04 Feb Social Media Marketing Examples from Super Bowl XLVII
As a social media marketer, it’s refreshing to see so many brands integrating social media into their Super Bowl campaign beyond simply uploading their commercial to YouTube. In 2011, we only saw one use of a hashtag by a brand in the Super Bowl and only eight out of over fifty commercials promoted their social media presence. Fast-forward two years, and we are seeing brands adopting consumer tweets to be their campaign through crowdsourcing – a stark and exciting departure in just a short amount of time.
Crowdsourcing provides a way for consumers to become larger advocates for brands because they are valued in shaping the brand’s overall identity and messaging. Here are a few examples of brands who took that idea to heart when developing their campaigns for the big game:
Pepsi | Fan Made #PepsiHalfTime
The first-ever crowdsourced Super Bowl Halftime Show executed by Pepsi featured hundreds of fan photos. The brand campaigned for weeks before the big game asking fans to share photos in a series of poses for a chance to have their photo appear before Beyonce took the stage. One lucky participant got to attend the Super Bowl, while fifty runners-up got the chance to be on the field during the show. Pepsi has kept the campaign going by updating their website to feature the photos frame-by-frame along with a sharable game to win tickets to the Super Bowl Halftime Show in 2014.
Lincoln Motor Company | #steerthescript
Using tweets sent to Lincoln through their partnership with Jimmy Fallon, the brand created their Super Bowl commercial around five inspiring roadtrip stories. The brand selected their favorites, flew the five finalists to be part of filming on set and built their whole ad around the participants. Their interactive website allows you to watch the big game commercial as well as see behind the scenes footage around the filming process. Lincoln also alludes to another #steerthescript reboot prompting users to answer the next question, #whatsyourjourney?
Doritos | Crash The Super Bowl
Doritos proves, you shouldn’t mess with a good thing. For years, the brand has put out a contest for their Super Bowl ad to amateur filmmakers allowing social media outlets to crown the winner. The winners this year featured a goat for sale and a fashionable dad. The brand built an interactive Facebook application allowing user to vote for their favorite commercials, watch interviews with each director and hear clips of Michael Bay calling each finalist. Doritos also provided incentives such as movie passes for a year to fans who voted.
BONUS: Oreo | Dunk In The Dark
While it’s not exactly crowdsourcing, Oreo didn’t even need to have an ad in the big game to be part of the conversation or prove their relevance. Capitalizing on the black out delay during the Super Bowl, Oreo put out a clever photo letting fans know they could still dunk… in the dark. The company was able to get the photo up in minutes due to a Super Bowl “War Room” that included their brand team for fast approvals. This is a best practice for any brand who wants to emulate real-time brilliance.
Looking to 2014
A number of brands deserve honorable mentions, such as Ram Trucks (full disclosure: Ram Trucks is a client of Ignite Social Media) whose YouTube views of their Super Bowl ad raise money to help farmers or Coca-Cola’s Coke Chase who allowed fans to vote for their commercials ending. In 2012, the big theme was previewing your commercial on YouTube to build advocacy. This year, the theme was crowdsourcing for your ad’s content. What do you see as the future for Super Bowl ads and social media in 2014?
