For millions of fervent football fans world over, the Super Bowl is always one of the most memorable social occasions of the year. That’s also becoming the case for several marketers and advertisers, as has been evident again, this year. Brands and businesses clearly enhanced their presence across social media channels during the sporting extravaganza that hit the headlines last week.

Marketing for Superbowl XLVI gets more social

The annual championship game of (NFL), the highest level of professional American football, receives tremendous media and public attention. It was no different this year! But then, the marketing and advertising got a totally different touch, underlining the emergence of social media.

Not so long ago, buying a commercial during the frantic game was mostly accompanied by merely promotions plus a publicity campaign. That’s no more the case with like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc.  Going beyond special websites, video clips and search marketing, it’s now the 3.0 phase for advertisers keen to capitalize on social media’s growth.

In keeping with the trend, YouTube plans this year included offering its popular Super Bowl Ad Blitz channel, wherein consumers can see each commercial post the game. A contest to choose viewers’ favorite spots for Super Bowl XLIV received more prominence on its home page. There was a user gadget for embedding the videos across different social sites.

A recent survey by an ad agency suggests that more respondents are now open to the idea of re-watching the spots online on sites like Yahoo, YouTube and AOL. A quarter of the respondents surveyed said they are likely to pass on through social media sites or e-mail messages their favorite commercials to family members and friends.

Brands and marketing experts realize, that’s possibly the way they would now have to go to market as part of a complete, 360-degree Super Bowl campaign, prompting them to use Twitter and Facebook to engage the loyal or floating audience in real time, and also encouraging them to watch the commercial again. Here are a few examples:

• The commercials by Unilever United States were complemented by relevant blog posts, as well as active presence on networking platforms during the Super Bowl.
• A similar strategy by the E*Trade Financial involved reaching out to users of Facebook, Twitter as well as YouTube with short commercials run in the game.
• On the other hand, the German automaker Volkswagen’s America unit conceptualized a campaign blending social media and digital marketing elements during the Super Bowl.

The vice president (global sales) at Facebook, Mike Murphy, quipped: “A presence in social media a couple of years ago was more about experimentation. Now, it is more about strategy, as we are becoming more mainstream (and core).”

Mobile marketing entwined with the social

The growing role of social media for Super Bowl sponsors and advertisers this year was backed by concerted attempts to incorporate mobile marketing in the overall media mix. Not all football fans could watch the action sitting in their drawing rooms or they might not have laptops or desktops with them all the time. So an obvious option for them was to turn to is their smartphones. Savvy advertisers could sense an opportunity there, targeting consumers on the move with ‘social’ super bowl ads.

The underlying thought was how to promote the spots that they carried during the games, to extend their life well beyond Super Bowl Sunday.