Super Bowl TV Slots: Past and Present Pt.2

Welcome back to the second part of my Super Bowl TV Slots: Past and Present, [1] this time round I am going to be looking at how well the adverts worked on the day. As mentioned in the last post, I am unable to watch the TV commercials on the BBC, but lucky enough for me and you Ads of the World [2] have them all lined up and ready for you to watch.

Now I have my favorites, which are below, but the overall winner this year after a week looks like its Budweiser's The Clydesdales: "Brotherhood" advert, which so far has racked up more than 10 million Youtube views. On the day the viewer ratings were around 108 million with it peeking at just under 114 million. [3] These are impressive figures but one advert which stole the stage on one of advertising's most expensive days of the year was something that was free. That award goes to Oreo and their advert for when the Super Bowl went dark due to a power cut. Hitting over 16000 re-tweets and another 6000 favorites and various blog posts and features on websites, this commercial, which only happened due to the blackout, became a massive hit and cost no where near the 4 million dollars for 30 seconds of TV time like their other Super Bowl advert as seen below too.

I looked into how Oreo did on the world wide web during the Super Bowl, thanks to the combination their TV slot and their blackout tweet they reached 36774 mentions on the world wide web, as seen below in that little graph there. This includes Tweeter, Facebook, blog posts and features on websites, add the views on those blogs, articles and just under 2 million Youtube views on their Youtube page. Overall Oreo has done a fantastic job at using not only their TV slot to gain mass views but also with a little help with social media outlets they have managed to become one of the most memorable adverts of the Super Bowl 2013.

My two favorites 

[1] http://matthew-walden-the-blog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/super-bowl-tv-slots-past-and-present-pt1.html

[2] http://adsoftheworld.com/taxonomy/awards/super_bowl_2013

[3] http://www.ibtimes.com/super-bowl-2013-how-many-people-watched-baltimore-ravens-over-san-francisco-49ers-1060698

Super Bowl TV Slots: Past and Present Pt.1

After reading Creative Reviews blog post Brands prepare for the Super Bowl [1] and seeing that for just thirty seconds of air time big name companies like Coke-Cola and Audi are forking out $4m for a slot, though take into account this doesn't include production costs and celebrity endorsements if they are there, I am more curious on the affects these highly anticipated adverts have on the brand?

Last year in America alone 111 million people watched the whole Super Bowl, with another 52 million people just watching part of it making the total viewing audience of 163 million, in the states alone [2]. That is, to be fair, a large number of eyes fixed on the television. Even though this is the case the brands that do get a time slot also go out and create new and one off adverts just for the occasion, and it is easy to see why. For example lets take 2011's stand out advert by Volkswagen, The Force, if you haven't seen it I have added the Youtube video for you to watch over.

Now being as I live in London, I don't get to see the infamous advert broadcast for the first time. Thanks to the buzz on the web via various blog posts, Facebook likes and Tweets I was able to find it with ease. So for an advert being shown to 111 million Americans, how much more did Volkswagen get for their big cash add? As I type this the Volkswagen Youtube page video has 56,039,654 views alone, a case study by Mediacom [3] tells us that on game day the visits to VW.com hit a 480% increase and on average 127% since. Please note Mediacom post was back in 2011, but this is an advert that will be mentioned for some time being such a success for Volkswagen. Both for the increase in their social media presence, from dominating Youtube to an average click-through per tweet up by 925%, and as The Volkswagen US Media Room [4] states the sales in the US increased by 26.3 across the board with the Passat outselling their 2010 volume by 124%.

Why was this advert such a massive success during and after the Super Bowl? My opinion is because of several different reasons. The young boy trying to have the powers of the force, something which any Star Wars fan has wished, and probably tried at some point in their life. The older generation wanting to be young again, the innocence that this child brings to the screen when he finally use the force to start the car. Mums and dads seeing their child as the little Darth Vader. The generation of Golf GTI drivers who have now settled down, have a partner and a child or two, the Passat is a family car and the nearest you will get to a Golf and memories of being young again. Volkswagens Golf produced an advert which explains peoples love for the Golf just perfectly. With all these factors this advert hits the 30 something families with their first children who need a new family car, adding Star Wars to the factor lets those who know the original films to talk about being Vader. With these factors and Volkswagen utilizing the fact that everyone is connected via social media, they turned a car ad into a viral ad that took the States and Europe by storm. 

[1] http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2013/january/super-bowl-ads

[2] http://www.ibtimes.com/super-bowl-ratings-how-many-people-will-be-watching-2012-405398

[3] http://www.mediacom.com/en/news-insights/blink/issues/edition-2-2011/case-study-vw-setting-the-stage-for-success.aspx

[4] http://media.vw.com/newsrelease.do;jsessionid=3254FC9793325020ECAC9367866A509D?&id=974&allImage=1&teaser=volkswagen-reports-26.3-percent-increase-2011-u.s-sales&mid=116