Advertisers see Super Bowl as new online opportunity

AS THE biggest showpiece in American sport, supported by a dazzling eight-hour television spectacle steeped in glamour and excess, the Super Bowl has always enjoyed the power to lift the mood of the country.

This year’s big game seems to be improving the US economy too, after years of recession followed by a stagnant economy took its toll on the nation’s spending habits.

The car manufacturing giants, mega-breweries and the world’s most famous soft drink maker are back in business, spending more than ever on TV advertising – a record $3.5 million (£2.2m) for a 30-second slot.

And shrewd marketing executives have found a way to mine a lucrative second seam from tomorrow night’s showdown between the New York Giants and New England Patriots in Indianapolis, exploiting Twitterers and Facebook followers, a new generation of smartphone and tablet users who will all be watching with device in hand.

If it seems a little unlikely that a single sporting occasion, albeit one that attracts a US TV audience of 110 million, can have such an effect on the population’s purse strings, the proof is in the figures.

“This is no Recession Bowl,” said Tim Calkins, professor of clinical marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, Illinois.

“We have a lot of car companies and, this year, real estate firms advertising. If people are buying homes and cars, it suggests there’s optimism about the future.

“It’s also a very big leap in the cost of advertising from last year’s $3m to $3.5m, suggesting companies share that optimism,” added Mr Calkins, whose faculty produces an annual study on Super Bowl commercials.

Subconsciously, at least, organisers of American football’s championship match might agree. For this year’s half-time concert they booked Madonna, the world’s top-selling female pop artist.

Advertisers started early this year, running their commercials or teasers on television or online in the weeks leading up to the game, a clever strategy according to Mr Calkins.

“The Super Bowl used to be a one-time event for advertisers, now it’s a month-long programme,” he said.

“For weeks before the game it gets people talking about it, and there are all sorts of opportunities to get products in front of them. Changes in technology have allowed marketers to do much more than they ever could. Driving people to YouTube and Facebook is a very important part of today’s Super Bowl marketing efforts.”

Some experts are calling the game the Second Screen Bowl because of the emphasis on reaching fans with mobile devices. A study by research firm Harris Interactive said a third of viewers under 45 will use their smartphones or tablets during the game.

Among the big advertisers, Coca-Cola has reworked its popular polar bear commercials into an online streaming experience with its own website, and will show the animals appearing to send messages on Twitter in TV commercials during the match.

Chevrolet has its own smartphone app that allows viewers to request a code they can match to vehicles appearing in the firm’s adverts in the hope of winning a car.

“There’s so much happening in the Super Bowl, all these adverts to watch, a game being played, probably a party going on, that I’m not sure people will have the time to be reaching for their devices,” Mr Calkins aded.

Almost forgotten among the hoopla is the fact that American football’s championship will decided tomorrow night in a much-anticipated match-up between two of the game’s best-supported teams.

Among the New York Giants players is Greenock-born Lawrence Tynes, whose winning field goal in sudden-death extra-time against the San Francisco 49ers two weeks ago put his side into their second Super Bowl in four years.

Tynes, 33, the son of a US marine stationed in Scotland in the 1970s, is the only Scot ever to win the championship, as part of the Giants team which beat the Patriots in 2008.