Over 50 commercials will air during the Super Bowl this year, all screaming, preening, and strutting for your attention. But there's five that are definitely worth skipping out on re-filling the chip and dip trough and watching with your full attention, Matt Miller, President & CEO of the Association of Independent Commercial Producers told TODAY. This year, it's all abut the social, and getting people to pass on the ads and replay them, for free, online.
"It's all about the engagement, we're teasing spots, people are watching using a second screen, and we're hoping they will pass them on. And the numbers say they are," said Miller. "35 percent are looking at the ads beforehand and 40 percent are sharing them after."
Coke is really getting into the social media game with their fun ad, "Mirage." It features three teams racing to be the first to the Coke desert oasis and viewers can vote in Twitter via hashtags whether the "Showgirls," "Cowboys," or "Badlanders" are the winners.
"It brings in gamification of advertising," said Miller. "It's a real buzzword, people are watching and voting as the ad airs."
Doritos, for the 7th year in a row, is reprising their "Crash the Superbowl" campaign which lets fans submit their own home-made commercials and the best one gets aired during the big game. The winner gets $1 million and a chance to work with director Michael Bay on the next "Transformers" movie. Almost a decade later, the mere fact that the ad is user-created no longer automatically makes the strategy compelling. But with the cost of prosumer cameras falling, the production quality on some of them is actually pretty good, and the jokes aren't half bad either. This year's features a father whose daughter bribes him with a bag of Doritos to turn down hanging with the bros and play pretty princess instead.
"It's a sitcom brought to you by Doritos," said Miller.
The "Crash the Super Bowl" campaign, "jumped the shark for a while with professionals jumping into the act," said Miller, "but this year's is a student piece."
GoDaddy, the king of cheeky Super Bowl ads that have drawn flack for pushing the "sex sells" maxim a bit too far, is back again, and this time they're going to play it classy. The domain name registration companies new spot focuses on "Your Big Idea," and while there's beautiful women aplenty in the ad, based on the leaked online previews they all seem to be fully clothed. In SuperBowl ad land, this counts as maturity. Then again, the ad does end with a rich guy on a private jet shouting, "More everything, sky waitress!"
"It's a great punchline," said Miller. Danica Patrick has appeared in 12 of their Super Bowl ads over the past 9 years, but, said Miller "GoDaddy always made them in-house but this year they went with the Deutsch agency to bring in some new ideas." Which is good, he said, because with the ads before "we didn't really know what GoDaddy was about."
(Speaking of controversy this year, does the "Jamaican flavor" of Volkswagen's Super Bowl ad go too far? Watch and vote.)
Taco Bell has already "leaked" the online teaser for its 60-second "Viva Young" ad, and with over 350,000 YouTube hits, it's officially gone viral. It features 87 year-old Bernie Goldblatt and friends on an epic nighttime adventure. They escape from their retirement home, take some unauthorized dips in someone else's pool, hit the dance club and tattoo parlor, and finally cruise to Taco Bell for their "Fourth Meal."
When you think SuperBowl ads, you think Budweiser, and when you think Budweiser Super Bowl ads, there's gotta be some of their famous Clydesdales in there. The brand has launched its first Twitter account and its first tweet was a photo of a new Budweiser Clydesdale born January 16. The beer brand is asking fans to submit their name suggestions via Twitter using #clydesdales. The foal, along with its user-generated moniker, will appear on Sunday.