Super Bowl Online Video: In the Red Zone and on the Five

Picture a large room with many people, a 60-inch television on the wall.

People are jovial, many adorning the jerseys of their favorite football teams.

Nachos and chicken wings make the rounds, along with some beer and cocktails.

It’s Super Bowl Sunday; the most hyped day of the year.

Suddenly the crowd goes silent, watching a scene unfold on the television, only to break out in a cheer.

Touchdown? No. First down? No. Turnover? No? Super Bowl Commercial? Yes.

But things have changed. Many will have already seen these new, well-produced commercials before the big game on YouTube, Hulu, and NFL.com.

Let’s rewind.

There is no argument that football has broad appeal: color, excitement, violence, strategy, and sex (men in tight pants and women with tight tops). It’s the ultimate visual event. We’ve witnessed a big evolution in viewing habits since the Packers defeated the Chiefs in the AFL-NFL Championship in Los Angeles in 1967. The Super Bowl branding and conference designations came later. Though the game has changed with new rules, equipment, and teams, it is still fundamentally football.

But three other things have fundamentally transformed:

• Viewing experience. HD, 1080, 720, 120Hz, 600Hz, 46”, 60”, plasma, LCD, LED. Translation: If we’re not there it doesn’t matter because the video quality is stunning – winning-touchdown-with-1-second-left stunning.
• Content experience. Cable, satellite, and web with channels for: Sports Illustrated, NFL, ESPN, etc. We’re not just watching the game, we’re consuming content around it when we want it, where we want it, and how we want it.
• Commercial experience. Big changes in production. We’re less concerned about shaving and more concerned with making an impression or delivering a strong message. For the former, food, cars, and beer still reign supreme, but we can’t forget Apple’s famous 1984 ad or GoDaddy’s Super Bow XLI ad approval soap opera.

However, something else is now changing. We’re getting access to the ads online before the Super Bowl. In fact, many of the major brands are paying big money to get their ads on YouTube. We saw this over the previous years with Hulu, but now YouTube is the chosen venue. But, as Steve Johnson from the Chicago Tribune laments:

Here's a new thought: Will the Super Bowl, the culmination of months of planning, research and spending, be kind of an anticlimax? By the time the game airs Sunday on NBC, most everybody who really wants to will have seen the event's most anticipated advertisement, Volkswagen's follow-up to the peewee Darth Vader-starring, “Star Wars"-themed commercial that topped most ratings of the ads that aired during last year's big game.

Why is this happening?

• Because online viewing is mainstream, no longer fringe and experimental.
• Because it’s highly-targeted and quite the opposite of the broadcast approach.
• Because it allows the hype to propagate via social media such as Facebook and Twitter.
• Because it’s inexpensive, which always matters.

So, thinking about doing a Super Bowl ad? Do you have $3.5 million to spend for a 30-second slot?  Refer to what I discussed in a previous blog post about getting the right video in front of the right audience to trigger the right action. If you can make this case (and you have the money), then do it. It worked for GoDaddy, but Bob Parsons, CEO of the company, readily admitted he took a big risk.

Don’t have the money? No problem. Do it online. With some creativity and a great story you can jump into the Super Bowl game on YouTube, but always remember to ask: what do you want the outcome to be? Remember, ads that don’t help the business are entertainment; those that do are sound investments. Time to invest in online video.

Posted by Rob Ciampa
Sunday, 05 February 2012