The season has yet to start, but NBC is just five spots away from selling out the Super Bowl for a record $3.5 million per 30-second commercial. And the network is requiring that advertisers buy flights in other NBC Sports broadcasts, as well.
As we saw last year — one-half of Super Bowl advertisers simultaneously launched social media campaigns — the unique nature of the Super Bowl can help spark social momentum like few other ad opportunities. For example, you may remember last year’s Volkswagen ad, “The Force” (above), which became the most-talked about commercial on Twitter, driving 12.5 million YouTube views before kickoff. Today, that YouTube clip has been seen 42 million times — free impressions that never would have happened at that scale without Volkswagen’s larger Super Bowl campaign.
If executed well, social media can help offset the expensive one-time cost of a 30-second spot, which certainly helps explain why advertisers are spending significantly more this year (was $2-3 million last year). Among the upcoming Super Bowl advertisers: Pepsi, Kia, Mercedes and Sketchers. It will be great to see what social media campaigns they dream up for the big day.