been filmed in Los Angeles.

The decision to shoot and set part of the spot here was made by Steve Cannon, Mercedes-Benz USA CEO. In addition to the Superdome naming-rights agreement, which reduces Louisiana’s financial obligations to the New Orleans Saints, Mercedes has executed several initiatives that benefit the city, including a post-Katrina donation of $250,000, a 2010 tree-planting program for City Park and a $1.3 million donation to Laureus USA, which supports after-school sports programs in several cities, including New Orleans.

Read more at : NOLA.com

Adweek magazine included Chrysler’s “Halftime in America” 2012 Super Bowl spot featuring Clint Eastwood from Creative Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore. as #7 of its “The 10 Best Commercials of 2012″ list.

“This country can’t be knocked out with one punch,” Eastwood gruffly preaches into the camera. “We get right back up again. And when we do, the world’s going to hear the roar of our engines.”

Despite the criticism from conservative political pundits who saw it as an endorsement of the Obama administrations’ 2009 bailout of Chrysler and General Motors, the trade publication found it to be “the one Super Bowl ad that dared to go beyond advertising and join a larger national conversation.”

Read More at Adweek

Beyonce will be performing the Super Bowl 2013 halftime show.

The NFL has tweeted a Super Bowl promo photo of Beyonce confirming the halftime show.
Beyonce has Feb 3 and 2013 painted on her pretty face.

The Super Bowl 2013 halftime show will be sponsored by Pepsi.

When your name’s on the stadium, it might make sense for you to buy some ads in the game taking place there.

Mercedes-Benz, which appeared in the 2011 Super Bowl and then dropped the event from its marketing plans, will return to the Big Game in 2013, the automaker has confirmed. Super Bowl XLVII is set to be broadcast by CBS on Feb. 3 of next year from the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans.

“It’s a big product year for us next year and the game will be played in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, so all the planets are in alignment,” said Mercedes spokeswoman Donna Boland said.

Coca-Cola and Best Buy are both returning to the game, the marketers confirmed. Coca-Cola has purchased three 30-second spots. The three advertisers join Anheuser-Busch InBev, PepsiCo.’s Pepsi and Frito-Lay divisions, Audi of America, Hyundai/Kia, Cars.com and GoDaddy.com as advertisers who have confirmed their presence in next year’s gridiron contest.

CBS is still working to sell the last portion of inventory in the game. Executives told USA Today in September that the game was more than 90% sold and that only a small number of spots were left for purchase.

Advertisers have generally agreed to pay between $3.7 million and $3.8 million for in-game spots or for broader packages that include an appearance in the Super Bowl. Prices can vary depending on the marketer (Anheuser is famous for crafting multiyear deals that can render per-ad pricing discussions moot), the position of their ad in the game and the amount of inventory a sponsor decides to purchase.

NBC saw the average price rise to around $3.5 million for its broadcast of the Super Bowl earlier this year. An estimated 111.3 million people watched the New York Giants beat the New England Patriots, barely trumping the 111 million viewers who tuned in to see the Green Bay Packers beat the Pittsburgh Steelers on Fox the year before.

GM’s former CMO Joel Ewanick may have pulled the plug on any plans by GM brands to advertise during the 2013 Super Bowl in favor of Manchester United before he abruptly left the automaker in July, but that isn’t stopping the GMC brand from redoubling its long-running interest and investment in the National Football League.

Just consider the 30-some GMC Sierra pick-up trucks that just took over Times Square for the NFL Kick-Off (check out the pictures on Facebook). “Nothing changes for us” in terms of the GMC brand’s association with the nation’s most popular sport — and a brand marketers’ best friend — Chris Hornberger, GMC national sales promotion manager, told brandchannel. It’s been three years since the GMC brand or vehicles have been featured in a Super Bowl ad anyway.

GMC is one of a chorus of brands that continues to increase their bets on professional football with this week’s kick-off of the official season “like children anticipating the arrival of Santa Claus,” as New York Times ad columnist Stuart Elliott put it. Nothing else comes close to matching NFL games as a prime-time TV-advertising vehicle, but there are doubters.

There are doubters. “The NFL and the networks are over-leveraging that huge audience, adding more commercials, promos and sponsor mentions every season, to the point that the games are simply unwatchable live,” snarked George Simpson in Mediapost.com.

But GMC and its peers will go right on ignoring such reservations. For GMC’s part, the brand is returning to its “Never Say Never” theme and also planning to touch NFL fans with a number of twists this season, through its NFL.com/GMC website, Twitter and other digital platforms — as well as good ol’ reliable TV advertising of its pick-up trucks and SUVs.

The brand, for example, has enlisted ESPN play-by-play man Mike Tirico and NFL Network commentator and ex-player Warren Sapp to “host” its website. GMC also is giving away tickets to Monday-night games in a partnership with the league by leveraging fan interest in star players. And it is featuring some retired legends, such as Gale Sayers, on online discussion of some of the “Never Say Never” moments of their own careers.

Read More at: BrandChannel

Go Daddy airs three commercials during the Olympics 2012 broadcast on NBC.

Go Daddy Evolving Brand with New Olympics TV Ad Campaign: “Inside / Out”

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (June 13, 2012) – Go Daddy commercials: love them, or not … the edgy, slightly inappropriate TV commercials have helped make the Web hosting provider and domain name registrar a world-leader on the Internet and a household name with mainstream audiences. Now, Go Daddy is announcing plans to evolve the iconic brand with a new marketing effort set to debut during the Olympics NBC broadcast. The campaign is titled “Inside / Out” and was created by the New York office of Deutsch Inc.

Considering Go Daddy’s well-documented marketing success over the years, signing an outside agency is somewhat of a risk. While critics historically panned the TV ads, Go Daddy leveraged the buzz, using “Push to Web” advertising to attract website visitors and convert them into customers.

Go Daddy’s Super Bowl campaigns have been produced in-house for the last seven consecutive years and are credited with helping grow new domain name market share to more than 50 percent worldwide.

“We are teaming up with Deutsch because we think the team there ‘gets us’ and can help take Go Daddy to the next level,” said Go Daddy Chief Marketing Officer Barb Rechterman. “They understand our story and we think working with Deutsch is going to be an important step in Go Daddy’s brand evolution.”

The plan is for the new ads to be true to Go Daddy’s sense of fun, but engage viewers more deeply around what exactly Go Daddy does to help millions of people and businesses grow their presence online.

“We see this as a tremendous opportunity to take Go Daddy, one of the most recognizable Super Bowl advertiser brands, or Internet brands for that matter, and make it relevant for what it does,” said Val DiFebo, Deutsch NY CEO. “Go Daddy has a phenomenal growth story and delivers a brand of service unlike any of its competitors. Our challenge is to tell that story in a way that it still fun and edgy, but showcases more of Go Daddy’s specific offerings.”

Deutsch Inc. Chairman Donny Deutsch has watched the Go Daddy advertising story unfold over the years, having reported about it on CNBC’s “The Big Idea” and critiqued many of Go Daddy’s Super Bowl commercials. “Deutsch is the right agency for Go Daddy at this point in their growth. Look for Go Daddy to be on their typical big stage, with a smart business-focused step change,” noted Deutsch.

Go Daddy’s CMO has been leading the company’s day-to-day marketing strategies and operations since before Go Daddy was registering domain names. “Now is the time for a new era of Go Daddy advertising,” Rechterman said. “One of our strengths has always been a willingness to take risks, especially with our marketing. The new Olympics campaign pays homage to the past success, but spotlights Go Daddy’s technical strength and entrepreneurial spirit.”

Go Daddy serves more than 10.3 million customers worldwide and ranks as the world leader for Web hosting, domain name registrations and new SSL Certificates.

“People know who we are, our Super Bowl marketing has helped make Go Daddy a household name,” said Go Daddy CEO Warren Adelman, who has been with the company for nearly ten years and took over leadership in December. “Our customers think of us as their business partner because of our products, infrastructure and service. What we want to do now is market in ways that tell people more about what we do to help businesses grow online.”

To find out more about building your online presence easily and affordably, visit www.GoDaddy.com.

GoDaddy, a brand notorious for suggestive Super Bowl commercials with scantily clad women known as GoDaddy Girls, is hiring a professional advertising agency to create campaigns as the company seeks a more professional image.

GoDaddy, which registers Internet domain names and is a Web hosting provider, is to announce on Tuesday afternoon that it has hired Deutsch New York as its creative agency, effective immediately.

The first work for GoDaddy from Deutsch New York will be commercials that are to appear next month, during the NBC coverage of the 2012 Summer Olympics, as part of a campaign carrying the theme “Inside/Out.”

GoDaddy has been producing its own commercials and other ads for more than seven years, replete with broad humor, well-endowed women and double entendres. The approach has been called “GoDaddy-esque” by Bob Parsons, the founder and chief executive of the company, who has reveled in all the attention – as well as the considerable criticism for being sexist – that the campaigns have generated.

But in July, private equity powerhouses that included Kohlberg Kravis Roberts paid about $2.25 billion for a majority stake in GoDaddy and named Warren Adelman the chief executive; Mr. Parsons became executive chairman.

“We are synonymous with inexpensive domains and sexy girls,” Mr. Adelman told the magazine. “I think there is a different message we have to expose people to.”

Mr. Parsons, in a phone interview on Tuesday, said he was fine with GoDaddy’s marketing taking “a new direction.”

Read More at: NY Times

While America’s feelings were divided on the outcome of the game, there’s one aspect of Super Bowl Sunday that crosses team loyalties and brings us together — the commercials. This year’s commercials had something for everyone, from cute dogs to talking babies to Adriana Lima. After a week of intense competition in the YouTube Ad Blitz contest, the votes are in and you voted M&M’S “Just My Shell” commercial as your favorite ad of the Super Bowl!

Rounding out the top five commercials of the big game are spots from Chrysler Group, Bud Light, Chevy Silverado and Doritos:

2. Chrysler Group “Halftime in America”
3. Bud Light “Rescue Dog”
4. Chevy Silverado “2012”
5. Doritos “Man’s Best Friend”

Give me the stats!
In its fifth year running, YouTube Ad Blitz has already surpassed previous years with 133M views from fans worldwide, up 43 percent from last year (as of Sunday, 2/12)…and still counting! In fact, during game time roughly 6 percent of all U.S. YouTube traffic came from people watching Super Bowl commercials on Ad Blitz.

The days that saw the highest volume of views were Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, making up 82 percent of total views received over the week. And it wasn’t just fans in the states seeking out the commercials — nearly 18 percent of all views came from outside of the U.S. Other interesting stats include:

• The most popular ads drove the majority of views – 65 percent of video views came from the top ten commercials.
• Google searches related to [Super Bowl commercials] peaked on Monday, but continued through the rest of the week.
• More than 32 percent 
of all mobile votes occurred on Tablet devices, our first year running Ad Blitz on a tablet-optimized channel.

Tune into the YouTube homepage today to check out the top five spots!

The Super Bowl may be the one time of year viewers are as eager to watch the commercials as they are the show… well, at least the halftime show. As always, we marketers tuned in to weigh in on how this year’s pack of advertisers managed the most expensive real estate on television. During the 2012 Super Bowl, advertisers delighted with many of its usual ploys (celebrities, endorsements and sex appeal), as with H&M’s provocative ad featuring David Beckham. There were also rave-winning new concepts, such as the Honda’s rendition of “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off“. But while campaigns may win applause for recruiting the biggest celebrities or most daring scripts, which brands merely flashed their cash, and which truly engaged customers?

The winners, we found, reflected a thorough understanding of multi-channel marketing, and elongated the customer experience by tying their TV campaigns to other channels. This fully leveraged their massive investments not just by pairing the ads with lower-cost vehicles, but by allowing customers to actively experience the brand rather than just viewing it. You may have noticed that the most engaging ads weren’t the most “salesy”; these brands were more focused on crafting a residual customer experience than making an immediate sale. The following champs not only made the list of viewer favorites, they got viewers talking, tweeting, Facebooking, and otherwise immersed with the brands:

1. Bud Light – What better way to manage your corporate social responsibility strategy than to make a cute little rescued dog the face of your brand? Bud Light won high marks with multiple creative commercials during the 2012 Super Bowl, but the clear winner features Weego, a rescued mutt that clearly knows how to party. Dedicated to ensuring each of his guests is welcomed with a cold beer, Weego’s star power entertains while hitting a soft spot in viewers’ hearts. At the end of the commercial, Weego has undoubtedly won over most of America, the commercial reads, “Help Rescue Dogs”, along with a link to Bud Light’s Facebook page. Creating a seamless experience, Bud Light’s default Facebook image now showcases a classic Bud Light bottle, with Weego’s personalized dog collar looped around its neck. Visitors can find more video and images of Weego, as well as a custom app for a charitable campaign where Bud Light will donate $1 to the Animal Rescue Foundation for every “Like” Weego gets.

All in all, this Super Bowl campaign forms a model customer engagement experience: it captures and entertains viewers with a lovable and memorable icon (Weego, of course). It invites viewers to an extended engagement opportunity by connecting to a perfectly synchronized Facebook page. And while still scoring something for itself by requiring users to “Like” the main brand page page in order to “Like” Weego, Bud Light gives something back to the users, too-something they can feel good about (After all, they just earned needy animals a donation just by clicking on a button). And this doesn’t even take social virality into account-a Facebook user’s actions will show up in their friends’ feeds, too. Bud Light now has the opportunity to create a long-term if not lifelong customer experience with the thousands of Facebook subscribers it gained within mere hours of the Super Bowl.

2. Pepsi Max – Soft beverage giant Pepsico pushed its brand hard during the 2012 Super bowl, and while its Pepsi ad featuring such icons as Elton John and X-Factor’s Melanie Amaro generated plenty of buzz, it was the Pepsi Max commercial that really won high points with viewers and critics alike. The commercial draws a few chuckles as it depicts a disloyal Coke employee stealthily purchasing a Pepsi Max, as Patsy Cline’s “Your Cheatin’ Heart” plays in the background. Just when he thinks he’s in the clear, the register goes wild and none other but Regis Philbin appears to hand over a larger-than-life check, awarding the woeful shopper with Pepsi Max for life. But beyond the originality, humor, and effective use of a celebrity persona, Pepsi Max scores big in customer engagement by ending the commercial with a link to its Facebook page. Here, Pepsi Max is featuring a “Win Pepsi Max for Life” campaign of their own, allowing visitors to submit video entries to win. Original, consistent, and engaging– we like it.

3. Godaddy is no newcomer to integrating marketing channels to shape a unique customer experience. Its long-held television-to-web strategy has featured plenty of star power and provoking ads, always ending with, “See more at GoDaddy.com”. But this year, Godaddy went a step further, becoming the first to air a Super Bowl ad containing a QR code. And, according to a press release published by the company, the questionable move reaped huge awards, driving record traffic to Godaddy’s mobile site. “We decided it was worth the risk to play to all the people watching the game and using their smartphones simultaneously,” said Go Daddy Executive Chairman and Founder Bob Parsons. “I’m thrilled we made the decision. Viewers scanned the code and as a result, Go Daddy set an all-time sales record for our mobile site.”

Read More at : B2C

If you thought this year’s Super Bowl ads were expensive at $3.5 million for a 30-second pop, wait until next year.

CBS chief Les Moonves told investors in a conference call that his sales team will set an all-time unit cost record in 2013 – “a potential $4 million per spot”. Super Bowl XLVII, will be played in New Orleans on Feb. 3, 2013 and CBS will be the broadcaster.

NBC were pleased with themselves getting $3.5 million for 30 seconds time in this year’s game – a 17 percent increase over Fox’s $3 million in 2010.

Adweek says, “While there’s nothing binding about a forward-looking statement, Moonves’ remark almost certainly will establish a target rate for CBS president of network ad sales JoAnn Ross.”

Fox is actually leading CBS in the important adults 18-49 demo, says Adweek, averaging a 3.3 rating to CBS’s 3.2 But CBS is winning the battle for total viewers, averaging 12.2 million through the first 21 weeks of the season. Fox is second with 9.02 million.

Read More at : The Drum

The dust has settled on the Super Bowl and we’ve stopped looking back at the ads and game. It’s time to look forward at what this year’s Super Bowl meant for digital video. The answer: a lot.

According to NBC, 2.1 million people streamed the Super Bowl for a total of 78.6 million minutes. That’s a little more than 37 minutes per person. Pretty amazing — considering the experience was HORRIBLE.

There are seminal events in media and technology. Some because we’ve taken a great leap in quality. Some because we’ve taken a great leap in adoption.

This was one of those adoption moments. Mind you, I’m not trying to be Debbie Downer. I’m actually excited for what next year holds. Look at what we’ve seen in the last two months:

- Massive adoption of connected television at CES by manufacturers

- The first Super Bowl streamed live, with millions tuning in

- The end of the game resulted in 12,233 tweets per second, compared to 4,064 the year before

All bodes well for digital video and the connected experience. In fact, some colleagues were kind enough to speak with me at CES this year about connected devices. I’d like to pay it forward, by offering some of their thoughts as free advice to the NFL and CBS, who has the rights to broadcast next year’s Super Bowl.

“If I’m reaching a consumer 10 times on their tablet and 20 times on the PC and five times on their smartphone, I’ve wasted some of my media impressions when I only wanted to reach them in aggregate five times. So technology is enabling us to look at the consumer experience and from a brand perspective, better measure and deliver the messages that are gonna resonate with those consumers across devices.”

– Cat Spurway, SVP Strategy & Marketing at Pointroll

I can’t begin to tell you how many of the same ads I saw on the live stream. Rather than holding advertisers hostage for the most money possible, CBS should open up restrictions to ensure consumers have a fabulous experience online by seeing a good variety of ads.

“The opportunity to test, to try to experiment and to be happy with failure, literally to applaud it because you’ve tried it, is something that I think is a secret weapon the very best companies have.”

– Brad Ball, former CMO McDonald’s & former CMO NASCAR

NBC’s live stream did nothing inventive. The closest it came was a live stream of Jimmy Fallon’s tweets during the game. I guess you could make the argument that the live stream itself was a risk, but NBC did nothing interesting to make the experience truly spectacular.

“And the power of it is the connection. A lot of times those devices are planned and bought totally separate, but when connecting them, you amplify their possibilities.”

– Darren Herman, Chief Digital Media Officer at The Media Kitchen

The best streamed experience of the Super Bowl: the stream of tweets throughout the game. CBS needs to capture the power of what people are ALREADY doing, harness it, and don’t try to corral the user.

“I think a red flag therefore would be when people start to sit back and say, ‘Hey, it’s 8% of our budget. It’s 9% of our budget. It’s part of kind of an innovation bucket.’ I think the world has sufficiently changed such that [digital tactics] can no longer be thought of as, you know, the P.S. to an advertising budget.”

– Chris Curtain, VP Digital Strategy, Global Marketing at Hewlett-Packard

NBC did nothing to make the online experience indispensable. It was a throwaway: no must-have content, no unforgettable moments. In fact, since the stream was fully minutes behind the live broadcast, it actually made the stream irrelevant as a second screen.

“So you need to be asking a question of yourself, will the dog eat the dog food? Will there be enough people that will want to go to that device for you to be able to build it? You could have made some big mistakes years ago by building an entire platform on Second Life where people went, where they didn’t have a real life. You could have wasted a lot of time in that endeavor.”

– Jeffrey Hayzlett, former CMO Kodak & best-selling author

Streaming of live sports is no Second Life. It’s real and for the masses. Next year we can start treating it as such.

Oh, and CBS, you can thank me and my friends for the free advice by thrilling us next year.

Read More at : MediaPost