Every year this time there are a bevy of articles about Super Bowl commercials.  The primacy questions being, “Which commercial will be the funniest, most memorable, most viral, most, most, most…”  Truth be told most of them won’t be remembered but smart marketers are beginning to realize there is life after the game – and before it.  For the last three years we, Levelwing Media, have executed digital campaign initiatives tied to the Super Bowl for our client Bridgestone.  Levelwing Media is a digital advertising agency and the Digital Agency of Record for Bridgestone.

Over the last three years Bridgestone has sponsored the Super Bowl Halftime Show, aired two commercials in each of those years (including this year in Super Bowl 44).  Let us be the first to tell you – the NFL and the networks want to get paid – and paid they get, to the tune of millions for a single 30 second commercial spot.  So, after all those millions are spent on one spin of the proverbial roulette wheel where do you go from there?  Well, there is an answer – but it begins prior to the game with strategic planning for digital media elements.  Therefore, let’s take a step back…

November 2009:  We begin digital Super Bowl strategic planning.  The regular season is in full swing but one big event is on our minds.  We begin by considering how much to spend digitally to support the offline campaign, what platforms to use, how to engage the consumer and most importantly how to measure and track the success of those initiatives.

December 2009:  The elements begin to take shape.  The budget has been confirmed, the elements to be executed are decided and the engagement metrics determined.

Early January 2010:  The playoffs are going strong but unlike Jim Caldwell, Peyton Manning, Dwight Freeney, Sean Peyton, Drew Brees and Reggie Bush – we are looking forward, past that next playoff game, to the Super Bowl.  Final media negotiations take place.  IO’s are signed (you know those of us in the digital world loath paperwork, yet it is a must).  Research studies are signed-off.  Paid search campaign elements are built and approved.  Video search elements are completed in similar fashion.  The YouTube Channel is double-checked. The Facebook Fan Page is readied for launch.  The Super Bowl commercial rating sites are mapped, and so on…

Mid-January 2010:  Press hits the wires;  Super Bowl commercial spot “teasers” hit the Internet as well as all social media platforms;  we launch the Facebook Fan Page, YouTube Channel elements, Twitter discussions as well as research and social media monitoring.  In addition, paid-search and video search support launches as well as other paid digital media elements.

Today – February 3, 2010:  So, here we are, a few days before the game.  All media elements are running smoothly;  social chatter and message board postings are being monitored on all the likely candidates as well as unlikely ones.  Our job is not complete – far from it.  We have a team of folks measuring, monitoring and executing various digital elements each day up through the game, as well as a few days after.  The point here is that The Super Bowl may be a fleeting few hours and those commercial spots a minute in total, but digital pre/post game elements are 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for three weeks straight – and that does not take into consideration the strategic planning and ancillary elements.  Therefore, it should not be a fleeting thought.

There is a great case study from a few years ago, or let’s just call it an epic fail, of Ford spending millions on the Super Bowl to promote a new hybrid launch, including licensing Kermit the Frog.  Ford spent all that money on in-game commercials and didn’t support the campaign digitally.  The result:  GM bought keywords in paid-search about hybrid vehicles and that little green friend, Kermit, to benefit on the digital end of all those millions Ford spent on television on those few seconds.  So what’s the moral of the story?  “It’s not easy being green…apparently”  A similar issue plagued AT&T that very same year with another fail.   Read more about these fails at InsideFacebook.com.  With the propagation of stories such as these, most Super Bowl advertisers have stepped up their search efforts in recent years, but now it is social media’s turn in the spotlight.

A lot has been made of social media in the last year, but now it’s time to play ball.  The keys to success are in smart strategic planning, execution and detailed measurement.  Accountability and cohesiveness is what will determine if your brand fails or succeeds.  Importantly, never assume social media is defined as only Twitter and Facebook.  There are other players on the field, and they include YouTube and other video sites, photo and image sharing sites, community sites such as Linked-In, among many others.  YouTube for example is a great social media platform.  Just last week both our Bridgestone Super Bowl teasers reached the Top 20 Most Viewed Videos of the day. So far, this week both are ranked well for the week with over 1 Million views of each in aggregate, including the #2 and #3 most viewed in Sports.  2010 is likely to be the year Social Media Goes to the Super Bowl.  Watch, click and learn.

Stay tuned in the days after the Super Bowl for updates on the results.  Follow Levelwing Media on Twitter @levelwing.